240 



Collections towards the History 



when religious establishments formed the only, or almost only, 

 centres of refinement and civilization. To the circumstance s of the 

 foundation, as narrated by the author I have mentioned, I do not 

 attempt to add anything, or to say more than that I believe the 

 account he gives of the first erection, of the consequent removals, 

 or of the final establishment at Stanley, are in the main quite correct, 

 and in all respects borne out by the manuscript indicated. The fasti 

 of the abbots is very meagre, and I have been happily able to assist 

 in forming a fuller list. 1 The great value of a correct chronological 

 sequence of heads of a Religious House is universally recognized by 

 all historians and topographers, for by its aid we are enabled to 

 assign dates to deeds, and to portions of the fabric of the buildings, 

 which without such aid must be attributed only to conjectural epochs. 



The book which claims so interesting a place in the history of 

 Stanley Abbey is a manuscript in the Harley Collection of the 

 British Museum, and bears the number 6716. It is thus described 

 in the folio catalogue : — 



" Liber membranaceus in folio, in quo habentur Tituli Privilegi- 

 orum et Indulgentiarum, finales Concordise et tituli Cartarum ad 

 varia loca pertinentium. Folia membranacea. - " 



It will be readily perceived from the above description that the 

 manuscript had not been identified with any locality, and it was my 

 good fortune to be arranging a series of uncertain descriptions of 

 manuscripts, when my attention was drawn to the peculiar form of 

 this one, which appeared to me to be a species of Calendar, or 

 Register of Charters and Documents belonging to some Religious 

 House, and to contain a schedule of the contents of the muniment 

 room or archives of the Library. A very cursory examination of 

 the manuscript enabled me to assign the probable locality to be near 

 Calne, in Wiltshire, for almost the first sentences of the book make 

 mention of an affair u between us and the Rector of the Church of 

 Calne/'' and another affair "between us and the Abbot of St. 

 Augustine's, Bristol.'''' The constant mention of Lambourne, Lok- 

 cesuuell, Malmesbury, Coderyngtone, and Wynterbourne, led me to 



1 See further on. 



