276 



Stanley Alley. 



and guest-house, dormitory, infirmary, and refectory, barns and 

 storehouses, and all the multitude of offices required in a large 

 establishment where almost everything had to be self-supplied, these 

 were not built in a day. At Fountains, the great Yorkshire house 

 of the Cistercians, the monks sheltered themselves for a while under 

 the rocks which bordered the valley and beneath some spreading yew 

 trees which still remain. For many years the monks at Stanley must 

 have found shelter in wooden dwellings, the materials for which 

 were abundant in the adjacent forests ; and combining work with 

 devotion set themselves to reclaiming their land and erecting per- 

 manent buildings. To do this took them more than a hundred 

 years, "We learn from the Bodleian Manuscript 1 that they enter I 

 their new monastery in 1246 : in 1266 their Church was consecrated 

 by Walter de la Wile, Bishop of Sarum : they enter their new 

 refectory, or dining hall, on St. John Baptist's Day, 1270. Thus, 

 portion by portion, the monastery was built up in strength and 

 beauty, and was completed in the severe style of the best period of j 

 the first pointed or Early English ; and these dates correspond pretty j 

 closely with the building of that glorious monument of Gothic 

 architecture, our Cathedral of Salisbury, which was consecrated in 

 1258. One other matter I may mention here as connecting the old 

 with the new site of the abbey ; in the Bodleian Manuscript 1 it is 

 mentioned as noteworthy that "in this year (1214) was finished the 

 aqueduct from Locks welle to the Abbey of Stanley in Wilts by 

 my Lord Thomas of Colestune, Abbot of that house : he began the 

 ■work timidly, but by the help of God and the Lord Jesus Christ \ 

 and good John the Evangelist, he finished it well and excellently : 

 whose memory be blessed for ever. Amen."" The entry seem to I 

 show how thankful the monks were to enjoy again the pure whole- | 

 some water of their spring. And in days when there were no cast I 

 iron pipes cheap and handy, it was not quite so easy a matter to 

 bring the water along the windings of the hill side, free from rotting 



1 For this manuscript, K. D. (Kenelm Digby), xi., see Bowies' History of 

 Bremhill, pp. 114, 120 ; it was examined for Bowles by Dr. Baudinell : it is also 

 cited by Mr. W. de Grey Birch iu the article referred to infra. 



