278 



Stanley Alley. 



to the Holy Land in the Third Crusade. Another, given at West- 

 minster, attested (among other witnesses) by Hubert, Bishop of 

 Sarum ; and one, given at Portsmouth a few years later, attested 

 by the same Hubert after he had become Archbishop of Canterbury. \ 

 Among the privileges granted in these charters are the valuable f 

 rights of pasture and pannage and of taking timber for building, j 

 and firewood in the forest of Chippenham. Pannage here means j 

 the liberty of turning in free of payment the swine to feed on the ft 

 beech mast and acorns ; and as swine were thus easily fed on the j 

 food of Nature's providing, they were often kept in great numbers 

 in early times when the forests occupied such large tracts of country. | 

 As one of these charters of Richard had been lost and altered, the j 

 King grants another to supply its place, a few months before his 

 death, while away in the French wars, in 1198. Those who are 

 familiar with the scenery of Normandy may recollect the imposing j 

 ruins of Chateau Gaillard, on the high chalk cliff above the Seine, 

 at Le Petit Andely, and may feel interest in being reminded that 

 this charter was given, apud rupem Andeli ; that is, in this castle 

 recently built by Richard in the space of a year in mocking defiance 

 of Philip Augustus, to command the passage of the Seine between 

 Paris and Rouen, and to stand as the bulwark of this portion of his 

 Norman possessions. Even in distant lands the King was not un- 

 mindful of the interests of the Wiltshire abbey which his grand- 

 mother had founded. There are charters of John ; of Henry III. ; 

 and grants and confirmations of succeeding kings. Edward III. 

 gives to " our beloved in Christ, brother John, Abbot of Stanley, 

 in the County of Wilts, and the monks serving God therein/'' the 

 patronage of the Church of a place as distant as Rye, in Sussex, 

 with those profits from the fisheries which belonged to the King. 

 This charter is witnessed by William of Wykeham, afterwards 

 Bishop of Winchester, the founder of New College, Oxford, to which 

 he gave not only lands and possessions but his noble motto, Manners 

 Makyth Man. 



The buildings of Stanley Abbey would seem to have been of 

 considerable extent, as on several occasions they were able to receive 

 kings and their company. And though even kings in those days 



