28 



Malmesbury. 



crowds from all the country round about, that a band of men used | 

 to be kept by the town to preserve order. The feast was in oper- ) 

 ation in Leland's time, 1540, but ceased to be observed soon 

 afterwards. 



Domesday Book shows that at the time of the Conquest the j 

 town belonged to the king ; the Abbot had very little in it, except 

 the precincts of the Monastery. 



The reign of William Rufus is a blank in Malmesbury history ; 

 but not so that of Henry I. For now we come to the times of the | 

 celebrated Roger Poor, Bishop of Old Sarum, whose behaviour to 

 this Monastery caused his name to be remembered here with bitter- 

 ness. He was the prime favourite of Henry L, an all-powerful 

 dispenser of honour, but not over scrupulous, for if he could not 

 get what he wanted for love or money, he took it by force. 1 The 

 times being menacing, he built large castles. At Malmesbury, he 

 had begun one, says the chronicle, "in the very churchyard, not a 

 stone's throw from the church : " that is, from St. Mary's, restored 

 by JElfric. So that at this time, there were in the cemetery-^lst, 

 the old Church (St. Saviour's, Peter and Paul), 2nd, ^Elfric's Church, 

 3rd, Bishop Roger's Castle. Bishop Roger also fortified the town 

 with walls and gates, of which there were four. With the monks 

 he dealt thus. He wanted their revenues : so he took them. That 

 which it is pleasant to take, it is pleasant to keep : so he kept them ; 

 and for 20 years. Some who have written about the history of the 

 present Abbey Church are of opinion that this Bishop Roger built 

 it. If he did so, it is strange that the fact should not have been i 

 distinctly mentioned by William of Malmesbury. Bishop Roger : 

 died in 1139 : William of Malmesbury four years afterwards, in ! 

 1143. Having been alive during the Bishop's time, and having 

 known him, as he says, well : having also been a monk of this very 

 Monastery, resident many years, he must have known all that was 1 

 done, and if he saw a castle built and names it, it might have been jj 

 expected that he would have emphatically recorded so grand a work 

 as the Church. Not only however is he obscure as to any share that 



1 Bishop Roger asserted his claim to Malmesbury Abbacy, on the ground that 

 his predecessor Bishop Herman had held it. 



