MONASTIC GARDENING 
7 
the wife of Henry I., was being educated at the convent of 
Romsey, where her Aunt Christina was Abbess. When the 
child was twelve years old, the Red King wished to see her, 
and one day the Abbess was distressed to hear him and his 
knights demanding admission at the convent gate. The good 
lady, fearing some evil purpose towards the child, made her 
wear a nun’s veil; then she opened to the King, who entered, 
" as if to look at the roses and other flowering herbs/’ While 
the rough King thus inspected her flowers, the Abbess made 
the nuns pass through the garden. Eadgyth appearing veiled 
among the rest, the King suffered her to go by, and quietly 
took his leave. 1 The story was told by the Abbess to Anselm, 
who narrated it to Eadmer, in whose history this most pic¬ 
turesque scene is recorded. 
While the Abbess Christina was adorning her cloister gardens 
with roses and flowering herbs, other monasteries were being 
beautified in like manner. The first Abbot of Ely, Brithnodus, 
was famed for his skill in planting and grafting, and improved 
the Abbey by making orchards and gardens around it. 2 
It seems as if there were gardens at Ely earlier than his 
time (twelfth century), as the following quaint story implies 
the existence of some sort of garden in the neighbourhood of 
Ely. It is related among various miracles wrought at the tomb 
of St. Etheldreda 3 how the hand of a girl was cured. She was 
servant to a certain priest, and “ was gathering herbs in the 
garden on the Lord’s Day, when the wood which she held 
in her hand, and with which she desired to pluck the herbs 
unlawfully, so firmly adhered (to her hand) that no man could 
pluck it out for the space of five years; by the merits of St. 
Etheldreda [she] was cured.” The Saint died in 679, and, 
although of no historical value, surely such a curious legend 
is worth relating. 
1 Migne, Patrologics cursus completus, tom. 159-160, sec. xii. 
“ Eadmer,” p. 427. Also D’Achery, Spicilegium (Paris, 1723), vol. ii., 
p. 893. Freeman, Wm. Rufus, vol. ii., p. 32. 
“ Rex siquidem propter inspiciendas rosas et alias florentes herbas, 
claustrum nostrum ingressus.” 
2 Gale, Histories Bvitannicce , 1691. “ Hist. Eliensis,” liber ii., 
chap. ii. 
3 Dugdale, Monasticon, vol. i., p. 473 (new ed.). 
