BEAULIEU ABBEY 
Hy The Dowager Countess De La Warr 
N O more beautiful spot can be selected to visit 
than the ruins of Beaulieu Abbey, situated 
on the borders of the New Forest, near the source 
of the Exe, which is here generally called the 
Beaulieu River. The name of this lovely spot— 
Beau Lieu—(which has been corrupted in its pro¬ 
nunciation to Bewley, though still spelt as in former 
ages) speaks for itself, and shows that the old monks 
had not only a full appreciation of the beauties of 
Nature, but were also not unmindful of Nature’s 
bounty, for the river near its source above Beaulieu 
supplied them with most excellent trout, while below 
Beaulieu—owing to the tide from the Solent—they 
were also able to secure all kinds of sea fish. 
The course of the river to Lepe, where it connects 
with the sea, is most lovely, and it is a lovely expe¬ 
dition if one will take a boat for a row or a sail and 
run with the tide down the river to Lepe, winding 
twenty-five times in a distance of seven miles by 
the side of lovely wooded banks, each turn revealing 
fresh beauties. Besides the advantage the river gave 
the monks, they had others arising from their prox¬ 
imity to the New Forest, abounding as it did in 
those days in every kind of game, which the good 
monks had the privilege of hunting. They also owed 
much to the mildness of the climate, so mild that 
besides being able to 
cultivate all kinds of 
ordinary fruits, vege- 
tables and herbs, 
they had excellent 
vineyards which pro¬ 
duced great quanti¬ 
ties of grapes, and 
out of them they 
made a wine which 
won a world-wide 
reputation and 
brought a great rev¬ 
enue to the Abbey. 
1 heir home-brewed 
beer, produced from 
the hops they culti¬ 
vated, also gain¬ 
ed great renown, 
while for their own 
use they made cider 
and perry. Truly, 
had it not been for 
what they had so 
often to go through 
during the various 
civil wars and troubles of the kingdom, the lot of the 
Beaulieu monks in their beautiful secluded Abbey 
was one to be envied. But a short description of the 
buildings, as they were then and as they are now, 
may interest my readers. 
Strange to say they owe their origin to one of the 
most graceless kings of England, John, who in 
1204 began to erect this spacious Abbey. This is 
the only act of the kind his name is associated 
with, and if the story is true as told by early writers, 
it was not wrung from him without pain. We read 
in the Abbey records that he had a fierce quarrel 
with the Cistercian monks who were established 
in another part of England, and had vowed to 
inflict upon them merciless punishment. He ordered 
them to go to Lincoln, there to be trodden to death 
under the feet of wild horses. But on the night of 
the day that he gave this inhuman order he had a 
dreadful dream, in which he saw himself accused 
of shameless cruelty, brought before judges, tried, 
found guilty, and sentenced to receive from the 
hands of the very priests he had plotted against a 
most severe scourging, and truly, when he awoke 
in the morning, he was covered with the marks of 
the lashes. So he determined to make amends for 
the evil he had meditated, and forgiving the 
Cistercians, founded 
the Abhey, placing 
in it thirty monks 
from Citeaux with 
Abbot Hugh at their 
head. He gave them 
liberal charters, ex¬ 
tensive lands in Berk¬ 
shire and Hampshire 
and extraordinary 
privileges with re¬ 
spect to the New 
b orest. He also sent 
a large supply of corn 
as a gift, and a hun¬ 
dred and twenty 
cows and twelve 
bulls from the Royal 
dairy. A grant of 
money was made 
from the Treasury, 
and all Cistercian 
Abbots in England 
were commanded to 
assist Abbot Hu«ih 
and his successors. 
181 
GATE OF THE CLOISTER 
