Abbey of Holy Trinity, Abbotsford

“ As I walked along, I thought of the founder of the town church, Roger de Montgomery, the great Earl of Shrewsbury, who founded also that of the Abbey close by. The former, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, still has its roof, and pious services are still performed there every Sunday; whereas the Abbey church of the Clugniac monks is deserted alike by prior and pilgrim. Alone, my pigeons and the jackdaws fly amidst its aisles, and only across grass and thyme can the outlines of the high altar be discerned. ”

“ The nave is the only portion left of the original abbey church.
The present church is a very striking example of the late Perpendicular period—a period of straight lines and huge windows. The building, as it stands, dates from as near as possible 1500, when it was commenced by Bishop Oliver King. It was completed by Bishop Montague in 1616, and a restoration was effected by Sir Gilbert Scott in 1864. The west front, which pictures in sculpture the dream of Bishop Oliver King, is not only one of the grandest, but one of the most singular pieces of architecture in existence. ”

“ The open space (Romeland) , with its quaint high-gabled, stuccoed, and red-brick houses, is a busy scene on Tuesdays, when the cattle market is held here. On the eastern side, abutting upon the Abbey church, the tower of which comes charmingly into view over the house tops, is the ancient corn mill, which was given to the Abbey by Maud, Queen of Henry I., in 1108, in exchange for the site of Holy Trinity, Aldgate. She also restored to the Abbey certain lands, which had been alienated, known as the Abbey fields, which stretch northward from here ”

“ Is not man from his birth doomed a pilgrim to roam O’er the world’s dreary wilds, whence by fortune’s rude gust. In his path, if some flowret of joy chanced to bloom, It is torn and its foliage laid low in the dust.”
At length she fixed upon a day for her departure. On the day previous, she paid a farewell visit to the Abbey; wandering over every part of the grounds and garden; pausing and lingering at every place particularly associated with the recollection of Lord Byron; and passing a long time seated at the foot of the monument, which she used to call “her altar.” ”

“ The abbey, the building of which was completed towards the middle of the 13th century, became one of the richest and most powerful establishments in Scotland, claiming precedence over the other monasteries and disputing for a time the supremacy with St Andrews. It suffered damage in numerous English forays, was pillaged by the 4th earl of Shrewsbury in 1522, and was reduced to ruins in 1545 by the earl of Hertford (afterwards the Protector Somerset) . In 1602 the abbey lands passed into the hands of Sir Robert Ker of Cessford, 1st earl of Roxburghe. ”

“ The abbey itself was founded about the middle of the twelfth century by William d’Ipres, Earl of Kent. In the reign of Edward I. the Abbot was summoned to Parliament on several occasions; and Edward II. took up his residence at this abbey during the siege of Leeds Castle in October, 1221, from the refusal of its governor to provide lodgings for Queen Isabella and her suite when going on pilgrimage to Canterbury. ”

“ It is a famous place for antiquarian plunder; there are such rich bits of old time sculpture for the architect, and old time story for the poet. There is as rare picking in it as a Stilton cheese, and in the same taste—the mouldier the better.”
He went on to mention circumstances of “mighty import” connected with the Abbey, which had never been touched, and which had even escaped the researches of Johnny Bower. The heart of Robert Bruce, the hero of Scotland, had been buried in it. ”

“ In every way the new Abbey was far larger than the old, though a limit was set on its length by the Lady Chapel of Abbot Humez, which is now known to you as the Chapel of Henry VII. The old form of the Cross was kept, but a ring of chapels encircled the east end, while transepts, aisles, and cloisters were all made longer and far loftier. But the central point of magnificence was the shrine of Edward the Confessor, which lay immediately behind the high altar, made to stand even higher than the altar by a mound of earth said to have been brought all the way from the Holy Land. ”

“ Though the church of the Early English abbey is roofless and the central tower gone, the noble structure, with its many graceful arches, seems to attest to the spirit of religious fervour and devotion so intimately associated with the history of its grey and lichen-covered walls.
The finest part of the ruins is undoubtedly the church, which, with the exception of the roof and the north piers of the nave, still stands complete. It has a nave of six bays with aisles, a choir of four bays with aisles, the transepts with eastern aisles having two chapels. ”

“ Holy Cross, the other important church, commonly called the Abbey, stands on the low ground, or in the Foregate, on the English side of the fortress, on the right bank of the Severn. It is a relic of an abbey founded by the first Norman lord of Shrewsbury. The vicissitudes which it has experienced are obvious at a glance. The rather low western tower, with the bays immediately adjoining, are evidence of a reconstruction in the fourteenth century; and Perpendicular work is, on the whole, the more conspicuous in the western and older part. ”

“ While the origin of the Abbey is lost in the gloom of hoariest antiquity, while its name of Avalon has become a name of legend, a name rather of some fancied fairy-land than of an actual spot of earth, no traditions, no legends, have decorated the birth and early years of the church and city which drew its name, as intelligible to English ears now as it was then, from the holy wells of Saint Andrew. ”

“ Rising amidst green, folding meadows, on the right bank of the Severn, the ruined Abbey forms the central feature in a beautiful, tranquil scene; and, set amidst rich, dark foliage, with the river rolling by, and cattle standing knee-deep in the shallows, has exercised the brush of many a landscape artist.
Founded by Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Chester, early in King [Pg 142] Stephen's reign, Buildwas Abbey is built in a plain, severe style, offering a striking contrast to its more elegant rival at Much Wenlock. ”

“ Various visitors have either fancied, or pretended to have seen him, and a cousin of Lord Byron, Miss Sally Parkins, is even said to have made a sketch of him from memory. As to the servants at the Abbey, they have become possessed with all kinds of superstitious fancies. The long corridors and Gothic halls, with their ancient portraits and dark figures in armor, are all haunted regions to them; they even fear to sleep alone, and will scarce venture at night on any distant errand about the Abbey unless they go in couples. ”

“ On the left side of the S is part of a V or U, as if the end of a Latin word ending in "us" had had its tail chopped off. The letters must have been selected from the original inscription for some definite reason; what can it have been?
Archbishop Abbot's bones lie opposite his hospital, in the church of Holy Trinity. Of the three churches which stand on the High Street, Trinity Church is the highest up the hill, and was called the Upper Church in the days when Puritanism preferred not to mention dedications. It is, comparatively speaking, a modern building, red-brick and heavy ”

“ The names of BYRON and AUGUSTA were still visible. They had been deeply cut in the bark, but the natural growth of the tree was gradually rendering them illegible, and a few years hence, strangers will seek in vain for this record of fraternal affection.
Leaving the grove, I continued my ramble along a spacious terrace, overlooking what had once been the kitchen garden of the Abbey. Below me lay the monks' stew, or fish pond, a dark pool, overhung by gloomy cypresses, with a solitary water-hen swimming about in it. ”

“ Founded in Saxon times, it was re-established after{107} the Norman invasion and subsequently became a mitred abbey. The original church and monastery suffered greatly at the hands of the Danes in the 9th century, the “Abbot being slain at the altar where he was celebrating the Holy Communion and many of the monks being tortured and killed in the most cruel manner.” Shrines and monuments were specially singled out by the Danes for destruction, the sacred contents being irreverently scattered in all directions, and the costly memorials rifled. ”

“ The history of York Abbey is heartbreaking to lovers of art—for from every standpoint St Mary’s church stood as a perfect type of English work. How few people realise that within a few hundred yards of the world-famed minster are the remains of what was architecturally a far more glorious structure, and which, though not so great in length, possessed more beauty of workmanship than the venerable minster. English Gothic was at the height of its perfection{40} when, in 1270, Abbot Simon of Warwick rebuilt the Abbey. ”

“ Although the Abbot was a lay magnate as well as a spiritual peer, it is remarkable how seldom the Monastery was involved in political and party strife. The current of life in the cloister but rarely mingled with the stream of national life. Occasionally a great noble, like Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Lincoln, might be the Abbot’s enemy, and try to do him hurt; more often the Abbey enjoyed the favour of nobles of all parties, of Yorkist as of Lancastrian kings, and in return offered indiscriminate hospitality. Such an attitude tended to deprive the Abbey of all political or party value. ”

“ TINTERN. TINTERN (Cistercian)
1131, Founded by Richard de Bienfaite—Colonised by monks from L’Anmone—In the reign of Henry III., William, Marshal of England and Earl of Pembroke, “Confirmed to God and the Blessed Mary of Tyntern and to the abbot and monks there all the lands and revenues given to them by his ancestors” (Dugdale’s Monasticon) —1287, The building of the abbey church begun—153—, Dissolved. Annual revenue, £193, 1s. 4d. ”

“ The sacred relic was sent to a brazier to be cleaned. As he was at work upon it, he discovered that the pedestal was hollow and composed of several pieces. Unscrewing these, he drew forth a number of parchment deeds and grants appertaining to the Abbey, and bearing the seals of Edward III. and Henry VIII., which had thus been concealed, and ultimately sunk in the lake by the friars, to substantiate their right and title to these domains at some future day.
One of the parchment scrolls thus discovered, throws rather an awkward light upon the kind of life led by the friars of Newstead. ”

“ Around this quadrangle were low vaulted cloisters, with Gothic arches, once the secluded walks of the monks: the corridor along which we were passing was built above these cloisters, and their hollow arches seemed to reverberate every footfall. Everything thus far had a solemn monastic air; but, on arriving at an angle of the corridor, the eye, glancing along a shadowy gallery, caught a sight of two dark figures in plate armor, with closed visors, bucklers braced, and swords drawn, standing motionless against the wall. They seemed two phantoms of the chivalrous era of the Abbey. ”

“ Men of all creeds contributed to the work, and when the Abbey, on the 27th April 1862, was re-opened for public worship, it could scarcely be recognised, so changed was it from its former condition." [410] In closing his splendid volume Dr. Lees adds, "We trust the time is not far distant when the Abbey of the first Stewart will stand forth again in all its pristine beauty—with transept, and choir, and tower, as in the days of the founder." That hope will soon pass into a reality, and Scotland will have a completely restored abbey church used as a parish church. ”

“ No trace is left of Edward's Norman monastery, save the foundations of some of the pillars and a round arch in the cloisters; but we know that his church was nearly on the same place as the present Abbey, and that the old Norman nave stood for many hundred years joined on to the choir and transepts of the new Early English building, and was pulled down bit by bit as the later church grew. For the beautiful Abbey which we see before us now, in the heart of a busy thoroughfare, is the work, not of one generation, but of five hundred years. ”

“ Much of the beauty of the Abbey interior is due to the loving care of the restoration executed by the Digbys of Sherborne Castle, between 1848 and 1858, at a cost of over £32,000. The church of All Hallows at the west end, which caused all the trouble, was demolished after the dissolution of the monastery, when the Abbey was sold to the town for use as a parish church and All Hallows itself thereby became a redundancy. Its situation and its ground-plan can still be traced on the paths and lawns and on the ragged walls and makeshift patchwork that serve as West Front to the Abbey. ”

“ From this we ascended a stone staircase, at the head of which a pair of folding doors admitted us into a broad corridor that ran round the interior of the Abbey. The windows of the corridor looked into a quadrangular grass-grown court, forming the hollow centre of the pile. In the midst of it rose a lofty and fantastic fountain, wrought of the same gray stone as the main edifice, and which has been well described by Lord Byron. ”

“ The abbey, in return for their heroism, was levelled with the ground, and it did not rise from its ashes till the year 988, when the piety of Duke Richard I. built the church anew, under the auspices of his son, Robert, Archbishop of Rouen; but, departing from the original foundation, he established therein a chapter of regular canons, who, however, were so irregular in their conduct, that within ten years they were doomed to give way to a body of Benedictine Monks, headed by an Abbot, named William, from a convent at Dijon. From his time the monastery continued to increase in splendor. ”