The Pencil of Nature Part 4

[PLATE XVI. CLOISTERS OF LAc.o.c.k ABBEY.]

PLATE XVI. CLOISTERS OF LAc.o.c.k ABBEY.

PLATE XVI. CLOISTERS OF LAc.o.c.k ABBEY.

The Abbey was founded by Ela, Countess of Salisbury, widow of William Longspee, son of King Henry II. and Fair Rosamond.

This event took place in the year of our Lord 1229, in the reign of Henry III. She was elected to be the first abbess, and ruled for many years with prudence and piety. She lies buried in the cloisters, and this inscription is read upon her tomb:

Infra sunt defossa Elae venerabilis ossa, Quae dedit has sedes sacras monialibus aedes, Abbatissa quidem quae sancte vixit ibidem, Et comitissa Sarum virtutum plena bonarum:

The cloisters, however, in their present state, are believed to be of the time of Henry VI. They range round three sides of a quadrangle, and are the most perfect which remain in any private residence in England. By moonlight, especially, their effect is very picturesque and solemn.

Here, I presume, the holy sisterhood often paced in silent meditation; though, in truth, they have left but few records to posterity to tell us how they lived and died. The "liber de Lac.o.c.k" is supposed to have perished in the fire of the Cottonian library. What it contained I know not-perhaps their private memoirs. Some things, however, have been preserved by tradition, or discovered by the zeal of antiquaries, and from these materials the poet Bowles has composed an interesting work, the History of Lac.o.c.k Abbey, which he published in 1835.

[PLATE XVII. BUST OF PATROCLUS.]

PLATE XVII. BUST OF PATROCLUS.

PLATE XVII. BUST OF PATROCLUS.

Another view of the bust which figures in the fifth plate of this work.

Is has often been said, and has grown into a proverb, that there is no royal road to learning of any kind. But the proverb is fallacious: for there is, a.s.suredly, a royal road to _Drawing_, and one of these days, when more known and better explored, it will probably be much frequented.

Already sundry _amateurs_ have laid down the pencil and armed themselves with chemical solutions and with _camera obscurae._ Those amateurs especially, and they are not few, who find the rules of _perspective_ difficult to learn and to apply-and who moreover have the misfortune to be lazy-prefer to use a method which dispenses with all that trouble. And even accomplished artists now avail themselves of an invention which delineates in a few moments the almost endless details of Gothic architecture which a whole day would hardly suffice to draw correctly in the ordinary manner.

[PLATE XVIII. GATE OF CHRISTCHURCH.]

PLATE XVIII. GATE OF CHRISTCHURCH.

PLATE XVIII. GATE OF CHRISTCHURCH.

The princ.i.p.al gate of Christchurch College in the University of Oxford.

On the right of the picture are seen the buildings of Pembroke College in shade.

Those who have visited Oxford and Cambridge in vacation time in the summer must have been struck with the silence and tranquillity which pervade those venerable abodes of learning.

Those ancient courts and quadrangles and cloisters look so beautiful so tranquil and so solemn at the close of a summer's evening, that the spectator almost thinks he gazes upon a city of former ages, deserted, but not in ruins: abandoned by man, but spared by Time. No other cities in Great Britain awake feelings at all similar. In other towns you hear at all times the busy hum of pa.s.sing crowds, intent on traffic or on pleasure-but Oxford in the summer season seems the dwelling of the Genius of Repose.

[PLATE XIX. THE TOWER OF LAc.o.c.k ABBEY]

PLATE XIX. THE TOWER OF LAc.o.c.k ABBEY

PLATE XIX. THE TOWER OF LAc.o.c.k ABBEY

The upper part of the tower is believed to be of Queen Elizabeth's time, but the lower part is probably coeval with the first foundation of the abbey, in the reign of Henry III.

The tower contains three apartments, one in each story. In the central one, which is used as a muniment room, there is preserved an invaluable curiosity, an original copy of the Magna Charta of King Henry III. It appears that a copy of this Great Charter was sent to the sheriffs of all the counties in England. The ill.u.s.trious Ela, Countess of Salisbury, was at that time sheriff of Wilts.h.i.+re (at least so tradition confidently avers), and this was the copy transmitted to her, and carefully preserved ever since her days in the abbey which she founded about four years after the date of this Great Charter.

Of the Magna Charta of King John several copies are still extant; but only two copies are known to exist of the Charter of his successor Henry III, which bears date only ten years after that of Runnymede. One of these copies, which is preserved in the north of England, is defaced and wholly illegible; but the copy preserved at Lac.o.c.k Abbey is perfectly clear and legible throughout, and has a seal of green wax appended to it, inclosed in a small bag of coloured silk, which six centuries have faded.

The Lac.o.c.k copy is therefore the only authority from which the text of this Great Charter can be correctly known; and from this copy it was printed by Blackstone, as he himself informs us.

From the top of the tower there is an extensive view, especially towards the South, where the eye ranges as far as Alfred's Tower, in the park of Stour-head, about twenty-three miles distant.

From the parapet wall of this building, three centuries ago, Olive Sherington, the heiress of Lac.o.c.k, threw herself into the arms of her lover, a gallant gentleman of Worcesters.h.i.+re, John Talbot, a kinsman of the Earl of Shrewsbury. He was felled to the earth by the blow, and for a time lay lifeless, while the lady only wounded or broke her finger. Upon this, Sir Henry Sherington, her father, relented, and shortly after consented to their marriage, giving as a reason "the step which his daughter had taken."

Unwritten tradition in many families has preserved ancient stories which border on the marvellous, and it may have embellished the tale of this lover's leap by an incident belonging to another age. For I doubt the story of the broken finger, or at least that Olive was its rightful owner.

Who can tell what tragic scenes may not have pa.s.sed within these walls during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries? The spectre of a nun with a bleeding finger long haunted the precincts of the abbey, and has been seen by many in former times, though I believe that her unquiet spirit is at length at rest. And I think the tale of Olive has borrowed this incident from that of a frail sister of earlier days.

[PLATE XX. LACE]

PLATE XX. LACE

PLATE XX. LACE

As this is the first example of a _negative_ image that has been introduced into this work, it may be necessary to explain, in a few words, what is meant by that expression, and wherein the difference consists.