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VIII. was a horrible crime; as involving not only the deepest sacrilege, but also cruelty to the tenants and injustice to the founders: that sacrilege has always been regarded, even in its lower degrees, by the Church, as one of the blackest of sins: that the curse by which every religious foundation was guarded, has followed the spoilers and their descendants, in a most remarkable manner, to the present day that the defences urged in exculpation of Henry's proceedings, from the superstition, and abuses of monasteries, are totally false in point of fact, and if they were true, irrelevant to the matter: that the Dissolution was forced on, not approved by, the Church that the testimonies in favour of the general good discipline of the dissolved houses is the stronger, as coming from the parties most interested in their downfall: that monasteries have from the earliest times existed in every branch of the Church : that the blessing of the intercessory prayer constantly made in them is incalculable: that the Church system, involving nightly, as well as daily, supplication, can no where else be fully acted out: that a body of men, deeply read in ecclesiastical history and controversy, and surrounded by an atmosphere of Church feeling, would be fostered in them, which would be ready to oppose any new at

tack of heresy or infidelity that colleges cannot, in this respect, possess the same advantages: that selfdiscipline could in religious houses be practised more regularly, and closer communion with God be more attainable that they would be invaluable as abodes for young men between their leaving the University and entering on the cure of souls, as supplying a course of training, intellectual, moral, and religious : that aged priests might be thus provided with an asylum, who now, though physically unequal to their duty, must either retain it, or be reduced to poverty: that important ecclesiastical works might here be undertaken with the advantage of uninterrupted opportunities and leisure, hallowed by religion, and a division of labour: that an asylum would be furnished for such as were without friends, or who, in the decline of life, wished to devote all their time and thoughts to the preparation for their approaching change that those, who are immersed in business, or otherwise entangled in worldly pursuits, might here, in such seasons as Lent or Advent, find a place of salutary retirement: that the diminution of personal and other expences on the part of the inmates would set free a large portion of wealth for the service of GOD: that the poor might be tended in them, both spiritually and corporeally; education

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carried on upon strictly sound principles; funds for church-building amassed; and church artists trained in devotional as well as professional habits.

The writer has only to add, that he could have wished to give a list of instances in which sacrilege has been signally punished in this world. But such a list, to be of any value, would have swelled this little volume far beyond his designs. Sir Henry Spelman's works will amply furnish such an one : and it is the writer's hope to publish at no distant period a collection of 'GoD's judgements on Church Violators,' as well from those, as from other,

sources.

FUNCHAL, MADEIRA, Ember-Saturday in Lent, 1843.

CORRIGENDA.

The absence of the writer from England must excuse several errata, of which the following are the most important:

Page 4, line 4, for portraietures read pourtraictures

6, insert and after vice

5, point thus; some left for ears, some auditors, need. 11, for band read kind

21, for sticketh read skilleth

9,

29,

15, for antlers read anthers

37,

83,

89,

14, for setting read selling

122,

125,

135,

151,

8, for gay read grey

183,

3, for waiting read writing

14, after attached add to you
24, dele in

4, for examiners read examinees

9, for leave read leaving

AYTON PRIORY;

OR,

THE RESTORED MONASTERY.

CHAPTER I.

pure and uncompounded beauties blesse
The mansion with an useful comelinesse,
Devoid of art: for here the architect,
Did not with curious skill a pile erect
Of carved marble, tuch, or porphyry,
But built a house for hospitality.

The lord and lady of the place delight

Rather to be, indeed, than seem in sight. CAREW.

THERE are few prettier villages among the lovely hamlets of England than that of Monk Teynton, as it meets the eye of the traveller, when he first gazes on its tall spire and quiet valley. You have the picturesque village street, with the red sandstone of the cottage walls, the well-thatched eaves, the thick chimneystacks, the trellised porches; you see, beautiful even in its ruins, the village cross: and the cot

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tagers' gardens, trimmed into quaintly shaped beds with borders of box, are gay with roses, or honeysuckles, or dahlias, according to the time of year, and betoken a kind landlord and industrious tenants. The grey old church, with its steep roof and intricate windows, and glass tinged with all the hues of the rainbow, is a rich prize to the sketch-book of the lovers of architectural beauty; and opposite to it, but half concealed by a shrubbery of birch, and laburnums, and lilac, is the modest parsonage, with its green gate and shady gravel walk. Beyond it, the lane winds on by the side of Teynton Park, a worthy example of what the seat of a country gentleman should be. Here are the sunk fence, the undulating expanse of turf, the giant oaks or chestnuts that stand here and there like solitary sentinels, the red fallow deer that glance in the sun, as they hurry from one glade to another, the old Elizabethan house, with its square-headed windows, stone mullions, and Corinthian doorway, the preserve of game, the silvery river that glides winding through the park. Well might the noble mansion and the broad demesne sometimes force from the passer-by the thoughtSir John Morley must be a happy man.

But that which, in the opinion of the good folks of Monk Teynton, was the glory of their village-and they were right-was Ayton Priory. It had been a Cistercian house, and occupied, as such always did, the loveliest spot for miles around. Situated where the river, by a sudden bend, left a coin of van

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