hills, the holy fathers came seeking for those creature comforts which the poultry-yard of a well-stocked farm supply. And doubtless, without slander be it spoken, a tribute from the cherry lips of the ruddy cheeked dairymaid was all the penance required for many little peccadilloes on her part, and much assisted the good father through the dull toil of a day passed in the silence of a monastery. In very friendly neighbourhood to the conventual farm-house stand the ruins of the ancient Abbey. There is not any approach which affords a better view of the remains than that which leads immediately past the old house already mentioned. And here, in order that the eye may be gratified with a picture more vivid than words can render it, we offer a sketch, for which thanks are due to the pencil of our friend Mr. Brough; and to himself for his company, without which many beauties of the road, previous to arriving at the Abbey, would have been lost. The back ground is formed by a hill, covered with thick foliage of the most luxurious character. As the eye catches the skirts of the wood, the stately trunks appear like so many columns, and the branches twining together produce the idea of a succession of arches, whose various entrances, beneath these, appear dark as the approach to gloomy Acheron

The midnight depth

"Of yonder grove, of wildest, largest growth,
"That forming high in air a woodland quire,
"Nods o'er the mound beneath. At every step,
"Solemn and slow, the shadows blacker tall,
"And all is awful listening gloom around.

"These are the haunts of Meditation, these
"The scenes where ancient bards th' inspiring breath,

"Ecstatic, felt; and, from this world retir'd,
"Convers'd with angels and immortal forms,
"On gracious errands bent; to save the fall,
"Of virtue struggling on the brink of vice;
"In waking whispers, and repeated dreams,
"To hint pure thought, and warn the favour'd soul
"For future trials fated to prepare ;

"To prompt the poet, who devoted gives

"His Muse to better themes;

"

But above these, as the wood ascends the brow of the hill, the feathery boughs form a canopy, where many tints of green are occasionally diversified by the brown tints of some forester, who, not so hardy as the rest, begins to assume his winter coat of russet brown; whilst here and there the thin blue smoke of some rustic's fire, curling and eddying amid the topmost branches, gives occupation to the eye and brings to mind those magnificent sacrificial rites, so finely dwelt upon by the heathen poets, where whole hecatombs of oxen were offered as victims upon the altars of the deity, either whose aid was sought to be propitiated, or whose wrath the devout worshippers were anxious to divert by the odour of the reeking sacrifice. It is with such a scene before him as this, that the mind of the classic scholar will revert to the incidents, so beautifully pourtrayed by Homer, which took place at the time when Achilles performed the imposing funereal ceremony around the remains of his deceased friend Patroclus, the wrath of whose manes, for his supposed neglect, he thus endeavoured to assuage. It was amid such groves as these, that our aboriginal forefathers performed their religious exercises, which too often were concluded by the dreadful offerings of human beings

to their gods. So little is left of the original building, that it is out of one's power to affix names to all the different portions. And another great obstacle to a clear understanding of the former proportions of the Abbey, is the immense quantity of rubbish which has fallen in the entire space contained within the internal walls, as well as externally, so that the shafts of the columns are literally buried from the base to within a very few inches of the capital. It appears somewhat extraordinary that the owner of the property does not have at least a portion excavated, if not the whole. If it be on the score of economy and a fear lest the superincumbent pasturage should be lost, that this is not done, it can be easily remedied, for there must be numbers of Antiquarians who would gladly contribute their quota to a remunerating fund. The form of the convent from what now appears, was quadrangular, about forty yards square. The ruined pointed arches are still to be traced, with trefoils in the heads. The Abbot's lodgings at the south-west end were rebuilt but a few years before the dissolution. An embattled square building higher than the rest, with large bay windows, contained the principal room. Many of the offices are now inhabited as cottages; in fact, almost all the buildings in the vicinity betoken the connection which they once formed with the Abbey. Now all that remains of the Abbot's lodgings, save a portion of the external walls, is the capital of a column which spreads out into a fanshaped form, and is seen at the extreme right of the sketch. There is a traditional report of a subterraneous passage from this place to Corscomb, which was called the Abbot's lodg

ings. It is said to be arched with stone, and, in the wall, that there are niches or seats from one end to the other. There is an opening in the ground before the Abbey, which appears to be covered with a kind of arch; but the passage is soon obstructed, so as to render it impracticable to discover how far the tradition is well founded.

The name Hailes is derived from the Saxon word Haly, Holy. At the Norman conquest the Manor of Hailes shared the same fate with many a broad extent of land which then belonged to Saxon proprietors; it was wrested from its lawful and original Saxon owner, and bestowd upon one of the many followers of the Norman William. A Saxon thane, of the name of Osgot, then held the manor of Hailes, from whom it was seized and bestowed partly upon a Norman knight William Lewrie, and partly upon the Abbey of St. Ebrulph, a monastery which was situated in Normandy. Jeffrey de Luci was owner of this property in the sixth year of King John's reign. It was afterwards granted to John de Maci. In the third year of Henry III. it came into the possession of John de Julin; from him it reverted to the crown; what may have been the reason of this, history does not inform us. Most likely some trifling political act of his may have raised suspicion against him, which was quite sufflcient pretext, in those days, to afford the King an excuse to seize upon the property of any unfortunate individual so offending. By Henry III. it was granted to his brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall, who was likewise styled King of the Romans, for the purpose of founding a Cistertian Monastery, in fulfilment of a vow made by him in a moment of