DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49977#0029
MONASTIC GARDENING.
moment, in a more gentle light than perhaps any other incident
during his turbulent reign. Eadgyth, or Matilda, afterwards
the wife of Henry I., was being educated at the convent of
Romsey, where her Aunt Christina was Abbess. When the
child was twelve years old, the Red King wished to see her,
and one day the Abbess was distressed to hear him and his
knights demanding admission at the convent gate. The good
lady, fearing some evil purpose towards the child, made her
wear a nun’s veil; then she opened to the king, who entered,
“ as if to look at the roses and other flowering herbs.” While
the rough king thus inspected her flowers, the Abbess made
the nuns pass through the garden. Eadgyth appearing veiled
among the rest the king suffered her to go by, and quietly
took his leave.* The story was told by the Abbess to
Anselm, who narrated it to Eadmer, in whose history this most
picturesque scene is recorded.
While the Abbess Christina was adorning her cloister gardens
with roses and flowering herbs, other monasteries were being
beautified in like manner. The first Abbot of Ely, Brithnodus,
was famed for his skill in planting and grafting, and improved
the Abbey by making orchards and gardens around it.t
It seems as if there were gardens at Ely earlier than his
time (twelfth century), as the following quaint story implies
the existence of some sort of garden in the neighbourhood of
Ely. It is related among various miracles wrought at the tomb
of St. Etheldreda J how the hand of a girl was cured. She was
servant to a certain priest, and “ was gathering herbs in the
garden on the Lord’s Day, when the wood which she held
in her hand, and with which she desired to pluck the herbs
unlawfully, so firmly adhered (to her hand) that no man could
pluck it out for the space of five years, by the merits of St.
Etheldreda [she] was cured.” The Saint died in 679, and,
* Migne, Patrologies cursus completus, tom. 159-160, sec. xii. “ Eadmer,”
p. 427. Also D’Achery, Spicilegium (Paris, 1723), Vol. II., p. 893. Freeman,
Wm. Rufus, Vol. II., p. 32.
“ Rex siquidem propter inspiciendas rosas et alias florentes herbas,
claustrum nostrum ingressus.”
Gale, Histones Britannicce, 1691. “ Hist. Eliensis,” Liber II., chap. ii.
fl Dugdale, Monasticon, Vol. I., p. 473 (new ed.).
moment, in a more gentle light than perhaps any other incident
during his turbulent reign. Eadgyth, or Matilda, afterwards
the wife of Henry I., was being educated at the convent of
Romsey, where her Aunt Christina was Abbess. When the
child was twelve years old, the Red King wished to see her,
and one day the Abbess was distressed to hear him and his
knights demanding admission at the convent gate. The good
lady, fearing some evil purpose towards the child, made her
wear a nun’s veil; then she opened to the king, who entered,
“ as if to look at the roses and other flowering herbs.” While
the rough king thus inspected her flowers, the Abbess made
the nuns pass through the garden. Eadgyth appearing veiled
among the rest the king suffered her to go by, and quietly
took his leave.* The story was told by the Abbess to
Anselm, who narrated it to Eadmer, in whose history this most
picturesque scene is recorded.
While the Abbess Christina was adorning her cloister gardens
with roses and flowering herbs, other monasteries were being
beautified in like manner. The first Abbot of Ely, Brithnodus,
was famed for his skill in planting and grafting, and improved
the Abbey by making orchards and gardens around it.t
It seems as if there were gardens at Ely earlier than his
time (twelfth century), as the following quaint story implies
the existence of some sort of garden in the neighbourhood of
Ely. It is related among various miracles wrought at the tomb
of St. Etheldreda J how the hand of a girl was cured. She was
servant to a certain priest, and “ was gathering herbs in the
garden on the Lord’s Day, when the wood which she held
in her hand, and with which she desired to pluck the herbs
unlawfully, so firmly adhered (to her hand) that no man could
pluck it out for the space of five years, by the merits of St.
Etheldreda [she] was cured.” The Saint died in 679, and,
* Migne, Patrologies cursus completus, tom. 159-160, sec. xii. “ Eadmer,”
p. 427. Also D’Achery, Spicilegium (Paris, 1723), Vol. II., p. 893. Freeman,
Wm. Rufus, Vol. II., p. 32.
“ Rex siquidem propter inspiciendas rosas et alias florentes herbas,
claustrum nostrum ingressus.”
Gale, Histones Britannicce, 1691. “ Hist. Eliensis,” Liber II., chap. ii.
fl Dugdale, Monasticon, Vol. I., p. 473 (new ed.).