r was happily removed, the
old font found and remounted (as if the text ran, "One faith, two
baptisms"), and a stone nozzle built to uphold three bells. The
buttresses are copied from St. Hugh's Lincoln work.

FOOTNOTES:

{1} The present Vicar is anxious to turn this place, which has been
alternately cottages, a lock-up, and a reading-room, into a lecture hall
and parish room; but the inhabitants, unworthy of their historical
glories, seem rather disposed to let the old building tumble into road
metal, to their great shame and reproach.

CHAPTER III

PRIOR HUGH

It did not require much talent to see that the first requisite of the
foundation was a little money, and consequently we find ten white pounds
paid from the Exchequer to the Charterhouse brethren, and a note in the
Great Life to say that the king was pleased with Hugh's modesty, and
granted him what he asked for. Next there was a meeting of all who had a
stake of any kind in the place, who would be obliged to be removed lest
their noise and movement should break the deep calm of the community. It
was put to each to choose whether he would like a place in any royal
manor, with cottage and land equal to those they gave up, or else to be
entirely free from serfdom, and to go where they chose. It is noteworthy
that some chose one alternative, some the other, not finding villeinage
intolerable. Next came the question of compensation for houses, crops,
and improvements, that the transfer might be made without injustice but
with joy on both sides. Here Henry boggled a little. "In truth, my
lord," said the prior, "unless every one of them is paid to the last
doight for every single thing the place cannot be given to us." So the
king was forced to do a little traffic, which he considered to be a dead
loss, and acquired some very old cottages with rotten rafters and
cracked walls at a handsome price. The salesmen liked this new business;
it filled their pockets, and they blessed the new influence. This good
merchant had traded so as to gain both justice and mercy, but he tackled
the king once more, with twinkling eye. "Well, my lord king, you see I
am new and poor, yet I have enriched you in your own land with a number
of houses." The king smiled. "I did not covet riches of this nature.
They have made me almost a beggar, and I cannot tell of what good such
goods may be." Hugh wanted this very answer. "Of course, of course," he
rejoined, "I see you do not r