hop Tanner, and others
who have written on the subject.[1]

[1] Dugdale says, "Robert Fitz-Ranulph, Lord of Alfreton, Norton,
and Marnham, was one of the four knights who martyred the blessed
Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury; and afterwards founded
the Monastery of Beauchief, by way of expiating his crime; in the
reign of Henry the Second." Bishop Tanner writes, "Beauchief, an
Abbey of Promonstatentian, or White Canons, founded A.D. 1183, by
Robert Fitz-Ranulph, Lord of Alfreton, one of the executioners of
Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, to whom canonized, this
monastery was dedicated." These authorities are quoted by
Mr. Rhodes. Sir James Mackintosh names the four "knights of
distinguished rank," (apparently upon the authority of Hoveden,)
to have been "William de Tracy, Hugh de Moreville, Richard Britto,
and Reginald Fitz-Urse." We do not attempt to reconcile the
conflicting chroniclers; but we should add, from the subsequent
page, by Sir James, "the conspirators, despairing of pardon, found
a distant refuge in the Castle of Knaresborough, in the town of
Hugh de Moreville, and were, after some time, enjoined by the Pope
to do penance for their crime, by a pilgrimage to the Holy Land,
where _they died_, and were interred before the gate of the
Temple." Sir James describes the murder of Becket with minuteness:
"the assassins fell on him with many strokes; and though the
second brought him to the ground, they did not cease till _his
brains were scattered over the pavement_."--We know the Cathedral
guide at Canterbury shows you the stone in the place of that on
which Becket fell, and states the original stone to be preserved
in St. Peter's, at Rome; but the story is to us rather apocryphal.
At St. Alban's they show you the _dust_ of the good Duke Humphrey:
we once begged a pinch, which the guide granted freely; this
induced us to ask him how often he re-supplied the dust: the man
stared at our ungrateful incredulity.

The walls of Beauchief Abbey, with the exception of the west end,
represented in the Cut, have long since either been removed, or have
mouldered into dust. Parochial service is still performed in the
remains; but the whole of the original form of the once extensive pile
of building cannot now be traced.

The exterior architecture of the chapel is almost destitute of