with jealous care, as one
of the important relics of the ancient history of Lanhearne.

About the commencement of this century, the manor-house entirely changed
its character. It was at that time given to the Carmelite nuns, who now
inhabit it, by Lord Arundel. The sisterhood was originally settled in
France, and was removed thence to Antwerp, at the outbreak of the first
French Revolution. Shortly afterwards, when the affairs of the Continent
began to assume a threatening and troubled aspect, the nuns again
migrated, and sought in England, at Lanhearne House, the last asylum
which they still occupy.

The strictness of their order is preserved with a severity of discipline
which is probably without parallel anywhere else in Europe. It is on our
free English ground, in one of our simplest and prettiest English
villages, that the austerities of a Carmelite convent are now most
resolutely practised, and the seclusion of a Carmelite convent most
vigilantly preserved, by the nuns of Mawgan! They are at present twenty
in number: two of them are Frenchwomen, the rest are all English. They
are of every age, from the very young to the very old. The eldest of the
sisterhood has long passed the ordinary limits of human life--she has
attained ninety-five years.

The nuns never leave the convent, and no one even sees them in it. Women
even are not admitted to visit them: the domestic servants, who have
been employed in the house for years, have never seen their faces, have
never heard them speak. It is only in cases of severe and dangerous
illness, when their own skill and their own medicines do not avail them,
that they admit, from sheer necessity, the only stranger who ever
approaches them--the doctor; and on these occasions, whenever it is
possible, the face of the patient is concealed from the medical man.

The nuns occupy the modern part of the house, which is entirely built
off, inside, from the ancient. Their only place for exercise is a garden
of two acres, enclosed by lofty walls, and surrounded by trees. Their
food and other necessaries are conveyed to them through a turning door;
all personal communition with the servants' offices being carried on
through the medium of lay sisters. The nuns have a private way, known
only to themselves, to the chapel choir, which is constructed in the
form of a gallery, boarded in at the sides and concealed by a curtain
and close grating in front. The chapel itself is in the old part o