ended cruelty, he immediately granted the abbots a
charter for the foundation of the abbey.

The monks, as usual, practising on the credulity of the people, grew
rich, and obtained privileges and further wealth from various
sovereigns; while the Pope conferred on their monastery the rights of a
sanctuary, exemption from tithes, and the election of its abbot without
the interference of king or bishop. In 1539 there were within their
walls thirty-two sanctuary men for debt, felony, and murder. Unpleasant
guests the monks must have found them, unless a thorough reformation had
taken place in their characters.

Here Margaret of Anjou took shelter after the fatal battle of Barnet;
and Perkin Warbeck fled hither, but being lured away, perished at
Tyburn. On the abolition of monasteries, Beaulieu Abbey was granted to
the Earl of Southampton, whose heiress married the Duke of Montague,
from whom it descended to his sole heiress, who married the Duke of
Buccleuch. The family have carefully preserved the ruins, and prevented
their further destruction.

"The abbeys have had their day; but, after all, we cannot help holding
them in affectionate remembrance for the service they rendered in their
generation," observed Oliver, in a somewhat sentimental tone, which made
me laugh.

"They may have done some good; but that good could have been obtained in
a far better way," said papa; "they were abominations from the first;
and the life led by the monks was utterly at variance with that which
Scripture teaches us is the right life to lead. We might as well regret
that Robin Hood and Dick Turpin do not now exist, because they
occasionally behaved with generosity to the poor, and showed courtesy to
the ladies they robbed. The monasteries were the result of the knavery
of one class and the ignorance and superstition of another. Do not let
the glamour of romance thrown over them ever deceive or mislead you as
to their real character. When we hear of the good they did, remember
that the monks were their own chroniclers. We have only to see what
Chaucer says of them, and the utter detestation in which they were held
by the great mass of the people, not only in Henry the Eighth's time,
but long before, to judge them rightly. There are weak and foolish
people, at present, urged on by designing men, who wish for their
restoration, and have actually established not a few of these abominable
institutions in our free England, where girl