. at
Witham, in Somersetshire, about the year 1178, in fulfilment of his
penitential vow taken at the tomb of Thomas Becket. Another house was
founded at Hinton, also in Somersetshire, in 1227. An attempt to found a
house in Ireland did not succeed, the institution only lasting forty
years. A third house was founded at Beauvale, in Nottinghamshire, in
1343. The London Charterhouse, with which we are immediately concerned,
was the fourth house of the order established in England. Before
entering upon the details of its history it will be well to sketch the
main features of the Carthusian order, since Carthusian houses in all
their chief characteristics closely resemble one another. Its
distinguishing marks are extreme severity and entire seclusion from the
world. The fathers live alone, each in his cell built around the great
cloister. The cell is, however, in reality a small house, and contains
four rooms, two on each floor; adjoining these apartments is a small
garden. From the great cloister strangers are entirely excluded, and the
cell is never entered except by the father himself, the prior, or his
deputy.

A walk, the "spatiamentum," taken once a week together, is the only
occasion upon which the fathers leave the house; conversation is then
enjoined. Upon Sundays and Chapter feasts the monks dine together, when
some instructive book is read aloud by one of the fathers.

The Franciscans and Dominicans are preachers, the Benedictines maintain
educational institutions, Trappists and Cistercians cultivate the soil;
but the isolation of the Carthusian fathers is complete. They may not
even leave the monastery to administer the Sacrament to the dying,
unless assured that no other priest can be secured.

Their food is thrust into their cells through a small hatchway. They eat
no meat, but fish, eggs, milk, cheese, butter, bread, pastry, fruit, and
vegetables. The brethren or "conversi," who are laymen, occupy
themselves with the manual labour of the monastery, but all that is
necessary in the cell is done by the father himself. When death ends the
solitary's life he is buried uncoffined in the cloister garth, "O beata
solitudo! O sola beatitudo!"[61]

The history of the London Charterhouse may conveniently be divided into
three periods--I., the Monastery; II., the Palace; III., the Hospital.

I.--THE MONASTERY, 1371-1537

The exact circumstances under which the house was founded are involved
in some obscurity, f