their churches, and Waverley Abbey, which stands in
fields even now sometimes flooded, in its early days was more than once
in difficulties through rain and bad seasons. It was founded in 1128 by
William Giffard, the second Bishop of Winchester after the Conquest,
and the buildings were still unfinished when, in 1201, a great storm
inundated the Abbey, almost carried away its walls, and ruined all its
crops, wheat, hay, and flax. Two years later, from the failure of the
harvest after the flood, corn was so scarce that the monks had to
scatter themselves among other Convents till they could thresh another
summer's corn. In 1215 the spring from which they got all the water
suddenly failed, and the monks were without water for their wine till
one of them found a fresh spring and took it by pipes to the admiring
Abbey. Eighteen years later came another storm and vast floods; the
water rushed through the Abbey grounds, carrying away walls and bridges,
and was eight feet deep in the buildings. There were other floods; in
1265 the monks had to sleep where they could out of the water, and it
took days to clean away the silted mud. Those were some of the penalties
of being so conveniently near to a river.

[Illustration: _Waverley Abbey._]

[Illustration: _Waverley Abbey._]

Round the buildings accumulated the traditional virtues. The Annals of
Waverley record that in 1248 a youth fell by accident from the very
parapet of the church tower to the ground without receiving the smallest
injury. He was stupefied, and was thought to be dead, but after a little
while began to speak and to be sensible, and soon completely recovered.
On an earlier occasion, Aubrey tells us that "a boy of seven or eight
years of age, standing near the Abbey gate, fell into the river, on the
Feast of the Invention of the Cross, and by the rapidity of the stream
was drove through four of the bridges, and was afterwards found on the
surface of the water, dead to all outward appearance; but being taken
out and carefully attended, he was brought to life, and came to his post
at the gate from whence he had not been missed nor inquired after."

When the church was dedicated in 1278--it had taken seventy-five years
to build--there was great rejoicing and a superb banquet. Nicholas de
Ely, Bishop of Winchester, to make the occasion splendid, supplied
feasting at his own expense for nine days to all who attended; abbots,
lords, knights and noble ladies came to t