he dedication, and on the first
day seven thousand and sixty-six guests sat down to meat. That is
Waverley's greatest record of hospitality. Another record belongs to a
guest. King John spent four days at the Abbey in Holy Week, 1208, and on
that occasion one R. de Cornhull was ordered to be paid five marks for
"two tons of wine" carried from Pagham.

[Illustration: _In the Grounds, Waverley Abbey._]

At the Dissolution Waverley's end came quickly. The Abbey was one of the
first of the smaller monasteries to fall. The obsequious adventurer whom
Thomas Cromwell sent to Waverley to report on the Abbey establishment
was Doctor Layton, and evidently he was neither feasted nor bribed by
the simple Abbot and his monks. Thus he writes to Cromwell after his
visit:--

To the right honorable Mr. Thomas Crumwell, chief secretary to the
King's highness.

It may please your mastership to understand that I have licenced the
bringer, the Abbot of Waverley, to repair unto you for liberty to
survey his husbandry whereupon consisteth the wealth of his
monastery. The man is honest, but none of the children of Solomon:
every monk within his house is his fellow, and every servant his
master. Mr. Treasurer and other gentlemen hath put servants unto him
whom the poor [fool?] dare neither command nor displease. Yesterday,
early in the morning, sitting in my chamber in examination, I could
neither get bread nor drink, neither fire of those knaves till I was
fretished; and the Abbot durst not speak to them. I called them all
before me, and forgot their names, but took from every man the keys
of his office, and made new officers for my time here, perchance as
stark knaves as the others. It shall be expedient for you to give
him a lesson and tell the poor fool what he should do. Among his
monks I found corruption of the worst sort, because they dwell in
the forest from all company. Thus I pray God preserve you. From
Waverley this morning early before day, ready to depart towards
Chichester, by the speedy hand of your most assured servant and poor
priest,

RICHARD LAYTON.

It is satisfactory to learn that the weasely Doctor was "fretished,"
which must be pretty nearly the same thing as perished with cold and
hunger. The Abbot's plea for his monastery--surely one of the honestest
letters ever written--sets in contrast the characters of the monastery
and i