Proceeding to the banks of the river Isis, we find, at the distance of two miles from Oxford, the remains of GODSTOWNUNNERY. These ruins partake little of grandeur. Their interest arises from the impressive mellowness bestowed by extreme age, and the tender associated recollections which crowd on the spectator's mind, and people the dreary spot with the romantic actors in the pageant of a remote day. The walks taken through these now rude and contemned recesses by Rosamond, while youthful, docile, and unpolluted; the splendid and gallant approaches of the enamoured Henry ;-visionary images like these glitter in the eye and captivate the fancy. We then remember the pale and care-worn corpse which was placed within the walls, as all that remained of deluded beauty; we recollect that even the quiet of the grave was denied to that miserable wreck of loveliness; and we learn that "sermons may indeed be found in stones," and a pointed moral be drawn from the mouldering relic which possesses little force of pictorial attraction. Godstow Nunnery was erected on ground given by John de St. John, towards the end of the reign of Henry I. by Editha, or Ida, a lady of Winchester, who was the widow of "a knyht, Syr Willm Launcelne."* Dame Editha became the first abbess of the foundation; and by her was built the church, a structure dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist in 1138, by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, "in the presence," says Dugdale," of King Stephen, and Maud, the Queen, with abundance of nobility." This pile appears, to have been an object of some esteem and consequence, for we find that "a remission of forty days was granted to all those who visited the church in devotion, on Vide a transcript from the Chartulary, or Ledger-Book of this house, in the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1787. The Chartulary was abstracted into English by "a poor broder, and welwysher to the good Abbes of Godstowe, Dame Alice Henley, and to all hyr covent." Alice Henley, or Alice of Henley, was abbess about 1464. The Chartulary contains a narrative of many visionary circumstances reported to be connected with the foundation. At the A con en the days of the Virgin, or St. John the Baptist." Dissolution the nunnery was valued at 2741. per annum. siderable portion of the habitable buildings remained till the civil war in the reign of Charles, when it was for a time occupied by the Royalists, and was afterwards destroyed by fire. In this nunnery was placed, as a boarder, for the purpose of receiving education, Rosamond, the daughter of Walter Lord Clifford. The females resident in this religious house, according to Stowe, were allowed considerable licence. They were even permitted to spend one day in the year at Godstow Fair; but it must be remembered that fairs, or wakes, were then united with pious ceremonials. Godstow, in itself, was fertile in means of innocent relaxation. There were numerous embowered recesses and inviting walks. To prevent the possibility of these becom ing tedious through repetition, the fair devotees were allowed to visit several neighbouring places. One of their favourite spots was Medley, a spacious building between Godstow and Oxford. This was a choice secluded mansion, on the border of the river; and we are told that "much mirth passed" during their visits. Medley was not a religious house, but it possessed an oratory, or chapel ;* and the nuns, it is said, " had their private devotions " in * Medley, before the Norman Conquest, belonged to the burgesses of Oxford, but was, at a subsequent period, bestowed by them on Osney Abbey. "The Canons of Osney built there," says Peshal, who derives his intelligence from Wood, a very fair house, with a little oratory or chapel, and made it serve as a retiring place up the water for the abbot." This building continued devoted to the pleasure of the abbot till the Dissolution. Medley was uniformly considered a desirable spot for relaxation. Withers, in one of his amatory poems, thus alludes to the charms of the neighbourhood ; "In summer time to Medley My Love and I would go, The Boatmen there stood ready My Love and I to rowe. For Cream there would we call," &c. There is now a solitary building on the spot, which was lately a house of public entertainment, but has been recently converted into a farm-dwelling. in some rooms set apart for them, if accident caused them to stay longer than ordinary." Binsey was likewise often favoured with their visits. Perhaps early historians have rather enlarged ou the circumstances of indulgence granted to these nuns; but we know that the devotees at St. Frideswide were accustomed to retire to romantic spots on the margin of the river, for meditation or amusement. It is supposed that Henry first saw Rosamond in 1149. At this time she was not more than fifteen years of age; and the prince was very young. If our account of the Discipline of the Nunnery bear any resemblance to correctness, opportunities of overture were abundant. It is probable that Henry softened the fall of his victim by promises of honourable retribution: but the love-promises of a prince depend for performance on political expediency. The repudiated Queen of France, Eleanor of Guienne, held the support of a sceptre in her hand; and the pretensions of ensnared beauty, and subdued innocence, weighed trivially on the opposite side. As the circumstances attending Henry's connexion with Rosamond were either treated with indifference, or were studiously thrown into shade by the writers of that era, an impenetrable cloud of doubt involves the whole affair; but it seems probable that Rosamond retired from the society of her royal seducer soon after he brought his queen to England. There are reasons for supposing that she returned to the nunnery in which her happiest days had passed, and lived there, in penitence and seclusion, for several years. The story of her being poisoned by Queen Eleanor is of modern fabrication. Every writer near her own time describes her as dying a natural death. It appears that Henry shewed an undeviating predilection for the nunnery which had afforded him early and unhallowed joy. Bernard de St. Walery possessed the site and advowson of Godstow, and the adjacent manor of Wolvercote. When he had offended the king, he presented these as a peace-offering; and Henry immediately gave them to the prioress and nuns. The The body of Rosamond was interred by her parents before the high-altar at Godstow, and a costly monument was erected, round which lights were directed to be kept continually burning. On the monument is said to have been placed the following quaint epitaph: Hic jacet in Tumba rosa Mundi, non rosa Munda, "Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln," says Stowe, " came, A. D. 1191, to the Abbey of the Nunnes, and when he had entered the Church to pray, he saw a tombe in the Middle of the Quire, covered with a Pall of Silke, and set about with Lights of Waxe. And demanding whose Tombe it was, he was answered that it was the Tombe of Rosamond, sometime Lemman to Henry II. who, for the love of her, had done much good to that Church." "Then," quoth the Bishop," take out of this Place the Harlot, and bury her without the Church." This severe command is said, by all who have mentioned the circumstance, to have arisen from a zeal of piety; for Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, was esteemed a paragon of holiness. But it is generally more judicious to search for a motive in policy, rather than in piety, when we regard the actions of churchmen at so distant a period. Geoffrey, Archbishop of York, the second son of Rosamond by Henry, was a patriot of the most amiable description; and he was, at this time, particularly obnoxious to Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, who was chief guardian of the realm in the absence of Richard I. but who was intent on becoming a tyrant rather than a protector. Bishop Hugh appears to have been anxious to ingratiate himself with the ruling power, by thus bestowing unmeasured obloquy on the remains of the patriot's mother. When the mouldering body of Rosamond, who might be thought to have paid a last earthly atonement for pollution, was removed by order of this politic bishop, it was placed according 9 to to Higden, in the Nuns' Chapter-House,* a building believed still to be remaining, and which will briefly claim our notice. But persecution had not yet done with the sod that supported her head. At the Reformation her bones were taken and up, her tomb was destroyed. Mr. Allen, of Gloucester-Hall, describes this tomb as "having on it interchangeable weavings, drawn out and decked with roses, red and green, and the picture of the cup out of which she drank the poison given her by the queen, carved in the stone." But Gough, in a Letter published by him in the Gentleman's Magazine,+ says, "I confess myself strongly inclined to believe this was intended for a cross-fleuri, such as was frequent on the coffin-lids of ecclesiastics; and the cup for a chalice, as often found thereon." Leland mentions "Rosamunde's Tumbe, at Godstowe Nunnery, taken up alate," as a stone, with this inscription, Tumba Rosamunda; and says that "Her Bones were closid in Lead, and within that the Bones were closed in Letter (Leather :) when it was opened a swete smell came out of it." Rosamond had two sons by King Henry-Richard Longespee, or Longsword, (so called from the sword he usually wore,) and Geoffery Plantagenet, who was elected Bishop of Lincoln, but was never consecrated, and was afterwards appointed Archbishop of York. Both were treated with much consideration by their royal father. Richard, the eldest, was married to Ela, daughter and heir of the Earl of Salisbury. "The Gods," we are told" of our pleasant vices make instruments to plague us."—If the assertion of the poet be correct, and • Hoveden, a writer of considerable pretensions to credit, merely says, that when the body was removed it was buried "extra ecclesiam cum cețeris.” • This Letter contains many curious particulars, and is accompanied by a plate, from an engraving in the possession of the Keeper of the Bodleian Library. The time at which the original engraving was made is not known, but it was evidently previous to the civil wars of the seventeenth century. Vide Gent. Mag. Vol. XLI. p. 985. |