§ 27.
Many monasteries were entirely ruined
after the suppression, and of about a third of the
number no vestige is left. Of rather less than a third
there are substantial remains. In many cases, these
are confined to the church, which, if it served the
needs of a parish, was granted to the parishioners
and partially used by them, the monastic quire being
generally allowed to go into decay. More rarely, as
at Christchurch priory, the whole church was retained.
Secular chapters were founded in the cathedral priories,
and six abbey and priory churches, including Westminster,
were raised to the rank of cathedrals. Thus,
allowing for the inevitable change of use to which
the monastic buildings were put, at Canterbury,
Chester, Durham, Ely, Gloucester, Norwich, Peterborough,
Rochester, Westminster, Winchester and
Worcester, the arrangements of a Benedictine monastery
can be studied more or less satisfactorily, and
at Bristol, Carlisle and Christ Church, Oxford, those
of a house of Austin canons may be fairly well seen.
Of ruined houses by far the most complete series of
remains are those of the Cistercian abbeys, which,
generally in remote situations, have been allowed to
go to decay with little removal of material. Benedictine,
Cluniac and Augustinian houses have suffered
more: the remains of Benedictine houses like Reading
or St Mary's, York, are not complete; while of Cluniac
houses Wenlock, and of Augustinian, Haughmond and
Lilleshall are some of the few exceptions to the
general rule of destruction. Only three Cistercian
churches remain partly in use as parish churches,
viz. Dore, Holme Cultram and Margam: they were
converted to this use at periods later than the
suppression. On the other hand, the remains of
nearly half the monasteries enable us to reconstruct
the life which was led in them with great completeness.
Pre-eminent among these is the magnificent ruin of
Fountains. Kirkstall and Tintern are hardly less
complete. Beaulieu, Buildwas, Cleeve, Croxden, Ford,
Furness, Jervaulx, Neath, Netley, Valle Crucis and
Rievaulx have singularly perfect remains of large
portions of the cloister buildings, and to these may
be added several other instances where churches
or other buildings remain or may be traced by
foundations. Traces of most of the Premonstratensian
houses are left. The most perfect is the
splendid abbey of St Agatha at Easby near Richmond.
Part of one Premonstratensian church, that of Blanchland
in Northumberland, has been converted into
a parish church. Of Carthusian plans, as already
said, much is known, and for completeness Mount
Grace priory is not far behind Fountains. One
Gilbertine plan, that of Watton in Yorkshire, has
been recovered by excavation. Of houses of nuns the
remains are somewhat scanty, but of Benedictine
foundations St Radegund's priory at Cambridge, and
of Augustinian houses Lacock abbey in Wiltshire
deserve special mention; while the great Benedictine
church of Romsey abbey remains entire. Fragments
of friaries are left in many of our large towns: of
their general arrangements much can be seen at the
Dominican friary in Bristol and in the ruins of the
Austin friary at Clare and the Carmelite friary at
Hulne. The church of the Austin friars in London
is still a place of worship: the quire of the Dominican
friary at Brecon is the chapel of Christ college. Fragments
of churches may be seen at Lynn (black friars)
and Richmond (grey friars), while the church of the
Dominicans at Norwich and that of the Franciscans
at Chichester have been converted to secular uses.
At Cambridge the colleges of Emmanuel and Sidney
Sussex were founded on the sites of Dominican
and Franciscan friaries. The Dominican buildings
at Emmanuel were cleverly adapted to the plan of
the new college, the hall of which, in spite of transformation,
is substantially the church of the friary.
