[34] The Priory was dedicated to St. Mary.
[35] “In these islands, at the time of the Norman conquest, the average of man was doubtless superior, both in body and mind, to the average of man now, simply because the weaklings could not have lived at all; and the rich and delicate beauty, in which the women of the Eastern Counties still surpass all other races in these isles, was doubtless far more common in proportion to the numbers of the population.”—Kingsley. Is it a fact that the English of eight centuries ago were both mentally superior and more robust than ourselves? If the Spartans gained in physique by the destruction of their weaklings, many a genius in embryo may have perished on Mount Taygetus. “The survival of the fittest” is a physical principle only. Of old—as even now—the weak died of indigence. Sir D. Brewster says of Newton, “That frail tenement which seemed scarcely able to imprison its immortal mind, was destined to enjoy a vigorous maturity, and to survive even the average term of human existence.”
[36] Lay-brothers and underlings.
[37] Fainéant—idling.
[38] And without permission.
[39] The Gregorian Music is coming into more general favour at the present day. The Gregorian Chants are Choral Music arranged according to the celebrated Church modes by Pope Gregory I.
[40] Pieces of armour that protect the throat, (Fr. gorge, the gullet.)
[41] Properly weasand, from Saxon wæsend, the windpipe.
[42] Ingulphus was introduced to court at the time of the interview of Edward the Confessor and William Duke of Normandy, 1051, and went with the latter to Normandy. He is said to have been consecrated by Lanfranc, and installed at Crowland in 1076. This is the general reading of the Monasticon, but we shall be more accurate by regarding Wulketul (or Ulfcytel) as Abbot of Crowland at the time of the expulsion of the monks of Spalding.
[43] The crown formed on the head of the Roman Catholic clergy by clipping the hair (from Fr. tonsurer.)