[488] V.C.H. Lincs. II, p. 104. A few out of many other references to ruinous buildings may be given here. Easebourne (1411). Bishop Rede’s Reg. p. 137. Polsloe (1319). Reg. of Bishop Stapeldon of Exeter, p. 318. Delapré (Northampton) (1303), Wothorpe (1292), Rothwell (fourteenth century), Catesby (1301, 1312). V.C.H. Northants. II, pp. 101, 114, 138, 123. Rowney (1431). V.C.H. Herts. IV, pp. 435-6. St Radegund’s Cambridge. Gray, op. cit. pp. 36-8, 79. St Clare without Aldgate (1290). Ely Epis. Records, ed. Gibbons, p. 415. St Mary’s Winchester (1343-52). Cal. of Pap. Pet. I, pp. 56, 122, 230.
[489] Perhaps in the same way that a fire broke out at Sempringham in the lifetime of St Gilbert. “A nun, bearing a light through the kitchen by night, fixed a part of a burnt candle to another she was going to burn, so that both were alight at once. But when the part fixed on to the other was almost consumed, it fell on the floor, on which much straw was collected, ready for a fire. The nun did not heed it, and believing that the fire would go out by itself, she went away and shut the door. But the flame, finding food, first devoured the straw lying close by, then the whole house with the adjacent offices and their contents, whence a great loss happened to the church.” Quoted from MS. Cott. Cleop. B. I, f. 77 by R. Graham, St Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertines, p. 135. It will be remembered that the author of the thirteenth century treatise, called “Seneschaucie,” is most careful to declare that ploughmen, waggoners and cowherds must not carry fire into the byres, stables and cowhouse, either for light or to warm themselves, “unless the candle be in a lantern and this for great need and then it must be carried and watched by another than himself.” Walter of Henley’s Husbandry, ed. E. Lamond (1890), p. 113.
[490] Reg. of Crabhouse Nunnery u.s. p. 61.
[491] Dugdale, Mon. IV, p. 328. See also V.C.H. Herts. IV, p. 426.
[492] V.C.H. Herts. loc. cit.
[493] Cal. of Close Rolls, 1296-1302, p. 238.
[494] V.C.H. Yorks. III, p. 183.
[495] Gray, op. cit. p. 79.
[496] V.C.H. Lincs. II, p. 179.
[497] Dugdale, Mon. IV, p. 485.