sbridge who set out with
the Abbot of Boxley to search for Coeur de Lion in 1192 and who found him
in Bavaria, and we find the Abbot of Robertsbridge employed more than
once again as an ambassador; but its fame soon dwindled, and though
it escaped the first suppression and indeed survived till 1538 it
could boast then of but eight brethren.

[Illustration: THE WEALD OF SUSSEX, NORTH OF LEWES]

The only other houses as old as Robertsbridge are those of Otham and
Dureford, houses of Premonstratensian Canons, neither in the heart of
the Weald, and both dating from the twelfth century. The other
religious houses, Michelham and Shulbred of the Augustinian Canons,
Easebourne of Augustinian nuns and Bayham the successor of Otham, all
date from the thirteenth century, and indeed no more belong to the
true Weald than do the rest. It is, in fact, only to-day that a great
monastery stands in the heart of the Weald, and of all wonderful
things that is a Carthusian House of the like of which Pre-reformation
England boasted but twelve, and Sussex none at all.

It was one day as I came over the Adur by Moat Farm that I became
aware of this great establishment, for there suddenly, as I turned a
corner, by the Lord, the road was full of Carthusian monks all in
their white habits, a sight as marvellous as delightful once more upon
an English road. And so I found my way to the great house of St Hugh
at Parkminster.

One should learn to be astonished at nothing in England of my heart,
for it will beggar one's admiration. But Carthusians! Was it not this
Order which Henry II. had brought into England as part of his penance
for the murder of St Thomas? Was it not this Order which had first been
established in my own Somerset, and alone of all Orders in England by a
Saint, and which there at Witham and at Hinton, still so fair and
lovely, built its first two houses in England, of which all told there
were but twelve? Was it not this Order that had faced and outfaced
Henry Tudor to the last so that the monks of the London Charterhouse
were burnt at the stake at Tyburn?

Well is this monastery dedicated in honour of St Hugh. And if you do
not know why let me write it here. It is well known that after the
murder of St Thomas and Henry II.'s public repentance for his part in
all that evil, Pope Alexander III. gave him for penance a crusade of
three years in the Holy Land, but when that was found not to be
convenient he commuted it for the b