rel_ tells us they

"Forsook missal and mass
To chant o'er a bottle or shrive a lass;
No matin's bell called them up in the morn,
But the yell of the hounds and sound of the horn;
No penance the monk in his cell could stay
But a broken leg or a rainy day:
The pilgrim that came to the abbey-door,
With the feet of the fallow-deer found it nailed o'er;
The pilgrim that into the kitchen was led.
On Sir Gilbert's venison there was fed.
And saw skins and antlers hang o'er his head."

STAFFORD AND TRENTHAM.

[Illustration: TRENTHAM HALL.]

The rivers which drain the limestone hills of Derbyshire unite to form
the Trent, and this stream, after a winding and picturesque course
through Midland England towards the eastward, flows into the Humber, and
ultimately into the North Sea. Its first course after leaving Derby is
through Staffordshire, one of the great manufacturing counties of
England, celebrated for its potteries, whose product Josiah Wedgewood so
greatly improved. The county-seat is Stafford, on the Sow River, not far
from the Trent Valley, and on a high hill south-west of the town are the
remains of the castle of the Barons, of Stafford, originally built a
thousand years ago by the Saxons to keep the Danes in check. This
castle was destroyed and rebuilt by William the Conqueror; again
destroyed and again rebuilt by Ralph de Stafford in Edward III.'s reign.
In the Civil Wars this castle was one of the last strongholds of King
Charles I., but it was ultimately taken by Cromwell's troops and
demolished, excepting the keep; a massive castellated building of modern
construction now occupies its place. The river Trent, in its winding
course, forms near Trentham a fine lake, and the beautiful neighborhood
has been availed of for the establishment of the splendid residence of
the Duke of Sutherland, about a mile west of the village, and known as
Trentham Hall. The park is extensive, the gardens are laid out around
the lake, and the noble Italian building, which is of recent
construction, has a fine campanile tower one hundred feet high, and
occupies a superb situation. The old church makes part of Trentham Hall,
and contains monuments of the duke's family and ancestors, the
Leveson-Gowers, whose extensive estates cover a wide domain in
Staffordshire. Trentham, which is in the pottery district and not far
from Newcastle-under-Lyme, was originally a monastery, founded by St.
Werburgh,