old foundations, showing at the same time
the present state of the old abbey buildings. At Newtown on the northern
bank of the Boyne, about a mile below Trim, Simon Rochfort founded an
abbey for the Augustinian Canons in 1206, dedicating it to Saint Peter
and Saint Paul. The capitals of the pillars in the church, the vaulting
of the roof and the shafts of the arches which supported the tower are
full of singular grace and beauty, even now when the abbey is roofless
and in part destroyed, while the corbels and mouldings round the
lancet-shaped windows are full of luxuriant fancy and charm. We can
divine from them the full and rich spiritual life which brought forth
such exquisite flowers of beauty; we can imagine the fine aroma of
fervor and saintly peace which brooded over these consecrated aisles.

A few miles below Trim, and an equal distance from the old royal palace
of Tara, Bective Abbey stands on the northern bank of the Boyne, with a
square, battlemented tower overshadowing its cloistered quadrangle. The
cinque-foil cloister arches, the fillets that bind the clustered shafts
of the pillars, the leaf ornaments of the plinths at their base all
speak of a luxuriant sense of beauty and grace, of a spirit of pure and
admirable artistic work. This rich creative power thus breaking forth in
lovely handiwork is only the outward sign of a full inner life, kindled
by the fire of aspiration, and glowing with the warm ardor of devotion.
Bective Abbey dates from about 1150. We are told that the king of Meath
who founded it for the Cistercian order "endowed it with two hundred and
forty-five acres of land, a fishing-weir and a mill." From this meager
outline we can almost restore the picture of the life, altogether
idyllic and full of quiet delight, that the old Friars lived among the
meadows of the Boyne.

Grey Abbey was founded a little later, in 1193, for the same Cistercian
order, where the promontory of the Ards divides Strangford Lough from
the eastern sea. Over the waters of the lough, the red sandstone hills
of north Down make a frame for the green of the meadows, as the tide
laps and murmurs close to the old monastic church. Grey Abbey owes its
foundation to the piety of a princess of the Isle of Man, wedded to De
Courcy, the Norman warrior whose victories and defeats we have recorded.
The great beauty of its church is due to the soaring loftiness of the
eastern window, and the graceful daring of the arches which in f