Letters And Papers of the Verney Family Down to the End of the Year 1639

nium prcsentes litteras sigilli nostri munimine duximus ro- borandas. Datum Londonis die Jouis post festum beati Michaelis, anno Domini millesimo trecentesimo octauo. A seal was appended, but is not now attached. Accounts of the The other documents which we desire to mention are a series of don!0' mg rolls of accounts of the abbey of Abingdon of various dates between the reign of Edward III. and that of Edward IV. with one of Henry VIII. In the precise and methodical details of the receipts and payments entered in these accounts we find an exact statement of the wealth or poverty of the establishment, we learn the sources whence its income was derived, and we are informed in what way it was expended. The minutest information is afforded, on the one hand, respecting the money value of their articles of produce or consumption, and, on the other, a clue of no uncertain character is given to many of the occupations and to much of the mode of living of the monks. The world within the confines of the monastery is in no small degree laid open before us, and is found to abound with topics of interest and excitement never dreamt of by those who view monastic life only at a distance or in imagination. Such documents have scarcely been sufficiently used by English writers on monasticism. It may be useful therefore to explain their nature. Every superior officer of the monastery kept accounts. Most of them probably did so not by writing but by the tally or the score; but at ...