Chapter 34 - Page 2

better
arrangement of the cellarage--the improvement of the revenue of the
Monastery--the diminution of the privations of the brethren.

"You might have added, my brother," said the Abbot, listening with
melancholy acquiescence to the detail of his own merits, "that I
caused to be built that curious screen, which secureth the cloisters
from the north-east wind.--But all these things avail nothing--As we
read in holy Maccabee, _Capta est civitas per voluntatem Dei_. It
hath cost me no little thought, no common toil, to keep these weighty
matters in such order as you have seen them--there was both barn and
binn to be kept full--Infirmary, dormitory, guest-hall, and refectory,
to be looked to--processions to be made, confessions to be heard,
strangers to be entertained, _veniae_ to be granted or refused;
and I warrant me, when every one of you was asleep in your cell, the
Abbot hath lain awake for a full hour by the bell, thinking how these
matters might be ordered seemly and suitably."

"May we ask, reverend my lord," said the Sub-Prior, "what additional
care has now been thrown upon you, since your discourse seems to point
that way?"

"Marry, this it is," said the Abbot. "The talk is not now of _biberes_,

[Footnote: The _biberes, caritas_, and boiled almonds, of which
Abbot Boniface speaks, were special occasions for enjoying luxuries,
afforded to the monks by grants from different sovereigns, or from
other benefactors to the convent. There is one of these charters
called _De Pitancia Centum Librarum_ By this charter, which is
very curious, our Robert Bruce, on the 10th January, and in the
twelfth year of his reign, assigns, out of the customs of Berwick, and
failing them, out of the customs of Edinburgh or Haddington, the sum
of one hundred pounds, at the half-yearly terms of Pentecost and Saint
Martin's in winter, to the abbot and community of the monks of
Melrose. The precise purpose of this annuity is to furnish to each of
the monks of the said monastery, while placed at food in the
refectory, an extra mess of rice boiled with milk, or of almonds, or
peas, or other pulse of that kind which could be procured in the
country. This addition to their commons is to be entitled the King's
Mess. And it is declared, that although any monk should, from some
honest apology, want appetite or inclination to eat of the king's
mess, his share should, nevertheless, be placed on the table with
those of his brethren, and afterwards carried to the gate and given to
the poor. "Neither is it our pleasure," continues the bountiful
sovereign, "that the dinner, which is or ought to be served up to the
said monks according to their ancient