view, published by Dom Nicolas Milley in 1708, with two other "prospects" or "ichnographies." (Tome I. Appendix B, p. 497.) There is also a plan in Viollet le Duc (Dict. de l'Architecture, Par. 1858, i. 266), but there the water-courses are partly shown as running the wrong way. The plan accompanying this description is a new one, based principally on that of Vacandard. When I came to study that plan, with the help of Vacandard's text, my interest in the subject was greatly increased, and, having obtained from the Paris authorities the necessary written order, I paid a second visit to Clairvaux in April, 1905, with much more knowledge of the place and of what to look for than I possessed on the former occasion. I here give the substance of what I jotted down. After arriving at Bar-sur-Aube we repeatedly cross the Aube by the railway, and again immediately after leaving the Clairvaux station, where the modern road. is carried over the river by a bridge of two arches; then we cross a side stream forming an island by leaving and rejoining the river, close by the Café de la Gare; and then we cross the Monks' Cut (Aqueductus ex Alba), and see it rejoin the Aube, as described on page 13. Then we see the eastern wall of the enclosure, with the two streams emerging under two low arches, not as shown in the plan, but, by some later arrangement, more to the south, at about the middle of the hortus major. The road passes between the now drained stagnum and the wall, there forming the beginning of the village street, which is carried by a bridge over the aqueductus, here seen to pass under the wall by a modern arch, that represents the original arch referred to on page 11. Soon, by a gentle ascent, the road brings us to the porta ad meridiem, where the crystal-clear Rivus S. Bernardi, fed by the well (p. 15), passes first under a bridge and then under the wall, as shown in the plan. On crossing this bridge we are in the western portion of the enclosure, now a part of the village, with the small parish church of St. Anne, built in 1827, on the eastern portion of the Agger deambulatorius, and not shown in the plan. The school is somewhere about 22 on the plan. This outer enclosure was the original site, in which was the monasterium vetus of St. Bernard (12, 13); some remains of that date are, I think, still to be seen, and will be afterwards referred to. Arriving at the ingressus monasterii (31), now the main and indeed only entrance to the prison, I interviewed M. le Directeur, and exhibited my credentials, whereupon he, with an attendant carrying a plan, accompanied me all over the place. I at once saw that very little of the monastic plan

1 The arrows in Viollet le Duc's plan show the stream as running westward, which is not correct; nor would it be

possible, for in that case it would have to run up hill.

could be made out. The buildings had been largely modernised, as other French abbeys were, before the suppression, but, worse still, the church and many other buildings had been wholly swept away and new prison buildings erected, so that all one could hope for was to find some isolated remains. I should mention, however, that the enclosing wall, though modernised, is still standing exactly as shown in the plan, and in the eastern portion it serves as the prison wall. In the gatehouse (31) is quadripartite vaulting, with ribs semioctagonal in section, on plain brackets; the outer and inner arch are both modern, as is the rest of the building. There is some quadripartite vaulting with moulded ribs under what was the guesthouse (33). The noble western range of the great cloister (49) is the principal ancient portion left. The ground floor is a fine lofty place, with two rows of octagonal columns, dividing it into three alleys, or 'nefs,' as the French call them; the vaulting-ribs are semi-circular, and square in section. Over this is an upper storey, with octagonal columns and pointed vaulting, the ribs square in section. The windows both above and below are round-headed, and as plain as they could possibly be made. The south end of this building is well shown in one of Milley's views. Adjoining, on the east side, was a "lane," as at Kirkstall. (See plan. Date circa 1140.) The church is totally gone, and in its place is an exercising ground for the prisoners, planted with an avenue of trees. The later chapter-house is a fine salon with coved ceiling, now used as the prison school. The later frater is similar, and is used as the prison chapel. The kitchen is of the same date, and at the time of my visit hot soup, with an appetising odour, was being ladled out of a vast caldron into great tubs. We now came to the spot on the plan (near 43) where the Rivus S. Bernardi seems to have been carried over the Aqueductus ex Alba by means of an aqueduct. No such arrangement can now be traced, but both streams are here commingled, and their joint water-power is used for the prison mill, weaving, and glass cutting. The combined stream is, however, divided into two, one passing through the buildings and the other through the gardens. There is nothing left of the elaborate system of irrigation described on page 11, and shown in the plan (hortus major), and, as mentioned on page 2, the streams are not now taken under the wall at the north-east corner, as shown in the plan, but more to the south, yet still separately. The stream from the Aube just inside the wall has now been done away with from the point where it turned eastward, together with the system of irrigation connected with it; but the gardens are watered by hand from the

stream of St. Bernard or its present representative, in which dip-tubs are fixed at intervals. The prison gardens are where the monastic gardens and orchard were, and the prisoners at work in their white clothes remind one of the white monks and conversi who once worked on the same spot. There is a modern lavoir, or washinghouse (near 42, 43), where several women were busy washing. We now passed out at the main gateway (31), where I had to give up my letter from Paris. But I was here free to go about as I pleased, and so at once set to work upon the outer enclosure. Here I noted the place used as the village school (22), not ancient. There is a square modern building on the site of 21. Of 18, the building called carceres sæculares, there are quite distinct remains, with very plain round-headed windows and ribless quadripartite vaulting, now converted into cottages and hayloft. I feel sure that these are, as is generally supposed, remains of St. Bernard's earlier buildings (circa 1117). During his lifetime, notwithstanding continual swarming off to new monasteries, the hive of Clairvaux remained always full, and it became necessary to extend the original enclosure eastward, and to enclose a new monastery on a very much larger scale. When this great work had been accomplished, the convent migrated to their new buildings, and the old monastery became a grange. I tried to sketch the venerable remains of the first monastery, but was prevented by rain, for I could not sketch, as St. Bernard's amanuensis is said to have written a letter at his dictation, in imbre sine imbre, both persons remaining quite dry while all around was inundated. I was promised photographs, but they have never come. The Agger deambulatorius, or at least the greater part of it, i.e. the part not occupied by St. Anne's Church (p. 2), is still a raised walk, with fruit trees and beds of flowers and vegetables. I saw the ingressus primus (8), with closed doors, from within. After this survey I walked to Outre-Aube, less than a kilomètre from the inn (Hôtel St. Bernard), which stands just opposite to the south-east corner of the enclosure, close to, if not on, the site of the stagnum, or lake (p. 14, and note 5). On the way to Outre-Aube we cross the river by a bridge. The water was quite clear on April 4th, 1905, but sometimes it is milky in appearance, whence its name, Alba,

The grange of Outre-Aube is now a walled hamlet, including two or three farms. The largest house is probably late monastic. There is a plan of the hamlet in Milley's and Vacandard's plans, not in its right place for want of room, and hence apt to be misleading as to the situation. On my return from Outre-Aube I took particular notice of the site of the lake. The gardens now occupying that site

are watered by a small stream brought from the Aqueductus ex Alba (p. 14, note 5), which "aqueduct" I now proceeded to explore. I could see its lower reaches beyond the gardens; a short way along the modern road to La Fertè we come to a bridge over it; its width is here about six paces, and its depth about three feet; its whole course is marked by pollard and other trees, and I could see where it branched off from the Aube. My pilgrimage to the Well of St. Bernard was made at my former visit, April 14, 1904, not on foot, but in a fiacre, with a sorry horse, on a dreadful road, and up the valley of Clairvaux, to the well. (See p. 15, note 4.) The tank is about two paces square, and in front of it is an area shaded by trees, where the villagers come to dance in June, as I was told. This dancing seems to have no connexion with the Feast of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, which is on August 20. As there are so many Cistercian abbeys in Yorkshire, I have ventured to think that the old description of the site and the waters of Clairvaux, which has given so much pleasure to me, together with the results of my personal inspection of the place, will prove acceptable to many of the readers of our Journal.

DESCRIPTIO POSITIONIS SEU SITUATIONIS MONASTERII

CLAREUALLIS.

(For translation, see pp. 9-16.)

Si situm clareuallis nosse desideras, hec tibi scripta sint pro speculo. Duo montes non longe ab abbatia habent initium, qui primo anguste vallis interiectione distincti, quo magis ad abbatiam appropiant, maiore hiatu fauces dilatant, quorum alter alterum abbatie latus dimidium, alter totum occupat. Alter fecundus vinearum, alter frugum fertilis, iucundum visui, et vsui commodum ministerium prebet : dum per deuexa latera in altero crescit quod comedant, quod bibant in altero. In summis montium frequens monachis labor est, amenus quidam, et quiete iucundior, ramale uetus colligere, et colligare fasciculos ad comburendum, squalentes extirpare dumos, et solis aptos ignibus, ignibus aptare, eruderare sentes, euellere, destruere, disperdere, (ut secundum salomonem dicam) spuria vitulamina que crescentium arborum vel ligant ramos, vel radices suffodiunt. Ne impediatur rigida quercus sublimi salutare sidera vertice, tilia mollis brachia explicare, fissilis et flexilis fraxinus libere se in altum exten dere, patulave fagus in latum expandere. Porro abbatie pars posterior, in latam desinit planitiem, cuius partem non modicam murus occupat qui abbatiam diffuso cingit ambitu. Intra huius septa multe et varie arbores variis fecunde fructibus instar nemoris pomerium faciunt, quod infirmorum celle contiguum, infirmitates fratrum non mediocri

leuat solatio, dum spatiosum spatiantibus prebet deambulatorium, estuantibus quoque suaue reclinatorium. Sedet egrotus cespite in viridi, et cum inclementia canicularis immiti sydere terras excoquit, et siccat flumina, ipse in securitatem et absconsionem, et umbraculum diei ab estu, fronde sub arborea ferventia temperat astra: et ad doloris sui solatium, naribus suis graminee redolent species. Pascit oculos herbarum et arborum amena viriditas, et pendentes ante se atque crescentes immense eius delicie, ut non immerito dicat, Sub vmbra arboris illius quam desideraueram sedi, et fructus eius dulcis gutturi meo. Aures suaui modalamine demulcet pictarum concentus auium, et ad vnius morbi remedium, diuina pietas multa procurat solatia, dum aer nubilus ridet serenitate, terra fecunditate spirat, et ipse oculis, auribus, naribus, colorum, canorum, odorum delicias haurit. Ubi pomerium desinit, incipit ortus intercisis distinc (f. cccxx.) tus areolis, uel potius diuisus riuulis intercurrentibus. Nam licet aqua dormitans appareat, pigro tamen decurrit elapsu. Pulchrum et hic infirmis fratribus prebetur spectaculum, dum super viridem puri gurgitis marginem sedent vitrea videre sub vnda pisciculos ludere, et natatu obuio militarem representare congressum. Aqua hec piscibus alendis, et rigandis oleribus duplici ministerio seruit, cui Alba famosi nominis fluuius indefesso meatu fomenta ministrat. Hic per multas abbatie officinas transitum faciens, ubique pro fideli obsequio post se benedictionem relinquit, qui ad hoc cum multo quidem labore conscendit, non integer, nec tamen ociose pertransit. Ipse quidem mediam vallem flexuosum intersecans per alueum quem non natura, sed fratrum industria fecit, dimidium sui mittit in abbatiam, quasi ad salutandum fratres, et se quod totus non venerit excusandum, quippe qui totius capax canale non inuenit. Et si forte amnis ipse inundans impetuoso excursu proruit, obiectu muri retroactus, subtus quo eum necesse est fluere, in seipsum recurrit, et refluum denuo, defluus amplexatur. Intromissus vero quantum murus (portarii vice) permisit, primum in molendinum impetum facit, vbi multum solicitus est, et turbatur erga plurima, tum molarum mole far comminuendo, tum farinam cribro subtili segregando a furfure. Hic iam in vicina domo caldariam implet, et se igni coquendum committit, vt fratribus potum paret si forte sterilis vindemia cultoris industrie non bene responderit, et defectus sanguinis vue, de filia fuerit festuce supplendus. Sed nec sic se absoluit, eum enim ad se fullones inuitant qui sunt molendino confines, rationis iure exigentes vt sicut in molendino solicitus est quo fratres vescantur, ita apud eos paret quo et vestiantur. Ille autem non contradicit, nec quicquam eorum negat que petuntur, sed graues illos siue pistillos siue malleos dicere mauis vel certe pedes