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yet Speed has returned it at 160l. 2s. 91d. Their library, as appears from Leland's Collectanea, could boast but of a single book, and that was the Rhetorica Ciceronis. In the year 1537, Henry the Eighth granted the site of the Abbey to Sir William Paulet, afterwards Marquis of Winchester. From his family it appears to have passed, probably by purchase, to that of the Earls of Hertford; as Edward Seymour, son of the Protector Somerset, who was restored to the titles of Earl of Hertford, and Baron Beauchamp, by Queen Elizabeth, resided here in the year 1560, and entertained his Royal mistress in the month of August, in Netley Castle. Towards the end of the following century, it became the property of the Marquis of Huntingdon; and has since passed through several families to Sir Nathaniel Holland, Bart.. who obtained it by his marriage with the widow of the late N. Dance, Esq. together with the ancient mansion called WOOLSTAN HOUSE, which occupies a very fine situation contiguous to the Itchin river.

Netley Abbey stands on the declivity of a hill, rising gently from the water; but so environed by beautiful woody scenery, as to be almost secluded from observation, except on a near approach. The ruins have often furnished a theme for poetical description, and moral precept; and the lyre of Keate, of Sotheby, and of Bowles, has been alike employed in mournful plainings over the fallen splendor of this foundation.

"Now sunk, deserted, and with weeds o'ergrown,

Yon prostrate walls their awful fate bewail;

Low on the ground their topmost spires are thrown,
Once friendly marks to guide the wandering sail,

The ivy now with rude luxuriance bends

Its tangled foliage through the cloister'd space,
O'er the green window's mouldering height ascends,
And fondly clasps it with a last embrace.

This is corroborated by the following entry in the register of St, Michael's Parish, at Southampton. "The Queen's Majesty's Grace came from the Castle of Netley to Southampton on the thirteenth day of August, and she went from thence to the City of Winchester on the six teenth day, 1560.”

150

While the self-planted oak, within confin'd,

(Auxiliar to the tempest's wild uproar,)
Its giant branches fluctuates to the wind,

And rends the wall, whose aid it courts no more."
KEATE'S NETLEY ABBEY.*

The destruction of the Abbey Church, or Chapel, according to Browne Willis, commenced about the period when it was inhabited by the Marquis of Huntingdon, who converted the nave, or west end, into a kitchen, and offices. Sir Bartlet Lucy, as appears from this writer, (but others say the Marquis of Huntingdon,) sold the materials of the whole fabric to a Mr. Walter Taylor, a builder, of Southampton, soon after the beginning of the last century, for the purpose of removing them, to erect a town-house at Newport, and dwelling-houses at other places. An accident which befel Mr. Taylor, in consequence of this purchase, and which afterwards led to his death, has been regarded by the vulgar as a judgment inflicted by Heaven, for his presumed guilt, in undertaking to destroy a sacred edifice; but more enlightened understandings can only regard it as the effect of a fortuitous combination of circumstances, in perfect accordance with the established laws of Nature.

The elegiac effusion of Bowles over the dismantled, but picturesque, remnant of this Abbey, possesses great beauty.

"Fall'n pile! I ask not what has been thy fate;—
But when the weak winds, wafted from the main,
Through each lone arch, like spirits that complain,
Come hollow to my ear, I meditate
On this world's passing pageant, and the lot

Of those who once might proudly, in their prime,
Have stood, with giant port; till, bow'd by time
Or injury, their ancient boast forgot,

They might have sunk, like thee: though thus forlorn,
They lift their heads, with venerable hairs
Besprent, majestic yet, and as in scorn

Of mortal vanities and short-liv'd cares ;-
E'en so dost thou, lifting thy forehead grey,
Smile at the tempest, and Time's sweeping sway."