CHERTSEY ABBEY.
Chertsey Abbey. By Lucy Wheeler. (Wells Gardner, Darton, and Co. 5s. net.)-" Chertsey Abbey," writes Miss Wheeler, "is richer in manuscript records than in architectural remains." The Chertsey encaustic tiles are the most important of its material relics. The story of the foundation is full of interest. It is one of the earliest in this country, belonging to the seventh century. Whether all the documents are genuine may be doubted, but the general antiquity of the House is beyond doubt. Of personal history, the doings of the Abbots who ruled the community, not much can be recovered. The best-known names are those of Bishop Erkenwald, Abbot Bartholomew, who ruled for thirty-five years temp. Edward I.-it is to his initiative that the tiles are due-and Abbot John de Rutherwyk, whose reign lasted forty years, and who has left a record of his doings Among these were certain impropriations of tithes, a mischievous proceeding, the evil effects of which are still felt. The tithes were seized at the Dissolution, and the parishes have lost them for ever. When the House came to an end its revenue must have been something like £15,000. What its condition was at the time is a vexata quaestio. One thing, however, is quite certain, that so wealthy a House ought to have had more than fifteen members. Whether the fifteen were well conducted or no may be left out of account; the fact that "dry rot" of some kind had been and was at work is abundantly manifest from the mere fact of their scanty numbers.
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