Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/231

 NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. 107 Bisliop of Chichester, Salisbury, and Durliara successively, and died in 1237. The three sisters to Avhom the treatise was addressed were of gentle, if not noble, blood, and had in the bloom of youth forsaken all the pleasures of the world, and become anchoresses. Each had her maid to fetch her food and to attend to her wants. Their cells were near the " hall " of some " friend," probabh' their father or brother, whence they obtained all that they required (p. 193). The writer contrasts their easy circumstances with the condition of many anchoresses who were often distressed with want. In each cell were a crucifix and altar, as well as images of the Virgin and some Saints (pp. 17 and 19). The editor has supposed that the ladies and their maids formed a little community like nuns without a superior ; but this was not consistent with anchorite life, nor is it rcconcileable with the general tenor of the Rule. Though their cells could not have been far apart, it does not appear that they had even the indulgence which Grimlaic allowed of communication by a window. Some of the prescribed devotions are expressed in the plural, so that each would seem to pray for all ; but this was not uncommon in private prayers. On the other hand, notwithstanding the minuteness of the directions for their conduct, especially towards their maidens, there are none for their behaviour to each other as if they had any personal intercourse, with the exception of an exhortation to unity of heart, in which they are directed to have their faces always turned towards each other, with kind affection, a cheerful countenance, and gentle courtesy ; an expression that at first certainly seems to imply being in each other's presence. The context, however, shows it may be figurative, for the writer had just been describing persons between whom there was enmity, as having their faces turned from each other, like Samson's foxes, that were tied together by their tails ; and there immediately follow special instructions for the case of one hearing any evil of another, when she was to reprove her by a trusty messenger, who, before she went, was to repeat the message often in her presence, that she might not report it otherwise (pp. 255-7.) The whole passage is curious, but too long to quote. Such means of reproof would hardly have been resorted to, had a personal interview been practicable. If the direction above supposed to be figurative is to be understootl literally, it would appear to import that they could see each other from some of their windows, but were not near enough to converse or administer reproof. It has been assumed, we think too hastily, that these three anchoresses lived at Tarent Keynes, Dorsetshire, and that in them the nunnery there had its beginning.^ If that were the place of their abode, it would be highly probable that their family name was Keynes, and that they were members of that widely extended family of Keynes, or Cahaignes, of Norman origin, which has left traces of its variously spelt name in so many parts of England, and one branch of which had the lordship of Tarent. The only ground for supposing that these ladies resided there seems to be a prefatory note to one of the MS. copies of a Latin version of this Rule, in which the authorship is attributed to Simon de Ghent, Bishop of Salisbury, and it is said to have been written for his sisters, anchoresses at ■' The editor has incautiously followed Normandy with the conqueror. There Ilutchins in statinp; that this nunnery was nnist have been more than one descent in founded temp. Ric. I. by Ralph de 130 years. Kahaines, whose/ather Ralph -^ame from