Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/387

Rh Trinity. This establishment lingered till the accession of Edward the Sixth, when it shared the fate of the abbey.

A curious discovery was made more than a century ago during some excavations near the chapter-house. It was first mentioned by Stukeley, who visited the ruins in 1722; he says, "that upon taking down an old wall there, they found a man with a candlestick, table, and book, who was supposed to have been immured." Tradition has always asserted that it was an abbot who suffered this punishment, and it may be worth while to inquire how far popular belief is in this case correct. Two of the abbots of Thornton were persons of doubtful reputation. Thomas Gretham, the fourteenth abbot, was deposed in 1393. The author of the MS. history gave him so bad a character, that a possessor of the work in the last century tore out a leaf containing the account of his abbacy "to prevent," says Tanner, in a note to the volume, "scandal to the Church;" thus in the absence of this leaf we are compelled to rely upon the next suspicious entry in the book. Speaking of Walter Multon, eighteenth abbot, the writer says, under the year 1443, "he died, but in what manner or by what death I know not. He hath no obit, as the other abbots have, and the place of his burial hath not been found." It is almost impossible to doubt that this significant passage has allusion to the fate of Walter Multon, who expiated his unrecorded offences by suffering that dire punishment, which we have reason to believe the secret and irresponsible monastic tribunals of the middle ages, occasionally inflicted upon their erring brethren.

The only part of the buildings of this abbey which remains at all in a perfect state is the entrance gatehouse. This is one of the finest existing in any part of England, and presents some remarkable features. It is of the Perpendicular style, and was built soon after the sixth year of Richard the Second, A.D. 1382, the date of the license to crenellate it. Many of its details are extremely beautiful. The approach on the exterior is over a bridge across the moat, protected on both sides by massive brick wails, with an arcade of pointed arches on the inside, supporting a wall or alure behind a parapet, and a dwarf