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Print, uncoloured engraving, Monastery of St Bees,
Cumberland, engraved by Sparrow, published by Samuel Hooper,
Ludgate Hill, London, 1775.
Included in The Antiquities of England and Wales, by Francis
Grose.
Printed with the picture is:-
'Of this house Tanner gives the following history: "Bega, an
holy woman from Ireland, is said ot have founded, about the
year of our Lord 650, a small monastery in Copeland, where
afterward a church was built in memory of her. This
religious house being destroyed by the Danes, was restored
by William, son to Ranulph de Meschin, Earl of Cumberland,
temp. Hen. I. and made a cell of a prior and six Benedictine
monks to the abbey of St. Mary at York. IT was endowed (at
the dissolution) with 143l. 17s. 2d. ob. per ann. Dugdale,
149l. 19s. 6d. Speed, and granted 7 Ed. 6th, to Sir Tho.
Challoner, but 4 et 5 Phil. et Mar. to the bishop of
Chester, and his successors." The living is a curacy in the
diocese of Chester; the patron Sir James Lowther.
'THIS monastery lies in a bottom about four miles south-west
from Whitehaven, and about one north from Egremont. The
chief remains are those of the conventual church, which is
now used as a parochial one. The arches of this building are
all pointed, except that over over the west door, which is
circular, and has zig-zag mouldings and ornament of heads,
like those on the door of Ifley church in Oxfordshire. The
key stone seems to have represented the head of Christ. The
window in the chancel are long, and extremely narrow.
'THE vicarage house appears to have been constructed out of
the ruins of the monastery, and stands a little to the
south-west of it. Southward of the church are many
foundations, which make it probable the offices extended
that way. in the church yard, on the south side of the
church, are the almost shapeless trunks of the figures of
two knights; one holding a shield, and the other with his
hands joined, as in the attitude of praying. They are broken
off at the knees, and much defaced by time.
'A SMALL distance east of the church stands the grammar
school, founded by Dr. Edmund Grindal, archbishop of
Canterbury. It has a library to it, and has been much
improved by the donations of Dr. Lamplugh, late archbishop
of of York, Dr. Smith, late bishop of Carlisle, Sir John
Lowther, and others. The right of nominating the master, is
in the provost and fellows of Queens College, Oxford.
'THE village of St. Bees lies a quarter of a mile south of
the monastery. The way to it lies over a bridge lately
repaired, but having on it the date 1588, with the initials
R.G.
'This view, which shews the north-west aspect of the church,
was drawn in 1774.'
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