Farther northward in the Fenland, and over the border in Lincolnshire,
was the Benedictine abbey of "courteous Crowland," though its remains
are now scanty. It derives its name from the "Land of Crows," which in
this part is drained by the Welland River and the great Bedford Level.
On one of the many islands of firmer soil abounding in this oozy region
the monks constructed their monastery, but had little space for
cultivation, and brought their food from remoter possessions. Now,
Crowland is no longer an island, for the drainage has made fast land all
about, and the ruins have attracted a straggling village. Here is the
famous "triangular bridge," a relic of the abbey. Three streams met, and
the bridge was made to accommodate the monks, who, from whatever
direction they approached, had to cross one of them. The streams now are
conveyed underground, but the bridge remains like a stranded monster
which the tide has abandoned, and gives the children a play-place. Its
steep half-arches, meeting in the centre, are climbed by rough steps.
The dissolved abbey served as a quarry for the village, and hence on
this strange bridge and on all the houses fragments of worked stone and
of sculpture everywhere appear. It was located at the eastern end of the
village, where its ruins still stand up as a guide across the fens, seen
from afar. Most of it is in complete ruin, but the north aisle of the
nave has been sufficiently preserved to serve as the parish church of
Crowland; round about the church and the ruins extends the village
graveyard. Set up in the porch beneath the tower is a memorial for
William Hill, the sexton, who died in 1792. When forty years old he was
blinded by exposure during a snowfall, yet he lived for twenty-five
years afterwards, able to find his way everywhere and to know every
grave in the churchyard.
[Illustration: EAST END OF CROWLAND ABBEY.]
In the earlier days of Christianity the solitudes in this Fenland had
peculiar attractions for the hermits who fled from the world to embrace
an ascetic life. Thus the islands each gradually got its hermit, and the
great monasteries grew up by degrees, starting usually in the cell of
some recluse. Guthlac, who lived in the seventh century, was of the
royal House of Mercia, and voluntarily exiled himself in the Fens. This
region was then, according to popular belief, the haunt of myriads of
evil spirits, who delighted in attacking the hermits. They assaulted
Guthlac in hosts, disturbed him by strange noises, once carried him far
away to the icy regions of the North, and not seldom took the form of
crows, the easier to torment him; but his steady prayers and penance
ultimately put them to flight, and the existence of his cell became
known to the world. Ethelbald fled to Guthlac for refuge, and the hermit
predicted he would become king, which in time came to pass. Guthlac died
at Crowland, and the grateful king built a stone church there. The
buildings increased, their great treasure being of course the tomb of
the hermit, which became a source of many miracles. The Northmen in the
ninth century plundered and destroyed Crowland, but it was restored, and
in Edward the Confessor's time was one of the five religious houses
ruled by the powerful abbot of Peterborough. It became the shrine of
Waltheof, the Earl of Northampton beheaded for opposing William the
Conqueror, and Crowland was thus made a stronghold of English feeling
against the Normans, like the other monasteries of the Fens. Its fame
declined somewhat after the Conquest, though its hospitality was fully
maintained. It had little subsequent history. The abbey was garrisoned
by the Royalists, and captured by Cromwell in 1643, after which it fell
into ruin. Such has been the fate of almost all the religious houses in
the Fens, the merits of which the people in the olden time judged
according to a local rhyme which yet survives:
"Ramsay, the bounteous of gold and of fee;
Crowland, as courteous as courteous may be;
Spalding the rich, and Peterborough the proud;
Sawtrey, by the way, that poor abbaye,
Gave more alms in one day than all they."