In descending the dingle between Wenlock and Buildwas, at a point
described by an old writer as the boundary of the domains of the two
abbeys, is Lawless Cross, formerly one of those ancient sanctuaries, the
resort of outlaws who, having committed crime, availed themselves of that
security from punishment such places afforded. The monks, in the
exercise of that excessive influence they had in those days, provided
places, deemed sacred, which should serve for refuge for criminals. A
cross was erected for the _lawless_; from which even the monarch had no
power to take them. Villains doubly dyed in crime were wont to rush out
from such hiding-places, commit crimes with impunity, and return. The
evil, indeed, had become so great, that the Courts of Westminster, in
Hilary Term, 1221, were employed in considering the expediency of
altering "a certain _pass_ in the Royal Forest near to Buldewas," from
its having become "the haunts of malefactors, and from its notoriety for
the constant commission of crime." Below this is the Abbey Mill, and
lower still is the Abbey. The line passes through what was once the
cemetery, and over ground formerly occupied by the industrial courts of
the establishment. A fine view is obtained of the church, which presents
a good specimen of a Cistercian edifice, every part of the original
arrangement being distinctly traceable.
The massive proportions of its arcades, and the scolloped capitals of
their columns, indicate the Norman style of architecture; whilst the
pointed arches show an approach towards that which superseded it, which
began about the year 1150. The clerestory remains entire on both sides,
with round arched windows throughout. Between the columns are
indications of a screen, which shut off the eastern aisles; at the end of
the fifth arch from the west, the choir, or portion devoted to the monks,
commences; and at the intersection of the transepts still stands the
tower, resting on four pointed arches. At the eastern end, beneath long
windows, which at some period or other have been formed out of smaller
ones, stood the altar, and near it the sedilia; whilst on the south side
are the doorways which led to the dormitories of the monks engaged in the
night services of the church. On the side next the river, a long line of
building forms the eastern cloister and the crypt; on the same side is a
handsome archway leading into the chapter-house, the roof of which is
vaulted, groined, and supported by beautiful slender columns. Beyond are
the remains of the refectory, and the room of audience--the only place
where, according to the strict rules of the order, the monks were
permitted to converse; and here also was the warm-room, kitchen, and
lavatory. On the same side are remains of a string of offices for
novices, and for scribes employed in multiplying copies of the Scriptures
and other books.
[Buildwas Abbey: 34.jpg]
Our engraving represents the church as seen by moonlight, when strong
lights and shadows bring to mind the well-known lines of Sir Walter
Scott:--
"If thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright,
Go visit it by the pale moonlight.
For the gay beams of lightsome day
Gild but to flout the ruins gray:
When the broken arches are black in night,
And each shafted oriel glimmers white;
When the cold light's uncertain shower
Streams on the ruin'd central tower;
When buttress and buttress alternately
Seem framed of ebon and ivory."
The traveller by the Severn Valley Railway can scarcely fail to notice
here, and at other points along the line, beds of sand and gravel at
levels above the highest points now reached by the river; wave-like
sweeps of water-worn materials still higher up are no less conspicuous.
In both these are found the _Turritella terebra_, and other shells of
modern seas, identifying them with the period when a marine strait
extended the whole distance from the Dee to the Bristol Channel. The
cutting near Coalbrookdale has yielded a rich harvest of these marine
remains, sufficient satisfactorily to indicate the true position of the
beds, and to associate them with others of great interest elsewhere.
Along one of the ancient estuaries of this recent sea, now the Vale of
Shrewsbury, the Severn winds in curious curves, and almost meets in
circles, imparting a pleasing aspect to the valley. On leaving Buildwas,
Buildwas Park is passed on the left, and Leighton Hall and church are
seen on the opposite side of the river; while on the left again are
Shineton, Shinewood, and Bannister's Coppice; the latter famous as the
hiding-place of the Duke of Buckingham, when unable to cross the river
with his army at its mouth. Shakspere alludes to the event, in "King
Richard," thus:--
"The news I have to tell your majesty
Is, that by sudden flood and fall of waters,
Buckingham's army is dispersed and scatter'd,
And he himself _wandered away alone_,
_No man knows whither_."
Tradition says that the fallen nobleman was betrayed by an old servant to
whom the wood belonged, named Bannister; and an old writer thus records
the curses which he says befel the traitor: "Shortly after he had
betrayed his master, his sonne and heyre waxed mad, and dyed in a bore's
stye; his eldest daughter, of excellent beautie, was sodaynelie stryken
with a foulle leperze; his seconde sonne very mervalously deformed of his
limmes; his younger sonne in a smal puddell was strangled and drowned;
and he, being of extreme age, arraigned and found gyltie of a murther,
was only by his clergye saved; and as for his thousand pounde, Kyng
Richard gave him not one farthing, saying that he which would be untrew
to so good a master would be false to al other; howbeit some saie that he
had a smal office or a ferme to stoppe his mouthe withal."
[The Lady Oak: 36.jpg]