PREFACE. THE HE history of the ancient Benedictine Abbey of New Minster, afterwards Hyde, within the City of Winchester, notwithstanding the light that has been shed upon its earlier age by the Rolls Edition of the Liber de Hyda, still remains to be written. The Editors of the Novum Monasticon Anglicanum were, indeed, cognizant of all the manuscript materials which are extant to-day, and they had access to them; but, as in other places throughout that work, so, too, in the case of Hyde, they failed to devote the time required to unravel the record which demanded more patience than they had at command. The HYDE REGISTER-the Stowe Manuscript No. 960now in the British Museum, which has never before been committed to the press, illustrates the history of this Abbey in a variety of ways, many of which, as will be seen as we progress in our investigations, are as novel as they are instructive and entertaining. It will be, perhaps, the best plan to examine the list of contents of the book, with some remarks upon the several articles, and to pass rapidly in review over the salient points in the history of the Abbey and show how our knowledge of these points is advanced by the contents. The Manuscript in its present condition is, unfortunately, very imperfect-probably a mere fragment of what it was when in its best condition-and its leaves, the b order of which has been displaced in several instances, have been seriously reduced in size by the pernicious practice of the binder, who has cut away a margin which made the book in its original state somewhat larger than it now is. It now consists of fifty-six leaves of strong vellum, measuring 10 inches tall by 434 inches wide. It is bound in green morocco, and on the back and sides are stamped the armorial bearings of the family of Asteley or Astley (used by Thomas Astle, Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London, former owner), viz., a cinquefoil within a bordure engrailed ermine. The crest is, upon a chapeau, turned up ermine, a plume of feathers, banded, and environed with a ducal coronet. The original writing is very neatly done, and is adorned with rubrics and initial letters in red, blue, green, and other coloured inks. On a paper fly-leaf at the end of the volume is the following note by Astle :-" In the year 1710. This M.S. was in the possession of Walter Clavel Esqr. It was afterwards the property of the Revd. Mr. North from whom it came to his Executor the Revd. Doctor Lort who presented it to me in the year 1770. T. A.” Walter Clavel, or Clavell, the first owner of the Manuscript of whom we have any notice after the dissolution of Hyde Abbey, is described as of the Middle Temple, barrister-at-law, and afterwards of Addlestone, co. Surrey. He was born at Ballasore, in the East Indies, April, 1676; admitted at the Middle Temple, 1697; and died unmarried. His will is dated 19 March and proved 20 May, 1740. He was the second son of Walter Clavell of Bengal, a member of the family of Clavell of Smedmore, co. Dorset. 1 Nichol's Literary Anecdotes; Chalmers' Biogr. Dict., xxiii, 244; Allibone, Critical Dictionary, p. 1435; Hutchins' Dorset, 3rd edit., 1861, vol. i, p. 571. |