Chapter Five

MATTERS MAINLY MATERIAL
THE DEATH of Bishop Brown left vacant the See of Newport
and Menevia, and the appointment of a successor was a
matter of some difficulty. Bishop Hedley had not been
Coadjutor with right of succession, but only Auxiliary Bishop
to the late Ordinary, and though it might have been thought
that he was the obvious choice to fill the vacancy, there was
in fact a delay of more than ten months before the appoint-
ment was made. This long interregnum caused a certain
amount of uneasiness, and the hesitation of Rome about
making the appointment has been attributed to various
causes. It has been said that certain articles contributed by
Dr Hedley to the Dublin Review in 1871 and 1879 on the
subject of 'Evolution and Faith' were susceptible of a not
strictly orthodox interpretation, and that this had been
pointed out to the Roman authorities. It was also said that
Prior Raynal's influence was used against the Bishop and
probably delayed the appointment. However that may be, all
came well in the end, and it became known in February,
1881, that Dr Hedley had been chosen to be the new bishop
of the See. His enthronement took place at Belmont on St
David's Day. One of his first acts was to change the site of
the episcopal residence from Bullingham, not to Newport,
but to Cardiff. At first he rented a house in that city, but
before long his friend the Marquis of Bute gave him the use
of a large house at Llanishen in the outskirts of Cardiff. The
few possessions of Bishop Brown came to Belmont: his
crozier, ring, and mitres, a considerable number of books,
and a collection of relics which he had acquired in Rome.
These last were enshrined in a large reliquary and placed
under the High Altar.

75

THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY

Meanwhile the material development of the church and
monastery went ahead. The south end of the monastery at
first had comprised only the two front parlours and the
rooms above them, but in 1881 work was begun on what was
called the infirmary block, i.e. the upper and lower infir-
maries, St Raphael's Chapel, and the sanitary block, and
on May 3 of that year the chapel was blessed. The original
intention was that it should merely be an infirmary chapel
in connection with the sick-room which communicated with
it, and Mass was said there only when necessary for the sick;
but it was converted into a private chapel by Prior Kinder-
sley in 1915, and became the laybrothers' chapel in 1920.
September of this year (1881) saw Charles, the second son of
the Founder, attain his majority, and to mark the occasion
he placed in the panels of the dormer windows over the choir
the four mural paintings of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel,
and Raphael, together with Uriel, the angel of the Passion.

During the next year, 1882, the tower was at last com-
pleted, and meanwhile other schemes of decoration were
being carried out. The sixth centenary of the death of St
Thomas Gantilupe, Bishop of Hereford, occurred on
August 25, and to celebrate this the west window of the
nave was filled with stained glass depicting events of his life.
For the occasion the Rector of Stonyhurst allowed the relic
of the saint preserved in the treasury there to be brought to
St Michael's. Most of the saint's relics, which had been taken
from Hereford Cathedral at the time of the Reformation,
were secretly kept in custody in the town by private persons
for a considerable time, during which time on one occasion
when the town was stricken by plague, they were assembled
and secretly carried through the town by night. But ulti-
mately they were dispersed on the Continent, whence a
forearm was carried to Stonyhurst, while the skull was
discovered in 1881 at Lambspring in Germany by Dom
Gilbert Dolan, and is now enshrined at Downside. The
window was unveiled on October 3 by Bishop Hedley, who
had adopted the Cantilupe arms reversed and quartered
with the Benedictine arms for his diocesan coat-of-arms.
In the following year, 1883, Prior Raynal began the com-

MATTERS MAINLY MATERIAL 77

pletion of the north transept as a chantry chapel to Bishop
Brown. The ground immediately outside had been used as a
burial plot for the monks, so first of all permission had to be
obtained from the Home Office for the removal of the bodies
of Frs Cummins, Blount, Kirtlaw, Froes, and Br Francis
McElroy, which were reburied in the part now reserved
for the clergy. The transept was then lengthened by seventeen
feet, and in the course of this work it is probable that the
original foundation stone of the church was covered up.
Underneath the chapel is a vault which is entered from the
outside, and there the body of Bishop Brown was laid, after
its removal in April 1884 from its temporary grave outside
the east end of the church.1 The chapel itself was completed
by the Christmas of 1885. That all these major additions
were being made at about the same time, and without in-
curring debt, is surprising; but there is yet another to add to
the list. In November 1884 the tenor bell in the tower was
blessed and given the name of'Seraphim', while four months
later those known as 'Cherubim' and 'Thrones' were added,
the remaining 'choirs' following on December 4, 1885. As
the final touch to the church tower, the clock was added in
February 1886, and it is the largest ever made by the firm of
Joyce of Whitchurch.
The next notable event was a sad one: the arrival of the
body of the greatly respected and loved former Prior of
Belmont and Archbishop of Sydney, Dom Roger Bede
Vaughan. As already mentioned, he had died on August 19,
1883, at the early age of forty-nine, on the very day on
which he had landed in England on a visit from Australia.
He had gone direct to his old home at Ince Blundell in
Lancashire, and to the dismay and grief of all was found dead
in bed next morning. The body was temporarily buried
there, while negotiations were afoot for returning it to
Sydney, but great difficulties were experienced over this
matter, and the new occupant of the See, Archbishop
Moran, thought it better that the body should remain in
1 This is the grave which was later occupied by the remains of Archbishop
Bede Vaughan for fifty-nine years, and in which now lies the body of Abbot
Romuald Leonard.
78 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
England. Several years passed without a decision being
reached, but eventually all hope of being able to translate the
remains to Australia had to be abandoned. Then both
Downside, as the monastery of profession of the late Arch-
bishop, and Belmont, which had obvious claims, expressed a
desire to have the body; but the Bishop of Salford, one of
the brothers of the deceased, wrote to Prior Raynal to the
effect that he considered that the burial should be at Bel-
mont, and that he was sure that that was what Archbishop
Vaughan would have wished. Accordingly on February 8,
1887, the body was brought to St Michael's. A moving, if
somewhat floridly expressed pamphlet describing the funeral
at Belmont was printed for distribution in Australia, and a
short extract from it may be given:
'Archbishop Vaughan has at last found a fitting resting-place.
His body arrived on Tuesday afternoon at St Michael's Priory
from Ince Blundell, under the escort of the Rev. Jerome Vaughan,
O.S.B., of Fort Augustus, the Rev. Basil Hurworth, O.S.B., and the
Rev. Ildefonsus Cummins, O.S.B., and was lowered into the grave
as the sun went down, amid the plaintive peals of the church
bells, and the solemn chants of Benedictine monks. The place
where the Archbishop's remains now rest is the vault which was
prepared for the late Bishop Brown, and where that prelate's
body remained until it was translated to the splendid mortuary
chapel specially built to receive it. Archbishop Vaughan, there-
fore, lies in the cemetery of the monastic church, just under the
east window.
'The funeral service was performed by the Bishop of the diocese,
the Rt Rev. Dr Hedley, O.S.B. After the arrival of the body, a
procession of monks came forth from the church, followed by the
Cathedral Prior, Canons in attendance on the Bishop, and lastly
the Bishop in cope and mitre. ... It was a scene not easy to forget:
the circle of hooded monks gathered round the grave as the shades
of evening fell, the wailing chant rising clear in the sharp frosty
air, and in the midst, lying silent the prelate and brother in
religion, who but a few years ago had gone forth from the
monastery in the vigour and prime of his powers, and now had
returned to rest among his brethren.
'Some of those who stood round him now had lived with him
and worked with him in St Michael's ... his bright face, his
voice, his winning manner-all came back to them. . . . They now
witnessed his return to the quiet solitude of former days . . .
beneath the shadow of the cloisters where he had studied and

MATTERS MAINLY MATERIAL 79
wrought in the early days of his manhood: where he had prayed
and thought and poured out his earnest words into young and
ardent hearts. ... We may make sure that it is pleasing to his
spirit that its earthly tabernacle awaits their reunion beneath the
shadow of his old monastic home. ...
'Roger Bede Vaughan . . . (was) a man of brilliant gifts and
princely presence, who went out to a far land and was there the
idol of his people, and returned worn out with toil to rest among
his brethren. Though years roll by and changes succeed, his
name and his life of pure devotedness, will long remain tresh
in the hearts of his brethren and his faithful people.
At the same time an appeal was circulated in Australia for
funds wherewith to erect a worthy monument over his tomb,
and five years later an elaborate tombstone marked his grave.
It had been hoped that by a general collection in Sydney
enough would have been raised to defray the cost of a
chantry in the south transept of Belmont Pro-Cathedral,
similar to that of Bishop Brown in the north transept, but as
Cardinal Moran of Sydney would not allow the appeal to be
made1 the scheme had to be abandoned. A similar proposal
was made regarding the burial of Bishop Hedley in 1915,
and plans were designed; but the distractions and difficulties
of the first World War put an end to them. The remains of
Archbishop Vaughan remained at Belmont until in 1946
they were at last translated to Sydney, where they were
received with great ceremony and public honours. This
translation was due to the initiative of Cardinal Gilroy of
Sydney. At the exhumation on August 7, 1946, it was found
that the outer coffin was crumbled and broken, but there
was still a wire wreath on top, and the inner leaden shell
was intact, as was also the plaque affixed to it, which only
needed to be polished and affixed to the new coffin. And so
after all those years the legend inscribed on the tomb,
'exsultabunt ossa humiliata', was strikingly fulfilled.
But 1887 also brought a joyful event, for it was the year of
Oueen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, which was celebrated by
extraordinary manifestations of joy and loyal affection all
over the country. Nor was Hereford behindhand in such
celebrations. It happens that there is a reference to the
1 The tombstone was paid for by privately collected subscriptions.

THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
occasion in one of Prior Raynal's letters to the Abbess of
Stanbrook, in which he records:
'... The great Jubilee day passed off with great national rejoicing
and with the loveliest weather that England could have. We had
a quiet day here after the High Mass. In the evening I was so
tired that I cared not to stay up and watch the bonfires. The
Brothers did so, and from the Tower saw forty burning. It will
be an event in their lives. At my age I was quite ready to imagine
it all. Our chimes rang at 4.45 a.m. and at 10.30 p.m. They
were the first and last chimes rung. Two of the Canons walked
in the civic procession. I did not think it was wise not to have a
priest in the great demonstration of loyalty, so I asked two to go.
It gave great pleasure to the citizens.'
The year of the Jubilee was also marked for Belmont by the
erection of a building which was to play a very prominent
part in the lives of the monks for many years to come: St
Raphael's Grange, commonly known to generations as 'The
Grange'. This house of recreation on the banks of the Wye
was designed and built by David Polly, who for thirty years
carried out all the carpentering and painting at the monas-
tery. The house is of wood with a tiled roof, and was first
set up on the lawn in front of the monastery, and then carried
in parts to its site two miles away. Five acres of woodland
were rented from Mr Wegg-Prosser, and there on the high
bluff the house was set up on oaken piles with a verandah in
front commanding (when the tree-tops were kept trimmed)
a very fine view of the river. Originally the building was
thirty feet in length, but so useful and popular was it found
to be that in 1888 it was lengthened towards the east by
another twenty feet, and a separate building (which has now
disappeared) put up behind it to serve as a kitchen. At the
Grange in those days the whole Community, led by the
Prior, would take recreation on 'Month-days' and other
holidays. The occasion was even one of some ceremony, at
least in Prior Raynal's time, and there were detailed rules or
customs of procedure. Dinner and tea would be brought
from the monastery in a cart, and relaxation with talking at
meals and smoking would be allowed. Since at that time
smoking at Belmont was regarded as an exceptional recrea-
tion rather than a necessity, and talking was allowed in the

MATTERS MAINLY MATERIAL 81
refectory only twice a year (on Christmas Day and the
Prior's Feast), it will be understood why the Grange was a
much appreciated and highly popular relaxation, and its
amenities were shared as a matter of course by all dis-
tinguished visitors to the monastery. There was a Grange
Warden appointed from among the brethren and he had the
duty of keeping the premises in good order, of supervising
the service of meals, from his official position at the end of
the long tables opposite to the Prior at the top, of seeing
that the lamp before the picture of St Raphael was burning
whilst the Grange was in use, and of making yearly returns
of all the crockery and full sets of tableware which were
kept there. These days at the Grange were carefully en-
couraged and its traditions fostered by successive Priors, but
Prior Kindersley who arrived in 1915 did not care for the
Grange and did not himself go there, and this began its
speedy decline, which was accelerated by the change of
manners and customs brought about by the first World War,
and by the increasing use of bicycles which took people
further afield; and so the Grange became less frequently
used and less appreciated, until by 1930 it was altogether
neglected.1

By the time that the Grange was opened in 1887 another
source of recreation, though a much more strenuous one,
had come into being. For Belmont had the great advantage
of being close to the river, and from an early date advantage
was taken of this fact. Indeed as early as 1863 there is a record
of a council meeting solemnly conferring as to whether the
young men should or should not be allowed to bathe from
the river bank. Eventually it was decided that they might,
but subject to certain warnings and conditions. But the river
was also to be put to further use, for at some date previous
to the opening of the Grange a couple of boats were bought,
and soon the monks became familiar with the tricky and
sometimes treacherous waters of the Wye; indeed they were
known for many years as the most skilful and enterprising
of the navigators of the river, their excursions ranging as far
1 In the winter of 1958-1959 the Grange was dismantled and removed to Bel-
mont, where it was re-erected on the cricket field to serve as a Pavilion.

82 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY

as Whitney and Hay in one direction, and to Tintern and
Chepstow in the other. But in this case, also, changing
conditions and tastes and finances, largely due to the two
wars, have put an end, at least temporarily, to these joys.1
It was at this time, 1888, that Dom Cuthbert Doyle's long
term of office as Novice Master came to an end. He had held
the post for fifteen years, that is from the beginning of the
Priorship of Wilfrid Raynal; and though he had by no means
been sparing of the novices, it was his successor who earned
the reputation of being the strictest Novice Master that St
Michael's ever had. This was Dom Hilary Willson, who held
that office from 1888 to 1899. The same year there were
sundry material improvements to the property of the monas-
tery, which were largely due to the generosity of Dom
Ambrose Gotham who had died at Belmont in 1883. It is
said of him that having returned to Belmont after many
years spent in the wilds of central Australia, he found life in
a crowded house intolerable after the bush, and could only
sleep in the solitude afforded by the top of the Tower. Besides
helping to pay for the installation of the water-ram, already
mentioned, he also caused the cemetery wall and gates to be
built, prior to the cemetery being consecrated and the
churchyard cross erected in 1888. Moreover, part of the
money he left from his peculium2 was used to build larger and
better farm buildings. Thus the west side of the present farm
was built: the wain-house with granary above, and the root-
house with haybarn above; and pigsties in the centre. The
bricks and tiles of these buildings will be found to be stamped
with the souvenir of the Queen's Jubilee. Hitherto what
small farm buildings there were had been on the site of the
present laboratory. The eastern part of the farmyard, com-
prising stables and coach-house, was added in 1896.

The period now reached was also marked by a further
development inside the church; for it was around this time
1 A description of the boating feats of the brethren of half a century ago,
written by Dom Gregory Buisseret, will be found below on p. 92.
' This was a survival from penal times, by which monks, owing to the difficulty
in those days of ensuring adequate financial support, were allowed to retain
for their use any inheritance or other funds which might come to them. It
was abolished before the end of the century.

MATTERS MAINLY MATERIAL 83
that the organ was put in its present position. Originally
it was in the north transept, i.e. what is now St David's
Chapel, where there was ample height above it to give the
true value to the pipes; but when the present chapel was
built after the death of Bishop Brown the organ was trans-
ferred to St Joseph's Chapel, and in 1889 the organ loft or
chamber was added, while at the same time the organ was
enlarged and encased at a cost of £1,000. In the following
year, 1890, there was built on to it the structure which houses
the engine used for blowing the organ: at that time a primi-
tive gas engine.

Thus, by this date, the church looked very much as it
does today. But on the non-material side there was still
lacking one feature which was needed to give full dignity to
the performance of the liturgical functions. The Superior
was, of course, a Prior and not a prelate, as was also at that
time the case with the Superiors of our other houses, and
therefore pontifical ceremonies could only take place when
the Bishop of the diocese presided, which was comparatively
rarely. Yet St Michael's differed fundamentally from our
other monasteries because, in the first place, it had no
permanent community professed for St Michael's, all being
members of the Priories of Downside, Ampleforth, Douai
and Fort Augustus; and in the second place, the monastic
church was in a unique position as being the Pro-Cathedral
of the Diocese of Newport and Menevia, and moreover the
diocesan Chapter was composed of the senior monks with
the Cathedral Prior at their head as Provost and senior
Canon. And for this reason he had a position altogether
superior to that of the Superiors of the other four monasteries.
It therefore seemed fitting that the outstanding position of
the Cathedral, the Chapter, and the Cathedral Prior should
be marked in some striking manner, and therefore Bishop
Hedley decided to petition the Holy See that the Cathedral
Prior should be granted the right of using Pontificalia. To
this course the President-General agreed, and the bishop
duly submitted his petition to Rome, where it was granted
by Pope Leo XIII on March 17, 1891. This was a very
marked honour, and one which differentiated Belmont yet
84 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
more from the other monasteries, though it was by then
realised that the other houses would eventually be raised to
the rank of Abbeys. In congratulating Prior Raynal on this
honour, Bishop Hedley expressed the hope that the Prior
would pontificate for the first time on Easter Day, which was
then only a few days off, and this in fact was done. It is clear
that in all this the Prior owed much to the good offices of
the Bishop, a fact which is the more striking when we recall
that Dr Hedley had been Wilfrid Raynal's unsuccessful
'rival' at the time of the election to the Priorship in 1873, and
further that the Prior is reputed to have tried to prevent the
then Auxiliary Bishop from succeeding to the diocese on the
death of Bishop Brown. When the bishop applied to Rome
for the privilege of Pontificalia for the Cathedral Prior he
could not make the Roman authorities understand what was
meant by a Cathedral Prior, the title being quite unfamiliar
to them. 'Oh', said they, 'we will make him an Abbot'; but
the bishop would have none of it, for he had a keen historical
sense and was set on preserving the old English custom
whereby the head of a bishop's monastic Chapter was
designated a Cathedral Prior. It has, in fact, been held by
some that it might have been better for Belmont if Bishop
Hedley had accepted the Roman suggestion, and certainly,
if the Superior had from then on been an Abbot, that fact
would have obviated many complications that arose twenty-
five years later when Prior Kindersley was trying to get the
house made independent; and it also might have meant
that the cathedral and chapter elements at Belmont need
not have been sacrificed in 1920. However that may be, the
granting of Pontificalia was much appreciated at St Michaels
and greatly enhanced the dignity of the liturgical services
there. But of course, as there was already an episcopal throne
in the sanctuary, the Prior could not have his throne there,
or use that of the Bishop, and so he followed the pontifical
ceremonial prescribed for a bishop out of his own diocese,
using a faldstool placed facing the congregation on the Epistle
side of the sanctuary. He was, however, allowed the use of
the crozier.
Through all these years there was one small matter

MATTERS MAINLY MATERIAL 85

which from time to time caused a certain amount of friction.
This was the system adopted for deciding seniority or
precedence amongst the Juniors and Novices. These, of
course, all came from the other monasteries, and many of
them would all date in seniority from the same year, i.e.
they had been clothed in the same year though for different
communities. The rule adopted was that those of the same
seniority in the habit ranked in the order of their monas-
teries, i.e. Gregorians first, Laurentians second, and
Edmundians third. The effect of this, as a protest or petition
to General Chapter pointed out, was that 'the first places
always and everywhere, and all incidental privileges of
seniority, were reserved to one House, to the exclusion of the
other two'; so that it conferred not a merely ceremonial or
occasional precedence, such as exists amongst the Prelates in
Chapter, but a substantial distinction constituting a
'privileged order'; and this was held to be open to three solid
objections; i. It brought forward into striking prominence
that distinction of Houses which, in a Common Noviciate
and Juniorate, ought rather to be kept as far as possible out
of sight; 2. It practically denied the principle that religious
of whatever House are equal members of one Congregation;
and 3. It tended to create and foster in the members of the
priveleged House an impression of superiority over their
brethren which had no adequate foundation in law or in
fact, which, it was claimed, would evidently be a serious
spiritual danger to the young religious in question, and a
possible source of future trouble to their own Superiors, and
even to the Congregation; evils which the Fathers of St
Gregory's would doubtless be the first to deprecate and
deplore. Accordingly the Master of Juniors, who was none
other than the future President-General of the Congregation
and later Bishop of Port Louis, Dom Austin O'Neill, drew
up this petition, as the matter was one reserved to General
Chapter, and requested: i. That the existing rule of pre-
cedence be cancelled; 2. That the old 'natural and un-
objectionable rule' which had been in force for the first
seven or eight years of St Michael's existence be revived, viz.
that those clothed at the same time should rank according

86 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
to their age as shown by their baptismal registers; and 3.
That this rule be put in force at once for all except the
Juniors of the third year, who would be leaving within a few
months. And that this was evidently no light grievance
worked up by a few is clear from the fact that not only was
it, as stated, drawn up by the Junior Master himself, but
that it was also signed by the Sub-Prior (Dom Romuald
Woods), by Canon Basil Hurworth, and by the Novice
Master (Dom Cuthbert Doyle). Unfortunately there is no
record as to whether any action was taken by the General

Chapter.1

The mid-nineties have now been reached, and in 1895
there came a change in the ecclesiastical organisation of
the diocese, which on March 4 of that year was dismembered.
It will be recalled that before the Restoration of the Hier-
archy in 1850 the whole of Wales with the addition of the
counties of Monmouth and Hereford had, in 1840, been taken
from the old Western District to form the Welsh District
under a Vicar Apostolic of its own (Bishop Brown). But
when the Hierarchy was set up ten years later the northern
half of Wales (the counties of Carnarvon, Flint, Denbigh,
Merioneth, Montgomery and Anglesey) were joined to
Cheshire and Shropshire to form the diocese of Shrewsbury;
while the southern Welsh counties, together with those of
Monmouth and Hereford, were left to make the diocese of
Newport and Menevia. But the feeling of Welsh nationality
had been steadily growing of recent years, and partly out of
deference to this, the whole of Wales, except Glamorgan
which was more cosmopolitan, was united to form the
Vicariate of Wales in 1895, so that the diocese of Shrewsbury
lost North Wales, and similarly that of Newport and Menevia
lost South Wales, except Glamorgan, that county being
united with Monmouthshire and Herefordshire to form a
new diocese which was known as the diocese of Newport.
The Vicar Apostolic of the new Vicariate of Wales, the last
of the Vicars Apostolic in Great Britain, was Francis Joseph
Mostyn (later Archbishop of Cardiff), who, on September 14,
i Judging by the entries in the Book of Clothings and Professions, the system
objected to was dropped in 1884.

MATTERS MAINLY MATERIAL 87
1895, was consecrated Bishop of Ascalon at Birkenhead by
Cardinal Vaughan, assisted by Bishop Hedley of Newport
and Bishop Carroll of Shrewsbury. Bishop Mostyn was the
son of Sir Piers Mostyn, and of princely Welsh descent. But
the Vicariate was short-lived as such, for on May 12, 1898,
it was erected into the Diocese of Menevia.

At this stage a further addition was made to the monastic
buildings. Mention has already been made of the over-
crowded state of the house several years earlier, and also of
the fact that the house still did not possess a suitable place
for housing the library which had meanwhile grown to a
considerable size. In the original plans the library was to
have been a building running west from the north end of the
cloister (i.e. a wing running out from the present 'Juniors'
Porch'), to form the north side of a cloister garth. Attractive
though this would have been, the idea had to be abandoned
as this would have necessitated completing the square, and
this, for financial reasons, could not be done. Instead, it was
therefore decided to complete or prolong the Chapter House
(known to later generations as the 'Phillipps Library'), and
to use this prolongation as a library, while above it would be
a large lecture room, and on the second floor six new cells.
An appeal was therefore sent out for subscriptions, but it
was not until May 26, 1898, that the first stone could be laid,
and the cells on the top floor (known for long as 'Siberia',
for obvious reasons, and destined to be at first the Juniorate,
and after 1917 the noviciate, for many years) were blessed
and put into use on September 4, 1899. The lecture room
below was opened in the following February, on which
occasion Dom Aidan Gasquet (later Cardinal) delivered a
lecture on historical studies. The following May (1900) the
Library on the ground floor came into use. The first part of
this block (i.e. the one-time 'Phillipps Library') was part of
the original building of 1859, and had hitherto been used as
a Chapter Room, the ancient practice (still observed in
many monasteries) of retiring to it in procession for the
latter half of Prime having been kept up here until Septem-
ber 9, 1870. But the room continued to be the Chapter Room
until 1910, when the opposite room across the cloister (at
g8 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
the time of writing, the Calefactory) came into use for that
purpose, and the Phillipps Library was installed in the former
room When Mr Biddulph Phillipps of Longworth near
Bartestree, died in 1864, besides a legacy of £1,300 he also
bequeathed his valuable library to Belmont on condition
that it should be kept together as one unit, and should be
made available to students. Consisting mainly of materials
for a study of the history of the county, it also contained many
genealogical and heraldic books and manuscripts, and much
else of an historical nature. For many years all this was
scattered about in various parts of the monastery, but in
I9I0 Prior Fowler and his energetic librarian, Dom Bede
Carroll-Baillie, got them together with loving care and
housed them in what had been the Chapter Room.
But to return to 1896, on June 29 of that year the episcopal
consecration of Dom Peter Austin O'Neill to the see of Port
Louis, Mauritius, took place at Belmont at the hands of
Cardinal Vaughan, assisted by Archbishop Scansbnck and
Bishop Hedley. The new bishop had been educated at Doual,
where he was nicknamed 'Paddy Mozart' because of his
outstanding musical abilities. While still a boy in the Fourth
Class he had acted as organist and choirmaster there and
when he came to Belmont in 1860 (just after the house
opened) as a postulant he was at once made organist He
returned to Douai in 1863, but was back at Belmont from
1874 to 1888 as Professor of Theology, Junior Master, and
Canon of the diocese. This period was followed by eight
years as President-General of the Congregation, 1888-1896,
at a most critical and difficult time in the fortunes of the
E B C when the constitutional reforms were being pushed
through which resulted in the setting up of the Abbatial
System in 1900. He had thus had a long and intimate
connection with Belmont, and it was fitting that his consecra-
tion took place here. As well as being a musician, he was
also an outstanding Latin and Greek scholar; but he will
always be remembered for his gentleness and repose ol
manner, which stood out the more in that his lot was cast
in an unusually stormy period in the history of the Congrega-
tion when feelings and, sometimes, tempers, ran high on

MATTERS MAINLY MATERIAL 89
points of constitutional controversy. To him the E.B.C.
owes much.
But there is yet another event which marks the year 1896:
one which caused much alarm at the time. Mention has
earlier been made of the earthquake which was felt in 1863;
but in 1896 there was a much more violent shock on Decem-
ber 17. The following account was contributed by Dom
Hilary Willson, the Novice Master, to the Hereford Times.
'Few could, I think, have been in a better position (than us)
at the time either to feel the effects of the shock, or to realise
exactly its nature and accompaniments. We were gathered in the
choir of the Pro-Cathedral to the number of 26, and had all but
finished the chanting of Matins at the time of the occurrence.
The Cathedral is solidly built throughout, and rests on a solid
foundation. It measures 140 feet in length, by 50 feet or more in
breadth, and both nave and choir are near upon 50 feet in height.
As but few instances of premonition have been recorded, it may
be well to remark that one of our number, who is of a highly
nervous temperament, at his first entering the choir at 4.50 a.m.,
was startled by what seemed to him to be a slight noise and move-
ment of the floor. At the time he took little notice of it, but half
an hour later, i.e. a quarter of an hour before the occurrence, he
felt the same sensations again, and turned round in his stall so
suddenly as to startle his neighbours considerably.
This was at 5.30. Precisely at 5.32 a sound as of a distant
tempest or hurricane broke on our ears. Beginning with a moan-
ing or as others describe it, a rumbling sound, it grew within
the space of two seconds to a rush and a roar, and then a frightful
shock seemed to strike the church at its very foundations. The
ground quivered beneath the tiled pavement, the walls, both
outside and inside, shivered six or eight times from base to
summit; the timbers of the roof, which are mostly of solid oak,
creaked and strained, and every window rattled and shook.
On comparing notes afterwards, we found it impossible to
express in adequate terms of former experience what we had
heard or felt. The universal assertion was that it was utterly
unlike anything we had ever experienced. The sensation was very
complex, and was one of crushing and collapse of the whole
building Almost everyone looked up instinctively to the central
tower or the roof of the choir, expecting them to fall in upon us.
Every face turned deadly pale, several sprang to their feet in their
stalls, and three rushed out into the middle of the choir, book in
hand. A word or a gesture from the Canon presiding would have
emptied the church in a moment, but fortunately he kept his
presence of mind, and after a very brief delay all were reassured
G
9O THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
sufficiently to resume and conclude the service. The general
opinion is that the premonitory sounds lasted about two or three
seconds, the actual shock one or at most two, and the oscillation
and the noises that followed another two or three seconds. Strange
to say, despite the severity of the shock, nothing fell or was in any
way displaced throughout the whole church or monastery.'
It may be added to Fr Willson's account that tradition
says that when the danger was over, one reverend father
was found to be earnestly trying to climb up the screen
behind the choir stalls. There was a considerable amount of
damage and several casualties in the city of Hereford, and it
may still be seen that, at Belmont, the roof of the choir is
slightly awry. Since this occurrence, there have been on two
occasions slight tremors which feel like the effect of a train
passing through a tunnel below the earth. The cause is said
to be a geological 'fault' or fissure underground, which can
be traced from Cardiff through Hereford, along the Pennines
and into Scotland, and thence by Aberdeen across the North
Sea and down through Germany into Turkey. Certainly the
Woolhope-Belmont line is very evident. Two years after this
event in 1898, Prior Raynal celebrated the silver jubilee of
his Priorship, a unique occasion in the history of the Con-
gregation, and also the golden jubilee of his clothing; and
in September of the same year Bishop Hedley kept the silver
jubilee of his episcopal consecration.

The last year of the old century brought the death of the
oldest inhabitant of Belmont, the 81-year-old lay-brother
Robert Adams. Even though he did not join St Michael's
until he was forty-seven, he had been in the house longer
than anyone else, with the sole exception of the Prior. From
the beginning of the monastery's existence there had been
lay-brothers and lay oblates, and though many, of course,
did not persevere, there seem to have been almost always
some. Br Robert had been born at Marden in 1818, and his
uncle was a stonemason who had been employed on the
building of the church and monastery. But it was not till
March 20, 1866, that Robert Adams was clothed by Prior
Vaughan, and he was professed in the following year, after
which he took a prominent part for many years in the

MATTERS MAINLY MATERIAL 91
external work of the monastery. In fact it is to him that we
owe one of the chief features of the Belmont estate: the
paddock in the middle of the Wood, and the path that runs
round it. At the beginning, Brickhouse Wood, as it was
called, lay between the Priory and the Abergavenny road,
bisected diagonally by a bridle path which ran from near
the present cemetery gates to the little village school (now
the Library); and for nearly twenty years Br Robert laboured
to clear away the trees from the centre of this wood, thus
making the present paddock which he surrounded with an
iron railing and a metalled path, and enriched with ornamen-
tal trees. The work, in which he was sometimes helped by
casual mendicants, was completed shortly before his death.
The roots of the trees which had been removed from the
centre of the paddock were used to form three 'coronae',
which were circles cleared in the wood, bordered by the
tree-roots and provided with rustic chairs and benches.
There was one in the centre of the east side, one in the
south-east corner, and a large one, the traces of which can
yet be seen, beneath the large spruce tree on the south side.
These 'coronae' were much used in summer time as informal
meeting places for the Community (hence the name), and
they flourished during the Priorship of Dom Ildephonsus
Cummins and part of that of Prior Fowler, but fell into
disuse about 1910.
But now the old century was drawing to its close, and so
also was the old order of jurisdiction in the English Con-
gregation, which was soon to cease to be, as hitherto, an
almost exclusively missionary organisation, and to lay much
more emphasis on the monastic side of the life. For the long
drawn-out negotiations for constitutional reform, as urged
by the Holy See, involving the abolition of the Provinces of
Canterbury and York, and that of the Office of President-
General and of a multitude of lesser offices, together with
the setting up of the Abbatial system, were now, after twenty
years, approaching their end, and a new order of things, a
new outlook, and a new way of life, were in sight. But not
only was there a new mode of government at hand for the
Congregation as a whole; St Michael's itself, with the
Q2 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
ushering in of the new century, was to undergo an even more
drastic, if gradual, change: the formation of a Community
professed for Belmont itself, and the eventual disappearance
of the Common Noviciate and House of Studies.


APPENDIX VII
THE BELMONT BOATS
(By Dom Gregory Buisseret)


February 2, 1950, marked the passing of one of the notable
and well-remembered customs which have been enjoyed by all
those who passed through Belmont during the past sixty years or
more: the use of boats on the River Wye, a custom all the more
appreciated in that none of the other monasteries had such
opportunities.

There is no record of when boats were first used at St Michael's,
but a photograph of the Grange, taken immediately after its
erection in 1887, shows a boatload of monks at the bank below.
Mrs Helen Brymer, to whose kindliness Belmont owes so much,
not only helped to provide the Grange, but also established a
Holiday Fund, the income of which was earmarked for the up-
keep of the Grange, for the provision of yearly holidays for the
Juniors (always taken at Caswell Bay), and for boating. The
Juniors were expected to find the money for the purchase of the
boats, but the fund provided for their upkeep. It also provided
for a boating-costume; and after a visit to the tailor, Edwin Jones,
who lived at the Goose Pool near Allensmore, we were rigged
out in loose navy-blue trousers, blue cellular vests, rubber shoes,
a thin black coat, and a floppy broad-brimmed hat. Jones was a
huge round-shouldered man with a grey beard, slow moving,
and in his time had been a notable fighter with the bare fists;
and the suits he made for us had a queer earthy smell about them
that lasted indefinitely.
There were two boats, 'St Michael' and 'St Mauro', until
1897, and then, in honour of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee,
a third was bought and was called 'St Raphael', as well as a
punt called 'Diamond'. The two were what is known as 'Randans',
for three pairs of sculls; while 'St Raphael' was an outrigger for
two pairs. They were kept at the landing-stage near the monastery
during the summer months, and were taken down to 'Jordan's' at
Hereford for the winter on the Feast of St Michael, when the
danger of winter floods was to be feared. During the winter they

THE BELMONT BOATS 93
were repaired and varnished, ready to be brought up to Belmont
on Holy Saturday without fail.
In these boats the community ranged up and down the river
whenever opportunity offered. Sometimes it would only be for
a few miles, returning to the Grange for dinner or tea, after
having reached the Red Cliff, or the White House, or Bridge
Sellers; but there were many full-day excursions to Monington or
Bredwardine thirteen miles away or special outings for picked
crews to Whitney or Hay, a journey of twenty-seven miles of
stiff water. Then on the return journey of twenty-seven miles
came the thrill of shooting the waterfall, a drop of two or three
feet, at Mornington, when, having landed four of the crew and
any valuables (in case of a capsize), two experts, one at the bow
and the other at the stern, each with a pole, took the boat care-
fully to the brink of the fall. This, it will be understood, is not
just a ledge of rock, but is very irregular, and woe to you if you
stick on a hump, for you will just swing round and roll over
sideways. Assuming, therefore, that you keep to a channel about
the centre, bow gets the first thrill, for he goes out well up in the
air until balancing point is reached; then the boat dips, and the
bow of the boat goes under for a few seconds, some water is
shipped, and he finds himself driving straight for an enormous
rock, and must fend off with his pole.
Meantime the man in the stern is getting his share of thrills.
At first he merely keeps the boat straight, but when balancing
point is reached several things happen at once. He must give a
couple of good pushes, otherwise the bow may go under and stay
under, and the rocky bottom makes these pushes difficult for it is
slippery for quick work. Then as the bow dips he is cocked up
into the air and immediately drops three or four feet, and finds
that bow is swinging the boat from under his feet. If all survive
happily, the boat is brought safely in the racing current to the
bank; if not, everything gets very wet and bedraggled to the
delight of the spectators on the bank. Finally, everyone has a
bathe, and those who swim over the fall drop into bubbling
champagne and rise to find themselves being helplessly carried
straight for an enormous rock round which the current swirls
them just in the nick of time. It is as well, when going up the
river, to have a good look at the falls, as there may be a large
branchy tree there, which would bring disaster to all concerned!
One of the delights of the Wye, apart from the incomparable
scenery, is the alternation of pools and shallows which make its
navigation a matter of knowledge and skill, so that one can judge
where the main current flows, and can help the rowers with one
or two poles. And besides the shallows of the rapids there are the
sandbanks, usually at the head of the streams, and these have the
94 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
nature of mobile bunkers, in that they change their position with
a strong flood, or with a spell of low water. In former days it was
the custom of the boatmen from Hereford, and of the Belmont
monks too, to spend a day now and then in the summer clearing
away the worst of these banks. This was easily done by removing
with a garden fork the weed which held the sand together, and
the current did the rest. An especially dangerous spot was at
Byford, where Offa's Dyke, coming down from North Wales, joins
the Wye and follows its course for fifty miles. The construction
of the Dyke was carried well out into the river, and though that
was done over a thousand years ago the stakes are still there just
beneath the surface, sharp and hard as iron.

Then there are also the rocks of all sizes and shapes to be
charted in the captain's memory, and we had our own names for
them. The most famous are the 'Pontifical Rocks' near Belmont:
three large rocks in the centre of the stream. In 1900, Dom
Cyprian Alston, then a Junior and Captain of the boat 'St
Michael', was taking a crew to the Grange, with the Rt Rev.
Prior Raynal as passenger in the sternsheets. The river was low,
and coming to the rocks the boat gently slid on to the centre one
and there stuck. The captain therefore ordered the crew to come
aft, which all did, and so effectually raised the bow that the stern
quietly sank with all hands into four feet of water, to the great
discomfiture of the Prior who was the only one seated! In after
days he never failed to point out the place, and thus the rocks
acquired their name.

Occasionally, but not often, excursions were made down-river
to Symond's Yat, Monmouth, Tintern, or Chepstow, the two
latter being two-day affairs, and the boats were returned to
Hereford by a regular service of wagons made for that purpose.
Below Hereford the river turns and twists a great deal, justifying
the derivation of its name from the verb 'to wind'; and the
distances from Hereford are therefore roughly twice that of the
same journey by road. When these long excursions were under-
taken we used to rise at 4 a.m. and arrange to be on the river by
6. But if we were going to Whitney or Hay, the boat was taken
up-river on the previous afternoon to Canon Bridge, which saved
us next morning from having to negotiate a number of very stiff
rapids, and enabled a start to be made with three miles of easy
going.
In the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, 'St Raphael',
the third boat, was bought, along with a punt for the use of the
fishermen; and when the boats were sent down to Hereford for
the winter, the punt was transferred to Williams' ponds, where the
great annual event was the netting of the ponds for the elimina-
tion of some of the jack and larger fish, so as to give the others a

THE BELMONT BOATS 95

chance. This was considered a duty of all good landowners, but
it is now hardly ever heard of. In 1904 the original boat, 'St
Michael', was worn out, and was replaced by another of the same
type and name; and in 1910 'St Mauro' had to be replaced, and
a new punt was provided.
The boats were in the charge of the Bursar, or, as he was then
called, the Procurator, who for most of the time was Dom Joseph
Colgan, affectionately but illegally known to all as 'Dom J.'.
He chose for each a captain who had exclusive charge of his
boat, with full responsibility for everything that happened to it,
and all the duties and control of a regular skipper; he also had
the onerous duty of keeping it clean. In the coppice close at hand
was a long sort of hutch in which were kept the sculls, cushions,
and other equipment. The small thwart-pads for the rowers
were known as 'pontius pilates', which name puzzled most
people; but Latin scholars sometimes noticed that the pads looked
rather like sheepskin, and that 'pilatus' meant 'hairy'.
Until 1915 the boating nourished, to the health and enjoyment
of generations of monks, who became well-known as the best
crews on the river, and whose frequent races home from the
Grange were well worth watching. But then the causes which
have been already mentioned as producing the decline of the
Grange militated also against the boats. Prior Kindersley was
nervous of water, and did not care for the Grange. The coming
of the war meant there were fewer Juniors, and the investments
which had hitherto provided a holiday fund became worthless,
so that the boats came under the blighting rule of austerity from
which they never really recovered. The final blow was given by
the growing school at Belmont.
Finally, in the second war, Hereford housed a large number of
temporary workers, evacuees and soldiers, all of whom formed a
shifting and irresponsible crowd which had no respect for property
or the proprieties, and too much spare time; so that it became
impossible to keep a boat on the river unless a watchman was at
hand day and night. Boats were torn from their moorings, chains
and padlocks smashed, the boats used or abused until the hooli-
gans tired, and then they were just abandoned wherever they
happened to be, and often enough in a sinking condition or badly
damaged. Even after the war this uncouthness continued. So in
1948 the two remaining boats were brought up from the river to
the Abbey. Old 'St Raphael' was found to be too far gone for
repairs to be possible, and 'St Mauro' so damaged as not to be
worth the work. 'St Michael' had succumbed to ill-treatment two
years earlier. So on February 2, 1950, what equipment was still
good was sold to the Hereford Rowing Club and thus ended
another chapter of Belmont history. But not entirely, there is still
q6 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
a diminutive craft carrying on the old tradition: a small canvas
Scout kayak. Let us hope that it will prove a link between the
old and a new chapter in the history of the Belmont boats.1

1 Since those words were written (in 1950) there has been a partial revival,
for in 1953 four somewhat elderly boats were acquired, of which one still
(in 1956) survives, and is used when the English summer permits.