“Euphemia, notwithstanding all her attention to spiritual affairs, and the good of the actual monastery, so conducted herself with regard to exterior affairs, that she seemed to have the spirit of a man rather than a woman. The court of the abbey manor, owing to the useless mass of squalid buildings, and the nearness of the kitchen to the granary and old hall, was in much danger of fire; whilst the confined area and the amount of animal refuse was a cause of offence both to the feet and nostrils of those who had occasion to pass through. The Mother Euphemia, realising that the Lord had called her to the rule, not that she might live at ease, but that she might, with due care and dispatch, uproot, and destroy, and dissipate all that was noxious, and establish and erect that which would be useful, demolished the whole of these buildings, levelled the court, and erected a new hall of suitable size and height. She also built a new mill some distance from the hall, and constructed it with great care, in order that more work than formerly might be done therein for the service of the house. She surrounded the court with a wall and the necessary buildings, and round it she made gardens and vineyards and shrubberies in places that were formerly useless and barren, and which now became both serviceable and pleasant. The manor house of Middleton, which was close to a public thoroughfare, and was further disfigured by old and crumbling buildings, she moved to another site, where she erected permanent strong buildings and a farmhouse on the bank of the river. She also set to work in the same way at Tufton, in order that the buildings of both the manor houses in that neighbourhood might be of greater service and more secure against the danger of fire.” A recently published volume on Wroxall Priory, Warwickshire, shows how admirably that convent managed the affairs of the manor. The tenants dined with the prioress at Christmas. CHAPTER III EDUCATION IN MONASTERIES