As to nunneries and education, all the larger houses, and probably all the smaller ones, in proportion to their capacity, opened their gates freely for the instruction of young girls, who were not infrequently accompanied by their brothers when of tender years. The children of well-to-do parents often arranged for them to be boarders at the nunneries in mediæval days, as is still the custom. In pre-Reformation days the nunnery was the popularly accepted place for the education of girls of different ranks. Thus Chaucer, in describing the miller of Trumpington, says:-- “A wyf he hadde, com of noble kyne; Sche was i-fostryd in a nonnery.... What for hir kindred and hir nortelry That sche had lerned in the nonnerye.” In later days, not long after their suppression, John Aubrey wrote with great appreciation of the educational work of the Wiltshire convents. “The young maids were brought up at nunneries, where they had examples of piety and humility, and modesty, and obedience to imitate and to practice. Here they learned needlework, the art of confectionery, surgery ... physic, writing, drawing, etc.... It was a fine way of building up young women, who are led more by example than precept; and a good retirement for widows and grave single women to a civil, virtuous, and holy life.” Much more evidence, if it was required, could be produced as to the education so generally given by English nuns. Quite recently, in turning over some little-explored forest accounts at the Public Record Office, an entry was found (not hitherto referred to in print) of John of Gaunt sending two bucks from his park at Kenilworth to certain Spanish damsels at Nuneaton. This led to further investigation, when it came out that several Spanish young ladies, who had accompanied the Duke’s second wife to England, were sent to the Priory of Nuneaton for purposes of education. When the Commissioners visited Nunnaminster, Winchester, in May, 1536, they forwarded a most highly favourable report of that ancient house, pronouncing the inmates to be “very clene, vertuous, honest, and charitable conversation, order, and rule,” as testified by the mayor and corporation and all the country side. They found there twenty-six “chyldren of lordys, knyghttes, and gentylmen brought up yn the sayd monastery.” The list of these girls begins with “Bryget Plantagenet, dowghter unto the Lord Vycounte Lysley,” and includes members of the families of Copley, Philpot, Tyrell, Dingley, and Titchborne. There was also one boy, Peter Titchborne, “chylde of the high aulter.” The casual references to “the schools” at English nunneries for girls of all conditions of life might be multiplied almost indefinitely. No attempt of any kind was made to replace these homes for English girls’ instruction when the nunneries were blotted out of existence. CHAPTER IV MONASTIC CHARITIES