Combe Abbey, the ancient and venerable seat of the Earls of Craven, is situate in a pleasant valley on the banks of the river, about five miles from Coventry. The Lordship of Smite, of which the manor at the time of the Conquest formed part, was, during the reign of “the Confessor,” in the possession of Richard de Camvell, who, according to Dugdale, “being a devout and pious man, and much affecting the Cistertian Monks, whose Order had then been but newly transplanted into England; and finding that part thereof which is situate in the valley to be full of woods, and far from any public passage; as also low and solitary, and so, consequently, more fit for religious persons, gave unto Gilbert, Abbot of the Monastery of our blessed Lady of Waverley in Surrey, and to the Convent of that place, all this Lordship of Smite, there to found an Abbey of the Cistertian Order. Whereupon they presently began to build, and out of their own convent planted some monks here, dedicating the church thereof to the blessed Virgin also, and calling it the Abbey of Cumbe, in respect of its low and hollow situation; the word Cumen in the British signifying Vallis or Convallis, as doth Cumbe and Combe in the Saxon.” The monastery having been thus founded, its power was augmented by various other “pious and bountiful gifts;” among the rest, in the time of Henry II., the Earl of Leicester became so liberal a patron, “that the monks allowed the said earl to be reputed the principal founder,” and agreed to “perform for him and his heirs such duties in his life-time and death as for their chief founder.” Thus richly endowed, and pleasantly placed among fertile fields, thick woods, and beside a productive river, the monks of Combe continued to enjoy life until the “killing frost” of the dissolution not only nipped the shoots, but destroyed the root, of the flourishing tree. The abbey with its estates then became the property of the Earl of Warwick, to whom it was granted by Edward VI.; and after his attainder, a lease of “the site, and divers lands belonging thereto,” was granted to Robert Keylway, who dying (23d Elizabeth), left a sole daughter and heir, who married John Harrington, Esq., afterwards Lord Harrington,[63] whose daughter inheriting, became the wife of Edward Earl of Bedford; from her, “in consequence of the profuse expenditure in which she indulged,” Combe Abbey passed by purchase into the family of Craven, in whose possession it has since remained.