[Illustration] <g>NETLEY ABBEY.</g> The following incident--interesting as connected with the ruins--is related by Digby in his Mores Catholici:--“I found a stranger,” says he, “once in <g>Netley</g>, on the eve of <g>St. John</g>, standing contemplative, who, after some space, accosted me. It was some holy solitary man, who told me he had been singing <g>vespers</g> to himself within the ruins of the church, and a thought had been suggested to him by a verse of the Magnificat, which he was eager to communicate. ‘The poor persecuted monks,’ said he, ‘are now for ever blessed in the centre of all felicity, while the proud, who made their dwelling-place a heap of ruins, as we see, have been scattered in the conceit of their heart, and dispersed through all the wastes of doubt, distrust, and error.’ Thus did the ruins assist his meditation.” The elder Pliny observes, that the houses which had been once inhabited by heroes of a noble race, lamented when they passed to new and unworthy masters; and that the very walls reproached the cowards who entered a place consecrated by the monuments of virtue.” A modern author also says, “It may be generally remarked, that the more nobly a mansion has been tenanted in the day of its prosperity, the viler are its inhabitants in the day of its decline. Thus, boors are the only inhabitants of Croyland, gipsies of <g>Netley</g>, while other religious houses are now possessed by the same class as that which caused their overthrow.” [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: