still more rare that a man of this monk's period should possess a map of Scotland. As there was nothing exceptional in the disposal of the ex-prior's goods,[51] the incident may be fairly taken as an illustration of Convent life as Colchester lived it, and we may therefore go on to notice that, putting together the sum that Excestr' left in cash and that which was realized by the sale of some of these articles, the Convent was able to pay the cost of his illness and burial; the items ranged from 2_d._ for milk to 10_s._ for the fee of the brief-writer who wrote out the formal announcement of his death on one shilling's worth of parchment for the information of other Benedictine houses, and £4 13_s._ 4_d._ for a marble slab with a memorial inscription. As Excestr' died in 1397, we may think of Abbot Colchester as saying the last words over the open grave of his former neighbour in Little Cloisters. VI ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER Our Archdeacon was not destined to remain such for any great time. On November 29, 1386, there passed away during a meal-time[52] at his manor house of la Neyte, near Westminster, our great builder, Abbot Nicholas Litlington, to whom we owe the south and west sides of the Great Cloister, the Little Cloisters, Jerusalem Chamber, the Abbot's Dining Hall, and much besides of the present Deanery, and the great Missal.[53] The vigour of Litlington's character can be realized from what we have seen of the fight which he maintained through William Colchester for the privileges of the Abbey, but Colchester must have witnessed a more remarkable proof of the old man's pluck. In the _Liber Niger_ (f. 87) there is a record to the effect that a threatened invasion of our shores by the French King in 1386 caused the Chapter of the Convent to come to the unanimous opinion that the old Abbot and two of his monks, John Canterbery and John Burgh, should don full armour and proceed as far as the coast, on the ground that it was lawful to do so for the defence of the realm.[54] It is astonishing that Litlington should have contemplated such an enterprise at his age, for we have a letter in Norman French, not dated, but clearly referring to this period, in which he excuses himself on the ground of "age et feblesse" for not coming to the Abbey "en propre persone" to bring to the King the famous ring of St. Edward. But Litlington's possession of armour cannot be doubted. There remains a schedule[55] of his effects at his death, which shows that those which passed into the hands of his successor consisted chiefly of various accoutrements, and included six hauberks; a helmet called a "pisanum"; seven others called basnetts with ventailles or vizors; a "ketelhat"; a pair of steel gloves; some "leg-harneys"; fore-braces and back-braces; and four lance-heads. [Illustration: THE PERSONAL EFFECTS OF ABBOT LITLINGTON.]