A Visit to the Monastery of La Trappe in 1817

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e ingenuity of pious but morbid enthusiasm can inflict upon itself. The abstinence practised at La Trappe allows not the use of meat, fish, eggs, or butter; and a very limited quantity of bread and vegetables. They only eat twice a day; which meals consist of a slender repast at about eleven in the

s if he alone existed in the Monastery. None but the Père Abbé knows the name, age, rank, or even the native country of any member of the community: every one, at his first entrance, assumes another name, as I before observed, and with his former appellation, each is supposed to abjure, not only the world, but every recollec

kind did these people receive, that the death of Louis XIV. was not known there for years, except by the Father Abbé; and such was their state of seclusion, that a Nobleman having taken a journey of five hundred miles, purposely to see the Monastery, could

services, public and private, until seven in the morning, according to the regulations of the week, as exemplified in the "Table pour l'Office Divin." At this hour they g

nate James the Second. His first visit was on the 20th November, 1690, wher

o rest for an hour: they are then summoned into the garden, where they again work until three; then read again for three quarters of an hour, and retire for another quarter to the

piece of black bread, with a jug of water, constituted their solitary meal. A Monk, during the whole time, read sentences from Scripture; and a small hand-bell filled up the intervals of his silence, and proclaimed

bbé de Rancé, which, at the destruction of the Monastery, had been preserved by the surgeon of the ancient fraternity, who continued to reside there until the period of his death, four or five years since. This person was greatly respected by all the people round the country, and resorted to by all who sought relief either from sickness or misery!--Had the other brothers followed his example of remaining, in all probability their Convent might have been spared, for

ting with a book before him, in which he appears to be writing; on the same table, before him,

OUTTHILLIER

bre Abbé Réforma

ès de 77 ans, et d

e péni

uilt to accomplish a vow, made in the peril of shipwreck. In commemoration of this circumstance, the roof was made in the shape of the bottom of a ship inverted. It was founded under the auspices of Saint Bernard, the first Abbot of Clairvaux, the celebrated preacher i

ing his journey, she was seized with a fever and died. Totally ignorant of the circumstance, he approached the house under cover of the night, and got into her apartment through the window. The first object he beheld was the coffin which contained the body of his beloved mistress! It had been made of lead, b

ension, and it is curious to peruse the steps by which he effected so wonderful a change;[2] and how men could ever feel

e, La Maison-Dieu Notre Dame de La

to traverse the woods. The neighbourhood shrunk with terror from the approach of men who never went abroad unarmed, and whose excursions were marked with bloodshed and violence. The Banditti of La Trappe was the appellation

of ruffians, every one of whom was bent on his destruction. With undaunted boldness, he began by proposing the strictest reform, and

elpenninck of Dom. Claude Lancelot's Narrative, published in 1667. The present regu

hed in the pan, and missed fire. By the good providence of God all these plans were frustrated, and M. de Rancé not only brought his reform to bear, but several of his most violent persecutors became his most stedfast adherents;

country, at the time of the French Revolution, when they shared the fate of dissolution with the various religious orders in France. On that occasion many of them sought an asylum in England, and were settled in Dorsetshire, where they received the kind protection and benevol

quested he would be seated, but he observed that it was not proper for him to be so. His manners and general deportment bespoke him a well-bred gentleman; and when I ventured to ask if I might make a memorandum of his name, he bowed his head with meekness and resignation, and said, "I have now no other but that which was bestowed on me when I took the vow, which severs me f

La Trappe, J

visited the Con

ce of the Grand

introduction from

Mortagne, I w

ed by Frère Charle

ssible that I can

hospitable recepti

expressions in wr

has made an imp

ed! If these wort

world for the solit

ve not forgotten, in

and benignity

devotion meet w

ceived when I first entered it, and the whole circumstances of my visit, I am conscious of retaining while "Memory holds her seat."

t, séjour pur

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ternel de foli

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charmer mes ennu

esprit au bord d

sée au milieu

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s monts, et là,

en Dieu ma joie

P.

VENT OF THE CHARTREUSE.--FO

is road, so bad that it scarcely deserves the name, a great distance is saved, but the romantic scenery of the approach to La Trappe is lost. The one we took through the forest of Bellegarde more than doubles the distance; but the Abbey is seen as in t

came to the edge bounding that part of the Vale by which it is approached, in the direction we had taken. It was very considerably out of our way, owing to the guide having mistaken his road and turned to the left instead of the right. After resting a few minutes on the brow of the hill, we began our descent by a steep and narrow pathway. When we were midway down the glen, the ruins of the ancient Chartreuse suddenly burst upon the view! At this moment all the terrors of the declivity, and the momentary expectation

of the GATEWAY of the

ression on my feelings. Those who have never traversed the forests of this country can form but a very imperfect idea of what they are, or of the death-like awful stillness that reigns within them; for many miles together they form a dense shade, which, like a dar

ed me the Val-Dieu property was purchased at the dissolution of the Monastery by the present proprietor, who resided at Paris, and allowed him, being his friend, to occupy that part of the building which had not been de

icle, not even leaving his wife a change of linen. The numerous accounts I have heard from people of respectability and loyalty, of the treatment experienced from the Prussians, excites the greatest regret that they were n

undary wall, still entire, must have been of prodigious extent. M. Boderie informed me, that the plan, of which he had seen an engraving, showed it to have been one of the most considerable in the kingdom: some idea may be formed of its former celebrity and extent by the remains of six hundred f

(over the great entrance) is still in excellent preservation, and appears to be finely executed: it is the figure of the Vir

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