Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Coucher Book of the Cistercian Abbey of Kirkstall, in the West Riding County of York
The contents of the volume, as will be seen from the following pages, present a very mixed appearance. The first design was sufficiently simple. The book was to be a record of the muniments by virtue of which the house held its various possessions. The deeds were copied in sections arranged topographically. The original writer generally commenced transcribing, at the top of a page, the charters relating to a particular vill (or several vills grouped under one name), and when he had copied all the deeds connected with that vill, or group, which he considered it necessary to include, he usually left a certain space blank for the insertion of subsequent grants, and then commenced again with the charters of another place. But in after years the original design was not adhered to, and the blank spaces were gradually filled up with various miscellaneous entries, ranging from a Papal Bull to a medical recipe. The greater part, however, Of these later entries are transcripts Of documents connected with the rather numerous law proceedings indulged in by the monks.
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