The Earl of Pembroke and the Nuns

 

This story, from Walter Scott’s Notes to his novel Rob Roy, struck me as hilarious.

 

“The nunnery of Wilton was granted to the Earl of Pembroke upon its dissolution by the magisterial authority of Henry VIII, or his son Edward VI. On the accession of Queen Mary, of Catholic memory, the Earl found it necessary to reinstall the Abbess and her fair recluses, which he did with many expressions of his remorse, kneeling humbly to the vestals, and inducting them into the convent and possessions from which he had expelled them. With the accession of Elizabeth the accommodating Earl again resumed his Protestant faith, and a second time drove the nuns from their sanctuary. The remonstrances of the Abbess, who reminded him of his penitent expressions on his former occasion, could wring from him no other answer than that in the text—‘Go spin, you jade—go spin.’”