This abbey, indeed, stands on just such a spot as sagacious men, considering how best they might enjoy this world's comforts, would select;--a gentle stream, an ample supply of water, a warm situation, extensive meadow and pasture land, sheltered from keen blasts by woods and rising hills.  The monastery was built, we are told, in the time of King John, by a number of Cistercian monks.  A monkish legend, which, like most other monkish legends, is probably false, asserts that the abbots of that order being summoned by the king to Lincoln, expected to receive some benefit, instead of which the savage monarch ordered them to be trodden to death by horses.  None of his attendants were willing, however, to execute his cruel command.  That night the king dreamed that he was standing before a judge, accompanied by these abbots, who were commanded to scourge him with rods.  On awakening he still felt the pain of his flagellation; and being advised by his father-confessor to make amends for his intended cruelty, he immediately granted the abbots a charter for the foundation of the abbey.