"The attainder of an abbot was understood, however rightly, by the crown
lawyers of that time, to infer a forfeiture of the house; and
accordingly, without the form of a surrender, the abbey of Whalley,
with all its appurtenances, was instantly seized into the king's hands;
and thus fell this ancient foundation.
"Fr. Thomas Holden, younger son of Gilbert Holden, of Holden, gent.,
was, in all probability, the last surviving monk. On the Dissolution he
appears to have returned to his native place. In 1550 we meet with his
name as Sir Thomas Holden, curate of Haslingden; and in 1574 he was
licensed to the same cure at the metropolitical visitation of Archbishop
Grindall, held at Preston, by the style of Thomas Holden, clerk, of
sober life and competent learning. Strange as it may seem, we find the
last surviving monk of Whalley a Protestant minister, thirty-seven years
after its dissolution!"
It was in the dark month of November, when the brown leaves are
fluttering on the ground, when the wind comes mournfully through the
bare woods, and the hollow nooks and quiet caves respond with their
mystic voice, that two travellers were seen loitering up the grand
avenue that swept nobly through the western embattled gateway of Whalley
Abbey.
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