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324
ESROM.
Chap. XXI.
And now we approach Esrom. There stands the old
black jail, and the antique farmhouse, whitewashed, once
her kloster. Our horses stop to water ; so we walk
down to the farmyard gates, and, in defiance of the
opposition of two furious watch-dogs, enter the court.
Esrom was mother church to Sorø and also to others
in the island of Rugen. Few and slight are the
re-mains of her former glory. A convent of Cistercians of
Clairvaux, founded by Archbishop Eskild in the 12th
century, it stood high in rank among the klosters of
Zealand. Here Queen Hedvig found her last
resting-place, and two of the ill-fated offspring (Magnus and
Erik) of Erik Menved and Queen Ingeborg.
After the Reformation the lands fell to the Crown;
the materials of the church were used by that ruthless
destroyer King Frederic for the construction of
Frederiksborg. I observed a stone inserted in the wall
bearing his cipher, F, encircled by the serpentine S
(Frederic and Sophia), surmounted by a crown, the
date 1569, a sort of Protestant seal he placed upon
all ecclesiastical buildings which came into his
possession. Another, later, of Christian V., 1697: he
repaired the outhouses, and wished the world to be
aware of the fact. Some ancient iron cramps in the
wall, fleur-de-lisé in honour of Mary, were all that
remained of Roman Catholic times: the carved chairs
of its abbots are preserved in the museum at
Copenhagen. Then out came the proprietor, Councillor
––-, and, politely carrying a lantern, showed us the
underground crypt, vaulted and supported on columns,
which undermines the whole building and keeps it dry in
this watery neighbourhood, and the worthy fathers from
rheumatic pains and ague. He took us into his garden
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