Amazing Mount Grace

Mount Grace is an ancient treasure in all realities. It was a Charterhouse, or Carthusian monastery. That's a religious order of Catholic monks, founded in 1084 just outside Grenoble, France. From that original monastery, the Grande Chartreuse - yes, where the liqueur comes from - other houses (branch offices, if you like) were founded by powerful pious men across Europe. They were built over the following centuries, often in quite harsh environments, which fitted in with the ethos of this particular form of worship. The wealthy and royally-connected Thomas de Holland financed Mount Grace in the one of the wildest parts of England, the North Yorkshire moors. 

The year was 1398, the era of  The Canterbury Tales, the Peasant's Revolt,  and the Hundred Years War - great for fiction, but less fun if you want political stability, or to grow old in peace. Within two years of founding Mount Grace, Thomas and most of his allies were dead. The monastery survived this early setback, however, and thrived for several centuries until - well, the answer to that is on the sim.

Not only the real Mount Grace has had to face setbacks and changes. This build by Christi Maeterlinck has had iterations as grids and hosts come and go. This build first appears in the HG Safari blog back in 2011   after a time on NWG, it moved to OSGrid, and more recently found a home on Science Circle grid, where it's on a 4x4 VAR giving plenty of space to convey the wooded uplands of North Yorkshire, and the large land holdings - fields, fish ponds, and woods - that provided wealth and sustenance for the religious house. The current HG Address is, of course, at the end of the post.

Christii Maeterlinck: It's good to have a home for Mount Grace after years of wandering in different servers and grids. strictly speaking, I'm here because the person who runs this grid, has made it available to the Science Circle members; and I happen to have joined Science Circle; I suppose it'll attract the sort of people who belong to the Science Grid... and they're a very varied bunch. 

In Medieval times, communal living was a familiar concept. The Great Hall of any manor house in England would be used as a meeting place, a court of law, a muster station in times of trouble, but it also served as a giant dining room, and as a dormitory for the local Lord's men and servants. Most monasteries operated on a similar basis, but the Carthusian way of life was different. They took their cue from the Early Christian hermits, who lived in contemplative isolation, and considered dealing with extreme weather conditions, hot and cold, as part of their worship.

 That's why Mount Grace has all the little houses with gardens where monks from affluent families could live alone, while in a community. In a weird way, a sort of allegory of opensim, perhaps. All those little grids. Although I'm not sure where their medieval flushing toilets fits into the trope.

Christii Maeterlinck, dressed as a Carthusian monk

Christii Maeterlinck: I came into SL and did the usual thing for a couple of years; learned prim building; and decided that Mount Grace would make a good project, once I found a grid I could afford. I was in SL to express myself in ways I can't in RL: and that's sill important to me. Mount Grace remains as a very satisfying way of commemorating the RL site where we used to take the kids for picnics when they were small (we lived close to the real Mount Grace then) and now that I've retired: and they've grown up, Its been good to revive it I just wish I knew how to building Mesh! 

The build has a strong and very detailed didactic element, and if you collect all the notecards, you'll come away with a very complete knowledge of the monastery and its history. The information - in both English and French - is provided in bite-sized portions. Just click on the low stones with a hover text, and learn about the part of the build you are enjoying. Here, for example, we're at the entrance gate, the stone tells you how to get into the building and gives get just enough information to make you hunt for the next stone, and the next bit of the story.

Tour the build, from stone to stone

These notecards add up to a complete 'book' on Mount Grace, and Christii has also made two Slideshows - one that illustrates the history of the RL location, and one that shows how she built it - very complete! Ask her for the link, they are worth examining.

Cristii Maeterlinck, in monk form, in the Garth, one of the many enclosed areas of the Priory.

Christii Maeterlinck: I had a LOT of help 12 years ago when I was building the sim, from English Heritage - full site plans, RL collaboration etc, and I would LOVE it if they would promote this sim to their RL members.

The eighteen or so monks who lived and worshipped in the independent cells of the Priory are, of course, only part of the story, and Christii's build represents all the rest of life at Mount Grace. Travelers, rich and poor, could take advantage of the hospitality of the religious house, for themselves and their animals.  Administrators and servants and ordinary brothers would have their hands full in this enormous 'machine' - part farm, part hotel, part center of power in the area.

Work would be done - spinning thread, as shown here, bee keeping, animal husbandry, forestry, fishing, and of course harvesting, milling, storing, and selling grain. On top of that, repairs and improvements to the building fabric would be constantly needed in this harsh environment - don't miss the Notecard that explains about the crane, it's fascinating!

There are lots of spaces to explore in this build, from the large open spaces where you can imagine the work of the farming side of life would be carried on, to the cloisters, where you can imagine the monks shivering a bit on drafty wintery days...

...to the more intimate rooms, where more intellectual activities would go on in austere rooms with few furnishings. 

Not to mention some eatin' and drinkin' - what Priory would be complete without that?

A small tour group samples the interiors at Mount Grace

Whether you're in the mood for a full-on learning experience, or just here to soak up the atmosphere, this is a great build to visit. 

And after you've seen this reconstruction, take a moment to google some images of RL  Mount Grace Priory today - you will have the strange feeling of having gone back in time, in the virtual world, to a place that the real world can no longer show you. It's bliss.

HG Address:
Due to some Hypergrid technical issue, jump first to the welcome area using this address

hg.sciencecircle.org:8002   

then look for  the region Mount Grace on your Map