Journey 7
John Leland
St Michael’s Mount
How many Tudor monasteries remain?
St Michael’s Mount is an impressive structure that has stood the test of time. The monastery that Leland saw is still there, but it’s one of the few that is.
Of the 650 monasteries dissolved by Henry VIII, a third have left no trace at all and a further third just a handful of walls. Leland was recording a vanishing world, but he couldn’t have guessed how quickly and how utterly it would go.