The Stone of the Edmundsbury Monks by Matthew Phipps Shield is an account of the lives of monks in Edmundsbury. Excerpt: "'Russia,' said Prince Zaleski to me one day, when I happened to be on a visit to him in his darksome sanctuary'Russia may be regarded as the land surrounded by ocean; that is to say, she is an island. In the same way, it is a sheer gross irrelevancy to speak of Britain as an island, unless indeed the word is understood as a mere modus loquendi arising out of a rather poor geographical pleasantry. Britain, in reality, is a small continent. Near hera little to the southeastis situated the large island of Europe."