burgess. There were in fact two other persons of the name of Clowne living at Leicester in the early part of the 14th century. At any rate the Abbot was distinguished, like the burgess, not only for great business ability, but also for a generous hospitality and good nature. Henry of Knighton calls him "humanissimus," and the list of his benefactions to the Abbey is a long one. He obtained from the King a dispensation freeing the Abbey from the unprofitable duty of sending representatives up to Parliament; and he also procured exemption from payment of a heriot on an Abbot's death. He added considerably to the rent-roll of the rich monastery, and never seems to have gone to law without winning his case. He rebuilt the Abbey Gates and the Abbot's Hall, and spent a large sum on the Church. The monks were grateful to him for changing their black shoes for strong and useful boots, and he also obtained for them from the Pope a grant of liberty to eat white meat during the season of Advent. Clowne was a friend of the second Earl Henry, Duke of Lancaster, who made him an executor of his will. When the Duke died, in 1361, he was still a comparatively young man, and it is likely that he had derived great help from the experienced Abbot in framing the regulations for his College in the Newarke, the first witness to the Statutes drawn up for that purpose being William de Clowne. The Earl gave him a license to impark the woods of his Abbey, and made him a present of some deer from Leicester Forest; and when Clowne entertained Edward III at the Abbey in 1363 the King gave him a license for holding a Dog-show, or Market for Greyhounds, within the Abbey walls. "He obtained a market for greyhounds and all kinds of dogs for hunting," wrote Henry of Knighton, "in which sports he frequently accompanied the King, princes and great lords: but he would privately tell his friends that he took no other delight in these sports but to gain opportunity to insinuate with those great men for some advantage to his house." The market was never established.
A month or two after his death Sir Ralph Basset of Sapcote, who had made him an executor of his will, executed a deed founding a charity in Sapcote Church, for two chaplains to pray
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