of the Hospitallers for a payment of 20 shillings annually to their Preceptory at Halston. The monastic life The Augustinian rule allowed for many different styles of religious life. Haughmond was certainly a community of Canons Regular but only a little is known about the precise interpretation of the rule that prevailed or how well it was followed. Generally, a financially solvent house was likely to have a better religious life, and Haughmond was generally well run. After the mid-14th century there were never more than 13 canons, although the size of the buildings suggests numbers were considerably greater in earlier centuries. The chronicler Gervase of Canterbury noted that the Augustinians of Haughmond were Canonici Albi, that is, white canons. The so-called white habit was probably simply of undyed wool and may reinforce suggestions that Haughmond was an independent eremitic community before it was absorbed, with all such groups, into the Augustinian order. A local chronicle notes that Haughmond adopted the typical Augustinian black habit in 1234. Augustinians were expected to observe strict protocols in contacts with outsiders, to travel only with their abbot's permission and never to sleep alone. One of the problems at Lilleshall was that canons were often forced to undertake expeditions to the outlying estates, outside direct supervision of the abbot. This was much less prevalent at Haughmond, with its more concentrated estates, although it seems there was sometimes a need for canons to stay at Nefyn, where there was a canons' house in the early 14th century. There were also facilities, including chapels, for canons and abbots to stay on some of the granges, including Leebotwood and Beobridge. As the canons were all ordained priests, they could also officiate at chapels in the extra-parochial areas to the west, although secular clergy were appointed as soon as these communities became viable. Eyton traced in detail how the chapel at Knockin evolved, under the abbey's control, into a parish church with a vicar. In the early years there were lay brothers to help in the work of the abbey, but they are never mentioned after 1190. There were, however, numerous paid officials and servants on the premises. Arrangements for food and clothing altered over the years. Initially, canons were granted an annual allowance for clothing. In 1315, the Bishop of Lichfield, Walter Langton, prohibited this practice, so Abbot Richard de Brock earmarked the revenues of Cheswardine church