SE C T. IV.

FROM Roche-abbey we proceeded

to

Wakefield, and from thence to Leeds, where we vifited another scene of a fimilar kind, the ruins of Kirkstall-abbey, which belong to the duke of Montague.

Three miles from Leeds, the river Aire, taking it's course in an eastern direction, paffes through a valley, which is about five miles in length, and one in breadth. The area of it is level. This form gives a sluggishness to the stream; which instead of sparkling over beds of pebbles, as the northern rivers commonly do; is adorned with reeds, and fedges, and water-lilies. The hills, which flope into the valley, defcend in different directions in fome parts they are steep; but in general their defcent is easy. Formerly,

:

when

when this valley was the retreat of folitude, all these hills were covered with wood; which formed delicious bowers in various parts, and defcending in clumps around the abbey, skreened it from inclement blafts. Now these beautiful skreens are removed: the abbey stands exposed; and the ancient limits of the woods are scarce marked by a few scattered trees. All the interval is divided into portions, and furrowed by the plough.

At the bottom of the valley, near the fouthern bank of the river, ftand the ruins of the abbey; a very large proportion of which is ftill left. Almoft the whole body of the great church remains, which feems to want little, except the roof. The tower is still intire; and the crofs aile. A variety of ruined buildings are fcattered round, the ufes of which are gueffed at, rather than ascertained. Some of them are in fufficient repair to answer modern purposes. On the south are the traces of a beautiful Gothic cloister.

With regard however to the ftile of the abbey of Kirkstall, and it's picturefque form, but little can be faid. It is composed of a fort of mixed architecture. Here and there you fee a piece of Gothic has been added;

but

but in general the Saxon heaviness prevails. The pillars in the nave are massy, and void of grace. The form too of the ruin is unpleafing. It is debafed by the commonness of it. You have merely the fhell of an old church. It is too perfect alfo. We rather wifh for that degree of dilapidation, which gives conjecture room to wander; and the imagination fome little fcope. A certain degree of obscurity adds dignity to an object.

The precincts of the abbey were formerly furrounded by a wall, (as abbeys generally were) the veftiges of which may still be traced. The circumference of the whole is about a mile, drawn round in a femicircular form; the river compleating the boundary on the fouth. In one part of this boundary, northwest of the abbey, ftands a gate, which feems to have been the grand entrance. It is yet a confiderable pile, and makes an excellent farm-house.

As we were examining the ruins, our guide pointed to a very narrow winding ftair-cafe at the west end of the church, which. led formerly to the roof. Into this stair-cafe, he told us, a cow, pushing herself probably at

first,

first, to avoid the flies, at length gained the top; and was discovered by her owner, looking through the broken arch of a window, which he fhewed us, where a narrow fhelf had formerly fupported the roof. The man had no expectation of feeing his beaft again at the bottom without broken bones; but fuch was her dexterity, that with a very little assistance, she got down by the fame narrow passage, by which he had afcended. As this story, belongs to the natural hiftory of the place, I have recorded it: but rather, I must confess, with a view to difcredit it, than to authenticate. There are so many ftories told of cows climbing up narrow ftair-cafes, among ruins, that they deftroy each other. One is told at Norwich; and I remember, at the abbey of Lanercoft in Cumberland, a cow not only got up a narrow stair-case, but rang a bell at an useasonable hour, by which she alarmed the whole neighbourhood. Why this unwieldly animal is fixed on for these feats of activity, I can assign no reason, but that it makes the story more wonderful.

From

From Leeds to Harrowgate, the landscape is seldom interefting:* but on croffing the river Need, we found ourselves in a very pleasant country. Few villages ftand more agreeably than Ripley.

The paffage over the mountains of Stainmore has very little in it that is amusing, till we come to a flat, near the close of it; where, tradition fays, Maiden-caftle formerly. stood; though no veftiges of it now remain.

From this elevated ground the eye commands a noble fweep of mountain-scenery. The hills floping down, on both fides, form a vaft bay of wide, and diftant country, which confifts of various removes, and is bounded at length by the mountains of Cumberland. The lines are elegant, and the whole picturesque, as far as a distance, inriched neither by wood, nor any other object, can be fo. The scene, tho naked, is immenfely grand. It has a good effect in it's present state, uniting a dreary distance with the dreary country, we had paffed; and the wild foreground, on which we stood. We might perhaps have a better

* See an account of this country, in vol. II. p. 204, of Observations on the lakes and mountains of Cumberland, &c.

VOL. I.

D

effect,