Historic%20Yorkshire
Historic%20Yorkshire
Historic%20Yorkshire
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Chapter VII.<br />
BOLTON ABBEY: ITS HISTORY AND<br />
TRADITIONS.<br />
HERE are few places in this England of ours<br />
more attractive than the locality in which<br />
Bolton Abbey is situated, and the memories<br />
of the past with which that venerablepileis<br />
associated are as romantically interesting as<br />
the district is charming. The ruins of the Abbey<br />
are enclosed in a rocky dell at the village bearing<br />
the same name,and is countedamongtheprettiest resorts<br />
of picturesque Ciaven. The local, but world-known<br />
historian, Dr. Whittaker, in critically comparing the<br />
situation of Bolton Priory with that of other similar<br />
buildings, justly elevates it in point of grandeur above<br />
any other Abbey in the north. He says it has " no equal<br />
amongst the northern houses, and perhaps not in the<br />
kingdom. Fountains, as a building,is moreentire,more<br />
spacious and magnificent; but the valley of the Skell is<br />
insignificant and without features. Furness, which is<br />
more dilapidated, ranks lower still in point of situation.<br />
Kirkstall, as a mere ruin, is superior to Bolton; but<br />
though deficient in neither wood nor water, it wants the<br />
seclusion of a deep valleyand the termination of a bold<br />
rocky background. Tintern,perhaps, most resemblesit ;<br />
hereyou have rock,wood, and water inperfection,but no<br />
foreground whatever."