Historic%20Yorkshire

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