Historic%20Yorkshire

BOLTON ABBEY.
the windows of the choir, with their matchless stone
tracery, were filled with beautiful stained glass; when
the numerous marble altar tombs yet retained all their
freshness unmarred by the puritanical hand of the
destroyer; and when the banners and other armorial
insignia of the good and the great of a bygone generation
— the Cliffords, the Romellis, the Meschines, the Mauleverers,
the Claphams,and the Nortons — hung from the
lofty roof, very beautiful must have been the scene which
presented itselfon some solemn festival or Saints'day, as
the monks, with torch and banneret and crucifix, walked
in solemn procession round the Abbey, while one of
those angel-boy'svoices, which we still sometimeshearin
cathedrals,chanted thesolemnlitany, which was ever and
anon lostamidst the swellof ' Ona,ona pro noblis.' But
a holier,because a more scriptural, form of worship has
long superseded the gorgeous ceremonials of the old
ritual. The prayersto theSaints — to the blessed Michael,
the archangel — to the holyApostles, Peterand Paul, and
all the holyangels, have givenplace to prayers to Him
alone through whom we obtain remission of our sins;
the fasts, penances, and genuflections, the adoration of
saints and images, to the worship of the invisible God,
who sitteth over all from the beginning, and in whose
sight the nations of the earth arebut as the small dust of
the balance."
The Canons of Bolton were celebrated as students of
astronomy, alchemy, and astrology; such a seclusion
couldnot fail to be the congenial home of patient study
and laborious inquiry.
51