The first, who is good-looking and a respectable old man of about sixty-five years, showed me over the house and grounds, which occupied two hours, for I was anxious to examine everything.

But never was I more disappointed, for my notions, I suppose, had been raised to the romantic.

I had surmised the possibly easy restoration of this once famous abbey, the mere skeleton of which is now fast crumbling to ruin.

Lord Byron's immediate predecessor stripped the whole place of all that was splendid and interesting; and you may judge of what he must have done to the mansion when inform you that he converted the ground, which used to be covered with the finest trees, like a forest, into an absolute desert.

Not a tree is left standing, and the wood thus shamefully cut down was sold in one day for L60,000.