This was one of the oldest abbeys in the north of England, and the mother of several of them.
Some of its walls are still as entire and perfect as those of Tintern, on the Wye.

It was founded by the monks of the St.Bernard order, in 1131, according to the historical record.

Really those black-cowled masons and carvers must have given the enthusiasm and genius of the early painters of the Virgin to these magnificent structures.

I will not go into the subject at large here, leaving it to form an entire chapter, when I have seen most of the old abbeys of the country.

In looking up at their walls, arches and columns, one marvels to see the most delicate and elaborate vine and flower-work of the carver's chisel apparently as perfect as when it engraved the last line; and this, too, in face of the frosts and beating storms of six hundred years.