240 



John Power was the last Abbot ; he surrendered in the 31st, Henry VIII. 



The Abbey itself is stated to have been rebuilt in 1447. It was granted, with 

 aU its lands and appurtenances, 27th Augnst, 18 Eliz., 1605, in capite to Anthony 

 Collcough, at the annual rent of £26 4s., Iris.li money. 



No other abbey in the kingdom has probably attracted half the attention 

 that has been bestowed on Tintern. It is the most beautiful of all our Gothic 

 monuments, and the situation is one of the most sequestered and delightful. One 

 more abounding in that peculiar kind of scenery which ex'cites the mingled sensa- 

 tions of content, religion, and enthusiasm, it is impossible to behold. Every arch 

 infuses solemn energy, as it were, into inanimate nature, and it is altogether the 

 most picturesque ruin of a monastic edifice with which we are acquainted. 



It seems to have become a ruin rapidly. It was stripped of its lead during 

 the wars of Charles I. and the Commonwealth (1650). For a century afterwards 

 it was treated as a stone quarry, and Gilpin, writing in 1782, gives a frightful pic- 

 ture of the state to which the glorious pile had been subjected, and the utter 

 misery of the neighbouring inhabitants, literally a population of beggars. 



All writers are warm in praise of the exceeding beauty of the ruins of 

 Tintern, less of the exterior however than the interior. Roscoe says, "Roofed 

 only by the vault of heaven, paved only with the grass of earth, Tintern is pro- 

 bably now more impressive and truly beautiful than when with storied windows 

 richly dight, for nature has claimed her share in its adornment, and what painter 

 of glass, or weaver of tapestry, may be matched with her." 



The singularly light and elegant eastern window, vnth its one tall mullion 

 ramifying at the top and leaving the large open spaces beneath to admit the dis- 

 tant landscape, is one chief feature in Tintern. The western window is particu- 

 larly rich in adornment, and those of the two transepts of like character, though 

 less elevated. 



Thus also writes Gilpin, "When we stood at one end of this awful piece of 

 ruin, and surveyed the whole in one view, the elements of air and earth, its only 

 covering and pavement, and the grand and venerable window in which it termi- 

 nated, both perfect enough to form the perspective, yet broken enough to destroy 

 the regularity, the eye was delighted above measure with the beauty, the great- 

 ness, and the novelty of the scene. " 



The Abbey is a cruciform structure, consisting of a nave, north and south 

 aisles, transepts and choir. Its length from east to west is 228 feet, and from 

 north to south at the transepts 150 feet. 



The nave and choir are 37 feet in breadth, the height of the central arch 

 70 feet, of the smaller arches 30 feet, of the east window 64 feet, and the west vwn- 

 dow 42 feet. The total area originally enclosed by the Abbey walls is said to have 

 been 34 acres. These walls may now be easily traced, and some of the de- 

 pendent buildings are yet in a good state of preservation. In one of them the 

 custodian of the Abbey lives. The four lofty arches which supported the tower 



