170 CALDER ABBEY. 



a Norman noble. The church was small, as the 

 scanty remains show; and the monastery, which 

 now looks like a continuation of the same buildins", 

 could not have contained a numerous company. 

 From the fragments of effigies preserved, it appears 

 that some eminent persons were buried here ; but 

 who these knights and nobles were there is no 

 record that can tell, — carefully as these memorials 

 were wrought to secure the immortality of this 

 world. The eye is first fixed by the remains of 

 the tower, from whose roofless summit dangles the 

 the tufted ivy, and whose base is embossed by the 

 small lilac blossoms of the antirrhinum ; but at last 

 the great charm is found in an aisle of clustered 

 pillars. Almost the whole aisle is standing, still 

 connected by the cornice and wall which supported 

 the roof. The honeysuckle and ivy climb till they 

 fall over on the other side. There is a sombre 

 corner where the great ash grows over towards the 

 tower, making a sort of tent in the recess. There 

 are niches and damp cells in the conventual range. 

 It is a small ruin, but thoroughly beautiful : and 

 when the stranger looks and listens, as he stands 

 in the green level between woods, he will feel how 

 well the monks knew how to choose their dwelling- 

 places, and what it must have been to the earnest 

 and pious among these Cistercians to pace the 

 river bank, and to attune their thoughts to the 

 unceasing music of the Calder flowing by. In the 

 broad noon it is a fine thing to see the shadows 

 flung, short and sharp, on the sward, and to catch 

 the burnish of the ivy, and woo the shade of the 

 avenue : and, in the evening, it is charming to see 

 how the last glow in the west brings out the pro- 



