6 



ashgill; or, the life 



Ailesbur}''s family into the present ownership of Lord 

 Masham. 



Still another abbey adjacent to the town is that of 

 Coverham, almost within rifle shot of the home of the 

 Osbornes, romantically situated on the bank of the 

 Cover, a stream which at times is flooded into a torrent. 

 This ecclesiastical ruin — an exquisite remnant of the 

 " Catholic clay " in England — has been subject to acts 

 of vandalism, even in modern times, revealing a dis- 

 regard to the architectural genius of the thirteenth and 

 fourteenth centuries, apart from any consideration of 

 Christian sentiment, pardonable only in a heathenish 

 country. Nay, the poor heathen could not be guilty of 

 like desecration, for he holds in religious avre his 

 shrines of worship. 



Environed in a charming variety of scenery, 

 Middleham, apart from its rich historical interest, its 

 traces of decaying archaeological grandeur, and its Turf 

 associations, is, indeed, a favoured territory of the North 

 Eiding. Its surrounding hills, vestmented in purple 

 heather, form a habitat for the toothsome grouse, 

 many a crag harbours its tribute of black game. 

 Its vales, clad with verdant, luxuriant herbage, 

 continuously watered by the Yore or the Cover, yield 

 the richest of pasture for sheep and cattle, and 

 spread themselves in ample plenitude before the 

 eye, revealing a land veritably flowing with milk and 

 honey. Dull, indeed, Avould be the soul that did not 

 dehgiit itself on these fair mosaics, these fairy scenes, 

 teeming with hoary legends of Saxon and Danish rule 

 in bvp'one centuries, of manv acts of benevolence 

 emanating from the noble charities of Jervaulx and 

 Coverham long before the period of the Eeformation. 



