GLEANINGS ON GARDENS. 57 



CHAPTER III. 

 ON CONVENTUAL GARDENS. 



POSSIBLY drawings of some Conventual Gardens 

 may yet be found among the papers or chartu- 

 laries of those families who now inherit some of the 

 splendid monasteries, dissolved by the tasteless and 

 savage tyranny of the monster, the bloody tyrant, 

 Henry ; temples erected for the worship of God, 

 * irresistibly impressing us with solemnity and delight, 

 and which seem intended to rival, in durability, the 

 earth on which they stand, and which, after the lapse 

 of several ages, are still unequalled, not only in point 

 of magnificence of structure, but in their tendency to 

 leave upon the soul the most deep and solemn im- 

 pressions.' These 'cloud-capp'd towers and solemn 

 temples,' are thus described by poor, deserted, ill-starr'd 

 Chatterton, and Britton has happily quoted his lines 

 as a motto to his most splendid History of York 

 Cathedral : 



' What wondrous monument ! What pyle ys thys, 

 That bynds in wonder's chayne entendemente ! 

 That doth aloof the ayrie skyen kiss, 

 And seemeth mountaynes joyned by cemente, 

 From Godde hys greete and wondrous storehouse sente.' 



