402 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



old Abbey and its coeval church are situated. We 

 felt that the time was propitious : 



" He that would view such ruins aright, 



Must visit them by the pale moonlight, 



When the broken arches are black in night, 



And each shafted oriel glimmers white ; 



When buttress and buttress alternately 



Seem framed of ebon and ivory ; 



When silver edges the imagery, 

 And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die." 



There is something deeply solemn in walking 

 through an ancient churchyard at such an hour, 

 more especially in one so far removed above the busy 

 turmoil of the town beneath as we pace to and fro 

 over the stones once trodden by the feet which now 

 repose beneath them. Upon the present occasion 

 everything combined to attach solemnity to the scene 

 more especially the death-like silence, unbroken, 

 but rendered still more impressive by the low mur- 

 muring of the waves, which, at an awful depth below, 

 approached the ruin-decorated cliff. 



Wandering along in this contemplative mood, hap- 

 pening to raise our eyes in the direction of the Abbey, 

 judge of our astonishment at seeing right before us, 

 standing in the air, the figure of its saintly foundress, 

 Lady Hilda a mitred abbess, with two fingers raised 

 as in the attitude of blessing Whitby ! 



Now we are not easily startled; but it must be 

 confessed, an apparition so extraordinary and so un- 

 expected was calculated at least to astonish the be- 

 holder, and we certainly gazed upon this remarkable 

 vision with no ordinary feelings of amazement. 



