12 president's address. 



presents few objects of note. As to the Abbey itself, one can 

 scarcely admit the possibility of disappointment in the first view, 

 from whatever side it is taken. It would be easy to point 

 to older or to more extensive monastic remains, to ruins less 

 hardly dealt with by the ringer of time, and less injured by the 

 sacriligious hand of man, but it would be much less easy to in- 

 dicate one that so completely satisfies the eye, whether viewed 

 from a distance as part of a varied and lovely landscape, or taken 

 in detail from its own immediate precincts. 



This, the earliest Cistercian Abbey in Yorkshire, was founded 

 in 1131 by Walter Espec, baron of Helmsley, who in grief for 

 the death of his only son, vowed "to make Christ the heir to 

 a portion of his lands," and thereupon founded first Kfrkham 

 Abbey for the Augustinians, then Rievaulx for the Cistercians, 

 and lastly Warclon, in Bedfordshire, — then became himself a 

 monk in his own Abbey of Rievaulx, died, and was buried 

 there. 



The Abbey must be to some extent familiar by photographs, 

 even to those who have not visited it, but were it otherwise, it 

 would be manifestly out of my province to enter into details that 

 could not have been gathered in the short hour we were per- 

 mitted to linger about its ruins. The building lies nearly north 

 and south, a very unusual arrangement, at any rate in this 

 country, for an ecclesiastical edifice. The nave is entirely gone. 

 The lower portion of the transepts is Norman, the rest, together 

 with the choir, are early English ; whilst the triforium has both 

 circular and pointed arches. The carving is unusually rich, and 

 in parts, but little of its beautiful detail is lost. Yet perhaps 

 the most enchanting view of the Abbey is one subsequently 

 obtained from the higher ground of Dunconibe Park. The 

 end of the long terrace, in the park commands a magnificent 

 prospect of the valley of the Eye, and viewed thence, the roof- 

 less ivy-clad ruin stands as the centre of a perfect landscape. 

 The green meadows and hedgerows skirt the stream and crown 

 the nearer hills, backed in their turn by richly wooded slopes, 

 these again closed in by the rugged crests of higher Ryedalc or 

 the purple heather of Easterside Moor. Great indeed must have 



