[Illustration: RIPON MINSTER.]
Proceeding still farther northward from the charming vale of Wharfe, we
come to the valley of the Ure, which flows into the Ouse, a main
tributary of the Humber, and to the famous cathedral-town of Ripon. This
is a place of venerable antiquity, for it has been over twelve centuries
since a band of Scotch monks came from Melrose to establish a monastery
on the sloping headland above the Ure. A portion of the ancient church
then founded is incorporated in the present Ripon Minster, which was
built seven centuries ago. It was burned and partly injured by the
Scotch in the fourteenth century, and subsequently the central tower and
greater part of the nave were rebuilt. It has recently been entirely
restored. The cathedral consists of a nave, with aisles extending the
full width of the western front, and rather broad for its length; the
transepts are short. Parallel to the choir on the southern side is a
chapter-house. It is one of the smallest cathedrals in England, being
less than two hundred and ninety feet long, and other buildings so
encompass it as to prevent a good near view. There is an ample
churchyard, but the shrine of St. Wilfrid, the founder, whose relics
were the great treasure of the church, has long since disappeared. It
appears that in ancient times there was great quarrelling over the
possession of his bones, and that Archbishop Odo, declaring his grave to
be neglected, carried them off to Canterbury, but after much disputing a
small portion of the saint's remains were restored to Ripon. Beneath the
corner of the nave is the singular crypt known as Wilfrid's Needle. A
long passage leads to a cell from which a narrow window opens into
another passage. Through this window we are told that women whose virtue
was doubted were made to crawl, and if they stuck by the way were
adjudged guilty. This is the oldest part of the church, and is regarded
as the most perfect existing relic of the earliest age of Christianity
in Yorkshire. The cathedral contains some interesting monuments, one of
which demonstrates that epitaph-writing flourished in times agone at
Ripon. It commemorates, as "a faint emblem of his refined taste,"
William Weddell of Newby, "in whom every virtue that ennobles the human
mind was united with every elegance that adorns it."
[Illustration: STUDLEY ROYAL PARK.]
[Illustration: THE TRANSEPT, FOUNTAINS ABBEY.]
In the neighborhood of Ripon is the world-renowned Fountains Abbey, of
which the remains are in excellent preservation, and stand in a
beautiful situation on the verge of the fine estate of the Marquis of
Ripon, Studley Royal. The gates of this park are about two miles from
Ripon, the road winding among the trees, beneath which herds of deer are
browsing, and leading up to the mansion, in front of which is an
attractive scene. The little river Skell, on its way to the Ure, emerges
from a glen, and is banked up to form a lake, from which it tumbles over
a pretty cascade. The steep bank opposite is covered with trees. John
Aislabie, who had been chancellor of the exchequer, laid out this park
in 1720, and such repute did his ornamental works attain that Studley
was regarded as the most embellished spot in the North of England.
Ultimately, through heiresses, it passed into the hands of the present
owner. The pleasure-grounds were laid out in the Dutch style then in
vogue, and the slopes of the valley were terraced, planted with
evergreens, and adorned with statues. Modern landscape-gardening has
somewhat varied the details, but the original design remains. In the
gardens are the Octagon Tower, perched upon a commanding knoll, the
Temple of Piety, near the water-side, and an arbor known as Anne
Boleyn's Seat, which commands a superb view over Fountains Dale. Let us
enter this pretty glen, which gradually narrows, becomes more abrupt and
rocky, and as we go along the Skell leads us from the woods out upon a
level grassy meadow, at the end of which stand the gray ruins of the
famous Cistercian abbey. The buildings spread completely across the glen
to its craggy sides on either hand. On the right there is only room for
a road to pass between the transept and the limestone rock which rears
on high the trees rooted in its crannies, whose branches almost brush
the abbey's stately tower. On the other side is the little river, with
the conventual buildings carried across it in more than one place, the
water flowing through a vaulted tunnel. These buildings extend to the
bases of the opposite crags. The ruins are of great size, and it does
not take much imagination to restore the glen to its aspect when the
abbey was in full glory seven or eight hundred years ago. Its founders
came hither almost as exiles from York, and began building the abbey in
the twelfth century, but it was barely completed when Henry VIII. forced
the dissolution of the monasteries. It was very rich, and furnished rare
plunder when the monks were compelled to leave it. The close or
immediate grounds of the abbey contained about eighty acres, entered by
a gate-house to the westward of the church, the ruins of which can still
be seen. Near by is an old mill alongside the Skell, and a picturesque
bridge crosses the stream, while on a neighboring knoll are some ancient
yews which are believed to have sheltered the earliest settlers, and are
called the "Seven Sisters." But, unfortunately, only two now remain,
gnarled and twisted, with decaying trunks and falling limbs--ruins in
fact that are as venerable as Fountains Abbey itself. Botanists say they
are twelve hundred years old, and that they were full-grown trees when
the exiles from York first encamped alongside the Skell.
[Illustration: FOUNTAINS TOWER AND CRYPT.]
[Illustration: FOUNTAINS HALL.]
Entering the close, the ruins of the abbey church are seen in better
preservation than the other buildings. The roof is gone, for its
woodwork was used to melt down the lead by zealous Reformers in the
sixteenth century, and green grass has replaced the pavement. The ruins
disclose a noble temple, the tower rising one hundred and sixty-eight
feet. In the eastern transept is the beautiful "Chapel of the Nine
Altars" with its tall and slender columns, some of the clustering shafts
having fallen. For some distance southward and eastward from the church
extend the ruins of the other convent-buildings. In former times they
were used as a stone-quarry for the neighborhood, many of the walls
being levelled to the ground, but since the last century they have been
scrupulously preserved. The plan is readily traced, for excavations have
been made to better display the ruins. South of the nave of the church
was the cloister-court. On one side was the transept and chapter-house,
and on the other a long corridor supporting the dormitory. This was one
hundred yards long, extending across the river, and abutting against the
crags on the other side. South of the cloister-court was the refectory
and other apartments. To the eastward was a group of buildings
terminating in a grand house for the abbot, which also bridged the
river. All these are now in picturesque ruin, the long corridor, with
its vaulted roof supported by a central row of columns with broad
arches, being considered one of the most impressive religious remains in
England. One of the chief uses to which the Fountains Abbey stone-quarry
was devoted was the building, in the reign of James I., of a fine
Jacobean mansion as the residence for its then owner, Sir Stephen
Proctor. This is Fountains Hall, an elaborate structure of that period
which stands near the abbey gateway, and to a great extent atones, by
its quaint attractiveness, for the vandalism that despoiled the abbey to
furnish materials for its construction. In fact, the mournful reflection
is always uppermost in viewing the remains of this famous place that it
would have been a grand old ruin could it have been preserved, but the
spoilers who plundered it for their own profit are said to have
discovered, in the fleeting character of the riches thus obtained, that
ill-gotten gains never prosper.