The ruined abbeys of Yorkshire . and asmaller side by side, may be seen within the vaultedpassage, and the whole space is spanned, by a pointedarch, beneath which, more perhaps from waywardfancy than for constructive reasons, is a single semi-circular order. It is needless to say that local tradition clingsfondly and confidently to the myth of a secret pass-age. Such a tradition attaches to all monastic ruinsin Yorkshire, and probably elsewhere ; and it is atonce almost cruel and absolutely futile to insist onthe identity of this romantic cavern with the simple * The peculiar nature of the gro
The ruined abbeys of Yorkshire . and asmaller side by side, may be seen within the vaultedpassage, and the whole space is spanned, by a pointedarch, beneath which, more perhaps from waywardfancy than for constructive reasons, is a single semi-circular order. It is needless to say that local tradition clingsfondly and confidently to the myth of a secret pass-age. Such a tradition attaches to all monastic ruinsin Yorkshire, and probably elsewhere ; and it is atonce almost cruel and absolutely futile to insist onthe identity of this romantic cavern with the simple * The peculiar nature of the ground had obviously suggestedthe erection of a range of three-storey buildings on the low levelnext the river, and I am at present inclined to think that thedormitory of the canons, which was certainly not at the eastside of the cloister, was so contrived as to be in immediate jux-taposition, though absolutely without communication with thesleeping accommodation for middle-class guests. Several de-tails are in favour of this Easby and Egglcston. 57 but efficacious arrangement for drainage which sooften affords a valuable clue to the whole ground-plan of a monastic ruin. From Easby the mysteriouscommunication is said to have been with St. MartinsPriory, at Richmond, once a cell of St. Marys Abbey,at York. The presence, within two miles of Easby, of thisdesecrated remnant, as well as of the more importantremains of the Church of the Grey Friars, may serveto remind us how many phases of the religious lifegathered at different times around the grim majestyof the great Norman keep. It has been necessary Richmond to Greta, to Brignall Bank, to Rokeby, andto Eggleston. It is poetry that so lightly overleapsthe twelve or fourteen intervening miles, and it is notthe too-hackneyed Pegasus of Walter Scott, but agenuine fifteenth-century ballad of The grizeliestbeast that ever mote be. The fruitless efforts of thegood Franciscans to bring this beest of pryce aliveto Richmond have been
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1883
