DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61904#0015
BOLTON PRIORY.
3
often prevails amongft them now. This was the genuine
Dryafduft fyftem, by which you got the bare bones of the chief
faCts, and nothing but the bare bones ; no flelh, no mufcle, no
fkin, no beautifying colour and life. Topographers till the time
of fuch men as Surtees of Durham, Whitaker the hiftorian of
Craven, Baker of Northampton, etc., feemed to imagine that
nothing was worthy of record but the drieft faCts and gene-
alogies. All thofe environments of fcenery which are the
life-blood of every place, were left out, and inftead of a living
prefence we were prefented with a corpfe. Who would imagine
that in Bolton we had one of the moft charming fpots, mingling
the lovelieft art with the lovelieft nature that England or any
other country can fhow ? Whitaker, with a different fenfe of
the unities which conftitute the actuality of a place, fays that
for piCturefque effect the fite of this Bolton Priory has no
equal amongft northern houfes, and perhaps none in England.
But let us look a little at the ruins of the priory before taking
in the whole piCture. The ruins, furrounded and mingled with
magnificent trees, prefent a moft exquifite combination of
towers, lofty broken arches and gables, with projections and
windows of moft varied charatfter, draped with ivy, and ftanding
on its low green fward in a noble monaftic folemnity. The dif-
ferent portions of the building difplay every fucceflive ftyle from
the Norman down to the decorated, the final order of Anglo-
Gothic. It is evident at a glance that it has been the work of
fucceflive hands, and fucceflive ages. To comprehend the
whole the vifitor muft examine the details for himfelf. We
are told that Alice de Romeli,—in 1151, thirty-one years after
the period of the foundation,— who had married William Fitz-
Duncan, nephew to David king of Scotland, gave this rich and
fheltered fpot to the monks in exchange for the more bleak and
expofed eftates of Skipton and Embfey : and that it was on a
3
often prevails amongft them now. This was the genuine
Dryafduft fyftem, by which you got the bare bones of the chief
faCts, and nothing but the bare bones ; no flelh, no mufcle, no
fkin, no beautifying colour and life. Topographers till the time
of fuch men as Surtees of Durham, Whitaker the hiftorian of
Craven, Baker of Northampton, etc., feemed to imagine that
nothing was worthy of record but the drieft faCts and gene-
alogies. All thofe environments of fcenery which are the
life-blood of every place, were left out, and inftead of a living
prefence we were prefented with a corpfe. Who would imagine
that in Bolton we had one of the moft charming fpots, mingling
the lovelieft art with the lovelieft nature that England or any
other country can fhow ? Whitaker, with a different fenfe of
the unities which conftitute the actuality of a place, fays that
for piCturefque effect the fite of this Bolton Priory has no
equal amongft northern houfes, and perhaps none in England.
But let us look a little at the ruins of the priory before taking
in the whole piCture. The ruins, furrounded and mingled with
magnificent trees, prefent a moft exquifite combination of
towers, lofty broken arches and gables, with projections and
windows of moft varied charatfter, draped with ivy, and ftanding
on its low green fward in a noble monaftic folemnity. The dif-
ferent portions of the building difplay every fucceflive ftyle from
the Norman down to the decorated, the final order of Anglo-
Gothic. It is evident at a glance that it has been the work of
fucceflive hands, and fucceflive ages. To comprehend the
whole the vifitor muft examine the details for himfelf. We
are told that Alice de Romeli,—in 1151, thirty-one years after
the period of the foundation,— who had married William Fitz-
Duncan, nephew to David king of Scotland, gave this rich and
fheltered fpot to the monks in exchange for the more bleak and
expofed eftates of Skipton and Embfey : and that it was on a