I saw many
interesting people, and was delighted with the strong, religious
interest in the cause of liberty, pervading all hearts. Truly it may
be said, that Wilberforce and Clarkson lighted a candle which will
never go out in England.
Monday we spent in a delightful visit to Fountains Abbey; less rich in
carvings than Melrose, but wider in extent, and of a peculiar
architectural beauty. We lunched in what _was_ the side gallery
of the refectory, where some drowsy old brother used to read the lives
of saints to the monks eating below. We walked over the graves of
abbots, and through the scriptorium, which reminded me of the
exquisite scene in the Golden Legend, of the old monk in the
scriptorium busily illuminating a manuscript.
In the course of the afternoon a telegraph came from the mayor of
Liverpool, to inquire if our party would accept a public breakfast at
the town hall before sailing, as a demonstration of sympathy with the
cause of freedom. Remembering the time when Clarkson began his career,
amid such opposition in Liverpool, we could not but regard such an
evidence of its present public sentiment as full of encouragement,
although the state of my health and engagements rendered it necessary
for me to decline.
Tuesday we parted from our excellent friends in Leeds, and soon found
ourselves once more in the beautiful Dingle; our first and our last
resting-place on English shores.
