Never Did Four Souls Enjoy Themselves More Than We On This Little
Excursion.
I could not give you an adequate idea of what we saw, or
of the pleasure we took.
Think of coming down from one of these
beautiful hills into Eskdale, or Ennesdale, of walking four miles on
the banks of Ullswater, of looking with your living eyes on Derwent
Water, Grassmere, Windermere, and many other lovely spots of which
you have seen pictures and read descriptions; and of being one in
the pleasantest party in the world, as you think, stopping where,
and when, and as long as any one pleases.
It was on this journey that I first saw a real ruin. The ruins of
Calder Abbey I had never heard of; but the impression it made upon
me I can never forget; partly, perhaps, that it was the first ruin
upon which I ever gazed. One row of the pillars of the great aisle
remains standing. The answering row is gone. Two tall arches of the
body of the main building remain also, and different pieces of the
walls. It is of sandstone; the clusters of columns in the aisle look
as if they were almost held together by the ivy and honeysuckles
that wave around their mouldering capitals with every motion of the
wind. In every crevice, the harebell, the foxglove, and innumerable
other flowers peep forth, and swing in the wind. On the tops of the
arches and walls large flowering shrubs are growing; on the highest
is a small tree, and within the walls are oak trees more than a
century old.
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