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Page 124:-
shadows flung, short and sharp, on the sward, and to catch
the burnish of the ivy, and woo the shade of the avenue: and
in the evening, it is charming to see how the last glow in
the west brings out the projections and recesses of the
ruins, and how the golden moon hangs over the eastern mass
of tree tops, ready to take her turn in disclosing the
beauties of the monastic retreat.
The Abbey is carefully preserved, and liberally laid open to
strangers by Capt. Irwin. It is no fault of his that his
house, a plain substantial modern dwelling, stands too near
the ruins. He did not build it; so there is nothing personal
in the natural wish of strangers that it stood somewhere
else.
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At the gate the carriage is waiting, and it takes the cross
road, almost opposite the gate, up to Cold Fell. The drive
over that fell is commonly called dreary; and it is so in
bad weather: but it has its charms. The sea-view is fine,-
all flecked with cloud shadows as with islands: and the wide
down sprinkled with sheep, that look as ragged as terriers,
after tearing their fleeces with the furze and brambles with
which the swelling slopes are embossed. In a hollow, at rare
intervals, stands a farm-house, under the ordinary sycamore
canopy; and far away, between the slopes of the down below,
the soil is cut up into fields, with woods hanging above;
and at the mouth of the vale, between it and the coast,
stands Egremont, a little town of 1,500 inhabitants or so,
and which certainly looks very pretty from the uplands;- and
cheerful too, in spite of its Roman name,- (the Mount of
Sorrow.) It is distinguished by Roman traditions. It was at
the
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