Principal Patterns of the Roman Floors at Fountains Abbey, from a print by Wm. Fowler of Winterton “ 72 The Abbey from the South-East (photogravure) “ 80 The Abbey from the South-West (photogravure) “ 96 Fountains Hall (photogravure) “ 128 Plan of the Precinct _The End_ [These plans are derived from the _Yorkshire Archæological Journal_ vol. xv.] ERRATA Plate facing page 52. _For_ “The Cloisters” _read_ “The Cellarium” Page 9, lines 3 and 13. _For_ “Rievaux” _read_ “Rievaulx” CHAPTER I THE BEGINNING The first Fountains Abbey was a forest tree. In the days of the simple beginning, the brethren ate and slept and said their prayers under an elm which stood in the middle of the valley. The elm lived into the eighteenth century, and toward the end of its life was made to divide its honours with a group of venerable yews. Some said that the monks found their first shelter under the yews. But Serlo settled the matter, hundreds of years ago, in favour of the elm. _Ulmus_, he said, _Ulmus erat vallis in medio, lignum frondosum_. The yews were there, however, in the first days, and one or two of them are still surviving. They are propped up on either hand, like an old man leaning on his staff; but they live. The elm has wholly disappeared. Mr. Walbran’s maternal great-grandfather remembered “the stump of an enormous elm tree in the last stage of decay, which was called ‘the Fountain’s elm.’” It stood “between the river Skell and the stream from Stank’s pond, not far from the eastern boundary of the Abbey site.” But the smooth turf covers the place. Only the yews look down from their gentle hill upon the broken walls. There they were when the monks came, a little adventurous company, to begin their life of seclusion and prayer. Their leaves were green when the Abbey rose in splendour, and mitred abbots walked in their shadow. They saw the expulsion of the convent and the ruin of the monastery. They are a symbol of the persistence of the quiet, elemental forces amidst our human chance and change. The monks of Fountains Abbey belonged to the Cistercian Order.