The Cistercians of Byland flourished greatly. Success and many gifts of houses and land came to them. Roger de Mowbray, their generous benefactor, after two journeys to Jerusalem, and after fighting and distinguishing himself in the Crusades, retreated in his old age to Byland and was buried “next his mother under a great stone.” His remains lay undisturbed till 1819, when they were disinterred and removed in a somewhat unceremonious fashion, be it said, in a box under the seat of Mr Martin Stapleton’s carriage to the church where they now rest. Byland Abbey was sacked in 1322, during the disastrous fighting which followed Edward II.’s attempt to retrieve his losses at Bannockburn. The king found himself obliged to recross the border, the Scots declining further open warfare in their own country. The Scots followed quickly and the opposing armies met very near to Byland, a little higher up the dingle and nearer Oldstead, where the English were utterly routed. In 1540 John Leeds and his twenty-four monks surrendered the vast possessions which they held in trust, and six years later, Byland was granted to Sir William Pickering, from whom it passed to Stapleton of Wighill, and later to Myton of Swale. The ruins are neglected and uncared for, and served for years as a common stone quarry from which almost every cottage in the village contains some fragments. JERVAULX (_Cistercian_) 1144, Akarius FitzBardolph, Lord of Ravensworth, grants land to Peter de Quiniacus for the purpose of establishing a religious house--1145, Alan, Earl of Richmond confirms the foundation. 1146--The community, not prospering, seeks counsel from the mother house of Savigny--1156, Building of abbey begun--1537, The last abbot, Adam Sedbergh, hung at Tyburn--1538, Abbey handed over to the King’s Commissioners and despoiled. Annual revenue, £234, 18s. 5d.--1544, Site granted to Matthew, Earl of Lennox, and afterwards to the Earls of Ailesbury--1807, Foundations revealed during excavations undertaken by the owner. The ruins of St Mary’s Abbey, which lie on a tract of level meadow land on the southern bank of the river Ure, are still surrounded by the peaceful quiet so beloved by the monks of the Cistercian order. Indeed a kind of solitude immediately strikes the beholder as being the keynote of this most harmoniously beautiful spot in Jorevalle. The sombre setting of its grey walls, more ruinous than most of those of other Yorkshire abbeys, is relieved by the deep mounting of green and by the profusion of ivy with which the walls themselves are covered.