“There stood a lone and ruined fane Midst wood and rock a deep recess Of still and shadowy loneliness; Long grass its pavement had o’ergrown, Wild flower waved o’er altar stone, The night wind rocked the tottering pile As it swept along the roofless aisle; For the forest boughs and the stormy sky Were all that Minster’s canopy.” Though of the Abbey church only the foundations are left, some portions of the other monastic buildings still remain. Thanks to the care and skill shown during the excavations undertaken by the Earl of Ailesbury in 1807, a good idea may easily be gained of the plan of a Cistercian house by any intelligent visitor to the ruins, there being, in the opinion of some, no monastic ruin presenting so complete a ground plan as Jervaulx. The church is cruciform, measures 270 feet in length and consists of a nave of ten bays with aisles, a choir of four bays, transepts with eastern aisles of two bays, and a Lady chapel. What remains of the bases of the piers in the nave indicates that the style of this was Early English. It contains many memorials, chiefly slabs, and all in a more or less mutilated condition. A beautiful round-headed doorway at the west end of the south aisle is also an example of this period. A perfect altar, raised by three steps, still remains in the north-east angle of the north transept, on the broken slab of which are the original consecration crosses. Possibly this altar contained a sepulchrum for the reception of relics, as a stone is evidently removed from the face of it for this purpose. In the corresponding position in the south transept, which, like the north transept, is Early English work, only the base of a former raised altar remains. In front of the platform or raised part in the chancel (on which doubtless the high altar formerly stood) is a much mutilated effigy. As the shield of this memorial bears a faint indication of the FitzHugh chevron, it is supposed to commemorate a member of this ancient family, and a descendant of FitzBardolph, the founder of the abbey. The Early English chapter-house is on the south side of the sacred edifice, and is connected with the south transept by a vestry, forming nearly the remainder of the eastern side of the cloisters. It is divided from east to west by two arcades and in it are many memorial slabs. On the opposite, or west side of the cloister, is the frater or refectory of the Conversi (Lay brothers) and to the south is the frater of the monks. On the south side of the chapter-house are other domestic offices, including the undercroft of the monks’ dorter, the kitchen, furnished with three enormous fireplaces about 9 feet wide, and lastly, and most interesting of all, to the south of the culinary department, is a little Early English chapel, in which is the base of a former altar raised on two steps.