Bolton was included in the Act of 1539, and early in the next year
Richard Moon surrendered his possessions into the hands of the Crown.
How far Bolton was open to the grave charges levelled at monastic
institutions as a whole we do not know. What is certain, is, that the
number of canons in residence had declined, and with them the revenues
likewise. The estates were sold in 1542 to Henry Clifford, Earl of
Cumberland, and held by his successors till 1635, when they passed by
marriage to the Earls of Burlington, and by marriage again in 1748 to
their present owners, the ducal house of Devonshire. There are monuments
near the priory to the memory of a distinguished member of this family,
the unfortunate Lord Frederick Cavendish, assassinated in the Phœnix
Park, Dublin, 1882.
KIRKSTALL (_Cistercian_)
1147, Founded by Henry de Lacy--1540, Surrendered by John Ripley,
last abbot, to the Commissioners of Henry VIII. Annual revenue,
£329, 2s. 11d.--1889, Colonel North buys the abbey from the Earl of
Cardigan, and presents it to the Corporation of Leeds.
Perhaps no abbey has a more uninteresting history or less result to show
of labour undertaken, than this monastic house of St Mary’s in Airedale.
Certainly the populous city of Leeds has the advantage of possessing a
very necessary lung for her toilers in the cool retreat and quiet shade
of the abbey grounds. The site of the abbey would at its foundation, and
for many centuries afterwards, be a very beautiful one; for then the
river flowed between gently rising hills in a well-wooded part of
Airedale, where now a forest has sprung up in every direction, not of
stately trees, alas! but of multitudinous chimneys, houses, etc.; and
though these only extend a part of the way between the heart of Leeds
and Kirkstall, they are well in sight when the ruins are reached, while
these again are surrounded by numbers of the jerry-built monstrosities
so beloved by the modern master builder. How different the aspect must
have been even in 1770 when Gray thus describes his visit.
“It was a delicious quiet valley: there are a variety of chapels
and remnants of the Abbey, shattered by the encroachments of the
ivy, and surrounded by many a sturdy tree, whose twisted roots
break through the fret of the vaulting and hang streaming from the
vaults. The gloom of these ancient cells, the shade and verdure of
the landscape, the glittering and murmur of the stream, the lofty
towers and long perspectives of the church in the midst of a clear
bright day detained me for many hours.”
The abbey lies on a level piece of land on the right bank of the river
if approached from Leeds; and
[Illustration: KIRKSTALL.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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