The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 4 (of 8)Wordsworth, William
General
The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 4 (of 8)
Wordsworth, William
English poetry -- 18th century; English poetry -- 19th century
"The chief relic of the Priory is the church, the nave of which
after the Dissolution was retained as the chapel of this so-called
'Saxon-Cure.' This nave remains perfect, but the rest of the
church is in complete ruin. The lower walls of the choir are
Trans-Norman, and must have been built immediately after (if not
before) the removal from Embsay. The upper walls and windows (the
tracery of which is destroyed) are decorated. The nave is early
English, and decorated; and the original west front remains with
an elaborate Perpendicular front of excellent design, intended as
the base of a western tower, which was never finished.... The nave
(which has been restored under the direction of Crace)--the
"'One protected part
In the shattered fabric's heart,'
is Early English on the south side, and Decorated on the north....
At the end of the nave aisle, enclosed by a Perpendicular screen,
is a chantry, founded by the Mauleverers; and below it is the
vault, in which, according to tradition, the Claphams of Beamsley
and their ancestors the Mauleverers were interred upright--
"'Pass, pass who will, yon chantry door;
And, through the chink in the fractured floor
Look down, and see a griesly sight;
A vault where the bodies are buried upright!
There, face by face, and hand by hand,
The Claphams and Mauleverers stand.'
"Whitaker, however, could never see this 'griesly sight' through
the chink in the floor; and it is perhaps altogether traditional.
The ruined portion of the church is entirely Decorated, with the
exception of the lower walls of the choir. The transepts had
eastern aisles. The north transept is nearly perfect: the south
retains only its western wall, in which are two decorated windows.
The piers of a central tower remain; but at what period it was
destroyed, or if it was ever completed, is uncertain. The choir is
long and aisleless. Some fragments of tracery remain in the south
window, which was a very fine one. Below the window runs a
Transitional Norman arcade. Some portions of tomb-slabs remain in
the choir.... The church-yard lies on the north side of the ruins.
This has been made classic ground by Wordsworth's poem."
II. (See p. 118.)
_... the shy recess
Of Barden's lowly quietness._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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