rears
on high the trees rooted in its crannies, whose branches almost brush
the abbey's stately tower. On the other side is the little river, with
the conventual buildings carried across it in more than one place, the
water flowing through a vaulted tunnel. These buildings extend to the
bases of the opposite crags. The ruins are of great size, and it does
not take much imagination to restore the glen to its aspect when the
abbey was in full glory seven or eight hundred years ago. Its founders
came hither almost as exiles from York, and began building the abbey in
the twelfth century, but it was barely completed when Henry VIII. forced
the dissolution of the monasteries. It was very rich, and furnished rare
plunder when the monks were compelled to leave it. The close or
immediate grounds of the abbey contained about eighty acres, entered by
a gate-house to the westward of the church, the ruins of which can still
be seen. Near by is an old mill alongside the Skell, and a picturesque
bridge crosses the stream, while on a neighboring knoll are some ancient
yews which are believed to have sheltered the earliest settlers, and are
called the "Seven Sisters." But, unfortunately, only two now remain,
gnarled and twisted, with decaying trunks and falling limbs--ruins in
fact that are as venerable as Fountains Abbey itself. Botanists say they
are twelve hundred years old, and that they were full-grown trees when
the exiles from York first encamped alongside the Skell.

[Illustration: FOUNTAINS TOWER AND CRYPT.]

[Illustration: FOUNTAINS HALL.]

Entering the close, the ruins of the abbey church are seen in better
preservation than the other buildings. The roof is gone, for its
woodwork was used to melt down the lead by zealous Reformers in the
sixteenth century, and green grass has replaced the pavement. The ruins
disclose a noble temple, the tower rising one hundred and sixty-eight
feet. In the eastern transept is the beautiful "Chapel of the Nine
Altars" with its tall and slender columns, some of the clustering shafts
having fallen. For some distance southward and eastward from the church
extend the ruins of the other convent-buildings. In former times they
were used as a stone-quarry for the neighborhood, many of the walls
being levelled to the ground, but since the last century they have been
scrupulously preserved. The plan is readily traced, for excavations have
been made to better display the ruins. South of the nave of t