The ruins are
extensive, and the enclosure of the abbey is stated to have covered a
space of sixty-five acres. It is impossible to describe them. The most
interesting part is that which was formerly the church, and which, though
now roofless, is still surrounded by walls, and retains the remnants of
the pillars that formerly supported the intermingling curves of the
arches. The floor is all overgrown with grass, strewn with fragments and
capitals of pillars. It was a great and stately edifice, the length of
the nave and choir having been nearly three hundred feet, and that of the
transept more than half as much. The pillars along the nave were
alternately a round, solid one and a clustered one. Now, what remains of
some of them is even with the ground; others present a stump just high
enough to form a seat; and others are, perhaps, a man's height from the
ground,--and all are mossy, and with grass and weeds rooted into their
chinks, and here and there a tuft of flowers, giving its tender little
beauty to their decay. The material of the edifice is a soft red stone,
and it is now extensively overgrown with a lichen of a very light gray
line, which, at a little distance, makes the walls look as if they had
long ago been whitewashed, and now had partially returned to their
original color. The arches of the nave and transept were noble and
immense; there were four of them together, supporting a tower which has
long since disappeared,--arches loftier than I ever conceived to have
been made by man.
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