"On the whole, this is one of the few and privileged spots, where, within the compass of a walk, and almost of a single glance, the admiring visitant may exclaim, with a true painter and poet : Some Lancastrian baron bold, To awe his vassals, or to stem his foes, MASON. "Of Bolton Priory, the whole cloister quadrangle has been destroyed. In the centre of it is remembered the stump of a vast yew-tree, such as were usually planted in that situation; not merely for shade and ornament, but probably with a religious allusion. "The shell of the church is nearly entire. The nave, having been reserved at the dissolution for the use of the Saxon cure *, is still a parochial chapel +. * Embsay Kirk, where the priory itself was originally planted +"Here are a silver chalice and cover, which appear to have been given by the first grantee immediately after the priory fell into his hands, as the former has, beneath an earl's coronet, the arms and quarterings of the family down only to his mother, a St. John." VOL. II. G "The cemetery at Bolton is on the north side of the church; and, as it has one tomb at least prior to the dissolution, I am confirmed in my opinion, that, during the existence of the priory, the parishioners of the Saxon cure had the right of burial at the Priory Church, as they certainly made their oblations at the altar. "The architecture of the church is of two distinct styles. The translation took place in 1154, and, from many decisive marks in the stone-work, as well as the necessity of the case, the canons must have begun with the choir, which they finished at one effort, and, most probably, before their removal from Embsay. This is proved by the Saxon capitals, which extend westward to the transept. The fine ramified east window, and the spacious apertures on the north and south sides of the choir, afford no objection to this statement; as the first has evidently been inserted in the place of the three round-headed lights which must originally have occupied the east end, while the latter are enlargements of single lights of the same shape. Marks of insertion are evident in the masonry as well as the buttresses, which last have been plainly added to the perpendicular Norman projections in the original wall. "The nave exactly resembles the Priory Church of Lanercost in Cumberland, belonging to the same order*, which was finished and consecrated A. D. 1165. In both a south aile is wanting: the columns of each are alternately cylindrical and angular, and the hatched ornament of the capitals and windows is common to both.-What antiquary, and what man of taste, can forbear to regret that the tombs of the Cliffords do not yet remain at Bolton, like those of the Dacres at Lanercost, which are scattered in the most beautiful disorder about the ruined choir, while elder, and other funereal plants, spire up among coronets and garters †? * St. Augustine. "At the east end of the north aile of Bolton Priory Church," relates Whitaker, "is a chantry belonging to Bethmesly Hall, in the parish of Skipton, and a vault, where, according to tradition, the Claphams were interred upright." -They inherited the hall by the female line from the ancient family of the Mauliverers. Thomasine, coheiress of sir Peter Manliverer, temp. Ed. III. married William de la Moore of Otterburne, and Elizabeth, the only daughter and heiress of this match, marrying Thomas Clapham, brought the manor of Bethmesly into that family. 66 was "The oldest son of this match," resumes Whitaker, John Clapham, a famous, esquire' in the wars between the "The original west front of Bolton, though unhappily darkened, is extremely rich. It is broken into a great variety of surfaces, by small pointed arches, with single shaft columns, and originally gave light to the west end of the church by three tall and graceful lancet windows. "Over the transept was a tower.—The want of this feature at present is the only defect of Bolton as an object. But instead of this appears a very houses of York and Lancaster, who is said to have beheaded, with his own hands, the earl of Pembroke, in the church porch of Banbury." Craven, pp. 365, 366. To this instance of savage ferocity, and to the singular mode of interment of the Clapham family, Wordsworth thus refers in his beautiful poem of the White Doe of Rylstone : Pass, pass who will, yon chantry door, And, through the chink in the fractured floor A vault where the bodies are buried upright! In the ruthless wars of the white and red, Who dragged earl Pembroke from Banbury church, WORKS, Vol. iii. p. 20. singular and misplaced work at the west end-I mean the base of another tower of exquisite workmanship,—begun by the last prior, which partly hides, and partly darkens, the beautiful west front of the church. To compensate, however, for this injury, it is built of the finest masonry, and adorned with shields, statues, and one window of exqui-` site tracery. Amongst other ornaments on this part of the work is the statue of a pilgrim, with a staff in one hand and a broad flat round hat in the other, facing the south; and on the west, two sitting figures of dogs, resembling stout greyhounds, by which it may be doubted whether prior Moone did not mean to commemorate his uncanonical office of master forester to his patron. “The design of this front shows great taste and originality of invention. The tabernacles, in particular, instead of terminating according to the style of the age, in an oblong pointed arch, expand above the springers into diminutive castles of two towers each, with battlements and embrasures, carved with all the delicacy of statuary in mezzo relievo.— "The roof of the nave appears to have been relaid by prior Moone, about the time when he began the new tower. It is of flat oak-work, covered with |