Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

vent. Mag. Jan 1786.

Plate I

[graphic]

NW. Prospect of the Ruins of the Chapel & Steeple of St Rule, at St. Andrews taken in 1776.

[blocks in formation]
[graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small][subsumed]

Ι

St. Rule's Church in Scotland.-Chapel at Knaresbrough.

Mr. URBAN,

Na tour I made fome years ago through the northern parts of this kingdom, I could not help being much ftruck with the beauty of an old tower I found at St. Andrew's in Scotland, and was not lefs furprized on being told of its very great antiquity, as it was then almost entire, and the tones of which it is built fcarcely at all weatherworn. The tower, in the dialect of the country, is called the feeple of St. Rule, and was built, together with a fmall chapel adjoining to it, which is of the fame kind of materials and workmanfhip, fome time in the 4th century, by a St. Regulus, a native of Italy, who introduced or established Chriftianity in those parts. The tower, I was told (for I did not measure it) is about 120 feet high. It is built of a kind of free-ftone of a dullish white colour, and the joints between the ftones were then fo close, that the point of a knife could not have been thrust into any chink between them. I took a drawing of the tower and adjoining chapel, which I fend along with this, and which I hope will find a place in your valuable repofitory. Will be glad if any of your correfpondents, who are well acquainted with the hiftory and antiquities of that place, will favour the public, through the fame channel, with a better account of these than I could pick up in the courfe of a hafty ramble. The cathedral, which was in the fame clofe with this tower, was built many centuries later; but the ftone of which it was built has been fo bad as to be wafted by the weather exceedingly.

[ocr errors]

Pleafe to take notice, that the large arched gateway on the weft fide of the tower, which is now in part built up with flones, has been evidently cut out of the wall at a later period, as the nature of the ftone and ftyle of workmanfhip evidently fhew. In performing this work, a confiderable rent has been made above the arch, which is repre. fented in the drawing. (See plate 1.)

At the time I was there, the infide of the tower was open from top to bottom, without any roof. I have been juft now informed by a gentleman who was lately in that country, that it is now co vered in with a roof, and a fair carried up to the top within it; and that it is in every respect fo thoroughly repaired, as to give room to hope that it will remain a beautiful monument of art to a very diftant period. A TRAVELLER. GENT. MAG. January, 1786.

[blocks in formation]

9

[blocks in formation]

The drawing (plate II. fig. 1,) is the entrance of the chapel, which is cut into a high folid rock at the end of the town, in a romantic fituation; the figure cur in the rock was intended to reprefent a knight-templar guarding the door.

Fig. 2. is the infide of the chapel; the altar (which is part of the folid rock), and roof, are ornamented with Gothic fculpture; behind the altar is a niche in which formerly was an image; on the right-hand fide are three heads cut in the rock, faid to be done by fome monks of the order of the Hol Trinity, of which the heads are fuppofed to be emblematical; near the chtrance (but which could not be taken in in this drawing), is another head, faid to be John the Baptift's, to whont this chapel was dedicated.-Length of the chapel; 10 feet 6 inches; width, 9 feet; height, 7 feet 6 inches.

The beft account I could get of this faint is in the following extract :-" St. Robert, the reputed founder of this chapel, was the fon of Tooke Flower, mayor of York, in the reign of Richard the Firft. Being remarkable from his youth for his learning and piety, and, after having spent fome years in each of the monafterics of Whitby and Fountains, he was made abbot of New Minster in Northumberland, which dignity he foon after relinquished, and repaired to a folitary hermitage among the rocks at Knaresbrough. After living here fome time, a rich matron (probably a lady of the Percy family) gave him the chapel of St. Hilda, fituated at a place now called St. Hile's Hook*, with fome land adjoining: here he led a life of the greateft aufterity, and the fame of his fan&tity became univerfal. Will. Eftoville, lord of Knaresbrough, from being his perfecutor, became his benefactor, and gave him all the land from his cell to Grimbald bridge. K. John alfo gave forty acres of land in Swinefea. Numerous and extraordinary are the miracles faid to have been perform

This place is ftill called Chapel Field; part of the foundation of the chapel fill re

mains.

ed

[ocr errors]

10

Excavations near Nottingham.-General Hofpital there.

ed by him; such as taming wild beafts, caufing deer to become fo tractable as to yield their necks to the yoke, and affist in the fervices of agriculture; and fome others too extraordinary to mention. Notwithstanding which, it is certain, that, while he refided at Fountains abbey, he was indefatigable in labour, diligent in reading and meditation, de vout in prayer, wife in council, and eloquent in fpecch.

After living to a great age, a remarkable example of piety and benevolence, he died beloved and lamented by all that knew him. After his deceafe, the monks of Fountains defiring to have his remains interred in their monaftery, brought him their habit, and would have taken his body away by force, had they not been prevented by a company of armed men fent for that purpose from the cafle. He was interred in the chapel of the Holy Crofs at Knaresbrough. A man fo famed for fan&tity received every pofthumous honour that his furvivor could bestow *."

Mathew Paris obferves, " that in the year 1209 the fame of Robert, the hermit of Knaresbrough, was univerfal, and that a medicinal oil flowed from his H. R. tomb."

[blocks in formation]

beginning after the rude manner of their days, and make them subfervient to their own purposes. After the reduction of Britain by the Romans, they might not be inhabited or occupied perhaps for fome centuries, until they were used for religious purposes, as is evident by that part refembling a church, &c. A view of the whole of the infide could not be taken.

*

near this town.

You receive likewife an elevation of the General Hofpital which may boast of two things: 1. of being an eleemofinary afylum to the indigent and impotent; and 2. that it is built upon the identical spot on which the unfortunate Charles I. fixed his royal ftandard on the 25th of August, 1642. The fouth-eaft front (the view given) commands a beautiful profpect towards Belvoir Caftle, the feat of the Duke of Rutland, fituated on a vast eminence about twenty miles diftant. On digging for the foundation of this build ing were found human bones, a fword and target, broken fpears, &c. and the boundaries of a camp are very evident in the park below.

It is faid of Sir Ifaac Newton, that he never knew woman t; or, at least, that it was his death-bed declaration; words which we generally depend on as facts. His continued engagements as a philosopher, from the days of adolefcence even to his death, were fuchas almoft exempted him from the enjoyment of the tranfitory pleafures of intemperance; but certainly nature was bounteous, and furnished his mind with fuch continued delightful fcenes of contemplation, as made him contemptuously fpurn and annul every licentious thought. Is fortitude hereditary, Mr. Urban? If fo, doubly bleffed are the defcendants of Newton. Pray, of what religion was Sir Ifaac? I mean, was he a member of any incorporated fect?

Had Charles 1. of England poffeffed the natural boldnefs, though infernal fpirit of Charles XII. of Sweden, he had never come to the block. The leaft infult provoked the Swedish king to retaliate the pious Charles of England had a philofophic mind; he bore with a manly courage the infults of his parliament, and had to lament the depravity of the people. What monarch could fuftain the repeated indignities of Sir J. Hotham at Hull, or quietly bear See plate 1. fig. 4.

fame.

The late Dr. Fothergill declared the

the.

« AnteriorContinuar »