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CASTLES AND ABBEYS OF ENGLAND.

[Abbey e»

tlicse in anything like minute description, would preoccupy the space whichwc must reserve for other particulars] hut a few words are indispensable for

the sake of the engravedview. The light, whichis finely modified by themeans usually adopted,falls from the centre ofthe tower upon the variousobjects in the choir, witha subdued religious effectwhich greatly adds to thegeneral impression. Inthis position, surroundedby the varied labours ofmany centuries, we canfancy in part the scenesand events which havetranspired within thesearches, before that altar,at which so many kingsand peers have bent thesuppliant knee in peni-tence and confession. Inthose early times it was ablessing, that when out-rage, violence, and injus-tice were irrepressible byany other means, the strong arm of the church was sufficient to restrain—and when it could not effectually restrain, to punish with its stigma—the licen-tious baron, the crowned despot, and make the culprits quail at the very headof their armies and retainers. Where the law was weak, religion was strong,and, like the voice of God , heard upon earth, encouraged the prostrate, andbrought the rebellious under subjection. Without its power and influence—its holy exercises and humanizing studies—without the spiritual arm to checkaggression, to redress grievances, the baser passions must have revelled withoutcontrol, and life have become a scene of continued warfare. These con-siderations are nowhere felt with more obvious truth than on the spot wherewe now stand, where so many deadly feuds have given way to religiousexhortation; where they who had met as foes quitted the altar as friends—friends at least in act, if not in heart—and returned the guilty sword to its

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