The church is chiefly Perpendicular, with a rather unusual octagonal tower. In the eighteenth century the chancel was rebuilt, but the Fauconberg monuments in it were replaced. Sir William Belasyse, who received the Newburgh property from his uncle, the first owner, died in 1603, and his fine Jacobean tomb, painted in red, black and gold, shows him with a beard and ruff. His portrait hangs in one of the drawing-rooms of the Priory. The later monuments, adorned with great carved figures, are all interesting. They encroach so much on the space in the narrow chancel that a most curious method for lengthening the communion-rail has been resorted to—that of bringing forward from the centre a long narrow space enclosed within the rails. From the pulpit Laurence Sterne preached when he was incumbent here for the last eight years of his life. He came to Coxwold in 1760, and took up his abode in the charming old house he quaintly called ‘Shandy Hall.’ It is on the opposite side of the road to the church, and has a stone roof and one of those enormous chimneys so often to be found in the older farmsteads of the north of England. Sterne’s study was the very small room on the right-hand side of the entrance doorway; it now contains nothing associated with him, and there is more pleasure in viewing the outside of the house than is gained by obtaining permission to enter.
During his last year at Coxwold, when his rollicking, boisterous spirits were much subdued, Sterne completed his ‘Sentimental Journey.’ He also relished more than before the country delights of the village, describing it in one of his letters as ‘a land of plenty.’ Every day he drove out in his chaise, drawn by two long-tailed horses, until one day his postilion met with an accident from one of his master’s pistols, which went off in his hand. ‘He instantly fell on his knees,’ wrote Sterne, ‘and said “Our Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name”—at which, like a good Christian, he stopped, not remembering any more of it. The affair was not so bad as he had at first thought, for it has only bursten two of his fingers (he says).’ In a letter to his daughter Lydia, who was in Paris acquiring a little French vanity, he writes: ‘My pleasures are few in compass. My poor cat sits purring beside me. Your lively French dog shall have his place on the other side of my fire; but if he is as devilish as when I first saw him, I must tutor him, for I will not have my cat abused. In short, I will have nothing devilish about me.’
The beautiful Hambleton Hills begin to rise up steeply about two miles north of Coxwold, and there we come upon the ruins of Byland Abbey. Their chief feature is the west end of the church, with its one turret pointing a finger to the heavens, and the lower portion of a huge circular window, without any sign of tracery. This fine example of Early English work is illustrated here. The whole building appears to be the original structure built soon after 1177, for it shows everywhere the transition from Norman to Early English which was taking place at the close of the twelfth century. The founders were twelve monks and an abbot, named Gerald, who left Furness Abbey in 1134, and after some vicissitudes came to the notice of Gundreda, the mother of Roger de Mowbray, either by recommendation or by accident. One account pictures the holy men on their way to Archbishop Thurstan at York, with all their belongings in one wagon drawn by eight oxen, and describes how they chanced to meet Gundreda’s steward as they journeyed near Thirsk. Through Gundreda the monks went to Hode, and after four years received land at Old Byland, where they wished to build an abbey. This position was found to be too close to Rievaulx, whose bells could be too plainly heard, so that five years later the restless community obtained a fresh grant of land from De Mowbray, at a place called Stocking, where they remained until they came to Byland.
Great heaps of fallen masonry, grown over with grass, now fill the nave and transepts, and it is quite possible that a much better idea of the church could be obtained if a thorough examination were made. There are no restrictions to the promiscuous curio-hunters, who smash pieces of moulding off the bases of exposed columns, to take away as mementoes to be kept for a season and then thrown away. Almost any of the roads to the east go through surprisingly attractive scenery. There are heathery commons, roads embowered with great spreading trees, or running along open hill-sides, and frequently lovely views of the Hambletons and more distant moors in the north.
In scenery of this character stands Gilling Castle, the seat of the Fairfaxes for some three centuries. It possesses one of the most beautiful Elizabethan dining rooms to be found in this country. The walls are panelled to a considerable height, the remaining space being filled with paintings of
BYLAND ABBEY
The west end of the ruined church is shown in the picture. It is Early English, while most of the structure is Transitional Norman. Byland was a Cistercian abbey.