[50] Paper on the Abbey. Tinterne, which is coeval with Westminster Abbey, has a remarkable similarity in its whole plan and style of architecture, and was, in fact, a repetition in miniature.—Dallaway’s Arts, p. 36.
[51] A barge-builder at Tinterne severed the head from the trunk, and defaced the features, legs, and shield, leaving it in its present mutilated state.—Tinterne and its Environs.
[52] In the early Church, “a fish was generally used by Christians as a symbol of the Great Founder of their faith, the letters of the Greek word, ιχθυς (a fish), forming the initials of the most important titles of our blessed Lord:”—Ι.Χ.Θ.Υ.Σ.—Pompeïana.
Ίησους Χριστὸς Θεου Ύιὸς Σωτηρ
[53] The naturalist will not leave the area of the Abbey without noticing an alder-tree in the northern transept, covered with aphides, to which a long train of black ants have for some years been observed continually coming and departing through the sacristy door, and pacing along the pediment of one of the lofty columns to the root of the tree. This is the only procession now visible in the Abbey, and is formed, not for devotion, but for a lowlier, yet not less imperative purpose—the alder-tree is their refectory, and the sweet exuviæ of the plant-lice form their food.—Thomas’s Tinterne, p. 26.
b He enumerates the following as indigenous in the fruitful vale of Tinterne:—Delphinium consolida, Aquilegia vulgaris, Saponaria officinalis, Eriophorum polystachion, Galanthus nivalis, Narcissus pseudo-narcyssus, Allium Carinatum, Ornithogalum Pyrennaicum, Acorus calamus, Euphorbia Cyparissias, Anemone pulsatilla, A. Appenina, A. nemorosa.
If thou would’st view fair Melrose aright,
Go visit it by the pale moonlight;
For the gay beams of lightsome day
Gild but to flout the ruins gray....
Then go—but go alone the while—
And view St. Mary’s ruin’d pile;
Then, home returning, soothly swear
Was never scene so sad and fair!
[55] Beauties, Harmonies, and Sublimities of Nature.
[56] Prædictus conquestor dedit manerium de Wolleston et manerium de Tudenham in parte; et similiter dedit ei licentiam conquerendi super Wallenses postea, &c.—Monast. Angl. iv. 725.