Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Country Rector's Easter Visit To His Rustic Parishioners.
took in a young ladies' and gentlemen ' s seminary , which made the interior rather warm . It was very clear if we left the schoolmaster at home , we were taking the scholars abroad . What the poor steeds might have thought of the load , I cannot pretend to say . No prying informers haunted that ilk ; and for myself , I submitted to be half dissolved with the most perfect stoicism . The route through Madeley is frightfully preciitous ; and the declivity which conveys you down to
p Ironbridge , on the bank of the Severn , petrifying . Here they point out the quarries whence the rough ashler was hewn , with which no doubt some of our worthy craftsmen , of olden days , built AVorcester Cathedral , conveying it down the winding and silvery Severn . Here also is the manufactory of the celebrated Coal-port chinaware . As the day was fast declining , I mounted my poney , having six miles to ride before I could reach my night ' s quarters I have enjoyed many
romantic strolls through Canny Cumberland , the Isle of Man , Bonny Scotland , and the rich vales of the West of England , but my present one equalled most of them in its character—at least , I was in a disposition to think so . AVe followed the margin of the Severn to Bildwas-bridge . The stream is swift , abounding in fish , and the opposite bank towers up into lofty lime-rocks , covered with woods just bursting into the green hue of spring-lifeand at points opening into deep glenswhere the
, , imagination might revel among the sermons of brawling brooks , and the preaching of reanimated nature . The view from the bridge , both up and down the river , was vastly pretty . A solitary barge gliding down the current to Gloucester , from Shrewsbury—the valley of the Severn rising on each side by ascents of rich verdure , and here and there dotting the surface , a charming rural residence , or a humble village fane . But brightest scene of all that greeted the eye , was the
ruins of Bildwas Abbey . Many a monument of the decadence of Roman pontifical power in England have I seen ; and this , like all the rest , was beautifully and classically situated . I reined in my steed on the precise spot , and at the identical moment , to view those remains of ecclesiastical devastation , cum grano . It was in a lane , elevated some little distance from the flank of the venerable ivy-clad pile—pale Cynthia rising in full orb behind me , shed her pale beams upon the mouldering walls , and Twilight in her sober liv ' ry Had all things clad .
when I gazed upon this relic of the unbridled wrath and rapacity of man . Believe me , I am no monk , no Puseyite , no lover of superstition , or of the formalities of religious worship apart from its essential impulse . But I groan with indignation when I behold the superb and stately structures of olden piety , and their munificent endowments , the wreck of time , and the torn remnants of a brutal dynasty and barbarous aristocracy , who , under the guise of reforming religion , plundered those
institutions which ought only to have been purified for the revival of true religion and sound learning throughout the desolate places of the country . Such edifices as Bildwas Abbey and AA enlock Abbey , in its immediate vicinity—decayed specimens of unrivalled architecture , of classic taste in the choice of site , and practical judgment in the character of soil and vegetation—had they been preserved instead of demolished , their estates honestly appropriated instead of being impropriated , there would have been no necessity for any parliamentary grants to maintain
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Country Rector's Easter Visit To His Rustic Parishioners.
took in a young ladies' and gentlemen ' s seminary , which made the interior rather warm . It was very clear if we left the schoolmaster at home , we were taking the scholars abroad . What the poor steeds might have thought of the load , I cannot pretend to say . No prying informers haunted that ilk ; and for myself , I submitted to be half dissolved with the most perfect stoicism . The route through Madeley is frightfully preciitous ; and the declivity which conveys you down to
p Ironbridge , on the bank of the Severn , petrifying . Here they point out the quarries whence the rough ashler was hewn , with which no doubt some of our worthy craftsmen , of olden days , built AVorcester Cathedral , conveying it down the winding and silvery Severn . Here also is the manufactory of the celebrated Coal-port chinaware . As the day was fast declining , I mounted my poney , having six miles to ride before I could reach my night ' s quarters I have enjoyed many
romantic strolls through Canny Cumberland , the Isle of Man , Bonny Scotland , and the rich vales of the West of England , but my present one equalled most of them in its character—at least , I was in a disposition to think so . AVe followed the margin of the Severn to Bildwas-bridge . The stream is swift , abounding in fish , and the opposite bank towers up into lofty lime-rocks , covered with woods just bursting into the green hue of spring-lifeand at points opening into deep glenswhere the
, , imagination might revel among the sermons of brawling brooks , and the preaching of reanimated nature . The view from the bridge , both up and down the river , was vastly pretty . A solitary barge gliding down the current to Gloucester , from Shrewsbury—the valley of the Severn rising on each side by ascents of rich verdure , and here and there dotting the surface , a charming rural residence , or a humble village fane . But brightest scene of all that greeted the eye , was the
ruins of Bildwas Abbey . Many a monument of the decadence of Roman pontifical power in England have I seen ; and this , like all the rest , was beautifully and classically situated . I reined in my steed on the precise spot , and at the identical moment , to view those remains of ecclesiastical devastation , cum grano . It was in a lane , elevated some little distance from the flank of the venerable ivy-clad pile—pale Cynthia rising in full orb behind me , shed her pale beams upon the mouldering walls , and Twilight in her sober liv ' ry Had all things clad .
when I gazed upon this relic of the unbridled wrath and rapacity of man . Believe me , I am no monk , no Puseyite , no lover of superstition , or of the formalities of religious worship apart from its essential impulse . But I groan with indignation when I behold the superb and stately structures of olden piety , and their munificent endowments , the wreck of time , and the torn remnants of a brutal dynasty and barbarous aristocracy , who , under the guise of reforming religion , plundered those
institutions which ought only to have been purified for the revival of true religion and sound learning throughout the desolate places of the country . Such edifices as Bildwas Abbey and AA enlock Abbey , in its immediate vicinity—decayed specimens of unrivalled architecture , of classic taste in the choice of site , and practical judgment in the character of soil and vegetation—had they been preserved instead of demolished , their estates honestly appropriated instead of being impropriated , there would have been no necessity for any parliamentary grants to maintain