These two examples may suffice to give the reader some idea of the numerous legends with which the monastic annals abound: and, in addition to what has been already said of the internal administration of this order, we shall, from time to time, introduce other particulars, drawn from various sources, but chiefly from their own chronicles.
<g>Environs.</g>--It would be difficult to name a locality that, within so small a compass, contains so many richly-varied landscapes, as the Vale of Tinterne. In whatever direction we move, the eye is arrested by new features, new combinations of the graceful and picturesque. A saunter along the river, where it forms a crescent between the abbey and the village, will gratify every lover of the picturesque, and bring before him the beauty and freshness of nature, in striking contrast with the sublime but faded monuments of art. The best hour for enjoying this scene is about sunset; and, on returning, the tourist may ascend the Chapel Hill, and thence, in a more extended panorama, look down upon what would have furnished a rich subject for the pencil of Claude. The river, with its fantastic windings, here clamorous among shallows--there gliding away with the rapid but inaudible march of time--masses of brown rock overhanging the pass, gleaming in confused blocks through the trees that clamber up their
steep sides, or crown their pinnacles with masses of verdure; while here and there a cottage, with its whitewashed walls, gives new life and interest to the scene.
How oft the pilgrim, lingering here, Beneath that yew’s sepulchral shade, Hath dropt the penitential tear, And, sighing to himself, hath said-- There’s solace here for all my woe, <g>St. Mary’s</g> altar gleams below; And blessèd be the hand divine, That leads the pilgrim to her <g>shrine</g>.
But the point from which the Abbey of Tinterne is seen to most advantage, is that chosen by Mr. Bartlett in the illustration opposite. The way to the ‘<g>Devil’s Pulpit</g>,’ as it is called, runs along the left bank of the Wye, and, in its winding course, presents many little glimpses of the vale and river, that, like small cabinet-pictures, serve as a gradual introduction to the splendid panorama of nature--the features of which are here so faithfully illustrated by the pencil, as to render description superfluous.