Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/26

 small apartments, the scene (as it is said) of the hermit's devotions; consisting of a vestibule, a chapel of fourteen feet long, chisselled in a good stile of the Gothic, its roof groined; and provided with an altar at the eastern end, near which lie two carved images of a man and woman, devoutly believed to be the effigies of Sir Bertram and his lady. Some obscure traditions exist, which Dr. Percy has made the foundation of his interesting tale, but they are of too vague a nature to be considered in the light of true history. Dr. Tanner says, that Bishop Fernham, about the year 1256, founded this hermitage, and placed in it two Benedictine monks from Durham. The other decorations are a shield over the northern door, sculptured with the figure of our Saviour upon the cross; the quinque stigmata and an inscription in the Gothic character over the southern door. This portal connects the chapel with a long narrow excavation, called the sacristy or confessional. The hermit's residence was above these apartments, in a little stone edifice now dilapidated; and higher still lay his sequestered garden, running along a ledge of the rock, and reached by a series of steps hewn out of its face; embosomed in trees, and impervious to every human eye. It required no great effort of the imagination (influenced by all