Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/86

 flamed like a volcano when illuminated with the vast Yule block, in the genial season of social enjoyment.

Our second excursion from Carlisle took us to Wetheral Priory, or rather its gateway, the only part now remaining of a monastery founded by Ralph de Meschins, in the year 1088, for a prior and eight Benedictine monks. Its square turretted form points out the strength with which it was constructed, in order to resist or repel the attacks of the borderers and moss-troopers. Plain and trifling as it is, it yet forms a pleasing feature in the very beautiful picture which opens at this spot: a deep glen, with bold and lofty banks of rock and wood, bearing in its bosom the river Eden, of chrystalline transparency, confines the eye to the right by its verdant eminences, and, opening to the left, lets in a broad luxuriant valley, bounded by distant hills; one amongst numberless other examples of the judicious and tasteful choice which these monks made of situation; who, as Doctor Johnson observes, being permitted by the world to choose, wisely chose the best. On the summit of the opposite, on a bold commanding scite, stands Corby-Castle, which in former times of rapine and disturbance offered its protection to the neighbouring monastery, when it was not equal to its own