TINTERN ABBEY.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20624, 13 August 1932, Page 7

TINTERN ABBEY.

RUINS IN SPLENDID SETTING. ROMANCE OF ANCIENT BUILDING. e * (By T.C.L.;, It is a far-cry from Yorkshire to South Wales. To make the journey is to see England at its best and its worst. There is tho breeze and the spaciousness of the moors, the squalor of the industrial towns, tbe up and down scenery of Derbyshire, some of it, on a smaller scale, and in a more finished state, not unlike the country in tho Nelson-West Coast districts. West and Bouth you come to tbe dismal potteries region of Staffordshire and then through the "Black Country," which has its more pleasing side, too. Through Birmingham and down through the Worcestershire fruit districts, across to Hereford, and then down tho lovely valley of the River Wye. Just above the junction of that beautiful woodland stream with the turbulent Severn is the quaint old town of Chepstow. It is set in the loveliest surroundings. On a slope between high cliffs the town drops down to its river wharves, which, by the way, boast the highest rise and fall of tide (53 feet) in the British Islands. There is a wonderful old castle at Chepstow, dating from the 11th century, and concerned in practically every bit of Welsh border fighting until tho Civil War, when it stood a siege from both Royalists and Parliamentarians. But beautiful as Chepstow and its surroundings may be, it is because of its association with another great piece of architecture that the little town is so well known to oversea visitors.

Beauty of Setting. Five miles above Chepstow, in the valley of the Wye, are tho wonderful remains of Tintern Abbey. Their setting of woodland and river scenery is perfect. The buildings themselves, although roofless and despoiled, have suffered less than other abandoned ecclesiastical marvels from those who regarded them as useful depositories of building stone. Access to Tintern was not so easy, and one likes to think that perhaps the beauty of tho Abbey and its surroundings kept vandalism in check. For a long time tho ruins were the property of the Dukes of Beaufort. Now they belong to the nation, and are cared for by H.M. Board of Works. The Board hasdone all in its power to preserve and interpret the ruins. Broken sculpture has been put back into place, judicious repair made, and the whole of the Abbey buildings are kept as being one of the nation's treasures. The least damaged portion of the ruins is tho church. It is said to be partially oil the site of an earlier church, built when the Abbey was first established, 800 years ago. For Tintern, like most abbeys, took nearly three centuries to complete. Tt was Luilt for the Cistercian Order and they were never hurried. About 90 years after the- Lord of Chepstow began the great work, a scheme of enlargement took place, and with it came the demolition of the first church for the larger one, of which tho ruins remain. It is good to hear that side by side with the church the good fathers huilfc the infirmary, though of this there are now but the foundations left. Great Size of Building. The church was a huge building. Over 200 feet in length, it had a nave with six bays. There was a choir for lay brothers in the westerly bays of the centre aisle. Further east, behind a solid choir screen, was the monks' choir. Beyond that again was the presbytery, with the high altar, and sufficient remains to show what exquisite work was given in screen and pillar and window sculptures. The great east window of the presbytery is 60 feet high. Its central mullion is still intact, and some of its beautiful tracery remains. It is said to have been glazed with the arms of the Abbey's founder. The windows of Tintern have been judged "according to the proportion but not the size" of the windows of Westminster Abbey.

But beautiful and inspiring as is the church", ' the visitor is interested in what may he termed tho social side of the Abbey. He enters bv the western range of the cloisters, a portion reserved for the lay brothers. For a time they played a big part in the development of the establishment and its demesne. But later austerity would have only tho cloistered monks, and the Iny brethren disappeared. To somo the lack of their humanising influence spelt the first decay of the monastic svstem, but that is a matter of opinion onlv.

Scene of Ancient Life. It is when your guide shows you a couple of 1 old lockers in a cloister and tells you they were to hold books, or when he sliows you recesses that were for tlio lavatory basins where the towels' hung over them in a building just off the "common room" of the monks that you begin to realise Tintern Abbey was not always a silent ruin but the pulsing heart of a tremendous organisation. Again, you are shown a vaulted opening looking rather like a baker's oven, and you are told it %vas the serving-batch from the kitchen. Just within what was the entrance there is a double recess: the one for washing spoons and tHe other for locking them up. Further along is the access to tho reader's pulpit, from which the brother oi. duty entertained his fellow monks. Being human, it is said that not all his stories and exhortations wefe wholly religious either. Passing the foundations of what was the great hall, there is a well-preserved three-storeyed building. In the first floor were the lodgings of the Prior, the second in command of tbe abbey, and below it the "warming-house," the fire- . places of which remain with passages for conveying the warmth to the Prior's lodgings above. A Place of Befuge. * Outside the cloistered buildings were the lodgings for visitors of all grades, for Tintern was, liko all abbeys, a place of refuge for all and sundry. Moreover, its influence extended over a wide area, and its business transactions necessitated visits from all sorts and conditions of men. In the remains of what was the vesi try are several pieces of sculpture. One of them is said to be an effigy of Richard Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, who made such history in Ireland.

One leaves Tintern a little overwhelmed—the titanic effort it represented; the beauty of its surroundings; the concentration of highest human skill upon infinite detail, nad then the ruin of it all. It is part of England, part of English history that had to go towards a nation's evolution. It is the recollection that the same evolution is never ending which takes away the feeling of effort wasted and the pitifulness of human endeavour. Melrose, Fountain's, Tintern, and scores of other ruins were the expression of ideals. But ideals still exist though manifested in .other ways and in other lands by the same Britons. So long as that is true ruins are not monuments; they are mileatones.