Bolton Abbey, West Riding

Description
Bolton Abbey, a township and an ecclesiastical parish in the W.R. Yorkshire, comprising the townships of Barden, Halton-East, Hazlewood with Storiths, and Beamsley. There is a station on the Ilkley and Skipton branch of the M.R., and a post, money order, and telegraph office under Skipton. Area of the township, 2071 acres; population, 169 ; of the ecclesiastical parish, 764. The manor belongs to the Duke of Devonshire, and came to him from the Burlingtons. The scenery is picturesque, and includes soft reaches of valley, undulating slopes, precipitous cliffs, hanging-woods, and the wild chasm of the Strid, overhung by the mountains of Simon's Seat and Barden Fell. An Augustinian priory was founded at Embsay, in 1121, by William de Meschines, and removed 33 years afterwards to the banks of the Wharfe by his lady, to commemorate the loss of their heir at the Strid. The story of its refounding is sung by Wordsworth in his Force of Prayer and White Doe of Rylstone, and by Rogers in the Boy of Egremond. The priory was sold at the dissolution to Henry Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, and passed from his family in 1635 to the Burlingtons. Much of the original building, together with additions in Decorated and Perpendicular English, is standing in a state of ruin; but the nave, which was repaired in 1853, still serves as the parish church. The choir contains monuments of Lady Margaret Neville, Lord Clifford, and Prior Wood. Bolton Hall, a modern mansion built on both sides of the old gate-house of the priory, is an occasional seat of the Duke of Devonshire. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ripon; net value, £152 with residence. Patron, the Duke of Devonshire. There is a school with an endowed income of £135. Two memorials, consisting of a handsome cross in the churchyard and near the entrance to the woods an elegant fountain, were erected in memory of Lord Frederick Cavendish, who was assassinated in the Phoenix Park, Dublin in 1882, while Chief Secretary for Ireland. See STRID, THE.