Fountains Abbey

We saw the ruins of Fountains Abbey, which didn't survive the Dissolution (of the monasteries). The wrecked churches are nearly as beautiful as the ones still flourishing, with grass instead of paving for the floor, doves' murmurs instead of organ music, and sky instead of vaulted roof. The Abbey lands were taken over by the Crown and turned into a deer park. We walked past the little red deer grazing beneath huge widely-spaced black-limbed trees, which were just coming into leaf. Fur hung like dun-colored moss from the deers’ new antlers. (1997)