Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire.

The central apartment on the south side was the refectory , a very beautiful structure of the Earl y English period , 109 feet long by 46 § feet broad , and divided by an arcade with four columns . East of this was the great kitchen , and on the west the buttery and other offices . The whole of the apartments of the Abbey proper have now been viewed , disclosing perhaps the most perfect example of the monastic system remaining in the kingdom . I musthowever

, , add a few words upon the abbats' house , of which but little remains , though at one time it must have been a magnificent structure . Sir Stephen Proctor , as I have before said , used it as a quarry to build Fountains Hall . It was approached by an alley from the east side of the cloister court , which was formed by a beautiful trefoil arcade . The hall to which this passage led was 171 feet by 71 feet . It was divided into a nave and two aisles beihteen cylindrical

y g columns . Opposite the principal entrance was the staircase . To the right of the staircase is a room not yet cleared out . The next apartment southward was the abbats' chapel , the stone altar in which still remains tolerably perfect . At the north side of the chapel is a vaulted apartment said to be a cellar or storehouse . Detached from the chapel , on the south side , was the kitchen , which contains the remains of two great fire-places . To the west of the great hall was a

large apartment , which , from the dais at its west end , seems to have been the refectory . Still to the north of this room was another , and to the west of it was the coal-yard , where the last supply of the abbat was found during the excavations , also a heap of cinders aud rubbish , which contained a silver spoon , broken pottery , a silver ornament , a silver ring , a brass ring , several Nuremburg tokens , part of a perforated leaden window ventilatorvenison and beef bonesbushels of

, , oyster , mussel , and whelk shells , etc ., etc . A large quantity of encaustic tiles were found also in excavating the different apartments . Though so little remains of this once splendid range of buildings , enough is to be seen to show that it must at one time have been the home of almost regal magnificence .

Relief.

RELIEF .

From an Unpublished Volume of Masonic Somiets , BY BRO . GEORGE HARKHAM TWEDDELL . OPEN thine ear to listen to the tale

Which Sorrow longs to tell thee ; let th y heart Sympathise with all sufferings ; or no part Of Masonry is thine . If thy hand fail To deal such bounty as thou can ' st afford ; Or thy heart fail in sympathy , though thou May give Relief reluctantly , —bestow

Alms thou had ' st rather hoarded ; sweet accord With our dear Craft dwells not within thy soul . We must relieve the destitute , or we Are rank impostors in Freemasonry , — Which all our thoughts and actions should control To give Relief by kindly word and deed , To Brother , Widow , Orphan , and all who need . Rose Cottage , Stohesleij .