Within the Precincts: Volume 3

by Mrs. Oliphant

Held its reverend court upon the hill. The Abbey was as splendid as any cathedral, and possessed a dean and chapter, though no bishop. It was of Late Gothic, perpendicular and magnificent; and the walls and towers which still surrounded it, and even the old houses within the precincts, were older still than the Abbey, and could have furnished many bits' to make the heart of a mediaeval architect glad. The very turf which filled the quadrangle and clothed the slope of the Dean's Walk was a...