Yorkshire Abbeys Earlier in the summer several thousands of worshippers
were gathered at Rievaulx Abbey to celebrate its founda- tion 800 years ago. The first service, it is believed, since the Dissolution was held there. This was due to the initiative of the Roman Catholic Church, and we must not grudge them the credit. Last Sunday another vast congregation, including the Duke and Duchess of York, met to celebrate with a solemn service the same event in the history of another great Yorkshire Cistercian Abbey, Fountains. The Bishop of the Diocese invited . other denominations to be represented, and many were, but not the Roman Catholics whose rules forbade them. We hope that these and other consecrated spots, though roofless, may often again be so used. The beauty of the sites and of the remaining architecture, with the romantic history, is infinitely inspiring. We think with pride of our modern cathedral-building at Truro and Liverpool, but that is a trifle compared with the output of the exiguous population of England in the twelfth century, when the desire to do honour to God inspired the building of England's cathedrals, abbeys, minsters, of which the many survivors or ruins in Yorkshire are but a few, though unsurpassed examples. And historians to-day are teaching us about the work for agriculture and other arts which is due to the enlightened clergy and monks of those times.
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