Bolton Abbey

William Wordsworth

From Bolton's old monastic tower
The bells ring loud with gladsome power;
The sun shines bright; the fields are gay
With people in their best array
Of stole and doublet, hood and scarf,
Along the banks of crystal Wharf,
Through the vale retired and lowly.
Trooping to that summons holy.
And, up among the moorlands, see
What sprinklings of blithe company!
Of lasses and of shepherd grooms,
That down the steep hills force their way
Like cattle through the budding brooms;
Path, or no path, what care they?
And thus in joyous mood they hie
To Bolton's mouldering Priory.

[Extract]

Bolton Abbey is one of those magnificent ruins that inspired the Romantic poets and painters like Turner and Landseer. The Abbey was initially founded in 1120 and dissolved in the sixteenth century along with many others.

It stands next to the River Wharf in Yorkshire.

A number of other poets have also written poems about Bolton Abbey.


Main Location:

Bolton Abbey, North Yorkshire, England

The poetic ruins of Bolton Abbey on the River Wharf in Yorkshire

The author of many poems about places, the great William Wordsworth