lenoth is feventy feet, but it once extended above one and twenty
feet farther W e ft; there being ftill at that end a good rounded
arch, now filled up.
'i This church is of great antiquity, but the date o f the foundation
unknown. It was granted in the time o f William the conqueror*
to the abby o f St. Mary's, in York, and then mention’d
as a chapel.
Beneath it is a handfome bridge o f three arches over the Eden, a
beautiful river. Ride for two miles over a rich and well cultivated
track, to Corbie caftle, now a modern houfe, feated on an eminence C o r b i e c a s t l e .
above the river, which runs through a deep and finely wooded glen ;
that part next the houfe judicioufly planned and laid out in walks:
in one of them is the votive altar engraven in Mr. Gordon’s Itinerary,
tab. 43, with tolerable exaitnefs, except on the top, for the hollow
is triangular, not round.
"f The fight from this walk of the celebrated cells, and the arch o f W e t h e r e l
the antient priory, were fo tempting that I could not refift crofting c e l l s .
the river to pay a vifit to thofe curious remains. The laft is the
gateway of the religious houfe o i Wetherel, with its fine elliptic arch :
the houfe was once a cell to the abby o f St. Mary, in York, given by
Rarnlph de Mefchints, Earl of Carlile, and maintained a prior andeight
monks -f*.
If A little farther, in the midft of a vaft precipice, environ’d with
woods, are cut, with much labor, fome deep cells in the live rock :
the front and entrance (the laft is on one fide) are made of fine cut-
ftone; in the front are three windows, and a fire-place: the cells
* Dugdak's Umafi, I. 397. 4 73,-4. jg g .
are