A T O U R
are three in number, divided by partitions o f the native rock, foJ
feet three inches thick: each is twelve feet eight inches deep, ani
about nine feet fix wide in the lower part, where they are more exJ
tenfive than in their beginning : before them, from the door to thcl
end, is a fort o f gallery twenty-three feet and a half long, boundcjl
by the front, which hangs at an awful height above the Edit,I
There are marks of bolts, bars and other fecurities in the window!
and door ; and veltiges,. which Ihew that there had. been doors to thel
cells.
Thefe are called Conftantine's cells, but more commonly the Jam
guard, being fuppofed to have been the retreat of the monks of the!
neighboring priory, during the inroads o f the Scots; no one whsl
fees them will doubt their fecurity, being approachable only by a.
moft horrible path, amidil: woods that grow rather out of precipices!
than (lopes, impending over the far fubjacent river ; and to encreafel
the difficulty, the door is placed at no fm4ll height from this only]
acoefs, fo that probably the monks afcended by aladder, which they
might draw up to fecure their retreat.
I fearched without fuccefs for the infcription on the fame-rock, a
little higher up the river. The words, as preferved in the Archaik\
gia *, are
Maximus fcripfit
Le xx vv cond : cafofius.
The firft line is faid to be a yard diftant from the other, ani
near, is a coarfe figure of a deer. The meaning is too dark to be
explained.
* I. 86.
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