Among the eleven water-colour drawings by Turner which Messrs. Christie sold in July1882 for Mr. Ruskin was the sketch of Eggleston Abbey, engraved by Higham for Whitaker's History of Richmondshire. In Mr. Ruskin's 1878 catalogue this sketch, under the head of Fourth Group-Reality-England at Rest, is described as "one of the finest of the series in its foliage; notable also for intense truth to the spot." And he has spoken elsewhere of "the quiet sincerity of transcript with which Turner's younger spirit reverenced the streams of Greta and Tees."

The colours are, as was even then pointed out, a good deal faded, but, having seen the picture first and then the place, I can at least testify that, unlike some of the most beautiful of the master's works, it is easily recognisable. My efforts to discover the precise point of view, which must have been somewhere in the bed of the stream, were not successful, but the engraving in “ Whitaker" will enable any one who is so disposed to renew the by no means arduous attempt.

So much has been said and written about the romantic beauty of the Tees and the country about Barnard Castle, that it is something to be able to say that the glamour is really there. The descriptions with which Rokeby abounds are not perhaps among

the highest efforts of the genius of Sir Walter Scott; but somehow, in the familiar ring of Edmund of Winfson's song, it is all gathered as true poetry alone can gather and preserve the very odour and aspect of natural beauty.

"O, Brignal banks are wild and fair
And Greta woods are green;
And you may gather garlands there
Would grace a summer queen."

Eggleston Abbey stands higher than St. Agatha's, and looks down upon the junction of the Thorsgill Beck and the Tees. The remains of the sacristy,1 etc., and dormitory above, have been so much disguised by conversion to other uses that they are now more picturesque than instructive. Farm implements lie here and there in the cloister-court, and from the ruins emerge, in place of white-robed canons, a mild-eyed mare and foal. But the church itself— up which dashed Bertram of Risingham, on a somewhat different steed-has much interest and not a little beauty. It was never a very grand or elaborate building, but it grew in the usual fashion. The north side of the very short nave (or perhaps westward extension of the ritual choir) has windows, round inside and widely splayed, but externally

1 The chapter-house was octagonal and stood clear of this range.