The finest part of the ruins is undoubtedly the church, which, with the exception of the roof and the north piers of the nave, still stands complete.  It has a nave of six bays with aisles, a choir of four bays with aisles, the transepts with eastern aisles having two chapels.  A transverse Galilee stood formerly beyond the western entrance.  In the north transept are remains of the dormitory stairs, and on this side the cloisters, too, were situated.  The aumbry, parlor, sacristy, chapterhouse, slype to the infirmary, day-stairs to dormitory and undercroft were on the east side of the cloisters; the postern and river gate, over which was the abbot’s lodge on the north side, and also the buttery, refectory, and kitchen.  The delicacy of design and execution to be seen in the ruins is unrivaled in the kingdom—­the tracery of the windows being particularly fine.  The ruined church possesses the grace and lightness of architecture peculiar to the twelfth century, and is, even in its decay, of truly sublime and grand proportions.  Time has been unable to obliterate the skilful work of our forefathers, for the Early English transition arches, the delicate molding, and the exquisite stone tracery in the windows still delight the eye.  The history of Tintern is almost a hidden page in the chronicles of time.  On the surrender of Raglan Castle to the Cromwellian troops by the Marquis of Worcester, the castle was razed to the ground, and with it were lost the abbey records, which had been taken from Tintern when the abbey was granted to the Marquis’s ancestor by Henry VIII.  It is known, however, that the first foundation on the site was in the hands of a cousin of William the Conqueror, Richard Bienfaite by name.  He founded the abbey in 1131, and was succeeded by his nephew, Gilbert “Strongbow.”  His granddaughter Isabel married the then Earl of Pembroke, and her daughter, marrying Hugh Bigod, brought the estates to the ducal house of Norfolk.

III

CASTLES AND STATELY HOMES

Living in great houses [Footnote:  From “England Without and Within.”  By arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co.  Copyright, 1881.]

BY RICHARD GRANT WHITE

Now I will tell you a little—­it can be but a little—­about life in the “great houses,” as they are called here.  When you are asked to come to one, a train is suggested, and you are told that a carriage will be at the station to meet you.  Somehow the footman manages to find you out.  At ——­ which is a little station at which few people get out, I had hardly left the train when a very respectable-looking person, not a footman, stept up to me and said, “Lord ——­’s carriage is waiting for you, sir.”  The carriage and the footman and coachman were, of course, on the other side of the building.  My drive from