The Abbey

These were the skyscrapers of their day -- the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They were built in the greatness of God; built to inspire awe and humility.

As large as it looked on the top of the hill it looked even larger when you were there -- inside it. You looked up and up and up before meeting the sky.

The abbey was closed by Henry VIII in the middle of the sixteenth century. It was used for stone and otherwise left to the weather. In the eighteenth century one whole wall collapsed. All that remains is the ruin of the cloister -- though English Heritage is doing archaeological digs to find remnants of the other buildings that were part of the abbey.

Like the cathedral at Durham it seems to stretch farther than the eye can see. Standing one-third of the way into it you see.

Go forward and then turn and look back.

There were ways to measure it size that were less awe inspired and more joyful: Trying to reach around a pillar. Climbing up the wall. Posing on what had been a giant pillar.

The texture is soft colors, soft edges -- befitting walls that have been in place 600 years.