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Page 200:-
as it was always surmised, to be Dr. Southey - that we cannot
help quoting him:- 'A hermit who could wish his grave to be as
quiet as his cell, could find no better resting-place. On three
sides there was an irregular low stone wall, rather to mark the
limits of the sacred ground, than to enclose it; on the fourth it
was bounded by a brook, whose waters proceed by a subterranean
channel from Weathercote Cave. Two or three alders and rowan
trees hung over the brook, and shed their leaves and seeds into
the stream. Some bushy hazels grew at intervals along the lines
of the walls, and a few ash trees as the wind had sown them. To
the east and west some fields adjoined it, in that state of
half-cultivation which gives a human character to solitude; to
the south, on the other side of the brook, the common, with its
limestone rocks peering everywhere above ground, extended to the
foot of Ingleborough. A craggy hill, feathered with birch,
sheltered it from the north. The turf was as soft and fine as
that of the adjoining hills; it was seldom broken, so scanty was
the population to which it was appropriated; scarcely a thistle
or a nettle deformed it, and a few tomb-stones which had been
placed there, were now themselves half buried. The sheep came
over the wall when they listed, and sometimes took shelter in the
porch from the storm. Their voices, and the cry of the kite
wheeling above, were the only sounds which were heard there,
except when the single bell, which hung in its niche over the
entrance, tinkled for service on the Sabbath-day, or, with a
slower tongue, gave notice that one of the children of the soil
was returning to the earth from whence he sprung.'
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