BOLTON ABBEY - CHOIR EAST c.1900

Yet another of the Yorkshire sites visited by the Millers in 1906 was Bolton Abbey. This is a card published by Valentines of Dundee as part of their series of cards for the tourist market numbered 16681. The Abbey is actually a Priory founded in 1154 by the Augustinian order, on the banks of the River Wharfe. The land at Bolton, as well as other resources, were given to the order by Lady Alice de Romille of Skipton Castle in 1154.

The ruins of the Priory have become some of the most celebrated images of Romantic England. The setting is immortalised in both in art and poetry. Famous images include paintings by Edwin Landseer and watercolours by J. M. W. Turner. A blurred photo of the Abbey is on the cover of Faith by The Cure, an album from 1981.

The Millers collected six cards from their visit to the Bolton Abbey Estate. This renowned beauty spot forms part of the Duke of Devonshire's country estate and includes the riverside walk through the woods to the Strid, a notorious and dangerous stretch of water where the River Wharfe is forced into a deep thundering channel.

I believe that the the Millers were actually following what is today called the Turner Trail. They visited sites painted by the great J.M.W. Turner. But I think too that they were aware of Wordsworth's poetry. Four years before their world tour they lost their only child Gwendoline who had died of diabetes and heart disease at age thirteen. William Wordsworth had visited Bolton Abbey in 1807. He wrote two poems based around his visit there. One of them is about the loss of a child and the power of prayer:

""What is good for a bootless bene?"
With these dark words begins my Tale;
And their meaning is, whence can comfort spring
When Prayer is of no avail?

"What is good for a bootless bene?"
The Falconer to the Lady said;
And she made answer "ENDLESS SORROW!"
For she knew that her Son was dead.
.......

Long, long in darkness did she sit,
And her first words were, "Let there be
In Bolton, on the field of Wharf,
A stately Priory!"

The stately Priory was reared;
And Wharf, as he moved along,
To matins joined a mournful voice,
Nor failed at evensong.

And the Lady prayed in heaviness
That looked not for relief!
But slowly did her succour come,
And a patience to her grief.

Oh! there is never sorrow of heart
That shall lack a timely end,
If but to God we turn, and ask
Of Him to be our friend!"

("THE FORCE OF PRAYER or THE FOUNDING OF BOLTON PRIORY")