Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/274

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[262]

Mr. Weddell, and heave a sigh over the monument of departed taste, urbanity, and benevolence. Under his marble bust is a tablet with the following inscription:

" To the memory of WILLIAM WEDDELL, esq; of Newby, in whom every virtue that ennobles the mind was united with every elegance that adorns it, this Monument, a faint emblem of his refined taste, is dedicated by his Widow;

Whom what awaits, while yet she strays
Along the lonely vale of days?
A pang, to secret sorrow dear
A sigh an unavailing tear
Till time shall every grief remove,
With life, with memory, and with love.

Obiit 1789."

These beautiful lines, you know, are Gray's; but adopted with peculiar felicity by one who has never ceased to feel the severity of a loss as heavy as it is irremediable. The church is a long irregular pile, built at different periods. This is sufficiently evident in the choir, the north side of which is of Saxon, the other members of Gothic, architecture. Its remarkable ornament is a screen of most beautiful and tasteful work. An handsome obelisk in the spacious market-place of Ripon is a monument of the liberality of the late William Aislabie, esq; whose celebrated residence, Studley-Park, is only three miles from this town.