Yorkshire

I recently had the pleasure of accepting my first invitation as a seminar speaker, at a university up in Yorkshire. It was not the first time I had spoken to a group or given a conference paper, but it was the first time I had been invited to do so. It was a great experience, mostly for the chance to spend time with my good friend John, whom I met last summer at the Huntington Library. John is a professor at the university and was the one who invited me and then proceeded to give me the red carpet treatment. I must admit that it was strange but fun to be a guest of honor somewhere with people asking you questions, shaking your hand, buying you dinner etc. It was a blast. I think the paper went well too. There was definitely room for improvement, but I felt good about the paper, even if I got a bit nervous and my presentation was less than stellar.

But the real pleasure was not at the academy, but the chance to spend a long weekend with John, his wife Suzanne, and their two young daughters, who were delightful. It was just good old-fashioned fun to stay with a friend in a foreign country and savor some of the little differences. They live in a little village that H has already talked about, and it is a truly bucolic and splendid place. After a quick tour of the parish church, which looked at least 15th c. or older to untrained eye, we went to pick up his eldest daughter. An hour of kite-flying on the village green was next, followed by afternoon tea and biscuits (the sweet, not savory, kind). Was that civilized or what?

The next day was highlighted by a trip to Jervaulx Abbey. H talked about Jervaulx a little bit, but I wanted to highlight our trip there, as I was seriously impressed. Jervaulx is a ruined Cistercian abbey, and the Cistercians (who generally founded their abbeys in remote wasteland) picked a good spot, as it is still really remote. The best thing about it, however, was the setting. Some of the ruined abbeys in Yorkshire are in almost such good condition that you could slap a roof on them and put them back into service, but not Jervaulx.

Jervaulx enjoys several benefits that make it so striking compared to many of its sister houses. The fact that it is a little more ruined than most meant it was tourist free – there was only one other party of people there, and we rarely saw them as we wandered the grounds. But it was not so ruined that you did not know what it was – its remoteness saved it from being pillaged by local farmers and peasants who wanted cheap building materials in the 500 years since its destruction.

Finally, the owners really got the landscaping right. It sounds funny, but since Jervaulx Abbey is privately owned, the owners can do what they please with it. We explored the grounds by playing hide and seek with their seven year-old daughter, which wouldn’t be possible in a crowded, commercial place. In many cases private ownership is a potential nightmare, but the present owners got it just right. Romantics would be jealous, as there is a proper mix of ruins and flowers, mowing, and little touches, like benches to enjoy the landscape.

But maybe it was just the rainy, English afternoon that made it bucolic and perfect. While it was so wet that the sheep were lounging under the trees to stay dry, it could not have been any more atmospheric or enjoyable.