but they live. The elm has wholly disappeared. Mr. Walbran's maternal great-grandfather remembered "the stump of an enormous elm tree in the last stage of decay, which was called 'the Fountain's elm.'" It stood "between the river Skell and the stream from Stank's pond, not far from the eastern boundary of the Abbey site." But the smooth turf covers the place. Only the yews look down from their gentle hill upon the broken walls. There they were when the monks came, a little adventurous company, to begin their life of seclusion and prayer. Their leaves were green when the Abbey rose in splendour, and mitred abbots walked in their shadow. They saw the expulsion of the convent and the ruin of the monastery. They are a symbol of the persistence of the quiet, elemental forces amidst our human chance and change.
The monks of Fountains Abbey belonged to the Cistercian Order.
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