"Sir," said my guide, "a dead king lies buried beneath this stone.

He was a mighty man of valour and founded the abbey.

He was called Eliseg." "Perhaps Ellis," said I, "and if his name was Ellis the stone was very properly called Colofn Eliseg, in Saxon the Ellisian column." The view from the column is very beautiful, below on the south-east is the venerable abbey, slumbering in its green meadow.

Beyond it runs a stream, descending from the top of a glen, at the bottom of which the old pile is situated; beyond the stream is a lofty hill.

The glen on the north is bounded by a noble mountain, covered with wood.