In England somewhere between Barden Tower
and Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire, lies one of nature's most mysterious booby
traps. Although it’s a small innocuous-looking mountain stream, around 6 feet
across, famous as “Bolton Strid”, or simply the “Strid”. Nonetheless underneath
the water's surface is a deep chasm with commanding undercurrents that pulls anyone
that falls into it to sure death. Therefore, it is strongly believed that not a
solitary person who has fallen into the “Strid” has ever come out of it alive.
Not even their bodies as well. To be sure, it is well believed that the name “Strid
comes from the word “stride”. The human nature assume, they can jump the creek,
walk across in the stone, or even wade through it, so most of time, the attempt
gets in vain and they lost in Strid. The extravagant attempt means; there are just
dozens of corpses down there, pinned to the walls of the underground chasms,
waiting for you to join them. It looks all stupid and harmless, but the second
your foot touches the surface, you get some bullshit drowning animation and die
instantly.
The people are unable to understand how a
small mountain brook can have such a treacherous reputation, take a walk
upstream. In less than 100 yards, this “small” stream will have stretched to a considerable
river 30 feet across. Thus, it is River Wharfe which runs through Yorkshire, but
when it comes to the zone of Bolton Abbey the river is forced through a thin
gap causing the water to gain incredible speed and depth. As a result, the thin
gap on the Strid is only an illusion as both banks are extremely undercut. Furthermore,
unseen underneath is a network of caverns and tunnels that hold all of the rest
of the river's water. Hence, no one exactly knows how deep the Strid goes. Also,
on the surface the Strid appears so uncertain and the banks so close to each
other that various foolhardy peoples in the past have assumed they could jump
across it, or walk across its stones because it only seems knee-deep. However
if there happens to be a bout of particularly dry weather, the waterline does
start to drop, and you can just see the tops of the huge formations below. So,
beautiful rivers can certainly be dangerous to humans – the Nile has lots of
crocodiles, the Zambesi will push you over the Victoria Falls, and beware of
swallowing water from the lower reaches of the Colorado. Whilst the Strid is
also striking, and looks harmless, it’s likewise deadly. It kills because of
its geomorphology the form of the channel, which is influenced by the nature of
the rocks over which it tumbles.
Further,
there are warnings signs on trees around the area to stay away people to try
the leap. And so, still there are number of stories of persons slipping and
getting sucked cruelly into the underwater caves and eroded tunnels. The
William de Romilly, the son of Lady Alic de Romilly, was unluckily victim, who
went to see Bolton Strid and try to leap across the Strid but perished. His mom
was went in deep depression, so grieved by her precious loss that she donated
the surrounding land to establish the Bolton Priory monastery. This sad legend
was later immortalized by William Wordsworth in his poem “The Force of Prayer”.
Which is as below?
This striding-place is called THE STRID,
A name which it took of yore:
A thousand years hath it borne that name,
And shall a thousand more.
And hither is young Romilly come,
And what may now forbid
That he, perhaps for the hundredth time,
Shall bound across THE STRID?
He sprang in glee,- or what cared he’
That the river was strong, and the rocks were steep? –
But the greyhound in the leash hung back,
And checked him in his leap.
The Boy is in the arms of Wharf,
And strangled by a merciless force;
For never more was young Romilly seen
Till he rose a lifeless corse.
