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In 1540, the abbey and  quite a bit of its property  was sold to Sir Richard Gresham,  then to Stephen Proctor,  who built Fountains Hall  partly out of stone  from the Abbey's ruins.  The people of the seventeenth  and eighteenth centuries  posessed quite a passion for  the 'romantic ruin',  and the wonderful, sprawling  ruins of Fountains Abbey  became part of the landscaping  of Fountains Hall.    | 
 
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