Sentence:  ... I cannot find words to express the intense pleasure I have always in first finding myself, after some prolonged stay in England, at the foot of the old tower of Calais church. The large neglect, the noble unsightliness of it; the record of its years written so visibly, yet without sign of weakness or decay; its stern <WSD>wasteness</WSD> and gloom, eaten away by the Channel winds, and overgrown with the bitter sea grasses ... 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  The state of being uncultivated; wild, barren.