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diff --git a/15053.txt b/15053.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..34d3198 --- /dev/null +++ b/15053.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7134 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Evolution Of An English Town, by Gordon Home + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Evolution Of An English Town + +Author: Gordon Home + +Release Date: February 14, 2005 [EBook #15053] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVOLUTION OF AN ENGLISH TOWN *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Andy Schmitt and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +THE EVOLUTION OF AN ENGLISH TOWN + +Being the story of the ancient town of PICKERING in Yorkshire from +Prehistoric times up to the year of our Lord Nineteen Hundred & 5 + +BY GORDON HOME + + + + +TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE GIVEN THEIR GENEROUS HELP IN THE COMPILATION OF THIS +BOOK + + + + +PREFACE + + +The original suggestion that I should undertake this task came from the +Vicar of Pickering, and it is due to his co-operation and to the great +help received from Dr John L. Kirk that this history has attained its +present form. But beyond this I have had most valuable assistance from so +many people in Pickering and the villages round about, that to mention +them all would almost entail reprinting the local directory. I would +therefore ask all those people who so kindly put themselves to great +trouble and who gave up much time in order to help me, to consider that +they have contributed very materially towards the compilation of this +record. + +Beyond those who live in the neighbourhood of Pickering, I am particularly +indebted to Mr Richard Blakeborough for his kind help and the use of his +invaluable collection of Yorkshire folklore. Mr Blakeborough was keen on +collecting the old stories of hobs, wraithes and witches just long enough +ago to be able to tap the memories of many old people who are no longer +with us, and thus his collection is now of great value. Nearly all the +folklore stories I am able to give, are those saved from oblivion in this +way. + +I have also had much help from Mr J. Romilly Allen and from Mr T.M. Fallow +of Coatham, who very generously gave his aid in deciphering some of the +older records of Pickering. + +To Professor Percy F. Kendall who so kindly gave me permission to +reproduce his map showing the Vale of Pickering during the Glacial Epoch, +as well as other valuable help, I am also greatly indebted; and I have to +thank Professor W. Boyd Dawkins for his kindness in reading some of the +proofs, and for giving valuable suggestions. + +GORDON HOME. + +EPSOM, _May 1905_. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PREFACE. + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + +INTRODUCTION + +CHAPTER I +CONCERNING THOSE WHICH FOLLOW + +CHAPTER II +THE FOREST AND VALE OF PICKERING IN PALAEOLITHIC AND PRE-GLACIAL TIMES + +CHAPTER III +THE VALE OF PICKERING IN THE LESSER ICE AGE + +CHAPTER IV +THE EARLY INHABITANTS OF THE FOREST AND VALE OF PICKERING + +CHAPTER V +HOW THE ROMAN OCCUPATION OF BRITAIN AFFECTED THE FOREST AND VALE OF +PICKERING, B.C. 55 TO A.D. 418 + +CHAPTER VI +THE FOREST AND VALE IN SAXON TIMES, A.D. 418 TO 1066 + +CHAPTER VII +THE FOREST AND VALE IN NORMAN TIMES, A.D. 1066 TO 1154 + +CHAPTER VIII +THE FOREST AND VALE IN THE TIME OF THE PLANTAGENETS, A.D. 1154 TO 1485 + +CHAPTER IX +THE FOREST AND VALE IN TUDOR TIMES, A.D. 1485 TO 1603 + +CHAPTER X +THE FOREST AND VALE IN STUART TIMES, A.D. 1603 TO 1714 + +CHAPTER XI +THE FOREST AND VALE IN GEORGIAN TIMES, A.D. 1714 TO 1837 + +CHAPTER XII +THE FOREST AND VALE FROM EARLY VICTORIAN TIMES UP TO THE PRESENT DAY, A.D. +1837 TO 1905 + +CHAPTER XIII +Concerning the Villages and Scenery of the Forest and Vale of Pickering + +CHAPTER XIV +Concerning the Zoology of the Forest and Vale + + * * * * * + +Books of Reference + +List of the Vicars of Pickering + +Index + + +THE PURPOSE OF THE FOOTNOTES + +Having always considered footnotes an objectionable feature, I have +resorted to them solely for reference purposes. Therefore, the reader who +does not wish to look up my authorities need not take the slightest notice +of the references to the footnotes, which in no case contain additional +facts, but merely indications of the sources of information. + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +Pickering Church from Hall Garth (_Coloured_) + +Pickering From The North-West + +Rosamund Tower, Pickering Castle + +Kirkdale Cave + +Hyaenas' Jaws + +Elephants' Teeth + +Bear's Tusk + +Pickering Lake in Ice Age + +Newtondale in Ice Age + +Pickering Lake, Eastern End + +Scamridge Dykes + +Pre-Historic Weapons + +Leaf-shaped Arrow Head + +Lake Dwellings Relics + +Remains of Pre-Historic Animals from Lake Dwellings + +Skeleton of Bronze Age + +A Quern + +Urns in Pickering Museum + +Sketch Map of Roman Road and Camps + +The Tower of Middleton Church + +Ancient Font and Crosses + +Saxon Sundial at Kirkdale + +Saxon Sundial at Edstone + +Pre-Norman Remains near Pickering + +Saxon Stones at Kirkdale + +Saxon Stones at Sinnington + +South Side of the Nave of Pickering Church + +Norman Doorway at Salton + +Norman Work at Ellerburne + +The Crypt at Lastingham + +Norman Font at Edstone + +Wall Paintings in Pickering Church + +The Devil's Tower, Pickering Castle + +Wall Painting of St Christopher + +Wall Painting of St Edmund and Acts of Mercy + +Wall Painting of Herod's Feast and Martyrdom of St Thomas A Becket + +Effigy of Sir William Bruce + +Effigies in Bruce Chapel + +Holy Water Stoup in Pickering Church + +Sanctus Bell + +Cattle Marks + +Section of Fork Cottage + +Details of Fork Cottage + +Pickering Castle from the Keep + +Pre-Reformation Chalice + +Font at Pickering Church + +Alms Box at Pickering Church + +House in which Duke of Buckingham Died + +Maypole on Sinnington Green + +Inverted Stone Coffin at Wykeham + +Magic Cubes + +Newtondale, showing the Coach Railway + +Relics of Witchcraft + +A Love Garter + +Horn of the Sinnington Hunt + +Interior of the Oldest Type of Cottage + +Ingle-Nook at Gallow Hill Farm + +Autographs of Wordsworth and Mary Hutchinson + +Riding t' Fair + +Halbert and Spetum + +Old Key of Castle + +Pickering Shambles + +The Old Pickering Fire-Engine + +Market Cross at Thornton-le-Dale + +Lockton Village + +The Black Hole of Thornton-le-Dale + +Hutton Buscel Church + +Sketch Map of the Pickering District + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Every preface in olden time was wont to begin with the address "Lectori +Benevolo"--the indulgence of the reader being thereby invoked and, it was +hoped, assured. In that the writer of this at least would have his share, +even though neither subject, nor author, that he introduces, may stand in +need of such a shield. + +Local histories are yearly becoming more numerous. In few places is there +more justification for one than here. + +I. The beauty of the scenery is not well known. This book should do +something to vindicate its character. There is no need on this point to go +back to the time of George III.'s conversation at the levee with Mrs +Pickering's grandfather. "I suppose you are going back to Yorkshire, Mr +Stanhope? A very ugly country, Yorkshire." This was too much for my +grandfather--(the story is told in her own words)--"We always consider +Yorkshire a very picturesque country." "What, what, what," said the King, +"a coalpit a picturesque object! what, what, what, Yorkshire coalpits +picturesque! Yorkshire a picturesque country!"[1] Only within the last few +months one of us had a letter refusing to consider a vacant post: the +reason given being that this was a colliery district. There is no pit to +be found for miles. Many can, and do, walk, cycle, or motor through the +Vale. Others, who are unable to come and see for themselves, will, with +the help of Mr Home, be in a better position to appreciate at its true +worth the charm of the haughs and the changing views of the distant Wolds, +and of the russet brown or purple expanse of the upland moors. + +[Footnote 1: "Memoirs of Anna M.W. Pickering."] + +II. The stranger on a visit, no less the historian or antiquary, has till +now often been puzzled for a clue, and ignorant where to turn for +authentic data, would he attempt to weave for himself a connected idea of +the incidents of the past and their bearing on the present. There has been +no lack of material buried in ancient records, or preserved in the common +oral traditions of the folk: but hitherto no coherent account that has +been published. Speaking for ourselves, we are glad the task of dealing +with the "raffled hank" of timeworn customs and obscure traditions as well +as the more easily ascertained facts of history is falling to the author's +practised pen. For the future, at any rate, there should be less +difficulty in understanding the manner of life and method of rule with +which past and present generations belonging to the Town of Pickering have +been content to dwell. + +III. "Foreigners"[1] are sometimes at a loss to understand the peculiar +spirit of those who in York, for instance, are known as "Moor-enders." +This spirit shows itself in different ways; but perhaps in nothing so much +as the intense attachment of the townsmen to their birthplace. This local +patriotism is no whit behind that to be found in Spain--"seldom indeed a +Spaniard says he is a Spaniard, but speaks of himself as being from +Seville, Cadiz, or some forgotten town in La Mancha, of which he speaks +with pride, referring to it as 'mi tierra.'"[2] Our readers will learn +there is some reason for this attachment; and may, like some of us, who +tho' born elsewhere claim adoption as citizens, fall under the witchery of +its spell. + +[Footnote 1: C.R.L. Fletcher in his "History of England" tells us that +townsmen of the thirteenth century were wont to brand their brethren in +all the neighbouring towns as "foreigners." Those we call foreigners, they +called aliens. The expression itself was made use of not long ago at a +meeting of the Urban Council.] + +[Footnote 2: R.B. Cunninghame Graham, "Hernando de Soto."] + +May the venture to compass these ends succeed, to use an old saying, "ez +sartin ez t' thorn-bush."[1] + +[Footnote 1: It used to be the custom for the parson to collect the tithe +by placing a branch of thorn in every tenth stook; he choosing the stooks +and sending his cart along for them. R. Blakeborough, "Yorkshire Humour +and Customs."] + +E.W.D. + +The Vicarage, Pickering. + +_25th September_ 1904. + + + + +THE EVOLUTION + +OF AN + +ENGLISH TOWN + + + +CHAPTER I + +_Concerning those which follow_ + + "Brother," quod he, "where is now youre dwellyng, + Another day if that I sholde you seche?" + This yeman hym answerde, in softe speche: + "Brother," quod he, "fer in the north contree, + Where as I hope som tyme I shal thee see." + +_The Friar's Tale. Chaucer._ + + +In the North Riding of Yorkshire, there is a town of such antiquity that +its beginnings are lost far away in the mists of those times of which no +written records exist. What this town was originally called, it is +impossible to say, but since the days of William the Norman (a pleasanter +sounding name than "the Conqueror,") it has been consistently known as +Pickering, although there has always been a tendency to spell the name +with y's and to abandon the c, thus producing the curious-looking result +of _Pykeryng_; its sound, however was the same. + +In his Chronicles, John Stow states on the authority of "divers writers" +that Pickering was built in the year 270 B.C., but I am inclined to think +that the earliest settlements on the site or in the neighbourhood of the +present town must have been originated at an infinitely earlier period. + +But despite its undisputed antiquity there are many even in Yorkshire who +have never heard of the town, and in the south of England it is difficult +to find anyone who is aware that such a place exists. At Rennes during the +great military trial there was a Frenchman who asked "Who is Dreyfus?" and +we were surprised at such ignorance of a name that had been on the lips of +all France for years, but yet we discover ourselves to be astonishingly +lacking in the knowledge of our own little island and find ourselves +asking "why should anyone trouble to write a book about a town of which so +few have even heard?" But it is often in the out-of-the-way places that +historical treasures are preserved, and it is mainly for this reason and +the fact that the successive periods of growth are so well demonstrated +there, that the ancient town of Pickering has been selected to illustrate +the evolution of an English town. + +I have endeavoured to produce a complete series of pictures commencing +with the Ice Age and finishing at the dawn of the twentieth century. In +the earlier chapters only a rough outline is possible, but as we come down +the centuries and the records become more numerous and varied, fuller +details can be added to the pictures of each age, and we may witness how +much or how little the great series of dynastic, constitutional, religious +and social changes effected a district that is typical of many others in +the remoter parts of England. + +[Illustration: Pickering from the North-West.] + +Built on sloping ground that rises gently from the rich, level pastures of +the Vale of Pickering, the town has a picturesque and pleasant site. At +the top of the market-place where the ground becomes much steeper stands +the church, its grey bulk dominating every view. From all over the Vale +one can see the tall spire, and from due east or west it has a surprising +way of peeping over the hill tops. It has even been suggested that the +tower and spire have been a landmark for a very long time, owing to the +fact that where the hills and formation of the ground do not obstruct the +view, or make road-making difficult, the roads make straight for the +spire. + +With few exceptions the walls of the houses are of the same weather-beaten +limestone as the church and the castle, but seen from above the whole town +is transformed into a blaze of red, the curved tiles of the locality +retaining their brilliant hue for an indefinite period. Only a very few +thatched roofs remain to-day, but the older folks remember when most of +the houses were covered in that picturesque fashion. + +Pickering has thus lost its original uniform greyness, relieved here and +there by whitewash, and presents strong contrasts of colour against the +green meadows and the masses of trees that crown the hill where the castle +stands. The ruins, now battered and ivy-mantled, are dignified and +picturesque and still sufficiently complete to convey a clear impression +of the former character of the fortress, three of the towers at angles of +the outer walls having still an imposing aspect. The grassy mounds and +shattered walls of the interior would, however, be scarcely recognisable +to the shade of Richard II. if he were ever to visit the scene of his +imprisonment. + +Since the time of Henry VIII. when Leland described the castle, whole +towers and all the interior buildings except the chapel have disappeared. +The chief disasters probably happened before the Civil War, although we +are told, by one or two eighteenth century writers, as an instance of the +destruction that was wrought, that after the Parliamentary forces had +occupied the place and "breached the walls," great quantities of papers +and parchments were scattered about Castle-gate, the children being +attracted to pick them up, many of them bearing gilt letters. During the +century which has just closed, more damage was done to the buildings and +in a short time all the wooden floors in the towers completely +disappeared. + +Stories are told of the Parliamentary troops being quartered in Pickering +church, and, if this were true, we have every reason to bless the coats of +whitewash which probably hid the wall-paintings from their view. The +series of fifteenth century pictures that now cover both walls of the nave +would have proved so very distasteful to the puritan soldiery that it is +impossible to believe that they could have tolerated their existence, +especially when we find it recorded that the font was smashed and the +large prayer-book torn to pieces at that time. + +[Illustration: Rosamund Tower, Pickering Castle.] + +Pickering church has a fascination for the antiquary, and does not fail to +impress even the most casual person who wanders into the churchyard and +enters the spacious porch. The solemn massiveness of the Norman nave, the +unusual effect of the coloured paintings above the arches, and the carved +stone effigies of knights whose names are almost forgotten, carry one away +from the familiar impressions of a present-day Yorkshire town, and almost +suggest that one is living in mediaeval times. One can wander, too, on the +moors a few miles to the north and see heather stretching away to the most +distant horizon and feel that there, also, are scenes which have been +identically the same for many centuries. The men of the Neolithic and +Bronze Ages may have swept their eyes over landscapes so similar that they +would find the moorlands quite as they knew them, although they would miss +the dense forests of the valleys and the lower levels. + +The cottages in the villages are, many of them, of great age, and most of +them have been the silent witnesses of innumerable superstitious rites and +customs. When one thoroughly realises the degrading character of the +beliefs that so powerfully swayed the lives of the villagers and +moorland-folk of this district, as late as the first twenty years of the +nineteenth century, one can only rejoice that influences arose +sufficiently powerful to destroy them. Along with the revolting practises, +however, it is extremely unfortunate to have to record the disappearance +of many picturesque, and in themselves, entirely harmless customs. The +roots of the great mass of superstitions have their beginnings so far away +from the present time, that to embrace them all necessitates an +exploration of all the centuries that lie between us and the pre-historic +ages, and in the pages that follow, some of these connections with the +past may be discovered. + + + +CHAPTER II + +_The Forest and Vale of Pickering in Palaeolithic and Pre-Glacial Times._ + +The Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age preceded and succeeded the Great Glacial +Epochs in the Glacialid. + + +In that distant period of the history of the human race when man was still +so primitive in his habits that traces of his handiwork are exceedingly +difficult to discover, the forest and Vale of Pickering seem to have been +without human inhabitants. Remains of this Old Stone Age have been found +in many parts of England, but they are all south of a line drawn from +Lincoln to Derbyshire and North Wales. In the caves at Cresswell Craggs in +Derbyshire notable Palaeolithic discoveries were made, but for some reason +these savage hordes seem to have come no further north than that spot. We +know, however, that many animals belonging to the pre-glacial period +struggled for their existence in the neighbourhood of Pickering. + +[Illustration: A plan and section of Kirkdale Cave.] + +It was during the summer of 1821 that the famous cave at Kirkdale was +discovered, and the bones of twenty-two different species of animals were +brought to light. Careful examination showed that the cave had for a long +time been the haunt of hyaenas of the Pleistocene Period, a geological +division of time, which embraces in its latter part the age of Palaeolithic +man. The spotted hyaena that is now to be found only in Africa, south of +the Sahara,[1] was then inhabiting the forests of Yorkshire and preying on +animals now either extinct or only living in tropical climates. The waters +of Lake Pickering seem to have risen to a sufficiently high level at one +period to drive out the occupants of the cave and to have remained static +for long enough to allow the accumulation of about a foot of alluvium +above the bones that littered the floor. By this means it appears that the +large quantity of broken fragments of bones that were recent at the time +of the inundation were preserved to our own times without any perceptible +signs of decomposition. Quarrying operations had been in progress at +Kirkdale for some time when the mouth of the cave was suddenly laid bare +by pure accident. The opening was quite small, being less than 5 feet +square, and as it penetrated the limestone hill it varied from 2 to 7 feet +in breadth and height; the quarrying had also left the opening at a +considerable height up the perpendicular wall of stone. At the present +time it is almost inaccessible, and except for the interest of seeing the +actual site of the discoveries and the picturesqueness of the spot the +cave has no great attractions. + +[Footnote 1: Dawkins, W. Boyd. "Early man in Britain," p. 103.] + +Not long after it was stumbled upon by the quarrymen Dr William Buckland +went down to Kirkdale, and although some careless digging had taken place +in the outer part of the cave before his arrival, he was able to make a +most careful and exhaustive examination of the undisturbed portions, +giving the results of his work in a paper read before the Royal Society in +1822.[1] Besides the remains of many hyaenas there were teeth or bones of +such large animals as the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse, +tiger, bear, urus (Bos primi-genius) an unknown animal of the size of a +wolf, and three species of deer. The smaller animals included the rabbit, +water-rat, mouse, raven, pigeon, lark and a small type of duck. Everything +was broken into small pieces so that no single skull was found entire and +it was, of course, impossible to obtain anything like a complete skeleton. +From the fact that the bones of the hyaenas themselves had suffered the +same treatment as the rest we may infer that these ferocious lovers of +putrid flesh were in the habit of devouring those of their own species +that died a natural death, or that possibly under pressure of hunger were +inclined to kill and eat the weak or diseased members of the pack. From +other evidences in the cave it is plain that its occupants were extremely +fond of bones after the fashion of the South African hyaena. + +[Footnote 1: Buckland, The Rev. Wm. "Account of an assemblage of fossil +teeth and bones ... at Kirkdale."] + +[Illustration: Jaws of Kirkdale (above) and Modern Hyaena (below). The +Kirkdale Hyaenas were evidently much more powerful than the modern ones.] + +Although the existing species have jaws of huge strength and these +prehistoric hyaenas were probably stronger still, it is quite improbable +that they ever attacked such large animals as elephants; and the fact that +the teeth found in the cave were of very young specimens seems to suggest +that the hyaenas now and then found the carcase of a young elephant that +had died, and dragged it piecemeal to their cave. The same would possibly +apply to some of the other large animals, for hyaenas, unless in great +extremes of hunger never attack a living animal. They have a loud and +mournful howl, beginning low and ending high, and also a maniacal laugh +when excited. + +[Illustration: Teeth of young Elephants found at Kirkdale.] + +It might be suggested that the bones had accumulated in the den through +dead bodies of animals being floated in during the inundation by the +waters of the lake, but in that case the remains, owing to the narrowness +of the mouth of the cave, could only have belonged to small animals, and +the skeletons would have been more or less complete, and there are also +evidences on many of the bones of their having been broken by teeth +precisely similar to those of the hyaena. + +We see therefore that in this remote age Britain enjoyed a climate which +encouraged the existence of animals now to be found only in tropical +regions, that herds of mammoths or straight-tusked elephants smashed their +way through primaeval forests and that the hippopotamus and the woolly or +small-nosed rhinoceros frequented the moist country at the margin of the +lake. Packs of wolves howled at night and terrorised their prey, and in +winter other animals from northern parts would come as far south as +Yorkshire. In fact it seems that the northern and southern groups of +animals in Pleistocene times appeared in this part of England at different +seasons of the year and the hyaenas of Kirkdale would, in the opinion of +Professor Boyd Dawkins, prey upon the reindeer at one time of the year and +the hippopotamus at another. + +Following this period came a time of intense cold, but the conditions were +not so severe as during the Great Glacial times. + +[Illustration: Canine tooth or tusk of a Kirkdale bear (Ursus spelacus)] + + + +CHAPTER III + +_The Vale of Pickering in the Lesser Ice Age_ + + +Long before even the earliest players took up their parts in the great +Drama of Human Life which has been progressing for so long in this portion +of England, great changes came about in the aspect of the stage. These +transformations date from the period of Arctic cold, which caused ice of +enormous thickness to form over the whole of north-western Europe. + +Throughout this momentous age in the history of Yorkshire, as far as we +can tell, the flaming sunsets that dyed the ice and snow with crimson were +reflected in no human eyes. In those far-off times, when the sun was +younger and his majesty more imposing than at the present day, we may +imagine a herd of reindeer or a solitary bear standing upon some +ice-covered height and staring wonderingly at the blood-red globe as it +neared the horizon. The tremendous silence that brooded over the face of +the land was seldom broken save by the roar of the torrents, the +reverberating boom of splitting ice, or the whistling and shrieking of the +wind. + +The evidences in favour of this glacial period are too apparent to allow +of any contradiction; but although geologists agree as to its existence, +they do not find it easy to absolutely determine its date or its causes. + +Croll's theory of the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit[1] as the chief +factor in the great changes of the Earth's climate has now been to a great +extent abandoned, and the approximate date of the Glacial Epoch of between +240,000 and 80,000 years ago is thus correspondingly discredited by many +geologists. Professor Kendall inclines to the belief that not more than +25,000 years have elapsed since the departure of the ice from Yorkshire, +the freshness of all the traces of glaciation being incompatible with a +long period of post-glacial time. + +[Footnote 1: "Climate and Time." James Croll, 1889.] + +The superficial alterations in the appearance of these parts of Yorkshire +were brought about by the huge glaciers which, at that time, choked up +most of the valleys and spread themselves over the watersheds of the land. + +In the warmer seasons of the year, when the Arctic cold relaxed to some +extent, fierce torrents would rush down every available depression, +sweeping along great quantities of detritus and boulders sawn off and +carried sometimes for great distances by the slow-moving glaciers. The +grinding, tearing and cannonading of these streams cut out courses for +themselves wherever they went. In some cases the stream would occupy an +existing hollow or old water-course, deepening and widening it, but in +many instances where the ice blocked a valley the water would form lakes +along the edge of the glacier, and overflowing across a succession of hill +shoulders, would cut deep notches on the rocky slopes. + +Owing to the careful work of Mr C.E. Fox-Strangways and of Professor Percy +F. Kendall, we are able to tell, almost down to details, what took place +in the Vale of Pickering and on the adjacent hills during this period. + +In the map reproduced here we can see the limits of the ice during the +period of its greatest extension. The great ice-sheet of the North Sea had +jammed itself along the Yorkshire coast, covering the lower hills with +glaciers, thus preventing the natural drainage of the ice-free country +inland. The Derwent carrying off the water from some of these hills found +its outlet gradually blocked by the advancing lobe of a glacier, and the +water having accumulated into a lake (named after Hackness in the map), +overflowed along the edge of the ice into the broad alluvial plain now +called the Vale of Pickering. Up to a considerable height, probably about +200 feet, the drainage of the Derwent and the other streams flowing into +the Vale was imprisoned, and thus Pickering Lake was formed. + +The boulder clay at the seaward end of the Vale seems to have been capped +by ice of a thickness of nearly 100 feet which efficiently contained the +waters of the lake until they overflowed through a depression among the +hills to the south of Malton. If the waters escaped by any other outlet to +the west near Gilling and Coxwold, it can scarcely have been more than a +temporary affair compared to the overflow that produced the gorge at +Kirkham Abbey, as the Gilling Gap was itself closed by the great glacier +descending the Vale of York. The overflow of the lake by this route, south +of Malton, must have worn a channel down to a lower level than 130 feet +O.D. before the ice retreated from the seaward end of the Vale, otherwise +the escape would have taken place over the low hills blocking the valley +in that direction and the normal course of the drainage of the country +would have been resumed. The southern overflow evidently dug its way +through the hills fast enough to maintain that outlet, and at the present +time the narrow gorge at Kirkham Abbey is only 50 feet above sea level, +and the hills through which the Derwent passes at this point are from 200 +to 225 feet high. + +[Illustration: A Map of North-Eastern Yorkshire showing Lake Pickering +during the maximum extension of the ice. The area covered by ice is left +unshaded. The arrows show the direction of the glacier movements. +(Reproduced from the _Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society_, by +permission of Professor Percy F. Kendall.)] + +As the waters of the lake gradually drained away, the Vale was left in a +marshy state until the rivers gradually formed channels for themselves. In +recent times drainage canals have been cut and the streams embanked, so +that there is little to remind one of the existence of the lake save for +the hamlet still known as The Marishes. The name is quite obviously a +corruption of marshes, for this form is still in use in these parts, but +it is interesting to know that Milton spelt the word in the same way as +the name of this village, and in Ezekiel xlvii. II we find: "But the miry +places thereof, and the marishes thereof, shall not be healed." The ease +with which a lake could again be formed in the Vale was demonstrated in +October 1903 after the phenomenally wet summer and autumn of that year, by +a flood that covered the fields for miles and in several places half +submerged the hedges and washed away the corn stooks. + +The evidence in favour of the existence of Lake Pickering is so ample +that, according to Professor Kendall, it may be placed "among the +well-established facts of glacial geology."[1] + +[Footnote 1: _Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society_, vol. lviii. +part 3, No. 231, p. 501.] + +We have thus an accredited explanation for the extraordinary behaviour of +the river Derwent and its tributaries, including practically the whole of +the drainage south of the Esk, which instead of taking the obviously +simple and direct course to the sea, flow in the opposite direction to the +slope of the rocks and the grain of the country. After passing through the +ravine at Kirkham Abbey the stream eventually mingles with the Ouse, and +thus finds its way to the Humber. + +The splendid canon to the north of Pickering, known as Newton Dale, with +its precipitous sides rising to a height of 300 or even 400 feet, must +have assumed its present proportions principally during the glacial period +when it formed an overflow valley from a lake held up by ice in the +neighbourhood of Fen Bogs and Eller Beck. This great gorge is tenanted at +the present time by Pickering Beck, an exceedingly small stream, which now +carries off all the surface drainage and must therefore be only remotely +related to its great precursor that carved this enormous trench out of the +limestone tableland. Compared to the torrential rushes of water carrying +along huge quantities of gravel and boulders that must have flowed from +the lake at the upper end, Newton Dale can almost be considered a dry and +abandoned valley. + +[Illustration: A Diagrammatic View of Newton Dale during the Lesser Ice +Age. The overflow of the glacier dammed lakes at the head of the dale came +down Newton Dale and poured into Lake Pickering.] + +At Fen Bogs, where there is a great depth of peat, Professor Kendall has +discovered that if it were cleared out, "the channel through the watershed +would appear as a clean cut, 75 feet deep." The results of the gouging +operations of this glacier stream are further in evidence where the valley +enters the Vale of Pickering, for at that point a great delta was formed. +This fan-shaped accumulation of bouldery gravel is marked in the +geological survey maps as covering a space of about two square miles south +of Pickering, but the deposit is probably much larger, for Dr. Thornton +Comber states that the gravel extends all the way to Riseborough and is +found about 6 feet below the surface, everywhere digging has taken place +in that direction. The delta is partly composed of rounded stones about 2 +feet in diameter. These generally belong to the hard gritstone of the +moors through which Newton Dale has been carved. Dr. Comber also mentioned +the discovery of a whinstone from the great Cleveland Dyke, composed of +basaltic rock, that traverses the hills near Egton and Sleights Moor, two +miles above the intake of Newton Dale at Fen Bogs. + +The existence of this gravel as far towards the west as Riseborough, +suggests that the delta is really of much greater magnitude than that +indicated in the survey map. It has also been proved that Newton Dale +ceased its functions as a lake overflow, through the retreat of the +ice-sheet above Eskdale long before the Glacial Period terminated, and +this would suggest an explanation for the layer of Warp (an alluvial +deposit of turbid lake waters) which partially covers the delta. The +fierce torrents that poured into Lake Pickering down the steep gradient of +this canon would require an exit of equal proportions, and it seems +reasonable to suppose that the gorge at Kirkham Abbey was chiefly worn at +the same time as Newton Dale. + +[Illustration: Diagrammatic view showing the presumed position of the ice +at the eastern end of the Vale of Pickering during the Lesser Glacial +epoch. The river Derwent is shown overflowing along the edge of the +glacier.] + +Another delta was formed by the upper course of the Derwent to which I +have already alluded. In this instance, the water flowed along the edge of +the ice and cut out a shelf on the hill slopes near Hutton Buscel, and the +detritus was carried to the front of the glacier. This deposit terminates +in a crescent-shape and now forms the slightly elevated ground upon which +Wykeham Abbey stands. The Norse word Wyke or Vik means a creek or bay, and +the fact that such a name was given to this spot would suggest that the +Vale was more than marshy in Danish times, and perhaps it even contained +enough water to float shallow draught boats. Flotmanby is another +suggestive name occurring at the eastern corner of the lake about four +miles from Filey. In modern Danish _flotman_ means a waterman or ferryman, +and as there is, and was then, no river near Flotmanby, there is ground +for believing that the Danes who settled at this spot found it necessary +to ferry across the corner of the lake. Before the Glacial Period, the +Vale of Pickering was beyond doubt from 100-150 feet deeper at the seaward +end than at the present time, and even as far up the Valley as Malton the +rock floor beneath the deposit of Kimeridge clay is below the level of the +sea. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_The Early Inhabitants of the Forest and Vale of Pickering_ + + Almighty wisdom made the land + Subject to man's disturbing hand, + And left it all for him to fill + With marks of his ambitious will.... + + Urgent and masterful ashore, + Man dreams and plans, + And more and more, + As ages slip away, Earth shows + How need by satisfaction grows, + And more and more its patient face + Mirrors the driving human race. + +_Edward Sandford Martin._ + + +THE NEOLITHIC OR NEW STONE AGE + Succeeded the Old Stone Age and overlapped the Bronze Age. + +THE BRONZE AGE + Succeeded the New Stone Age and overlapped the Early Iron + Age. + +THE EARLY IRON AGE + Succeeded the Bronze Age and continued in Britain until the + Roman Invasion in B.C. 54. + +_(All these periods overlapped.)_ + + +The Palaeolithic men had reached England when it was part of the continent +of Europe, but after the lesser Glacial Period had driven the hairy +savages southwards a slow earth movement produced what is now the English +Channel and Britain was isolated. Gradually the cold relaxed and +vegetation once more became luxuriant, great forests appeared and England +was again joined to the continent. Possibly the more genial climate which +began to prevail in this country and the northward movement of the +reindeer brought the first Neolithic men into England, and it has been +suggested that some of these earlier tribes whose implements have been +discovered in White Park Bay, County Antrim and the MacArthur Cave, near +Oban, form a link between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic people. + +The culture of the New Stone Age was a huge advance upon that of the +earlier races, although it is more than probable that the higher +development existed in different parts of the world simultaneously with +the lower, the more primitive people becoming influenced by the more +advanced. A wave of great progress came with the Iberians of Spain who +spread across France and reached Britain by means of boats at a time when +it was probably once more an island. + +Armed with bows and arrows and carefully finished stone axes and spears, +clothed in skins and wearing ornaments of curious coloured stones or +pieces of bone threaded on thin leathern cords, these Iberians or +Neolithic men gradually spread all over the British Islands. They +evidently liked the hills overlooking the fresh waters of Lake Pickering +for their remains have been found there in considerable quantities. + +The hills on all sides of the Vale are studded with barrows from which +great quantities of burial urns and skeletons have been exhumed, and +wherever the land is under cultivation the plough exposes flint arrow and +spear-heads and stone axes. + +Many of the numerous finds of this nature have disappeared in small +private collections and out of the many barrows that have been explored +only in a certain number of instances have any accurate records been +taken. It is thus a somewhat difficult task to discover how much or how +little of the plunder of the burial mounds belongs to the Neolithic and +how much to the Bronze and later ages. The Neolithic people buried in long +barrows which are by no means common in Yorkshire, but many of the round +ones that have been thoroughly examined reveal no traces of metal, stone +implements only being found in them.[1] In Mr. Thomas Bateman's book, +entitled "Ten Years' Diggings," there are details of two long barrows, +sixty-three circular ones, and many others that had been already +disturbed, which were systematically opened by Mr. James Ruddock of +Pickering. The fine collection of urns and other relics are, Mr. Bateman +states, in his own possession, and are preserved at Lomberdale; but this +was in 1861, and I have no knowledge of their subsequent fate. + +[Footnote 1: Greenwell, William. "British Barrows," p. 483.] + +One of the few long barrows near Pickering, of which Canon Greenwell gives +a detailed account, is situated near the Scamridge Dykes--a series of +remarkable mounds and ditches running for miles along the hills north of +Ebberston. It is highly interesting in connection with the origin of these +extensive entrenchments to quote Canon Greenwell's opinion. He describes +them as "forming part of a great system of fortification, apparently +intended to protect from an invading body advancing from the east, and +presenting many features in common with the wold entrenchments on the +opposite side of the river Derwent...." "The adjoining moor," he says, "is +thickly sprinkled with round barrows, all of which have, at some time or +other, been opened, with what results I know not; while cultivation has, +within the last few years (1877), destroyed a large number, the very sites +of which can now only with great difficulty be distinguished. On the +surface of the ground flint implements are most abundant, and there is +probably no place in England which has produced more arrow-points, +scrapers, rubbers, and other stone articles, than the country in the +neighbourhood of the Scamridge Dykes." The doubts as to the antiquity of +the Dykes that have been raised need scarcely any stronger refutation, if +I may venture an opinion, than that they exist in a piece of country so +thickly strewn with implements of the Stone Age. These entrenchments thus +seem to point unerringly to the warfare of the early inhabitants of +Yorkshire, and there can be little doubt that the Dykes were the scene of +great intertribal struggles if the loss of such infinite quantities of +weapons is to be adequately accounted for. + +[Illustration: The Scamridge Dykes above Troutsdale.] + +The size and construction of the Scamridge Dykes vary from a series of +eight or ten parallel ditches and mounds deep enough and high enough to +completely hide a man on horseback, to a single ditch and mound barely a +foot above and below the ground level. The positions of the Dykes can be +seen on the sketch map accompanying this book, but neither an examination +of the map nor of the entrenchments themselves gives much clue as to their +purpose. They do not keep always to the hill-tops and in places they +appear to run into the valleys at right angles to the chief line. +Overlooking Troutsdale, to the east of Scamridge farm, where the ground is +covered with heather the excavations seem to have retained their original +size, for at that point the parallel lines of entrenchments are deepest +and most numerous. In various places the farmers have levelled cart tracks +across the obstructions and in others they have been almost obliterated by +ploughing, but as a rule, where cultivation touches them, the trenches +have come to be boundaries for the fields. + +The Neolithic people were only beginning to emerge from a state of +absolute savagery, and it is possible that even at this time they were +still cannibals. The evidence in support of this theory has been obtained +from the condition of the bones found in long barrows, for, in many +instances, they are discovered in such a dislocated and broken state, that +there can be little doubt that the flesh was removed before burial. The +long barrow at Scamridge is a good example of this, for the remains of at +least fourteen bodies were laid in no order but with the component bones +broken, scattered, and lying in the most confused manner. Half a jaw was +lying on part of a thigh-bone and a piece of a skull among the bones of a +foot, while other parts of what appeared to belong to the same skull were +found some distance apart. Canon Greenwell, who describes this barrow with +great detail, also mentions that this disarrangement was not due to any +disturbance of the barrow after its erection, but, on the contrary, there +were most certain indications that the bones had been originally deposited +exactly as they were found. He also points out that this condition of +things is obviously inconsistent with the idea that the bodies had been +buried with the flesh still upon them, and goes on to say that "it +appeared to Dr Thurnam that there were in these broken and scattered +fragments of skulls and disconnected bones the relics of barbarous feasts, +held at the time of the interment, when slaves, captives, or even wives +were slain and eaten." But although this argument appeared to Canon +Greenwell to have some weight, he is inclined to think that the broken +condition of the bones may have been due to the pressure of the mound +above them after they had been partially burnt with the fires which were +lit at one end of the barrow and so arranged that the heat was drawn +through the interior. + +As the centuries passed the Neolithic people progressed in many +directions. They improved their methods of making their weapons until they +were able to produce axe-heads so perfectly ground and polished and with +such a keen cutting edge that it would be impossible to make anything +better. These celts like the arrow-heads were always fitted into cleft +handles or shafts of wood, and it was probably at a later period that the +stone hammer, pierced with a hole, made its appearance. Spinning and +weaving in some extremely primitive fashion were evolved, so that the +people were not entirely clothed in skins. They cultivated wheat to a +small extent and kept herds of goats and horned sheep. The pottery they +made was crude and almost entirely without ornament. The skeletons of this +period show that although they led a life of great activity, probably as +hunters, they were rather short in stature, averaging, it is thought by Dr +Garson, less than 5 feet 65 inches. Their jaws were not prognathous as in +negroes, and their brow ridges were not nearly so prominent as in the men +of the Old Stone Age, and thus their facial expression must have been +mild. + +[Illustration: PRE-HISTORIC WEAPONS IN THE MUSEUM AT PICKERING. + + Flint arrow head of unusual shape. + Bronze Spear head. + Bronze celt found at Kirby Moorside. + Flint arrow head found at Yeddingham (_half size_). + Flint arrow heads found at Moorcock and Wrelton (_half size_). + Highly polished celt of a bluish-white stone found at Scamridge. + Bronze celt found at Scamridge. + Stone hammer found at Cawthorne. + A flint knife, 4-1/8 inches long. +] + +[Illustration: Leaf-shaped arrow head found by Dr J.L. Kirk.] + +A most interesting discovery of lake-dwellings was made in 1893 by Mr +James M. Mitchelson of Pickering, but although the relics brought to light +are numerous, no one has yet been able to make any definite statement as +to the period to which they belong. The Costa Beck, a stream flowing from +the huge spring at Keld Head, on the west side of Pickering, was being +cleaned out for drainage purposes at a spot a little over two miles from +the town, when several pieces of rude pottery were thrown on to the bank. +These excited Mr Mitchelson's interest and at another occasion his +examination revealed more pottery and mixed up with the fragments were the +bones of animals. Some piles forming two parallel rows about 4 feet apart +were also discovered crossing the stream at right angles to its course. + +The diagram given here shows the position of the piles as far as they were +revealed in one of the excavations and it also shows their presumed +continuation, but no reliance can be placed on anything but those actually +dug out and indicated with a solid black spot. The piles were made of oak, +birch and alder, with very rough pointed ends, and they measured from 6 to +10 inches in diameter. Three other rows cross the Costa in the same +neighbourhood separated by a few hundred yards and as they lie at right +angles to the stream which there forms a concave bend, they appear to +converge upon one point. This would be what may roughly be termed an +island between the Costa and a large drain where water in ancient times +probably accumulated or flowed. + +There can therefore be little doubt that the island was the home of +prehistoric lake-dwellers who constructed their homes on rude platforms +raised above the water or marshy ground by means of piles after the +fashion of the numerous discoveries in Switzerland, and the present habits +of the natives of many islands in the Pacific. Among the quantities of +skulls and bones of animals, pottery and human skeletons, no traces of +metal were brought to light and the coarse jars and broken urns were, with +one exception, entirely devoid of ornamentation. The ground that was +removed before the chief discoveries were made, consisted of about 8 or 10 +inches of cultivated soil, below which came about 2 feet 6 inches of stiff +blue clay, and then about 6 feet of peat resting on the Kimmeridge clay +that formed the bottom of Lake Pickering. Most of the relics were found +resting on the clay so they must have remained there for a sufficient time +to have allowed these thick deposits to have formed, and it is possible +that they may be associated with some of the Neolithic people who took to +this mode of living when the Celtic invaders with their bronze weapons +were steadily driving them northwards or reducing them to a state of +slavery. A complete account of the discoveries was in 1898 read by Captain +Cecil Duncombe at a meeting of the members of the Anthropological +Institute and in the discussion which followed,[1] Mr C.H. Reid gave it as +his opinion that the pottery probably belonged to a period not much +earlier than the Roman occupation. Against this idea we have a most +interesting statement made on another occasion by Professor Boyd Dawkins +concerning one of the human bones; on examining the femur illustrated here +he said that it could only have belonged to an individual possessing +prehensile toes, and he also pointed out that the ends of this bone show +signs of having been gnawed by dogs or similar animals. Captain Duncombe, +who was to some extent quoting Professor Boyd Dawkins, said that the bones +were "apparently those of a very small race." The complete skeleton of a +young woman was found with the exception of the skull. "Though an adult," +he says, "she could not, judging from the thigh-bones, have exceeded 4 +feet 6 inches in height, and the owner of the longest thigh-bone would not +have exceeded 5 feet. Though the bones are those of a people of short +stature they are remarkable for their very prominent ridges for the +attachment of the muscles, such as are quite unknown at the present day in +England. They denote a race inured to hard toil, or one leading a life of +constant activity." On the breast bone of the woman were found the two +ornaments illustrated. They were made from the tines of a red deer's horn. + +[Footnote 1: _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, New Series +(1899), vol. i. p. 150.] + +[Illustration: DETAILS OF THE DISCOVERIES IN THE LAKE DWELLINGS. + + A vase of black earthenware. + Two pieces of horn, one showing attempts to cut with some + instrument. The lower piece has been neatly cut at both ends. + A whorl stone for weaving. + A human femur (thigh bone). The ends show signs of having + been gnawed by wolves. + Ornaments made from deer's horn, found with the skeleton of a woman. + Fragment of a large earthenware jar or urn. + A sketch plan of the excavations (_from the Proceedings of the + Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society_). +] + +Another interesting discovery was the evidence of different attempts to +cut some pieces of deer's horn. The shallow grooves were probably made by +rubbing with a rib bone or some other sharp edge and sand and water. A +small black vase unornamented but in perfect condition was dug up near the +remains of the young woman. There were numerous skulls of the prehistoric +ox or bos longifrons and also of the straight-horned sheep. A piece of the +antlers of a great palmated deer now extinct tends to place the +discoveries at an early time, but until more evidence is forthcoming the +period to which these lake-dwellers belong must remain uncertain. + +A list of the bones discovered includes the following:-- + + Human (of at least four individuals). + Deer (of three species). + Horse (a small variety), numerous. + Ox (Bos longifrons), numerous. + Sheep (straight-horned), numerous. + Goat (one skull). + Pig (both wild and domesticated). + Wolf. + Fox. + Otter. + Beaver (one skull). + Voles (of different kinds). + Birds. + +[Illustration: Some examples of remains of Pre-historic Animals discovered +in the Lake Dwellings by the river Costa. + + The skull of a Wolf. + Part of the horns of a Great Palmated Deer. + Part of the skull of a Straight-horned Sheep. + The skull of a Bos Longifrons or Pre-historic Ox. +] + +The introduction of metal into Britain was due to the successive waves of +Celtic Aryans who by means of their bronze weapons were able to overcome +the Neolithic people. The Brythons or Britons, one of these Celtic +peoples, seem to have succeeded in occupying the whole of England. They +buried their dead in the round barrows which are to be found in most parts +of the country but are particularly numerous on the hills immediately +surrounding Pickering and on the wolds to the south of the Vale. + +Some of the round barrows, as already mentioned, contain no traces of +metal but in a number of those near Pickering have been found bronze Celts +and spear-heads accompanied by beautifully finished weapons of stone. +There can be no doubt, therefore, that the use of metal crept in slowly, +and that stone, horn and bone continued to be used for many centuries +after its introduction. + +The Celtic people were possessed of a civilisation infinitely more +advanced than that of the Neolithic or Iberian races. They were the +ancestors of the "Ancient Britons" who offered such a stout resistance to +the Roman legions under Julius Caesar. + +Not only are there innumerable barrows or burial mounds constructed by +this early race on the hills above the Vale, but on Beacon Hill, the +slight eminence just to the west of Pickering Castle, at Cawthorne and +also at Cropton, there are evidences of what may be their fortifications, +while the plough is continually bringing to light more relics of the +period. A fine collection of these have been brought together and are to +be seen in Mr T. Mitchelson's private museum near Pickering Church. Two +large cases contain a most remarkable series of burial urns, incense cups +and food vessels all found in barrows in the neighbourhood. The urns are +generally ornamented with bands of diagonal or crossed markings and other +designs as well as with the impressions of twisted pieces of hide or +grasses. The bases are usually very small for the size of the urns, after +the fashion of those in Canon Greenwell's examples in the British Museum. +In that collection may be seen several cinerary urns, incense cups and +food vessels from Hutton Buscel, Ganton, Slingsby, Egton and other places +in the vicinity of Pickering. They belong to the same period as those in +Mr Mitchelson's museum and are, on account of the simplicity and +comparative rarity of the bronze implements that have been discovered with +them, considered to belong to the earliest bronze period, that is, to the +time of the first Celtic invasions. Many of the objects in Mr Mitchelson's +museum are not labelled with the place of their origin, the manuscript +catalogue made some years ago having been lost; but with a few exceptions +the entire collection comes from barrows situated in the neighbourhood, +having been brought together by Mr Thomas Kendall more than fifty years +ago. + +[Illustration: A COMPLETE SKELETON IN A STONE CIST BELONGING TO THE EARLY +BRONZE AGE. + +It was discovered by a farmer in a field between Appleton-le-Moor and +Spaunton, and is now in the Museum at Pickering. [_Copyright reserved by +Dr J.L. Kirk._] +] + +A complete skeleton in a stone cist is now lying in a glass case in the +museum. It was discovered accidentally by a farmer between +Appleton-le-Moor and Spaunton. He had decided to remove a huge stone that +had been an obstacle when ploughing, and in doing so found that he had +removed the top stone of a cist belonging to the early Bronze Age. The man +has a round or brachycephalic skull with the prominent brow-ridges and +powerful jaws of the Celtic people, and his right arm was arranged so that +the hand was beneath the skull. By his left hand was the food vessel that +is now placed on the left side of the skull, and at his feet are a number +of small bronze studs or rivets. + +These Bronze Age men seem to have had a very general belief in the spirit +world, for the dead warrior was buried with his weapons as well as food, +so that he might be sustained while he hunted in the other world with the +spirit of his favourite axe or spear. The museum contains examples of +socketed bronze celts and spear heads, as well as an infinite variety of +arrowheads, flint knives, stone hammers and celts, and also coloured beads +and other ornaments. + +Thus we find that in these early days mankind teemed in this part of +Yorkshire. From all points around the shallow lake the smoke of fires +ascended into the sky, patches of cultivation appeared among the trees, +and villages, consisting of collections of primitive wooden huts, probably +surrounded by a stockade, would have been discernible. + +A closer examination of one of these early British villages would have +discovered the people clothed in woven materials, for an example of cloth +of the period was discovered by Canon Greenwell in this locality and is +now to be seen in the British Museum. The grinding of corn in the stone +querns, so frequently found near Pickering, would have been in progress; +fair-haired children with blue eyes would be helping the older folk in +preparing food, dressing skins, making bows and arrows, and the +innumerable employments that the advancing civilisation demanded. + +[Illustration: A Quern, now in the Pickering Museum.] + +It is at this period that we reach the confines of history, records of an +extremely unreliable character it is true, but strangely enough there are +references by very early writers to the founding of Pickering. That the +place should be mentioned at all in these fabulous writings is an +interesting fact and gives Pickering an importance in those distant +centuries which is surprising. John Stow in his "Summarie of Englyshe +Chronicles," published in 1565, gives the following fanciful story of the +father of the founder of Pickering. + +"Morindus, the bastard son of Danius, began to reigne in Britain: he (as +our Chronicles saye) fought with a kynge, who came out of Germanye, and +arrived here, and slew hym with all his power. Moreover (as they write) of +the Irishe seas in his tyme, came foorthe a wonderfull monster: whiche +destroyed muche people. Wherof the king hearyng would of his valiaunt +courage, needes fyght with it: by wh[=o] he was cleane devoured, wh[=e] he +had reigned viii. yeres." + +[Sidenote: B.C. 311] + +His two youngest sons were Vigenius and Peredurus, and of them Stow writes: +-- + +"Vigenius and Peredurus, after the takyng of their brother [Elidurus, the +former King] reigned together, vii. yeres. Vigenius th[=a] died, and +Peredurus reygned after alone, ii. yeares. He buylded the towne of +Pyckeryng after the opinion of divers writers." + +[Sidenote: B.C. 270] + +Raphael Holinshed, who was a contemporary of Stow and used many of his +sources of information, gives the following account of the same +period[1]:-- + +[Footnote 1: Holinshed, Raphael; "Chronicles of England, Scotland and +Ireland," p. 461.] + +"Vigenius and Peredurus, the yoongest sonnes of Morindus, and brethren to +Elidurus, began to reigne jointlie as kings of Britaine, in the year of +the world 3701, after the building of Rome 485.... These two brethren in +the English chronicles are named Higanius and Petitur, who (as Gal. Mon. +[Geoffrey of Monmouth] testifieth) divided the realme betwixt them, so +that all the land from Humber westward fell to Vigenius or Higanius, the +other part beyond Humber northward Peredure held. But other affirme, that +Peredurus onelie reigned, and held his brother Elidurus in prison by his +owne consent, for somuch as he was not willing to governe. + +[Sidenote: Caxton.] [Sidenote: Eth. Bur.] + +"But Gal. Mon. saith, that Vigenius died after he had reigned 7 yeares, +and then Peredurus seized all the land into his owne rule, and governed it +with such sobrietie and wisedome, that he was praised above all his +brethren, so that Elidurus was quite forgotten of the Britains. But others +write that he was a verie tyrant, and used himselfe verie cruellie towards +the lords of his land, whereupon they rebelled and slue him. But whether +by violent hand, or by naturall sicknesse, he finallie departed this life, +after the consent of most writers, when he had reigned eight yeares, +leaving no issue behind him to succeed in the governance of the Kingdome. +He builded the towne of Pikering, where his bodie was buried." + +[Illustration: BURIAL URNS AND OTHER VESSELS IN PICKERING MUSEUM. + +They were found in barrows in the following places, reading from left to +right, top row:--(1) Blansby Park (containing bones and ashes); (2) +Cawthorne; (3) Hutton Buscelmoor; (4) Cockmoor Hall Warren; (5) Snainton +Moor; (6) Raindale, "No Man's Land." Lower Row:--(1) Blansby Park; (2) +below Ebberston; (3) Newton Towers, near Helmsley; (4) Fylingdales (a food +vessel); (5) Cawthorne (contains ashes.) + +[_Copyright reserved by Dr John L. Kirk._] +] + +Whatever memorial was raised to this legendary king of the Brigantes, has +totally disappeared. It may have been a mighty barrow surrounded with +great stones and containing the golden ornaments worn by Peredurus, but if +it existed outside the imaginations of the Chroniclers it would probably +have been plundered and obliterated during the Roman occupation or by +marauding Angles or Danes. + +Mr Bateman tells us that in 1853, two Celtic coins in billon or mixed +metal of the peculiar rough type apparently characteristic of and confined +to the coinage of the Brigantes, were found by quarrymen engaged in baring +the rock near Pickering. + +There may have been two British fortresses at Pickering at this time, one +on the site of the present castle and one the hill on the opposite side of +the Pickering Beck, where, as already mentioned, the circular ditches and +mounds indicate the existence of some primitive stockaded stronghold. + +At Cawthorne, a few miles to the north, there are British enclosures +adjoining the Roman camps; and at Cropton, on the west side of the village +and in a most commanding position, a circular hill-top shows palpable +evidences of having been fortified. + +Of the megalithic remains or "Bride Stones," as they are generally termed +in Yorkshire, it is difficult to say anything with certainty. Professor +Windle, in his list of those existing in the county,[1] mentions among +others-- + +1. "The Bride Stones" near Grosmont (Circle). + +2. "The Bride Stones," Sleights Moor (Circle). + +3. Simon Houe, near Goathland Station. + +4. "The Standing Stones" (three upright stones), 1-3/4 miles S.-W. of +Robin Hood's Bay, on Fylingdales Moor. + +[Footnote 1: Windle, Bertram, C.A., "Remains of the Pre-historic Age in +England," pp. 203-4.] + + + +CHAPTER V + +_How the Roman Occupation of Britain affected the Forest and Vale of +Pickering_ + +B.C. 55 to A.D. 418 + + +The landings of Julius Caesar, in 55 and 54 B.C., and the conflicts +between his legions and the southern tribes of Britain, were little more, +in the results obtained, than a reconnaissance in force, and Yorkshire did +not feel the effect of the Roman invasion until nearly a century after the +first historic landing. + +The real invasion of Britain began in A.D. 43, when the Emperor Claudius +sent Aulus Plautius across the Channel with four legions; and after seven +years of fighting the Romans, taking advantage of the inter-tribal feuds +of the Britons, had reduced the southern half of England to submission. + +Plautius was succeeded by Ostorius Scapula in A.D. 50, and from Tacitus[1] +we learn that he "found affairs in a troubled state, the enemy making +irruptions into the territories of our allies, with so much the more +insolence as they supposed that a new general, with an army unknown to +him, and now that the winter had set in, would not dare to make head +against them." Scapula, however, vigorously proceeded with the work of +subjugation, and having overcome the Iceni of East Anglia and the Fen +Country, he was forcing his way westwards into Wales when he heard of +trouble brewing in the North. "He had approached near the sea which washes +the coast of Ireland," says Tacitus, "when commotions, begun amongst the +Brigantes, obliged the general to return thither." The Brigantes were the +powerful and extremely fierce tribe occupying Yorkshire, Durham, +Cumberland, and Westmorland, and among them were the people whose remains +are so much in evidence near Pickering. They had probably been under +tribute to the Romans, and their struggle against the invaders in this +instance does not appear to have been well organised, for we are told that +when the Romans arrived in their country, they "soon returned to their +homes, a few who raised the revolt having been slain, and the rest +pardoned." We also know that in A.D. 71 Petilius Cerealis attacked the +Brigantes and subdued a great part of their country; and as the Romans +gradually brought the tribe completely under their control, they +established the camps and constructed the roads of which we find so many +evidences to-day. The inhabitants of the hills surrounding the Vale of +Pickering were overawed by a great military station at Cawthorne on a road +running north and south from that spot. It may have been the Delgovicia +mentioned in the first Antonine Iter., and in that case Malton would have +been Derventione, and Whitby, or some spot in Dunsley Bay, would have been +Praetorio, but at the present time there is not sufficient data for fixing +these names with any certainty. It has also been supposed by General +Roy[2] that Cawthorne was occupied by the famous 9th legion after they had +left Scotland, owing to the similarity of construction between the most +westerly camp at Cawthorne and the one at Dealgin Ross in Strathern, where +the 9th legion were supposed to have had their narrow escape from defeat +by the Caledonians during Agricola's sixth campaign. But this also is +somewhat a matter of speculation. + +[Footnote 1: Tacitus, the Oxford Translation, revised 1854, vol. 1, book +xii. pp. 288-90.] + +[Footnote 2: Roy, Major Gen. William: "The Military Antiquities of the +Romans in Britain," 1793, Plate xi.] + +[Illustration: A Sketch Map of the Roman Road from Malton to the Coast, +and a Plan of the Camps on the Road at Cawthorne. (_From the Ordnance +Survey_.)] + +Coming to the firmer ground of the actual remains of the Roman roads and +camps, we find that traces of a well-constructed road, locally known as +Wade's Causeway, have been discovered at various points on a line drawn +from Malton to Cawthorne and Whitby. Some of these sections of the road +have disappeared since Francis Drake described them in 1736,[2] and at the +present time the work of destruction continues at intervals when a farmer, +converting a few more acres of heather into potatoes, has the ill-luck to +strike the roadway. + +[Footnote 2: Drake, Francis: "Eboracum," p. 36.] + +In the month of January this year (1905), I examined a piece of ground +newly taken under cultivation at Stape. It was about half a mile north of +the little inn and just to the west of Mauley Cross. The stones were all +thrown out of their original positions and a pile of them had been taken +outside the turf wall for road-mending and to finish the walls against the +gate posts, but the broad track of the roadway, composed of large +odd-shaped stones, averaging about a foot in width, was still strikingly +in evidence--a mottled band passing straight through the +chocolate-coloured soil. + +All who have described the road state that on each side of the causeway +where it remains undisturbed there is a line of stones placed on their +edges in order to keep the stones in place, but in this instance the +stones were too much disturbed to observe their original formation. Among +the furrows I discovered quantities of flint-flakes, indicating the +manufacture of stone implements on this site, no flints being naturally +found in the neighbourhood. + +The road went through the most perfectly constructed of the three square +camps at Cawthorne from west to east, cutting through one corner of the +adjacent oval camp. It then seems to have passed down the slack a little +to the north-east, and crossing the stream below (probably in Roman times +by a wooden bridge) it takes a fairly straight course for the little +hamlet of Stape just mentioned. The slope from the camps is extremely +steep, and in 1817, when Dr Young wrote his "History of Whitby," he tells +us that there were no traces of the road at that point. Going back to +1736, however, we find that Drake, in his "History of York" published in +that year, says, "At the foot of the hill began the road or causeway, very +plain"; he also tells us that he first heard of the road, with the camp +upon it, from Mr Thomas Robinson of Pickering--"a gentleman well versed in +this kind of learning." Drake, enthusiastically describing his examination +of the road, says, "I had not gone a hundred paces on it, but I met with a +_mile stone_ of the _grit kind_, a sort not known in this country. It was +placed in the midst of the causeway, but so miserably worn, either by +sheep or cattle rubbing against it, or the weather, that I missed of the +inscription, which, I own, I ran with great eagerness to find. The +causeway is just twelve foot broad, paved with a flint pebble [probably +very hard limestone], some of them very large, and in many places it is as +firm as it was the first day, a thing the more strange in that not only +the distance of time may be considered, but the total neglect of repairs +and the boggy rotten moors it goes over. In some places the _agger_ is +above three foot raised from the surface. The country people curse it +often for being almost wholly hid in the ling, it frequently overturns +their carts laden with turf as they happen to drive across it. It was a +great pleasure to me to trace this wonderful road, especially when I soon +found out that it pointed to the bay aforesaid. I lost it sometimes by the +interposition of valleys, rivulets, or the exceeding great quantity of +ling growing on these moors. I had then nothing to do but observe the +line, and riding crossways, my horse's feet, through the ling, informed me +when I was upon it. In short, I traced it several miles, and could have +been pleased to have gone on with it to the seaside, but my time would not +allow me. However, I prevailed upon Mr Robinson to send his servant, and a +very intelligent person of _Pickering_ along with him, and they not only +made it fairly out to _Dunsley_, but brought me a sketch of the country it +went through with them. From which I have pricked it out in the map, as +the reader will find at the end of this account." + +I have examined Drake's map but find that he has simply ruled two +perfectly straight parallel lines between Cawthorne and Dunsley, so that +except for the fact that Mr Robinson's servant and the intelligent +Pickeronian found that the road did go to Dunsley we have no information +as to its exact position. Young, however, describes its course past Stape +and Mauley Cross over Wheeldale and Grain Becks to July or Julian Park. In +the foundation of a wall round an enclosure at that point he mentions the +discovery of an inscribed Roman stone of which a somewhat crude woodcut is +given in his "History of Whitby." The inscription appears to be ILVIVILVX, +and Young read it as LE. VI. VI. L. VEX, or in full LEGIONIS SEXTAE +VICTRICIS QUINQUAGINTA VEXILLARII, meaning, "Fifty vexillary soldiers of +the sixth legion, the Victorious." This rendering of the abbreviations may +be inaccurate, and some of the letters before and after those visible when +the stone was discovered may have been obliterated, but Dr Young thought +that the inscription was probably complete. On Lease Rigg beyond July Park +the road cuts through another Roman camp of similar dimensions to the +western one at Cawthorne. In the map reproduced here a much clearer idea +of the course of the road can be had than by any description. I have +marked the position of the road to the south of Cawthorne as passing +through Barugh, where Drake discovered it in 1736. "From the camp" +(Cawthorne), he writes, "the road disappears towards York, the _agger_ +being either sunk or removed by the country people for their buildings. +But taking the line, as exactly as I could, for the city, I went down the +hill to _Thornton-Risebrow_, and had some information from a clergyman of +a kind of a camp at a village called vulgarly BARF; but corruptly, no +doubt, from BURGH. Going to this place, I was agreeably surprised to fall +upon my long lost road again; and here plainly appeared also a small +intrenchment on it; from whence, as I have elsewhere hinted, the _Saxon_ +name _Burgh_ might come. The road is discernible enough, in places, to +_Newsam-Bridge_ over the river _Rye_; not far from which is a _mile-stone_ +of _grit_ yet standing. On the other side of the river the _Stratum_, or +part of it, appears very plain, being composed of large blue pebble, some +of a tun weight; and directs us to a village called _Aimanderby_. _Barton +on the Street_, and _Appleton on the Street_, lye a little on the side of +the road." Drake then proceeds to speculate as to the likelihood of the +road still making a bee-line for York, or whether it diverged towards +Malton, then no doubt a Roman station; but as his ideas are unimportant in +comparison with his discoveries, we will leave him to return to the camps +at Cawthorne. The hill they occupy forms part of a bold escarpment running +east and west between Newton upon Rawcliff and Cropton, having somewhat +the appearance of an inland coast-line. On the north side of the camps the +hill is precipitous, and there can be little doubt that the position must, +in Roman times, have been one of the strongest in the neighbourhood. This +is not so apparent to-day as it would be owing to the dense growth of +larch and fir planted by Mr James Mitchelson's father about forty years +ago. There are, however, peeps among the trees which reveal a view of the +great purple undulations of the heathery plateau to the north, and the +square camp marked A on the plan is entirely free from trees although +completely shut in by the surrounding plantation. In the summer it is an +exceedingly difficult matter to follow the ditches and mounds forming the +outline of the camps, for besides the closely planted trees the bracken +grows waist high. The _vallum_ surrounding each enclosure is still of +formidable height, and in camp A is double with a double fosse of +considerable depth. Camps C and D are both rectangular, but C, the largest +of the four, is stronger and more regular in shape than D, and it may have +been that D was the camp of the auxiliaries attached to the legion or part +of a legion quartered there. The five outer gates of C and D are protected +by overlapping earthworks, the opening being diagonal to the face of the +camp, but the opening between these two enclosures is undefended. Camp B +may have been for cattle or it may have been another camp of auxiliaries, +for unlike the other three it is oval and might even have been a British +encampment used by the Romans when they selected this commanding site as +their headquarters for the district. + +To fix the origin of a camp by its formation is very uncertain work and no +reliance can be placed on statements based on such evidence; but Camp A +bears the stamp of Roman work unmistakably, and the fact that the Roman +road cuts right through its east and west gates seems a sufficiently +conclusive proof. It is also an interesting fact that between forty and +fifty years ago Mr T. Kendall of Pickering discovered the remains of a +chariot in a barrow on the west side of Camp A. Fragments of a wooden pole +11 feet long, and of four spokes, could be traced as well as the complete +iron tyres of both wheels, and portions of a hub. These remains, together +with small pieces of bronze harness fittings, are now carefully arranged +in a glass case in Mr. Mitchelson's museum at Pickering. + +There is a mill just to the south of Pickering known as Vivers Mill, and +near Cawthorne there is a farm where Roman foundations have been +discovered, known as Bibo House. Both these names have a curiously Roman +flavour, but as to their origin I can say nothing. + +The three or four plans of these camps that have been published are all +inaccurate; the first, in Drake's "Eboracum," being the greatest offender. +General Roy has shown camps B and C in the wrong positions in regard to A, +and even Dr. Young, who himself notices these mistakes, is obliged to +point out that the woodcut that is jammed sideways on one of his pages is +not quite correct in regard to camp C (marked A on his plan), although +otherwise it is fairly accurate. + +A small square camp is just visible in a field to the east of Cawthorne; +there is an oval one on Levisham Moor, and others square and oval dotted +over the moors in different directions, but they are of uncertain origin. +There can be little doubt that subsidiary camps and entrenchments would +have been established by the Romans in a country where the inhabitants +were as fierce and warlike as these Brigantes, but whether the dominant +power utilised British fortresses or whether they always built square +camps is a matter on which it is impossible to dogmatise. + +A number of Roman articles were dug up when the cutting for the railway to +Sinnington was being made, and the discoveries at this point are +particularly interesting as the site is in an almost direct line between +Cawthorne and Barugh. + +We are possessed, however, of sufficient evidence to gain a considerable +idea of Pickering during the four hundred years of the Roman occupation. +We have seen that the invaders constructed a great road on their usual +plan, going as straight as the nature of the country allowed from their +station at Malton to the sea near or at Whitby; that on this road they +built large camps where some hundreds, possibly thousands of troops were +permanently stationed, although the icy-cold blasts from the north-east +may have induced them to occupy more protected spots in winter. Roman +chariots, squads of foot soldiers, and mounted men would have been a +common sight on the road, and to the sullen natives the bronze eagle would +gradually have become as familiar as their own totem-posts. Gradually we +know that the British chiefs and their sons and daughters became +demoralised by the sensual pleasures of the new civilisation and thus the +invaders secured themselves in their new possessions in a far more +efficacious manner than by force of arms. + +The Britons remained under the yoke of Rome until A.D. 418, when the +Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us that "This year the Romans collected all +the hoards of gold that were in Britain; and some they hid in the earth, +so that no man afterwards might find them, and some they carried away with +them into Gaul," and in A.D. 435 we find the record that "This year the +Goths sacked the city of Rome and never since have the Romans reigned in +Britain." The Brigantes were thus once more free to work out their own +destiny, but the decay of their military prowess which had taken place +during the Roman occupation made them an easy prey to the daring Saxon +pirates who, even before the Romans finally left England, are believed to +have established themselves in scattered bodies on some parts of the +coast. The incursions of these warlike peoples belong to the Saxon era +described in the next chapter. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +_The Forest and Vale in Saxon Times_ + +A.D. 418 to 1066 + + +There seems little doubt that the British remained a barbarous people +throughout the four centuries of their contact with Roman influences, for +had they progressed in this period they would have understood in some +measure the great system by which the Imperial power had held the island +with a few legions and a small class of residential officials. Having +failed to absorb the new military methods, when left to themselves, there +was no unifying idea among the Britons, and they seem to have merely +reverted to some form of their old tribal organisation. The British cities +constituted themselves into a group of independent states generally at war +with one another, but sometimes united under the pressure of some external +danger. Under such circumstances they would select some chieftain whose +period of ascendency could be measured only by the continuance of the +danger. + +From Bede's writings we find that the Scots from the west and the Picts +from the north continually harassed the Britons despite occasional help +from Rome, and despite the wall they built across the north of England. In +these straits the British invited help from the Angles and Saxons, who +soon engaged the northern tribesmen and defeated them. The feebleness of +the Britons having become well known among the continental peoples, the +Angles, Saxons and Jutes began to steadily swarm across the North Sea in +powerful, armed bands. Having for a time assisted the Britons they began +to seek excuses for quarrels, and gradually the Britons with brief periods +of success were beaten and dispossessed of their lands until they were +driven into the western parts of the island. The Angles occupied most of +northern England, including the kingdom of Northumbria, of which Yorkshire +formed a large part. These fierce Anglo-Saxon people, with an intermixing +of Danish blood, a few centuries later were the ancestors of a great part +of the present population of the county. Sidonius Apollinaris, a Bishop of +Gaul, who wrote in the fifth century, says, "We have not a more cruel and +more dangerous enemy than the Saxons: they overcome all who have the +courage to oppose them; they surprise all who are so imprudent as not to +be prepared for their attack. When they pursue they infallibly overtake; +when they are pursued their escape is certain. They despise danger; they +are inured to shipwreck; they are eager to purchase booty with the peril +of their lives. Tempests, which to others are so dreadful, to them are +subjects of joy; the storm is their protection when they are pressed by +the enemy, and a cover for their operations when they meditate an attack. +Before they quit their own shores, they devote to the altars of their gods +the tenth part of the principal captives; and when they are on the point +of returning, the lots are cast with an affectation of equity, and the +impious vow is fulfilled." + +Gradually these invaders settled down in Britain, which soon ceased to be +called Britain, and assumed the name Angle-land or England. In A.D. 547 +Ida founded the kingdom of Northumbria, one of the divisions forming the +Saxon Heptarchy, and among the villages and families that owed allegiance +to him were those of the neighbourhood of Pickering. The first +fortifications by the Anglo-Saxons were known as _buhrs_ or _burgs_. Some +of them were no doubt Roman or British camps adapted to their own needs, +but generally these earth works were required as the fortified home of +some lord and his household, and there can be little doubt that in most +instances new entrenchments were made, large enough to afford a refuge for +the tenants as well as their flocks and herds. + +Pickering itself must have been an Anglo-Saxon village of some importance, +and the artificial mound on which the keep of the castle now stands would +probably have been raised during this period if it had not been +constructed at a much earlier date. It would have palisades defending the +top of the mound, and similar defences inside the entrenchments that +formed the basecourt. These may have occupied the position of the present +dry moat that defends the castle on two of its three sides. If Pickering +had been founded by the Anglo-Saxons we should have expected a name ending +with "ton," "ham," "thorpe," or "borough," but its remarkable position at +the mouth of Newton Dale may have led them to choose a name which may +possibly mean an opening by the "ings" or wet lands. It is, however, +impossible at the present time to discover the correct derivation of the +name. It probably has nothing whatever to do with the superficial "pike" +and "ring," and the suggestion that it means "The Maiden's Ring" from the +Scandinavian "pika," a maiden, and "hringr," a circle or ring, may be +equally incorrect. The settlements in the neighbourhood must have occupied +the margin of the marshes in close proximity to one another, and most of +them from the suffix "ton" would appear to have been the "tuns" or +fortified villages named after the family who founded them. Thus we find +between Pickering and Scarborough at the present time a string of eleven +villages bearing the names Thornton, Wilton, Allerston, Ebberston, +Snainton, Brompton, Ruston, Hutton (Buscel of Norman origin), Sawdon, +Ayton and Irton. In the west and south there are Middleton, Cropton, +Wrelton, Sinnington, Appleton, Nawton, Salton, Marton, Edston or Edstone, +Habton, (Kirby) Misperton, Ryton, Rillington, and many others. Other +Anglo-Saxon settlements indicating someone's ham or home would appear to +have been made at Levisham, Yedingham and Lastingham. Riseborough seems to +suggest the existence of some Anglo-Saxon fortress on that very suitable +elevation in the Vale of Pickering. Barugh, a little to the south, can +scarcely be anything else than a corruption of "buhr" or "burg," for the +Anglian invaders, if they found the small Roman camp that appears to have +been established on that slight eminence in the vale would have probably +found it a most convenient site for one of their own fortifications. Names +ending with "thorpe," such as Kingthorpe, near Pickering, also indicate an +Anglo-Saxon origin. Traces of the "by" or "byr," a single dwelling or +single farm of the Danes, are to be found thickly dotted over this part of +England, but in the immediate neighbourhood of Pickering there are only +Blansby, Dalby, Farmanby, Aislaby, Roxby, and Normanby. To the east near +Scarborough there are Osgodby, Killerby, Willerby, Flotmanby, and +Hunmanby, so that it would appear that the strong community of Anglo-Saxon +villages along the margin of the vale kept the Danish settlers at a +distance. + +[Illustration: The Tower of Middleton Church near Pickering. + +The lower portion, owing to the quoins which somewhat resemble the "long +and short" work of the Saxons, has been thought to be of pre-Norman date. +The blocked doorway appearing in the drawing has every appearance of Saxon +workmanship.] + +Goathland, which was often spelt Gothland, has a most suggestive sound, +and the family names of Scoby and Scoresby seem to be of Danish origin. +The "gate" of the streets of Pickering is a modification of the Danish +"gade," meaning a "way," for the town was never walled. The influence of +the Danes on the speech of this part of Yorkshire seems to me apparent in +the slight sing-song modulation so similar to that of the present day +people of Denmark. + +In A.D. 597 Augustine commenced his missionary work among the Saxons, and +King Ethelbert of Kent was baptised on June the 2nd of that year. +Twenty-seven years later Edwin, the powerful king of Northumbria, married +Ethelburga, daughter of Ethelbert. When she accompanied her husband to his +northern kingdom she took with her Paulinus, who was ordained bishop of +the Northumbrians. "King Aldwin, therefore," Bede tells us,[1] "together +with all the nobles of his nation, and very many of the common people, +received the faith and washing of sacred regeneration, in the eleventh +year of his reign, which is the year of the Lord's incarnation, 627, and +about the year 180 from the coming of the Angles into Britain. Moreover, +he was baptised at York, on the holy day of Easter, the day before the +Ides of April, in the church of the holy apostle Peter, which he himself +built of wood in that place with expeditious labour, while he was being +catechised and prepared in order to receive baptism." The Northumbrians +from this time forward were at least a nominally Christian people, and the +seventh century certainly witnessed the destruction of many of the idols +and their shrines that had hitherto formed the centre for the religious +rites of the Anglo-Saxons. Woden or Odin, Thor and the other deities did +not lose their adherents in a day, and Bede records the relapses into +idolatry of Northumbria as well as the other parts of England. There can +be no doubt that fairies and elves entered largely into the mythology of +the Anglo-Saxons, and the firmness of the beliefs in beings of that nature +can be easily understood when we realise that it required no fewer than +twelve centuries of Christianity to finally destroy them among the people +of Yorkshire. In Chapter XI. we see something of the form the beliefs and +superstitions had assumed at the time of their disappearance. + +[Footnote 1: Bede's "Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation," +translated by Gidley, Rev. L., 1870, p. 152.] + +In the seventh century most of the churches erected in Yorkshire were +probably of wood, but the example of King Edwin at York, who quickly +replaced the timber structure with a larger one of stone, must soon have +made itself felt in the country. Nothing, however, in the form of +buildings or inscribed stones for which we have any evidence for placing +at such an early date remains in the neighbourhood of Pickering, although +there are numerous crosses and traces of the masonry that may be termed +Saxon or Pre-Conquest. + +[Illustration: + The early font in the Chapel of Ease at Levisham, that was serving only + recently as a cattle trough in a farmyard. + The BROKEN CROSS by the ruins of WYKEHAM ABBEY. Scarcely any traces of + carving are visible. + A carved cross built into the wall of the tower (interior) of + Middleton Church. The head is hidden in the angle of the wall. +] + +The founding of a monastery at Lastingham is described by Bede, and with +the particulars he gives we can place the date between the years 653 and +655. Bishop Cedd was requested by King Oidilward, who held rule in the +parts of Deira, "to accept some possession of land of him to build a +monastery to which the king himself [AEthelwald] also might frequently come +to pray to the Lord, and to hear the Word, and in which he might be buried +when he died." Further on we are told that Cedd "assenting to the king's +wishes, chose for himself a place to build a monastery among lofty and +remote mountains, in which there appeared to have been more lurking places +of robbers and dens of wild beasts than habitations of men." This account +is of extreme interest, being the only contemporary description of this +part of Yorkshire known to us. "Moreover," says Bede, "the man of God, +studying first by prayers and fastings to purge the place he had received +for a monastery from its former filth of crimes, and so to lay in it the +foundations of the monastery, requested of the king that he would give him +during the whole ensuing time of Lent leave and licence to abide there for +the sake of prayer; on all which days, with the exception of Sunday, +protracting his fast to evening according to custom, he did not even then +take anything except a very little bread and one hen's egg, with a little +milk and water. For he said this was the custom of those of whom he had +learnt the rule of regular discipline, first to consecrate to the Lord by +prayers and fastings the places newly received for building a monastery or +a church. And when ten days of the quadragesimal fast were yet remaining, +there came one to summon him to the king. But he, in order that the +religious work might not be intermitted on account of the king's affairs, +desired his presbyter Cynibill, who was also his brother, to complete the +pious undertaking. The latter willingly assented; and the duty of fasting +and prayer having been fulfilled, he built there a monastery which is now +called Laestingaeu [Lastingham], and instituted rules there, according to +the customs of the monks of Lindisfarne, where he had been educated. And +when for many years he [Cedd] had administered the episcopate in the +aforesaid province, and also had taken charge of this monastery, over +which he set superiors, it happened that coming to this same monastery at +a time of mortality, he was attacked by bodily infirmity and died. At +first, indeed, he was buried outside, but in process of time a church was +built of stone in the same monastery, in honour of the blessed mother of +God, and in that church his body was laid on the right side of the altar." +Cedd's death took place in 664, and Ceadda or Chad, one of his brothers, +succeeded him as he had desired. + +[Illustration: Saxon Sundial at Kirkdale. (_From a rubbing by Mr J. +Romilly Allen, F.S.A._)] + +Nothing remains of the buildings of this early monastery, and what +happened to them, and what caused their disappearance, is purely a matter +of conjecture. We can only surmise that they were destroyed during the +Danish invasions of the ninth century. + +At Kirkdale church, which is situated close to the cave already described, +there was discovered about the year 1771 a sundial bearing the longest +known inscription of the Anglo-Saxon period. The discoverer was the Rev. +William Dade, rector of Barmston, in the East Riding, and a letter of +great length, on the stone, from the pen of Mr J. C. Brooke, F.S.A. of the +Herald's College, was read at the Society of Antiquaries in 1777. + +The sundial, without any gnomon, occupies the central portion of the +stone, which is about 7 feet in length, and the inscription is closely +packed in the spaces on either side. + +It reads as follows, the lines in brackets having the contractions +expanded:-- + +[Transcriber's Note: The "|"s below are my best rendition in plain ASCII +of a Saxon ampersand, which is a long vertical bar with a short horizontal +bar at the top, pointing to the left.] + + + ORM . GAMAL . SVNA . BOHTE . SC[=S] +[ + ORM . GAMAL . SUNA . BOHTE . SANCTUS] + + GREGORIVS . MINSTER . EthONNE HIT +[GREGORIUS . MINSTER . THONNE HIT] + + PES AEL TOBROCAN . | TOFALAN . | HE +[WES AEL TOBROCAN . & TOFALAN . & HE] + + HIT IET . MACAN . NEPAN . FROM GRVNDE +[HIT LET . MACAN . NEWAN . FROM GRUNDE] + + XPE: | SCS GREGORIVS . IN EADPARD +[CHRISTE: & SANCTUS GREGORIUS . IN EADWARD] + + DAGVM C[=N]G | N TOSTI DAGVM EORL + +[DAGUM CYNING & IN TOSTI DAGUM EORL +] + +Completed under the dial. + + + | HAPAREth ME PROHTE . | BRAND P[=RS] +[+ & HAWARTH ME WROHTE . & BRAND {PRAEPOSITUS] + {PRESBYTERS] + +The modern rendering is generally accepted as: "Orm, the son of Gamal, +bought St Gregory's minster (or church) when it was all broken and fallen, +and caused it to be made anew from the ground for Christ and St Gregory in +the days of King Edward, and in the days of Earl Tosti, and Hawarth +wrought me and Brand the Prior, (priest or priests)." + +Along the top of the dial and round the perimeter the inscription reads:-- + ++ PIS IS DAEGES SOL MERCA + THIS IS DAY'S SUNMARKER + +AET ILCVM TIDE +AT EACH TIDE OR HOUR. + +It is interesting to know that the antiquaries of a century or more ago +rendered this simple sentence as: "This is a draught exhibiting the time +of day, while the sun is passing to and from the winter-solstice." They +also made a great muddle of the words: "& HE HIT LET MACAN NEWAN," their +rendering being "CHEHITLE AND MAN NEWAN," the translation being supposed +to read: "Chehitle and others renewed it, etc." With Mr Brooke's paper is +given a large steel engraving of the stone, but it is curiously inaccurate +in many details. At Edstone church there is another sundial over the south +doorway as at Kirkdale, and there is every reason to believe that it +belongs to the same period. The inscription above the dial reads:-- + +OROLOGI VIATORUM. + +On the left side is the following:-- + +LOTHAN ME WROHTE A. + +[Illustration: Saxon Sundial at Edstone. (From a rubbing by Mr J. Romilly +Allen, F.S.A.)] + +From the drawing given here the inscription is palpably incomplete, as +though the writer had been suddenly stopped in his work. Nothing is known +of Lothan beyond the making of this sundial, so that the fixing of the +date can only be by comparative reasoning. At Kirkdale, on the other hand, +we know that Tosti, Harold's brother, became Earl of Northumbria in 1055, +we know also that the Northumbrians rose against Tosti's misgovernment and +his many crimes, among which must be placed the murder of the Gamal +mentioned in the inscription, and that in 1065 Tosti was outlawed, his +house-carles killed, and his treasures seized. After this we also know +that Tosti was defeated by the Earls Edwin and Morcar, and having fled to +Scotland, submitted himself to Harold Hardrada, King of Norway, who had +arrived in the Tyne with his fleet early in September 1066, that they then +sailed southwards, and having sacked Scarborough defeated Edwin and Morcar +at Fulford near York only eight days before the landing of William the +Norman at Pevensey. Harold having made forced marches reached York on +September the 24th, and defeated his brother and the Norwegian king, both +being slain in the battle which was fought at Stamford Bridge on the +Derwent. Harold was forced to take his wearied army southwards immediately +after the battle to meet the Frenchmen at Hastings, and the great disaster +of Senlac Hill occurred on October the 14th. This stone at Kirkdale is +thus concerned with momentous events in English history, for the murder of +Gamal and the insurrection of Tosti may be considered two of the links in +the chain of events leading to the Norman Conquest. + +A great deal of interest has centred round an Anglo-Saxon cross-slab built +into the west wall of Kirkdale church. At the time of its discovery the +late Rev. Daniel H. Haigh[1] tells us that a runic inscription spelling +_Kununc Oithilwalde_, meaning "to King AEthelwald," was quite legible. This +would seem to indicate that the founder of Lastingham monastery was buried +at Kirkdale, or that the site of Bede's, "Laestingaeu" was at Kirkdale if +the stone has not been moved from its original position. + +[Footnote 1: _Yorkshire Archaeological Journal_, v. 134.] + +[Illustration: Saxon or Pre-Norman Remains at and near Pickering.] + +The inscription has now perished, but Bishop Browne tells us[1] that when +he had photographs taken of the stone in 1886 "there was only one rune +left, the 'Oi' of the king's name." "I have seen, however," he says, "the +drawing made of the letters when the stone was found, and many of them +were still legible when the Rev. Daniel Haigh worked at the stone." There +seems little doubt that this most valuable inscription might have been +preserved if the stone had been kept from the action of the air and +weather. + +[Footnote 1: Browne, Rt. Rev. G.F.: "The Conversion of the Heptarchy," p. +151.] + +There are several other pre-Norman sculptured stones at Kirkdale. They are +generally built into the walls on the exterior, and are not very apparent +unless carefully looked for. In the vestry some fragments of stone bearing +interlaced ornament are preserved. + +Not only at Kirkdale are these pre-Norman stones built into walls that +appear to belong to a date prior to the Conquest, but also at Middleton +there is a fine cross forming part of the fabric of the church tower. The +west doorway now blocked up is generally considered to be of Saxon work, +but the quoins of the tower, though bearing much resemblance to the pure +"long and short" work that may be seen at Bradford-on-Avon, are composed +of stones that are almost equal in height. + +[Illustration: Cross Slab inserted in West Wall of Kirkdale Church. + +The runes which gave rise to the belief that this was the gravestone of +King AEthelwald have perished. + +Slab with Interlaced Ornament at Kirkdale Church. + +(_Both crosses are from the Associated Architectural Societies' Reports_.) +] + +The Rev. Reginald Caley has suggested that the original Saxon tower of +Brompton church may have been incorporated into the present structure +whose walls are of unusual thickness, the stone work in some places +showing characteristics of pre-Norman workmanship. At Ellerburne the +curious spiral ornaments of the responds of the chancel arch have also +been attributed to pre-Norman times, but in this case and possibly at +Middleton also, the Saxon features may have appeared in Norman buildings +owing to the employment of Saxon workmen, who did not necessarily for +several years entirely abandon their own methods, despite the fact that +they might be working under Norman masters. There is a very roughly hewn +font in the little chapel of Ease, in the village of Levisham. It bears a +cross and a rope ornamentation, and may possibly be of pre-Norman origin, +although it was being used as a cattle trough in a neighbouring farmyard +before the restoration in 1884. The parish church of Levisham, standing +alone in the valley below the village, has a very narrow and unadorned +chancel arch. This may possibly belong to Saxon or very early Norman +times, but Mr Joseph Morris[1] has pointed out that a similar one occurs +at Scawton, which is known to have been built in 1146, and the evidence of +a Saxon stone built into the south-east corner of the chancel of Levisham +church supports my belief in the later date. On the south wall of the +chancel of Lockton church I have seen a roughly shaped oblong stone +bearing in one corner the markings of a very rude sundial, and I find that +there is another on the wall of a cottage in the same village.[2] I am +unable to give its position, but from a drawing I have examined, it +appears to be of more careful workmanship than the one built into the +church wall. At Sinnington church another of these very crude sundials has +been discovered, and what may be part of a similar one is high up on the +east wall of the chancel of Ellerburne church. At Kirby Moorside a fine +cross with interlaced work is built into the porch of the vicarage. At +Wykeham there is a very plain cross of uncertain age, and Ellerburne, +Lastingham, Sinnington, Kirkdale, Kirby Misperton, and Middleton are all +rich in carved crosses and incised slabs. Pickering church only possesses +one fragment of stone work that we may safely attribute to a date prior to +the Conquest. It seems to be part of the shaft or of an arm of a cross, +and bears one of the usual types of dragon as well as knot or interlaced +ornament. The font, which has been thought by some to be of Saxon origin, +seems to be formed from part of the inverted base of a pillar, and though +composed of old material, probably dates in its present form of a font +from as recent a period as the restoration of Charles II., the original +font having been destroyed in Puritan times (Chapter X.). It would appear +that when it was decided to build a large Norman church at Pickering the +desire to put up a building that would be a great advance on the previous +structure--for we cannot suppose that Pickering was without a church in +Saxon times---led to the destruction of every trace of the earlier +building. + +[Footnote 1: Morris, J.E.: "The North Riding of Yorkshire," p. 33.] + +[Footnote 2: Illustrated, facing p. 209, "Associated Architectural +Societies' Reports," vol. xii. 1873.] + +[Illustration: Two Crossheads at Sinnington Church. The one on the left +shows a Crucifixion.] + +Hinderwell mentions a curious legend in connection with the cave in a +small conical hill at Ebberston, that has since been destroyed. The +country people called it Ilfrid's Hole, the tradition being that a Saxon +king of that name took shelter there when wounded after a battle. An +inscription that was formerly placed above the cave said: "Alfrid, King of +Northumberland, was wounded in a bloody battle near this place, and was +removed to Little Driffield, where he lies buried; hard by his +entrenchments may be seen." The roughly built stone hut with a domed roof +that now crowns the hill is within twenty yards of the site of the cave, +and was built by Sir Charles Hotham in 1790 to preserve the memory of +this legendary king. In the period that lay between the conversion of +Northumbria to Christianity in 627, and the ravages of Dane and Northman +in the ninth and tenth centuries, we know by the traces that survive that +the Saxons built a church in each of their villages, and that they placed +beautifully sculptured crosses above the graves of their dead. The +churches were small and quite simple in plan, generally consisting of a +nave and chancel, with perhaps a tower at the west end. Owing to the +importance of Pickering the Saxon church may have been a little in advance +of the rest, and its tower may have been ornamented as much as that of +Earl's Barton, but we are entering the dangerous realms of conjecture, and +must be reconciled to that one fragment of a pre-Norman cross that is now +carefully preserved in the south aisle of the present building. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +_The Forest and Vale in Norman Times_ + +A.D. 1066-1154 + + +In the early years of the reign of William I., when the northern counties +rose against his rule, the Pickering district seems to have required more +drastic treatment than any other. In 1069 the Conqueror spent the winter +in the north of England, and William of Malmesbury describes how "he +ordered the towns and fields of the whole district to be laid waste; the +fruits and grain to be destroyed by fire or by water ... thus the +resources of a once flourishing province were cut off, by fire, slaughter, +and devastation; the ground for more than sixty miles, totally +uncultivated and unproductive, remains bare to the present day." This is +believed to have been written about 1135, and would give us grounds for +believing that the desolation continued for over sixty years. A vivid +light is thrown on the destruction wrought at Pickering by the record in +the Domesday Book, which is as follows:-- + +"In _Picheringa_ there are to be taxed thirty-seven carucates of land, +which twenty ploughs may till. Morcar held this for one manor, with its +berewicks _Bartune_ (Barton), _Neuuctune_ (Newton), _Blandebi_ (Blandsby) +and Estorp (Easthorp). It is now the king's. There is therein one plough +and twenty villanes with six ploughs; meadow half a mile long and as much +broad: but all the wood which belongs to the manor is sixteen miles long +and four broad. This manor in the time of King Edward was valued at +fourscore and eight pounds; now at twenty shillings and four-pence."[1] + +[Footnote 1: "Dom Boc," the Yorkshire Domesday. The Rev. Wm. Bawdwen, +1809, p. 11] + +This remarkable depreciation from L88 to L1 and 4d. need not be, as +Bawdwen thought, a mistake in the original, but an ample proof of the +vengeance of the Conqueror. All the lands belonging to the powerful Saxon +Earls Edwin and Morcar seem to have suffered much the same fate. + +The Domesday account also mentions that "To this manor belongs the soke of +these lands, viz.: _Brunton_ (Brompton), _Odulfesmare_ ( ), _Edbriztune_ +(Ebberston), _Alnestune_ (Allerston), _Wiltune_ (Wilton), _Farmanesbi_ +(Farmanby), _Rozebi_ (Roxby), _Chinetorp_ (Kinthorp), _Chilnesmares_ ( ), +_Aschilesmares_ ( ), _Maxudesmares_ ( ), _Snechintune_ (Snainton), +_Chigogemers_ ( ), _Elreburne_ (Ellerburne), _Torentune_ (Thornton), +_Leuccen_ (Levisham), _Middeletun_ (Middleton) and _Bartune_ (Barton). In +the whole there are fifty carucates to be taxed, which twenty-seven +ploughs may till. There are now only ten villanes, having two ploughs: the +rest is waste; yet there are twenty acres of meadow. The whole length is +sixteen miles and the breadth four." + +The unrecognisable names all end in mare, mares or mers, suggesting that +they were all on the marshes and Bawdwen is probably incorrect in calling +_Locte-mares_--Low-moors. Associated with each place the Domesday record +gives the names of the former landowners. + +I give them in tabular form:-- + + +Manor in Domesday Modern Name Held by + +Bruntune Brompton Ulf +Truzstal Troutsdale Archil +Alurestan Allerston Gospatric +Loctemares Low-moors or marshes Archil +Torentun Thornton-le-dale Torbrand, Gospatric + and Tor +Elreburne Ellerburne Gospatric + +Dalbi Dalby " +Chetelestorp Kettlethorp " +Lochetun Lockton Ulchil +Aslachesbi Aislaby Gospatric +Wereltun Wrelton " +Caltorne Cawthorne " +Croptune Cropton " +Abbetune Habton Ulf and Cnut +Ritun Ryton Canute +Berg. Barugh Ligulf +Berg " Esbern +Wellebrune Welburn Grim +Normanebi Normanby Gamel +Bragebi Brawby Ulf +Chirchebi (?) Kirby Moorside Torbrant +Chirchebi (?) Kirkdale Gamel +Lestingeham Lastingham " +Spantun Spaunton " +Dalbi Dalby Gamel +Sevenicton (?) Sinnington Torbrand +Hotun Hutton-le-hole or Torbrant + Hutton Buscel +Atun Ayton Gamel +Micheledestun Great Edstone " +Parva Edestun Little Edstone Torbrant +Mispeton, now Belonging to + Kirby Misperton Chirchebi + + +The number of ploughs, of oxgangs and carucates, and of villanes and +bordars in each manor is given in Domesday, but to give each extract in +full would take up much space and would be a little wearisome. + +We know that the impoverished country was, like the rest of England, given +by the Conqueror to his followers. The village of Hutton Buscel obtains +its name from the Buscel family which came over to England with William +the Norman. Hinderwell, quoting[1] from some unnamed source, tells us that +"Reginald Buscel (whose father came over with the Conqueror) married +Alice, the sister of William, Abbot of Whitby, and at the time of his +marriage, gave the church of Hotun, which his father had built, to the +monastery of Whitby." This was before the year 1154, and the lower part of +the tower of the present church of Hutton Buscel, being of Norman date, +may belong to that early building. + +[Footnote 1: Thomas Hinderwell: "History of Scarborough," p. 331.] + +On Vivers Hill to the east of the village of Kirby Moorside there are +indications among the trees of what is believed to have been the castle of +the Stutevilles. Robert de Stuteville is said to have come over with the +Conqueror, and to have received land at Kirby Moorside as a reward for his +services. + +The country having received the full fury of William's wrath very slowly +recovered its prosperity under Norman rulers. On the slope of the hills +all the way from Scarborough to Helmsley, castles began to make their +appearance, and sturdy Norman churches were built in nearly every village. + +[Illustration: The South Side of the Nave of Pickering Church.] + +The arches on the north side are of much simpler Norman work. The nearest +painting shows the story of the legendary St Katherine of Alexandria. + +[Copyright is reserved by Dr John L Kirk.] + +The great Norman keep of Scarborough Castle with its shattered side still +frowns above the holiday crowds of that famous seaside resort, but of the +other strongholds of the district built in this castle-building age it is +not easy to speak with certainty. But the evidences of Norman work are +fairly plain at Pickering Castle, and there seems little doubt that a +fortress of some strength was built at this important point to overawe the +inhabitants. Mr G.T. Clark in his "Mediaeval Military Architecture"[1] says +that he considers Pickering Castle to represent "one great type of +Anglo-Norman fortress--that is, a castle of Norman masonry upon an +English earthwork, for the present walls, if not Norman, are +unquestionably laid on Norman lines." He thinks that the earthworks would +be taken possession of and fortified either late in the eleventh or early +in the twelfth century, and that the keep, the chief part of the curtain +walls, and the Norman door near the northwest corner are remains of this +building. The gateways may be Norman or they may belong to the time of +Richard II. (1377-99) but Mr Clark inclines to the earlier date. It is +possible that the Norman doorway just mentioned may have been an entrance +to one of the towers mentioned by Leland but now completely lost sight of. +The architrave has a beaded angle ornamented with pointed arches repeated, +and if it is of late Norman date it is the only part of the castle which +Mr Clark considers to be "distinctly referable to that period." + +[Footnote 1: George T. Clark: "Mediaeval Military Architecture in England," +p.372.] + +There is no doubt at all that the arcades of the present nave of Pickering +church, were built at this time, and the lower part of the tower is also +of Norman date. The north arcade is earlier than that on the south side, +having perfectly plain semi-circular arches and massive columns with +fluted capitals. On the south the piers are much more ornate, the contrast +being very plainly seen in the photograph reproduced here. + +To have necessitated such a spacious church at this time, Pickering must +have been a populous town; possibly it grew on account of the safety +afforded by the castle, and it seems to indicate the importance of the +place in the time of the Norman kings. + +One of the most complete little Norman churches in Yorkshire is to be seen +at Salton, a village about six miles south-west of Pickering. It appears +to have been built at the beginning of the twelfth century, and afterwards +to have suffered from fire, parts of the walls by their redness showing +traces of having been burnt. A very thorough restoration has given the +building a rather new aspect, but this does not detract from the interest +of the church. The chancel arch is richly ornamented with two patterns of +zig-zag work, the south door of the nave has a peculiar decoration of +double beak-heads, and though some of the early windows have been replaced +by lancets, a few of the Norman slits remain. + +[Illustration: The South Doorway of the Norman Church of Salton. It is +ornamented with very curious double beak-heads. In the upper corners are +given two of the curious corbels on the south side of the nave.] + +[Illustration: Curious Ornament in the Norman Chancel Arch at Ellerburne. +The crude carving suggests Saxon work, and it was possibly the production +of Saxon masons under Norman supervision.] + +Middleton church has already been mentioned as containing what appears to +be a Saxon doorway in the tower. This may have been saved from an earlier +building together with the lower part of the tower, but if it did not come +into existence before the conquest the tower and nave were built in early +Norman times. The south arcade probably belongs to the latest phase of +Transitional Norman architecture, if not the commencement of the early +English period. Running along the west and north walls of the north aisle +is a stone bench, an unusual feature even in Norman churches. + +Ellerburne church has some very interesting Norman work in the chancel +arch. The ornament is so crude that it would seem as though very primitive +Saxon workmen had been working under Norman influence, for, while the +masonry is plainly of the Norman period, the ornament appears to belong to +an earlier time. There must have been a church at Normanby at this period, +for the south door of the present building is Norman. Sinnington church +also belongs to this time. The Norman chancel arch was taken down many +years ago, but the stones having been preserved in the church it was found +possible to replace them in their original position at the Restoration in +1904. There are remains of three doorways including the blocked one at the +west end. The south doorway is Transitional Norman, and is supposed to +have been added about 1180. The porch and present chancel belong to the +thirteenth century, but during the Restoration some interesting relics of +the earlier Norman chancel were discovered in the walls of the fabric that +replaced it. A small stone coffin containing human remains with several +wild boars' tusks and a silver wire ring was found in the nave. + +[Illustration: The Transitional Norman Crypt under the Chancel of +Lastingham Church. It is a complete little underground church, having +nave, apse, and aisles.] + +Lastingham church as it now stands is only part of the original +Transitional Norman church, for there are evidences that the nave extended +to the west of the present tower which was added in the fifteenth century. +It appears that the western part of the nave was destroyed or injured not +many years after its erection, and that the eastern part was repaired in +early English times. The chancel with its vaulted roof and circular apse, +and the crypt beneath, are of the same date as the original nave, and +though the capitals of the low columns in the crypt might be thought to be +of earlier work, expert opinion places them at the same Transitional +Norman date. The crypt has a nave, apse and aisles, and is therefore a +complete little underground church. Semi-circular arches between the +pillars support the plain vaulting only a few feet above one's head, and +the darkness is such that it requires a little time to be able to see the +foliage and interlaced arches of the capitals surmounting the squat +columns. + +At Brompton the Perpendicular church contains evidences of the building of +this period that once existed there, in the shape of four Norman capitals, +two of them built into the east wall of the south aisle and two in the +jambs of the chancel arch. In the massive walls of the lower part of the +tower there may also be remains of the Norman building. + +At the adjoining village of Snainton the old church was taken down in +1835, but the Norman stones of the south doorway of the nave have been +re-erected, and now form an arch in an adjoining wall. The font of the +same period having been found in a garden, was replaced in the church on a +new base in 1893. In Edstone church the Norman font, with a simple arcade +pattern running round the circular base, is still to be seen, and at +Levisham the very plain chancel arch mentioned in the preceding chapter is +also of Norman work. Allerston church has some pieces of zig-zag ornament +built into the north wall, and Ebberston church has a slit window on the +north side of the chancel, and the south door built in Norman times. The +nave arcade at Ebberston may belong to the Transitional Norman period and +the font also. + +Most of the churches in the neighbourhood of Pickering are, therefore, +seen to have either been built in the Norman age or to possess fragments +of the buildings that were put up in that period. The difficulty of +preventing the churches from being too cold was met in some degree by +having no windows on the north side as at Sinnington, and those windows +that faced the other cardinal points were sufficiently small to keep out +the extremes of temperature. + +[Illustration: The Norman font at Edstone.] + +The written records belonging to the Norman period of the history of +Pickering seem to have largely disappeared, so that with the exception of +the Domesday Book, and a few stray references to people or places in this +locality, we are largely dependent on the buildings that have survived +those tempestuous years. + +Pickering appears to have been a royal possession during the whole of this +time, and it is quite probable that the Norman kings hunted in the forest +and lodged with their Courts in the castle, for a writ issued by Henry I. +is dated at Pickering. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_The Forest and Vale in the Time of the Plantagenets_ + +A.D. 1154 to 1485 + + +The story of these three centuries is told to a most remarkable extent in +the numerous records of the Duchy of Lancaster relating to the maintenance +of the royal Forest of Pickering. They throw a clear light on many aspects +of life at Pickering, and by picking out some of the more picturesque +incidents recorded we may see to what extent the severe forest laws kept +in check the poaching element in the neighbourhood. We can also discover +some incidents in connection with the visits of some of the English kings +to the royal forest of Pickering, as well as matters relating to the +repair of the castle. + +In the Parliament of 1295, in Edward I.'s reign, Pickering, for the first +and only occasion, sent representatives to the national assembly. The +parliamentary return states[1] that the persons returned on that occasion +were + + Robertus Turcock + Robertus Turcock, + +but whether this is a mistake by the recorder or whether two men of the +same name were returned is uncertain. + +[Footnote 1: G.R. Park, "The Parliamentary Representation of Yorkshire, +1886," pp. 266 and 283.] + +Among the High Sheriffs of Yorkshire in the fourteenth and fifteenth +Centuries were + + 1390 Richard II. Jacobus de Pykering. + 1394 " " " + 1398 " " " + 1432 Henry VI. Sir Richard de Pykering. + 1450 " Sir James de Pykering knt. + +In 1311 Johannes de Cropton was one of the members for Scarborough in +Edward II.'s Parliament of that year. + +Pickering was held as royal property by William the Conqueror, and with a +few short intervals it has remained crown property until the present day. +It is therefore no matter for surprise to find that several of the +Plantagenet kings came to hunt in the forest. It appears to have been a +royal possession in the time of Henry I., and also in February 1201, when +King John visited the castle,[1] for a charter granted by him to the nuns +of Wykeham is dated at Pickering. In 1248 William Lord d'Acre was made +keeper of the castle, but towards the close of his reign Henry III. +(1216-1272) gave the castle, manor, and forest of Pickering to his son +Edmund Crouchback, and from him the property has descended through the +Lancastrian branch of the royal family, so that it now forms part of the +possessions of the Duchy of Lancaster. + +[Footnote 1: Young's "History of Whitby," vol. ii. p. 733.] + +From other records we find that King John was also at Pickering for at +least a day in August 1208 and in March 1210. + +In 1261 Pickering Castle was held against Henry III. by Hugh le Bigod, and +some of the wardrobe accounts of the reign of Edward II. have reference to +a visit to Pickering. The place must have had painful memories for the +king in connection with the capture of his favourite Piers Gaveston at +Scarborough Castle in 1312. This visit was, however, separated from that +fateful event by eleven years. + +"3 August 1323, at Pickering. Paid to William Hunt, the King's huntsman, +by way of gift at the direction of Harsike--L1; to Agnes, wife of Roger de +Mar, porter of the chamber, gift--10s.: to Guillot de la Pittere, groom of +the Queen's chamber, gift--L1; to Dighton Wawayn, valet of Robert Wawayn, +carrying letters from his master to the king, gift--2s. To John, son of +Ibote of Pickering, who followed the king a whole day when he hunted the +stag in Pickering chase, gift by order--10s.; to Walter de Seamer, +Mariner, keeper of the ship called the Magdalen, of which Cook atte Wose +was master, a gift, the money being given to John Harsike to give him-- +L1. + +"23 August, at Egginton, on Blakey Moor. Paid to Sir Roger de Felton, +Knight of the King's Chamber, for his ransom at the time when he was taken +by the Scots at Rievaulx in company with the Earl of Richmond, in October, +1322, a gift by the hands of John Harsike, who delivered the money to Sir +Roger in the King's presence, L100. + +"To Edmund Dorney, the King's palfrey man, who always followed the King +when he hunted--L1. + +"31 August, at Glascowollehouse. Paid to Ernest, running footman of Sir +Robert del Idle, who carried letters to the King, a gift 6s. 8d.; to Dan +Thomas de Broghton, monk of Rievaulx, to buy him a coat, a gift--10s." + +The entries show that the king journeyed to Whorlton Castle to stay with +Nicholas de Meynell. He seems to have gone by way of Lockton and Spaunton +Moor, and appears to have stayed a night at Danby. The accounts mention an +amount paid on September 1st to certain foresters' servants who set the +king's nets to take roe-deer in Whorlton Park, and we also discover that +the day's sport was varied by the singing of Alice the red-haired and +Alice de Whorlton, who gave "Simon de Montfort" and other songs before the +king, and received a gift of 4s. + +The poor of Pickering profited by the royal visits. Here are two items in +the accounts. + +"26 September [1323] at Skipton. Paid, by order of the King, to Lorchon +Sewer alms distributed by the King at Pickering--3d." + +In 1334 Edward III. was more generous than his predecessor, for we find +"26 May. Alms--to Sir Walter de London, King's Almoner, for food for 100 +poor on the feast of Corpus Christi at Pickering, at the hands of his +clerk Henry--12s. 6d." During the hunting in the forest a hound was lost +and recovered as follows:-- + +"June, (at Beverley), given to Robert de Bridgegate, leading to the King a +hound lost at Pickering, a gift the same day 6s. 8d." + +The reference to the Scottish raid as far south as Rievaulx Abbey touches +an event of great interest. In 1322 the Scots, led by Robert Bruce, had +entered England and plundered many places, including the splendid +Cistercian monastery just mentioned, and the following record shows that +the Vale of Pickering purchased immunity for 300 marks. + +"John Topcliffe Rector of Semer Wm. Wyern & John Wickham with others of +Pickering with the assent of the whole community, on Tuesday 13th Oct. +1322 purchased from Robert Bruce through the Earl of Moray for 300 marks, +to be paid at Berwick, half at Candlemas next & the other half at Trinity +next, the immunity of the Vale of Pickering from the River Seven on the +west to the sea on the east. Further they say that Nich's Haldane, Wm. +Hastings and John Manneser, at the request of the men of the whole +community, surrendered at Rievaulx to Robert Bruce on Saturday the 17th of +Oct. following, to sojourn as hostages in Scotland until the 300 marks +were paid. Further they say that the 300 marks are still unpaid, for +afterwards the men of the community refused payment and once for all. +Further they said that the said Nicholas William and John are still in +prison in Scotland, and all the men and all townships, manors, hamlets, +lands and tenements of the said Vale within the bounds aforesaid were +preserved from all damage and injury whatsoever through the +above-mentioned ransom." + +From the Chronicle of John Hardyng we find that Richard II. was imprisoned +at Pickering before being taken to Knaresborough, and finally to +Pontefract. The lines in his quaint verse must have been written between +1436 and 1465. + + "The Kyng the[n] sent Kyng Richard to Ledis, + There to be kepte surely in previtee, + Fro the[n]s after to Pykeryng we[n]t he nedes, + And to Knauesburgh after led was he, + But to Pountfrete last where he did die." [1] + +[Footnote 1: The Chronicle of John Hardyng, edited by Henry Ellis, 1812, +p. 356.] + +There seems little doubt that the story of the murder of the king at +Pontefract Castle by Sir Piers Exton is untrue, but "nothing is certainly +known of the time, place, or manner of his death." + +The records of the Coucher Book contain a mass of interesting and often +entertaining information concerning the illicit removals of oak trees from +the forest, hunting and killing the royal deer and other animals, as well +as many other offences. + +At the forest Eyre, a sort of assizes, held at Pickering in 1334 to deal +with a great accumulated mass of infringements on the rights of the +forest, the first case is against Sir John de Melsa, Lord of Levisham, who +was, according to the jury, "in the habit of employing men to make and +burn charcoal out of browsewood and dry sticks in his woods at Levisham, +which are now within the bounds of the forest, and he exposes the charcoal +for sale, injuring the lord and annoying the deer, by what right they know +not. Sir John is summoned, appears, and pleads that he and his ancestors +and the tenants of the Manor of Levisham have from ancient time taken the +browsewood and dry sticks in the said woods and burnt them into charcoal, +and afterwards exposed them for sale, and given them away at pleasure as +part of his and their manorial rights. He asks that the officers of the +forest may try the question. As it clearly appears to the Court by the +answer of Sir John that he is making a claim to take a profit in the +forest which he did not claim on the first day of the Eyre, as the custom +is, and as proclamation was made, judgment is given that the liberty be +seized into the Lord's hands, and Sir John is to answer for its value in +the meantime. Afterwards Sir John appears, and prays that he may be +allowed to pay a composition for making his claim, and a composition of +6s. 8d. is fixed. Surety, Richard de Naulton. The jury also present that a +bridge called Friar Bridge, beyond the Costa, across which people are wont +to pass on horseback and on foot going from Pickering to Malton, is in +such bad repair that people cannot pass over, but have to make a +divergence of about a mile and a half in the forest, treading down and +injuring the pasturage of the deer. The Abbot of Rievaulx and all Abbots +of that place are bound to repair it. He is summoned, appears, and does +not deny that he and they are bound to repair it, but he says that the +bridge is not in such bad repair that people cannot pass over it as they +are wont and ought to do without doing harm to any one. He asks that an +inquiry may be made by the officers of the forest. An inquiry is directed. +The foresters, verderers, and regarders, sworn and charged, say on their +oaths, that after the summons for the Eyre was issued, the bridge was in +such bad repair that people being unable to pass over it made a divergence +into the forest, annoying the Lord's deer and treading down their +pasturage. Afterwards the Abbot repaired it so that it requires nothing +further, and people can quite well pass over it. Therefore as to the +present repair of the bridge the Abbot is acquitted, but he is to be +amerced because he did not repair it before. + +"The jury also present that the present Prior of Bridlington erected a +sheepfold at Newland in the forest, 100 feet long and 12 feet broad, +injuring thereby the Lord's deer, notwithstanding that on another occasion +at the last Eyre of the Justices the sheepfold was ordered to be taken +down. By what right they know not. The Prior appears and prays to be +allowed to compound with the Lord, and that he and his successors may rent +the sheepfold in perpetuity, inasmuch as it no longer injures the deer. +Since the foresters, verderers, and regarders prove that it is so the +Prior is permitted to compound by the payment of 13s. 4d. (surety Ralph de +Morton), and he is likewise given a grant for ever of the sheepfold at a +yearly rent of 6d. at Michaelmas. The Prior is to hold it for ever quit of +regard. The jury also present that the bridge and road of Pul within the +forest, which are common highways for carriages, carts, drifts, and +packsaddles are in such bad repair that none can pass over them. The Prior +of the Hospital of St John, by reason of his tenure of lands which +formerly belonged to the Knights Templars, and the Prioress of Yedingham, +are bound to repair and maintain them. They are summoned. The Prioress +appears in person, the Prior by his attorney, Walter de Trusseley. The +Prioress says that neither she nor any of her predecessors ever from +ancient time repaired or ought to repair it, because she says that the +Prior, by reason of his tenure of the lands which belonged to the +Templars, is bound to repair and maintain the bridge and road as often as +need requires, in the same way that the Templars, before the abolition of +their Order, from ancient time, by reason of their tenure of their lands +at Foulbridge, which the Prior now holds, repaired and maintained the +bridge and road. She asks that an inquiry may be directed." The Prior, by +his attorney, denies most of the charges seriatim, but the judgment of the +Court is that "the Prior be distrained to compel him to repair and make +good the bridge and road to the east, and is to be amerced because he has +not done it sooner, and the Prioress is to be acquitted because the road +to the west of the bridge is not at present out of repair." + +[Illustration: Some of the Wall Paintings on the South Side of the Nave of +Pickering Church. + +The upper left-hand corner shows what is apparently the funeral of the +Virgin Mary with the miserable Prince astride the coffin. On the long +strip and on the two spandrels are scenes from the Death and Resurrection +of Our Lord. + +The last of seven acts of corporal mercy is shown here. + +[Copyright reserved by Dr John L. Kirk.] +] + +This is a typical example of the manner of recording these quarrels over +responsibilities and delinquencies in connection with the forest, each +side seeming to deny in detail most of the charges brought forward. Most +of the cases relating to the stealing of oaks and brushwood and to +poaching matters generally are compounded for. + +The following is a case of officers of the forest making themselves a +nuisance with the local people. "The jury also present that whereas John +de Monmouth has 20s [? a year], a toft and two oxgangs of land, with the +appurtenances in Pickering, John Scot 30s a year, and William Courtman 5s +at the Earl's expense for being fosterers in the West Ward [of Pickering +Forest], yet they surcharge all the inhabitants with their living and that +of their servants, annoying the country. They are summoned, appear, and +compound.... The jury also present that Richard Cockard of Helmsley, John +de Harlay, and William Gower, forester, of Scalby, Langdale, and Fullwood, +under colour of their office, collect sheaves in autumn and wool and keep +servants on board in the country. They are summoned, appear, and make +composition...." "The jury also present that John de Shirburn drew the +timber of a house in Pickering within the forest of Shirburn without the +forest, and John Beal of West Heslerton drew the timber of a barn in +Pickering within the boundery of the forest to West Heslerton without the +forest, and John de Shirburn and Thomas Bret likewise drew the timber of a +house at Pickering within the boundaries of the forest to Shirburn without +the forest, injuring the Earl and contrary to the assize of the forest. +They are summoned, appear, and each makes composition." + +"Henry the Fowler, of Barugh, Adam the Fowler, of Ayton, William Hare and +William Fox, catch birds in the forest by means of birdlime-nets and other +contrivances." The Clergy were frequently involved in the taking of timber +from the forest. "Robert de Hampton, Rector of Middleton, took at +different times three green oaks below Cropton Castle, and on a third +occasion took there a green oak, without the demesne, without livery of +the foresters or warrant.-- + +"In mercy:-- + +"The Abbot of Whitby took a green oak in Goathland within the demesne, +value 3d, and was let out on bail. He has not surrendered and does not +appear to judgment with his bail, and he is responsible for the value and +a fine of 3s. Afterwards it appears that his bail are dead, so proceedings +against them are stayed. + +"Eldred of Ellerburne, deceased, carried off a green oak within the +demesne, value 7d. His successor, Edmund de Hastings, is responsible for +its value, a fine of 7d and also 7d, the value of vert likewise taken in +the Hay. + +"Hugh, Vicar of Ebberston, deceased, took a green oak without the demesne +without livery of the foresters or warrant; John, son of Geoffrey, and +John de la Chymyne, his executors, are responsible.-- + +"The Lady Beatrice of Farmanby, deceased, took a green oak without the +demesne, without livery of the foresters or warrant. Her successor, +William Hastings, is responsible. + +"The Rector of Brompton, deceased, felled two green oaks without the +demesne, without livery of foresters or warrant. The same persons +responsible. + +"The Preceptor of Foulbridge felled and carried away four green oaks in +fence month. The Prior of the Hospital of St John is responsible. + +"The Prioress of Wykeham claims for herself and her tenants in Wykeham and +Ruston to receive and take housebote and hedgebote in the woods of North +Cave heads and Barley, according to the assize of the forest, and common +of pasture for all animals except goats in the same woods and the wastes +and moors adjoining, that is to say, northwards from Yarlesike.... The +Justices consider that before allowing her claims an inqury should be made +as to how the Prioress and her predecessors have exercised their rights." + +"Sir John de Meaux claims to have housebote and hedgebote for himself, his +men and tenants of Levisham in his woods of Levisham, in accordance with +the assize of the forest, and reasonable estovers of turves in his +demesnes of Levisham, for himself, his men and his tenants, and ironstone +and a smelting-place in his woods of Levisham, paying to the Earl an +annual rent of 2s and aeries of falcons, merlins and sparrow-hawk, and +whatever honey is found in his woods at Levisham, and he claims to have a +woodward in such woods. He is ready to prove that all these rights having +been exercised by himself and his ancestors from ancient time, the +housebote and hedgebote being appurtenant to his free tenement in +Levisham, and brousewood and dry wood being taken to feed his furnaces. An +inquiry is directed, and it is found that Sir John and his ancestors have +from ancient time enjoyed the rights so claimed without interruption. +Judgment is given in accordance with the verdict." + +"Ralph de Bulmer claims to have a free park at Thornton Riseborough, and +to keep hounds to hunt there. He claims that King John by deed granted to +one Alan de Winton, then holder of the park, and his heirs, liberty to +inclose and make a free park, and to keep his hounds to hunt there; by +virtue whereof Alan, whose estate he now holds, exercised the rights. He +says that Edward II. inspected the grant of John, and granted to Ralph, +that he and his heirs might hold the park with its appurtenances as Alan +held it, without let or hindrance on the part of the King or his Justices, +Escheators, Sheriffs, or other bailiffs, or officers whatsoever. + +"Thomas de Pickering and Margaret, his wife, claim to have a woodward to +keep their demesne wood at Lockton, and that no one may lop branches +therein or fell any tree without their consent, and that they may fell and +give away at pleasure green trees and dry, and give and sell dry trees at +pleasure without view of the foresters." In the following claim a mention +is made of the "wildcat." "Thomas Wake of Liddell claims to have a free +chase for fox, hare, wildcat, and badger, within the boundaries of his +barony of Middleton, namely, from the place called Alda on the Costa to +the standing stone above the Spital Myre of Pickering, etc." + +"Hugh de Nevill is indicted, for that whilst he was bailiff of Pickering, +under colour of his office, he arrested one Robert the Dyer, lately +residing in Ebberston, bound his hands as if he were a felon, though he +had not been indicted, and took from him a horse, harness, and other goods +and chattels to the value of 20s. Afterwards he entrusted him to the care +of his servant to take to York, but when they reached Malton, the servant +let his prisoner escape. + +"Henry de Rippley, sub-bailiff of Pickering, fined for having seized goods +and chattels of Sir Robert de Scarborough, at Ebberston, for which he was +indicted and found guilty on his own confession, 3s 4d." + +A case in which the poachers showed their total disregard for the officers +of the forest is given as follows. + +"Stephen son of Richard of Eskdale, Nicholas the Taylor of Whitby, and +John de Moorsholm of Sneaton Thorpe, were indicted for having, on +Wednesday 23rd March 1334, at Blakey Moor [near Saltersgate], within the +forest, hunted with bows, arrows and greyhounds, and taken sixty-six harts +and hinds, of which they cut off the heads of nine and fixed them upon +stakes in the Moor." + +"As regards those who caught hares and wandered in the forest with bows +and arrows contrary to the assize of the forest, Mathilda de Bruys is +accustomed to hunt and catch hares." She compounded for 5s, Robert Bruce +and John Perot being sureties. + +The Coucher Book mentions that Henry I. issued a writ dated at Pickering. +This would suggest that Pickering Castle was standing between 1100 and +1135, for the king would scarcely have visited the place unless he had had +proper quarters for himself and his suite, and the castle alone could have +afforded this. A record of 1347 mentions the pillory at Pickering, and +suggests a lively scene that took place in the august presence of the Earl +of Lancaster. "William de Kirkby and others conspired amongst themselves +to indict John de Buckton, Hugh de Neville, John de Barton, and others for +that they on Monday, 25th June 1347, took six harts in Pickering Forest +and set up the head of one in the sight of the Earl of Lancaster upon the +pillory in Pickering town, in consequence of which John de Buckton, Hugh +de Neville and John de Barton were taken and imprisoned in Pickering +Castle and suffered great loss of their goods. Afterwards, in the same +town, William appeared in the King's Bench and asked to be allowed to +compound for the offences presented against him, as well as those to which +he had already pleaded as the rest. The request was granted, and he paid +the fine entered in the rolls." + +"The jurors of the several wappentakes of Yorkshire presented that David +de Wigan and others on Wednesday, 11th July 1347, violently entered by +night the house of Thomas, Vicar of Ebberston, seized him and led him to +Pickering Castle until he compounded with them for L2, though," adds the +record, "he had never been indicted for any offence" (!) This David de +Wigan must have terrorised the neighbourhood at this time, for he and +others scarcely a week later "seized Adam del Selley Bridge at Selley +Bridge [near Marishes Road Station] and led him with them until he +compounded with them for L4." On the same Tuesday they violently seized +Robert de Sunley at Calvecote and led him to Pickering Castle until he +paid L2. On the 30th July Thomas Oliver of Sawdon was taken in the same +manner and detained for five days. After all this David was summoned and +he pleaded guilty. By trustworthy witnesses, however, it was proved that +he was penniless and had nothing wherewith to satisfy the king for his +offences, and "having regard to the state of his health and condition he +was let off." We wonder what the Vicar of Ebberston thought of this +lenient treatment of such a Barabbas. Geoffrey de Wrightington, a late +bailiff of Pickering, seems to have taken part in these offences, and he +was also responsible for having seized Hugh de Neville in Pickering +Church, and for having imprisoned him "in the depths of the gaol in iron +fetters for seven weeks, though Hugh had never been indicted." John Scott +of Pickering also spent nine weeks in prison at the pleasure of this +desperate fellow. On the 30th August 1346 he took L4 by force from Henry +de Acaster, the vicar of Pickering, when he was journeying between +Coneysthorpe and Appleton le Street. His methods are well shown by the +following. "Geoffrey also on Sunday, 17th September 1346, seized Adam de +Selley Bridge by force at Pickering and imprisoned him until he had +compounded with him for 6 [? L] and when Adam paid the fine Geoffrey made +him swear on the Book that he would tell no one how he came to pay the +fine or to be imprisoned." After all this Geoffrey was let off with a fine +when called to account three years later. + +In the minister's accounts for 1322 appear the "wages of a forester to +keep Pickering Forest, a door-keeper and a watchman in the castle, each 2d +a day for 34 weeks." There are references to thatch for the porter's +lodge, the brewhouse, the kitchen, and small upper apartment within the +castle. This thatching took a man three days with two women to help him +all the time; the man received 9d and the women 2d each for the work. + +The chaplain of the castle chapel received a yearly salary of L3; repairs +by contract to the seven glass windows in the chapel cost 10d, and wine +and lights 2s. Under the heading of Small Expenses comes "making 14 +hurdles to lie on the draw bridge and other bridges to preserve them from +the cart-wheels 1s; making a hedge round the fishpond, cutting and +carrying boughs, wages of the hedger--4s 6d; making a long cord of hemp 20 +ells long weighing 6 stone of hemp for the Castle well--4s 9d; burning +after Feb. 2 old grass in Castle Ings that new grass may grow--8d; 8 men +cutting holly, ivy and oak boughs in different parts of the forest for the +deer in a time of snow and ice, 9 days at 2d a day--12s 2-1/2d; wages of a +man sent to the king [Edward II.] with a letter from the bailiff to +acquaint the king with certain secrets by letters of privy seal, going, +residing there and returning, 9 days at 3d a day for food and wages--3s +9d." + +In the Close Rolls of 1324, there is an order to "John de Kelvington, +keeper of the Castle and honor of Pickering, to cause to be newly +constructed a barbican before the Castle gate with a stone wall and a gate +with a drawbridge in the same, and beyond the gate a new chamber, a new +postern gate by the King's Tower and a roof to a chamber near the small +hall; to cover with thin flags that roof and the roof of the small +kitchen, to remove the old roof of the King's prison and to make an +entirely new roof covered with lead, and to thoroughly point, both within +and without, the walls of the castle and tower, and to clean out and +enlarge the Castle ditch. All this to be done out of the issues of the +honor as the King has enjoined him by word of mouth, and the expense +incurred therein when duly proved will be allowed him in his accounts. +Pickering, 10th August, 1323." + +About the year 1314 there is an item in the accounts of eighty planks +bought at Easingwold and carried to the castle and laid in the gangway +leading from the chamber of the Countess to the chapel. The nails for this +work cost 5s. 6d. + +[Illustration: The Devil's or Dyet Tower on the South-East side of +Pickering Castle. This is often called the Rosamund Tower, but the records +call it the Dyet Tower.] + +Soon after this comes the cost of the new hall in the castle. "Clearing, +digging and levelling the place within the castle where the bakehouse was +burnt to build there a hall with a chamber 14s 1-1/2d, building the stone +wall of the hall and chamber, getting and carrying 400 cartloads of stone, +digging and carrying soil for mortar, buying 27 quarters of lime--L5 19s +11d; contract for joiners' work, wages for those employed to saw planks +and joists, 152 planks for doors and windows, 80 large spikes, 600 spike +nails, 1000 broad headed nails and 20,000 tacks, 22 hinges for the doors, +28 hinges for the windows and 2600 laths with carriage for the same--L9 0s +1-1/2d; roofing the buildings with thin flags by piece-work, collecting +moss for the same [to stop up the crannies] plastering the floor of the +upper room and several walls within the chamber, making a chimney piece of +plaster of Paris (plastro parisiensi), together with the wages of the +chaplain who was present at the building--L5 1s 10-1/2d." A few years +later came some more repairs to the castle: "a carpenter 4 days mending +the wind battered roof of the old hall with old shingles 1s, 300 nails for +that purpose 9d; a man 10 days roofing with tin the small kitchen, the +garderobe at the corner of the kitchen, the cellar, outside the new hall, +within the tower and porter's lodge--2s 6d." Hay and straw for the roofs +was brought "from the Marsh to Pickering"; two men were employed to clean +out the castle well which had been so blocked up as to become quite dry +that year and another charge 1s for a new rope and for repairing the +bucket of the well. + +In 1326 there is a reference to the King's patent writ, dated 7th +December, by which the Castle was committed by Edward II. "to his beloved +cousin Henry, Earl of Lancaster," and the keeper, John de Kilvington, was +"to deliver the Castle and Honour to the Earl together with its military +stores, victuals and other things." + +From a small green-covered foolscap volume lent me by Mr Arthur Hill of +Thorton-le-dale, I have taken the following description of the "Bounds of +the Forest of Pickering, as far as the waters are concerned." + +"From How Bridge along the Rye to where the Seven falls into the Rye, the +whole length of the Seven. + +"Wheeldale Beck to + +"Mirke Esk to + +"The Eske and along the Eske to where Lythe Beck falls into the Eske + +"Where the Derwent springs and along the Derwent to where Tillabeck falls +into the Derwent. + +"Along Tillabeck to King's Bridge. + +"Along the Harford to the Derwent. + +"Along the Derwent to where the Rye falls into the Derwent. + +"Along the Rye to Howe Bridge." + +The records relating to Pickering are all so accessible since their +publication by the North Riding Record Society that those who want to read +more details of these picturesque mediaeval days can do so with very little +trouble, but from the extracts that I have made, a general idea of the +class of information contained in the Duchy Records may be obtained. In +this period many additions and alterations were made to Pickering church. +The Transitional Norman tower was largely rebuilt, and the spire was added +in the Decorated style of Gothic prevalent in the fourteenth century. +Below the battlements of the tower there are shields, but the details have +almost entirely weathered away. The reticulated windows of the church +belong to the same period. They are very fine examples of the work of that +time. The north aisle, the chancel, and probably the north window of the +north transept also belong to this period, so that work of an extensive +nature must have been progressing on the church as well as the castle at +the same time. The walls of the nave and chancel appear to have been +raised in the latter half of the fifteenth century, and this would be +shortly before the remarkable series of wall paintings came into +existence. The date of these pictures can be brought down to fairly narrow +limits, for the arms carried by the four knights who are shown about to +murder St Thomas a Becket belong to the years between 1450 and 1460, +according to Mr J.G. Waller. The Rev. G.H. Lightfoot, a former vicar of +Pickering, mentions[1] the discovery of traces of earlier paintings of +superior execution when the present ones were being restored, but of these +indications no sign is now visible. + +[Footnote 1: Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 1895.] + +[Illustration: One of the Wall Paintings in Pickering Church. + +St Christopher, the patron saint of travellers with the Infant Christ on +his shoulder. The saint is shown treading upon the serpent and grasping +his staff, which is growing at the edge of the stream. + +[The copyright is reserved by Dr John L. Kirk] + +When the church was re-opened after the restoration in 1879, the walls of +the nave were covered with a thick coat of yellow wash, but there were +many living who remembered the accidental discovery of the strange +pictures that were for a time exposed to the wondering gaze of the +congregation. The distraction caused by this novelty led to the coat of +yellow wash that undoubtedly did infinite harm to the paintings. At the +subsequent restoration, which was carried out by degrees as the necessary +funds were forthcoming, it was found that portions of some of the figures +had perished, and it is a most regrettable fact that the restoration +included the painting in of certain missing parts whose details could only +be supplied by analogy. From Mr Lightfoot's description it seems that in +the large picture of St George and the Dragon a considerable part of the +St George's body was missing; that the representation of Herod's Feast and +the lowest scene of the life of St Katherine of Alexandria were very badly +damaged by the attachments of mural tablets. On the whole, however, the +paintings when uncovered were in a good state of preservation, and the +colours were more vivid than they were left after the re-touching by Mr +Jewitt. + +[Illustration: Some of the Wall Paintings in Pickering Church. + +THE SEVEN CORPORAL ACTS OF MERCY. + +They are, from left to right:--(1) Feeding the hungry (partly missing in +photograph)[A]; (2) Giving drink to the thirsty; (3) Compelling the +stranger to come in; (4) Clothing the naked; (5) Visiting those in prison; +(6) Visiting the sick; (7) Burying the dead. + +[Footnote A: This appears in another photograph showing scenes from the +life of our Lord.] + +The martyrdom of St Edmund. + +[_The Copyright is reserved by Dr John L. Kirk._] ] + +Taking the pictures along the north wall in order, the first is the huge +representation of St George, then facing the porch entrance on a still +larger scale is the figure of St Christopher, bearing on his left shoulder +the infant Christ. This position, facing these who enter the church, is +the usual one for St Christopher, for he was the patron-saint of +travellers, and the size is in keeping with the tradition which speaks of +the saint as standing twelve cubits high. He is shown using a tree as his +staff, and the Evil One is being trampled underfoot in the form of a +serpent. + +Adjoining St Christopher is the curious painting showing Herod's Feast, a +very rare subject to be chosen for wall paintings. Although this picture +has been so much restored the figures were very carefully traced out where +only faint indications could be seen, so that it now presents the original +work where it was not totally destroyed with considerable accuracy. It is +really three scenes, although it appears as one. Herod's daughter is on +the right performing a mediaeval tumble dance before the king and queen and +their two guests, and on the left St John the Baptist is shown, still +kneeling, although his head lies on the pavement. Salome is holding the +charger against her breast. In the central portion of the picture she +appears carrying the head of St John in the dish. The picture above this +shows the coronation of the Virgin Mary, and the wall of heaven is higher +still. + +The martyrdom of St Edmund in the next spandrel is a most realistic +picture. The saint is tied to a tree and is pierced by fourteen arrows. +The black-letter inscriptions read "Edmund Prync and martyr." + + "Heven blys to hes mede + Hem sall have for hys gud ded" + +Above this picture is the painting already mentioned of St Thomas a Becket +being approached by the four knights who are about to murder him. + +On the south side of the nave the chief part of the wall is given up to +the legend of St Katherine of Alexandria. She was said to be the daughter +of Costus, King of Alexandria, and was married to a son of Constantine +Chlorius, the Roman Governor of York. + +The upper panel shows the temple of Serapis, and St Katherine endeavouring +to convert the Emperor Maximin to Christianity. Further to the right she +is shown entering the prison into which she was cast. The emperor, +impressed both by her beauty and her arguments, endeavours with the help +of several philosophers to persuade her to give up her belief in +Christianity; they are, however, all converted by her, and soon after they +are executed at the emperor's command. St Katherine is then stripped to +the waist and beaten in the presence of the emperor, who is shown on the +extreme right as well as the left of the second panel. After further +imprisonment the saint is joined by the Empress Faustina, a new convert, +who comforts the prisoner, and is shown joining with her in prayer. + +Further on, the emperor is shown testing the saint's faith by the wheel, +but two angels appear, and having broken the wheels the attendants are +overthrown. The last scene, in which St Katherine is kneeling, is so much +"restored" that its interest is very much impaired. + +[Illustration: SOME OF THE WALL PAINTINGS ON THE NORTH WALL OF THE NAVE OF +PICKERING CHURCH. + +THE MARTYRDOM OF ST THOMAS A BECKET. + +The Four Knights are seen approaching the "Turbulent Priest."] + +HEROD'S FEAST. + +It is composed of three pictures. On the right, Salome is performing a +"Tumble" dance before Herod, his queen, and two guests, while St John the +Baptist is holding up a warning hand: In the centre, Salome has the head +of St John in a charger, and on the left the execution is shown. + +[_The Copyright is reserved by Dr John L. Kirk._] +] + +The long and narrow series of pictures over the arches represents the +seven corporal acts of mercy, namely, feeding the hungry, giving drink to +the thirsty, compelling a stranger to come in, clothing the naked, +visiting those in prison, visiting the sick, and burying the dead. +Continuing in the same line appear representations of Christ in the Garden +of Gethsemane, healing the ear of Malchus, Christ before Pilate, the +scourging of our Lord, and then follow scenes of the Crucifixion, followed +by the burial and resurrection. In the spandrel over the third pillar from +the west the descent of Christ into Hades, represented by a great dragon's +jaw, is shown. Adam holding an apple, and followed by Eve and many other +spirits, is shown coming to meet our Lord. Between the clerestory windows +there are three paintings which seem to belong to a series associated with +the Virgin Mary. The first, which may represent the Assumption, has not +been restored, and very little remains to be seen. The second, according +to Mr Keyser, shows the burial, and on the coffin appears the Jewish +Prince Belzeray, who is said to have interfered with the funeral by +raising himself astride the coffin. The legend says that he became fixed +to the pall, and only escaped after repentance and the united prayers of +the apostles. + +Of the third picture only a portion remains, the upper part being new +plaster, but the figures of some of the apostles who are shown may have +been standing by the deathbed of the Virgin. The coronation scene already +mentioned on the north side of the nave would thus complete a series of +four pictures. + +Just by the lectern at the north-east corner of the nave is a recumbent +effigy of a knight wearing armour of the period when chain-mail was being +exchanged for plate armour. This was during the fourteenth century. The +arms on the shield are those of Bruce, and belonging to this period there +has been discovered a license to Sir William Bruce to have a chantry in +Pickering Church. There can therefore be little doubt that this nameless +effigy is that of Sir William Bruce. The deed is dated "Saturday, the +feast of St John the Evangelist, 1337," and it states that a license was +given in consideration of one messuage and two bovates of land in the +village of Middleton near Pickering for a certain chaplain to celebrate +"Divine (mysteries) daily in the Church of St Peter, Pickering (the full +dedication is to God, St Peter, and St Paul), for the souls of the +masters, William and Robert of Pickering, Adam de Bruce and Mathilda his +wife." The two beautifully carved figures of a knight and his lady that +lie in the Bruce Chapel are not Bruces for the surcoat of the man is +adorned with the arms of the Rockcliffes--an heraldic chess-rook and three +lions' heads. Both the knight and his lady wear the collar of SS, the +origin of which is still wrapped in obscurity. Traces of gilding are +visible in several places on the wings of the angels that support the +heads of both figures, as well as in other parts of the carving where the +detail is not obliterated. The date of these monuments is believed to have +been either the end of the fourteenth or the very beginning of the +fifteenth centuries. In the south-east corner of the north transept, +almost hidden by deep shadows, there lies a truncated effigy of a man in +armour of about the same period as that of Sir William Bruce, but there is +nothing to identify these mutilated remains. The sedilia in the chancel +seem to be coeval with that part of the church. They are ornamented with +some curious carving and some heads, one of them, very much restored, +representing apparently a bishop, priest, and deacon; the fourth head is a +doubtful quantity. + +[Illustration: The Effigy of Sir Willeam Bruce in Pickering Church. + +The arms on the shield are drawn separately on the right.] + +[Illustration: The richly carved Effigies in the Bruce Chapel of Pickering +Church. + +The man bears the arms of Rockcliffe on his surcoat. Both figures wear the +collar of SS.] + +[Illustration: The holy-water stoup in Pickering Church.] + +Close to the sedilia is a piscina decorated in a similar manner. + +Near the porch, in the usual position, is a holy-water stoup that has the +front part of the basin broken off. This may possibly have happened at the +same time as the smashing of the font in Puritan days mentioned in a later +chapter. The curious little recess in the west wall of the Bruce Chapel +might have been utilised for more than one purpose, but it is difficult to +say whether it was for holding a lamp, whether it may at one time have +been a low side window, or whether it was at any time used as an opening +for a bell rope to be pulled from within. + +[Illustration: The Sanctus Bell, formerly used by the Town Crier of +Pickering. It bears the name "Vilyame Stokeslai," and probably dates from +the fourteenth century.] + +A hospital of St Nicholas at Pickering is often mentioned among the +records of this time, but I am unable to discover the site, unless it was +near to where there was a burying-ground in Westgate. The castle chapel +was also dedicated to St Nicholas, and some confusion may thus have +arisen. + +Up to about the year 1880 the town-crier of Pickering was using a small +mediaeval bell that has since been handed over to the authorities of the +British Museum by the Registrar of the Duchy of Lancaster. The bell is +engraved with four figures--a crucifix, St George and the Dragon, the +Virgin and Child, and St John the Baptist, and round the haunch runs the +inscription "Vilyame Stokeslai." As nothing at all is known of the history +of the bell it is difficult to say much as to its origin, but it appears +to belong to the fourteenth century, and _may_ be associated with a +William Stokesley of Whitby whose name appears at that date. + +Much more could be written about this period from many standpoints, but +from what has been given some of the salient facts of these centuries +stand out clearly. It is plain that the people--rich and poor--drew +largely upon the forest for free supplies of timber and venison, despite +the severity of the laws. It also appears that the officers of the forest +frequently abused their power to the damage and often at the expense of +the personal security of the townsfolk and villagers., The importance of +Pickering at this time is emphasised by many royal visits and to some +extent by the sending of members to Parliament on one occasion. Much +building at the church and castle took place in the period described, and +it is quite possible that some of the oldest cottages with fork framework +date from Plantagenet times, and that the fallen beams we see lying among +the nettles of the ruined cottages were taken from the forest without +payment or permission. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +_The Forest and Vale in Tudor Times_ + +A.D. 1485 to 1603 + + +The Wars of the Roses had allowed the royal possessions to fall into a +state of great disorder, so that the Duchy of Lancaster records belonging +to the early years of the reign of Henry VII. contain many references to +the necessity for vigorously checking infringements on the forest that had +been taking place. A patent dated 26th of October 1489,[1] says, "To our +t[rusty] and w[elbeloved] Brian Sandford Stuard of our honnor of Pykeryng +in our Countie of York and Constable of our Castle there and master +Forster of our game within the said honnor and to al forsters and kepers +within the same and in their absence to ther deputies ther and to every of +them gretyng. Forasmuch as it is common unto our knowledge that our game +of dere and warenne within our seid Honnor is gretly diminnisshed by +excessive huntyng within the same and likely to be destroied, without +restreynt in the same be had in that behalf, we desire the Replenisshyng +of our seid game, not only for our singler pleasure but also for the +disport of other our servantes and subgettes of Wirshipp in theis parties. +And therfor we wol and straitly charge you all & every of you that from +hensforth ye suffre no manner of personne or personnes of what estate +degree or condicion soever he or they be, to have shot sute ne course at +any of our game within our seid Honnor duryng the space of iij years next +ensuyng after the date herof, without special warraunt undre our seale of +oure seid Duchie and if any personne or personnes presume or attempt in +any wise the breche of this our special restreinte and commandment, we +eftsounes wol and straitly charge you al and every of you, that without +delai ye certifie us of theire name or names so offendyng, to thentent +that we maye provide for their lawful punycion in that behalf, which we +entend sharply to execute and punysshe in example of al othre like +offenders, not failyng herof as ye wol avoide our grevous displeasure and +answher unto us at their perell." + +[Footnote 1: "North Riding Records," vol. i., New Series, p. 123.] + +[Illustration: CATTLE MARKS OF THE PICKERING DISTRICT. + +Copied from a MS. book dated at the close of the sixteenth century and in +the possession of the Rev. A. Hill of Thornton-le-dale. The names are +spelt as they are written, but are not given in facsimile. The book is a +copy of an earlier one that is still in existence. +] + +There are many other commissions of this character made out to "Sir Rauf +Evers knight," "Sir Richard Cholmeley knight," "Sir John Huthem," "John +Pykeryng knyght," "Leon Percy [Lionel Percehay] squyer," and many other +influential men of the sixteenth century. + +[Illustration: CATTLE MARKS IN THE PICKERING DISTRICT] + +During the reign of Henry VII. there was a prolonged dispute between Sir +Roger Hastings of Roxby and Sir Richard Cholmley concerning the alleged +riotous and unlawful conduct with which each side accused the other. The +pleadings on either side are by no means easy to follow, but the beginning +of the trouble seems to date from Sir Roger Hastings' succession to the +estate of Roxby. Mr Turton, who has transcribed all the documents relating +to the quarrel, thinks that Sir Roger attempted to shift the death duties +from himself to one of his tenants named Ralph Joyner, who refused to pay. +"After an abortive attempt to recover the sum by distrain" says Mr Turton, +it "resulted in an appeal to the Earl of Surrey, and Sir Roger was +compelled to pay it himself." The records tell us that this Ralph Joyner +was often "in Jeopardy of his liff; And how he was at diverse tymez chased +by diverse of the menyall servantes of the said Sir Roger Hastynges, +wheruppon the said Roger Cholmley sent to the said Sir Roger Hastynges in +curteyse waise desyring hym to kepe the kynges peax, whiche he effectuelly +promysed to doo, uppon truste wherof upon Christmas day now Laste paste +the said Rauff Jenore cam to his parisshe chirche, called Elborne +[Ellerburne] chirche, as belonged to a christenman to doo, in peassible +maner, not fearing the said Sir Roger Hastynges, because of his said +promyse, Howbeit soon after that comme thedir the said Sir Roger +accompenyed with the numbre of xx [twenty] persons diffencible arrayed +with bowes, billes and other weponz, And then as sone as the said Roger +came nyghe unto the Chircheyerd of the foresaid Chirche, And had +undirstandyng that the said Rauff was within the said chirche, he manassed +[menaced] and threted the said Rauff and said that he wolde slee hym. And +in a great fury wolde have entred the said chirche to have complisshed the +same." This bloodthirsty desire was checked for a time by the vicar, who +"knellyng upon his knees before the said Sir Roger," and with other "well +dissposed personez," induced him to delay his purpose. + +"Theruppon the wif of the said Sir Roger Hastynges cam into the said +chirche & said unto the said Rauff, 'Woo worthe man this day! the chirche +wolbe susspended and thou slayn, withoute thou flee awey and gette the +oute of his sighte' wheruppon the said Rauff Jenore flede oute of the said +chirche by a bakke doore and cam to Pykeryng, and petyously desired of the +said Roger Chalmley that in so muche as he was the Stewardes deputie there +and hadde rewle of the Countre, that he myght be in suertie of his liff." +The records then describe how Ralph Joyner induced Roger Cholmley, "beyng +there Bailly," with "Sir Rauff Evers & other jointly & severally" to bind +Sir Roger Hastings to "Maister Bray" for the sum of a hundred pounds to +keep the king's peace within the liberty of Pickering. The aggrieved side +did not dare to deliver the deed with only their usual personal servants, +but had to call upon a number of others owing to the fact that Sir Roger +was "a worshipfull man of the said libertie & of great myghte havyng many +Riottous personez aboute hym" When the little cavalcade of mounted men and +servants reached Roxby they found that Sir Roger Hastings had left for +Scarborough. He describes the procedure of the Cholmley party in a most +picturesque fashion, stating that within an hour after the delivery of the +Privy Seal they "came Ryottously with the nowmbre of xii persons, with +bowis arrowes longe sperys in maner and furme of warre." In another place +he details their armour and arms saying that they were arrayed with "Cures +(cuirass) Corsettes (armour for the body) Brygendyns, Jakkys, Salettis (a +light helmet), Speris, Bowes, Arrowes, Sourdis, byllys and Launcegays, (a +small lance) with other maner of wepyns defencive." As Sir Roger and his +wife rode towards Scarborough they met "Sir Rauf Ivers, which in Curtes +(courteous) maner then departed." When he was thought to be on the road +homewards to Roxby, however, Sir Ralph Evers was accused of having laid +"in a wayte to have murderyd" Sir Roger Hastings at Brompton, for at that +place Evers and eight of his servants came upon Sir Roger's men who were +being sent ahead to discover the ambush that they had reason to fear. +When Sir Ralph found that the men who reached Brompton were only servants +and messengers, he was accused of having said to them "ye false hurson +Kaytyffes, I shall lerne you curtesy and to knowe a gentilman." Thereupon +Sir Ralph "set his arowe in his bowe, seying these wordes, 'And your +Master were here I wolde stoppe hym the wey.'" When they reached Snainton +twenty persons issued from the house of "one Averey Shymney, servant to +the seid Sir Rauf ... arrayed with bowys bent, arrowis, billis and +Gleyvis." + +There is also a complaint against some of the servants of Sir Ralph Evers +who were held responsible for "an assaute and Fraye made upon my lady +Hastynges." Thomas Thirlwall, on being examined, said that "my lady came +rydyng that ways with vi horses with hir, and oone of hir servantz thet +rode afore, had a male [a portmanteau] behynd hym, and with a bowe in his +hand bent, and that the said servant rode soo nygh hym th[at] the male +touched hym and he bade hym ryde forther and asked, why his bow was bent, +and he said that was mater to hym, and the sayd deponent with I^d knyff +[in another place it is called a dagger] which he had in his hand cut the +bow string, bicause he rode soo nygh hym with horse that he had almost +stroken hym downe; And forther he deposith that my lady light downe from +hir horse hirself and said that, 'and she liffed, she would be avenged'; +and thereupon Ric: Brampton came to hir and said, 'Madame be not afferd, +for here shall noo man trouble you nee yours.'" + +The accusations of attempts on the part of Sir Ralph Evers and the +Cholmleys to stir up trouble between their servants and those of Sir Roger +Hastings are very numerous and involved, but despite the elaborate details +given by the owner of Roxby the case went against him at the court of the +Duchy of Lancaster at Westminster Palace. Sir Roger seems to have been too +high handed in his dealings with his neighbours, even for the unsettled +times in which he lived. Some of the items against him throw a vivid light +on his proceedings. "Itm the said Ser Roger Hastynges with hys household +servants, daily goyng and rydyng trough the Countrey more like men of warr +then men of peas, in ill example to other, thrught the Kinges markettz and +townez of hys liberte of Pykeryng lith, with bowes bent and arrowes in +ther handes, feryng [frightening] the Kinges people and inhabitauntes of +the same, whereupon the Countrey diverse tymes hath compleyned thame to +Roger Cholmeley, there being hys brother's depute and baylly etc." + +"Itm the wyeff of the said Sir Roger Hastynges with here awn company of +houshold servants as forcaid (?) come into Blandisby Park, and there found +a Fat Stott [a young ox] of Rauff Bukton, and with dooges toke the said +Stott and slowe hym and ete hym and no mends will make etc. + +"Itm that the said Sir Roger Hastynges the xiii day of October last past +[circa 1496] with Force and armz of the nyghtertall [night time] sent his +houshold servantes to the Castell of Pykeryng, and abowt mydnyght with +lothus [qu: ladders] clame ore the walles, and then and there brake the +kinges prison, and toke owt with them oon John Harwod, the which was set +there for diverse Riottes by hym made agayns the kinges peas, wherefore he +was indited; and aftirward the same nyght when he for thought that he had +done, prively sent hym in agayn; howbeit the kings prison and hys Castell +was broken." + +[Illustration: A Section of one of the Oldest Type of Cottage to be found +near Pickering. + +Some of these ancient buildings are still inhabited; several of the +survivors are in ruins. The details given in this drawing are taken from a +cottage at Thornton-le-dale; one end has already been demolished (Oct. +1905). The low walls appear to have been built after the framework, and +the house may have been thatched to the ground at one time. +] + +[Illustration: The usual Plan of the Fork-framed Cottages in existence +near Pickering. The exterior (viewed from C on the plan) is generally as +shown. The small window by the door (B) lights the ingle-nook, and is +never missing in the oldest type of cottage. It can be seen blocked up in +those that have been remodelled.] + +Such incidents as these enliven the pages of the Duchy of Lancaster +Records, and if there were more space available it would be interesting to +give many more of these graphic incidents that took place four hundred +years ago. In many places one finds references to the illegal taking of +oaks from the forest for building houses. Big boughs or the stems of small +trees were placed together in the form of an A with the ends resting on +the ground. These beams, that formed the bays of a house, are locally +called "forks," the name by which they are known in the records of the +reign of Henry VII. In 1498 we find that "The abbot of Whitby had as many +oakes taken in Godlande [Goathland] as made aftre the maner of the Coutrey +iij pair of forkes, with other bemes and wall plaites as were mete for the +repairalling of an hows of his in Godlande." + +The great legal case between Sir Roger Hastings and the Cholmleys seems to +have impoverished the turbulent owner of Roxby, for after the adverse +decision Hastings seems to have had difficulty in raising the moneys to +meet all the heavy expenses of the trial, and Mr Turton thinks that Roxby +was at first mortgaged and afterwards sold to Roger Cholmley, brother of +Sir Richard, who had received knighthood in 1509. Sir Richard Cholmley may +be considered the founder of the Yorkshire families of Cholmley, and he +was in his time a man of great power and influence, holding the four chief +offices in the Honor of Pickering, and at the commencement of the reign of +Henry VIII. he was appointed Lieutenant of the Tower of London. He had no +legal offspring, and his illegitimate son, a Sir Roger, who must not be +confused with his uncle, was successively Chief Baron and Lord Chief +Justice, died without issue. Sir Hugh Cholmley[1] tells us many facts +concerning his great-grandfather Sir Richard, who was a nephew of the +former Sir Richard. "His chief place of residence," he says, "was at +Roxby, lying between Pickering and Thornton (now almost demolished), where +he lived in great port, having a very great family, at least fifty or +sixty men-servants, about his house, and I have been told by some who knew +the truth, that when there had been twenty-four pieces of beef put in a +morning into the pot, sometimes not one of them would be left for his own +dinner: for in those times, the idle-serving men were accustomed to have +their breakfast, and with such liberty as they would go into the kitchen, +and striking their daggers into the pot, take out the beef without the +cook's leave or privacy; yet he would laugh at this rather than be +displeased, saying, 'Would not the knaves leave me one piece for my own +dinner?' He never took a journey to London that he was not attended with +less than thirty, sometimes forty men-servants, though he went without his +lady. There was a great difference between him and his brother-in-law, the +Earl of Westmoreland; and, as I have heard upon this cause: That, after +the death of his sister, the Lady Anne, the Earl married the second +sister, Gascoigne's widow, which occasioned continual fighting and +scuffles between the Earl's men and Sir Richard's, when they met, whether +in London streets or elsewhere, which might be done with less danger of +life and bloodshed than in these succeeding ages; because they then fought +only with buckler and short sword, and it was counted unmannerly to make a +thrust.... This Sir Richard was possessed of a very great estate worth at +this day to the value of about L10,000 a year; ... He died in the sixty +third year of his age, at Roxby, ... and lies buried in the chancel of +Thornton church [the monument there to-day bears the effigy of a lady and +is nameless], of which he was patron, May 17th, 1599. He was tall of +stature and withal big and strong-made, having in his youth a very active, +able body, bold and stout; his hair and eyes black, and his complexion +brown, insomuch as he was called the great black Knight of the North; +though the word _great_ attributed to him not so much for his stature, as +power, and estate, and fortune. He was a wise man, and a great improver of +his estate, which might have prospered better with his posterity, had he +not been extra-ordinarily given to the love of women." There is +unfortunately nothing left above the ground of the manor house of Roxby, +the grass-covered site merely showing ridges and mounds where the +buildings stood. It is therefore impossible to obtain any idea of the +appearance of what must have been a very fine Tudor house. That a gallery +was built there by Sir Richard Cholmley, the Great Black Knight of the +North, in the reign of Elizabeth, appears from the record which says "that +the saide S^r Rychard Cholmley did send Gyles Raunde and George Raude two +masons to the Quenes Castell of Pyckeringe whenn he builded his gallerye +at Roxbye to polle [pulle] downe the chefe stones of Masonn work owt of +one howse in the same castell called the King's Haull, and took owte of +the pryncypall and cheffest Towre of the same castle the stones of the +stayres which they did and the said S^r Rychard caused xiiii wayne lodes +of the same stones to be caryed by his Tenantes to his owne house at +Roxbye." + +[Footnote 1: "Memoirs of Sir Hugh Cholmley," p. 7.] + +Leland,[1] who wrote in the reign of Henry VIII., tells us that at Wilton +there was "a Manor Place with a Tower longging to _Chomeley_." He also +says "This _Chomeley_ hath a Howse also at _Rollesley_ (_Rottesby_): and +_Chomeley's_ Father that now is was as an Hedde officer at _Pykeringe_, +and setter up of his name yn that Quarters." "Thens to _Pykering_: and +moste of the Ground from _Scardeburg_ to _Pykering_ was by Hille and Dale +meate (metely) plentifull of Corn and Grasse but litle Wood in sight. + +[Footnote 1: "The Itinerary of John Leland the Antiquary," Thomas Hearne, +1745. Vol. i. pp. 64 and 65.] + +"The Toune of _Pykering_ is large but not welle compact togither. The +greatest Part of it with the Paroch Chirch and the Castel is on the South +Est Part of the Broke renning thorough the Toune, and standith on a great +Slaty Hille. The other Part of the Toun is not so bigge as this: the Brook +rennith bytwixt them that Sumtyme ragith, but it suagith shortely agayn: +and a Mile beneth the Toun goith into Costey [the Costa]. + +"In _Pykering_ Chirch I saw 2 or 3 Tumbes of the Bruses wherof one with +his Wife lay yn a Chapel on the South syde of the Quirr, and he had a +Garland about his Helmet. There was another of the Bruses biried in a +Chapel under an Arch of the North side of the Body of the Quier: and there +is a Cantuarie bering his Name. + +[Illustration: Pickering Castle from the Keep, looking South-West. + +The gate tower is just shown on the left. In the centre is the Mill or +Miln Tower, with the circular stone staircase projecting like a turret at +one corner, and in the foreground is one of the ruined towers that guarded +the inner gateway. In the distance is the broad Vale of Pickering. The +high ground is behind one's back to the north. +] + +"The Deane of _York_ hath by Impropriation the Personage of _Pykering_, to +the which diverse Churches of Pykering Lith doith Homage. + +"The Castelle Stondith in an End of the Town not far from the Paroch +Chirch on the Brow of the Hille, under the which the Broke rennith. In the +first Court of it be a 4 Toures, of the which one is Caullid Rosamunde's +Toure. + +"In the inner Court be also a 4 Toures, wherof the Kepe is one. The +Castelle Waulles and the Toures be meatly welle. The Logginges yn the +ynner Court that be of Timbre be in ruine, in this inner Court is a +Chappelle and a cantuarie Prest. + +"The Castelle hath of a good continuance with the Towne and Lordship +longgid to the _Lancaster_ Bloode: But who made the Castelle or who was +the Owner of afore the _Lancasters_ I could not lerne there. The Castelle +Waulles now remaining seme to be of no very old Building. + +"As I remembre I hard say that _Richard_ the thirde lay sumtyme at this +Castelle, and sumtyme at _Scardeburgh_ Castelle. + +"In the other Part of the Toune of _Pykering_ passing over Brook by a +Stone Bridg of v Arches I saw 2 thinges to be notid, the Ruines of a Manor +Place, caullid _Bruses-Haul_ and a Manor Place of the _Lascelles_ at _Keld +head_. The Circuite of the Paroch of _Pykering_ goith up to the very +Browes of Blackmore [Blackamoor was the old name for the moors north of +Pickering], and is xx miles in Cumpace. + +"The Park by the Castelle side is more then vii Miles in [qu: circuit], +but it is not welle woodid." + +The site of the Manor House of the Bruces appears to be in a field to the +west of Potter Hill where hollows and uneven places in the grass indicate +the positions of buildings. The fine old Tudor house of Wellburn near +Kirby Moorside until recently was in a ruinous state, and might possibly +have disappeared after the fashion of Roxby and this Hall of the Bruces, +but it has lately been completely restored and enlarged, and although its +picturesqueness has to some extent been impaired owing to the additions, +they are in the same style of architecture as the original building, and +in time will no doubt mellow down to a pleasanter companionship. + +It was in the first year of the reign of Elizabeth that the registers of +Pickering were commenced. The yellowish brown parchment book is in fairly +good preservation, and commences in the usual manner with this carefully +written inscription. + +"The Register Boke of these [_p]sons whiche Haithe bene Babticed Maryed +and Buried at Pickeringe sence the firste yere of O^r Sou'ange Ladye +Elizabeth by the grace of god Quene of England ffrance and Ireland +defender of the ffaithe etc. Anno dni 1559. + +There are no entries of any particular interest belonging to this period; +the unusual occurrences belong to the seventeenth century and are recorded +in the next chapter. Kept with the registers of Pickering parish there is, +however, a book containing the records of some Elizabethan visitations +made between 1568 and 1602. The entries, which have been transcribed by Mr +T.M. Fallow, are in a mixture of Latin and English and some of them are +exceedingly interesting. The following describes a curious scene in +Pickering Church. + +"Item they saie that vpon Sondaie being the iij of November 1594 in tyme +off evynnyng praie [sic] Richarde Haie being parishe clerk of Pickring and +begynnyng to rede the first lesson of the saide evynnyng praier, Robert +Leymyng did close and shutt the byble to geither whereupon he was to red +at, and so disturbed him frome reding it, and therevpon John Harding redd +the first lesson. And so hindred and disturbed the saide Richard Haie +parishe clerke who was readye and abowteward to rede the same/ And the +saide John Harding did likewise disturbe and hinder the saide Richarde +Haie vpon All Saynts dais last when he was to haue helped the vicar to +saie devyne service and so hindred him being commanded to the conrye[1] by +the churche wardens, and having the admission of the saide Richard Haie +openly redd with a revocation of the former granted to the saide Hardyng. +wherebye he was commanded and enioyned to surcease frome execution of that +office." + +[Footnote 1: This word is doubtful, but is perhaps "conrye," for +"contrary."] + +[Illustration: The Pre-Reformation Chalice that formerly belonged to +Pickering Church. + +It is now in use at Goathland Church, which was formerly included in +Pickering Parish. + +(_Reproduced by permission of the Society of Antiquaries_.) +] + +In 1602 when Edward Mylls was vicar of Pickering, complaints were made of +him "that he for the most parte, but not alwaies dothe weare a surplesse +in tyme of dyvyne service / they present there vicar for that they ar +vncerteyne whether his wif was commended vnto him by justices of peace nor +whether he was licenced to marrye hir according to hir Maiesties +iniunctions/" This vicar was deprived of the living in 1615, for omitting +to preach sermons and for not properly instructing the people and as will +be seen in the next chapter he appears to have been a most reprehensible +character. + +At the same time as this "Richarde Nicoll, Widow Kitchin, Robert Skayles, +John Flaworthe, and widow Shorpshier are presented for deteyning the +clerkes wages/ Elizabeth Dodds ffor having a childe in adultery withe one +Anthonye Boyes, which Boyes is now fledd/ William Steavenson ffor a +slanderer. And also Frances Fetherston the wif of Robert Fetherston for a +scowlde/ Richard Hutchinson for harboring a woman which had a childe +begotten in fornicacion They saie that [_blank_] Lavrock and [_blank_] +Wilson did by the apoyntment of Richard Parkinson there master carrye +turffes in to the house vpon the Sabboth daie The rest is all well." + +The rigid observance of the Sabbath as a day of rest is vividly shown by +this last complaint, and at Allerston we find that "Isabell Rea wiffe of +William Raie" was reprimanded--"ffor workyng on the Sabbothe daie viz't +for washing and dressing of hempe at the hemppe pitt vpon Sondaie was +seavenyght/" + +In 1592 appears the following/ "The chancell of Pickering in decaie bothe +the windowes and the leades and to be repaired as we suppose by Mr Deane/ +[The Dean of York] Mr Deane for want of the quarter sermons and for not +geving the xl^tie part of his lyving of the parsonage of Pickering to the +poore people of the said parishe Agnes Poskett wif of William Poskett of +Pickering for a scold." + +In the following year we find presented at Pickering "Elizabeth Johnson +wif of Frances Johnson of Kinthorpe for an obstynate recusant in not +comyng to the churche to here dyvyne service by the space of ij^o yeares +last past and more/ Anne Browne wiffe of William Browne of Pickering for +an obstinate recusant in not commyng to the churche to here dyvyne service +and so haithe done by the space of ij^o yeares and more/ Rauffe Hodgeson +of Pickring for an obstinate recusant and haithe absented him self ffrome +the churche by the space of ij'o yeares and more. Anne Clerke being in +John Wright his house of Blansbye and haithe meate and drinke there, ffor +not commyng to the church to here dyvyne service by the space of half a +yeare/ Rychard Hutchinson sonne of William Hutchinson of Kinthorpp ffor +absenting him self from the churche by the space of halff a yeare and +more/. And he is excommunicate." + +Elizabeth Dobson was presented in 1600 as "a slaunderer who saide to +Thomas Gibson that he was a Mainesworne ladd /" + +To call anyone "mansworn" was evidently a very serious offence, for in +1527 the Newcastle-on-Tyne corporation of weavers decreed that any member +of the corporation who should call his brother "mansworn" should incur a +forfeit of 6s. 8d. "without forgiveness." To _manswear_ comes from the +Anglo-Saxon _manswerian_ meaning to swear falsely or to perjure oneself. +Among the men of note of this period mention must be made of Ralph Dodmer +son of Henry Dodmer of Pickering who was a mercer and Lord Mayor of London +in 1521.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Thomas Fuller's "Worthies."] + +The visitation book shows that it was no uncommon thing to accuse a woman +of being a scold in these times and the following written in 1602[1] +throws a lurid light on the methods for removing the effects of a witch's +malice. + +[Footnote 1: The original is stuck in Calvert's MS. Book of Folklore.] + +"To cure an ill caste by any Witch putt upon any childe be y^t y^e evil +eye, an overglent, spreeking, an ill birth touche or of a spittle boult +but do as here given & alle shalle be overcome letting no evil rest upon +y^m Take a childe so ill held & strike y^t seven times on y^e face & like +upon y^e navel with y^e heart of a blacke cat then roast y^e heart & give +of y^t to eat seven nights at bed meale & y^t shalle be well butt y^e cat +must be seven years olde & y^e seventh dropped at birth otherwise y^t +shalle faile to overcome any Witch spell soever ill worked y^e blood from +such an heart laid to any witches dorepost or thrown over nighte upon her +dorestep will cause a sore & great paine in her belly." + +In the period which includes the momentous defeat of the Spanish Armada +(1588) it is fitting to describe the beacons of Pickering and the +neighbourhood that must have helped to spread the news to the inhabitants +of Yorkshire of the coming of that "Invincible" fleet. A contemporary +manuscript book dated 1580 to 1590, and discovered by Mr J.G. Constable, +tells us how Pickering beacon, which was presumably situated on Beacon +Hill opposite the castle, gave light to the neighbouring heights. + +[Sidenote: "Pickering Lythe 7 Beacons] + +Pickering beacon giveth light to Setrington beacon, in the East Riding, +and to Ampleforth beacon, in Rydall. Seamer two beacons do give light to +Pickering, Susfeld, in Whitby Strand, and Setterington beacon. Waipnesse +beacon, within the liberties of Scarborough, do give light to Muston +Beacon, in the East Riding, and to the west of the beacons before named + +"Charnell, three beacons, within the town of Scarborough adjoining to the +castle, do give light to Waipnesse and Muston beacon." + +[Sidenote: "Rydal 1 Beacon] + +There is a beacon in Rydall called Ampleforthe beacon well repaired. It +taketh light from Pickering beacon. It giveth light to the Sumclife +beacon, in the Wapentake of Birdforth, three miles distant from it +westward" + +In 1598[1] the streets of Pickering are given as, Easte Gaite and +Hallgarthe, Ungate, Birdgate, Borrowgate and Weste Gate. + +[Footnote 1: MS. book of Pickering Records in possession of the Rev. +Arthur Hill of Thornton-le-dale.] + +Two interesting monuments of this period are to be found in Brompton and +Kirby-Moorside Churches. The first is carved on stone in the north wall of +the Church. It reads:-- + +"I.W. 1580. E.W. 1547. HEIR LIETH IAMES WESTROP WHO IN WARS TO HIS GREIT +CHARGES SARVED OIN KYNG AND TOW QVENES WITH DV_{O}BE_{O}IENS AND WITH OWT +RECVMPENS." + +The brass at Kirby-Moorside is to the memory of Lady Brooke and bears this +verse as well as the inscription:-- + + "Prepare for death for if the fatall sheares + Covld have bene stayd by prayers, sighes or teares + They had bene stayd, and this tombe thov seest here + Had not erected beene yet many a yeare." + +"Here lyeth the body of my Lady Brooke, who while she lyved was a good +woman, a very good mother, and an exceeding good wife. Her sovle is at +rest w^th God, for she was svre y^t her Redemer lyved, and that thovgh +wormes destroyed her body, yet shee shovld see God in her flesh. She died +the 12th of Jvly 1600." + +From the different aspects of life at Pickering in the Tudor Period that +we have been able to give, something can be seen of the manner of living +at this time; but to have done justice to the materials that may be drawn +upon would have required a volume for what has of necessity been limited +to a chapter. + + + +CHAPTER X + +_The Forest and Vale in Stuart Times_ + +A.D. 1603 to 1714 + + +As in the two preceding chapters the records belonging to the Stuart +period are so numerous that one is almost embarrassed at the mass of +detailed information that has been preserved, and it is only possible to +select some of the most interesting facts. Commencing with the parish +registers, however, we are confronted with a gap of about thirteen years. +After having been kept with regularity since 1559, there appears on p. 48 +of the earliest book this curious entry: "Edward Milnes Vicar of Pickering +rent out all these following leaves." The missing pages contained the +entries from 1602 to 1615, and this coincides with the years of Milnes's +tenure of the living, for he appears to have come to Pickering in 1602, +and he was deprived in 1615. The reasons for removing this vicar are +recorded as follows in the last pages of the register, but the motives +that prompted him to tear out these thirtyfive parchment pages from the +register do not appear:-- + +"A true copie of the Order of the Councel ther in Pickering Lith asserted? +obtained by Mr Lawrence Trotter attornie at the Common law Ano do[=m]i +1615. + +[Sidenote: [Much thumbed at the edge.]] + +"At the Court at Greenewich on Sunday the 21 of May 1615 in the afternoone: +present L. Archbishop of Canterburie, L. Chancelor, L. Knolls, L. +Treasurer Mr Secretarie Winwood, D. of Linnox, Mr Chanceler of the Excheq, +E. of Worcester, L. Chiefe iusice, E. of Pembrooke, Mr of y^e Rolles, L. +Souch, Sir Thomas Lake. + +[Transcriber's Note: [_P] and [_p] was used to represent a P or p with a +horizontal stroke through the lower part of the stem.] + +"Complaint having bin made unto the boarde by the Inhabitants of the towne +and parish of Pickering in the Countie of Yorke. That that personage now +in possession of the bishop of Bristoll Deane of Yorke (it being an +indowment of the said Deanerie) such slender care hath bene had by him for +the preaching of the Gospell unto the said parishioners, and giving them +that Christianlike and necessarie instru[~c]on which is fitting, as for a +long time they scarce had any sermon at all amongest them. Where upon +their Lordships were pleased to direct their Letters unto the s^d Lord +Bishop admonishing and requiring him to give speedie order for the +redresse of so great an inconvenience and so scandalous to his ma^ties +most Christian goverm^t. But receaving answer from his Lordship that in +respect the said [_P]sonage being an impropria[~c]on is indued w^th a +Vicarage and a Viccar presented thereunto he held him selfe freed in Law +from any further charge, and that the said [_P]snage was in Lease w^th. +such other like excuses but that notwithstanding he was contented to +procure them 12 sermons every yeare, their Lordships thought fitting this +day to call him to the boarde, and to let him sea in reason of State, +besides the great obligacon they had as Christians it behoved them to +presse his Lordship notwithstanding the former excuse to have yet a +further care of the teaching so great a multitude (they being 4000 people) +considering how busie the priestes and Jesuits are in these dayes +(especially in these quarters) not only laboring to corrupt his ma^ties +subjects in their religion but also infecting them with such damnable +posiciones and Doctrine touching the valew ... (?) unto his ma^ties sacred +person where upon the said bishop made offer unto the boarde that he would +forthwith (?) remove the vicar now there present and place in his roome +some lerned and religious pastor who should as it was desired weekely +preach unto the people and carefully instruct them in the points of faith +and religion of which their Lordships were pleased to accept for the +present, and accordingly inioyned him to the performance thereof and +withall ordered the said preacher now to be presented should first be +approved and allowed by the lorde Archbishop of Yorke in respect of +abilitie and sufficiencie." This entry is thus attested:-- + + "CONCORDAT CUM REGISTRO + FFRANCIS COTTINGTON + LAURENCE TROTTER ATTORNIE + EDWARD BRIGHT VICARIUS DE + PICKERING SCRIPTOR HUIS EXEMPLARIS." + +[Illustration: The Font of Pickering Church. + +It dates in its present form from 1644, but the upper portion, which shows +traces of painting, appears to be of very much earlier workmanship, and +has been thought to be of Saxon origin. +] + +Edward Bright succeeded to the living in 1615. We may believe that he was +selected as being a "lerned and religious pastor." He appears to have +remained in possession until his death in 1659, though there is an entry +of the baptism of a son of a certain Robert King in 1644, who is described +as "minister." There must have been some exciting scenes in Pickering at +this time, for in the year 1644, when many other churches suffered a +similar fate, the registers record the breaking up of the font and the +tearing to pieces of the church Prayer Book on the same day. The entries +are in very small pale writing at the back of one of the books and read:-- + + "Baptisterii Pickerensis Demolitio, Septemb. 25, 1644." + +And in another hand:-- + + "Liturgia ecclesie ibidem lacerata eodem die 1644." + +Edward Bright had several children whose names appear in the registers, +and one of them, Joseph Bright, was on the 11th of July 1652 "elected and +declared to be the parish clerk of Pickering." He was then twenty-five +years old. On the night of August the 26th, 1634, there was a fire in the +town which burnt down two houses and caused great fear among the +inhabitants. Then among other entries on the back pages of register No. 2, +1615-53, appear recipes of this character:-- + +"A [cure?] for the dropsie in ye winter. Take a gallon of white wine and +broome ashes to the quantitie [a few indecipherable words] sifted and +drinke a pint thereof morning and [cause?] it [to?] be drunken also at +meale times with ones meats and at other times when one is drie a little +quantitie. Matthew Mitso ... e." + +"For the same in Summer. Take a pecke of sage and bake it in a riddon (?) +pastie, and when it is baked to a hard crust breake there crust and all in +it ... and ... unne it up all into a barrell of drinke, and drinke it in +the Su[=m]er time especially in maye." + +"_A remeadie for the stich._ + +"Take a j^d. of treacle a j^d of aqua-vite and a j^d of sal ... and apply +them to the place." + +"_A medicine for wormes._ + +"Take lavander c ... unset leekes an ox ('or bull' _inserted above_) gall +and cu[=m]in seed, fry these togither with . (?) . and lay them warme in a +linnen clath to the childes belly." + +Some other remedies that belong to this period were discovered by Mr +Blakeborough[1] in this neighbourhood. I have taken them from the original +seventeenth century writing:-- + +[Footnote 1: Calvert's MS. book in the possession of Mr Richard +Blakeborough. ] + +"Take for to clear the eyes 1 ounce of dried batts bloode groude to powder +& white hens bloode & dung sift & when they be well mixed & quite dry then +blowe a little in the ill eye & yt shall soon be well." + +_"For a pinne or ivebbe in ye eye._ + +"Take ye galle of an hare the gall of a mowerpate and of a wild cat and +honey and hogs lard a like quantity mix all together and annoynt y^e eye +w^th a feather dipped in yt and yt shalle be soon cured." + +The details of a remedy "For a fallynge sickness" though possibly +considered very efficacious are too repulsive for modern ears. + +The following recipe, "For the making of Honey Cakes. Certayne to be +acceptable to y^e Fairy Folk," is from the same source and is dated 1605:-- + + +"Taike of wilde honey thre ounce, of powder'd dill sede half ounce swete +violet roote in fine powder 2 drachmes and six ounces of white wheaten +meal which you will bringe to a light dowgh these thinges being all mixed +together with faire water. This done with a silver spune helde in ye hand +of a sure maid one be you sure who hath not as yet owther yielded her own +or do then or ever hath worn a garter band there bound by her lover for +such be not fitt and proper maids for the maykinge of Fairy Cakes. The +Cakes thus mayde be they to the number of seven unbaked and mayde to the +biggness of a marke. These cakes thus mayde may be used by any one +wishfull to intercede with or begge a boon from the Fairy folk alwaie +being mindfull of this matter be she passing as a maid lett her not dare +to mayke use of the cakes." Then follows the story of the evils that +befell "one Sarah Heugh who well knowing herself alacking her maiden-head" +tried to pass herself off to the fairies as a "true" maid. + +Coming back to the registers of Pickering we find that on the 13th August +1694 Archbishop Sharp held a confirmation in the church and confirmed +about a thousand persons. The note is given in Latin as follows:-- + +"Memorandum. 13^o die Augusti 1694 Johannes Divina providentia Eboracensis +Archiepiscopus in ecclesia parochiali de Pickeringe Mille (aut eo circita) +Baptizatos Xti Relligioni Confirmavit. + +"Joshua Newton. + +"_Vicarius Ib._" + +The parcel gilt Chalice still in use at Pickering Church belongs to this +period. It is dated 1613, and was made by Christopher Harrington, the +goldsmith of York. The paten was made in 1712 by Seth Lofthouse of London. + +During the Commonwealth Levisham and Pickering parishes seem to have been +joined from 1653 to 1661. The Levisham burials and births appear in the +Pickering registers. Among the regular entries of deaths at Pickering are +recorded:-- + +"1619. Jane Greenwood a stranger buried March. + 1631. Ellen Kirbye a poore Girle buried. + 1634. A poor traveller buried here the 3 day of + June. + 1636. Gawen Pollard pauper Generosus 30th + May." + +It would be interesting to know how a pauper came to be a "generosus." + +A bequest dated 1658 that seems to have been entirely forgotten appears in +one of the registers. It says: "Be it Remembred that Robert Huggett of +great Edston In the County of yourke Labourer did by his last will and +Testamente bearinge date the Eleaventh day of January in the yeare of +Grace one Thousande Sixe hundred fifty Eight give & bequeste unto +Elizabeth Huggett his Mother in Law all that his Cottage or Tennemente att +Pickeringe with all & singular the Appurtenances theirunto belongeing +duringe hir life Naturall and No longer and then to Come unto James Coates +of little Barugh Husbandman all the Right & Title of the above saide +Tennemente in Pickeringe aforsaide after the death of my saide Mother in +Law Hee payinge theirfor year by & every yeare for Ever the some of Twelve +shilling of Lawfull money of Englande to be paide unto the Poore of +Pickeringe att the feaste of Sainte Martin the bishopp in winter to begine +the firste paymente at Martinmas after the death of my saide Mother in Law +& not before which Twelve shilling shall be distributede at the discretion +of the saide James Coats or his assignes Togeather with the advice of the +Church wardins & overseers of the saide towne of Pickeringe for the time +beinge." + +[Illustration: THE JACOBEAN ALMS BOX IN THE PORCH OF PICKERING CHURCH.] + +The briefs collected at Pickering for various purposes were very numerous +between 1661 and 1665; they are set out elaborately at the back of one of +the registers, but they are given below in condensed form:-- + +BRIEFS COLLECTED IN PICKERING CHURCH. + +1661. July 28. 6s. 6d. for Condover Church, Shropshire. + Sept. 8. 6s. Parish Church of Pontefract. + Nov. 10. 4s. 2d. for the losses of Henry Harrison, mariner. + Nov. 3. 13s. 7d. for the poor Protestants of Lithuania. +1661 Aug. 11. 5s. 10d. for the Parish Church of Scarborough. + Dec. 15. 5s. for the Parish Church, Dalby-Chalcombe, + in the County of Leicester. + Dec. 29. 5s. for the reparation for the Collegiate + Church of Rippon. + Jan. 29. 3s. 4d. for the loss of Christopher Greene of + Beighton, in the County of Derby. + Feb. 23. 4s. 4d. Brief by his Majesty's special order for + promoting the trade of fishing. +1662. April 6. 4s. for the loss of Thomas Welby in the + County address. + " 13. 4s. 4d. for the loss of William Copperthwaite. + No date. 5s. for the relief of John Wolrich of + (erased) County of Staffords. +1665. April 16. 4s. 2d. for the repairing of the Parish Church of + Tinmouth, in the County of Northumberland. + +The system of briefs became subject to great abuses, and in 1828 it was +abolished. Most of the Pickering collections were very small, but the +people evidently had some sympathy for the poor Protestants of Lithuania, +for they gave nearly three times as much as usual. + +Despite the statement made by Clark in his valuable book on "Mediaeval +Military Architecture in England" that "Pickering was held for the king in +the Parliamentary struggles," I can find no records to show that this was +so or that any fighting took place there during the Civil War. I have +searched many volumes of tracts relating to the period for any reference +to Pickering, but although Scarborough on the east and Helmsley on the +west are frequently mentioned, and details of the sieges and surrenders +given, yet I have fourd no statement concerning Pickering. I must, +however, mention that at least two iron cannon balls have been discovered +in recent times embedded in the ground beneath the western walls of the +castle. + +In a Cromwellian survey found by Mr R.B. Turton, among the records of the +Duchy of Lancaster,[1] there is, however, a most valuable account of the +castle dated July 15th, 1651. It mentions damage done by the soldiers "in +the time of the late warrs," but it also tells us that much lead, wood and +iron was taken to Scarborough Castle by Sir Hugh Cholmley, which seems to +show conclusively that the place was not defended. The Cromwellian +soldiers were probably quartered in the somewhat ruined castle and used +what timber they could find for lighting their fires. The survey of 1651 +is as follows:-- + +[Footnote 1: "North Riding Record Society's Publications," vol. 1, New +Series, p. 65.] + +"The capital Messuage is scituate on the North side of Pickering Towne and +knowne by the name of Pickering Castle; the Entrance whereof lyeth on the +South through a Gatehouse which is somewhat (qu: decayed) in respect that +all the covering is taken away. The outside gate you enter into a Spatious +Court contayneing one Acre and three Roodes more or less; on which (on the +East side) close adjoyning to the said Gate standeth a ruynous howse +partly covered with Slate, in which were lately three severall Roomes +below Staires, and as many above. But in the time of the late warrs, all +the floares for the chambering have been pulled down by the Souldiers +insomuch the whole howse is ready to fall, there being hardly any thing +left to support the Roofe; The owt walles being partly built of Stone and +part of Timber and the sparrs which are fastned to the mayne wall of the +Castle do still remayne. Further eastward to the said howse along the wall +standeth a Towre knowne by the Name of Dyet Towre, in which there hath +beene three severall Roomes with other Conveniencyes thereunto belonging, +which with litle Cost may bee made habitable, but the Lead Wood and Iron +was by S^r Hugh Cholmley (as we are informed) carryed to Scarbrough +Castle. Further along the said Wall standeth an other Tower North to the +aforesaid howse and knowne by the Name of Rossimund Towre, the walls in +good repaire, but the Wood Leade and Iron quite taken away. On the West +side of the aforesaid Gate along the Wall standeth an other Tower knowne +by the Name of Milne Tower, built within all of hewen stone with a staire +Case of the same, conteyneing one Roome above lately used for a lodging +chamber, but within these six or seven yeares all the Iron Lead and wood +have been taken away and nothing left besides the out walles which are in +very good repaire and one Rotten beame which lyeth cross the topp of the +said Towre. On the North side of the said Court opposite to the Gate +standeth an other Gate which is the Entrance over a decayed bridg into the +midle Castle and leadeth into an other spatious Court conteyneing two +Roodes more or less. On the North east of the said Gate standeth a fourth +Tower knowne by the name of Coleman Towre contenyneing two Roomes, but the +floars covering and all the wood is taken away. On the West side of the +said Court standeth a Large Ruyned hall almost all fallen to the ground +nothing of the Timber remayneing. At North end of which hall Eastward +standeth one howse covered with slate and in indifferent good repaire +conteyneing one Roome and knowne by the Name of the Chappell which is now +used for keepeing of Courts for the Honor aforesaid. On the backside of +which lyeth a third Court conteyneing two Roodes more or less in which +hath been diverse buildings but now ruyned and fallen to the ground. In +the midst of the whole Castle standeth a mount conteyneing one Acre on +which there is a spatious, ruyned, and old decayed building being nothing +but ruyned walls which in many places begin to fall downe. The said +building is commonly knowne by the name of the Moate. The Materialles of +the said Castle (which are there now remayneing), as the Timber hewen +stone and slate, wee estimate to bee worth in ready money (besides the +charge of takeing them downe)--CC li. The Ground lying within the walls +and Ditches of the Castle aforesaid conteyne in the whole three Acres and +three Roodes which is worth upon Improvem^t p. Ann.--C s." + +[Transcriber's Note: The "CC li." and "C s." refer to 200 libra (pounds) +and 100 shillings respectively. Several previous transcribers were +confused by this, causing this note to be added.] + +The story which has already been mentioned of the wanton destruction by +the Parliamentary soldiers of ancient documents that had been preserved in +the Castle may quite reasonably be true, but unfortunately Hinderwell, who +seems to have been the first to record the tale,[1] does not give any +authority for his statement. Another story which is sometimes mentioned +among the people of Pickering states that Parliamentary soldiers were +quartered in the church during the Civil War, but we can place no reliance +upon the legend. Some details of the raising of train bands in the +district are given in the memoirs of Sir Hugh Cholmley, the gallant +defender of Scarborough Castle. Writing of the year 1636, he says, "I was +at this time made Deputy-lieutenant and Colonel over the Train-bands +within the hundred of Whitby Strand, Ryedale, Pickering, Lythe, and +Scarborough Town." Three years later Sir Hugh tells us that in preparation +for the king's march against the Scots, he had much business in mustering +and training the soldiers of the Train-bands, and many journeys to York to +consult with the Vice-President and other Deputy-Lieutenants. "About June +the king sent down his army into Yorkshire, and himself came to it in +August. The Earl of Northumberland was General from whom I had a +commission. Divers of the colonels of the Train-bands, with their +regiments, were called to march with the king into Northumberland; amongst +which I had been one, but at that time I had caught cold and a dangerous +sickness, in raising and training my whole regiment together on +Paxton-Moor near Thornton, where one Hallden, a stubborn fellow of +Pickering, not obeying his captain, and giving me some unhandsome +language, I struck him with my cane, and felled him to the ground. The +cane was tipped with silver, and hitting just under the ear, had greater +operation than I intended. But either the man was ill or else +counterfeited so, to be freed from service; which I willingly granted, and +glad when he was well: but it was a good monition not to be hasty in the +like or any other provocation, for passion doth not only blind the +judgement but produceth other ill effects." + +[Footnote 1: Thomas Hinderwell, "History of Scarborough," 1811, p. 350.] + +In 1640, when Sir Hugh (as a burgess for Scarborough) was attending the +Short Parliament in London, his regiment was commanded to march to the +Scottish Border. His brother Henry Cholmley, being Lieut.-Colonel, went +with it, but at Durham they were ordered back. + +In November 1641 Sir Hugh was again attending Parliament, and at that time +he feared the advance of the Scots into Yorkshire, "which," he says, "did +not a little disquiet my mind and thoughts for my dear wife and children; +the snow being so great, I could not possibly remove them so soon as I +desired"; "but at the latter end of February, as soon as the ways were +passable, I had her and all my family in London." It must have been an +unusually prolonged period of snow to keep Sir Hugh and his family apart +for two or three months. Roxby Castle was his birthplace, and his account +of his early years there includes an accident which might have had fatal +results. + + + [1]JC + _________|_________ + | | + [2]SR [3]SRC + ___________|_____________ + | | | | + [4]SR [5]J [6]A [7]M + __________________________|______________________ + | | | | | | | + | [8]F [9]R and [10]R [11]M [12]J [13]E + | | + | [14]M + [15] + __|______ + | | + [16]K [17]SH + | + [18]SRC + | + [19]SHC + + +[1] +John Cholmley of Cheshire. + +[2] +Sir Richard, +Lt.-Gov. of the Tower in the time of King +Henry VIII.; d. without issue; m. Elizabeth, +one of the daus. of ---- Nevill of Thornton +Bridge; probably bought land there. + +[3] +Sir Roger Cholmley, +First to settle in Yorkshire; m. Catherine, dau. +of Sir Marmaduke Constable of Flamborough. +Sir Roger knighted 5th of Henry VIII., when +English had a great victory over the Scots; +died April 28th, 1538; bought Roxby. + +[4] +Sir Richard, +Called "The Great Black Knight of the +North"; inherited property; knighted at +battle of Musslebury Hill, 5th of Edw. VI.; +m. 1st Margaret, d. of Wm. Lord Conyers. + +[5] +John, +Slain in +his youth. + +[6] +Anne, +m. to the Earl +of Westmoreland. + +[7] +Margaret, +m. Henry +Gascoigne of +Ledbury, near +Richmond. + +[8] +Francis, +m. Mrs. June +Boulmer; died +without issue. + +[9] and [10] +Richard and Roger, +m. 2 bastard daus. of Dallrivers. +[Both set on one side.] + +[11] +Margaret. + +[12] +Jane. + +[13] +Elizabeth. + +[14] +Marmaduke. + +[15] +Purchased many lands in Yorks, +Manors of Whitby, Whitby lithe, +and Stakesby purchased in 1555; +lived at Roxby; m. 2nd Katherine +(d. 1598), dau. of Henry, 1st +Earl of Cumberland, widow of +Lord John Scrope of Bolton. + +[16] +Katherine. + +[17] +Sir Henry, m. Margaret, dau. of Sir Wm. Babthorpe; succeeded Francis. + +[18] +Sir Richard Cholmley, +Born 1580, succeeded 1617, died 1632. + +[19] +Sir Hugh Cholmley, +the defender of Scarborough Castle. +Born 1600, succeeded 1632. + +GENEALOGICAL TREE OF THE CHOLMLEYS OF ROXBY, NEAR PICKERING. + +(Taken from the details given in the memoirs of Sir Hugh Cholmley.) + + +"I was," he says, "the first child of my dear mother, born upon the 22nd +of July, being a Tuesday, and on the feast day commonly called Mary +Magdalen's day, in the year of our Lord God 1600, at a place called Roxby, +in the country of York, within the Hundred of Pickering lythe near to +Thornton, now much demolished, but heretofore the chief seat of my +great-grandfather, and where my grandfather, Sir Henry Cholmley, then +lived, which place (since I was married was sold by my father and self, +towards the payment of his debts)." + +Sir Hugh then describes his weakness as a child due to the fault of his +nurse. This gave him such "a cast back" that he was a weak and sickly +child for many years. + +"At three years old, the maid which attended me let me tumble out of the +great chamber window at Roxby, which (by God's providence) a servant +waiting upon my grandfather at dinner espying, leaped to the window, and +caught hold of my coat, after I was out of the casement. Soon after I was +carried to my father and mother, who then lived with her brother Mr John +Legard, at his house at Ganton nine miles from Roxby, where I continued +for the most part until I was seven years old; then my father and mother +going to keep house at Whitby, went with them, and beginning to ride a +little way by myself, as we passed over a common, called Paston moor [? +Paxton, above Ellerburne] one of my father's servants riding beside me, I +had a desire to put my horse into a gallop; but he running away, I cried +out, and the servant taking hold of my arm, with an intention to lift me +from my horse, let me fall between both, so that one of them, in his +gallop, trod on my hat; yet, by God's protection, I caught no harm." + +When his father was living at Whitby he had another narrow escape. "The +next year," he writes, "being 1608 upon my very birth-day, being the feast +of Mary Magdalen, and I just eight years old, by God's great Providence, I +escaped as great, if not greater danger than this; which was, that, at my +Father's house, at Whitby aforesaid, there was a great fierce sow, having +two pigs near a quarter old, which were to be reared there, lying close +together asleep, near to the kitchen door, I being alone, out of folly and +waggery, began to kick one of them; in the interim another rising up, +occasioned me to fall upon them all, and made them cry; and the sow +hearing, lying close by, came and caught me by the leg, before I could get +up, and dragged me half a score yards, under the window of the room now +called the larder, and what in respect of the age and the amazement I was +in, could not help myself; from the leg she fell to bite me in the groin +with much fierceness; when the butler, carrying a glass of beer to my +father (then in his chamber) hearing me cry, set down the beer on the hall +table, and running out, found the sow passing from my groin to my throat." + +Another famous name connected with this period is that of George Villiers, +second Duke of Buckingham. After the death of Charles II. the royal +favourite retired to his seat at Helmsley, his strength being very much +impaired by the vicious life he had led at Court. He seems to have devoted +himself to hunting and open-air sports. Certain stories connected with the +Duke and mixed up with the usual superstitions were told to Calvert nearly +a hundred years ago. + +"Near the Checkers' Inn at Slapstean," he says, "there stood until a few +years agone the cottage in which there lived many years sen one Isaac Haw, +who in his day did hunt the fox with George Villiers, and many a queer +story did he use to tell. Here be one. There lived on the moor not over an +hour's ride from Kirkby Moorside, one Betty Scaife, who had a daughter +Betty, a good like wench." George Villiers seeing this girl one day is +said to have induced her to become his mistress either by force or with +her mother's consent. After having a dream she told Villiers to come near +her no more, foretelling at the same time the time and death he would die. +He was so affected by this that he is said to have ridden away and never +seen her again. + +Haw also tells how he once rode on the moor with the spirit of the Duke of +Buckingham, being not aware at the time that his Grace was dead. Villiers +made an arrangement that when both were dead and the devil gave them a +holiday they would both hunt together on a certain moor. + +"There be those whose word has been handed down to us," continues Calvert, +"who sware to having seen these two ahunting of a spirit fox with a spirit +pack of a moonlight night. I know one who hath in memory a song of that +day anent these two but it be so despert blasfemous that for the very fear +of injuring the chance of my own soul's salvation I do forbear to give it, +but if it be that you wish to copy on't, one Tom Cale a cobbler living in +Eastgate Pickering hath to my knowledge a copy on't." + +[Illustration: THE HOUSE AT KIRBY MOORSIDE IN WHICH THE 2ND DUKE OF +BUCKINGHAM--THE FAVOURITE OF CHARLES II.--DIED. + +The window of the bedroom is shown in the illustration. It is on the first +floor at the right hand side of the house. +] + +The Duke lived to the age of sixty in spite of his life of unbridled vice, +and it seems that a sudden illness seized him after a hard day's hunting, +and he died at the house in Kirby Moorside where he was taken instead of +to Helmsley. The house is still standing, and one may even see the room in +which the reckless Duke expired. As may be seen from the illustration the +house is a good one, and at that time must have been, with one exception, +the best in the village. The lines by Pope descriptive of the favourite's +death are, therefore, quite unwarranted:-- + + "In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung, + The floors of plaster and the walls of dung." + +It never was an inn, and the Rev. R. V. Taylor[1] has discovered that the +house was in the occupation of one of his tenants. I have carefully +examined the house without finding anything to suggest that such squalor +could have ever existed there. The staircase is very picturesque, and one +of the brass drop handles on the bedroom doors shows that the building was +a good one. The bedroom in which the Duke died has the fireplace blocked +up; there is a recessed window containing a seat, and the walls, where +they are panelled, are of fir, although the larger beams throughout the +house seem to be of oak. + +[Footnote 1: "Yorkshire Notes and Queries," May 1904, p. 68.] + +The sudden demise of this famous man must have created a sensation in the +village, and although the body was not buried at Kirby Moorside, the +parish register of that time has this illiterate entry[2]-- + +_"buried in the yeare of our Lord 1687 +Marke Reame ..... Aprill y^e 12 +Gorges viluas Lord dooke of bookingam etc. 19"_ + +[Footnote 2: The third volume of the registers at the top of page 4.] + +A letter from Lord Arran to the Duke's late chaplain, dated April 17th, +1687, says, "I have ordered the corpse to be embalmed and carried to +Helmsley Castle and there to remain till my Lady Duchess her pleasure +shall be known. There must be speedy care taken; for there is nothing here +but confusion, not to be expressed. Though his stewards have received vast +sums, there is not so much as one farthing, as they tell me, for defraying +the least expense." From this it appears that he died on or before the +17th of April, and that after the embalming process had been performed the +intestines were buried at Kirby Moorside on the 19th and not on the 17th, +as stated by Gill in his "Vallis Eboracensis." + +One of the tattered registers[1] of Kirby Moorside also contains the +following remarkable entry:-- + +"Dorythy Sowerbie of Bransdales (slayne with 6 bullett by theeves in the +night) was buryed the 23th (sic) Day of May 1654." A few years before this +in 1650 the burial is recorded of "a stranger that y^t sold stockins." + +[Footnote 1: Vol. ii. p. 2] + +On the first page of the register dated 1704, the vicar, "M. James +Musgrave," gives a list of "things belonging to the churich--a surplus, a +Hud, a challis, a patton, tow-flaggons [these are of pewter and are kept +in the church], a putter Dubler, a Tabill clorth, on napkin. A dubler for +christening." + +During this period the Duchy records show that Pickering Forest was still +being robbed of its oaks, some of them being used to repair the defences +of Scarborough Castle during the Civil War. + +"Wee are informed that there were xxx^tie Trees or } + thereaboutes cut downe in Newton dale within the } + said fforest and carried to Scarbrough Castle by } 20 0 0" + Order from Sir Hugh Cholmley then Gouernor of } + the same, to the value of } + +Some of the other entries at the same time are given below.[1] + +"Wee are informed that divers olde trees are cut downe } + within the fforest of Pickeringe in a place called }lib. + Deepdale and Helley Greene by Robert Pate by the } 6 0 0 + Appointment of Mathew ffranke Esquire to the } + value of } + +Likewise wee are informed that John Hassell gent } + hath cut downe diuers trees in Dalbye within the } 19 0 0 + said fforest to the value of } + +Wee are likewise informed that Beatrice Hassell widdow } + hath cut downe diuers trees in Dalbye Hagges } 12 0 0 + within the said fforest, to the value of } + +Wee are likewise informed That seuerall Tennantes of } + Goatland haue cut downe two hundred Trees and } + more within the fforest in the North part of } 30 0 0 + Newtondale and Gillwood to the value of } + +And that Robert ffranke gent did take Composicions + and summes of money of seuerall of the said + Tennants of Goatland for the same wood. + +And allso we are informed that there hath bene cut } + downe Two hundred Trees in Haughe Hagge } + within the said fforest, And that the said Trees were } l. s. d. + cut downe and Carried away by the poore people of } 40 0 0 + Pickeringe in the yeares 1647 and 1648 to the } + value of } + +[Footnote 1: From a thin foolscap book containing, inter alia, the +findings of the Juries of the Courts Leet, etc., in the possession of the +Rev. Arthur Hill of Thornton-le-dale.] + +From the same book we discover that + +"George Grayson holdes by Copie of Court Roll one +Cottage in Pickeringe and one Garth thereunto belonging, +dated the 11th of Aprill 1659 And was +admitted Tennant thereof by John Syms then +Steward and paid ffine 0 0 4" + +This is of considerable interest in view of the fact that the Grayson +family are still tenants of the Duchy. + +Tenants are mentioned as holding property in "Smiddiehill" and "Hungate +Greene," and the entry given below is interesting on account of the +mention of the market cross that has completely disappeared. + +"Jane Moone widdow holdes one Messuage and one +parcell of waste ground in Pickering neare to the +Market Crosse and was admitted Tennant thereof +by John Sym, now deputie Steward, by Copie dated +the 22d of November 1659: And paid ffine for per +Admittance ... 0 8 1" + +Many of the small houses of Pickering must have been built at this time. +One near the castle gateway has a stone in the gable end bearing the +initials E.C.W., and the date 1646, another with a thatched roof on the +south side of Eastgate, dated 1677, is now fast going to ruin. The roofs +were no doubt at that time chiefly covered with thatch, and the whole town +must have been extremely picturesque. The stocks, the shambles, and the +market cross stood in the centre of the town, and there were none of the +unpleasant features that modern ideas, unchecked by a sense of fitness and +proportion, bring in their wake. + +The castle, we have seen, was in a far more perfect state than at the +present time, but the church must have appeared much as it does to-day. +The circular wooden pulpit is Georgian, and thus the one that preceded it +has disappeared. Two of the three bells that still hang in the tower bear +the date 1638. The treble bell is inscribed "Praise the Lord," and sounds +the note G sharp. The middle bell gives F sharp and the inscription is +"Soli deo gloria." Hanging in the bellcote of the schools adjoining the +church is the small bell dated 1632 that was removed from the Bruce Chapel +in 1857 when the schools were built. Before that date children were taught +in the Bruce Chapel. + +In Archbishop Sharp's manuscripts (page 106) preserved at Bishopthorpe +there is a detailed account of the parish of Pickering. It is dated 1706, +and is given under the heading of "Dean of York's Peculiars." There are +numerous abbreviations, but the meaning is plain in most instances. + +"_Pickering Vic. St Peter and St Paul_. + +"1706. No Papist. + +"A[nno] R[egni] Edw. I. 13. The Manor, Castle, Forest of Pickering were +given to Edmund E. of Lancaster and so became thenceforward part of that +Dutchy. The Church of Pickering was by Hen. I. given to the Deanery of +York, w^th the soke thereof and all the chappells and tithes belonging. It +is let at the rent of 100 li. + +"The Vicarage consists of a house &c. And the tithe Hay of Garths w^ch may +yield 7 or 8 Load in a year to the vicar, and all the small tithes of the +Parish. Besides an augmentation of 20 li p an. made since the +Restauration. + +"This is a large parish in which are 2 Chappells neither of them endowed +as the minister Mr Newton tells me, but he allows 5th to a neighboring +minister to serve the one and the other he goes to himself. This vicarage, +of the D^ns Collation is val in my B at 28 li. It is I hope worth 60 li +[not above 40 K.B. 8. 3. 9. T 16-40b.] _The Deans Tenant pays 20 li of +it._ + +"Within this Parish are the Towns of Newton upon Rocliff, Blansby Park, +Kinthorp. Here also is Dereholm Grange and Loft Maress Grange. 1707. 41 +(indistinct) John Pickering Vr.; 1715 Robert Hargreaves, Vicar; 1740 Sam^l +Hill Vicar. + +"1745. George Dodsworth. + +"1706 Papists 9. L S. D. + +"The Chappell of Goteland. 1716 4 0 0 + +"Being distant above 8 miles from the Parish Church +was by Dean Scot A.D. 1635 allowed the privilege of +Sepulture for the inhab. Saveing to the Mother +Church all its dues 1706 Certifyd by ye (indistinct) to +the Dean to be worth 4 0 0 Arising out of +Surplice Fees and Voluntary Contribution William +Prowde, Curate 1722 Jonathan Robinson, Curate." + +[Illustration: The Maypole on Sinnington Green. The centre of many village +festivities in the past centuries.] + +The country folk were in much the same state in regard to their morals and +superstitions as in the Georgian Era described in the next chapter, but it +is of great interest to know that efforts towards improvement were being +made as early as the year 1708. The following account given by Calvert of +an attempt to stop the May dance at Sinnington would show either that +these picturesque amusements were not so harmless as they appear at this +distance, or else that the "Broad Brims" were unduly severe on the +innocent pleasures of the time. The account is taken by Calvert "from one +Nares book." + +[Illustration: An inverted stone coffin of much earlier date used as a +seventeenth century gravestone at Wykeham Abbey.] + +"In the year 1708 there did come a great company of Broad Brims for to +stop the May Dance about the pole at Sinnington, and others acting by +concert did the like at Helmsley, Kirby Moorside and Slingsby, singing and +praying they gat them round about the garland pole whilst yet the may +Queen was not yet come but when those with flute and drum and dancers came +near to crown the Queen the Broad Brims did pray and sing psalms and would +not give way while at the finish up there was like for to be a sad end to +the day but some of the Sinnington Bucks did join hands in a long chain +and thus swept them clean from the pole. At Slingsby there was a great +dordum of a fight, but for a great while the Broad Brims have set their +faces against all manner of our enjoyment." + +Fine examples of the carved oak cabinets, chests, and other pieces of +furniture of this period still survive in some of the houses of Pickering. +The cabinets generally bear the date and the initials of the maker, and +the I.B. to be seen on some of the finest pieces from this district are +the initials of John Boyes of Pickering, whose work belongs chiefly to the +time of William and Mary. + + + +CHAPTER XI + +_The Forest and Vale in Georgian Times, 1714 to 1837_ + + +With the accession of King George the First in 1714 we commence a new +section of the history of Pickering, a period notable in its latter years +for the sweeping away to a very large extent of the superstitions and +heathen practices which had survived until the first quarter of the +nineteenth century. + +The town had probably altered very little in its general appearance since +the time of the Restoration. Most of the roofs were thatched; the castle +was probably more dismantled within the outer walls, but the church of the +Georgian period must have been almost identically the same as during the +century that preceded it, and as it remained until the restoration in +1879. + +At the top of the market-place stood the stocks at the side of the old +stone-built shambles that disappeared in 1857, having for many generations +formed a background to the groups of buyers and sellers in the steep and +picturesque street. We can people the scene with the quaint costumes of +the eighteenth century; knee-breeches and long waistcoats are to be seen +in every direction, the three-cornered hat and the wig tied with a black +ribbon are worn by the better classes. The wives and daughters of the +squires and lesser gentry reflect in a modified form the fashions +prevailing in London, and to be observed in actuality among the gay crowds +that thronged the Spa at Scarborough, assuming and discarding the +hooped-petticoat according to the mode of the moment. We can see the +farmers of the Vale and those from the lonely dales discussing the news of +the week and reading the scarce and expensive newspapers that found their +way to Pickering. How much they understood of the reasons for the great +European wars and alliances it is not easy to say, but when the reports +came of victories to the British armies, assisted although they may have +been by paid allies, the patriotic feelings of these Yorkshiremen did not +fail to manifest themselves in a heavier consumption of beer than usual. +We can hear the chink of glasses and the rattle of pewter tankards in the +cosy parlours of the "White Swan," the "George," and the rest; we can hear +as the years go by the loud cheers raised for Marlborough, for Wolfe, for +Nelson, or for Wellington, while overhead the church bells are ringing +loudly in the old grey tower. These were the days of the highwaymen, and +even as late as 1830 a postman was robbed near the moorland village of +Lockton, on his way to Whitby. The driver of the mailcart at that time +used to carry a large brass-mounted cavalry pistol, which was handed to +him when he had mounted his box by one of the two old ladies who acted as +the post-mistresses of Pickering. It is not much more than ten years since +the death of Francis Gibson, a butcher of East Ayton, who was over a +hundred years old and remembered the capture of the last highwayman who +was known to carry on the old-time profession in the neighbourhood. He was +tracked to an inn at East Ayton where he was found sleeping. Soon +afterwards he found himself on the road to York, where he was hanged. + +The road across Seamer Moor between Ayton and Scarborough was considered +sufficiently dangerous for those who travelled late to carry firearms. +Thus we can see Mr Thomas Chandler of the Low Hall at West Ayton--a +Justice of the Peace--having dined with some relations in Scarborough, +returning at a late hour. The lights of his big swinging barouche drawn by +a pair of fat chestnuts shine out on the white road; the country on either +side is unenclosed, and masked men may appear out of the shadows at any +moment. But if they are about they may have heard that Mr Chandler carries +a loaded pistol ready for emergencies, for they always let him reach his +house in safety. + +To the simple peasants highwaymen were probably considered of small +account in comparison to the apparitions that haunted many parts of the +lonely country. Nearly every part of the moor had its own wraith or +boggle, and the fear of these ghosts was so widespread that in many cases +the clergy were induced to publicly lay them, after which were seen no +more. + +To record the advent of these strange beliefs is impossible, for who can +tell how or when they originated? We can only describe them at the time of +their destruction. Chaucer, writing in the fourteenth century, seemed to +imagine that belief in elves and fairies had received its death-blow in +his own time, for in "The Wife of Bath's Tale," he says-- + + "In tholde dayes of the Kyng Arthour, + Of which that Britons speken greet honour, + All was this land fulfild of fairye. + The elf queene with hir joly compaignye + Daunced ful ofte in many a greene mede. + This was the olde opinion as I rede,-- + I speke of manye hundred yeres ago,-- + But now kan no man se none elves mo, + For now the grete charitee and prayeres + Of lymtours, and othere hooly freres, + That serchen every lond and every streem, + As thikke as motes in the sonne beem,-- + Blessynge halles, chambres, kichenes, boures, + Citees, burghes, castels, hye toures + Thropes, bernes, shipnes, dayeryes,-- + This maketh that ther been no fairyes." + +Five hundred years, however, had to pass before the most implicit belief +in hobs, wraiths, and boggles was to disappear, and even at the present +day those who have intimate associations with the population of the North +Yorkshire moors know that traces of the old superstitions still survive. + +Several books have been written on the folklore of Yorkshire and from them +it is possible to get a rough idea of the superstitions common to many +parts of the county, but these do not particularly concern the district +surrounding Pickering. We should probably have never heard of many curious +facts specially belonging to this part of the county if a small manuscript +book of closely written notes had not been discovered by Mr Richard +Blakeborough of Stockton-on-Tees, who has kindly allowed me to quote from +it. The stories were collected by one George Calvert, who writes in 1823, +and frequently mentions that the customs he describes were rapidly dying +out. Under the heading of "Witch Hags who have dwelt hereabouts" he +writes-- + +"They be so great in number that mayhap it will shew the more wisdom, if +mention be made only of those who in their day wrought some wondrous deed +or whose word cast fear upon all." + +From this list I have picked out those that belong to the neighbourhood of +Pickering, and by the letters placed after each name one can discover in +the key given below the special arts practised by each "hag." + + +"Nancy Nares o' Pickering" [T V Z W Y]. +"Nanny Pearson o' Goathland" [X]. +"Nan Skaife o' Spaunton Moor," called also Mary or Jenny. +"Aud Mother Migg o' Cropton" [Z]. + (Her real name was Sabina Moss). +"Sally Craggs o' Allerston" [V Z]. +"Dina Sugget o' Levisham" [W Z]. +"Hester Mudd o' Rosedale" [T V]. +"And Emma Todd o' Ebberston [Y]. + +KEY TO LETTERS AGAINST THE WITCHE'S NAMES. + +T Did also use the evil eye. +U Could turn thersels into a hare. +V Could turn thersels into a cat. +W Had a familiar. +X Could cripple a quickening bairn. +Y Well up in all matters of the black art. +Z Did use ye crystal. + + +"All these," says Calvert, "were at one time of great note and did in +their day work great deed and cast many an evil spell and charm and were +held in great fear by great many good and peaceful folk. It be not for me +to here put an argument in the favour of what do now be doubted and +scorned by some. I will but say that I have seen and know that which hath +been wrought by these hags o' the broom and of their power which they held +at their beck and wink the which is not to be set on one side at the flip +and flout of our young masters and misses, fresh from some teaching drove +into their brain pans by some idiotick and skeptick French teacher. I +therefore say no more on this matter." + +Nancy Skaife of Spaunton Moor had a wonderful receipt for making a magic +cube, and as she was a famous witch of her time and was reputed to possess +most remarkable powers of foretelling events to come, it will be +interesting to learn the ingredients of her magic cubes. + +[Illustration: Two ways of marking Magic Cubes. (_From Calvert's MS. Book +of Folklore_.)] + +"Get you of the skull the bone part of a gibbetted man so much as one +ounce which you will dry and grind to a powder until when searced it be as +fine as wheatenmeal, this you will put away securely sealed in a glass +vial for seven years. You will then about the coming of the end of that +time (for your cube must be made on the eve of the day come seven years of +his gibbetting) get you together these several matters, all well dried and +powdered and finely searced so much as three barley corns weight of each + +Bullock blood. +Moudy [mole] blood. +Great Flitter mouse blood. +Wild Dove blood. +Hag-worm head. +Toade heart. +Crab eyes. +Graveyard moss and worms. + +These being all gotten together on the eve of that day make a stiff dough +of wheaten meal to the which you will add all the other powders working +them to a stiff mass and into cubes of one inch square, to be pressed to a +hollow, then they are to be set away to dry in a warm place for seven +months to the day when with a sharp screever you shall deeply screeve the +like of these upon each side, but be you mindful to screeve in the order +as here ordered always turning the cube over and towards the left hand, +the fifth side by turning the cube towards you, the sixth from you and +thus you make your magic cube." + +"The proper way to draw the virtue from and read a forecast with such +cubes," says Calvert, "as yet I know not, but I learn that one Jane +Craggs, a mantu maker of Helmsley, not only owns a cube but does at times +play the craft for the entertainment of her lady visitors who wish their +fortunes casting. I learn from Betty [Ellis] that these cubes were tossed +upon the table and then used by the consultation of a book like unto that +of the witche's garter but this book Betty kens nothing of its +whereabouts. She aims one of her grandchilder must have gone off with it." + +In the chapter devoted to Tudor times I have given an Elizabethan cure for +an "ill caste" by a witch, but Calvert also tells us of a method for +removing the spell from a "witch-held" house. "Of one thing I hear," he +says, "which be minded unto this present day the which be that a bunch of +yarrow gathered from off a grave and be cast within a sheet that hath +covered the dead and this be setten fire to and cast within the door of +any house thought to be witch held or having gotten upon it a spell of +ill-luck, it shall be at once cleansed from whatsoever ill there be come +again it as I hear even fevers and the like are on the instant driven +forth. And this," he quaintly adds, "be worth while of a trial." + +Of the awesome sights to be seen at night time Calvert gives many details. + +"There be over anenst Cropton towards Westwood seen now and again at times +wide asunder a man rushing fra those happening to cross his road with +flaming mouth and having empty eye sockets, a truly terrible apparition +for to come across of a sudden. + +"At Bog Hall at times there is seen a plain specter of a man in bright +armour who doth show himself thus apparrelled both on the landing and in a +certain room. + +"At that point where the Hodge and Dove mix their waters there is to be +seen on Hallow Een a lovely maiden robed in white and having long golden +hair down about her waist there standing with her bare arm thrown about +her companion's neck which is a most lovely white doe, but she allowed +none to come near to her. + +"To the west of Brown Howe and standing by a boulder there be seen of a +summer's eve a maiden there seated a-combing out her jet black tresses so +as to hide her bare breast and shoulders, she looking to be much shamed to +there do her toilet. + +"And at the high end of Carlton anenst Helmsley there be seen at times a +lovely maiden much afrighted galopping for very life oft casting her een +behind her." + +[Illustration: A SCENE IN NEWTON DALE WHEN THE COACH RAILWAY BETWEEN +PICKERING AND WHITBY WAS IN USE IN 1836. (_From Belcher's book on the +Pickering and Whitby Railway, 1836_.)] + +Concerning the existence of this lovely maiden we have indisputable +evidence given us, for Calvert says that in the year 1762 "Jim Shepherd o' +Reskelf seed the maiden galloping." + +Then there was the figure of "Sarkless Kitty"; but this spectre, we are +told, "having been public laid will now be seen never again and has the +very mention of her name be now a thing forbid by all it must soon come to +pass that the memory of this lewd hussey will be entire forgot and it of a +truth be better so." + +But this only rouses one's curiosity, for the spectre must have been +surpassingly terrible to require the suppression of its very name. + +It was in August in the year 1807 or 1809 (the manuscript is too much +soiled to be sure of the last figure) that either the Vicar of Lastingham +or his curate-in-charge publicly laid this spirit, which had for many +years haunted the wath or ford crossing the river Dove where it runs at no +great distance from Grouse Hall. + +The ceremony was performed at the request of the whole countryside for +there was a widespread outcry over the last victim. He was a farmer's son +who, having spent the evening with his betrothed, was riding homewards +somewhat late, but he never reached his house. On the next day his cob was +found quietly grazing near the dead body of its master lying near the +ford. There were no signs of a struggle having taken place, there were no +wounds or marks upon the body, and his watch and money had not been +touched, so every one concluded that he had seen Sarkless Kitty. + +In the year 1770 the ford "had come to be of such ill repute that men +feared to cross after dark and women refused to be taken that way," +although as far as is known it was only men who came to harm from seeing +Sarkless Kitty. The apparition was that of an exceedingly lovely girl who +appeared "as a nude figure standing upon the opposite bank to that of the +approaching wayfarer." Her beauty was so remarkable that those who had the +ill-luck to come across the spectre could not refrain from gazing at it, +and all who did so were believed to have died either at the same moment or +soon afterwards. + +Calvert, however, tells us that one Roland Burdon, who possessed a "Holy +Seal," came face to face with Sarkless Kitty, but fortified by its virtues +he survived the vision; then he adds: "This same Roland did slay in single +combat the great worm or Dragon which at one time did infest Beck Hole to +the loss of many young maidens the which it did at sundry times devour. He +slew it after a fierce battle lasting over half a day throw the great +power of the Holy Seal being about his person. This worm did also infest +Sneaton Moor." + +If we are to believe anything at all of this prodigious story we must +place it among those which have been handed down from the time of the +Danes and have become somewhat confused with later superstitions. + +Coming back to the story of the beautiful spectre we find that in 1782 a +certain Thomas Botran wrote down all the information he could find out in +his time concerning the story of Sarkless Kitty, and Mr Blakeborough has +added to it everything else that he has discovered relating to it. + +It seems that there lived near Lastingham towards the close of the +seventeenth century a girl named Kitty Coglan whose beauty was so +remarkable that "folk at divers times come much out of their way in the +pleasant hope of a chance for to look upon the sweetness of her face." She +was, however, extremely vain, and her mother seems to have heard stories +of her bad conduct, for she began to worry herself over her daughter's +behaviour. Having had a curious dream she asked Takky Burton, the wise man +of Lastingham, to tell her what it meant. He told her that the wonderful +gem of her dream was her daughter Kitty, who like the gem had blemishes +beneath the surface. Soon after this Kitty married the only son of a small +farmer, but after they had lived together about four months he +disappeared, and then Kitty seems to have gone from bad to worse. How long +after this it was that the tragedy occurred is not known, but one day +Kitty's naked dead body was found by the wath that her spirit afterwards +haunted. + +Two other stories that were at one time well known in the neighbourhood of +Pickering must be mentioned. One feature of these old time legends is very +noticeable, that is, how each ends with a moral usually of virtue +overcoming vice. This was probably in some instances a new touch of colour +given to the stories during the time when a religious wave swept over the +dales. + +"The White Cow of Wardle Rigg" is a good example of an old time legend, +that owing to a natural process of alteration became gradually fitted to +the beliefs and superstitions of each age in which it was told. How the +story came to be localised is not known, but in its last phase it had +reached this form. + +Once an old couple lived near to Wardle Rigg, and bad seasons and other +misfortunes had brought the wolf very near to their door. One night there +passed by the humble cottage a little old lady driving along a thin and +hungry looking white cow, she craved a crust and a drink of water for +herself and shelter for the poor beast, this was readily granted by the +old couple, they gave the old lady the easy-chair by the fire, and gave +her of the best from their poor larder. She learnt from them how poor they +were, and sorrowed with them. + +In the middle of the night she called to them, as she stole silently out +of the house, that for their kindness she left them all the worldly +possessions she had, namely her white cow. This they were in no wise +grateful for, because they could scarcely afford to feed it and it was too +poor to sell or to hope to draw a drop of milk from. + +But in the morning what was their surprise to find not a poor three parts +starved cow, but a plump well fed animal, and with a bag full of milk, it +indeed gave more milk than any cow they had ever known or heard of, their +hay had also during the night grown to be quite a huge stack. + +It was soon found that their butter was the best in all the dales, and was +sought after far and wide, so that the old people were gradually filling +their stocking with money. Added to this it was presently discovered that +all who drank of the white cow's milk were cured, almost instantly, of a +dreadful plague, which in the dales at that time was sending many young +folk to an early grave. The fame of this wonderful cow soon spread. The +old couple had given the milk to all those who fell ill of the plague, and +people came to them from far off places. + +It was then that their landlord determined by wicked arts to gain +possession of this wonderful white cow, and sell the milk at a great +price. His own child, his youngest daughter, falling ill of the plague +determined him to carry out his evil design, and it was with sorrow and +tears that the old folk watched their landlord lead their cow away. + +When half way over the moor he was met by an old dame, "Where drivest thou +my cow?" she demanded. Getting but a surly reply, and a threat to drive +over her, she cried, "Let me teach thee how to milk my cow." So saying she +seized hold of the cow's udder, crying out, "There's death in thee, +there's death in thee," and then ran away. The landlord on reaching home +was taking a cupful of the magic milk to his daughter, but setting it down +for a moment a cat unseen commenced to lap from the cup and died +instantly. The landlord then saw that in his greed he had outwitted +himself. The good dame was brought to milk it under a promise of +restoration, and all ended well. + +The other story is known as "The Legend of Elphi." Elphi the Farndale +dwarf was doubtless at one time the central figure of many a fireside +story and Elphi's mother was almost equally famous. The most tragic story +in which they both play their leading parts is that of Golpha the bad +Baron of Lastingham and his wicked wife. The mother helped in hiding some +one Golpha wished to torture. In his rage he seized the mother, and +sentenced her to be burnt upon the moor above Lastingham. + +Elphi to save his mother, called to his aid thousands of dragon-flies, and +bade them carry the news far and wide, and tell the fierce adders, the +ants, the hornets, the wasps and the weasels, to hurry early next day to +the scene of his mother's execution and rescue her. Next morning when the +wicked Golpha, his wife, and their friends gathered about the stake and +taunted the old dame, they were set upon and killed, suffering great +agonies. But Elphi and his mother were also credited with all the power of +those gifted with a full knowledge of white magic, and their lives seem to +have been spent in succouring the weak. Mr Blakeborough tells me that the +remembrance of these two is now practically forgotten, for after most +careful enquiry during the last two years throughout the greater part of +Farndale, only one individual has been met with who remembered hearing of +this once widely known dwarf. + +The hob-men who were to be found in various spots in Yorkshire were fairly +numerous around Pickering. There seem to have been two types, the kindly +ones, such as the hob of Hob Hole in Runswick Bay who used to cure +children of whooping-cough, and also the malicious ones. Calvert gives a +long list of hobs but does not give any idea of their disposition. + +Lealholm Hob. +Hob o' Trush. +T'Hob o' Hobgarth, +Cross Hob o' Lastingham. +Farndale Hob o' High Farndale. +Some hold Elphi to have been a hob of Low Farndale. +T'Hob of Stockdale. +Scugdale Hob. +Hodge Hob o' Bransdale. +Woot Howe Hob. +T'Hob o' Brackken Howe. +T'Hob o' Stummer Howe. +T'Hob o' Tarn Hole. +Hob o' Ankness. +Dale Town Hob o' Hawnby. +T'Hob o' Orterley. +Crookelby Hob. +Hob o' Hasty Bank. +T'Hob o' Chop Gate. +Blea Hob. +T'Hob o' Broca. +T'Hob o' Rye Rigg. +Goathland Hob o' Howl Moor. +T'Hob o' Egton High Moor. + +The Hob of Lastingham was presumably named after the cross above the +village, and not on account of his disposition. + +Elphi we have seen had an excellent reputation and some eulogistic verses +on him, written in a "cook book" and signed J.L., 1699, give further +evidence of his good character. + +Elphi bandy legs, Elphi little chap, +Bent an wide apart, Thoff he war so small +Neea yan i, this deeal [dale], War big wi deeds o' kindness, +Awns a kinder heart. Drink tiv him yan an all. +Elphi great heead Him at fails ti drain dry, +Greatest ivver seen. Be it mug or glass +Neea yan i' this deeal Binnot woth a pescod +Awns a breeter een. Nor a buss fra onny lass. + +About the middle of the eighteenth century the people of Cropton were +sadly troubled by "a company of evil water elves having their abode in a +certain deep spring at the high end of that village," and in order to rid +themselves of the sprites, a most heathen ceremony was conducted at the +spring, "three wenches" taking a prominent part in the proceedings which +are quite unprintable. + +[Illustration: RELICS OF WITCHCRAFT FOUND IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF +PICKERING. + +The little figure shown in the centre is made of pitch, beeswax, bullock's +blood, hog's lard, and fat from a bullock's heart. It was used for casting +spells or people, the pin being stuck in the figure wherever the +"ill-cast" was required to fall. The magic cube and ring are made of +similar ingredients to the figure. The sigils or charms are made of lead. +] + +Belief in the power of the witches and wise men was universal, and youths +and maidens applied to the nearest witch in all their love affairs. The +magic cube, the witches' garter, leaden charms known as sigils, and the +crystal were constantly in use to secure luck, to ward off evil and to +read the future. + +One of the witches was believed to have fallen out with the Devil for, +says Calvert, "John Blades, ironmonger of Kirby Moorside, tells me he well +minds hearing of a despert fierce fight which on a time did happen between +ye Devil and an old witch over their dues, over anenst Yaud Wath (ford) +and whilst they did so fight, one by stealth did slip himself over and in +that wise did for ever break her spell." + +I am able to give an illustration of one of the figures made by a witch of +these parts for causing some bodily injury to happen to her client's +enemy. The custom was a common one in the circles of witchcraft. A youth +having a rival for the hand of some attractive maiden and wishing him +every imaginary evil he would apply to "Aud Mother Migg" or one of the +other hags of the neighbourhood and explaining his position the witch +would prepare a small figure of the rival. The ingredients would be of the +same class as the magic cube already fully described (generally pitch, +beeswax, hog's lard, bullock's blood, and fat from a bullock's heart), and +in order to cause his rival to lose an eye, or to go lame, or deaf, or to +have any particular complaint in any particular part of his body the +jealous lover had merely to stick a pin in that portion of the little +brown figure. The ceremony was elaborate, especially in regard to the +disposal of that part of the mixture not used to make the figure, for in +every case the cunning old women worked on the imaginations of their +dupes. There can be no doubt that the morals of the country folk during +the eighteenth century were at an exceedingly low ebb. The practice of +compelling girls who had misconducted themselves to stand in church for +three Sundays was only given up at Pickering in the first quarter of the +nineteenth century. Calvert describes how the miserable girl was first +required to go before the parson or the squire or anyone of the "quality" +to name the child's father, and "be otherwise questioned, and if it so +happened that the squire was one of the hard-drinking class it was more +than likely that he came well on in his cups. If so it would be more like +than otherwise that he would put the lass and all present to shame by the +coarse ... questions he would ask the poor wench. I have heard shame cried +aloud myself by those who then came together. + +"On the Sunday when the poor lass had to do her first penance it was in +this wise--She had to walk from her home to the church porch with a soiled +white sheet cast over her head to her feet, and there stand from the +ringing of the first bell calling to morning prayer, and as the good folk +did so pass her to ask of them for to pray for her soul and forgiveness of +her great sin and frailty; and thither did she have to stand until the +parson, after the reading of the morning prayer, did go to her and bring +her into the church with the psalm of _miserere mei_ which he shall sing +or say in English. Then shall he put her before all those present, but +apart from them, when he shall publicly call upon her to confess her fault +which, be she a single wench she did say aloud, 'wherefore I ... putting +aside my maiden duty to Almighty God have yielded unto the vile sin of +fornication with ... who is the true father of my child, may Almighty God +forgive me my sin.' But be it a wedded woman then she shall stand +bareheaded and barelegged, and instead of fornication she shall say the +word adultery, she being nobbut covered with a sheet from the shoulders. +At this day (1824) I cannot but say I am glad to say that there be a good +feeling abroad for its abolishment, indeed, there be in many places so +strong a feeling again this way of judging our daughters for a fault of +this kind that they have bidden the clergy to set their faces against any +lass ever being so judged, and though our clergy be in the main but a +despert reckless lot, I hear that mostly they are of the same mind as +those they do hold as their flock. Indeed, at one village not far from +here a father set his back against his lass standing at the church, though +she had been so judged to do, and the whole of thereabouts siding with the +lass it was held by the parson and his fox-chasing, wine-bibbing crew for +to pull in their tongues a piece which they most wisely did, or, for a +truth, they would have found themselves astride of the wrong horse. It is +now time this shameful practice was for ever laid on one side for it be +not for the good of our own daughters that they witness such sights even +in a place called God's house, but it oft be ought but that to our shame +and the greater shame of all who hold its government of it. I could here +give you a good list of curious cases of the which for the most part I did +witness myself of both the hearing and of the standing of both many wed +and single so browten to public shame, but as it would be to no good +purpose I will hold from the putting pen to paper in this matter, letting +what hath been wrote end this matter, for of a truth it is to a better +purpose that both pen, ink, paunce box and paper, can be putten." +Concerning the innumerable customs and superstitions associated with the +dead and dying, Calvert collected a number of interesting facts. "It be +held by many," he writes, "that a dying body cannot quit this life if they +do be lying upon a bed which happen to have pigeon feathers gotten in by +chance. + +"A body cannot get their time over with ease to themselves if there be one +in the room who will not give them up. It be better for all such who +cannot bring themselves to part with those they love to withdraw from the +room so that death may enter and claim his rights. + +"It be held to be a sure sign that an ailing body will die if there be a +downcome of soot. + +"It be also a sure sign that death be awaiting for his own if an ullot +[owlet] do thrice hoot so that the ailing one do hear it and remark +thereon. + +"It be an ill sign if a death glow be seen to settle upon the face of an +ailing one or if such cry out they do see a shroud o' the quilt. + +"If there be a death watch heard, then the ailing one need not longer hold +on to hope, for it be for that time gone from that house and will not +enter again until a corpse be hugged out. + +"It be an ill sign to the dying if a dark winged moth make at the bed +light and fall at it, but it be a good sign should a light winged one come +thrice and go its way unharmed. Even if it do fall at it, it doth say +nothing worse than the ailing one will soon die but that the death shall +be the freeing of a happy soul. + +"An ailing one shall surely die if a dog come and howl thrice under the +window. + +"It be a good sign of peace to a parting soul if there do come near to the +window a white dove. + +"It be the custom as soon as death doth enter the chamber for one present +to immediate rake out the fire, turn the seeing glass to the wall and on +the instant stop the clock, but this stopping of the clock in the +death-room be not at all places a common practise. After the boddy hath +been attended to in all its proper officies it be a good sign if the eyes +do shut of themselves, if not then but a few years sen it was held to be +the work of some evil spirits in some cases owing to a misspent life. In +those days it was the common thing for to get or borrow a pair of leaden +sigs (charms) from some wise dame or good neighbour, the like of those +made by Betty Strother and others wise in such matters. They being magic +made did ward off not only from about the bed but from the room itself all +the deamons of every sort and kind and did hold the een fast shutten so +that neither witch or hellspell could get aback of their power and cungel +them open again. + +"Many there be who yet do grace their dead with a salt platter putten upon +the breast of the corpse, and all those friends who do view the dead and +it be the common custom for all so to do, do first touch the corpse on the +face or hands and then lay their own hands upon the platter first having +full and free forgiven the dead any fault or ill-feeling they had in life +held as a grudge again the dead. + +"In some spots it is a common thing for the wake wail to be sung over the +boddy each night it be in the house as also for a rushlight to be kept +alight from sunset to sunrise and for the death watchers for to tend the +dead throw the night owther in the same room or in one so held that those +watching could see the corpse, and they due at this day deggle the quilt +and floor with rue water. + +"It be always most carefull seen to that no four-footed thing come nigh +hand, for it would be a despert ill thing if such by any mishap did run +just across or loup over the corpse. + +"There be always a great arval feast after the funeral to which all +friends are bidden." + +The remedies of this period were not greatly superior to those of the +seventeenth century if one may judge from the gruesome concoction the +details of which were given to Calvert by William Ness of Kirby Moorside. + +"For the certain cure of a cancer take a pound of brown honey when the +bees be sad from a death in ye house, which you shall take from the hive +just turned of midnight at the full of the moon. This you shall set by for +seven days when on that day you shall add to it the following all being +ready prepared afore. One ounce of powdered crabs clawes well searced, +seven oyster shells well burnt in a covered stone or hard clay pot, using +only the white part thereof. One dozen snails and shells dried while they +do powder with gently rubbing and the powder of dried earth worms from the +churchyard when the moon be on the increase but overcast, which you will +gather by lanthorn which you must be sure not to let go out while you be +yet within the gate or there virtue be gone from them. All these make into +a fine powder and well searce, this been ready melt the honey till it +simmer then add three ounces each of brown wax, rossin, and grease of a +fat pigg, and when all be come at the boil divide your powders to seven +heaps and add one at a time. Do not shake your paper on which the powder +hath been put but fold it carefully and hurry it at some grave as there be +among what be left some dust of ye wormes which have fed upon ye dead. So +boil it till all be well mixed and then let cool and if it be too stiff +add swine grease till it work easy. When you would use it warm a little in +a silver spoon and annoint the sore holding a hot iron over till it be +nearly all soaked in, then sprinkle but a little finely doubled searced +powder of viper where there be matter. This hath been tried many times and +on different folk in these dales and hath done wonderous cures when all +else failed them. And these words wrate on lambs skin with lambs blood and +hung above the ill one's head hath wrought a most magick wonders of +healing and some I do find ready to take oath on it. I leave it so." + +But Pickering was not very much behind the rest of England when we +discover that in the second edition of "A collection of above 300 receipts +in Cookery, Physick and Surgery" published in 1719, and printed and sold +in London is given the following:-- + +"A _very good_ snail-water _for a_ consumption. Take half a peck of +Shell-snails, wipe them and bruise them Shells and all in a Mortar; put to +them a gallon of New Milk; as also Balm, Mint, Carduus, unset Hyssop, and +Burrage, of each one handful; Raisons of the Sun stoned, Figs, and Dates, +of each a quarter of a pound; two large Nutmegs: Slice all these, and put +them to the Milk, and distil it with a quick fire in a cold Still; this +will yield near four Wine-quarts of Water very good; you must put two +ounces of White Sugar-candy into each Bottle, and let the Water drop on it; +stir the Herbs sometimes while it distils, and keep it cover'd on the +Head with wet Cloths. Take five spoonfuls at a time, first and last, and +at Four in the Afternoon." + +It was only about eighty years ago that the old custom of racing for the +bride's garter on wedding days was given up. In the early years of last +century an improvement in public morals showed itself in a frequently +expressed opinion that the custom was immodest, and gradually the practice +was dropped the bride merely handing a ribbon to the winner of the race. + +[Illustration: A LOVE GARTER, DATED 1749. + +The spaces were for the initials of the wearer of the garter and her +betrothed. These garters were raced for on wedding days, the winner of the +race being allowed to take the bride's garter. +] + +Immediately after the wedding-ring had been put on, the youths of the +company would race from the church porch to the bride's house, and the +first who arrived claimed the right of removing the garter from her left +leg, the bride raising her skirts to allow him to do so. He would +afterwards tie it round his own sweetheart's leg as a love charm against +unfaithfulness. The bridegroom never took part in the race, but anyone +else could enter, runners often coming from distant villages to take part. + +At the time of the outcry against the custom it is interesting to find +one, William Denis of Pickering, writing to a friend and stating that +"this racing for the bride's garter and the taking of the same from the +leg of the bride, is one of the properest public functions we have so far +as modesty is concerned." + +Elaborately worked garters were worn "by any lass who would be happy in +her love." The one illustrated here is drawn from a sketch given by +Calvert. It bears the date 1749 and the two spaces were for the initials +of the lovers. + +A Pickering man named Tom Reid who was living in 1800 but was an old man +then, was in his day a noted runner and won many races. He must have owned +several of these garters which are now so difficult to find. It is said +that one of the vicars of Pickering did much to put an end to the belief +in the powers of the garters as charms, collecting them whenever he had an +opportunity. He also put his foot down on every form of superstition, +forbidding the old folk to tell their stories. + +The village maidens considered it a most binding vow to remain true to +their sweethearts if they washed their garters in St Cedd's Well at +Lastingham on the eve of St Agnes. Other practices performed at the same +spot are, like the spectre of Sarkless Kitty, better forgotten. + +There can be little doubt that the death blow to this mass of ignorant +superstition came with the religious revival brought about by the +Methodists. Despite the hostile reception they had in many places the +example of their Christian behaviour made itself felt, and as the years +went by parents became sufficiently ashamed of their old beliefs to give +up telling them to their children. This change took place between about +1800 and 1840, but the influences that lay behind it date from the days of +John Wesley. + +The sports common in the early part of last century include:-- + +Fox-hunting. +Badger-drawing. +Duck hunting with dogs and sometimes duck and owl diving. +Cock-fighting. +Cock-throwing at Eastertide. +Bull baiting and sometimes ass baiting. +Squirrel-hunting. +Rat-worrying. + +"To make it quite sure to you howe greatly cocking was in voge seventy +years agone," says Calvert, "I have heard my own grandfather tell how he +and others did match their cocks and fight em for secret sake in the crypt +of Lastingham Church." + +The entrance to the crypt was not at that time in the centre of the nave, +and the fact that it could be reached from the north side without going +into the church would make the desecration seem a far less scandalous +proceeding than it sounds. + +It has also been supposed that Mr Carter, curate-in-charge of Lastingham +at a time prior to 1806, allowed his wife to keep a public-house in the +crypt. There is only one authentic account[1] of this parson-publican as +far as I have been able to discover and although it makes no mention of +the crypt it states that Mr Carter used to take _down_ his violin to play +the people a few tunes. If this did not indicate the crypt it may have +meant that he took his violin down from the vicarage to the inn, which may +have been the "Blacksmith's Arms" that adjoins the churchyard on the east +side. The parlour is certainly a much more cheerful place for refreshment +than the dark and chilly crypt, and it is interesting to find that the +benches in the inn are composed of panelling which I am told was formerly +in the church. + +[Footnote 1: Anonymous booklet entitled "Anecdotes and Manners of a few +Ancient and Modern oddities, etc." Published at York, 1806.] + +As the whole idea of the parson's wife conducting a public-house is +somewhat preposterous, although we have already been told that the clergy +at that time were on the whole "a despert reckless lot," it is interesting +to read the original account. "The Rev. Mr Carter, when curate of +Lastingham," it says, "had a very large family, with only a small income +to support them, and therefore often had recourse to many innocent +alternatives to augment it; and as the best of men have their enemies--too +often more than the worst, he was represented to the Archdeacon by an +invidious neighbour, as a very disorderly character, particularly by +keeping a public-house, with the consequences resulting from it. The +Archdeacon was a very humane, worthy, good man who had imbibed the +principles, not only of a parson, but of a Divine, and therefore treated +such calumniating insinuations against his subordinate brethren, with that +contempt which would ultimately accrue to the satisfaction and advantage +to such as listen to a set of sycophantic tattlers. ...therefore at the +ensuing visitation, when the business of the day was over, he in a very +delicate and candid manner, interrogated Mr C. as to his means of +supporting so numerous a family ... which was answered as related to me by +one well acquainted with the parties, in nearly the following words:-- + +"'I have a wife and thirteen children, and with a stipend of L20 per +annum, increased only by a few trifling surplice fees, I will not impose +upon your understanding by attempting to advance any argument to show the +impossibility of us all being supported from my church preferment: But I +am fortunate enough to live in a neighbourhood where there are many +rivulets which abound with fish, and being particularly partial to +angling, I am frequently so successful as to catch more than my family can +consume while good, of which I make presents to the neighbouring gentry, +all of whom are so generously grateful as to requite me with something +else of seldom less value than two or threefold.--This is not all: my wife +keeps a Public-House, and as my parish is so wide that some of my +parishioners have to come from ten to fifteen miles to church, you will +readily allow that some refreshment before they return must occasionally +be necessary, and where can they have it more properly than where their +journey is half performed? Now, sir, from your general knowledge of the +world, I make no doubt but you are well assured that the most general +topicks, in conversation at Public-Houses, are Politics and Religion, with +which, God knows, ninety-nine out of one hundred of those who participate +in the general clamour are totally unacquainted; and that perpetually +ringing in the ears of a Pastor, who has the welfare and happiness of his +flock at heart, must be no small mortification. To divert their attention +from those foibles over their cups, I take down my violin and play them a +few tunes, which gives me an opportunity of seeing that they get no more +liquor than necessary for refreshment; and if the young people propose a +dance I seldom answer in the negative; nevertheless when I announce it +time for their return they are ever ready to obey my commands, and +generally with the donation of sixpence, they shake hands with my +children, and bid God bless them.--Thus my parishioners derive a triple +advantage, being instructed, fed and amused at the same time: moreover, +this method of spending their Sundays being so congenial with their +inclinations, that they are imperceptibly led along the path of piety and +morality ...'" with many other arguments Mr Carter supported his case so +that "the Archdeacon very candidly acknowledged the propriety of Mr C.'s +arguments in defence of his conduct, and complimented him on his +discernment in using the most convenient vehicle for instruction." + +Concerning a case of bear-baiting we have a most detailed account which +Calvert heads with "The Baiting of a Bear at Pickering, Tuesday, Aug. +15th, 1809, which I did myself witness." Then he begins: "A week Wednesday +senight there did with drum and pan pipes parade publickly the streets of +this town two mountebanks leading by a chain a monster brown bruin which, +as well as it being a good dancer and handing of its pole, its master did +aclaim it to be the master of any dog of no odds what be its breed and +which they would match for a crown to come off conqueror if given fair +play and a fifteen-foot chain. Now it happening that in these parts there +be living several sporting men some of which be owners of bull dogs of +good courage and nowther dog nor master ever shirking a fight more than +one dog was entered for to test its skill." + +A day was fixed for the contests which were to take place in the +castleyard, and soon the news was so handed from mouth to mouth that the +demand for seats in the rough wooden stand, erected for those who chose to +pay, was so great that another stand was built and the first one was +enlarged. + +On the appointed day a huge concourse including "farmers, butchers, +hucksters, badgers, cadgers, horse-jobbers, drovers, loafers and scamps +and raggels of all kinds" assembled in the castleyard. + +There were "not a few young sparks and bespurred and beruffled bucks come +thither from as far as Hull" who had brought with them certain overdressed +women. + +The first dog matched against the bear was owned by one Castle Jack "a +worthless waistrel." The bear received the rush of the dog standing on his +hind legs and gripped him in his forepaws, biting and crushing him to +death. After this no one seemed inclined to let their dogs go to such +certain death and the assemblage gradually became disorderly and many +quarrels and fights took place before the crowd finally dispersed. + +Calvert says, "and so when I did withdraw myself, the whole crowd seemed +to be owther cursing, fighting, or loudly proffering for to fight any one. +As I took my steps back to my uncle I could not help but consider that +those of the Methodist holding, who did as we went towards the green [at +the west end of the market-place] beg and pray of us to be mindfull of our +sinfull pleasures and of the wroth to come and who did pray us to then +turn from our sinfull course, and though we who did pass them did so with +scoffs and ... gibes in some cases, yet I could not help but in my heart +consider that they were fully in the right on't." + +There is a remarkable story recorded of the fatal result of hunting a +black-brushed fox found at Sinnington. It was on Thursday, January 13th, +1803, that "a black-brush'd fox was setten up at the high side of +Sinnington. Some there were who left the hounds the instant they seed the +colour of its brush for they minded that one who lived in those parts over +a hundred years agone and who was held to be wise in dark things had owned +a black-brushed reynard as a companion and which being on the moor on a +time when hounds came that way they gave chace and presently killed, w^ch +did so vex the wise dame that she was heard to cast a curse upon all those +who should ever after give chace to one of its offspring and it hath being +noted that by times when there be a black brush and it do be hunted that +it is never catched and there be always some ill fall upon him who does +first clap eyes on't and set the hounds on its scent. On this very day did +some then present give chace and followed for ower three good hours while +baith men, horses and hounds were all dead beat and just when they did aim +for to claim its brush one Holliday fell from his horse and brake his +neck, and he it was who had first set een on't. They were then close upon +Chop Yatt ower forty mile by the course they had run. It was then brought +to mind that one Blades a score years afore had been suddenly called to +account on the same venture. + +"One verse of an old hunting ditty which tells a tale of four bold riders +who came by their death ower a cragg afollowing one of this same breed +many years agone now, it tells in this wise:-- + +"Draw rein and think, bold hunter halt, +Sly Reynard let go free, +To ride ahint yon full black brush +Means death to you or me. +No luck can come so get you home +And there tie up your steed, +Yon black brush is ye devil wand +It scents ye grave to feed." + +The Sinnington hounds have long been famous in the North Riding, and their +history goes back to the earliest days of fox-hunting in these parts. The +Bilsdale being the only pack that claims an earlier origin. William +Marshall, the agricultural writer (mentioned a few pages further on), +hunted with the Sinnington pack for many years, and Jack Parker, huntsman +of last century, was a very notable character whose witty anecdotes are +still remembered. The silver-mounted horn illustrated here bearing the +inscription "Sinnington Hunt 1750" is preserved at Pickering. Until about +twenty-five years ago the pack was "trencher fed," the hounds being +scattered about in twos and threes at the various farms and houses in the +neighbourhood. The kennels are now at Kirby Moorside. + +[Illustration: THE OLD HORN OF THE SINNINGTON HUNT. It is dated 1750 on +one of the silver bands.] A curious "Dandy Horse" race was held at +Pickering on June 22, 1813. Calvert describing it in his quaint way says: +"On this day, Tuesday, June 22, 1813, Robert Kitching, Hungate, Pickering +and S. Hutchinson of Helmsley, did bring off the wager they had laid of +ten guineas apiece for their men to race from Pickering to Helmsley +astride each of his master's dandy horse, which is a machine having two +wheels in a line afixed with forks to a support beam upon which there +resteth a saddle so high from the ground that the rider hath a grip on the +ground, for it be by the pressure of the foot upon the ground that this +new horse is shoved along, there be also a handle to hold by with a soft +pad, this is for to rest the chest against as to gain a greater grip with +the feet, the two Gladiators started fair away at ten of the clock, there +been then come together from all parts upwards it was held of two thousand +people, many on horseback arriving for to see this novel race from start +to finish." However, when the opponents had covered about half the +distance, one of them overstrained himself and gave up and the other +admitted that "he was ommaist at the far end" so that the crowd assembled +at Helmsley to see the finish waited in vain for the riders. + +Although Pickering is several miles from the sea some of the more +important people of the town were for many years closely interested in the +whaling industry. It was about the year 1775, that Mr Nicholas Piper and +some of his friends made a bold financial venture in the purchase of the +_Henrietta_ which became in time one of the most successful Greenland +whalers sailing from the port of Whitby. Some of the ship's logs and also +an account book are preserved by Mr Loy at Keld Head Hall, and from them I +have been able to obtain some interesting facts. For a year or two the +ship yielded no profits, but in 1777 there was a sum of L640 to be divided +between the partners in the enterprise. Gradually the profits increased +until they produced an annual total of about L2000. + +Some of the entries in the account book are curious. These are some of the +items in the preliminary expenses:-- + +"Jowsey's Bill for harpoon stocks and seal clubs, L3 2 8 +To ye master to get hands in Shetland, 21 0 0 +To ye sailors to drink as customary ye first + voyage, 1 1 0 +A crimp shipping seamen, 0 6 0 + +Then in 1776 comes:-- + +"By ye crimp's bill Sept. ye 20th, 225 0 6 + +Each voyage meant an advantage to Pickering, for it supplied the salt pork +for the sailors. These are some of the entries:-- + +"1776. Paid for piggs at Pickering, L65 5 0 + 1777. Do. do. 59 19 6 + Tom Dobson for carriage of do., 1 11 0 + Window broke by firing a signal gun for + sailing, 0 4 6 +1778. Cheeses at Pickering, L 2 10 9 + Paid for Piggs at Pickering, 55 14 5 + Tom Dobson for carriage of piggs, 1 3 0 +1779. James Gray's lodging ashore time of ye smallpox, 0 15 0 + Paid for piggs at Pickering, 51 2 0 + Paid at Saltergate for boys eating, etc., 0 4 6 + +[Illustration: A Typical Cottage of the Oldest Type. + +This is at Hutton Buscel. The small window lighting the ingle-nook is +invariably in this position in the oldest cottages, and the recess and the +carved oak cupboard door are usually to be found in the wall as in the +illustration. In this, as in most of the cottages, a kitchen range has +taken the place of the open hearth. +] + +One imagines that these boys were in charge of the pigs. But they must +have been pork by that time for the next entry is:-- + +"To Tom Dobson for carriage of pork, L1 16 0 + +and another entry mentions that it was packed in barrels at Pickering. + +"1780. Grundall Saltergate for lads eating, etc., L0 8 6 + +Then comes a gap of about eight years, several pages having been torn out. + +"1789. Robt. Dobson for carriage of pork, L1 4 0 + 1792. Lads at Saltergate as they came home, 0 2 6 + 1793. A man coming to Pickering to bring news of + ship--be ashore, 0 8 0 + +This apparently means that a man was sent to Pickering to tell the owners +that the _Henrietta_ had arrived. + +"1799. Piggs at Pickering, L125 9 8 + 1801. Do., 181 8 8 + 1802. Do., 208 4 6 + 1815. Old Tom's expenses, turnpikes at Pickering, 0 6 6 + +In 1785 when the _Henrietta_ made her annual voyage to the northern seas +she had on board William Scoresby who in five years' time was to become +captain of the vessel. He was the son of a small farmer at Cropton and was +born on the 3rd of May 1760. His parents wished him to keep to +agricultural pursuits and after a very brief education at the village +school he commenced this arduous form of labour at the age of nine. He +kept to this work until he was twenty when he could no longer resist his +longings for a broader sphere of work. To obtain this he went to Whitby +and apprenticed himself to a ship-owner. He acquired a thorough knowledge +of seamanship with great rapidity and in his second year of service at sea +detected an error in the reckoning which would otherwise have caused the +loss of the ship. For this, his only reward was the ill-will of the mate +whose mistake he had exposed. He therefore joined the _Speedwell_ an +ordnance ship carrying stores to Gibraltar but falling in with the Spanish +fleet the _Speedwell_ was captured. Her men having been taken to Cadiz +they were sent inland to San Lucar de Mayor. From that place, through +being somewhat carelessly guarded, Scoresby and one of his companions were +successful in making their escape. They reached England after various +adventures and Scoresby having endured many hardships at sea settled down +again to farm work at Cropton for two years. Although having only the very +smallest means he was married at this time to Lady Mary Smith (she was +born on Lady-day), the eldest daughter of Mr John Smith, a landed +proprietor in a small way and a native of Cropton. + +Having reached the position of skipper of the famous _Henrietta_, in 1790, +when only thirty years of age, Scoresby was saved from the financial +extremes to which he was likely to have been reduced, owing to his small +income and the increasing expenses of his family. Having successfully +commanded the _Henrietta_ for seven seasons and having augmented in this +way the incomes of the half-dozen Pickeronians interested in the success +of the ship, Captain Scoresby's reputation stood high in the Greenland +trade. In 1798 he accepted the more advantageous offers of a London firm +to command the _Dundee_. It was on his third voyage in that ship that, +having called at Whitby as usual to say good-bye to his wife and children, +Scoresby allowed his third child, William, to go on board the ship as she +lay in the roads. When the time came for him to go ashore he was nowhere +to be found, for having taken into his head the idea of going the voyage +with his father the little fellow had hidden himself. The shouts for +"Master William," however, brought him to the top of the companion at the +last moment, but his father, understanding the boy's great desire to stay +in the ship, decided to take him. + +The voyage was notable on account of a very exciting incident on meeting +with a foreign privateer. The _Dundee_ was armed with twelve guns and was +manned by a crew of between fifty and sixty men, so that if brought to +extremities the ship could have made a good defence. Scoresby, however, +had every reason for avoiding a conflict, so keeping his ship in an +apparently defenceless state, with all the ports closed, he sent the men +to their quarters to prepare the guns for immediate action. No sign of +excitement or commotion was allowed to appear on deck so that when the +privateer came within shouting distance Scoresby walking the quarter deck +and the helmsmen steering were the only living beings visible to the +stranger. Suddenly, however, the six gun ports on each side of the +_Dundee_ are raised and a row of untompioned cannon are seen pointing +towards the enemy's broadside. The stratagem, according to the account +given by the younger Scoresby,[1] was such a huge surprise for the enemy +that he suddenly hauled off under full sail and not a shot was fired on +either side. + +[Footnote 1: Scoresby, the Rev. William, D.D., "My Father," p. 108.] + +After this voyage young Scoresby went back to school again until 1803 when +he became an apprentice on board the _Resolution_, a new ship of Whitby, +commanded and partly owned by his father. For several years he made the +Greenland voyage in the _Resolution_ and was chief officer when, in the +year 1806, his father forced the ship through the pack ice, as far north +as 81 deg. 3O'. This was for long the highest point reached by any vessel and +the ship's cargo was completed in thirty-two days with twenty-four whales, +two seals, two walruses, two bears and a narwhal. The elder Scoresby who +was about six feet in height was a man of extraordinary muscular power. +His many successful voyages reveal his first-class qualities as a seaman +and navigator and his good judgment in emergencies seems to have been +almost instinctive. Although he is described[1] as an Arctic navigator, +exploration was only incidental to whale-catching, but his inventions of +the ice-drill and the crow's-nest did much to make Arctic voyages more +feasible. + +[Footnote 1: "Dictionary of National Biography."] + +The versatility of his son William was remarkable, for he may be described +as master mariner, author and divine and even then his varied scientific +knowledge is overlooked. During his latter years he was particularly +interested in magnetism and in 1856 made his last voyage in order to carry +out a series of systematic observations. + +His life, written by his nephew R.E. Scoresby-Jackson, is of great +interest and Cropton may well be proud that it gave Dr Scoresby to the +world. + +The memory of the _Henrietta_ is not likely to be forgotten so easily as +that of the Scoresbys, for gateposts made from whale jaws are common near +the coast of north eastern Yorkshire, and one on the road from Pickering +to Scarborough, between the villages of Hutton Buscel and East Ayton, +bears the name of the famous ship. + +A contemporary of the Scoresbys was John Jackson, R.A. He was the son of a +tailor of Lastingham and was born at that very remote village on the 31st +May 1778. As a boy he showed a predilection for portrait-painting in the +sketches he made of his companions, although his father discouraged his +efforts in that direction, not wishing to lose his boy's services as an +apprentice to the tailoring business. When he was about nineteen he had +the good fortune to be introduced to Lord Mulgrave who brought him to the +notice of the Earl of Carlisle and soon after we find him studying the +great collection of pictures at Castle Howard. + +Jackson's first attempt at a painting in oils was a copy of a portrait by +Sir Joshua Reynolds lent to him by Sir George Beaumont. Lastingham was +unable to supply him with proper materials, but he managed to obtain some +very rough paints and brushes from the village house-painter and glazier, +and with these crude materials made such an admirable copy that Sir George +or Lord Mulgrave or both together advised him to go to London, promising +him L50 a year during the time that he was working as a student. From this +time his progress was rapid. In 1804 he exhibited at the Royal Academy for +the first time, in 1815 he was elected an associate and in 1817 he +received the full honours of the Academy. Although he was a Wesleyan +Methodist, Jackson was broad-minded in his religious opinions, for he made +a copy of Correggio's "Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane" (with the +figures increased to life size) for Lastingham parish church. The picture +is now on the north side of the apse but its original position was above +the communion table and in order to give the picture sufficient space and +light the apse of Transitional Norman date was very roughly treated. +Jackson contributed L50 towards the alterations, but the restoration at a +later date has fortunately wiped out these disfigurements. + +Another boy destined to become a tailor was Francis Nicholson who was born +at Pickering in 1753. His father, who was a weaver, gave young Francis a +good education in Pickering, and wisely abandoning the tailoring idea the +boy was sent to Scarborough for instruction from an artist. After three +years he returned to Pickering and occupied himself in painting portraits +and pictures of horses, dogs and game for local patrons. Then followed a +period of study in London, where Nicholson made great progress and +eventually began to devote himself to water colours, for which in his long +life he was justly famous, well deserving the name generally given to him +as the "Father of water colour painting." + +William Marshall, the agricultural expert and writer to whom we owe the +establishment of the Board of Agriculture was baptised at Sinnington on +28th July 1745. He was in his own words "born a farmer" and used to say +that he could trace his blood through the veins of agriculturists for +upwards of four hundred years. After fourteen years in the West Indies, he +undertook, at the age of twenty-nine, the management of a farm near +Croydon in Surrey. It was there, in 1778, that he wrote his first book. He +showed the manuscript to Dr Johnson who objected to certain passages +sanctioning work on Sundays in harvest time, so Marshall omitted them. His +greatest work was "A General Survey, from personal experience, observation +and enquiry, of the Rural Economy of England." + +The country was divided into six agricultural divisions, the northern one +being represented by Yorkshire in two volumes. In the first of these, the +preface is dated from Pickering, December 21st, 1787, and the second +chapter is devoted to an exceedingly interesting account of the broad +valley to which Marshall gives the title "The Vale of Pickering." When he +died in 1818 he was raising a building at Pickering for a College of +Agriculture on the lines he had laid down in a book published in 1799. + +His proposal for the establishment of a "Board of Agriculture, or more +generally of Rural Affairs" was carried out by Parliament in 1793, and so +valuable were his books considered that in 1803 most of them were +translated into French and published in Paris under the title of "La +Maison rustique anglaise." The inscription on Marshall's monument in the +north aisle of Pickering church which states that "he was indefatigable in +the study of rural economy" and that "he was an excellent mechanic, had a +considerable knowledge of most branches of science, particularly of +philology, botany and chemistry" is not an over statement of his merits. + +[Illustration: The Ingle-Nook in Gallow Hill Farm near Brompton. Where +Wordsworth stayed just at the time of his marriage with Mary Hutchinson.] + +In the year 1800 the little farm at Gallow Hill near Brompton was taken by +one Thomas Hutchinson whose sister Mary kept house for him. She was almost +the same age and had been a schoolfellow of the poet Wordsworth at Penrith +and had kept up her friendship with his family since that time, having +visited them at Racedown and Dove Cottage, while the Wordsworths had +stayed at the Hutchinson's farm at Sockburn-on-Tees. There was nothing +sudden or romantic therefore in the marriage which took place at Brompton +in 1802. Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy went down from London to the +pretty Yorkshire village in September, and stayed at the little farmhouse, +whose parlour windows looked across the Vale of Pickering to the steep +wolds on the southern side. The house, as far as I can discover, has not +been altered in the century which has elapsed, and the cosy ingle-nook in +the room on the right of the entrance remains full of memories of the poet +and his betrothed--his "perfect woman, nobly planned." On the fourth of +October the wedding took place in Brompton Church. The grey old steeple +surrounded and overhung by masses of yellow and brown foliage in the +centre of the picturesque, and in many respects, ideal little village, +must have formed a perfect setting for the marriage of one who was +afterwards to become the Poet Laureate of his country. The register for +the years 1754-1810 contains the following entry:-- + +"_Banns of Marriage_ ... + +William Wordsworth of Grasmere in Westmoreland, Gentleman, _and_ Mary +Hutchinson _of_ Gallow Hill in the Parish of Brompton _were married in +this_ Church _by_ Licence _this_ fourth _Day of_ October _in the year one +thousand_ eight _Hundred and_ two _by me_ John Ellis officiating min^r. + +This marriage was solemnized between us." + +[Illustration: Facsimile of the Signatures in the Register.] + +"In the presence of THOMAS HUTCHINSON. +JOANNA HUTCHINSON. +JOHN HUTCHINSON." + +The same day Wordsworth with his wife and sister drove to Thirsk and two +days afterwards reached Grasmere, where they soon settled down to an +uneventful life at Dove Cottage. Dorothy Wordsworth could not "describe +what she felt," but we are told that she accepted her sister-in-law +without a trace of jealousy. + +There is still preserved in Pickering one of the parchments on which were +enrolled the names of all those who were liable for service in the +militia. It is headed + +"Militia Enrollment 1807-8" + +and begins:-- + +"An enrollment of the names of the several persons who have been chosen by +ballot to serve in the Militia for five years for the west part of the +sub-division of Pickering Lyth in the North Riding of the County of York +and also of the several substitutes who have been produced and approved to +serve for the like term and for such further term as the Militia shall +remain embodied, if within the space of five years His Majesty shall order +the Militia to be drawn out and embodied and are enrolled in the place of +such principals whose names are set opposite thereto in pursuance of an +act of the 47th of King George III., Cap. 71, entitled an act for the +speedily completing the Militia of Great Britain and increasing the same +under certain delimitations and restrictions (14th Aug. 1807)." + +The thirty-six men were taken as follows:-- + + 8 from Middleton. + 5 " Kirby Misperton. +16 " Pickering. + 1 " Ellerburne. + 1 " Levisham. + 3 " Sinnington. + 1 " Thornton. + +Jonathan Goodall, a farmer of Middleton, induced Geo. Thompson of +Pickering, a farmer's servant, 30 years old, to stand for him, paying him +L42. + +Wm. Newton, a farmer of Middleton, had to pay Geo. Allen, a linen draper +of Richmond, L47, 5s. as substitute. + +The smallest amount paid was L20, and the largest sum was L47, 5s. + +Substitutes seem to have been hard to find in the neighbourhood of +Pickering, and those few whose names appear had to be heavily paid. George +Barnfather, a farm servant of Kirby Misperton agreed to serve as a +substitute on payment of L42, and a cartwright of Goathland agreed for the +same sum, while men from Manchester or Leeds were ready to accept half +that amount. + +The extreme reluctance to serve of a certain Ben Wilson, a sweep of +Middleton, is shown in a story told of him by a very old inhabitant of +Pickering whose memory is in no way impaired by her years. She tells us +that this Wilson on hearing of his ill-luck seized a carving-knife and +going to the churchyard put his right hand on a gate-post and fiercely cut +off the two fingers required for firing a rifle. He avoided active service +in this way and often showed his mutilated hand to the countryfolk who may +or may not have admired the deed. + +In 1823 Pickering was kept in touch with Whitby, York and Scarborough by +coaches that ran three times a week. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday a +coach (Royal Mail) left the "Black Swan" in the market place for Whitby at +the painfully early hour of four o'clock in the morning; another Royal +Mail left Pickering for York at half-past three in the afternoon on +Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. The stages were from + +Whitby to Saltergate. +Saltergate to Pickering. +Pickering to Malton. +Malton to Spital Beck. +Spital Beck to York. + +There was also what was called the "Boat Coach" that ran between Pickering +and Scarborough. + +One of the last drivers of these coaches became a guard on the North +Eastern Railway, and he still lives in Pickering at the time of writing. + +The parish chest in the vestry of Pickering Church contains among other +papers a number of apprenticeship deeds of a hundred to a hundred and +fifty years ago, in which the master promises that he will educate the boy +and "bring him up in some honest and lawful calling and in the fear of +God," and in most cases to provide him with a suit of clothes at the +completion of his term, generally at the age of twenty-one years. + +The odd papers registering the arrival of new inhabitants in the district +include one dated 1729, and in them we find a churchwarden possessing such +a distinguished name as Hotham, signing that surname without a capital, +and in 1809 we find an overseer of the poor only able to make his mark +against the seal. + +The largest bell in the church tower is dated 1755 and bears the +inscription, "First I call you to God's word, and at last unto the Lord." +It is said that this bell was cracked owing to the great strength of one +of the ringers, and that the date 1755 is the year of the re-casting. The +flagon is the only piece of the church plate belonging to this period. It +was made in 1805 by Prince of York. + +In the year 1837 the Rev. Joseph Kipling, grandfather of Mr Rudyard +Kipling, was living at Pickering, and on the 6th of July of that year a +son, John, was born. Mr Joseph Kipling was a Wesleyan minister, and his +residence at Pickering was only a temporary one. + +Another Wesleyan who was living at this time was John Castillo, the author +of many quaint poems in the Yorkshire dialect, and an original local +preacher as well. He died in 1845, and his grave is to be seen in the +burial-ground of the Wesleyan Chapel. It bears a verse from "Awd Isaac," +the poem by which he is best known-- + +"Bud noo his eens geean dim i' deeath, +Nera mare a pilgrim here on eeath, +His sowl flits fra' her shell beneeath, + Te reealms o' day, +Whoor carpin care an' pain an' deeath + Are deean away." + +In 1720 a new chapel was built at Pickering for Protestant Dissenters, but +before that time--as early as 1702--Edward Brignall's house was set apart +for divine worship by Dissenters. An Independent Church was formed in +1715, the people probably meeting in private houses for several years. +After this, little is known until 1788, when the Independent Church was +again established, and in the following year a chapel was built, and it +was enlarged in 1814. + +It is an interesting fact that about 1862 the small manual organ in the +Independent church was played by a Mr Clark, who was organist at the +Parish church in the morning and at the chapel in the afternoon and +evening. Before this time the Independents had contented themselves with +violins and a bass viol, and for a time with a clarionette. + +In 1801, the population of Pickering was 1994, and at the last census +before the accession of Queen Victoria it had increased to 2555. + +During the Georgian period Pickering's only external illumination at night +was from that precarious "parish lantern," the moon. The drainage of the +town was crude and far too obvious, and in all the departments for the +supply of daily necessities, the individualistic system of wells, +oil-lamps or candles and cesspools continued without interference from any +municipal power. + +The houses and cottages built at this time are of stone among the hills, +and of a mixture of brick and stone in the vale. Examples of cottages can +be seen in the village of Great Habton. They are dated 1741 and 1784, and +are much less picturesque than those of the seventeenth century, though +village architecture had not then reached the gaunt ugliness of the early +Victorian Age. + +The parish registers throughout the district were regularly kept, and as a +rule contain nothing of interest beyond the bare records of births, deaths +and marriages. The great proportion of villagers, however, who at this +time signed their names with a mark, shows that the art of writing was +still a rare thing among the peasantry. The church account books of the +period reveal many curious items such as the frequent repairs of the +_thatch_ on the vestry at Middleton (thatched churches are still to be +seen in Norfolk and Suffolk), and "L5, 19s. 6d. in all for the Violin or +Base Musick" of the same church. + +Churchwarden architecture of the deal boards and whitewash order made +hideous many of the village churches that required repairs at this time, +and if one discovers a ramshackle little porch such as that just removed +at Ellerburne, or a big window with decayed wooden mullions cut in a wall, +regardless of symmetry, one may be quite safe in attributing it to the +early years of the nineteenth century. One of the staple industries of +Pickering and the adjoining villages at this time was weaving, and a great +number of the cottages had the room on the opposite side of the passage to +the parlour fitted up with a loom. + +We have now seen many aspects of the daily life in and near Pickering +during the Georgian period. We know something of sports and amusements of +the people, of their religious beliefs, their work, their customs at +marriages and deaths, and we also have some idea of the dreadful beings +that these country folk trembled at during the hours of darkness. We have +discovered more than one remarkable man who was born and bred in these +primitive surroundings, and we have learnt something of one of the trades +that helped to make Pickering prosperous. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +_The Forest and Vale from Early Victorian Times to the Present Day_ + +A.D. 1837 to 1905 + + +This most recent stage in the development of Pickering is marked by the +extinction of the few remaining customs that had continued to exist since +mediaeval times. One of the most hardy of these survivals was the custom of +"Riding t' fair," as it was generally called. It only died out about +twenty years ago when the Pickering Local Board purchased the tolls from +the Duchy of Lancaster, so that it has been possible to obtain a +photographic record of two of the Duchy tenants who used to take part in +the ceremony. On market mornings the Steward of the Duchy armed with a +sword in a richly gilt scabbard would repair to the castle on horseback, +where he would be joined by two freeholders of Duchy land, also mounted; +one carrying the antique halbert and the other the spetum that are now +preserved in a solicitor's office in Eastgate.[1] They would then ride +down to the top of the market-place, where the steward would take out of +his pocket a well-worn piece of parchment and read the following +proclamation. + +"_O'yes! O'yes! O'yes!_ + +"Our Sovereign Lady the Queen and the Reverend John Richard Hill, Lord of +this Manor, proclaim this fair by virtue of Her Majesty's writ of _ad quod +Damnum_, for establishing the same for buying and selling of horses, +geldings, cattle, sheep, swine, and all sorts of merchandise brought here +to be sold, and do hereby order and direct a court of Pye Powder to be +held at the house of Robert Simpson, where all matters in Difference will +be heard and determined according to Law and Justice, and that no person +do presume to buy or sell anything but between the rising and setting of +the Sun, and they do strictly charge and command all persons to be of good +behaviour during the continuance of this Fair. + +"God save the Queen and the Lord of the Manor." + +[Footnote 1: Mr Arthur Kiching's office. The sword is kept by Mr Boulton.] + +[Illustration: THE OLD CUSTOM OF RIDING T' FAIR AT PICKERING. + +Two of the Duchy tenants carrying the halbert and spetum as they used to +appear when the market proclamation was read. +] + +[Illustration: THE HALBERT (7 feet long) and SPETUM (6 feet 2 inches) +that were carried by the men who accompanied the Steward of the Duchy when +he declared the markets open.] + +The parchment is now in the possession of the present steward of the Duchy +property, Mr J.D. Whitehead, who was appointed in 1887 and was the last to +read the proclamation. From the market-place the steward with his armed +attendants rode to the east end of Hungate, and to one or two other points +in the town, reading the proclamation at each place. + +The Court Leet, or, as its full title appears, the Court Leet, View of +Frank Pledge, Court Baron, Copy-hall and Customary Court of the Castle +Manor and Honour of Pickering, still meets every second year in October or +November. Twenty-seven out of thirty-eight townships used to be +represented by a constable and four men. Appointed annually and with much +solemnity were the following list of officials:-- + +2 Constables. +2 Market Searchers. +2 Yarn Tellers. +2 Reeves. +2 Ale Tasters. +2 Leather Searchers. +2 Pinders (for stray cattle). +2 Water Searchers. + +Of all these only the two pinders are now appointed to deal with stray +cattle, and the sole use of the court at the present time is that of the +enforcement of the clearing out of the drains and ditches on the Duchy +property. The fines levied average from 6d. to 5s., but I have seen the +record of as large an amount as 10s. imposed on a tenant who had allowed a +tree to obstruct the flow of the water. The importance of keeping the +level fields of the Vale properly drained is obvious, for a permanent +obstruction might easily mean the flooding of a considerable area. + +The jury dines at the expense of the Duchy of Lancaster at each meeting, +and there is a "View Supper," as it is called, a week before the meeting, +when the jury, having spent the whole day examining the ditches and drains +between the fields, gather in the evening at one of the inns. The steward +contributes a quarter of mutton, and the Lord of the Manor a couple of +hares for soup. + +[Illustration: AN OLD KEY BELONGING TO THE CASTLE. + +(_Now kept by Mr John, Westmoreland, Bailiff_.) +] + +The Court Leet still appoints the town's bellman in an informal manner; +until lately he was reappointed and sworn in every year. At the present +time the holder of the office is Levi Massheder, who has painted over the +door of his house the curious inscription, "His Honourable Majesty's +bellman." + +In July 1857 the old shambles that stood at the top of the market-place, +and in which three bullocks a week were killed by the six butchers, came +down to be replaced by the unsightly building that now disfigures the main +street of the town. It is a matter for surprise that the townsfolk did not +utilise a valuable opportunity and put up in its place something that +would have added to the attractiveness of the place and at the same time +have commemorated the reign of Queen Victoria. The building might have had +an open space beneath that would have been useful in bad weather on market +days. The disappearance of the shambles occurred about the same time as +the sweeping away of the stocks that stood on the north side of them, for +these were the years of a great municipal awakening in Pickering, an +awakening that unfortunately could not distinguish between an insanitary +sewer and the obsolete but historic and quite inoffensive stocks; both had +to disappear before the indiscriminating wave of progress. + +[Illustration: The Shambles at Pickering. A sketch plan and elevation +drawn from details given by old inhabitants.] + +In October 1846 the railway between Whitby and Pickering, that had been +built ten years before for a horse-drawn coach, was opened for steam +traction, and although this event is beyond the memories of most of the +present-day Pickeronians, there is still living in the town a man named +Will Wardell who is now seventy-seven, and as a boy of twelve acted as +postillion to the horse railway. Postillions were only employed for a +short time, the horse or horses being soon afterwards driven from the +coach. + +As a rule they employed one horse from Pickering to Raindale, where there +was a public-house; then two to Fenbogs, and one to Bank Top above +Goathland. If the wind were fair the coach would run to Grosmont by +itself, after that one horse took the coach to Whitby. If more than one +horse were used they were yoked tandem; five were kept at Raindale, where +Wardell lived. There were two coaches, "The Lady Hilda" and the "Premier"; +they were painted yellow and carried outside, four in front, four behind, +and several others on the top, while inside there was room for six. +Wardell helped to make the present railway, and has worked for fifty-five +years as a platelayer on the line. He remembers Will Turnbull of Whitby +who used to act as guard on the railway coach, and in the same capacity on +the stage-coach from Pickering to York. He made the journey from Whitby to +York and back daily, the coach running in conjunction with the railway +coach; the two drivers were Mathew Groves and Joseph Sedman. + +Gas, which must have been a perpetual wonder to the village folk when they +came into Pickering, made its appearance in 1847; but even at the time of +writing the town is only illuminated from the 10th of August until the end +of April, and even in that period the streets are plunged in darkness at +11 p.m. The drainage of the town was taken in hand to some extent about +fifty years ago, and the pestilential ditches and sewers that existed to +within thirty years of the present time have gradually disappeared. Then +between thirty and forty years ago the great spring in the limestone at +Keld Head was utilised to give the town a water-supply, and thus the wells +and pumps were superseded. Before the Local Board came into being about +half a century ago, piles of timber were allowed to lie in Eastgate, and +generally one may imagine the rather untidy quaintness so strongly +characteristic of the engravings that illustrate country scenes in that +period. + +In 1841 or thereabouts there was a great gale that carried away the sails +of the windmill which stood near the railway station, and a year or two +afterwards the brick tower was demolished. + +The early years of Queen Victoria's reign saw the destruction of several +picturesque features, and they also witnessed the decease of some more of +the old customs that were still fighting for their existence. Some of the +old folks can just remember hearing their fathers tell of "the standing in +church," described in the last chapter, and they quite well remember when +the children used to receive prizes for saying poetry in front of the +Communion-table in the parish church. Stang-riding continued up to +twenty-five years ago in spite of the opposition of the police. Two +figures to represent the individuals who had earned popular disfavour were +placed in a cart and taken round the town for three successive nights, +accompanied by a noisy crowd, who sang-- + +"Arang atang atang +Here do we ride the stang, +Not for my cause nor your cause +Do we ride the stang, +But for the sake of old...." + +On the third night the effigies were burnt. + +There was formerly a gallery at the west end of the church where the choir +and organ were situated so that during the musical portions of the +services the congregation turned towards the west to face the choir. About +fifty years ago the leader who started the tune with a trumpet was James +Ruddock "a bedstuffer." An old pitch-pipe used for starting the tunes was +recently discovered by Mr J. Grant James, vicar of Marske-in-Cleveland. + +Hungate Bridge, an iron structure, having made its appearance in 1864, is, +as may be imagined, no ornament to the town. + +In November 1851 the weathercock on the spire of the church was blown off, +and in the following year it was replaced. + +The restoration in 1878-79 included the very difficult work of renewing +the Norman foundations of the tower, which were quite unable to continue +to support the crushing weight of the spire. Sir Gilbert Scott, who +inspected the tower and was pointed out several of the results of the +unequal strains on the fabric, solemnly warned those concerned not to be +stingy with cement if they wished to save the tower. The advice was taken, +and after the removal of the crushed and rotten stones and many other +repairs the tower and spire were left in a state of greatly increased +security. The framework supporting the bells dated from about 1450, and as +there were no louvres to the windows for a long time, rain and snow must +have been blown in upon the woodwork, for it was found to be entirely +rotten, and it was astonishing that the timbers had not given way under +the great weight of the bells. + +[Illustration: THE OLD FIRE-ENGINE AT PICKERING.] + +It is an old custom that is still preserved to ring the biggest, or the +"pancake" bell, as it is often called, at eleven in the morning on Shrove +Tuesday. At that welcome sound the children are allowed to leave school +for the day, the shops are closed, and a general holiday is observed in +the town. The work bell is rung every morning from 5.55 to 6.0, and from +6.0 to 6.5 every evening from March to November, and the bells are rung +backwards to call out the fire brigade. The curious little fire-engine +upon which the town used to rely is still preserved in a shed in +Willowgate. It is one of those primitive little contrivances standing on +very small solid wheels, suggesting those of a child's toy horse. + +Until the restoration of the church the pulpit was of the two-decker type, +the clerk's desk being under the pulpit, with the reading-desk at the +side. The inlaid sounding-board which was taken out of the church at the +restoration is now preserved in the vicarage. It was in these days, namely +about thirty years ago, that the sexton and his deputy used to visit the +public-houses during church time in order to fetch out those who were +wasting the precious hours. At Christmas time the waits still enliven the +early hours with their welcomes to each individual member of every family. +The two men, whose names are Beavers and Stockdale, carry a concertina and +greet the household after this well-known fashion, "Drawing to ----- +o'clock and a fine frosty morning. Good morrow morning, Mr -----. Good +morrow morning, Mrs -----," and so through the entire family. This process +commences a week before Christmas and is continued until a week +afterwards. In the villages the custom of "lucky birds" still survives. +The boy who first reaches any house on Christmas morning is called a +"lucky bird," and unless great misfortune is courted some small coin must +be given to that boy. On New Year's Day the same process applies to girls, +but they have no particular designation. Badger-baiting in the castle is +still remembered, but at the present time lawn-tennis is the only game +that is played there. This brings one to the everyday facts of Pickering +life, which may sound almost too prosaic for any record, but taken in +contrast with the conditions of life that have gone before they are the +most recent page of that history which continues to be made day by day in +the town. + +The Pickeronian can no longer call himself remote in the sense of +communication with the rest of the world, for the North-Eastern Railway +takes him to York in little more than an hour, and from that great station +he can choose his route to London and other centres by the Great Northern, +the Great Central, or by the Midland Railway, and he can return from +King's Cross to Pickering in about five hours. But this ease of +communication seems to have made less impression upon the manners and +customs of the town and neighbourhood than might have been imagined. It +may perhaps show itself in the more rapid importation from London of a +popular street tune or in the fashions of dress among the women-kind, but +there are still great differences in the ways of living of the country +folk and in the relations of squire and peasant. + +Superstitions still linger among the moorland folk, and the custom of +placing a plate of salt upon the breast of one who is dying is still +continued here and there in a covert fashion. Clocks are still stopped, +fires raked out, and looking-glasses turned to the wall at the moment of +death, but such acts of deference to the world of fancy are naturally only +seen by those who have intimate experience of the cottage life of these +parts, and the casual visitor sees no traces of them. + +The town at one time had a newspaper of its own. It was known as the +_Pickering Mercury_, and was started in the summer of 1857; but it perhaps +found Scarborough competition too much for it, for now it is almost +forgotten, and an evening paper produced in the big watering-place is +shouted round the streets of the town every night. + +The changes that the present century may witness will possibly work +greater transformations than any that have gone before, and not many years +hence this book will no doubt be described as belonging to the rough and +ready, almost primitive times of the early part of the twentieth century. +The historian of a hundred years hence will sigh for the complete picture +of daily life at Pickering at the present day, which we could so easily +give, while he at that very moment may be failing to record the scenes of +his own time that are to him so wofully commonplace. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +_Concerning the Villages and Scenery of the Forest and Vale of Pickering_ + + "Wide horizons beckoning, far beyond the hill, + Little lazy villages, sleeping in the vale, + Greatness overhead + The flock's contented tread + An' trample o' the morning wind adown the open trail." + +H.H. Bashford. + + +[Illustration: The Market Cross at Thornton-le-Dale. + +The stocks are quite modern, replacing the old ones which were thrown away +when the new ones were made. +] + +The scenery of this part of Yorkshire is composed of two strikingly +opposite types, that of perfectly wild, uncultivated moorlands broken here +and there by wooded dales, and the rich level pasture lands that occupy +the once marshy district of the Vale. The villages, some phases of whose +history we have traced, are with a few exceptions scattered along the +northern margin of the Vale. Lastingham, Rosedale Abbey, Levisham, +Lockton, and Newton are villages of the moor. Edstone, Habton, Normanby, +Kirby Misperton, and Great Barugh are villages of the Vale; but all the +rest occupy an intermediate position on the slopes of the hills. In +general appearance, many of the hamlets are rather similar, the grey stone +walls and red tiles offering less opportunity for individual taste than +the building materials of the southern counties. Despite this difficulty, +however, each village has a distinct character of its own, and in the +cases of Thornton-le-Dale and Brompton, the natural surroundings of hill, +sparkling stream, and tall masses of trees make those two villages unique. +A remarkable effect can sometimes be seen by those who are abroad in the +early morning from the hills overlooking the wide valley; one is at times +able to see across the upper surface of a perfectly level mist through +which the isolated hills rising from the low ground appear as islets in a +lake, and it requires no effort of the imagination to conjure up the +aspect of the valley when the waters of the Derwent were held up by ice in +the remote centuries of the Ice Age. Sometimes in the evening, too, a +pleasing impression may be obtained when the church bells of the villages +are ringing for evening service. At the top of Wrelton Cliff, the sound of +several peals of bells in the neighbouring villages floats upwards across +the broad pastures, and it seems almost as though the whole plain beneath +one's feet were joining in the evening song. Along the deep ravine of +Newton Dale, in all weathers, some of the most varied and richly coloured +pictures may be seen. If one climbs the rough paths that lead up from the +woods and meadows by the railway, the most remarkable aspects of the +precipitous sides are obtained. In a book published in 1836,[1] at the +time of the opening of the railway between Whitby and Pickering, a series +of very delicate steel engravings of the wild scenery of Newton Dale were +given. One of them shows the gorge under the deep gloom of a storm but +relieved with the contrast of a rainbow springing from one side of the +rocky walls. This effect may perhaps seem highly exaggerated, but on one +occasion when I was exploring part of the Dale, between Levisham and Fen +Bogs, I was astonished to see a brilliant rainbow backed by dense masses +of indigo clouds and occupying precisely the position of the one shown in +the old engraving. In such weather as this, when sudden rays of sunlight +fall upon the steep slopes of bracken and heather and on the precipitous +rocks above, the blazing colours seem almost unreal and the scenery +suggests Scotland more than any other part of England. From the edges of +the canon, purple heather and ling stretch away on either side to the most +distant horizons, and one can walk for miles in almost any direction +without encountering a human being and rarely a house of any description. +The few cottages that now stand in lonely isolation in different parts of +the moors have only made their appearance since the Enclosures Act, so +that before that time these moors must have been one of the most extensive +stretches of uninhabited country in England. From the Saltersgate Inn, +some of the most remarkable views that the moorlands present are all +collected together in a comparatively small space. One looks towards the +west across a remarkably deep ravine with precipitous sides that leads out +of Newton Dale towards the old coach road upon which the lonely hostelry +stands. At the foot of the steep rocks, a stream trickles into a basin and +then falls downwards in a small cascade, finding its way into the +Pickering Beck that flows along the bottom of Newton Dale. From the inn +also, the great ravine we have been describing appears as an enormous +trench cut through the heathery plateau, and we are led to wonder how it +was that no legends as to its origin have survived until the present time. +The Roman road, which is supposed to have been built by Wade and his wife +when they were engaged on the construction of Mulgrave and Pickering +Castles, seems uninspiring beside the majestic proportions of Newton Dale. +To the south of the Saltersgate Inn lies the remarkable circular hollow +among the hills known as the Hole of Horcum, and the bold bluff known as +Saltersgate Brow rises like an enormous rampart from the smooth brown or +purple heather. To the west lies the peculiarly isolated hill known as +Blakey Topping, and, a little to the south, are the Bride Stones, those +imposing masses of natural rock that project themselves above the moor. +The Saltersgate Inn has lost the importance it once possessed as the +stopping-place for the coaches between Whitby and Pickering, but is still +the only place of refreshment for many miles across the moors, and its +very isolation still gives it an importance for those who seek sport or +exercise on these breezy wastes. + +[Footnote 1: Henry Belcher, "The Scenery of the Whitby and Pickering +Railway," facing p. 51.] + +Levisham and Lockton, the twin villages that stand upon the very edge of +the heather, are separated by a tremendous valley, and although from above +they may seem so close as to be almost continuous, in reality they are as +remote from one another as though they were separated by five or six +miles. To reach Levisham from Lockton means a break-neck descent of a very +dangerous character and a climb up from the mill and lonely church at the +bottom of the valley that makes one marvel how the village ever came to be +perched in a position of such inaccessibility. The older inhabitants of +Levisham tell you that in their young days the village was more populous, +and their statements are supported by the pathetic evidence of more than +one cottage lying in ruins with the interior occupied by a jungle of +nettles. The Vicarage is the only new building that breaks the mellowed +grey tones of the wide, grass-bordered street. + +[Illustration: LOCKTON VILLAGE. The ash tree that grows on the church +tower can be seen in the drawing.] + +Lockton is a larger and better preserved village. The little church with +its grey tower is noticeable on account of the vigorous ash-tree that +grows from the parapet. It has been there for many years, and I am told +that the roots have penetrated for a very great distance among the stones, +and may even be drawing their sustenance from the ground. In order to +prevent the undue growth of the tree, it is periodically cut down to one +branch, but even with this wholesale lopping the tree has forced many of +the stones from their original positions. + +The interior of the church is a melancholy spectacle of churchwarden +methods, but probably Lockton will before many years receive that careful +restoration that has taken place at Ellerburne and Sinnington. The font is +one of those unadorned, circular basins which generally date from the +thirteenth century. One of the village inns is known as "The Durham Ox," +and bears a sign adorned with a huge beast whose pensive but intelligent +eye looks down upon all passers-by. The village stocks that used to stand +outside the churchyard wall on the east side, near the present +schoolhouse, are remembered by the older inhabitants. They were taken away +about forty years ago. The few thatched cottages that remain in the +village are unfortunately being allowed to fall into disrepair, but this +is the case in most of the villages. + +Newton, or, as its full name should be given, Newton-upon-Rawcliff, stands +on the verge of Newton Dale. Its small modern church has no interest for +the antiquary, but the broad roadway between the houses and the +whitewashed cottages thrown up against the strip of grass on either side +is picturesque enough. + +Northwards from Newton lies the minute moorland hamlet of Stape, its +houses and its inn, "The Hare and Hounds," being perched indiscriminately +on the heather. Some miles beyond lies Goathland, that formerly belonged +to the parish of Pickering. The present church was built in 1895, but it +is here that the fine pre-Reformation chalice that originally belonged to +Pickering is still in use. The village has a large green overlooked here +and there by pretty cottages, and the proximity of the richly coloured +moorland scenery that lies spread out in every direction makes the place +particularly fascinating. The railway in the valley has brought a few new +houses to the village, but there seems little chance of any great +accretions of this nature, although the existence of the railway station +is a permanent menace to the rural character of the place. + +Middleton, the hamlet immediately to the west of Pickering, lies along the +main road to Helmsley. Its interesting old church is surrounded by trees, +and might almost be passed unnoticed. The post-office is in one of the +oldest cottages. Its massive oak forks must have endured for many +centuries, and the framework of the doorway leading into the garden behind +must be of almost equal antiquity. + +Between the years 1764 and 1766, John Wesley, on his northern circuit, +visited this unassuming little village and preached in the pulpit of the +parish church. A circular sun-dial bearing the motto "We stay not," and +the date 1782, appears above the porch, and the church is entered by a +fine old door of the Perpendicular period. A paddock on the west side of +the graveyard is known as the nun's field, but I have no knowledge of any +monastic institution having existed at Middleton. Aislaby, the next +village to the west, is so close that one seems hardly to have left +Middleton before one reaches the first cottage of the next hamlet. There +is no church here, and the only conspicuous object as one passes westwards +is the Hall, a large stone house standing close to the road on the south +side. Wrelton is only half a mile from Aislaby. It stands at the +cross-roads where the turning to Lastingham and Rosedale Abbey leaves the +Helmsley Road. The cottages are not particularly ancient, and there are no +striking features to impress themselves on the memory of the passer-by. At +Sinnington, however, we reach a village of marked individuality. The broad +green is ornamented with a bridge that spans the wide stony course of the +river Seven; but more noticeable than this is the very tall maypole that +stands on the green and appears in the distance as a tapering mast that +has been sloped out of perpendicular by the most prevailing winds. It was +around an earlier maypole that stood in the place of the existing one that +the scene between the "Broad Brims" and the merry-making villagers that +has already been mentioned took place nearly two centuries ago. The +present maypole was erected on May 29th 1882, replacing one which had come +into existence on the same day twenty years before. The recently restored +church of Sinnington stands slightly above the green, backed by the trees +on the rising ground to the north of the village. The new roof of red +tiles would almost lead one to imagine that the building was a modern one, +and one would scarcely imagine that it dates chiefly from the twelfth +century. A custom which is still remembered by some of the older villagers +was the roasting of a sheep by the small bridge on the green on November +23rd in Martinmas week. The children used to go round a few days before, +collecting money for the purchase of the sheep. Although these quaint +customs are no longer continued at Sinnington the green has retained its +picturesqueness, and towards evening, when the western sky is reflected in +the rippling waters of the Seven, the scene is a particularly pleasing +one. + +Between Sinnington and Kirby Moorside about three miles to the west is the +site of the priory of Keldholm, but there are no walls standing at the +present time. Kirby Moorside is one of the largest villages in the +neighbourhood of Pickering. It has been thought that it may possibly have +been in Goldsmith's mind when he described the series of catastrophes that +befell the unfortunate household of the Vicar of Wakefield; but although I +have carefully read the story with a view to discovering any descriptions +that may suggest the village of Kirby Moorside, I can find very little in +support of the idea. Before the construction of the railway connecting +Pickering and Helmsley, this part of Yorkshire was seldom visited by any +one but those having business in the immediate neighbourhood; and even now +as one walks along the wide main street one cannot help feeling that the +village is still far removed from the influences of modern civilisation. +The old shambles still stand in the shadow of the Tolbooth, the somewhat +gaunt but not altogether unpleasing building that occupies a central +position in the village. Adjoining the shambles is the broken stump of the +market-cross raised upon its old steps, and close by also is the entrance +to the churchyard. The church occupies a picturesque position, and +contains, besides the Elizabethan brass to Lady Brooke, a _parvise_ +chamber over the old porch. This little room is approached by a flight of +stone steps from the interior of the church and possesses a fireplace. It +has been supposed that the chamber would have been used by the monk who +served from Newburgh Priory when he had occasion to stay the night. The +brick windmill, built about a hundred years ago, that stands on the west +side of the village, is no longer in use, and has even been robbed of its +sails. At the highest part of the village street there are some extremely +old thatched cottages which give a very good idea of what must have been +the appearance of the whole place a century ago. The "King's Head" Inn and +the house adjoining it, in which the notorious Duke of Buckingham died, +are two of the oldest buildings of any size that now remain. An inn, a +little lower down the street has a picturesque porch supported by carved +posts, bearing the name "William Wood," and the date 1632. Kirby Moorside +has preserved, in common with two or three other villages in the +neighbourhood, its Christmastide mummers and waits. The mummers, who go +their rounds in daytime, are men dressed as women. They carry a small doll +in a box ornamented with pieces of evergreen and chant doggerel rhymes. + +The beautiful scenery of Farndale and Kirkdale comes as a surprise to +those who visit Kirby Moorside for the first time, for the approach by +road in all directions, except from the north, does not lead one to +suspect the presence of such impressive landscapes, and from some points +Farndale has quite a mountainous aspect. The moors no longer reach the +confines of Kirby Moorside, as its name would suggest, for cultivation has +pushed back the waste lands for two or three miles to the north; but from +that point northwards all the way to Guisborough the wild brown moorland +is broken only in a few places by the fitful cultivation of the dales. The +church of Kirkdale, and what quarrying has left of the famous cave, stand +just at the point where the Hodge Beck leaves its confined course and +flows out into the flat levels of the Vale of Pickering. It is only, +however, after very heavy rains that the stony course of the stream at +this point shows any sign of water, for in ordinary weather the stream +finds its way through underground fissures in the limestone and does not +appear above the ground for a considerable distance. The little church of +Kirkdale, remarkable for its Saxon sun-dial and other pre-Norman remains, +is surrounded by masses of foliage, and the walk up the dale from this +point to the romantically situated Cauldron Mill is one of remarkable +beauty. As one follows the course of the beck higher and higher towards it +source north of Bransdale, the densely wooded sides become bare, and wide +expanses and the invigorating moorland air are exchanged for the rich land +scents and the limited views. + +[Illustration: The "Black Hole" of Thornton-le-Dale. An underground cell +beneath some cottages which was formerly the village prison.] + +The village of Lastingham is surrounded by beautiful hills and is almost +touched by the moors that lie immediately to the north. The Church has +already been described, and we have heard something of the strange story +of the ingenious methods for increasing his income of a former +curate-in-charge. Cropton occupies a position somewhat similar to that of +Newton, being on high ground with commanding views in all directions. The +little church is modern, but it has the stump of an ancient cross in the +graveyard, and commands a magnificent view towards the west and north. It +is in connection with this cross that a curious old rhyme is mentioned in +an old guide. + + "On Cropton Cross there is a cup, + And in that cup there is a sup; + Take that cup and drink that sup, + And set that cup on Cropton Cross top." + +There is a cottage on the east side of the street bearing the date 1695, +and the motto "Memento Mori," with the initials N.C., but more +interesting than this is one on the same side but at the southern end of +the village, and standing back more than the rest. This was used as a +madhouse at a time well remembered by some of the villagers. People from +Pickering and the surrounding district were sent here for treatment, and +I am told that the proprietor possessed a prescription for a very +remarkable medicine which was supposed to have a most beneficial effect +upon his partially demented patients. I am also told that this +prescription was given to one, Goodwill of Lastingham, who still possesses +it. Cropton is only a short distance from the Roman camps that lie all +surrounded and overgrown with dense plantations, so that it is impossible +for a stranger to discover their position unless he be lucky enough to +find some one close at hand to carefully describe the right track. + +West of Pickering lies that long string of villages, generally less than +two miles apart, that extends nearly all the way to Scarborough. The first +point of interest as one goes towards Thornton-le-Dale from Pickering is +the grass-grown site of Roxby Castle, the birthplace of Sir Hugh Cholmley, +and the scene, as we know, of those conflicts between the retainers of Sir +Roger Hastings and Sir Richard Cholmley. The position must have been a +most perfect one for this ancient manor house, for standing a little +higher than the level ings and carrs of the marshy land, it was protected +from the cold northern winds by the higher ground above. From the top of +the steep hill west of the village, Thornton-le-Dale has an almost idyllic +aspect, its timeworn roofs of purple thatch and mellowed tiles nestling +among the masses of tall trees that grow with much luxuriance in this +sheltered spot at the foot of the hills. The village is musical with the +pleasant sound of the waters of the beck that flows from Dalby Warren, and +ripples along the margins of the roadways, necessitating a special +footbridge for many of the cottages. The ancient stocks that stood by the +crossroads have unfortunately disappeared, and in their place may be seen +the pathetic sight of a new pair that are not even a close copy of the old +ones. The old stone cross that stands by the stocks has not been replaced +by a modern one, and adds greatly to the interest of the central portion +of the village. On the road that leads towards Ellerburne there stand some +old cottages generally known as the Poorhouse. They are built on sloping +ground, and on the lower side there is a small round-topped tunnel leading +into a little cell dug out of the ground beneath the cottages. This little +village prison was known as the "Black Hole," and was in frequent use +about fifty years ago. An old resident in the village named Birdsall, who +is now in the Almshouses, remembers that the last woman who was placed in +the Black Hole was released by four men who forcibly broke their way in. +The quaint little church of Ellerburne and the few antique cottages that +make up the hamlet lie about a mile from Thornton up the steep valley to +the north. The hills on either side are crowned with plantations, but +farther up the dale appear the bare slopes of the edge of the moors. +Allerston lies at right angles to the main road. It is full of quaint +stone cottages, and is ornamented by the square tower of the church and +the cheerful brook that flows along the road side. The church at Ebberston +stands aloof from the village at the edge of the small park belonging to +the Hall. The situation is a very pleasant one, and the building attracts +one's attention on account of the wide blocked-up arch that is conspicuous +in the south wall west of the porch. + +The next village westwards is Snainton, a more compact and town-like +hamlet than most of the others in the district. The church having been +rebuilt in about 1835, the place is robbed of one of its chief +attractions. + +Brompton has already been mentioned in connection with Wordsworth's +wedding. The view over the bright green pastures of the Vale when seen +from the church porch is of conspicuous beauty, and the ponds that are +numerous in the village help to make picturesque views from many points. +The Hall is a large building possessing a ponderous bulk but little charm, +and it is only by the kindly aid of the plentiful trees and an extensive +growth of ivy that the squire's house does not destroy the rural sweetness +of the village. + +Wykeham has a new church with a massive spire, but the tower of the old +building has fortunately been allowed to remain, and now answers the +purpose of a lich-gate. Only a few walls of the abbey now remain in close +proximity to Lord Downe's recently enlarged house. + +[Illustration: HUTTON BUSCEL CHURCH. + +The lower part of the tower is of Norman work. The head of the churchyard +cross is modern. +] + +The church of Hutton Buscel is externally one of the most picturesque in +the district, and the pretty churchyard on steeply falling ground is a +charming feature of the village. The old Hall of the Osbaldestons is only +represented by the massive gates that give access to the schools built on +the site of the house that was burnt down about a century ago. + +A curious story is told of Bishop Osbaldeston, whose monument is to be +seen in the church. During his stay at Hutton Buscel he often amused +himself with riding about the neighbourhood and conversing with any one he +happened to meet upon the road. "One morning he saw a chimney-sweeper's +boy laid on the roadside, whom he accosted as follows:--'Well, my lad, +where hast thou been this morning?' 'Sweeping your chimnies,' replied the +lad. 'And how much hast thou earned then?' said his lordship. 'Fifteen +shillings, my lord.' After his lordship had observed that he thought it a +very good business, the lad says, 'Yes, my lord, you see that _we black +coats_ get good livings for very little work.'" + +The smaller villages of the Vale are without any particular interest in +themselves, apart from the wide and expansive landscapes that stretch away +in all directions to the enclosing hills that in distant times formed the +boundaries of the lake. + +Great Habton has a small chapel of ease of very recent erection. + +Ryton is chiefly composed of two or three farms and a dilapidated little +red brick building that scarcely deserves the name of church. The lane to +this hamlet from Great Habton is remarkable for the series of about a +dozen gates across the roadway. + +Brawby and Butterwick have no particular features that impress themselves +on the mind, and Great Barugh, though more picturesque than either of +these, is chiefly interesting on account of its past. + +Normanby lies on the dead level of the plain, and is watered by the Seven, +that flows between high embankments throughout most of its course after +leaving the high ground at Sinnington. + +Salton lies a little to the west and is interesting on account of its +beautiful little Norman church. The cottages are situated on a patch of +green, and the whole place has a cheerful and tidy appearance. + +At Kirby Misperton there is a very green pond by the church, and the +remains of the stocks may still be seen by the pretty rose-covered cottage +that contains the post-office. Many of the cottages were rebuilt between +1857 and 1877, the dates being conspicuous on their big gables. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +_Concerning the Zoology of the Forest and Vale_ + + +The great expanses of wild moorland, the deep, heavily wooded valleys, and +the rich and well-watered level country included in the scope of this book +would lead one to expect much of the zoology of the Pickering district, +and one is not disappointed. That the wild life is ample and interesting +will be seen from the following notes on the rarer varieties which Mr +Oxley Grabham of the York Museum has kindly put together. + +On THE MOORS _the Curlew, the Golden Plover_, and the _Merlin_ nest +regularly together with other more common species. + +In THE WOODS _the Woodcock, Pied Flycatcher_, and _Wood Wren_, together +with the _Green_ and _the Great Spotted Woodpeckers_, breed by no means +uncommonly. + +In THE MARSHY AND LOW-LYING LANDS _the Snipe_ and _the Redshank_ find +congenial breeding quarters. + +Many rarities have been obtained in the district such as _the Kite, the +Great Plover, the Smew_, and _the Golden Eagle_, and numerous varieties of +wildfowl during the winter months. I have seen large flocks of +_Crossbills_ and _Bramblings_ hunting for food in the severe weather, and +occasionally a small flock of _Waxwings_ appears in the district. + +There is a well-protected _Heronry_ in the neighbourhood, and these fine +handsome birds may frequently be seen in the vicinity of the Costa, a +stream famous for the size and quality of its _Trout_ and _Grayling_. + +From a sporting point of view there are few better districts in the north +of Yorkshire. _Grouse_ are abundant on the moors, and there is some most +excellent _Partridge_ ground at hand, whilst certain of the coverts are +famous for _Woodcock_ during the winter months. + +_Foxes_ are numerous, and three packs of regular hounds, Lord Middleton's, +Sir Everard Cayley's, and the Sinnington, hunt the country, whilst the old +established trencher-fed Goathland pack accounts for a goodly number every +season. + +_Otters_ and _Badgers_ are far more plentiful than most people have any +idea of; but, unfortunately, they are generally killed whenever a chance +of doing so presents itself, the trap and the gun being regularly employed +against them. + +The usual smaller mammals are present in goodly numbers, and present no +special or peculiar features, with the exception of _the common Rat_, +which has been of late a perfect pest in some parts of the country; the +hedge bottoms have been riddled with rat holes. Gates and posts and rails +have been gnawed to bits, and in one instance a litter of young pigs were +worried during the night. On one farm alone, during the year 1904, over +two thousand rats were killed. + +OF REPTILES, _the common Adder or Viper_, locally known as the Hag-Worm, +is numerous in the moorland districts. It seldom if ever attacks human +beings, but occasionally dogs and sheep get bitten with fatal results. +_The Slow or Blind Worm_ is also to be found here, as are the other usual +forms of reptiles. + +OXLEY GRABHAM, M.A., M.B.O.U. + + * * * * * + +The famous breed of horses known as the Cleveland Bays come from this +district of Yorkshire. They are bred all over the district between +Pickering, Helmsley, Scarborough, and Middlesborough, and although efforts +have been made to raise them in other parts of England and abroad, it has +been found that they lose the hardness of bone which is such a +characteristic feature of the Cleveland bred animals. The Cleveland bay +coach horse is descended from the famous Darly Arabian, and preserves in a +wonderful manner the thoroughbred outline. + + + + +BOOKS OF REFERENCE + + +Akerman, J. Yonge, Remains of Pagan Saxondom, 1852-55. + +Allen, J.R., Monumental History of the Early British Church, 1889. + +Anecdotes and Manners of a few Ancient and Modern Oddities, 1806. + +Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Journal of. + +Associated Architectural Societies' Reports, vol. xii. + +Atkinson, John C, A Glossary of the Cleveland Dialect, 1876; Forty Years +in a Moorland Parish, 1891. + +Bateman, Thomas, Ten Years' Diggings, 1861. + +Bawdwen, Rev. W., Domesday Book, 1809. + +Belcher, Henry, The Pickering and Whitby Railway, 1836. + +Blakeborough, Richard, Wit, Character, etc., of the North Riding of +Yorkshire, 1898. + +Brooke, John C, Illustration of a Saxon Inscription at Kirkdale, 1777. + +Brown, Gerard Baldwin, The Arts in Early Britain, 1903. + +Browne, G.F., Bishop of Bristol, Theodore and Wilfrith, 1897; The +Conversion of the Heptarchy, 1896. + +Buckland, Wm., Dean of Westminster, Account of Fossil Bones at Kirkdale, +1822. + +Chaucer, Geoffrey, Canterbury Tales, 1902. + +Cholmley, Sir Hugh, Bart., Memoirs of, 1787. + +Clark, George Thos., Mediaeval Military Architecture in England, 1884. + +Codrington, Thos., C.E., Roman Roads in Britain, 1903. + +Collection of above 300 Receipts in Cookery, Physick, and Surgery, 1719. + +Corlass, R.W., Yorkshire Rhymes and Sayings, 1878. + +Croll, James, Climate and Time in their Geological Relations, 1885. + +Dawkins, Boyd, Early Man in Britain. + +Domesday Book, Facsimile of the Survey by Col. Sir H. James, 1861-63. + +Drake, Francis, Eboracum, 1736. + +Eastmead, William, Historia Rievallensis, 1824. + +England, Annals of, 1876. + +Fawcett, Rev. Joshua, Church Rides in the Neighbourhood of Scarborough, +1848. + +Frank, George, Ryedale, North Yorkshire Antiquities, 1888. + +Fuller, Thomas, The History of the Worthies of England, 1840. + +Gidley, Lewis, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Church, 1870. + +Giles, J.A., Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Church, 1840. + +Gould, S. Baring, Yorkshire Oddities, 1874. + +Hailstone, Edward the Elder, Portraits of Yorkshire Worthies, 1869. + +Hatton, W.H., and Fox, W.E., The Churches of Yorkshire, 1879. + +Henderson, William, Notes on the Folklore of the North Counties, 1879. + +Hinderwell, Thomas, History of Scarborough, 1798. + +Holinshed, Raphael, Chronicles of England, 1807-8. + +Jackson, R.E. Scoresby, The Life of William Scoresby, 1861. + +Jewitt, Llewellyn, The Ceramic Art in Early Britain, 1883; Grave Mounds +and their Contents, 1870. + +Leland, John, The Itinerary of. + +Marshall, William, The Rural Economy of Yorkshire, 1788. + +Morris, Joseph E., The North Riding of Yorkshire, 1904. + +Morris, M.C.F., Yorkshire Folk Talk, 1892. + +Murray's Handbook for Yorkshire, 1904. + +North Riding Records, 1894 and after. Edited by R.B. Turton. + +Park, G.R., The Parliamentary Representation of Yorkshire, 1886. + +Parkinson, Rev. Thos., Yorkshire Legends and Traditions, 1888. + +Roy, Major-General Wm., The Military Antiquities of the Romans in Britain, +1793. + +Scoresby, Wm., the Elder, Memorials of the Sea, 1851. + +Smith, William, Old Yorkshire, 1881. + +Stow, John, A Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles, etc., 1565. + +Strangways, C.E. Fox, Geology of Oolitic and Liassic Rocks North of +Malton, 1881; Geology of Country between Whitby and Scarborough, 1846; The +Jurassic Rocks of Britain, 1846. + +Tacitus, P.C., The Works of, Oxford Translation, 1848. + +Windle, B.C.A., Remains of the pre-Historic Age in England, 1904; Life in +Early Britain, 1897. + +Yorkshire Archaeological and Topographical Association, Record Series, 1894 +and after. + +Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, Vol. V., 1879. + +Young, George, A History of Whitby, 1817. + + + + +APPENDIX + +A LIST OF THE VICARS OF PICKERING + + +The living itself, at the time of the Norman Conquest, came into the +possession of the Crown, and remained at the king's gift till Henry I. +annexed it to the Deanery of York. It thus became one of the Dean's +peculiars, until in the last century his property was vested in the +Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the patronage transferred to the +Archbishop. + + +1150 Hugh +13--? Midelton, Thos de. Resigned for the + Church of Scalton +1341 Acaster, Hen de. Dismissed +1349 Queldriks, Robert de + Pokelington, Robert de. Resigned for + the Church at Holtby +1388 Laytingby, Will de +1568-1570 Coleman, William +1581-1600 Owrome, William +1602-1615 Mylls or Milnes, Edward. Deprived 1615 +1615-1659 Bright, Edward. Died 1659 +1661-1690 Staveley, Robert. Died 1690 +1691-1712 Newton, Joshua, A.M. Died 1712 +1713-1740 Hargreaves, Robert. Died 1740 +1740 Hill, Samuel +1745 Dodsworth, George +1764-1784 Harding, Samuel. (Blind.) Died 1784 +1784-1786 Robinson, John +1786-1804 Harding, Samuel J. Died 1804 +1804-1809 Laye, W.T. Died 1809 +1809-1814 Graham, C.R. +1814-1857 Ponsonby, F. +1858-1863 Cockburn, G.A., M.A. +1863-1875 Bennett, Edward (Curate-in-charge) +1875-1881 Lightfoot, G.H. (Curate-in-charge) +1881-1902 " " (Vicar) +1902 Drage, E.W. + + +_"Here taketh the Makere of this Book his Leve."_ + + * * * * * + +_"Now preye I to hem alle that herkne this litel tretys or rede, that ... +if ther be any thyng that displese hem, I preye hem also that they arrette +it to the defaute of myn unkonnynge, and not to my wyl, that wolde ful +fayn have seyd bettre if I hadde had konnynge."_ + +_Chaucer's Canterbury Tales._ + +[Illustration: A Sketch Map of the Pickering District] + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Evolution Of An English Town, by Gordon Home + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVOLUTION OF AN ENGLISH TOWN *** + +***** This file should be named 15053.txt or 15053.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/0/5/15053/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Andy Schmitt and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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