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diff --git a/old/8yksh10.txt b/old/8yksh10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7d4a8f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/8yksh10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6401 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Yorkshire, by Gordon Home + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Yorkshire + +Author: Gordon Home + +Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9973] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on November 5, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK YORKSHIRE *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Michael Lockey and PG Distributed +Proofreaders. + + + + +YORKSHIRE + +PAINTED AND DESCRIBED BY + +GORDON HOME + + + +Contents + +CHAPTER I +ACROSS THE MOORS FROM PICKERING TO WHITBY + +CHAPTER II +ALONG THE ESK VALLEY + +CHAPTER III +THE COAST FROM WHITBY TO REDCAR + +CHAPTER IV +THE COAST FROM WHITBY TO SCARBOROUGH + +CHAPTER V +SCARBOROUGH + +CHAPTER VI +WHITBY + +CHAPTER VII +THE CLEVELAND HILLS + +CHAPTER VIII +GUISBOROUGH AND THE SKELTON VALLEY + +CHAPTER IX +FROM PICKERING TO RIEVAULX ABBEY + +CHAPTER X +DESCRIBES THE DALE COUNTRY AS A WHOLE + +CHAPTER XI +RICHMOND + +CHAPTER XII +SWALEDALE + +CHAPTER XIII +WENSLEYDALE + +CHAPTER XIV +RIPON AND FOUNTAINS ABBEY + +CHAPTER XV +KNARESBOROUGH AND HARROGATE + +CHAPTER XVI +WHARFEDALE + +CHAPTER XVII +SKIPTON, MALHAM AND GORDALE + +CHAPTER XVIII +SETTLE AND THE INGLETON FELLS + +CHAPTER XIX +CONCERNING THE WOLDS + +CHAPTER XX +FROM FILEY TO SPURN HEAD + +CHAPTER XXI +BEVERLEY + +CHAPTER XXII +ALONG THE HUMBER + +CHAPTER XXIII +THE DERWENT AND THE HOWARDIAN HILLS + +CHAPTER XXIV +A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF YORK + +CHAPTER XXV +THE MANUFACTURING DISTRICT + +INDEX + + + + +List of Illustrations + +1. York from the Central Tower of the Minster + +2. Sleights Moor from Swart Houe Cross + +3. An Autumn Scene on the Esk + +4. Runswick Bay + +5. Sunrise from Staithes Beck + +6. Robin Hood's Bay + +7. Whitby Abbey from the Cliffs + +8. The Red Roofs of Whitby + +9. An Autumn Day at Guisborough + +10. The Skelton Valley + +11. In Pickering Church + +12. The Market-Place, Helmsley + +13. Richmond Castle from the River + +14. A Rugged View above Wensleydale + +15. A Jacobean House at Askrigg + +16. Aysgarth Force + +17. View up Wensleydale from Leyburn Shawl + +18. Ripon Minster from the South + +19. Fountains Abbey + +20. Knaresborough + +21. Bolton Abbey, Wharfedale + +22. Settle + +23. Wind and Sunshine on the Wolds + +24. Filey Brig + +25. The Outermost Point of Flamborough Head + +26. Hornsea Mere + +27. The Market-Place, Beverley + +28. Patrington Church + +29. Coxwold Village + +30. The West Front of the Church of Byland Abbey + +31. Bootham Bar, York + +32. Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds + +_Sketch Map_ + + + + + +YORKSHIRE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +ACROSS THE MOORS FROM PICKERING TO WHITBY + + +The ancient stone-built town of Pickering is to a great extent the +gateway to the moors of North-eastern Yorkshire, for it stands at the +foot of that formerly inaccessible gorge known as Newton Dale, and is +the meeting-place of the four great roads running north, south, east, +and west, as well as of railways going in the same directions. And this +view of the little town is by no means original, for the strategic +importance of the position was recognised at least as long ago as the +days of the early Edwards, when the castle was built to command the +approach to Newton Dale and to be a menace to the whole of the Vale of +Pickering. + +The old-time traveller from York to Whitby saw practically nothing of +Newton Dale, for the great coach-road bore him towards the east, and +then, on climbing the steep hill up to Lockton Low Moor, he went almost +due north as far as Sleights. But to-day everyone passes right through +the gloomy cańon, for the railway now follows the windings of Pickering +Beck, and nursemaids and children on their way to the seaside may gaze +at the frowning cliffs which seventy years ago were only known to +travellers and a few shepherds. But although this great change has been +brought about by railway enterprise, the gorge is still uninhabited, +and has lost little of its grandeur; for when the puny train, with its +accompanying white cloud, has disappeared round one of the great +bluffs, there is nothing left but the two pairs of shining rails, laid +for long distances almost on the floor of the ravine. But though there +are steep gradients to be climbed, and the engine labours heavily, +there is scarcely sufficient time to get any idea of the astonishing +scenery from the windows of the train, and you can see nothing of the +huge expanses of moorland stretching away from the precipices on either +side. So that we, who would learn something of this region, must make +the journey on foot; for a bicycle would be an encumbrance when +crossing the heather, and there are many places where a horse would be +a source of danger. The sides of the valley are closely wooded for the +first seven or eight miles north of Pickering, but the surrounding +country gradually loses its cultivation, at first gorse and bracken, +and then heather, taking the place of the green pastures. + +At the village of Newton, perched on high ground far above the dale, we +come to the limit of civilization. The sun is nearly setting. The +cottages are scattered along the wide roadway and the strip of grass, +broken by two large ponds, which just now reflect the pale evening sky. +Straight in front, across the green, some ancient barns are thrown up +against the golden sunset, and the long perspective of white road, the +geese, and some whitewashed gables, stand out from the deepening tones +of the grass and trees. A footpath by the inn leads through some dewy +meadows to the woods, above Levisham Station in the valley below. At +first there are glimpses of the lofty moors on the opposite side of the +dale where the sides of the bluffs are still glowing in the sunset +light; but soon the pathway plunges steeply into a close wood, where +the foxes are barking, and where the intense darkness is only +emphasized by the momentary illumination given by lightning, which now +and then flickers in the direction of Lockton Moor. At last the +friendly little oil-lamps on the platform at Levisham Station appear +just below, and soon the railway is crossed and we are mounting the +steep road on the opposite side of the valley. What is left of the +waning light shows the rough track over the heather to High Horcum. The +huge shoulders of the moors are now majestically indistinct, and +towards the west the browns, purples, and greens are all merged in one +unfathomable blackness. The tremendous silence and the desolation +become almost oppressive, but overhead the familiar arrangement of the +constellations gives a sense of companionship not to be slighted. In +something less than an hour a light glows in the distance, and, +although the darkness is now complete, there is no further need to +trouble ourselves with the thought of spending the night on the +heather. The point of light develops into a lighted window, and we are +soon stamping our feet on the hard, smooth road in front of the +Saltersgate Inn. The door opens straight into a large stone-flagged +room. Everything is redolent of coaching days, for the cheery glow of +the fire shows a spotlessly clean floor, old high-backed settles, a gun +hooked to one of the beams overhead, quaint chairs, and oak stools, and +a fox's mask and brush. A gamekeeper is warming himself at the fire, +for the evening is chilly, and the firelight falls on his box-cloth +gaiters and heavy boots as we begin to talk of the loneliness and the +dangers of the moors, and of the snow-storms in winter, that almost +bury the low cottages and blot out all but the boldest landmarks. Soon +we are discussing the superstitions which still survive among the +simple country-folk, and the dark and lonely wilds we have just left +make this a subject of great fascination. + +Although we have heard it before, we hear over again with intense +interest the story of the witch who brought constant ill-luck to a +family in these parts. Their pigs were never free from some form of +illness, their cows died, their horses lamed themselves, and even the +milk was so far under the spell that on churning-days the butter +refused to come unless helped by a crooked sixpence. One day, when as +usual they had been churning in vain, instead of resorting to the +sixpence, the farmer secreted himself in an outbuilding, and, gun in +hand, watched the garden from a small opening. As it was growing dusk +he saw a hare coming cautiously through the hedge. He fired instantly, +the hare rolled over, dead, and almost as quickly the butter came. That +same night they heard that the old woman, whom they had long suspected +of bewitching them, had suddenly died at the same time as the hare, and +henceforward the farmer and his family prospered. + +In the light of morning the isolation of the inn is more apparent than +at night. A compact group of stable buildings and barns stands on the +opposite side of the road, and there are two or three lonely-looking +cottages, but everywhere else the world is purple and brown with ling +and heather. The morning sun has just climbed high enough to send a +flood of light down the steep hill at the back of the barns, and we can +hear the hum of the bees in the heather. In the direction of Levisham +is Gallows Dyke, the great purple bluff we passed in the darkness, and +a few yards off the road makes a sharp double bend to get up +Saltersgate Brow, the hill that overlooks the enormous circular bowl of +Horcum Hole, where Levisham Beck rises. The farmer whose buildings can +be seen down below contrives to paint the bottom of the bowl a bright +green, but the ling comes hungrily down on all sides, with evident +longings to absorb the scanty cultivation. The Dwarf Cornel a little +mountain-plant which flowers in July, is found in this 'hole.' A few +patches have been discovered in the locality, but elsewhere it is not +known south of the Cheviots. + +Away to the north the road crosses the desolate country like a +pale-green ribbon. It passes over Lockton High Moor, climbs to 700 feet +at Tom Cross Rigg and then disappears into the valley of Eller Beck, on +Goathland Moor, coming into view again as it climbs steadily up to +Sleights Moor, nearly 1,000 feet above the sea. An enormous stretch of +moorland spreads itself out towards the west. Near at hand is the +precipitous gorge of Upper Newton Dale, backed by Pickering Moor, and +beyond are the heights of Northdale Rigg and Rosedale Common, with the +blue outlines of Ralph Cross and Danby Head right on the horizon. + +The smooth, well-built road, with short grass filling the crevices +between the stones, urges us to follow its straight course northwards; +but the sternest and most remarkable portion of Upper Newton Dale lies +to the left, across the deep heather, and we are tempted aside to reach +the lip of the sinuous gorge nearly a mile away to the west, where the +railway runs along the marshy and boulder-strewn bottom of a natural +cutting 500 feet deep. The cliffs drop down quite perpendicularly for +200 feet, and the remaining distance to the bed of the stream is a +rough slope, quite bare in places, and in others densely grown over +with trees; but on every side the fortress-like scarps are as stern and +bare as any that face the ocean. Looking north or south the gorge seems +completely shut in. There is much the same effect when steaming through +the Kyles of Bute, for there the ship seems to be going full speed for +the shore of an entirely enclosed sea, and here, saving for the +tell-tale railway, there seems no way out of the abyss without scaling +the perpendicular walls. The rocks are at their finest at Killingnoble +Scar, where they take the form of a semicircle on the west side of the +railway. The scar was for a very long period famous for the breed of +hawks, which were specially watched by the Goathland men for the use of +James I., and the hawks were not displaced from their eyrie even by the +incursion of the railway into the glen, and only recently became +extinct. + +We can cross the line near Eller Beck, and, going over Goathland Moor, +explore the wooded sides of Wheeldale Beck and its water-falls. +Mallyan's Spout is the most imposing, having a drop of about 76 feet. +The village of Goathland has thrown out skirmishers towards the heather +in the form of an ancient-looking but quite modern church, with a low +central tower, and a little hotel, stone-built and fitting well into +its surroundings. The rest of the village is scattered round a large +triangular green, and extends down to the railway, where there is a +station named after the village. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ALONG THE ESK VALLEY + + +To see the valley of the Esk in its richest garb, one must wait for a +spell of fine autumn weather, when a prolonged ramble can be made along +the riverside and up on the moorland heights above. For the dense +woodlands, which are often merely pretty in midsummer, become +astonishingly lovely as the foliage draping the steep hill-sides takes +on its gorgeous colours, and the gills and becks on the moors send down +a plentiful supply of water to fill the dales with the music of rushing +streams. + +Climbing up the road towards Larpool, we take a last look at quaint old +Whitby, spread out before us almost like those wonderful old prints of +English towns they loved to publish in the eighteenth century. But +although every feature is plainly visible--the church, the abbey, the +two piers, the harbour, the old town and the new--the detail is all +lost in that soft mellowness of a sunny autumn day. We find an +enthusiastic photographer expending plates on this familiar view, which +is sold all over the town; but we do not dare to suggest that the +prints, however successful, will be painfully hackneyed, and we go on +rejoicing that the questions of stops and exposures need not trouble +us, for the world is ablaze with colour. + +Beyond the great red viaduct, whose central piers are washed by the +river far below, the road plunges into the golden shade of the woods +near Cock Mill, and then comes out by the river's bank down below, with +the little village of Ruswarp on the opposite shore. The railway goes +over the Esk just below the dam, and does is very best to spoil every +view of the great mill built in 1752 by Mr. Nathaniel Cholmley. + +The road follows close beside the winding river and all the way to +Sleights there are lovely glimpses of the shimmering waters, reflecting +the overhanging masses of foliage. The golden yellow of a bush growing +at the water's edge will be backed by masses of brown woods that here +and there have retained suggestions of green, contrasted with the deep +purple tones of their shadowy recesses. These lovely phases of Eskdale +scenery are denied to the summer visitor, but there are few who would +wish to have the riverside solitudes rudely broken into by the passing +of boatloads of holiday-makers. Just before reaching Sleights Bridge we +leave the tree-embowered road, and, going through a gate, find a +stone-flagged pathway that climbs up the side of the valley with great +deliberation, so that we are soon at a great height, with a magnificent +sweep of landscape towards the south-west, and the keen air blowing +freshly from the great table-land of Egton High Moor. + +A little higher, and we are on the road in Aislaby village. The steep +climb from the river and railway has kept off those modern influences +which have made Sleights and Grosmont architecturally depressing, and +thus we find a simple village on the edge of the heather, with +picturesque stone cottages and pretty gardens, free from companionship +with the painfully ugly modern stone house, with its thin slate roof. +The big house of the village stands on the very edge of the descent, +surrounded by high trees now swept bare of leaves. + +The first time I visited Aislaby I reached the little hamlet when it +was nearly dark. Sufficient light, however, remained in the west to +show up the large house standing in the midst of the swaying branches. +One dim light appeared in the blue-grey mass, and the dead leaves were +blown fiercely by the strong gusts of wind. On the other side of the +road stood an old grey house, whose appearance that gloomy evening well +supported the statement that it was haunted. + +I left the village in the gathering gloom and was soon out on the +heather. Away on the left, but scarcely discernible, was Swart Houe +Cross, on Egton Low Moor, and straight in front lay the Skelder Inn. A +light gleamed from one of the lower windows, and by it I guided my +steps, being determined to partake of tea before turning my steps +homeward. I stepped into the little parlour, with its sanded floor, and +demanded 'fat rascals' and tea. The girl was not surprised at my +request, for the hot turf cakes supplied at the inn are known to all +the neighbourhood by this unusual name. + +The course of the river itself is hidden by the shoulders of Egton Low +Moor beneath us, but faint sounds of the shunting of trucks are carried +up to the heights. Even when the deep valleys are warmest, and when +their atmosphere is most suggestive of a hot-house, these moorland +heights rejoice in a keen, dry air, which seems to drive away the +slightest sense of fatigue, so easily felt on the lower levels, and to +give in its place a vigour that laughs at distance. Up here, too, the +whole world seems left to Nature, the levels of cultivation being +almost out of sight, and anything under 800 feet seems low. Towards the +end of August the heights are capped with purple, although the distant +moors, however brilliant they may appear when close at hand, generally +assume more delicate shades, fading into greys and blues on the +horizon. + +Grosmont was the birthplace of the Cleveland Ironworks, and was at one +time more famous than Middlesbrough. The first cargo of ironstone was +sent from here in 1836, when the Pickering and Whitby Railway was +opened. + +We will go up the steep road to the top of Sleights Moor. It is a long +stiff climb of nearly 900 feet, but the view is one of the very finest +in this country, where wide expanses soon become commonplace. We are +sufficiently high to look right across Fylingdales Moor to the sea +beyond, a soft haze of pearly blue over the hard, rugged outline of the +ling. Away towards the north, too, the landscape for many miles is +limited only by the same horizon of sea, so that we seem to be looking +at a section of a very large-scale contour map of England. Below us on +the western side runs the Mirk Esk, draining the heights upon which we +stand as well as Egton High Moor and Wheeldale Moor. The confluence +with the Esk at Grosmont is lost in a haze of smoke and a confusion of +roofs and railway lines; and the course of the larger river in the +direction of Glaisdale is also hidden behind the steep slopes of Egton +High Moor. Towards the south we gaze over a vast desolation, crossed by +the coach-road to York as it rises and falls over the swells of the +heather. The queer isolated cone of Blakey Topping and the summit of +Gallows Dyke, close to Saltersgate, appear above the distant ridges. + +The route of the great Roman road from the south to Whitby can also be +seen from these heights. It passes straight through Cawthorn Camp, on +the ridge to the west of the village of Newton, and then runs along +within a few yards of the by-road from Pickering to Egton. It crosses +Wheeldale Beck, and skirts the ancient dyke round July or Julian Park, +at one time a hunting-seat of the great De Mauley family. The road is +about 12 feet wide, and is now deep in heather; but it is slightly +raised above the general level of the ground, and can therefore be +followed fairly easily where it has not been taken up to build walls +for enclosures. + +If we go down into the valley beneath us by a road bearing south-west, +we shall find ourselves at Beck Hole, where there is a pretty group of +stone cottages, backed by some tall firs. The Eller Beck is crossed by +a stone bridge close to its confluence with the Mirk Esk. Above the +bridge, a footpath among the huge boulders winds its way by the side of +the rushing beck to Thomasin Foss, where the little river falls in two +or three broad silver bands into a considerable pool. Great masses of +overhanging rock, shaded by a leafy roof, shut in the brimming waters. + +It is not difficult to find the way from Beck Hole to the Roman camp on +the hill-side towards Egton Bridge. The Roman road from Cawthorn goes +right through it, but beyond this it is not easy to trace, although +fragments have been discovered as far as Aislaby, all pointing to +Whitby or Sandsend Bay. Round the shoulder of the hill we come down +again to the deeply-wooded valley of the Esk. And in time we reach +Glaisdale End, where a graceful stone bridge of a single arch stands +over the rushing stream. The initials of the builder and the date +appear on the eastern side of what is now known as the Beggar's Bridge. +It was formerly called Firris Bridge, after the builder, but the +popular interest in the story of its origin seems to have killed the +old name. If you ask anyone in Whitby to mention some of the sights of +the neighbourhood, he will probably head his list with the Beggar's +Bridge, but why this is so I cannot imagine. The woods are very +beautiful, but this is a country full of the loveliest dales, and the +presence of this single-arched bridge does not seem sufficient to have +attracted so much popularity. I can only attribute it to the love +interest associated with the beggar. He was, we may imagine, the +Alderman Thomas Firris who, as a penniless youth, came to bid farewell +to his betrothed, who lived somewhere on the opposite side of the +river. Finding the stream impassable, he is said to have determined +that if he came back from his travels as a rich man he would put up a +bridge on the spot he had been prevented from crossing. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE COAST FROM WHITBY TO REDCAR + + +Along the three miles of sand running northwards from Whitby at the +foot of low alluvial cliffs, I have seen some of the finest +sea-pictures on this part of the coast. But although I have seen +beautiful effects at all times of the day, those that I remember more +than any others are the early mornings, when the sun was still low in +the heavens, when, standing on that fine stretch of yellow sand, one +seemed to breathe an atmosphere so pure, and to gaze at a sky so +transparent, that some of those undefined longings for surroundings +that have never been realized were instinctively uppermost in the mind. +It is, I imagine, that vague recognition of perfection which has its +effect on even superficial minds when impressed with beautiful scenery, +for to what other cause can be attributed the remark one hears, that +such scenes 'make one feel good'? + +Heavy waves, overlapping one another in their fruitless bombardment of +the smooth shelving sand, are filling the air with a ceaseless thunder. +The sun, shining from a sky of burnished gold, throws into silhouette +the twin lighthouses at the entrance to Whitby Harbour, and turns the +foaming wave-tops into a dazzling white, accentuated by the long +shadows of early day. Away to the north-west is Sandsend Ness, a bold +headland full of purple and blue shadows, and straight out to sea, +across the white-capped waves, are two tramp steamers, making, no +doubt, for South Shields or some port where a cargo of coal can be +picked up. They are plunging heavily, and every moment their bows seem +to go down too far to recover. + +The two little becks finding their outlet at East Row and Sandsend are +lovely to-day; but their beauty must have been much more apparent +before the North-Eastern Railway put their black lattice girder bridges +across the mouth of each valley. But now that familiarity with these +bridges, which are of the same pattern across every wooded ravine up +the coast-line to Redcar, has blunted my impressions, I can think of +the picturesqueness of East Row without remembering the railway. It was +in this glen, where Lord Normanby's lovely woods make a background for +the pretty tiled cottages, the mill, and the old stone bridge, which +make up East Row,[1] that the Saxons chose a home for their god Thor. +Here they built some rude form of temple, afterwards, it seems, +converted into a hermitage. This was how the spot obtained the name +Thordisa, a name it retained down to 1620, when the requirements of +workmen from the newly-started alum-works at Sandsend led to building +operations by the side of the stream. The cottages which arose became +known afterwards as East Row. + +[Footnote 1: Since this was written one or two new houses have been +allowed to mar the simplicity of the valley.--G.H.] + +Go where you will in Yorkshire, you will find no more fascinating +woodland scenery than that of the gorges of Mulgrave. From the broken +walls and towers of the old Norman castle the views over the ravines on +either hand--for the castle stands on a lofty promontory in a sea of +foliage--are entrancing; and after seeing the astoundingly brilliant +colours with which autumn paints these trees, there is a tendency to +find the ordinary woodland commonplace. The narrowest and deepest gorge +is hundreds of feet deep in the shale. East Row Beck drops into this +canon in the form of a water-fall at the upper end, and then almost +disappears among the enormous rocks strewn along its circumscribed +course. The humid, hot-house atmosphere down here encourages the growth +of many of the rarer mosses, which entirely cover all but the +newly-fallen rocks. + +We can leave the woods by a path leading near Lord Normanby's modern +castle, and come out on to the road close to Lythe Church, where a +great view of sea and land is spread out towards the south. The long +curving line of white marks the limits of the tide as far as the +entrance to Whitby Harbour. The abbey stands out in its loneliness as +of yore, and beyond it are the black-looking, precipitous cliffs ending +at Saltwick Nab. Lythe Church, standing in its wind-swept graveyard +full of blackened tombstones, need not keep us, for, although its +much-modernized exterior is simple and ancient-looking, the interior is +devoid of any interest. + +The walk along the rocky shore to Kettleness is dangerous unless the +tide is carefully watched, and the road inland through Lythe village is +not particularly interesting, so that one is tempted to use the +railway, which cuts right through the intervening high ground by means +of two tunnels. The first one is a mile long, and somewhere near the +centre has a passage out to the cliffs, so that even if both ends of +the tunnel collapsed there would be a way of escape. But this is small +comfort when travelling from Kettleness, for the down gradient towards +Sandsend is very steep, and in the darkness of the tunnel the train +gets up a tremendous speed, bursting into the open just where a +precipitous drop into the sea could be most easily accomplished. + +The station at Kettleness is on the top of the huge cliffs, and to +reach the shore one must climb down a zigzag path. It is a broad and +solid pathway until half-way down, where it assumes the character of a +goat-track, being a mere treading down of the loose shale of which the +enormous cliff is formed. The sliding down of the crumbling rock +constantly carries away the path, but a little spade-work soon makes +the track firm again. This portion of the cliff has something of a +history, for one night in 1829 the inhabitants of many of the cottages +originally forming the village of Kettleness were warned of impending +danger by subterranean noises. Fearing a subsidence of the cliff, they +betook themselves to a small schooner lying in the bay. This wise move +had not long been accomplished, when a huge section of the ground +occupied by the cottages slid down the great cliff and the next morning +there was little to be seen but a sloping mound of lias shale at the +foot of the precipice. The villagers recovered some of their property +by digging, and some pieces of broken crockery from one of the cottages +are still to be seen on the shore near the ferryman's hut, where the +path joins the shore. + +This sandy beach, lapped by the blue waves of Runswick Bay, is one of +the finest and most spectacular spots to be found on the rocky +coast-line of Yorkshire. You look northwards across the sunlit sea to +the rocky heights hiding Port Mulgrave and Staithes, and on the further +side of the bay you see tiny Runswick's red roofs, one above the other, +on the face of the cliff. Here it is always cool and pleasant in the +hottest weather, and from the broad shadows cast by the precipices +above one can revel in the sunny land- and sea-scapes without that fishy +odour so unavoidable in the villages. When the sun is beginning to +climb down the sky in the direction of Hinderwell, and everything is +bathed in a glorious golden light, the ferryman will row you across the +bay to Runswick, but a scramble over the rocks on the beach will be +repaid by a closer view of the now half-filled-up Hob Hole. The +fisherfolk believed this cave to be the home of a kindly-disposed fairy +or hob, who seems to have been one of the slow-dying inhabitants of the +world of mythology implicitly believed in by the Saxons. And these +beliefs died so hard in these lonely Yorkshire villages that until +recent times a mother would carry her child suffering from whooping- +cough along the beach to the mouth of the cave. There she would call in +a loud voice, 'Hob-hole Hob! my bairn's getten t'kink cough. Tak't off, +tak't off.' + +The same form of disaster which destroyed Kettleness village caused the +complete ruin of Runswick in 1666, for one night, when some of the +fisherfolk were holding a wake over a corpse, they had unmistakable +warnings of an approaching landslip. The alarm was given, and the +villagers, hurriedly leaving their cottages, saw the whole place slide +downwards, and become a mass of ruins. No lives were lost, but, as only +one house remained standing, the poor fishermen were only saved from +destitution by the sums of money collected for their relief. + +Scarcely two miles from Hinderwell is the fishing-hamlet of Staithes, +wedged into the side of a deep and exceedingly picturesque beck. + +The steep road leading past the station drops down into the village, +giving a glimpse of the beck crossed by its ramshackle wooden +foot-bridge--the view one has been prepared for by guide-books and +picture postcards. Lower down you enter the village street. Here the +smell of fish comes out to greet you, and one would forgive the place +this overflowing welcome if one were not so shocked at the dismal +aspect of the houses on either side of the way. Many are of +comparatively recent origin, others are quite new, and a few--a very +few--are old; but none have any architectural pretensions or any claims +to picturesqueness, and only a few have the neat and respectable look +one is accustomed to expect after seeing Robin Hood's Bay. + +I hurried down on to the little fish-wharf--a wooden structure facing +the sea--hoping to find something more cheering in the view of the +little bay, with its bold cliffs, and the busy scene where the cobbles +were drawn up on the shingle. Here my spirits revived, and I began to +find excuses for the painters. The little wharf, in a bad state of +repair, like most things in the place, was occupied by groups of +stalwart fisherfolk, men and women. + +The men were for the most part watching their womenfolk at work. They +were also to an astonishing extent mere spectators in the arduous work +of hauling the cobbles one by one on to the steep bank of shingle. A +tackle hooked to one of the baulks of timber forming the staith was +being hauled at by five women and two men! Two others were in a +listless fashion leaning their shoulders against the boat itself. With +the last 'Heave-ho!' at the shortened tackle the women laid hold of the +nets, and with casual male assistance laid them out on the shingle, +removed any fragments of fish, and generally prepared them for stowing +in the boat again. + +A change has come over the inhabitants of Staithes since 1846, when Mr. +Ord describes the fishermen as 'exceedingly civil and courteous to +strangers, and altogether free from that low, grasping knavery peculiar +to the larger class of fishing-towns.' Without wishing to be +unreasonably hard on Staithes, I am inclined to believe that this +character is infinitely better than these folk deserve, and even when +Mr. Ord wrote of the place I have reason to doubt the civility shown by +them to strangers. It is, according to some who have known Staithes for +a long long while, less than fifty years ago that the fisherfolk were +hostile to a stranger on very small provocation, and only the entirely +inoffensive could expect to sojourn in the village without being a +target for stones. + +No doubt many of the superstitions of Staithes people have languished +or died out in recent years, and among these may be included a +particularly primitive custom when the catches of fish had been +unusually small. Bad luck of this sort could only be the work of some +evil influence, and to break the spell a sheep's heart had to be +procured, into which many pins were stuck. The heart was then burnt in +a bonfire on the beach, in the presence of the fishermen, who danced +round the flames. + +In happy contrast to these heathenish practices was the resolution +entered into and signed by the fishermen of Staithes, in August, 1835, +binding themselves 'on no account whatever' to follow their calling on +Sundays, 'nor to go out without boats or cobbles to sea, either on the +Saturday or Sunday evenings.' They also agreed to forfeit ten shillings +for every offence against the resolution, and the fund accumulated in +this way, and by other means, was administered for the benefit of aged +couples and widows and orphans. + +The men of Staithes are known up and down the east coast of Great +Britain as some of the very finest types of fishermen. Their cobbles, +which vary in size and colour, are uniform in design and the brilliance +of their paint. Brick red, emerald green, pungent blue and white, are +the most favoured colours, but orange, pink, yellow, and many others, +are to be seen. + +Looking northwards there is a grand piece of coast scenery. The masses +of Boulby Cliffs, rising 660 feet from the sea, are the highest on the +Yorkshire coast. The waves break all round the rocky scaur, and fill +the air with their thunder, while the strong wind blows the spray into +beards which stream backwards from the incoming crests. + +The upper course of Staithes Beck consists of two streams, flowing +through deep, richly-wooded ravines. They follow parallel courses very +close to one another for three or four miles, but their sources extend +from Lealholm Moor to Wapley Moor. Kilton Beck runs through another +lovely valley densely clothed in trees, and full of the richest +woodland scenery. It becomes more open in the neighbourhood of Loftus, +and from thence to the sea at Skinningrove the valley is green and open +to the heavens. Loftus is on the borders of the Cleveland mining +district, and it is for this reason that the town has grown to a +considerable size. But although the miners' new cottages are +unpicturesque, and the church only dates from 1811, the situation is +pretty, owing to the profusion of trees among the houses, has +railway-sidings and branch-lines running down to it, and on the hill +above the cottages stands a cluster of blast-furnaces. In daylight they +are merely ugly, but at night, with tongues of flame, they speak of the +potency of labour. I can still see that strange silhouette of steel +cylinders and connecting girders against a blue-black sky, with silent +masses of flame leaping into the heavens. + +It was long before iron-ore was smelted here, before even the old +alum-works had been started, that Skinningrove attained to some sort of +fame through a wonderful visit, as strange as any of those recounted by +Mr. Wells. It was in the year 1535--for the event is most carefully +recorded in a manuscript of the period--that some fishermen of +Skinningrove caught a Sea Man. This was such an astounding fact to +record that the writer of the old manuscript explains that 'old men +that would be loath to have their credyt crackt by a tale of a stale +date, report confidently that ... a _sea-man_ was taken by the +fishers.' They took him up to an old disused house, and kept him there +for many weeks, feeding him on raw fish, because he persistently +refused the other sorts of food offered him. To the people who flocked +from far and near to visit him he was very courteous, and he seems to +have been particularly pleased with any 'fayre maydes' who visited him, +for he would gaze at them with a very earnest countenance, 'as if his +phlegmaticke breaste had been touched with a sparke of love.' + +The lofty coast-line we have followed all the way from Sandsend +terminates abruptly at Huntcliff Nab, the great promontory which is +familiar to visitors to Saltburn. Low alluvial cliffs take the place of +the rocky precipices, and the coast becomes flatter and flatter as you +approach Redcar and the marshy country at the mouth of the Tees. The +original Saltburn, consisting of a row of quaint fishermen's cottages, +still stands entirely alone, facing the sea on the Huntcliff side of +the beck, and from the wide, smooth sands there is little of modern +Saltburn to be seen besides the pier. For the rectangular streets and +blocks of houses have been wisely placed some distance from the edge of +the grassy cliffs, leaving the sea-front quite unspoiled. + +The elaborately-laid-out gardens on the steep banks of Skelton Beck are +the pride and joy of Saltburn, for they offer a pleasant contrast to +the bare slopes on the Huntcliff side and the flat country towards +Kirkleatham. But in this seemingly harmless retreat there used to be +heard horrible groanings, and I have no evidence to satisfy me that +they have altogether ceased. For in this matter-of-fact age such a +story would not be listened to, and thus those who hear the sounds may +be afraid to speak of them. The groanings were heard, they say, 'when +all wyndes are whiste and the rea restes unmoved as a standing poole.' +At times they were so loud as to be heard at least six miles inland, +and the fishermen feared to put out to sea, believing that the ocean +was 'as a greedy Beaste raginge for Hunger, desyers to be satisfyed +with men's carcases.' + +In 1842 Redcar was a mere village, though more apparent on the map than +Saltburn; but, like its neighbour, it has grown into a great +watering-place, having developed two piers, a long esplanade, and other +features, which I am glad to leave to those for whom they were made, +and betake myself to the more romantic spots so plentiful in this broad +county. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE COAST FROM WHITBY TO SCARBOROUGH + + +Although it is only six miles as the crow flies from Whitby to Robin +Hood's Bay, the exertion required to walk there along the top of the +cliffs is equal to quite double that distance, for there are so many +gullies to be climbed into and crawled out of that the measured +distance is considerably increased. It is well to remember this, for +otherwise the scenery of the last mile or two may not seem as fine as +the first stages. + +As soon as the abbey and the jet-sellers are left behind, you pass a +farm, and come out on a great expanse of close-growing smooth turf, +where the whole world seems to be made up of grass and sky. The +footpath goes close to the edge of the cliff; in some places it has +gone too close, and has disappeared altogether. But these diversions +can be avoided without spoiling the magnificent glimpses of the +rock-strewn beach nearly 200 feet below. From above Saltwick Bay there +is a grand view across the level grass to Whitby Abbey, standing out +alone on the green horizon. Down below, Nab runs out a bare black arm +into the sea, which even in the calmest weather angrily foams along the +windward side. Beyond the sturdy lighthouse that shows itself a +dazzling white against the hot blue of the heavens commence the +innumerable gullies. Each one has its trickling stream, and bushes and +low trees grow to the limits of the shelter afforded by the ravines; +but in the open there is nothing higher than the waving corn or the +stone walls dividing the pastures--a silent testimony to the power of +the north-east wind. + +After rounding the North Cheek, the whole of Robin Hood's Bay is +suddenly laid before you. I well remember my first view of the wide +sweep of sea, which lay like a blue carpet edged with white, and the +high escarpments of rock that were in deep purple shade, except where +the afternoon sun turned them into the brightest greens and umbers. +Three miles away, but seemingly very much closer, was the bold headland +of the Peak, and more inland was Stoupe Brow, with Robin Hood's Butts +on the hill-top. The fable connected with the outlaw is scarcely worth +repeating, but on the site of these butts urns have been dug up, and +are now to be found in Scarborough Museum. The Bay Town is hidden away +in a most astonishing fashion, for, until you have almost reached the +two bastions which guard the way up from the beach, there is nothing to +be seen of the charming old place. If you approach by the road past the +railway station it is the same, for only garishly new hotels and villas +are to be seen on the high ground, and not a vestige of the +fishing-town can be discovered. But the road to the bay at last begins +to drop down very steeply, and the first old roofs appear. The oath at +the side of the road develops into a very lone series of steps, and in +a few minutes the narrow street flanked by very tall houses, has +swallowed you up. + +Everything is very clean and orderly, and, although most of the houses +are very old, they are generally in a good state of repair, exhibiting +in every case the seaman's love of fresh paint. Thus, the dark and worn +stone walls have bright eyes in their newly-painted doors and windows. +Over their door-steps the fishermen's wives are quite fastidious, and +you seldom see a mark on the ochre-coloured hearth-stone with which the +women love to brighten the worn stones. Even the scrapers are sleek +with blacklead, and it is not easy to find a window without spotless +curtains. At high tide the sea comes half-way up the steep opening +between the coastguards' quarters and the inn which is built on another +bastion, and in rough weather the waves break hungrily on to the strong +stone walls, for the bay is entirely open to the full force of gales +from the east or north-east. All the way from Scarborough to Whitby the +coast offers no shelter of any sort in heavy weather, and many vessels +have been lost on the rocks. On one occasion a small sailing-ship was +driven right into this bay at high tide, and the bowsprit smashed into +a window of the little hotel that occupied the place of the present +one. + +The railway southwards takes a curve inland, and, after winding in and +out to make the best of the contour of the hills, the train finally +steams very heavily and slowly into Ravenscar Station, right over the +Peak and 630 feet above the sea. On the way you get glimpses of the +moors inland, and grand views over the curving bay. There is a station +named Fyling Hall, after Sir Hugh Cholmley's old house, half-way to +Ravenscar. + +Raven Hall, the large house conspicuously perched on the heights above +the Peak, is now converted into an hotel. There is a wonderful view +from the castellated terraces, which in the distance suggest the +remains of some ruined fortress. At the present time there is nothing +to be seen older than the house whose foundations were dug in 1774. +While the building operations were in progress, however, a Roman +inscribed stone, now in Whitby Museum, was unearthed. It states that +the 'Castrum' was built by two prefects whose names are given. This was +one of the fortified signal stations built in the 4th century A.D. to +give warning of the approach of hostile ships. + +Following this lofty coast southwards, you reach Hayburn Wyke, where a +stream drops perpendicularly over some square masses of rock. + +There is a small stone circle not far from Hayburn Wyke Station, to be +found without much trouble, and those who are interested in Early Man +will scarcely find a neighbourhood in this country more thickly +honey-combed with tumuli and ancient earth-works. There is no +particularly plain pathway through the fields to the valley where this +stone circle can be seen, but it can easily be found after a careful +study of the large-scale Ordnance Map which they will show you at the +hotel. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +SCARBOROUGH + + +Dazzling sunshine, a furious wind, flapping and screaming gulls, crowds +of fishing-boats, and innumerable people jostling one another on the +sea-front, made up the chief features of my first view of Scarborough. +By degrees I discovered that behind the gulls and the brown sails were +old houses, their roofs dimly red through the transparent haze, and +above them appeared a great green cliff, with its uneven outline +defined by the curtain walls and towers of the castle which had made +Scarborough a place of importance in the Civil War and in earlier +times. + +The wide-curving bay was filled with huge breaking waves which looked +capable of destroying everything within their reach, but they seemed +harmless enough when I looked a little further out, where eight or ten +grey war-ships were riding at their anchors, apparently motionless. + +From the outer arm of the harbour, where the seas were angrily +attempting to dislodge the top row of stones, I could make out the +great mass of grey buildings stretching right to the extremity of the +bay. + +I tried to pick out individual buildings from this city-like +watering-place, but, beyond discovering the position of the Spa and one +or two of the mightier hotels, I could see very little, and instead +fell to wondering how many landladies and how many foreign waiters the +long lines of grey roofs represented. This raised so many unpleasant +recollections of the various types I had encountered that I determined +to go no nearer to modern Scarborough than the pier-head upon which I +stood. A specially big wave, however, soon drove me from this position +to a drier if more crowded spot, and, reconsidering my objections, I +determined to see something of the innumerable grey streets which make +up the fashionable watering-place. The terraced gardens on the steep +cliffs along the sea-front were most elaborately well kept, but a more +striking feature of Scarborough is the magnificence of so many of the +shops. They suggest a city rather than a seaside town, and give you an +idea of the magnitude of the permanent population of the place as well +as the flood of summer and winter visitors. The origin of Scarborough's +popularity was undoubtedly due to the chalybeate waters of the Spa, +discovered in 1620, almost at the same time as those of Tunbridge Wells +and Epsom. + +The unmistakable signs of antiquity in the narrow streets adjoining the +harbour irresistibly remind one of the days when sea-bathing had still +to be popularized, when the efficacy of Scarborough's medicinal spring +had not been discovered, of the days when the place bore as little +resemblance to its present size or appearance as the fishing-town at +Robin Hood's Bay. + +We do not know that Piers Gaveston, Sir Hugh Cholmley, and other +notabilities who have left their mark on the pages of Scarborough's +history, might not, were they with us to-day, welcome the pierrot, the +switchback, the restaurant, and other means by which pleasure-loving +visitors wile away their hardly-earned holidays; but for my part the +story of Scarborough's Mayor who was tossed in a blanket is far more +entertaining than the songs of nigger minstrels or any of the +commercial attempts to amuse. + +This strangely improper procedure with one who held the highest office +in the municipality took place in the reign of James II., and the +King's leanings towards Popery were the cause of all the trouble. + +On April 27, 1688, a declaration for liberty of conscience was +published, and by royal command the said declaration was to be read in +every Protestant church in the land. Mr. Thomas Aislabie, the Mayor of +Scarborough, duly received a copy of the document, and, having handed +it to the clergyman, Mr. Noel Boteler, ordered him to read it in church +on the following Sunday morning. There seems little doubt that the +worthy Mr. Boteler at once recognized a wily move on the part of the +King, who under the cover of general tolerance would foster the growth +of the Roman religion until such time as the Catholics had attained +sufficient power to suppress Protestantism. Mr. Mayor was therefore +informed that the declaration would not be read. On Sunday morning +(August 11) when the omission had been made, the Mayor left his pew, +and, stick in hand, walked up the aisle, seized the minister, and caned +him as he stood at his reading-desk. Scenes of such a nature did not +occur every day even in 1688, and the storm of indignation and +excitement among the members of the congregation did not subside so +quickly as it had risen. + +The cause of the poor minister was championed in particular by a +certain Captain Ouseley, and the discussion of the matter on the +bowling-green on the following day led to the suggestion that the Mayor +should be sent for to explain his conduct. As he took no notice of a +courteous message requesting his attendance, the Captain repeated the +summons accompanied by a file of musketeers. In the meantime many +suggestions for dealing with Mr. Aislabie in a fitting manner were +doubtless made by the Captain's brother officers, and, further, some +settled course of action seems to have been agreed upon, for we do not +hear of any hesitation on the part of the Captain on the arrival of the +Mayor, whose rage must by this time have been bordering upon apoplexy. +A strong blanket was ready, and Captains Carvil, Fitzherbert, Hanmer, +and Rodney, led by Captain Ouseley and assisted by as many others as +could find room, seizing the sides, in a very few moments Mr. Mayor was +revolving and bumping, rising and falling, as though he were no weight +at all. + +If the castle does not show many interesting buildings beyond the keep +and the long line of walls and drumtowers, there is so much concerning +it that is of great human interest that I should scarcely feel able to +grumble if there were still fewer remains. Behind the ancient houses in +Quay Street rises the steep, grassy cliff, up which one must climb by +various rough pathways to the fortified summit. On the side facing the +mainland, a hollow, known as the Dyke, is bridged by a tall and narrow +archway, in place of the drawbridge of the seventeenth century and +earlier times. On the same side is a massive barbican, looking across +an open space to St. Mary's Church, which suffered so severely during +the sieges of the castle. The maimed church--for the chancel has never +been rebuilt--is close to the Dyke and the shattered keep, and so +apparent are the results of the cannonading between them that no one +requires to be told that the Parliamentary forces mounted their +ordnance in the chancel and tower of the church, and it is equally +obvious that the Royalists returned the fire hotly. + +The great siege lasted for nearly a year, and although his garrison was +small, and there was practically no hope of relief, Sir Hugh Cholmley +seems to have kept a stout heart up to the end. With him throughout +this long period of privation and suffering was his beautiful and +courageous wife, whose comparatively early death, at the age of +fifty-four, must to some extent be attributed to the strain and fatigue +borne during these months of warfare. Sir Hugh seems to have almost +worshipped his wife, for in his memoirs he is never weary of describing +her perfections. + +'She was of the middle stature of women,' he writes, 'and well shaped, +yet in that not so singular as in the beauty of her face, which was but +of a little model, and yet proportionable to her body; her eyes black +and full of loveliness and sweetness, her eyebrows small and even, as +if drawn with a pencil, a very little, pretty, well-shaped mouth, which +sometimes (especially when in a muse or study) she would draw up into +an incredible little compass; her hair a sad chestnut; her complexion +brown, but clear, with a fresh colour in her cheeks, a loveliness in +her looks inexpressible; and by her whole composure was so beautiful a +sweet creature at her marriage as not many did parallel, few exceed +her, in the nation; yet the inward endowments and perfections of her +mind did exceed those outward of her body, being a most pious virtuous +person, of great integrity and discerning judgment in most things.' + +On one occasion during the siege Sir John Meldrum, the Parliamentary +commander, sent proposals to Sir Hugh Cholmley, which he accompanied +with savage threats, that if his terms were not immediately accepted he +would make a general assault on the castle that night, and in the event +of one drop of his men's blood being shed he would give orders for a +general massacre of the garrison, sparing neither man nor woman. + +To a man whose devotion to his beautiful wife was so great, a threat of +this nature must have been a severe shock to his determination to hold +out. But from his own writings we are able to picture for ourselves Sir +Hugh's anxious and troubled face lighting up on the approach of the +cause of his chief concern. Lady Cholmley, without any sign of the +inward misgivings or dejection which, with her gentle and shrinking +nature, must have been a great struggle, came to her husband, and +implored him to on no account let her peril influence his decision to +the detriment of his own honour or the King's affairs. + +Sir John Meldrum's proposals having been rejected, the garrison +prepared itself for the furious attack commenced on May 11. + +The assault was well planned, for while the Governor's attention was +turned towards the gateway leading to the castle entrance, another +attack was made at the southern end of the wall towards the sea, where +until the year 1730 Charles's Tower stood. The bloodshed at this point +was greater than at the gateway. At the head of a chosen division of +troops, Sir John Meldrum climbed the almost precipitous ascent with +wonderful courage, only to meet with such spirited resistance on the +part of the besieged that, when the attack was abandoned, it was +discovered that Meldrum had received a dangerous wound penetrating to +his thigh, and that several of his officers and men had been killed. +Meanwhile, at the gateway, the first success of the assailants had been +checked at the foot of the Grand Tower or Keep, for at that point the +rush of drab-coated and helmeted men was received by such a shower of +stones and missiles that many stumbled and were crushed on the steep +pathway. Not even Cromwell's men could continue to face such a +reception, and before very long the Governor could embrace his wife in +the knowledge that the great attack had failed. + +At last, on July 22, 1645--his forty-fifth birthday--Sir Hugh was +forced to come to an agreement with the enemy, by which he honourably +surrendered the castle three days later. It was a sad procession that +wound its way down the steep pathway, littered with the debris of +broken masonry: for many of Sir Hugh's officers and soldiers were in +such a weak condition that they had to be carried out in sheets or +helped along between two men, and the Parliamentary officer adds rather +tersely, that 'the rest were not very fit to march.' The scurvy had +depleted the ranks of the defenders to such an extent that the women in +the castle, despite the presence of Lady Cholmley, threatened to stone +the Governor unless he capitulated. + +Three years later the castle was again besieged by the Parliamentary +forces, for Colonel Matthew Boynton, the Governor, had declared for the +King. The garrison held out from August to December, when terms were +made with Colonel Hugh Bethell, by which the Governor, officers, +gentlemen, and soldiers, marched out with 'their colours flying, drums +beating, musquets loaden, bandeleers filled, matches lighted, and +bullet in mouth, to a close called Scarborough Common,' where they laid +down their arms. + +Before I leave Scarborough I must go back to early times, in order that +the antiquity of the place may not be slighted owing to the omission of +any reference to the town in the Domesday Book. Tosti, Count of +Northumberland, who, as everyone knows, was brother of the Harold who +fought at Senlac Hill, had brought about an insurrection of the +Northumbrians, and having been dispossessed by his brother, he revenged +himself by inviting the help of Haralld Hadrada, King of Norway. The +Norseman promptly accepted the offer, and, taking with him his family +and an army of warriors, sailed for the Shetlands, where Tosti joined +him. The united forces then came down the east coast of Britain until +they reached Scardaburgum, where they landed and prepared to fight the +inhabitants. The town was then built entirely of timber, and there was, +apparently, no castle of any description on the great hill, for the +Norsemen, finding their opponents inclined to offer a stout resistance, +tried other tactics. They gained possession of the hill, constructed a +huge fire, and when the wood was burning fiercely, flung the blazing +brands down on to the wooden houses below. The fire spread from one hut +to another with sufficient speed to drive out the defenders, who in the +confusion which followed were slaughtered by the enemy. + +This occurred in the momentous year 1066, when Harold, having defeated +the Norsemen and slain Haralld Hadrada at Stamford Bridge, had to hurry +southwards to meet William the Norman at Hastings. It is not +surprising, therefore, that the compilers of the Conqueror's survey +should have failed to record the existence of the blackened embers of +what had once been a town. But such a site as the castle hill could not +long remain idle in the stormy days of the Norman Kings, and William le +Gros, Earl of Albemarle and Lord of Holderness, recognising the natural +defensibility of the rock, built the massive walls which have withstood +so many assaults, and even now form the most prominent feature of +Scarborough. + +Until 1923 there was no knowledge of there having been any Roman +occupation of the promontory upon which the castle stands. Excavations +made in that year have shown that a massively-built watch tower was +maintained there during the last phase of Roman control in Britain. +This was one of a chain of signal or lookout stations placed along the +Yorkshire coast when the threat of raiders from the mouths of the +German rivers had become serious. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WHITBY + + + Behold the glorious summer sea + As night's dark wings unfold, + And o'er the waters, 'neath the stars, + The harbour lights behold. + +_E. Teschemacher_. + +Despite a huge influx of summer visitors, and despite the modern town +which has grown up to receive them, Whitby is still one of the most +strikingly picturesque towns in England. But at the same time, if one +excepts the abbey, the church, and the market-house, there are scarcely +any architectural attractions in the town. The charm of the place does +not lie so much in detail as in broad effects. The narrow streets have +no surprises in the way of carved-oak brackets or curious panelled +doorways, although narrow passages and steep flights of stone steps +abound. On the other hand, the old parts of the town, when seen from a +distance, are always presenting themselves in new apparel. + +In the early morning the East Cliff generally appears as a pale grey +silhouette with a square projection representing the church, and a +fretted one the abbey. + +But as the sun climbs upwards, colour and definition grow out of the +haze of smoke and shadows, and the roofs assume their ruddy tones. At +midday, when the sunlight pours down upon the medley of houses +clustered along the face of the cliff, the scene is brilliantly +coloured. The predominant note is the red of the chimneys and roofs and +stray patches of brickwork, but the walls that go down to the water's +edge are green below and full of rich browns above, and in many places +the sides of the cottages are coloured with an ochre wash, while above +them all the top of the cliff appears covered with grass. There is +scarcely a chimney in this old part of Whitby that does not contribute +to the mist of blue-grey smoke that slowly drifts up the face of the +cliff, and thus, when there is no bright sunshine, colour and details +are subdued in the haze. + +In many towns whose antiquity and picturesqueness are more popular than +the attractions of Whitby, the railway deposits one in some +distressingly ugly modern excrescence, from which it may even be +necessary for a stranger to ask his way to the old-world features he +has come to see. But at Whitby the railway, without doing any harm to +the appearance of the town, at once gives a visitor as typical a scene +of fishing-life as he will ever find. When the tide is up and the +wharves are crowded with boats, this upper portion of Whitby Harbour is +at its best, and to step from the railway compartment entered at King's +Cross into this picturesque scene is an experience to be remembered. + +In the deepening twilight of a clear evening the harbour gathers to +itself the additional charm of mysterious indefiniteness, and among the +long-drawn-out reflections appear sinuous lines of yellow light beneath +the lamps by the bridge. Looking towards the ocean from the outer +harbour, one sees the massive arms which Whitby has thrust into the +waves, holding aloft the steady lights that + + 'Safely guide the mighty ships + Into the harbour bay.' + +If we keep to the waterside, modern Whitby has no terrors for us. It is +out of sight, and might therefore have never existed. But when we have +crossed the bridge, and passed along the narrow thoroughfare known as +Church Street to the steps leading up the face of the cliff, we must +prepare ourselves for a new aspect of the town. There, upon the top of +the West Cliff, stand rows of sad-looking and dun-coloured +lodging-houses, relieved by the aggressive bulk of a huge hotel, with +corner turrets, that frowns savagely at the unfinished crescent, where +there are many apartments with 'rooms facing the sea.' + +Turning landwards we look over the chimney stacks of the topmost +houses, and see the silver Esk winding placidly in the deep channel it +has carved for itself; and further away we see the far off moorland +heights, brown and blue, where the sources of the broad river down +below are fed by the united efforts of innumerable tiny streams deep in +the heather. Behind us stands the massive-looking parish church, with +its Norman tower, so sturdily built that its height seems scarcely +greater than its breadth. There is surely no other church with such a +ponderous exterior that is so completely deceptive as to its internal +aspect, for St. Mary's contains the most remarkable series of +beehive-like galleries that were ever crammed into a parish church. +They are not merely very wide and ill-arranged, but they are superposed +one abode the other. The free use of white paint all over the sloping +tiers of pews has prevented the interior from being as dark as it would +have otherwise been, but the result of all this painted deal has been +to give the building the most eccentric and indecorous appearance. + +The early history of Whitby from the time of the landing of Roman +soldiers in the inlet seems to be very closely associated with the +abbey founded by Hilda about two years after the battle of Winwidfield, +fought on November 15, A.D. 654; but I will not venture to state an +opinion here as to whether there was any town at Streoneshalh before +the building of the abbey, or whether the place that has since become +known as Whitby grew on account of the presence of the abbey. Such +matters as these have been fought out by an expert in the archaeology +of Cleveland--the late Canon Atkinson, who seemed to take infinite +pleasure in demolishing the elaborately constructed theories of those +painstaking historians of the eighteenth century, Dr. Young and Mr. +Lionel Charlton. + +Many facts, however, which throw light on the early days of the abbey +are now unassailable. We see that Hilda must have been a most +remarkable woman for her times, instilling into those around her a +passion for learning as well as right-living, for despite the fact that +they worked and prayed in rude wooden buildings, with walls formed, +most probably, of split tree-trunks, after the fashion of the church at +Greenstead in Essex, we find the institution producing, among others, +such men as Bosa and John, both Archbishops of York, and such a poet as +Caedmon. The legend of his inspiration, however, may be placed beside +the story of how the saintly Abbess turned the snakes into the fossil +ammonites with which the liassic shores of Whitby are strewn. Hilda, +who probably died in the year 680, was succeeded by Aelfleda, the +daughter of King Oswiu of Northumbria, whom she had trained in the +abbey, and there seems little doubt that her pupil carried on +successfully the beneficent work of the foundress. + +Aelfleda had the support of her mother's presence as well as the wise +counsels of Bishop Trumwine, who had taken refuge at Streoneshalh, +after having been driven from his own sphere of work by the +depredations of the Picts and Scots. We then learn that Aelfleda died +at the age of fifty-nine, but from that year--probably 713--a complete +silence falls upon the work of the abbey; for if any records were made +during the next century and a half, they have been totally lost. About +the year 867 the Danes reached this part of Yorkshire, and we know that +they laid waste the abbey, and most probably the town also; but the +invaders gradually started new settlements, or 'bys,' and Whitby must +certainly have grown into a place of some size by the time of Edward +the Confessor, for just previous to the Norman invasion it was assessed +for Danegeld to the extent of a sum equivalent to £3,500 at the present +time. + +After the Conquest a monk named Reinfrid succeeded in reviving a +monastery on the site of the old one, having probably gained the +permission of William de Percy, the lord of the district. The new +establishment, however, was for monks only, and was for some time +merely a priory. + +The form of the successive buildings from the time of Hilda until the +building of the stately abbey church, whose ruins are now to be seen, +is a subject of great interest, but, unfortunately, there are few facts +to go upon. The very first church was, as I have already suggested, a +building of rude construction, scarcely better than the humble +dwellings of the monks and nuns. The timber walls were most probably +thatched, and the windows would be of small lattice or boards pierced +with small holes. Gradually the improvements brought about would have +led to the use of stone for the walls, and the buildings destroyed by +the Danes may have resembled such examples of Anglo-Saxon work as may +still be seen in the churches of Bradford-on-Avon and Monkwearmouth. + +The buildings erected by Reinfrid under the Norman influence then +prevailing in England must have been a slight advance upon the +destroyed fabric, and we know that during the time of his successor, +Serlo de Percy, there was a certain Godfrey in charge of the building +operations, and there is every reason to believe that he completed the +church during the fifty years of prosperity the monastery passed +through at that time. But this was not the structure which survived, +for towards the end of Stephen's reign, or during that of Henry II., +the unfortunate convent was devastated by the King of Norway, who +entered the harbour, and, in the words of the chronicle, 'laid waste +everything, both within doors and without.' The abbey slowly recovered +from this disaster, and the reconstruction commenced in 1220, still +makes a conspicuous landmark from the sea. It was after the Dissolution +that the abbey buildings came into the hands of Sir Richard Cholmley, +who paid over to Henry VIII. the sum of £333 8s. 4d. The manors of +Eskdaleside and Ugglebarnby, with all 'their rights, members and +appurtenances as they formerly had belonged to the abbey of Whiby,' +henceforward belonged to Sir Richard and his successors. + +Sir Hugh Cholmley, whose defence of Scarborough Castle has made him a +name in history, was born on July 22, 1600, at Roxby, near Pickering. +He has been justly called 'the father of Whitby,' and it is to him we +owe a fascinating account of his life at Whitby in Stuart and Jacobean +times. He describes how he lived for some time in the gate-house of the +abbey buildings, 'till my house was repaired and habitable, which then +was very ruinous and all unhandsome, the wall being only of timber and +plaster, and ill-contrived within: and besides the repairs, or rather +re-edifying the house, I built the stable and barn, I heightened the +outwalls of the court double to what they were, and made all the wall +round about the paddock; so that the place hath been improved very +much, both for beauty and profit, by me more than all my ancestors, for +there was not a tree about the house but was set in my time, and almost +by my own hand.' + +In the spring of 1636 the reconstruction of the abbey house was +finished, and Sir Hugh moved in with his family. 'My dear wife,' he +says '(who was excellent at dressing and making all handsome within +doors), had put it into a fine posture, and furnished with many good +things, so that, I believe, there were few gentlemen in the country, of +my rank, exceeded it.... I was at this time made Deputy-lieutenant and +Colonel over the Train-bands within the hundred of Whitby Strand, +Ruedale, Pickering, Lythe and Scarborough town; for that, my father +being dead, the country looked upon me as the chief of my family.' + +'I had between thirty and forty in my ordinary family, a chaplain who +said prayers every morning at six, and again before dinner and supper, +a porter who merely attended the gates, which were ever shut up before +dinner, when the bell rung to prayers, and not opened till one o'clock, +except for some strangers who came to dinner, which was ever fit to +receive three or four besides my family, without any trouble; and +whatever their fare was, they were sure to have a hearty welcome. As a +definite result of his efforts, 'all that part of the pier to the west +end of the harbour' was erected, and yet he complains that, though it +was the means of preserving a large section of the town from the sea, +the townsfolk would not interest themselves in the repairs necessitated +by force of the waves. 'I wish, with all my heart,' he exclaims, 'the +next generation may have more public spirit.' + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE CLEVELAND HILLS + + +On their northern and western flanks the Cleveland Hills have a most +imposing and mountainous aspect, although their greatest altitudes do +not aspire to more than about 1,500 feet. But they rise so suddenly to +their full height out of the flat sea of green country that they often +appear as a coast defended by a bold range of mountains. Roseberry +Topping stands out in grim isolation, on its masses of alum rock, like +a huge sea-worn crag, considerably over 1,000 feet high. But this +strangely menacing peak raises his defiant head over nothing but broad +meadows, arable land, and woodlands, and his only warfare is with the +lower strata of storm-clouds, which is a convenient thing for the +people who live in these parts; for long ago they used the peak as a +sign of approaching storms, having reduced the warning to the +easily-remembered couplet: + + 'When Roseberry Topping wears a cap, + Let Cleveland then beware of a clap.' + +From the fact that you can see this remarkable peak from almost every +point of the compass except south-westwards, it must follow that from +the top of the hill there are views in all those directions. But to see +so much of the country at once comes as a surprise to everyone. +Stretching inland towards the backbone of England, there is spread out +a huge tract of smiling country, covered with a most complex network of +hedges, which gradually melt away into the indefinite blue edge of the +world where the hills of Wensleydale rise from the plain. Looking +across the little town of Guisborough, lying near the shelter of the +hills, to the broad sweep of the North Sea, this piece of Yorkshire +seems so small that one almost expects to see the Cheviots away in the +north. But, beyond the winding Tees and the drifting smoke of the great +manufacturing towns on its banks, one must be content with the county +of Durham, a huge section of which is plainly visible. Turning towards +the brown moorlands, the cultivation is exchanged for ridge beyond +ridge of total desolation--a huge tract of land in this crowded England +where the population for many square miles at a time consists of the +inmates of a lonely farm or two in the circumscribed cultivated areas +of the dales. + +Eight or nine hundred years ago these valleys were choked up with +forests. The Early British inhabitants were more inclined to the +hill-tops than the hollows, if the innumerable indications of their +settlements be any guide, and there is every reason for believing that +many of the hollows in the folds of the heathery moorlands were rarely +visited by man. Thus, the suggestion has been made that a few of the +last representatives of now extinct monsters may have survived in these +wild retreats, for how otherwise do we find persistent stories in these +parts of Yorkshire, handed down we cannot tell how many centuries, of +strange creatures described as 'worms'? At Loftus they show you the +spot where a 'grisly worm' had its lair, and in many places there are +traditions of strange long-bodied dragons who were slain by various +valiant men. + +On Easby Moor, a few miles to the south of Roseberry Topping, the tall +column to the memory of Captain Cook stands like a lighthouse on this +inland coastline. The lofty position it occupies among these brown and +purply-green heights makes the monument visible over a great tract of +the sailor's native Cleveland. The people who live in Marton, the +village of his birthplace, can see the memorial of their hero's fame, +and the country lads of to-day are constantly reminded of the success +which attended the industry and perseverance of a humble Marton boy. + +The cottage where James Cook was born in 1728 has gone, but the field +in which it stood is called Cook's Garth. The shop at Staithes, +generally spoken of as a 'huckster's,' where Cook was apprenticed as a +boy, has also disappeared; but, unfortunately, that unpleasant story of +his having taken a shilling from his master's till, when the +attractions of the sea proved too much for him to resist, persistently +clings to all accounts of his early life. There seems no evidence to +convict him of this theft, but there are equally no facts by which to +clear him. But if we put into the balance his subsequent term of +employment at Whitby, the excellent character he gained when he went to +sea, and Professor J.K. Laughton's statement that he left Staithes +'after some disagreement with his master,' there seems every reason to +believe that the story is untrue. + +I have seldom seen a more uninhabited and inhospitable-looking country +than the broad extent of purple hills that stretch away to the +south-west from Great Ayton and Kildale Moors. Walking from Guisborough +to Kildale on a wild and stormy afternoon in October, I was totally +alone for the whole distance when I had left behind me the baker's boy +who was on his way to Hutton with a heavy basket of bread and cakes. +Hutton, which is somewhat of a model village for the retainers attached +to Hutton Hall, stands in a lovely hollow at the edge of the moors. The +steep hills are richly clothed with sombre woods, and the peace and +seclusion reigning there is in marked contrast to the bleak wastes +above. When I climbed the steep road on that autumn afternoon, and, +passing the zone of tall, withered bracken, reached the open moorland, +I seemed to have come out merely to be the plaything of the elements; +for the south-westerly gale, when it chose to do so, blew so fiercely +that it was difficult to make any progress at all. Overhead was a dark +roof composed of heavy masses of cloud, forming long parallel lines of +grey right to the horizon. On each side of the rough, water-worn road +the heather made a low wall, two or three feet high, and stretched +right away to the horizon in every direction. In the lulls, between the +fierce blasts, I could hear the trickle of the water in the rivulets +deep down in the springy cushion of heather. A few nimble sheep would +stare at me from a distance, and then disappear, or some grouse might +hover over a piece of rising ground; but otherwise there were no signs +of living creatures. Nearing Kildale, the road suddenly plunged +downwards to a stream flowing through a green, cultivated valley, with +a lonely farm on the further slope. There was a fir-wood above this, +and as I passed over the hill, among the tall, bare stems, the clouds +parted a little in the west, and let a flood of golden light into the +wood. Instantly the gloom seemed to disappear, and beyond the dark +shoulder of moorland, where the Cook monument appeared against the +glory of the sunset, there seemed to reign an all-pervading peace, the +wood being quite silent, for the wind had dropped. + +The rough track through the trees descended hurriedly, and soon gave a +wide view over Kildale. The valley was full of colour from the glowing +west, and the steep hillsides opposite appeared lighter than the indigo +clouds above, now slightly tinged with purple. The little village of +Kildale nestled down below, its church half buried in yellow foliage. + +The ruined Danby Castle can still be seen on the slope above the Esk, +but the ancient Bow Bridge at Castleton, which was built at the end of +the twelfth century, was barbarously and needlessly destroyed in 1873. +A picture of the bridge has, fortunately, been preserved in Canon +Atkinson's 'Forty Years in a Moorland Parish.' That book has been so +widely read that it seems scarcely necessary to refer to it here, but +without the help of the Vicar, who knew every inch of his wild parish, +the Danby district must seem much less interesting. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +GUISBOROUGH AND THE SKELTON VALLEY + + +Although a mere fragment of the Augustinian Priory of Guisborough is +standing to-day, it is sufficiently imposing to convey a powerful +impression of the former size and magnificence of the monastic church. +This fragment is the gracefully buttressed east-end of the choir, which +rises from the level meadow-land to the east of the town. The stonework +is now of a greenish-grey tone, but in the shadows there is generally a +look of blue. Beyond the ruin and through the opening of the great east +window, now bare of tracery, you see the purple moors, with the +ever-formidable Roseberry Topping holding its head above the green +woods and pastures. + +The destruction of the priory took place most probably during the reign +of Henry VIII., but there are no recorded facts to give the date of the +spoiling of the stately buildings. The materials were probably sold to +the highest bidder, for in the town of Guisborough there are scattered +many fragments of richly-carved stone, and Ord, one of the historians +of Cleveland, says: 'I have beheld with sorrow, and shame, and +indignation, the richly ornamented columns and carved architraves of +God's temple supporting the thatch of a pig-house.' + +The Norman priory church, founded in 1119, by the wealthy Robert de +Brus of Skelton, was, unfortunately, burnt down on May 16, 1289. Walter +of Hemingburgh, a canon of Guisborough, has written a quaintly detailed +account of the origin of the fire. Translated from the monkish Latin, +he says 'On the first day of rogation-week, a devouring flame consumed +our church of Gysburn, with many theological books and nine costly +chalices, as well as vestments and sumptuous images; and because past +events are serviceable as a guide to future inquiries, I have thought +it desirable, in the present little treatise, to give an account of the +catastrophe, that accidents of a similar nature may be avoided through +this calamity allotted to us. On the day above mentioned, which was +very destructive to us, a vile plumber, with his two workmen, burnt our +church whilst soldering up two holes in the old lead with fresh pewter. +For some days he had already, with a wicked disposition, commenced, and +placed his iron crucibles, along with charcoal and fire, on rubbish, or +steps of a great height, upon dry wood with some turf and other +combustibles. About noon (in the cross, in the body of the church, +where he remained at his work until after Mass) he descended before the +procession of the convent, thinking that the fire had been put out by +his workmen. They, however, came down quickly after him, without having +completely extinguished the fire; and the fire among the charcoal +revived, and partly from the heat of the iron, and partly from the +sparks of the charcoal, the fire spread itself to the wood and other +combustibles beneath. After the fire was thus commenced, the lead +melted, and the joists upon the beams ignited; and then the fire +increased prodigiously, and consumed everything.' Hemingburgh concludes +by saying that all that they could get from the culprits was the +exclamation, 'Quid potui ego?' Shortly after this disaster the Prior +and convent wrote to Edward II., excusing themselves from granting a +corrody owing to their great losses through the burning of the +monastery, as well as the destruction of their property by the Scots. +But Guisborough, next to Fountains, was almost the richest +establishment in Yorkshire, and thus in a few years' time there arose +from the Norman foundations a stately church and convent built in the +Early Decorated style. + +One of the most interesting relics of the great priory is the +altar-tomb, believed to be that of Robert de Brus of Annandale. The +stone slabs are now built into the walls on each side of the porch of +Guisborough Church. They may have been removed there from the abbey for +safety at the time of the dissolution. Hemingburgh, in his chronicle +for the year 1294, says: 'Robert de Brus the fourth died on the eve of +Good Friday; who disputed with John de Balliol, before the King of +England, about the succession to the kingdom of Scotland. And, as he +ordered when alive, he was buried in the priory of Gysburn with great +honour, beside his own father.' A great number of other famous people +were buried here in accordance with their wills. Guisborough has even +been claimed as the resting place of Robert Bruce, the champion of +Scottish freedom, but there is ample evidence for believing that his +heart was buried at Melrose Abbey and his body in Dunfermline Abbey. + +The central portion of the town of Guisborough, by the market-cross and +the two chief inns, is quaint and fairly picturesque, but the long +street as it goes westward deteriorates into rows of new cottages, +inevitable in a mining country. + +Mining operations have been carried on around Guisborough since the +time of Queen Elizabeth, for the discovery of alum dates from that +period, and when that industry gradually declined, it was replaced by +the iron mines of today. Mr. Thomas Chaloner of Guisborough, in his +travels on the Continent about the end of the sixteenth century, saw +the Pope's alum works near Rome, and was determined to start the +industry in his native parish of Guisborough, feeling certain that alum +could be worked with profit in his own country. As it was essential to +have one or two men who were thoroughly versed in the processes of the +manufacture, Mr. Chaloner induced some of the Pope's workmen by heavy +bribes to come to England. The risks attending this overt act were +terrible, for the alum works brought in a large revenue to His +Holiness, and the discovery of such a design would have meant capital +punishment to the offender. The workmen were therefore induced to get +into large casks, which were secretly conveyed on board a ship which +was shortly sailing for England. + +When the Pope received the intelligence some time afterwards, he +thundered forth against Mr. Chaloner and the workmen the most awful and +comprehensive curse. They were to be cursed most wholly and thoroughly +in every part of their bodies, every saint was to curse them, and from +the thresholds of the holy church of God Almighty they were to be +sequestered, that they might 'be tormented, disposed of, and delivered +over with Dathan and Abiram, and with those who say unto the Lord God, +"Depart from us; we desire not to know thy ways."' + +The broad valley stretching from Guisborough to the sea contains the +beautifully wooded park of Skelton Castle. The trees in great masses +cover the gentle slopes on either side of the Skelton Beck, and almost +hide the modern mansion. The buildings include part of the ancient +castle of the Bruces, who were Lords of Skelton for many years. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +FROM PICKERING TO RIEVAULX ABBEY + + +The broad Vale of Pickering, watered by the Derwent, the Rye and their +many tributaries, is a wonderful contrast to the country we have been +exploring. The level pastures, where cattle graze and cornfields +abound, seem to suggest that we are separated from the heather by many +leagues; but we have only to look beyond the hedgerows to see that the +horizon to the north is formed by lofty moors only a few miles distant. + +Just where the low meadows are beginning to rise steadily from the vale +stands the town of Pickering, dominated by the lofty stone spire of its +parish church and by the broken towers of the castle. There is a wide +street, bordered by dark stone buildings, that leads steeply from the +river to the church. The houses are as a rule quite featureless, but we +have learnt to expect this in a county where stone is abundant, for +only the extremely old and the palpably new buildings stand out from +the grey austerity of the average Yorkshire town. In rare cases some of +the houses are brightened with white and cream paint on windows and +doors, and if these commendable efforts became less rare, Pickering +would have as cheerful an aspect to the stranger as Helmsley, which we +shall pass on our way to Rievaulx. + +Approached by narrow passages between the grey houses and shops, the +church is most imposing, for it is not only a large building, but the +cramped position magnifies its bulk and emphasizes the height of the +Norman tower, surmounted by the tall stone spire added during the +fourteenth century. Going up a wide flight of steps, necessitated by +the slope of the ground, we enter the church through the beautiful +porch, and are at once confronted with the astonishingly perfect +paintings which cover the walls of the nave. The pictures occupy nearly +all the available wall-space between the arches and the top of the +clerestory, and their crude quaintnesses bring the ideas of the first +half of the fifteenth century vividly before us. There is a spirited +representation of St. George in conflict with a terrible dragon, and +close by we see a bearded St. Christopher holding a palm-tree with both +hands, and bearing on his shoulder the infant Christ. Then comes +Herod's feast, with the King labelled _Herodi_. The guests are +shown with their arms on the table in the most curious positions, and +all the royal folk are wearing ermine. The coronation of the Virgin, +the martyrdom of St. Thomas ą Becket, and the martyrdom of St. Edmund, +who is perforated with arrows, complete the series on the north side. +Along the south wall the paintings show the story of St. Catherine of +Alexandria and the seven Corporal Acts of Mercy. Further on come scenes +from the life of our Lord. + +The simple Norman arcade on the north side of the nave has plain round +columns and semicircular arches, but the south side belongs to later +Norman times, and has ornate columns and capitals. At least one member +of the great Bruce family, who had a house at Pickering called Bruce's +Hall, and whose ascendency at Guisborough has already been mentioned, +was buried here, for the figure of a knight in chain-mail by the +lectern probably represents Sir William Bruce. In the chapel there is a +sumptuous monument bearing the effigies of Sir David and Dame Margery +Roucliffe. The knight wears the collar of SS, and his arms are on his +surcoat. + +When John Leland, the 'Royal Antiquary' employed by Henry VIII., came +to Pickering, he described the castle, which was in a more perfect +state than it is to-day. He says: 'In the first Court of it be a 4 +Toures, of the which one is caullid Rosamunde's Toure.' Also of the +inner court he writes of '4 Toures, wherof the Kepe is one.' This keep +and Rosamund's Tower, as well as the ruins of some of the others, are +still to be seen on the outer walls, so that from some points of view +the ruins are dignified and picturesque. The area enclosed was large, +and in early times the castle must have been almost impregnable. But +during the Civil War it was much damaged by the soldiers quartered +there, and Sir Hugh Cholmley took lead, wood, and iron from it for the +defence of Scarborough. The wide view from the castle walls shows +better than any description the importance of the position it occupied, +and we feel, as we gaze over the vale or northwards to the moors, that +this was the dominant power over the whole countryside. + +Although Lastingham is not on the road to Helmsley, the few additional +miles will scarcely be counted when we are on our way to a church +which, besides being architecturally one of the most interesting in the +county, is perhaps unique in having at one time had a curate whose wife +kept a public-house adjoining the church. Although this will scarcely +be believed, we have a detailed account of the matter in a little book +published in 1806. + +The clergyman, whose name was Carter, had to subsist on the slender +salary of £20 a year and a few surplice fees. This would not have +allowed any margin for luxuries in the case of a bachelor; but this +poor man was married, and he had thirteen children. He was a keen +fisherman, and his angling in the moorland streams produced a plentiful +supply of fish--in fact, more than his family could consume. But this, +even though he often exchanged part of his catches with neighbours, was +not sufficient to keep the wolf from the door, and drastic measures had +to be taken. The parish was large, and, as many of the people were +obliged to come 'from ten to fifteen miles' to church, it seemed +possible that some profit might be made by serving refreshments to the +parishioners. Mrs. Carter superintended this department, and it seems +that the meals between the services soon became popular. But the story +of 'a parson-publican' was soon conveyed to the Archdeacon of the +diocese, who at the next visitation endeavoured to find out the truth +of the matter. Mr. Carter explained the circumstances, and showed that, +far from being a source of disorder, his wife's public-house was an +influence for good. 'I take down my violin,' he continued, '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 time for return, they are ever ready to obey my commands.' The +Archdeacon appears to have been a broad-minded man, for he did not +reprimand Mr. Carter at all; and as there seems to have been no mention +of an increased stipend, the parson publican must have continued this +strange anomaly. + +The writings of Bede give a special interest to Lastingham, for he +tells us how King Oidilward requested Bishop Cedd to build a monastery +there. The Saxon buildings that appeared at that time have gone, so +that the present church cannot be associated with the seventh century. +No doubt the destruction was the work of the Danes, who plundered the +whole of this part of Yorkshire. The church that exists today is of +Transitional Norman date, and the beautiful little crypt, which has an +apse, nave and aisles, is coeval with the superstructure. + +The situation of Lastingham in a deep and picturesque valley surrounded +by moors and overhung by woods is extremely rich. + +Further to the west there are a series of beautiful dales watered by +becks whose sources are among the Cleveland Hills. On our way to +Ryedale, the loveliest of these, we pass through Kirby Moorside, a +little town which has gained a place in history as the scene of the +death of the notorious George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham, on +April 17, 1687. The house in which he died is on the south side of the +King's Head, and in one of the parish registers there is the entry +under the date of April 19th, 'Gorges viluas, Lord dooke of Bookingam, +etc.' Further down the street stands an inn with a curious porch, +supported by turned wooden pillars, bearing the inscription: + + 'Anno: Dom 1632 October xi + William Wood' + +Kirkdale, with its world-renowned cave, to which we have already +referred, lies about two miles to the west. The quaint little Saxon +church there is one of the few bearing evidences of its own date, +ascertained by the discovery in 1771 of a Saxon sun-dial, which had +survived under a layer of plaster, and was also protected by the porch. +A translation of the inscription reads: 'Orm, the son of Gamal, bought +St. Gregory's Minster when it was all broken and fallen, and he 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).' By this we are plainly +told that a church was built there in the reign of Edward the +Confessor. + +A pleasant road leads through Nawton to the beautiful little town of +Helmsley. A bend of the broad, swift-flowing Rye forms one boundary of +the place, and is fed by a gushing brook that finds its way from +Rievaulx Moor, and forms a pretty feature of the main street. + +A narrow turning by the market-house shows the torn and dishevelled +fragment of the keep of Helmsley Castle towering above the thatched +roofs in the foreground. The ruin is surrounded by tall elms, and from +this point of view, when backed by a cloudy sunset makes a wonderful +picture. Like Scarborough, this stronghold was held for the King during +the Civil War. After the Battle of Marston Moor and the fall of York, +Fairfax came to Helmsley and invested the castle. He received a wound +in the shoulder during the siege; but the garrison having surrendered +on honourable terms, the Parliament ordered that the castle should be +dismantled, and the thoroughness with which the instructions were +carried out remind one of Knaresborough, for one side of the keep was +blown to pieces by a terrific explosion and nearly everything else was +destroyed. + +All the beauty and charm of this lovely district is accentuated in +Ryedale, and when we have accomplished the three long uphill miles to +Rievaulx, and come out upon the broad grassy terrace above the abbey, +we seem to have entered a Land of Beulah. We see a peaceful valley +overlooked on all sides by lofty hills, whose steep sides are clothed +with luxuriant woods; we see the Rye flowing past broad green meadows; +and beneath the tree-covered precipice below our feet appear the +solemn, roofless remains of one of the first Cistercian monasteries +established in this country. There is nothing to disturb the peace that +broods here, for the village consists of a mere handful of old and +picturesque cottages, and we might stay on the terrace for hours, and, +beyond the distant shouts of a few children at play and the crowing of +some cocks, hear nothing but the hum of insects and the singing of +birds. We take a steep path through the wood which leads us down to the +abbey ruins. + +The magnificent Early English choir and the Norman transepts stand +astonishingly complete in their splendid decay, and the lower portions +of the nave, which, until 1922, lay buried beneath masses of +grass-grown débris, are now exposed to view. The richly-draped +hill-sides appear as a succession of beautiful pictures framed by the +columns and arches on each side of the choir. As they stand exposed to +the weather, the perfectly proportioned mouldings, the clustered +pillars in a wonderfully good state of preservation, and the almost +uninjured clerestory are more impressive than in an elaborately-restored +cathedral. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +DESCRIBES THE DALE COUNTRY AS A WHOLE + + +When in the early years of life one learns for the first time the name +of that range of mountains forming the backbone of England, the +youthful scholar looks forward to seeing in later years the prolonged +series of lofty hills known as the 'Pennine Range.' His imagination +pictures Pen-y-ghent and Ingleborough as great peaks, seldom free from +a mantle of clouds, for are they not called 'mountains of the Pennine +Range,' and do they not appear in almost as large type in the school +geography as Snowdon and Ben Nevis? But as the scholar grows older and +more able to travel, so does the Pennine Range recede from his vision, +until it becomes almost as remote as those crater-strewn mountains in +the Moon which have a name so similar. + +This elusiveness on the part of a natural feature so essentially static +as a mountain range is attributable to the total disregard of the name +of this particular chain of hills. In the same way as the term 'Cumbrian +Hills' is exchanged for the popular 'Lake District,' so is a large +section of the Pennine Range paradoxically known as the 'Yorkshire +Dales.' + +It is because the hills are so big that the valleys are deep and it is +owing to the great watersheds that these long and narrow dales are +beautified by some of the most copious and picturesque rivers in +England. In spite of this, however, when one climbs any of the fells +over 2,000 feet, and looks over the mountainous ridges on every side, +one sees, as a rule, no peak or isolated height of any description to +attract one's attention. Instead of the rounded or angular projections +from the horizon that are usually associated with a mountainous +district, there are great expanses of brown table-land that form +themselves into long parallel lines in the distance, and give a sense +of wild desolation in some ways more striking than the peaks of +Scotland or Wales. The thick formations of millstone grit and limestone +that rest upon the shale have generally avoided crumpling or +distortion, and thus give the mountain views the appearance of having +had all the upper surfaces rolled flat when they were in a plastic +condition. Denudation and the action of ice in the glacial epochs have +worn through the hard upper stratum, and formed the long and narrow +dales; and in Littondale, Wharfedale, Wensleydale, and many other +parts, one may plainly see the perpendicular wall of rock sharply +defining the upper edges of the valleys. The softer rocks below +generally take a gentle slope from the base of the hard gritstone to +the riverside pastures below. At the edges of the dales, where +water-falls pour over the wall of limestone--as at Hardraw Scar, near +Hawes--the action of water is plainly demonstrated, for one can see the +rapidity with which the shale crumbles, leaving the harder rocks +overhanging above. + +Unlike the moors of the north-eastern parts of Yorkshire, the fells are +not prolific in heather. It is possible to pass through +Wensleydale--or, indeed, most of the dales--without seeing any heather +at all. On the broad plateaux between the dales there are stretches of +moor partially covered with ling; but in most instances the fells and +moors are grown over at their higher levels with bent and coarse grass, +generally of a browny-ochrish colour, broken here and there by an +outcrop of limestone that shows grey against the swarthy vegetation. + +In the upper portions of the dales--even in the narrow riverside +pastures--the fences are of stone, turned a very dark colour by +exposure, and everywhere on the slopes of the hills a wide network of +these enclosures can be seen traversing even the most precipitous +ascents. Where the dales widen out towards the fat plains of the Vale +of York, quickset hedges intermingle with the gaunt stone, and as one +gets further eastwards the green hedge becomes triumphant. The stiles +that are the fashion in the stone-fence districts make quite an +interesting study to strangers, for, wood being an expensive luxury, +and stone being extremely cheap, everything is formed of the more +enduring material. Instead of a trap-gate, one generally finds an +excessively narrow opening in the fences, only just giving space for +the thickness of the average knee, and thus preventing the passage of +the smallest lamb. Some stiles are constructed with a large flat stone +projecting from each side, one slightly in front and overlapping the +other, so that one can only pass through by making a very careful +S-shaped movement. More common are the projecting stones, making a +flight of precarious steps on each side of the wall. + +Except in their lowest and least mountainous parts, where they are +subject to the influences of the plains, the dales are entirely +innocent of red tiles and haystacks. The roofs of churches, cottages, +barns and mansions, are always of the local stone, that weathers to +beautiful shades of green and grey, and prevents the works of man from +jarring with the great sweeping hill-sides. Then, instead of the +familiar grey-brown haystack, one sees in almost every meadow a +neatly-built stone house with an upper storey. The lower part is +generally used as a shelter for cattle, while above is stored hay or +straw. By this system a huge amount of unnecessary carting is avoided, +and where roads are few and generally of exceeding steepness a saving +of this nature is a benefit easily understood. + +The villages of the dales, although having none of the bright colours +of a level country, are often exceedingly quaint, and rich in soft +shades of green and grey. In the autumn the mellowed tints of the stone +houses are contrasted with the fierce yellows and browny-reds of the +foliage, and the villages become full of bright colours. At all times, +except when the country is shrivelled by an icy northern wind, the +scenery of the dales has a thousand charms. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +RICHMOND + + +For the purposes of this book we may consider Richmond as the gateway +of the dale country. There are other gates and approaches, some of +which may have advocates who claim their superiority over Richmond as +starting-places for an exploration of this description, but for my +part, I can find no spot on any side of the mountainous region so +entirely satisfactory. If we were to commence at Bedale or Leyburn, +there is no exact point where the open country ceases and the dale +begins; but here at Richmond there is not the very smallest doubt, for +on reaching the foot of the mass of rock dominated by the castle and +the town, Swaledale commences in the form of a narrow ravine, and from +that point westwards the valley never ceases to be shut in by steep +sides, which become narrower and grander with every mile. + +The railway that keeps Richmond in touch with the world does its work +in a most inoffensive manner, and by running to the bottom of the hill +on which the town stands, and by there stopping short, we seem to have +a strong hint that we have been brought to the edge of a new element in +which railways have no rights whatever. This is as it should be, and we +can congratulate the North-Eastern Company for its discretion and its +sense of fitness. Even the station is built of solid stonework, with a +strong flavour of medievalism in its design, and its attractiveness is +enhanced by the complete absence of other modern buildings. We are thus +welcomed to the charms of Richmond at once. The rich sloping meadows by +the river, crowned with dense woodlands, surround us and form a +beautiful setting of green for the town, which has come down from the +fantastic days of the Norman Conquest without any drastic or unseemly +changes, and thus has still the compactness and the romantic outline of +feudal times. + +From whatever side you approach it, Richmond has always some fine +combination of towers overlooking a confusion of old red roofs and of +rocky heights crowned with ivy-mantled walls, all set in the most +sumptuous surroundings of silvery river and wooded hills, such as the +artists of the age of steel-engraving loved to depict. Every one of +these views has in it one dominating feature in the magnificent Norman +keep of the castle. It overlooks church towers and everything else with +precisely the same aloofness of manner it must have assumed as soon as +the builders of nearly eight hundred years ago had put the last stone +in place. Externally, at least, it is as complete to-day as it was +then, and as there is no ivy upon it, I cannot help thinking that the +Bretons who built it in that long distant time would swell with pride +were they able to see how their ambitious work has come down the +centuries unharmed. + +We can go across the modern bridge, with its castellated parapets, and +climb up the steep ascent on the further side, passing on the way the +parish church, standing on the steep ground outside the circumscribed +limits of the wall which used to enclose the town in early times. +Turning towards the castle, we go breathlessly up the cobbled street +that climbs resolutely to the market-place in a foolishly direct +fashion, which might be understood if it were a Roman road. There is a +sleepy quietness about this way up from the station, which is quite a +short distance, and we look for much movement and human activity in the +wide space we have reached; but here, too, on this warm and sunny +afternoon, the few folks who are about seem to find ample time for +conversation and loitering. + +On one side of us is the King's Head, whose steep tiled roof and square +front has just that air of respectable importance that one expects to +find in an old established English hotel. It looks across the cobbled +space to the curious block of buildings that seems to have been +intended for a church but has relapsed into shops. The shouldering of +secular buildings against the walls of churches is a sight so familiar +in parts of France that this market place has an almost Continental +flavour, in keeping with the fact that Richmond grew up under the +protection of the formidable castle built by that Alan Rufus of +Brittany who was the Conqueror's second cousin. The town ceased to be a +possession of the Dukes of Brittany in the reign of Richard II., but +there had evidently been sufficient time to allow French ideals to +percolate into the minds of the men of Richmond, for how otherwise can +we account for this strange familiarity of shops with a sacred building +which is unheard of in any other English town? Where else can one find +a pork-butcher's shop inserted between the tower and the nave, or a +tobacconist doing business in the aisle of a church? Even the lower +parts of the tower have been given up to secular uses, so that one only +realizes the existence of the church by keeping far enough away to see +the sturdy pinnacled tower that rises above the desecrated lower +portions of the building. In this tower hangs the curfew-bell, which is +rung at 6 a.m. and 8 p.m., a custom, according to one writer, 'that has +continued ever since the time of William the Conqueror.' + +All the while we have been lingering in the market-place the great +keep has been looking at us over some old red roofs, and urging us to +go on at once to the finest sight that Richmond can offer, and, +resisting the appeal no longer, we make our way down a narrow little +street leading out to a walk that goes right round the castle cliffs at +the base of the ivy-draped walls. + +From down below comes the sound of the river, ceaselessly chafing its +rocky bottom and the big boulders that lie in the way. You can +distinguish the hollow sound of the waters as they fall over ledges +into deep pools, and you can watch the silvery gleams of broken water +between the old stone bridge and the dark shade of the woods. The +masses of trees clothing the side of the gorge add a note of mystery to +the picture by swallowing up the river in their heavy shade, for, owing +to its sinuous course among the cliffs, one can see only a short piece +of water beyond the bridge. + +The old corner of the town at the foot of Bargate appears over the edge +of the rocky slope, but on the opposite side of the Swale there is +little to be seen beside the green meadows and shady coppices that +cover the heights above the river. + +There is a fascination in this view in its capacity for change. It +responds to every mood of the weather, and every sunset that glows +across the sombre woods has some freshness, some feature that is quite +unlike any other. Autumn, too, is a memorable time for those who can +watch the face of Nature from this spot, for when one of those opulent +evenings of the fall of the year turns the sky into a golden sea of +glory, studded with strange purple islands, there is unutterable beauty +in the flaming woods and the pale river. + +On the way back to the market-place we pass a decayed arch that was +probably a postern in the walls of the town. There can be no doubt +whatever of the existence of these walls, for Leland begins his +description of the town with the words '_Richemont_ Towne is +waullid,' and in another place he says: 'Waullid it was, but the waul +is now decayid. The Names and Partes of 4 or 5 Gates yet remaine.' We +cannot help wondering why Richmond could not have preserved her gates +as York has done, or why she did not even make the effort sufficient to +retain a single one, as Bridlington and Beverley did. The two +posterns--one we have just mentioned, and the other in Friar's Wynd, on +the north side of the market-place, with a piece of wall 6 feet thick +adjoining--are interesting, but we would have preferred something much +finer than these mere arches; and while we are grumbling over what +Richmond has lost, we may also measure the disaster which befell the +market-place in 1771, when the old cross was destroyed. Before that +year there stood on the site of the present obelisk a very fine cross +which Clarkson, who wrote about a century ago, mentions as being the +greatest beauty of the town to an antiquary. A high flight of steps led +up to a square platform, which was enclosed by a richly ornamented wall +about 6 feet high, having buttresses at the corners, each surmounted +with a dog seated on its hind-legs. Within the wall rose the cross, +with its shaft made from one piece of stone. There were 'many curious +compartments' in the wall, says Clarkson, and 'a door that opened into +the middle of the square,' but this may have been merely an arched +opening. The enrichments, either of the cross itself or the wall, +included four shields bearing the arms of the great families of +Fitz-Hugh, Scrope (quartering Tibetot), Conyers, and Neville. From the +description there is little doubt that this cross was a very beautiful +example of Perpendicular or perhaps Decorated Gothic, in place of which +we have a crude and bulging obelisk bearing the inscription: 'Rebuilt +(!) A.D. 1771, Christopher Wayne, Esq., Mayor'; it should surely have +read: 'Perpetrated during the Mayoralty of Christopher Wayne Goth.' + +Although, as we have seen, Leland, who wrote in 1538, mentions +Frenchgate and Finkel Street Gate as 'down,' yet they must have been +only partially destroyed, or were rebuilt afterwards, for Whitaker, +writing in 1823, mentions that they were pulled down 'not many years +ago' to allow the passage of broad and high-laden waggons. There can be +little doubt, therefore, that, swollen with success after the +demolition of the cross, the Mayor and Corporation proceeded to attack +the remaining gateways, so that now not the smallest suggestion of +either remains. But even here we have not completed the list of +barbarisms that took place about this time. The Barley Cross, which +stood near the larger one, must have been quite an interesting feature. +It consisted of a lofty pillar with a cross at the top, and rings were +fastened either on the shaft or to the steps upon which it stood, so +that the cross might answer the purpose of a whipping-post. The pillory +stood not far away, and the May-pole is also mentioned. + +But despite all this squandering of the treasures that it should have +been the business of the town authorities to preserve, the tower of the +Grey Friars has survived, and, next to the castle, it is one of the +chief ornaments of the town. Some other portions of the monastery are +incorporated in the buildings which now form the Grammar School. The +Grey Friars is on the north side of the town, outside the narrow limits +of the walls, and was probably only finished in time to witness the +dispersal of the friars who had built it. It is even possible that it +was part of a new church that was still incomplete when the Dissolution +of the Monasteries made the work of no account except as building +materials for the townsfolk. The actual day of the surrender was +January 19, 1538, and we wonder if Robert Sanderson, the Prior, and the +fourteen brethren under him, suffered much from the privations that +must have attended them at that coldest period of the year. At one time +the friars, being of a mendicant order, and inured to hard living and +scanty fare, might have made light of such a disaster, but in these +later times they had expanded somewhat from their austere ways of +living, and the dispersal must have cost them much suffering. + +Going back to the reign of Henry VII. or there-abouts, we come across +the curious ballad of 'The Felon Sow of Rokeby and the Freres of +Richmond' quoted from an old manuscript by Sir Walter Scott in +'Rokeby.' It may have been as a practical joke, or merely as a good way +of getting rid of such a terrible beast, that + + 'Ralph of Rokeby, with goodwill, + The fryers of Richmond gave her till.' + +Friar Middleton, who with two lusty men was sent to fetch the sow from +Rokeby, could scarcely have known that she was + + 'The grisliest beast that ere might be, + Her head was great and gray: + She was bred in Rokeby Wood; + There were few that thither goed, + That came on live [= alive] away. + + 'She was so grisley for to meete, + She rave the earth up with her feete, + And bark came fro the tree; + When fryer Middleton her saugh, + Weet ye well he might not laugh, + Full earnestly look'd hee.' + +To calm the terrible beast when they found it almost impossible to hold +her, the friar began to read 'in St. John his Gospell,' but + + 'The sow she would not Latin heare, + But rudely rushed at the frear,' + +who, turning very white, dodged to the shelter of a tree, whence he saw +with horror that the sow had got clear of the other two men. At this +their courage evaporated, and all three fled for their lives along the +Watling Street. When they came to Richmond and told their tale of the +'feind of hell' in the garb of a sow, the warden decided to hire on the +next day two of the 'boldest men that ever were borne.' These two, +Gilbert Griffin and a 'bastard son of Spaine,' went to Rokeby clad in +armour and carrying their shields and swords of war, and even then they +only just overcame the grisly sow. + +If we go across the river by the modern bridge, we can see the humble +remains of St. Martin's Priory standing in a meadow by the railway. The +ruins consist of part of a Perpendicular tower and a Norman doorway. +Perhaps the tower was built in order that the Grey Friars might not +eclipse the older foundation, for St. Martin's was a cell belonging to +St. Mary's Abbey at York and was founded by Wyman, steward or dapifer +to the Earl of Richmond, about the year 1100, whereas the Franciscans +in the town owed their establishment to Radulph Fitz-Ranulph, a lord of +Middleham in 1258. The doorway of St. Martin's, with its zigzag +mouldings must be part of Wyman's building, but no other traces of it +remain. Having come back so rapidly to the Norman age, we may well stay +there for a time while we make our way over the bridge again and up the +steep ascent of Frenchgate to the castle. + +On entering the small outer barbican, which is reached by a lane from +the market-place, we come to the base of the Norman keep. Its great +height of nearly 100 feet is quite unbroken from foundations to summit, +and the flat buttresses are featureless. The recent pointing of the +masonry has also taken away any pronounced weathering, and has left the +tower with almost the same gaunt appearance that it had when Duke Conan +saw it completed. Passing through the arch in the wall abutting the +keep, we come into the grassy space of over two acres, that is enclosed +by the ramparts. It is not known by what stages the keep reached its +present form, though there is every reason to believe that Conan, the +fifth Earl of Richmond, left the tower externally as we see it to-day. +This puts the date of the completion of the keep between 1146 and 1171. +The floors are now a store for the uniforms and accoutrements of the +soldiers quartered at Richmond, so that there is little to be seen as +we climb a staircase in the walls 11 feet thick, and reach the +battlemented turrets. Looking downwards, we gaze right into the +chimneys of the nearest houses, and we see the old roofs of the town +packed closely together in the shelter of the mighty tower. A few tiny +people are moving about in the market-place, and there is a thin web of +drifting smoke between us and them. Everything is peaceful and remote; +even the sound of the river is lost in the wind that blows freely upon +us from the great moorland wastes stretching away to the western +horizon. It is a romantic country that lies around us, and though the +cultivated area must be infinitely greater than in the fighting days +when these battlements were finished, yet I suppose the Vale of Mowbray +which we gaze upon to the east must have been green, and to some extent +fertile, when that Conan who was Duke of Brittany and also Earl of +Richmond looked out over the innumerable manors that were his Yorkshire +possessions. I can imagine his eye glancing down on a far more +thrilling scene than the green three-sided courtyard enclosed by a +crumbling grey wall, though to him the buildings, the men, and every +detail that filled the great space, were no doubt quite prosaic. It did +not thrill him to see a man-at-arms cleaning weapons, when the man and +his clothes, and even the sword, were as modern and everyday as the +soldier's wife and child that we can see ourselves, but how much would +we not give for a half-an-hour of his vision, or even a part of a +second, with a good camera in our hands? + +In the lower part of what is called Robin Hood's Tower is the Chapel of +St. Nicholas, with arcaded walls of early Norman date, and a long and +narrow slit forming the east window. More interesting than this is the +Norman hall at the south-east angle of the walls. It was possibly used +as the banqueting-room of the castle, and is remarkable as being one of +the best preserved of the Norman halls forming separate buildings that +are to be found in this country. The hall is roofless, but the corbels +remain in a perfect state, and the windows on each side are well +preserved. The builder was probably Earl Conan, for the keep has +details of much the same character. It is generally called Scolland's +Hall, after the Lord of Bedale of that name, who was a sewer or dapifer +to the first Earl Alan of Richmond. Scolland was one of the tenants of +the Earl, and under the feudal system of tenure he took part in the +regular guarding of the castle. + +There is probably much Norman work in various parts of the crumbling +curtain walls, and at the south-west corner a Norman turret is still to +be seen. + +Alan, who received from the Conqueror the vast possessions of Earl +Edwin, was no doubt the founder of Richmond. He probably received this +splendid reward for his services soon after the suppression of the +Saxon efforts for liberty under the northern Earls. William, having +crushed out the rebellion in the remorseless fashion which finally gave +him peace in his new possessions, distributed the devastated Saxon +lands among his supporters; thus a great part of the earldom of Mercia +fell to this Breton. + +The site of Richmond was fixed as the new centre of power, and the +name, with its apparently obvious meaning, may date from that time, +unless the suggested Anglo-Saxon derivation which gives it as +Rice-munt--the hill of rule--is correct. After this Gilling must soon +have ceased to be of any account. There can be little doubt that the +castle was at once planned to occupy the whole area enclosed by the +walls as they exist to-day, although the full strength of the place was +not realized until the time of the fifth Earl, who, as we have seen, +was most probably the builder of the keep in its final form, as well as +other parts of the castle. Richmond must then have been considered +almost impregnable, and this may account for the fact that it appears +to have never been besieged. In 1174, when William the Lion of Scotland +was invading England, we are told in Jordan Fantosme's Chronicle that +Henry II., anxious for the safety of the honour of Richmond, and +perhaps of its custodian as well, asked: 'Randulf de Glanvile est-il en +Richemunt?' The King was in France, his possessions were threatened +from several quarters, and it would doubtless be a relief to him to +know that a stronghold of such importance was under the personal +command of so able a man as Glanville. In July of that year the danger +from the Scots was averted by a victory at Alnwick, in which fight +Glanville was one of the chief commanders of the English, and he +probably led the men of Richmondshire. + +It is a strange thing that Richmond Castle, despite its great +pre-eminence, should have been allowed to become a ruin in the reign of +Edward III.--a time when castles had obviously lost none of the +advantages to the barons which they had possessed in Norman times. The +only explanation must have been the divided interests of the owners, +for, as Dukes of Brittany, as well as Earls of Richmond, their English +possessions were frequently endangered when France and England were at +war. And so it came about that when a Duke of Brittany gave his support +to the King of France in a quarrel with the English, his possessions +north of the Channel became Crown property. How such a condition of +affairs could have continued for so long is difficult to understand, +but the final severing came at last, when the unhappy Richard II. was +on the throne of England. The honour of Richmond then passed to Ralph +Neville, the first Earl of Westmoreland, but the title was given to +Edmund Tudor, whose mother was Queen Catherine, the widow of Henry V. +Edmund Tudor, as all know, married Margaret Beaufort, the heiress of +John of Gaunt, and died about two months before his wife--then scarcely +fourteen years old--gave birth to his only son, who succeeded to the +throne of England as Henry VII. He was Earl of Richmond from his birth, +and it was he who carried the name to the Thames by giving it to his +splendid palace which he built at Shene. Even the ballad of 'The Lass +of Richmond Hill' is said to come from Yorkshire, although it is +commonly considered a possession of Surrey. + +Protected by the great castle, there came into existence the town of +Richmond, which grew and flourished. The houses must have been packed +closely together to provide the numerous people with quarters inside +the wall which was built to protect the place from the raiding Scots. +The area of the town was scarcely larger than the castle, and although +in this way the inhabitants gained security from one danger, they ran a +greater risk from a far more insidious foe, which took the form of +pestilences of a most virulent character. After one of these +visitations the town of Richmond would be left in a pitiable plight. +Many houses would be deserted, and fields became 'over-run with briars, +nettles, and other noxious weeds.' + +Easby Abbey is so much a possession of Richmond that we cannot go +towards the mountains until we have seen something of its charms. The +ruins slumber in such unutterable peace by the riverside that the place +is well suited to our mood to go a-dreaming of the centuries which have +been so long dead that our imaginations are not cumbered with any of +the dull times that may have often set the canons of St. Agatha's +yawning. The walk along the steep shady bank above the river is +beautiful all the way, and the surroundings of the broken walls and +traceried windows are singularly rich. There is nothing, however, at +Easby that makes a striking picture, although there are many +architectural fragments that are full of beauty. Fountains, Rievaulx +and Tintern, all leave Easby far behind, but there are charms enough +here with which to be content, and it is, perhaps, a pleasant thought +to know that, although on this sunny afternoon these meadows by the +Swale seem to reach perfection, yet in the neighbourhood of Ripon there +is something still finer waiting for us. Of the abbey church scarcely +more than enough has survived for the preparation of a ground-plan, and +many of the evidences are now concealed by the grass. The range of +domestic buildings that surrounded the cloister garth are, therefore, +the chief interest, although these also are broken and roofless. We can +wander among the ivy-grown walls which, in the refectory, retain some +semblance of their original form, and we can see the picturesque +remains of the common-room, the guest-hall, the chapter-house, and the +sacristy. Beyond the ruins of the north transept, a corridor leads into +the infirmary, which, besides having an unusual position, is remarkable +as being one of the most complete groups of buildings set apart for +this object. A noticeable feature of the cloister garth is a Norman +arch belonging to a doorway that appears to be of later date. This is +probably the only survival of the first monastery founded, it is said, +by Roald, Constable of Richmond Castle, in 1152. Building of an +extensive character was, therefore, in progress at the same time in +these sloping meadows, as on the castle heights, and St. Martin's +Priory, close to the town, had not long been completed. Whoever may +have been the founder of the abbey, it is definitely known that the +great family of Scrope obtained the privileges that had been possessed +by the Constable, and they added so much to the property of the +monastery that in the reign of Henry VIII. the Scropes were considered +the original founders. Easby thus became the stately burying-place of +the family and the splendid tombs that appeared in the choir of their +church were a constant reminder to the canons of the greatness of the +lords of Bolton. Sir Henry le Scrope was buried beneath a great stone +effigy, bearing the arms--azure, a bend or--of his house. Near by lay +Sir William le Scrope's armed figure, and round about were many others +of the family buried beneath flat stones. We know this from the +statement of an Abbot of Easby in the fourteenth century; and but for +the record of his words there would be nothing to tell us anything of +these ponderous memorials, which have disappeared as completely as +though they had had no more permanence than the yellow leaves that are +just beginning to flutter from the trees. The splendid church, the +tombs, and even the very family of Scrope, have disappeared; but across +the hills, in the valley of the Ure, their castle still stands, and in +the little church of Wensley there can still be seen the parclose +screen of Perpendicular date that one of the Scropes must have rescued +when the monastery was being stripped and plundered. + +The fine gate-house of Easby Abbey, which is in a good state of +preservation, stands a little to the east of the parish church, and the +granary is even now in use. + +On the sides of the parvise over the porch of the parish church are the +arms of Scrope, Conyers, and Aske; and in the chancel of this extremely +interesting old building there can be seen a series of wall-paintings, +some of which probably date from the reign of Henry III. This would +make them earlier than those at Pickering. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +SWALEDALE + + +There is a certain elevated and wind-swept spot, scarcely more than a +long mile from Richmond, that commands a view over a wide extent of +romantic country. Vantage-points of this type, within easy reach of a +fair-sized town, are inclined to be overrated, and, what is far worse, +to be spoiled by the litter of picnic parties; but Whitcliffe Scar is +free from both objections. In magnificent September weather one may +spend many hours in the midst of this great panorama without being +disturbed by a single human being, besides a possible farm labourer or +shepherd; and if scraps of paper and orange-peel are ever dropped here, +the keen winds that come from across the moors dispose of them as +efficaciously as the keepers of any public parks. + +The view is removed from a comparison with many others from the fact +that one is situated at the dividing-line between the richest +cultivation and the wildest moorlands. Whitcliffe Scar is the Mount +Pisgah from whence the jaded dweller in towns can gaze into a promised +land of solitude, + + 'Where things that own not man's dominion dwell, + And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been.' + +The eastward view of green and smiling country is undeniably beautiful, +but to those who can appreciate Byron's enthusiasm for the trackless +mountain there is something more indefinable and inspiring in the +mysterious loneliness of the west. The long, level lines of the +moorland horizon, when the sun is beginning to climb downwards, are cut +out in the softest blue and mauve tints against the shimmering +transparency of the western sky, and the plantations that clothe the +sides of the dale beneath one are filled with wonderful shadows, which +are thrown out with golden outlines. The view along the steep valley +extends for a few miles, and then is suddenly cut off by a sharp bend +where the Swale, a silver ribbon along the bottom of the dale, +disappears among the sombre woods and the shoulders of the hills. + +In this aspect of Swaledale one sees its mildest and most civilized +mood; for beyond the purple hill-side that may be seen in the +illustration, cultivation becomes more palpably a struggle, and the +gaunt moors, broken by lines of precipitous scars, assume control of +the scenery. + +From 200 feet below, where the river is flowing along its stony bed, +comes the sound of the waters ceaselessly grinding the pebbles, and +from the green pastures there floats upwards a distant ba-baaing. No +railway has penetrated the solitudes of Swaledale, and, as far as one +may look into the future in such matters, there seems every possibility +of this loneliest and grandest of the Yorkshire dales retaining its +isolation in this respect. None but the simplest of sounds, therefore, +are borne on the keen winds that come from the moorland heights, and +the purity of the air whispers in the ear the pleasing message of a +land where chimneys have never been. + +Besides the original name of Whitcliffe Scar, this remarkable +view-point has, since 1606, been popularly known as 'Willance's Leap.' +In that year a certain Robert Willance, whose father appears to have +been a successful draper in Richmond, was hunting in the neighbourhood, +when he found himself enveloped in a fog. It must have been +sufficiently dense to shut out even the nearest objects; for, without +any warning, Willance found himself on the verge of the scar, and +before he could check his horse both were precipitated over the cliff. +We have no detailed account of whether the fall was broken in any way; +but, although his horse was killed instantly, Willance, by some almost +miraculous good fortune, found himself alive at the bottom with nothing +worse than a broken leg. + +It is a difficult matter to decide which is the more attractive means +of exploring Swaledale; for if one keeps to the road at the bottom of +the valley many beautiful and remarkable aspects of the country are +missed, and yet if one goes over the moors it is impossible really to +explore the recesses of the dale. The old road from Richmond to Reeth +avoids the dale altogether, except for the last mile, and its ups and +its downs make the traveller pay handsomely for the scenery by the way. + +But this ought not to deter anyone from using the road; for the view of +the village of Marske, cosily situated among the wooded heights that +rise above the beck, is missed by those who keep to the new road along +the banks of the Swale. The romantic seclusion of this village is +accentuated towards evening, when a shadowy stillness fills the +hollows. The higher woods may be still glowing with the light of the +golden west, while down below a softness of outline adds beauty to +every object. The old bridge that takes the road to Reeth across Marske +Beck needs no such fault-forgiving light, for it was standing in the +reign of Elizabeth, and, from its appearance, it is probably centuries +older. + +The new road to Reeth from Richmond goes down at an easy gradient from +the town to the banks of the river, which it crosses when abreast of +Whitcliffe Scar, the view in front being at first much the same as the +nearer portions of the dale seen from that height. Down on the left, +however, there are some chimney-shafts, so recklessly black that they +seem to be no part whatever of their sumptuous natural surroundings, +and might almost suggest a nightmare in which one discovered that some +of the vilest chimneys of the Black Country had taken to touring in the +beauty spots of the country. + +As one goes westward, the road penetrates right into the bold scenery +that invites exploration when viewed from 'Willance's Leap.' There is a +Scottish feeling--perhaps Alpine would be more correct--in the +steeply-falling sides of the dale, all clothed in firs and other dense +plantations; and just where the Swale takes a decided turn towards the +south there is a view up Marske Beck that adds much to the romance of +the scene. Behind one's back the side of the dale rises like a dark +green wall entirely in shadow, and down below half buried in foliage, +the river swirls and laps its gravelly beaches, also in shadow. Beyond +a strip of pasture begin the tumbled masses of trees which, as they +climb out of the depths of the valley, reach the warm, level rays of +sunlight that turns the first leaves that have passed their prime into +the fierce yellows and burnt siennas which, when faithfully represented +at Burlington House, are often considered overdone. Even the gaunt +obelisk near Marske Hall responds to a fine sunset of this sort, and +shows a gilded side that gives it almost a touch of grandeur. + +Evening is by no means necessary to the attractions of Swaledale, for a +blazing noon gives lights and shades and contrasts of colour that are a +large portion of Swaledale's charms. If instead of taking either the +old road by way of Marske, or the new one by the riverside, one had +crossed the old bridge below the castle, and left Richmond by a very +steep road that goes to Leyburn, one would have reached a moorland that +is at its best in the full light of a clear morning. + +The clouds are big, but they carry no threat of rain, for right down to +the far horizon from whence this wind is coming there are patches of +blue proportionate to the vast spaces overhead. As each white mass +passes across the sun, we are immersed in a shadow many acres in +extent: but the sunlight has scarcely fled when a rim of light comes +over the edge of the plain, just above the hollow where Downholme +village lies hidden from sight, and in a few minutes that belt of +sunshine has reached some sheep not far off, and rimmed their coats +with a brilliant edge of white. Shafts of whiteness, like searchlights, +stream from behind a distant cloud, and everywhere there is brilliant +contrast and a purity to the eye and lungs that only a Yorkshire moor +possesses. + +A short two miles up the road to Leyburn, just above Gill Beck, there +is an ancient house known as Walburn Hall, and also the remains of the +chapel belonging to it, which dates from the Perpendicular period. The +buildings are now used as a farm, but there are still enough +suggestions of a dignified past to revivify the times when this was a +centre of feudal power. + +Turning back to Swaledale by a lane on the south side of Gill Beck, +Downholme village is passed a mile away on the right, and the bold +scenery of the dale once more becomes impressive. + +Two great headlands, formed by the wall-like terminations of Cogden and +Harkerside Moors, rising one above the other, stand out magnificently. +Their huge sides tower up nearly a thousand feet from the river, until +they are within reach of the lowering clouds that every moment threaten +to envelop them in their indigo embrace. There is a curious rift in the +dark cumulus revealing a thin line of dull carmine that frequently +changes its shape and becomes nearly obliterated, but its presence in +no way weakens the awesomeness of the picture. The dale appears to +become huger and steeper as the clouds thicken, and what have been +merely woods and plantations in this heavy gloom become mysterious +forests. The river, too, seems to change its character, and become a +pale serpent, uncoiling itself from some mountain fastness where no +living creatures besides great auks and carrion birds, dwell. + +In such surroundings as these there were established in the Middle +Ages, two religious houses, within a mile of one another, on opposite +sides of the swirling river. On the north bank, not far from Marrick +village, you may still see the ruins of Marrick Priory in its beautiful +situation much as Turner painted it a century ago. Leland describes +Marrick as 'a Priory of Blake Nunnes of the Foundation of the Askes.' +It was, we know, an establishment for Benedictine Nuns, founded or +endowed by Roger de Aske in the twelfth century. At Ellerton, on the +other side of the river a little lower down, the nunnery was of the +Cistercian Order; for, although very little of its history has been +discovered, Leland writes of the house as 'a Priori of White clothid +Nunnes.' After the Battle of Bannockburn, when the Scots raided all +over the North Riding of Yorkshire, they came along Swaledale in search +of plunder, and we are told that Ellerton suffered from their violence. + +Where the dale becomes wider, owing to the branch valley of +Arkengarthdale, there are two villages close together. Grinton is +reached first, and is older than Reeth, which is a short distance north +of the river. The parish of Grinton is one of the largest in Yorkshire. +It is more than twenty miles long, containing something near 50,000 +acres, and according to Mr. Speight, who has written a very detailed +history of Richmondshire, more than 30,000 acres of this consist of +mountain, grouse-moor and scar. For so huge a parish the church is +suitable in size, but in the upper portions of the dales one must not +expect any very remarkable exteriors; and Grinton, with its low roofs +and plain battlemented tower, is much like other churches in the +neighbourhood. Inside there are suggestions of a Norman building that +has passed away, and the bowl of the font seems also to belong to that +period. The two chapels opening from the chancel contain some +interesting features, which include a hagioscope, and both are enclosed +by old screens. + +Leaving the village behind, and crossing the Swale, you soon come to +Reeth, which may, perhaps, be described as a little town. It must have +thrived with the lead-mines in Arkengarthdale and along the Swale, for +it has gone back since the period of its former prosperity, and is glad +of the fact that its situation, and the cheerful green which the houses +look upon, have made it something of a holiday resort. + +When Reeth is left behind, there is no more of the fine 'new' road +which makes travelling so easy for the eleven miles from Richmond. The +surface is, however, by no means rough along the nine miles to Muker, +although the scenery becomes far wilder and more mountainous with every +mile. The dale narrows most perceptibly; the woods become widely +separated, and almost entirely disappear on the southern side; and the +gaunt moors, creeping down the sides of the valley seem to threaten the +narrow belt of cultivation, that becomes increasingly restricted to the +river margins. Precipitous limestone scars fringe the browny-green +heights in many places, and almost girdle the summit of Calver Hill, +the great bare height that rises a thousand feet above Reeth. The farms +and hamlets of these upper parts of Swaledale are of the same greys, +greens, and browns as the moors and scars that surround them. The stone +walls, that are often high and forbidding, seem to suggest the +fortifications required for man's fight with Nature, in which there is +no encouragement for the weak. In the splendid weather that so often +welcomes the mere summer rambler in the upper dales the austerity of +the widely scattered farms and villages may seem a little +unaccountable; but a visit in January would quite remove this +impression, though even in these lofty parts of England the worst +winter snowstorm has, in quite recent years, been of trifling +inconvenience. Bad winters will, no doubt, be experienced again on the +fells; but leaving out of the account the snow that used to bury farms, +flocks, roads, and even the smaller gills, in a vast smother of +whiteness, there are still the winds that go shrieking over the +desolate heights, there is still the high rainfall, and there are still +destructive thunderstorms that bring with them hail of a size that we +seldom encounter in the lower levels. + +The great rapidity with which the Swale, or such streams as the Arkle, +can produce a devastating flood can scarcely be comprehended by those +who have not seen the results of even moderate rainstorms on the fells. +When, however, some really wet days have been experienced in the upper +parts of the dales, it seems a wonder that the bridges are not more +often in jeopardy. + +Of course, even the highest hills of Yorkshire are surpassed in wetness +by their Lakeland neighbours; for whereas Hawes Junction, which is only +about seven miles south of Muker, has an average yearly rainfall of +about 62 inches, Mickleden, in Westmorland, can show 137, and certain +spots in Cumberland aspire towards 200 inches in a year. + +The weather conditions being so severe, it is not surprising to find +that no corn at all is grown in Swaledale at the present day. Some +notes, found in an old family Bible in Teesdale, are quoted by Mr. +Joseph Morris. They show the painful difficulties experienced in the +eighteenth century from such entries as: '1782. I reaped oats for John +Hutchinson, when the field was covered with snow,' and: '1799, Nov. 10. +Much corn to cut and carry. A hard frost.' + +Muker, notwithstanding all these climatic difficulties, has some claim +to picturesqueness, despite the fact that its church is better seen at +a distance, for a close inspection reveals its rather poverty-stricken +state. The square tower, so typical of the dales, stands well above the +weathered roofs of the village, and there are sufficient trees to tone +down the severities of the stone walls, that are inclined to make one +house much like its neighbour, and but for natural surroundings would +reduce the hamlets to the same uniformity. At Muker, however, there is +a steep bridge and a rushing mountain stream that joins the Swale just +below. The road keeps close to this beck, and the houses are thus +restricted to one side of the way. + +Away to the south, in the direction of the Buttertubs Pass, is Stags +Fell, 2,213 feet above the sea, and something like 1,300 feet above +Muker. Northwards, and towering over the village, is the isolated mass +of Kisdon Hill, on two sides of which the Swale, now a mountain stream, +rushes and boils among boulders and ledges of rock. This is one of the +finest portions of the dale, and, although the road leaves the river +and passes round the western side of Kisdon, there is a path that goes +through the glen, and brings one to the road again at Keld. + +Just before you reach Keld, the Swale drops 30 feet at Kisdon Force, +and after a night of rain there are many other waterfalls to be seen in +this district. These are not to me, however, the chief attractions of +the head of Swaledale, although without the angry waters the gills and +narrow ravines that open from the dale would lose much interest. It is +the stern grandeur of the scarred hillsides and the wide mountainous +views from the heights that give this part of Yorkshire such a +fascination. If you climb to the top of Rogan's Seat, you have a huge +panorama of desolate country spread out before you. The confused jumble +of blue-grey mountains to the north-west is beyond the limits of +Yorkshire at last, and in their strong embrace those stern Westmorland +hills hold the charms of Lakeland. + +If one stays in this mountainous region, there are new and exciting +walks available for every day. There are gloomy recesses in the +hillsides that encourage exploration from the knowledge that they are +not tripper-worn, and there are endless heights to be climbed that are +equally free from the smallest traces of desecrating mankind. Rare +flowers, ferns, and mosses flourish in these inaccessible solitudes, +and will continue to do so, on account of the dangers that lurk in +their fastnesses, and also from the fact that their value is nothing to +any but those who are glad to leave them growing where they are. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WENSLEYDALE + + +The approach from Muker to the upper part of Wensleydale is by a +mountain road that can claim a grandeur which, to those who have never +explored the dales, might almost seem impossible. I have called it a +road, but it is, perhaps, questionable whether this is not too +high-sounding a term for a track so invariably covered with large loose +stones and furrowed with water-courses. At its highest point the road +goes through the Buttertubs Pass, taking the traveller to the edge of +the pot-holes that have given their name to this thrilling way through +the mountain ridge dividing the Swale from the Ure. + +Such a lonely and dangerous road should no doubt be avoided at night, +but yet I am always grateful for the delays which made me so late that +darkness came on when I was at the highest portion of the pass. It was +late in September, and it was the day of the feast at Hawes, which had +drawn to that small town farmers and their wives, and most, if not all, +the young men and maidens within a considerable radius. I made my way +slowly up the long ascent from Muker, stumbling frequently on the loose +stones and in the water-worn runnels that were scarcely visible in the +dim twilight. The huge, bare shoulders of the fells began to close in +more and more as I climbed. Towards the west lay Great Shunnor Fell, +its vast brown-green mass being sharply defined against the clear +evening sky; while further away to the north-west there were blue +mountains going to sleep in the soft mistiness of the distance. Then +the road made a sudden zig-zag, but went on climbing more steeply than +ever, until at last I found that the stony track had brought me to the +verge of a precipice. There was not sufficient light to see what +dangers lay beneath me, but I could hear the angry sound of a beck +falling upon quantities of bare rocks. If one does not keep to the +road, there is on the other side the still greater menace of the +Buttertubs, the dangers of which are too well known to require any +emphasis of mine. Those pot-holes which have been explored with much +labour, and the use of winches and tackle and a great deal of stout +rope, have revealed in their cavernous depths the bones of sheep that +disappeared from flocks which have long since become mutton. This road +is surely one that would have afforded wonderful illustrations to the +'Pilgrim's Progress,' for the track is steep and narrow and painfully +rough; dangers lie on either side, and safety can only be found by +keeping in the middle of the road. + +What must have been the thoughts, I wonder, of the dalesmen who on +different occasions had to go over the pass at night in those still +recent times when wraithes and hobs were terrible realities? In the +parts of Yorkshire where any records of the apparitions that used to +enliven the dark nights have been kept, I find that these awesome +creatures were to be found on every moor, and perhaps some day in my +reading I shall discover an account of those that haunted this pass. + +Although there are probably few who care for rough moorland roads at +night, the Buttertubs Pass in daylight is still a memorable place. The +pot-holes can then be safely approached, and one can peer into the +blackness below until the eyes become adapted to the gloom. Then one +sees the wet walls of limestone and the curiously-formed isolated +pieces of rock that almost suggest columnar basalt. In crevices far +down delicate ferns are growing in the darkness. They shiver as the +cool water drips upon them from above, and the drops they throw off +fall down lower still into a stream of underground water that has its +beginnings no man knows where. On a hot day it is cooling simply to +gaze into the Buttertubs, and the sound of the falling waters down in +these shadowy places is pleasant after gazing on the dry fell-sides. + +Just beyond the head of the pass, where the descent to Hawes begins, +the shoulders of Great Shunnor Fell drop down, so that not only +straight ahead, but also westwards, one can see a splendid mountain +view. Ingleborough's flat top is conspicuous in the south, and in every +direction there are indications of the geology of the fells. The hard +stratum of millstone grit that rests upon the limestone gives many of +the summits of the hills their level character, and forms the +sharply-defined scars that encircle them. The sudden and violent +changes of weather that take place among these watersheds would almost +seem to be cause enough to explain the wearing down of the angularities +of the heights. Even while we stand on the bridge at Hawes we can see +three or four ragged cloud edges letting down on as many places +torrential rains, while in between there are intervals of blazing +sunshine, under which the green fells turn bright yellow and orange in +powerful contrast to the indigo shadows on every side. Such rapid +changes from complete saturation to sudden heat are trying to the +hardest rocks, and at Hardraw, close at hand, there is a still more +palpable process of denudation in active operation. + +Such a morning as this is quite ideal for seeing the remarkable +waterfall known as Hardraw Scar or Force. The footpath that leads up +the glen leaves the road at the side of the 'Green Dragon' at Hardraw, +where the innkeeper hands us a key to open the gate we must pass +through. Being September, and an uncertain day for weather, we have the +whole glen to ourselves, until behind some rocks we discover a solitary +angler. There is nothing but the roughest of tracks to follow, for the +carefully-made pathway that used to go right up to the fall was swept +away half a dozen years ago, when the stream in a fierce mood cleared +its course of any traces of artificiality. We are deeply grateful, and +make our among the big rocks and across the slippery surfaces of shale, +with the roar of the waters becoming more and more insistent. The sun +has turned into the ravine a great searchlight that has lit up the rock +walls and strewn the wet grass beneath with sparkling jewels. On the +opposite side there is a dense blue shadow over everything except the +foliage on the brow of the cliffs, where the strong autumn colours leap +into a flaming glory that transforms the ravine into an astonishing +splendour. A little more careful scrambling by the side of the stream, +and we see a white band of water falling from the overhanging limestone +into the pool about ninety feet below. Off the surface of the water +drifts a mist of spray, in which a soft patch of rainbow hovers until +the sun withdraws itself for a time and leaves a sudden gloom in the +horseshoe of overhanging cliffs. The place is, perhaps, more in +sympathy with a cloudy sky, but, under sunshine or cloud, the spout of +water is a memorable sight, and its imposing height places Hardraw +among the small group of England's finest waterfalls. The mass of shale +that lies beneath this stratum is soft enough to be worked away by the +water until the limestone overhangs the pool to the extent of ten or +twelve feet, so that the water falls sheer into the circular basin, +leaving a space between the cliff and the fall where it is safe to walk +on a rather moist and slippery path that is constantly being sprayed +from the surface of the pool. + +John Leland wrote, nearly four hundred years ago, '_Uredale_ veri +litle Corne except Bygg or Otes, but plentiful of Gresse in Communes,' +and although this dale is so much more genial in aspect, and so much +wider than the valley of the Swale, yet crops are under the same +disabilities. Leaving Gayle behind, we climb up a steep and stony road +above the beck until we are soon above the level of green pasturage. +The stone walls still cover the hillsides with a net of very large +mesh, but the sheep find more bent than grass, and the ground is often +exceedingly steep. Higher still climbs this venturesome road, until all +around us is a vast tumble of gaunt brown fells, divided by ravines +whose sides are scarred with runnels of water, which have exposed the +rocks and left miniature screes down below. At a height of nearly 1,600 +feet there is a gate, where we will turn away from the road that goes +on past Dodd Fell into Langstrothdale, and instead climb a smooth grass +track sprinkled with half-buried rocks until we have reached the summit +of Wether Fell, 400 feet higher. There is a scanty growth of ling upon +the top of this height, but the hills that lie about on every side are +browny-green or of an ochre colour, and there is little of the purple +one sees in the Cleveland Hills. + +The cultivated level of Wensleydale is quite hidden from view, so that +we look over a vast panorama of mountains extending in the west as far +as the blue fells of Lakeland. I have painted the westward view from +this very summit, so that any written description is hardly needed; but +behind us, as we face the scene illustrated here, there is a wonderful +expanse that includes the heights of Addlebrough, Stake Fell, and +Penhill Beacon, which stand out boldly on the southern side of +Wensleydale. I have seen these hills lightly covered with snow, but +that can give scarcely the smallest suggestion of the scene that was +witnessed after the remarkable snowstorm of January, 1895, which +blocked the roads between Wensleydale and Swaledale until nearly the +middle of March. Roads were dug out, with walls of snow on either side +from 10 to 15 feet in height, but the wind and fresh falls almost +obliterated the passages soon after they had been cut. In +Landstrothdale Mr. Speight tells of the extraordinary difficulties of +the dalesfolk in the farms and cottages, who were faced with starvation +owing to the difficulty of getting in provisions. They cut ways through +the drifts as high as themselves in the direction of the likeliest +places to obtain food, while in Swaledale they built sledges. + +When we have left the highest part of Wether Fell, we find the track +taking a perfectly straight line between stone walls. The straightness +is so unusual that there can be little doubt that it is a survival of +one of the Roman ways connecting their station on Brough Hill, just +above the village of Bainbridge, with some place to the south-west. The +track goes right over Cam Fell, and is known as the Old Cam Road, but I +cannot recommend it for any but pedestrians. When we have descended +only a short distance, there is a sudden view of Semmerwater, the only +piece of water in Yorkshire that really deserves to be called a lake. +It is a pleasant surprise to discover this placid patch of blue lying +among the hills, and partially hidden by a fellside in such a way that +its area might be far greater than 105 acres. + +Those who know Turner's painting of this lake would be disappointed, no +doubt, if they saw it first from this height. The picture was made at +the edge of the water with the Carlow Stone in the foreground, and over +the mountains on the southern shore appears a sky that would make the +dullest potato-field thrilling. + +A short distance lower down, by straying a little from the road, we get +a really imposing view of Bardale, into which the ground falls suddenly +from our very feet. Sheep scamper nimbly down their convenient little +tracks, but there are places where water that overflows from the pools +among the bent and ling has made blue-grey seams and wrinkles in the +steep places that give no foothold even to the toughest sheep. + +We lose sight of Semmerwater behind the ridge that forms one side of +the branch dale in which it lies, but in exchange we get beautiful +views of the sweeping contours of Wensleydale. High upon the further +side of the valley Askrigg's gray roofs and pretty church stand out +against a steep fellside; further down we can see Nappa Hall, +surrounded by trees, just above the winding river, and Bainbridge lies +close at hand. We soon come to the broad and cheerful green, surrounded +by a picturesque scattering of old but well preserved cottages; for +Bainbridge has sufficient charms to make it a pleasant inland resort +for holiday times that is quite ideal for those who are content to +abandon the sea. The overflow from Semmerwater, which is called the +Bam, fills the village with its music as it falls over ledges or rock +in many cascades along one side of the green. + +There is a steep bridge, which is conveniently placed for watching the +waterfalls; there are white geese always drilling on the grass, and +there are still to be seen the upright stones of the stocks. The pretty +inn called the 'Rose and Crown,' overlooking a corner of the green +states upon a board that it was established in 1445. + +A horn-blowing custom has been preserved at Bainbridge. It takes place +at ten o'clock every night between Holy Rood (September 27) and +Shrovetide, but somehow the reason for the observance has been +forgotten. The medieval regulations as to the carrying of horns by +foresters and those who passed through forests would undoubtedly +associate the custom with early times, and this happy old village +certainly gains our respect for having preserved anything from such a +remote period. When we reach Bolton Castle we shall find in the museum +there an old horn from Bainbridge. + +Besides having the length and breadth of Wensleydale to explore with or +without the assistance of the railway, Bainbridge has as its particular +possession the valley containing Semmerwater, with the three romantic +dales at its head. Counterside, a hamlet perched a little above the +lake, has an old hall, where George Fox stayed in 1677 as a guest of +Richard Robinson. The inn bears the date 1667 and the initials +'B.H.J.,' which may be those of one of the Jacksons, who were Quakers +at that time. + +On the other side of the river, and scarcely more than a mile from +Bainbridge, is the little town of Askrigg, which supplies its neighbour +with a church and a railway-station. There is a charm in its breezy +situation that is ever present, for even when we are in the narrow +little street that curves steeply up the hill there are quite +exhilarating peeps of the dale. We can see Wether Fell, with the road +we traversed yesterday plainly marked on the slopes, and down below, +where the Ure takes its way through bright pastures, there is a mist of +smoke ascending from Hawes. Blocking up the head of the dale are the +spurs of Dodd and Widdale Fells, while beyond them appears the blue +summit of Bow Fell. We find it hard to keep our eyes away from the +distant mountains, which fascinate one by appearing to have an +importance that is perhaps diminished when they are close at hand. + +We find ourselves halting on a patch of grass by the restored +market-cross to look more closely at a fine old house overlooking the +three-sided space. There is no doubt as to the date of the building, +for a plain inscription begins 'Gulielmus Thornton posuit hanc domum +MDCLXXVIII.' The bay windows have heavy mullions and there is a dignity +about the house which must have been still more apparent when the +surrounding houses were lower than at present. The wooden gallery that +is constructed between the bays was, it is said, built as a convenient +place for watching the bull-fights that took place just below. In the +grass there can still be seen the stone to which the bull-ring was +secured. The churchyard runs along the west side of the little +market-place, so that there is an open view on that side, made +interesting by the Perpendicular church. + +The simple square tower and the unbroken roof-lines are battlemented, +like so many of the churches of the dales; inside we find Norman +pillars that are quite in strange company, if it is true that they were +brought from the site of Fors Abbey, a little to the west of the town. + +Wensleydale generally used to be famed for its hand-knitting, but I +think Askrigg must have turned out more work than any place in the +valley, for the men as well as the womenfolk were equally skilled in +this employment, and Mr. Whaley says they did their work in the open +air 'while gossiping with their neighbours.' This statement is, +nevertheless, exceeded by what appears in a volume entitled 'The +Costume of Yorkshire.' In that work of 1814, which contains a number of +George Walker's quaint drawings, reproduced by lithography, we find a +picture having a strong suggestion of Askrigg in which there is a group +of old and young of both sexes seated on the steps of the market- +cross, all knitting, and a little way off a shepherd is seen driving +some sheep through a gate, and he also is knitting. + +From Askrigg there is a road that climbs up from the end of the little +street at a gradient that looks like 1 in 4, but it is really less +formidable. Considering its steepness the surface is quite good, but +that is due to the industry of a certain road-mender with whom I once +had the privilege to talk when, hot and breathless, I paused to enjoy +the great expanse that lay to the south. He was a fine Saxon type, with +a sunburnt face and equally brown arms. Road-making had been his ideal +when he was a mere boy, and since he had obtained his desire he told me +that he couldn't be happier if he were the King of England. The +picturesque road where we leave him, breaking every large stone he can +find, goes on across a belt of brown moor, and then drops down between +gaunt scars that only just leave space for the winding track to pass +through. It afterwards descends rapidly by the side of a gill, and thus +enters Swaledale. + +There is a beautiful walk from Askrigg to Mill Gill Force. The distance +is scarcely more than half a mile across sloping pastures and through +the curious stiles that appear in the stone walls. So dense is the +growth of trees in the little ravine that one hears the sound of the +waters close at hand without seeing anything but the profusion of +foliage overhanging and growing among the rocks. After climbing down +among the moist ferns and moss-grown stones, the gushing cascades +appear suddenly set in a frame of such lavish beauty that they hold a +high place among their rivals in the dale. + +Keeping to the north side of the river, we come to Nappa Hall at a +distance of a little over a mile to the east of Askrigg. It is now a +farmhouse, but its two battlemented towers proclaim its former +importance as the chief seat of the family of Metcalfe. The date of the +house is about 1459, and the walls of the western tower are 4 feet in +thickness. The Nappa lands came to James Metcalfe from Sir Richard +Scrope of Bolton Castle shortly after his return to England from the +field of Agincourt, and it was probably this James Metcalfe who built +the existing house. + +The road down the dale passes Woodhall Park, and then, after going down +close to the Ure, it bears away again to the little village of +Carperby. It has a triangular green surrounded by white posts. At the +east end stands an old cross, dated 1674, and the ends of the arms are +ornamented with grotesque carved heads. The cottages have a neat and +pleasant appearance, and there is much less austerity about the place +than one sees higher up the dale. A branch road leads down to Aysgarth +Station, and just where the lane takes a sharp bend to the right a +footpath goes across a smooth meadow to the banks of the Ure. The +rainfall of the last few days, which showed itself at Mill Gill Force, +at Hardraw Scar, and a dozen other falls, has been sufficient to swell +the main stream at Wensleydale into a considerable flood, and behind +the bushes that grow thickly along the riverside we can hear the steady +roar of the cascades of Aysgarth. The waters have worn down the rocky +bottom to such an extent that in order to stand in full view of the +splendid fall we must make for a gap in the foliage, and scramble down +some natural steps in the wall of rock forming low cliffs along each +side of the flood. The water comes over three terraces of solid stone, +and then sweeps across wide ledges in a tempestuous sea of waves and +froth, until there come other descents which alter the course of parts +of the stream, so that as we look across the riotous flood we can see +the waters flowing in many opposite directions. Lines of cream-coloured +foam spread out into chains of bubbles which join together, and then, +becoming detached, again float across the smooth portions of each low +terrace. + +Some footpaths bring us to Aysgarth village, which seems altogether to +disregard the church, for it is separated from it by a distance of +nearly half a mile. There is one pleasant little street of old stone +houses irregularly disposed, many of them being quite picturesque, with +mossy roofs and ancient chimneys. This village, like Askrigg and +Bainbridge, is ideally situated as a centre for exploring a very +considerable district. There is quite a network of roads to the south, +connecting the villages of Thoralby and West Burton with Bishop Dale, +and the main road through Wensleydale. Thoralby is very old, and is +beautifully situated under a steep hillside. It has a green overlooked +by little grey cottages, and lower down there is a tall mill with +curious windows built upon Bishop Dale Beck. Close to this mill there +nestles a long, low house of that dignified type to be seen frequently +in the North Riding, as well as in the villages of Westmorland. The +huge chimney, occupying a large proportion of one gable-end, is +suggestive of much cosiness within, and its many shoulders, by which it +tapers towards the top, make it an interesting feature of the house. + +The dale narrows up at its highest point, but the road is enclosed +between grey walls the whole of the way over the head of the valley. A +wide view of Langstrothdale and upper Wharfedale is visible when the +road begins to drop downwards, and to the east Buckden Pike towers up +to his imposing height of 2,302 feet. We shall see him again when we +make our way through Wharfedale but we could go back to Wensleydale by +a mountain-path that climbs up the side of Cam Gill Beck from +Starbottom, and then, crossing the ridge between Buckden Pike and Tor +Mere Top, it goes down into the wild recesses of Waldendale. So remote +is this valley that wild animals, long extinct in other parts of the +dales, survived there until almost recent times. + +When we have crossed the Ure again, and taken a last look at the Upper +Fall from Aysgarth Bridge, we betake ourselves by a footpath to the +main highway through Wensleydale, turning aside before reaching Redmire +in order to see the great castle of the Scropes at Bolton. It is a vast +quadrangular mass, with each side nearly as gaunt and as lofty as the +others. At each corner rises a great square tower, pierced, with a few +exceptions, by the smallest of windows. Only the base of the tower at +the north-east corner remains to-day, the upper part having fallen one +stormy night in November, 1761, possibly having been weakened during +the siege of the castle in the Civil War. We go into the court-yard +through a vaulted archway on the eastern side. Many of the rooms on the +side facing us are in good preservation, and an apartment in the +south-west tower, which has a fireplace, is pointed out as having been +used by Mary Queen of Scots when she was imprisoned here after the +Battle of Langside in 1568. It was the ninth Lord Scrope who had the +custody of the Queen, and he was assisted by Sir Francis Knollys. Mary, +no doubt, found the time of her imprisonment irksome enough, despite +the magnificent views over the dale which her windows appear to have +commanded; but the monotony was relieved to some extent by the lessons +in English which she received from Sir Francis, whom she describes as +her 'good schoolmaster.' While still a prisoner, Mary addressed to him +her first English letter, which begins: 'Master Knollys, I heve sum neus +from Scotland'; and half-way through she begs that he will excuse her +writing, seeing that she had 'neuur vsed it afor,' and was 'hestet.' +The letter concludes with 'thus, affter my commendations, I prey God +heuu you in his kipin. Your assured gud frind, MARIE R.' + +On the opposite side of the steep-sided dale Penhill stands out +prominently, with its flat summit reflecting just enough of the setting +sun to recall a momentous occasion when from that commanding spot a +real beacon-fire sent up a great mass of flame and sparks. It was +during the time of Napoleon's threatened invasion of England, and the +lighting of this beacon was to be the signal to the volunteers of +Wensleydale to muster and march to their rendezvous. The watchman on +Penhill, as he sat by the piled-up brushwood, wondering, no doubt, what +would happen to him if the dreaded invasion were really to come about, +saw, far away across the Vale of Mowbray, a light which he at once took +to be the beacon upon Roseberry Topping. A moment later tongues of +flame and smoke were pouring from his own hilltop, and the news spread +up the dale like wildfire. The volunteers armed themselves rapidly, and +with drums beating they marched away, with only such delay as was +caused by the hurried leave-takings with wives and mothers, and all the +rest who crowded round. The contingent took the road to Thirsk, and on +the way were joined by the Mashamshire men. Whether it was with relief +or disappointment I do not know; but when the volunteers reached Thirsk +they heard that they had been called out by a false alarm, for the +light seen in the direction of Roseberry Topping had been caused by +accident, and the beacon on that height had not been lit. + +Wensley stands just at the point where the dale, to which it has given +its name, becomes so wide that it begins to lose its distinctive +character. The village is most picturesque and secluded, and it is +small enough to cause some wonder as to its distinction in naming the +valley. It is suggested that the name is derived from _Wodenslag_, +and that in the time of the Northmen's occupation of these parts the +place named after their chief god would be the most important. + +In the little church standing on the south side of the green there is +so much to interest us that we are almost unable to decide what to +examine first, until, realizing that we are brought face to face with a +beautiful relic of Easby Abbey, we turn our attention to the parclose +screen. It surrounds the family pew of Bolton Hall, and on three sides +we see the Perpendicular woodwork fitted into the east end of the north +aisle. The side that fronts the nave has an entirely different +appearance, being painted and of a classic order, very lacking in any +ecclesiastical flavour, an impression not lost on those who, with every +excuse, called it 'the opera box.' In the panels of the early part of +the screen are carved inscriptions and arms of the Scropes covering a +long period, and, though many words and letters are missing, it is +possible to make them more complete with the help of the record made by +the heralds in 1665. + +A charming lane, overhung by big trees, runs above the river-banks for +nearly two miles of the way to Middleham; then it joins the road from +Leyburn, and crosses the Ure by a suspension bridge, defended by two +very formidable though modern archways. Climbing up past the church, we +enter the cobbled market-place, which wears a rather decayed appearance +in sympathy with the departed magnificence of the great castle of the +Nevilles. It commands a vast view of Wensleydale from the southern +side, in much the same manner as Bolton does from the north; but the +castle buildings are entirely different, for Middleham consists of a +square Norman keep, very massive and lofty, surrounded at a short +distance by a strong wall and other buildings, also of considerable +height, built in the Decorated period, when the Nevilles were in +possession of the stronghold. The Norman keep dates from the year 1190, +when Robert Fitz Randolph, grandson of Ribald, a brother of the Earl of +Richmond, began to build the Castle. + +It was, however, in later times, when Middleham had come to the +Nevilles by marriage, that really notable events took place in this +fortress. It was here that Warwick, the 'King-maker,' held Edward IV. +prisoner in 1467, and in Part III. of the play of 'King Henry VI.,' +Scene V. of the fourth act is laid in a park near Middleham Castle. +Richard III.'s only son, Edward Prince of Wales, was born here in 1467, +the property having come into Richard's possession by his marriage with +Anne Neville. + +We have already seen Leyburn Shawl from near Wensley, but its charm can +only be appreciated by seeing the view up the dale from its +larch-crowned termination. Perhaps if we had seen nothing of +Wensleydale, and the wonderful views it offers, we should be more +inclined to regard this somewhat popular spot with greater veneration; +but after having explored both sides of the dale, and seen many views +of a very similar character, we cannot help thinking that the vista is +somewhat overrated. Leyburn itself is a cheerful little town, with a +modern church and a very wide main street which forms a most extensive +market-place. There is a bull-ring still visible in the great open +space, but beyond this and the view from the Shawl Leyburn has few +attractions, except its position as a centre or a starting-place from +which to explore the romantic neighbourhood. + +As we leave Leyburn we get a most beautiful view up Coverdale, with the +two Whernsides standing out most conspicuously at the head of the +valley, and it is this last view of Coverdale, and the great valley +from which it branches, that remains in the mind as one of the finest +pictures of this most remarkable portion of Yorkshire. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +RIPON AND FOUNTAINS ABBEY + + +We have come out of Wensleydale past the ruins of the great Cistercian +abbey of Jervaulx, which Conan, Earl of Richmond, moved from Askrigg to +a kindlier climate, and we have passed through the quiet little town of +Masham, famous for its fair in September, when sometimes as many as +70,000 sheep, including great numbers of the fine Wensleydale breed, +are sold, and now we are at Ripon. It is the largest town we have seen +since we lost sight of Richmond in the wooded recesses of Swaledale, +and though we are still close to the Ure, we are on the very edge of +the dale country, and miss the fells that lie a little to the west. The +evening has settled down to steady rain, and the market-place is +running with water that reflects the lights in the shop-windows and +the dark outline of the obelisk in the centre. This erection is +suspiciously called 'the Cross,' and it made its appearance nearly +seventy years before the one at Richmond. Gent says it cost £564 11s. +9d., and that it is 'one of the finest in England.' I could, no doubt, +with the smallest trouble discover a description of the real cross it +supplanted, but if it were anything half as fine as the one at +Richmond, I should merely be moved to say harsh things of John +Aislabie, who was Mayor in 1702, when the obelisk was erected, and +therefore I will leave the matter to others. It is, perhaps, an +un-Christian occupation to go about the country quarrelling with the +deeds of recent generations, though I am always grateful for any traces +of the centuries that have gone which have been allowed to survive. +With this thought still before me, I am startled by a long-drawn-out +blast on a horn, and, looking out of my window, which commands the +whole of the market-place, I can see beneath the light of a lamp an +old-fashioned figure wearing a three-cornered hat. When the last +quavering note has come from the great circular horn, the man walks +slowly across the wet cobble-stones to the obelisk, where I watch him +wind another blast just like the first, and then another, and then a +third, immediately after which he walks briskly away and disappears +down a turning. In the light of morning I discover that the horn was +blown in front of the Town Hall, whose stucco front bears the +inscription: 'Except ye Lord keep ye cittie, ye Wakeman waketh in +vain.' The antique spelling is, of course, unable to give a wrong +impression as to the age of the building, for it shows its period so +plainly that one scarcely needs to be told that it was built in 1801, +although it could not so easily be attributed to the notorious Wyatt. +Notwithstanding much reconstruction there are still a few quaint houses +to be seen in Ripon, and there clings to the streets a certain flavour +of antiquity. It is the minster, nevertheless, that raises the 'city' +above the average Yorkshire town. The west front, with its twin towers, +is to some extent the most memorable portion of the great church. It is +the work of Archbishop Walter Gray, and is a most beautiful example of +the pure Early English style. Inside there is a good deal of +transitional Norman work to be seen. The central tower was built in +this period, but now presents a most remarkable appearance, owing to +its partial reconstruction in Perpendicular times, the arch that faces +the nave having the southern pier higher than the Norman one, and in +the later style, so that the arch is lop-sided. As a building in which +to study the growth of English Gothic architecture, I can scarcely +think it possible to find anything better, all the periods being very +clearly represented. The choir has much sumptuous carved woodwork, and +the misereres are full of quaint detail. In the library there is a +collection of very early printed books and other relics of the minster +that add very greatly to the interest of the place. + +The monument to Hugh Ripley, who was the last Wakeman of Ripon and +first Mayor in 1604, is on the north side of the nave facing the +entrance to the crypt, popularly called 'St. Wilfrid's Needle.' A +rather difficult flight of steps goes down to a narrow passage leading +into a cylindrically vaulted cell with niches in the walls. At the +north-east corner is the curious slit or 'Needle' that has been thought +to have been used for purposes of trial by ordeal, the innocent person +being able to squeeze through the narrow opening. + +In reality it is probably nothing more than an arrangement for lighting +two cells with one lamp. The crypt is of such a plainly Roman type, and +is so similar to the one at Hexham, that it is generally accepted as +dating from the early days of Christianity in Yorkshire, and there can +be little doubt that it is a relic of Wilfrid's church in those early +times. + +At a very convenient distance from Ripon, and approached by a pleasant +lane, are the lovely glades of Studley Royal, the noble park containing +the ruins of Fountains Abbey. Below the well-kept pathway runs the +Skell, but so transformed from its early character that you would +imagine the pathways wind round the densely-wooded slopes, and give a +dozen different views of each mass of trees, each temple, and each bend +of the river. At last, from a considerable height, you have the lovely +view of the abbey ruins illustrated here. At every season its charm is +unmistakable, and even if no stately tower and no roofless arches +filled the centre of the prospect, the scene would be almost as +memorable. It is only one of the many pictures in the park that a +retentive memory will hold as some of the most remarkable in England. + +Among the ruins the turf is kept in perfect order, and it is pleasant +merely to look upon the contrast of the green carpet that is so evenly +laid between the dark stonework. The late-Norman nave, with its solemn +double line of round columns, the extremely graceful arches of the +Chapel of the Nine Altars, and the magnificent vaulted perspective of +the dark cellarium of the lay-brothers, are perhaps the most +fascinating portions of the buildings. I might be well compared with +the last abbot but one, William Thirsk, who resigned his post, +forseeing the coming Dissolution, and was therefore called 'a varra +fole and a misereble ideote,' if I attempted in the short space +available to give any detailed account of the abbey or its wonderful +past. I have perhaps said enough to insist on its charms, and I know +that all who endorse my statements will, after seeing Fountains, read +with delight the books that are devoted to its story. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +KNARESBOROUGH AND HARROGATE + + +It is sometimes said that Knaresborough is an overrated town from the +point of view of its attractiveness to visitors, but this depends very +much upon what we hope to find there. If we expect to find lasting +pleasure in contemplating the Dropping Well, or the pathetic little +exhibition of petrified objects in the Mother Shipton Inn, we may be +prepared for disappointment. It seems strange that the real and lasting +charms of the town should be overshadowed by such popular and +much-advertised 'sights.' The first view of the town from the 'high' +bridge is so full of romance that if there were nothing else to +interest us in the place we would scarcely be disappointed. The Nidd, +flowing smoothly at the foot of the precipitous heights upon which the +church and the old roofs appear, is spanned by a great stone viaduct. +This might have been so great a blot upon the scene that Knaresborough +would have lost half its charm. Strangely enough, we find just the +reverse is the case, for this railway bridge, with its battlemented +parapets and massive piers, is now so weathered that it has melted into +its surroundings as though it had come into existence as long ago as +the oldest building visible. The old Knaresborough kept well to the +heights adjoining the castle, and even to-day there are only a handful +of later buildings down by the river margin. + +When we have crossed the bridge, and have passed along a narrow roadway +perched well above the river, we come to one of the many interesting +houses that help to keep alive the old-world flavour of the town. Only +a few years ago the old manor-house had a most picturesque and rather +remarkable exterior, for its plaster walls were covered with a large +black and white chequer-work and its overhanging eaves and tailing +creepers gave it a charm that has since then been quite lost. The +restoration which recently took place has entirely altered the +character of the exterior, but inside everything has been preserved +with just the care that should have been expended outside as well. +There are oak-wainscoted parlours, oak dressers, and richly-carved +fireplaces in the low-ceiled rooms, each one containing furniture of +the period of the house. Upstairs there is a beautiful old bedroom +lined with oak, like those on the floor below, and its interest is +greatly enhanced by the story of Oliver Cromwell's residence in the +house, for he is believed to have used this particular bedroom. + +Higher up the hill stands the church with a square central tower +surmounted by a small spike. It still bears the marks of the fire made +by the Scots during their disastrous descent upon Yorkshire after +Edward II.'s defeat at Bannockburn. The chapel north of the chancel +contains interesting monuments of the old Yorkshire family of Slingsby. +The altar-tomb in the centre bears the recumbent effigies of Francis +Slingsby, who died in 1600, and Mary his wife. Another monument shows +Sir William Slingsby, who accidentally discovered the first spring at +Harrogate. The Slingsbys, who were cavaliers, produced a martyr in the +cause of Charles I. This was the distinguished Sir Henry, who, in 1658, +'being beheaded by order of the tyrant Cromwell, ... was translated to +a better place.' So says the inscription on a large slab of black +marble in the floor of the chapel. The last of the male line of the +family was Sir Charles Slingsby, who was most unfortunately drowned by +the upsetting of a ferry-boat in the Ure in February, 1869. + +When we have progressed beyond the market-place, we come out upon an +elevated grassy space upon the top of a great mass of rock whose +perpendicular sides drop down to a bend of the Nidd. Around us are +scattered the ruins of Knaresborough Castle--poor and of small account +if we compare them with Richmond, although the site is very similar; +where before the siege in 1644 there must have been a most imposing +mass of towers and curtain walls. Of the great keep, only the lowest +story is at all complete, for above the first-floor there are only two +sides to the tower, and these are battered and dishevelled. The walls +enclosed about the same area as Richmond, but they are now so greatly +destroyed that it is not easy to gain a clear idea of their position. +There were no less than eleven towers, of which there now remain +fragments of six, part of a gateway, and behind the old courthouse +there are evidences of a secret cell. An underground sally-port opening +into the moat, which was a dry one, is reached by steps leading from +the castle yard. + +The keep is in the Decorated style, and appears to have been built in +the reign of Edward II. Below the ground is a vaulted dungeon, dark and +horrible in its hopeless strength, which is only emphasized by the tiny +air-hole that lets in scarcely a glimmering of light, but reveals a +thickness of 15 feet of masonry that must have made a prisoner's heart +sick. It is generally understood that Bolingbroke spared Richard II. +such confinement as this, and that when he was a prisoner in the keep +he occupied the large room on the floor above the kitchen. It is now a +mere platform, with the walls running up on two sides only. The kitchen +(sometimes called the guard-room) has a perfectly preserved roof of +heavy groining, supported by two pillars, and it contains a collection +of interesting objects, rather difficult to see, owing to the poor +light that the windows allow. There is a great deal to interest us +among the wind-swept ruins and the views into the wooded depths of the +Nidd, and we would rather stay here and trace back the history of the +castle and town to the days of that Norman Serlo de Burgh, who is the +first mentioned in its annals, than go down to the tripper-worn +Dropping Well and the Mother Shipton Inn. + +The distance between Knaresborough and Harrogate is short, and after +passing Starbeck we come to an extensive common known as the Stray. We +follow the grassy space, when it takes a sharp turn to the north, and +are soon in the centre of the great watering-place. + +There is one spot in Harrogate that has a suggestion of the early days +of the town. It is down in the corner where the valley gardens almost +join the extremity of the Stray. There we find the Royal Pump Room that +made its appearance in early Victorian times, and its circular counter +is still crowded every morning by a throng of water-drinkers. We wander +through the hilly streets and gaze at the pretentious hotels, the +baths, the huge Kursaal, the hydropathic establishments, the smart +shops, and the many churches, and then, having seen enough of the +buildings, we find a seat supported by green serpents, from which to +watch the passers-by. A white-haired and withered man, having the stamp +of a military life in his still erect bearing, paces slowly by; then +come two elaborately dressed men of perhaps twenty-five. They wear +brown suits and patent boots, and their bowler hats are pressed down on +the backs of their heads. Then nursemaids with perambulators pass, +followed by a lady in expensive garments, who talks volubly to her two +pretty daughters. When we have tired of the pavements and the people, +we bid farewell to them without much regret, being in a mood for +simplicity and solitude, and go away towards Wharfedale with the +pleasant tune that a band was playing still to remind us for a time of +the scenes we have left behind. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +WHARFEDALE + + +Otley is the first place we come to in the long and beautiful valley of +the Wharfe. It is a busy little town where printing machinery is +manufactured and worsted mills appear to thrive. Immediately to the +south rises the steep ridge known as the Chevin. It answers the same +purpose as Leyburn Shawl in giving a great view over the dale; the +elevation of over 900 feet, being much greater than the Shawl, of +course commands a far more extensive panorama, and thus, in clear +weather, York Minster appears on the eastern horizon and the Ingleton +Fells on the west. + +Farnley Hall, on the north side of the Wharfe, is an Elizabethan house +dating from 1581, and it is still further of interest on account of +Turner's frequent visits, covering a great number of years, and for the +very fine collection of his paintings preserved there. The +oak-panelling and coeval furniture are particularly good, and among the +historical relics there is a remarkable memento of Marston Moor in the +sword that Cromwell carried during the battle. + +Ilkley has contrived to keep an old well-house, where the water's +purity is its chief attraction. The church contains a thirteenth- +century effigy of Sir Andrew de Middleton, and also three +pre-Norman crosses without arms. On the heights to the south of Ilkley +is Rumbles Moor, and from the Cow and Calf rocks there is a very fine +view. + +About six miles still further up Wharfedale, Bolton Abbey stands by a +bend of the beautiful river. The ruins are most picturesquely placed on +ground slightly raised above the banks of the Wharfe. Of the domestic +buildings practically nothing remains, while the choir of the church, +the central tower, and north transepts are roofless and extremely +beautiful ruins. The nave is roofed in, and is used as a church at the +present time, and it is probable that services have been held in the +building practically without any interruption for 700 years. Hiding the +Early English west end is the lower half of a fine Perpendicular tower, +commenced by Richard Moone, the last Prior. + +The great east window of the choir has lost its tracery, and the +Decorated windows at the sides are in the same vacant state, with the +exception of one. It is blocked up to half its height, like those on +the north side, but the flamboyant tracery of the head is perfect and +very graceful. Lower down there is some late-Norman interlaced arcading +resting on carved corbels. + +From the abbey we can take our way by various beautiful paths to the +exceedingly rich scenery of Bolton woods. Some of the reaches of the +Wharfe through this deep and heavily-timbered part of its course are +really enchanting, and not even the knowledge that excursion parties +frequently traverse the paths can rob the views of their charm. It is +always possible, by taking a little trouble, to choose occasions for +seeing these beautiful but very popular places when they are unspoiled +by the sights and sounds of holiday-makers, and in the autumn, when the +woods have an almost undreamed-of brilliance, the walks and drives are +generally left to the birds and the rabbits. At the Strid the river, +except in flood-times, is confined to a deep channel through the rocks, +in places scarcely more than a yard in width. It is one of those spots +that accumulate stories and legends of the individuals who have lost +their lives, or saved them, by endeavouring to leap the narrow channel. +That several people have been drowned here is painfully true, for the +temptation to try the seemingly easy but very risky jump is more than +many can resist. + +Higher up, the river is crossed by the three arches of Barden Bridge, a +fine old structure bearing the inscription: 'This bridge was repayred +at the charge of the whole West R ... 1676.' To the south of the bridge +stands the picturesque Tudor house called Barden Tower, which was at +one time a keeper's lodge in the manorial forest of Wharfedale. It was +enlarged by the tenth Lord Clifford--the 'Shepherd Lord' whose strange +life-story is mentioned in the next chapter in connection with +Skipton--but having become ruinous, it was repaired in 1658 by that +indefatigable restorer of the family castles, the Lady Anne Clifford. + +At this point there is a road across the moors to Pateley Bridge, in +Nidderdale, and if we wish to explore that valley, which is now +partially filled with a lake formed by the damming of the Nidd for +Bradford's water-supply, we must leave the Wharfe at Barden. If we keep +to the more beautiful dale we go on through the pretty village of +Burnsall to Grassington, where a branch railway has recently made its +appearance from Skipton. + +The dale from this point appears more and more wild, and the fells +become gaunt and bare, with scars often fringing the heights on either +side. We keep to the east side of the river, and soon after having a +good view up Littondale, a beautiful branch valley, we come to +Kettlewell. This tidy and cheerful village stands at the foot of Great +Whernside, one of the twin fells that we saw overlooking the head of +Coverdale when we were at Middleham. Its comfortable little inns make +Kettlewell a very fine centre for rambles in the wild dales that run up +towards the head of Wharfedale. + +Buckden is a small village situated at the junction of the road from +Aysgarth, and it has the beautiful scenery of Langstrothdale Chase +stretching away to the west. About a mile higher up the dale we come to +the curious old church of Hubberholme standing close to the river, and +forming a most attractive picture in conjunction with the bridge and +the masses of trees just beyond. At Raisgill we leave the road, which, +if continued, would take us over the moors by Dodd Fell, and then down +to Hawes. The track goes across Horse Head Moor, and it is so very +slightly marked on the bent that we only follow it with difficulty. It +is steep in places, for in a short distance it climbs up to nearly +2,000 feet. The tawny hollows in the fell-sides, and the utter wildness +spread all around, are more impressive when we are right away from +anything that can even be called a path. + +When we reach the highest point before the rapid descent into +Littondale we have another great view, with Pen-y-ghent close at hand +and Fountains Fell more to the south. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +SKIPTON, MALHAM AND GORDALE + + +When I think of Skipton I am never quite sure whether to look upon it +as a manufacturing centre or as one of the picturesque market towns of +the dale country. If you arrive by train, you come out of the station +upon such vast cotton-mills, and such a strong flavour of the bustling +activity of the southern parts of Yorkshire, that you might easily +imagine that the capital of Craven has no part in any holiday-making +portion of the county. But if you come by road from Bolton Abbey, you +enter the place at a considerable height, and, passing round the margin +of the wooded Haw Beck, you have a fine view of the castle, as well as +the church and the broad and not unpleasing market-place. + +The fine gateway of the castle is flanked by two squat towers. They are +circular and battlemented, and between them upon a parapet, which is +higher than the towers themselves, appears the motto of the Cliffords, +'Desormais' (hereafter), in open stone letters. Beyond the gateway +stands a great mass of buildings with two large round towers just in +front; to the right, across a sloping lawn, appears the more modern and +inhabited portion of the castle. The squat round towers gain all our +attention, but as we pass through the doorways into the courtyard +beyond, we are scarcely prepared for the astonishingly beautiful +quadrangle that awaits us. It is small, and the centre is occupied by a +great yew-tree, whose tall, purply-red trunk goes up to the level of +the roofs without any branches or even twigs, but at that height it +spreads out freely into a feathery canopy of dark green, covering +almost the whole of the square of sky visible from the courtyard. The +base of the trunk is surrounded by a massive stone seat, with plain +shields on each side. The aspect of the courtyard suggests more that of +a manor-house than a castle, the windows and doorways being purely +Tudor. The circular towers and other portions of the walls belong to +the time of Edward II., and there is also a round-headed door that +cannot be later than the time of Robert de Romillé, one of the +Conqueror's followers. The rooms that overlook the shady quadrangle are +very much decayed and entirely unoccupied. They include an old +dining-hall of much picturesqueness, kitchens, pantries, and butteries, +some of them only lighted by very narrow windows. The destruction +caused during the siege which took place during the Civil War might +have brought Skipton Castle to much the same condition as Knaresborough +but for the wealth and energy of that remarkable woman Lady Anne +Clifford, who was born here in 1589. She was the only surviving child +of George, the third Earl of Cumberland, and grew up under the care of +her mother, Margaret, Countess of Cumberland, of whom Lady Anne used to +speak as 'my blessed mother.' After her first marriage with Richard +Sackville, Earl of Dorset, Lady Anne married the profligate Philip, +Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. She was widowed a second time in 1649, +and after that began the period of her munificence and usefulness. With +immense enthusiasm, she undertook the work of repairing the castles +that belonged to her family, Brougham, Appleby, Barden Tower, and +Pendragon being restored as well as Skipton. + +Besides attending to the decayed castles, the Countess repaired no less +than seven churches, and to her we owe the careful restoration of the +parish church of Skipton. She began the repairs to the sacred building +even before she turned her attention to the wants of the castle. In her +private memorials we read how, 'In the summer of 1665 ... at her own +charge, she caus'd the steeple of Skipton Church to be built up againe, +which was pull'd down in the time of the late Warrs, and leaded it +over, and then repaired some part of the Church and new glaz'd the +Windows, in ever of which Window she put quaries, stained with a yellow +colour, these two letters--viz., A. P., and under them the year +1655... Besides, she raised up a noble Tomb of Black Marble in memory +of her Warlike Father.' This magnificent altar-tomb still stands within +the Communion rails on the south side of the chancel. It is adorned +with seventeen shields, and Whitaker doubted 'whether so great an +assemblage of noble bearings can be found on the tomb of any other +Englishman.' This third Earl was a notable figure in the reign of +Elizabeth, and having for a time been a great favourite with the Queen, +he received many of the posts of honour she loved to bestow. He was a +skilful and daring sailor, helping to defeat the Spanish Armada, and +building at his own expense one of the greatest fighting ships of his +time. + +The memorials of Lady Anne give a description of her appearance in the +manner of that time: "The colour of her eyes was black like her +Father's," we are told, "with a peak of hair on her forehead, and a +dimple in her chin, like her father. The hair of her head was brown and +very thick, and so long that it reached to the calf of her legs when +she stood upright." + +We cannot leave these old towers of Skipton Castle without going back +to the days of John, the ninth Lord Clifford, that "Bloody Clifford" +who was one of the leaders of the Lancastrians at Wakefield, where his +merciless slaughter earned him the title of "the Butcher." He died by a +chance arrow the night before the Battle of Towton, so fatal to the +cause of Lancaster, and Lady Clifford and the children took refuge in +her father's castle at Brough. For greater safety Henry, the heir, was +placed under the care of a shepherd whose wife had nursed the boy's +mother when a child. In this way the future baron grew up as an +entirely uneducated shepherd lad, spending his days on the fells in the +primitive fashion of the peasants of the fifteenth century. When he was +about twelve years old Lady Clifford, hearing rumours that the +whereabouts of her children had become known, sent the shepherd and his +wife with the boy into an extremely inaccessible part of Cumberland. He +remained there until his thirty-second year, when the Battle of +Bosworth placed Henry VII on the throne. Then the shepherd lord was +brought to Londesborough, and when the family estates had been +restored, he went back to Skipton Castle. The strangeness of his new +life being irksome to him, Lord Clifford spent most of his time in +Barden Forest at one of the keeper's lodges, which he adapted for his +own use. There he hunted and studied astronomy and astrology with the +canons of Bolton. + +At Flodden Field he led the men-at-arms from Craven, and showed that by +his life of extreme simplicity he had in no way diminished the +traditional valour of the Cliffords. When he died they buried him at +Bolton Abbey, where many of his ancestors lay, and as his successor +died after the dissolution of the monasteries, the "Shepherd Lord" was +the last to be buried in that secluded spot by the Wharfe. + +Skipton has always been a central spot for the exploration of this +southern portion of the dales. To the north is Kirby Malham, a pretty +little village with green limestone hills rising on all sides; a +rushing beck coming off Kirby Fell takes its way past the church, and +there is an old vicarage as well as some picturesque cottages. + +We find our way to a decayed lych-gate, whose stones are very black and +moss-grown, and then get a close view of the Perpendicular church. The +interior is full of interest, not only on account of the Norman font +and the canopied niches in the pillars of the nave, but also for the +old pews. The Malham people seemingly found great delight in recording +their names on the woodwork of the pews, for carefully carved initials +and dates appear very frequently. All the pews have been cut down to +the accepted height of the present day with the exception of some on +the north side which were occupied by the more important families, and +these still retain their squareness and the high balustrades above the +panelled lower portions. + +Just under the moorland heights surrounding Malham Tarn is the other +village of Malham. It is a charming spot, even in the gloom of a wintry +afternoon. The houses look on to a strip of uneven green, cut in two, +lengthways, by the Aire. We go across the clear and sparkling waters by +a rough stone footbridge, and, making our way past a farm, find +ourselves in a few minutes at Gordale Bridge. Here we abandon the +switchback lane, and, climbing a wall, begin to make our way along the +side of the beck. The fells drop down fairly sharply on each side, and +in the failing light there seems no object in following the stream any +further, when quite suddenly the green slope on the right stands out +from a scarred wall of rock beyond, and when we are abreast of the +opening we find ourselves before a vast fissure that leads right into +the heart of the fell. The great split is S-shaped in plan, so that +when we advance into its yawning mouth we are surrounded by limestone +cliffs more than 300 feet high. If one visits Gordale Scar for the +first time alone on a gloomy evening, as I have done, I can promise the +most thrilling sensations to those who have yet to see this astonishing +sight. It almost appeared to me as though I were dreaming, and that I +was Aladdin approaching the magician's palace. I had read some of the +eighteenth-century writer's descriptions of the place, and imagined +that their vivid accounts of the terror inspired by the overhanging +rocks were mere exaggerations, but now I sympathize with every word. +The scars overhang so much on the east side that there is not much +space to get out of reach of the water that drips from every portion. +Great masses of stone were lying upon the bright strip of turf, and +among them I noticed some that could not have been there long; this +made me keep close under the cliff in justifiable fear of another fall. +I stared with apprehension at one rock that would not only kill, but +completely bury, anyone upon whom it fell, and I thought those old +writers had underrated the horrors of the place. + +Wordsworth writes of + + "Gordale chasm, terrific as the lair Where the young lions couch," + +and he also describes it as one of the grandest objects in nature. + +A further result of the Craven fault that produced Gordale Scar can be +seen at Malham Cove, about a mile away. There the cliff forms a curved +front 285 feet high, facing the open meadows down below. The limestone +is formed in layers of great thickness, dividing the face of the cliff +into three fairly equal sections, the ledges formed at the commencement +of each stratum allowing of the growth of bushes and small trees. A +hard-pressed fox is said to have taken refuge on one of these +precarious ledges, and finding his way stopped in front, he tried to +turn, and in doing so fell and was killed. + +At the base of the perpendicular face of the cliff the Aire flows from +a very slightly arched recess in the rock. It is a really remarkable +stream in making its debut without the slightest fuss, for it is large +enough at its very birth to be called a small river. Its modesty is a +great loss to Yorkshire, for if, instead of gathering strength in the +hidden places in the limestone fells, it were to keep to more rational +methods, it would flow to the edge of the Cover, and there precipitate +itself in majestic fashion into a great pool below. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +SETTLE AND THE INGLETON FELLS + + +The track across the moor from Malham Cove to Settle cannot be +recommended to anyone at night, owing to the extreme difficulty of +keeping to the path without a very great familiarity with every yard of +the way, so that when I merely suggested taking that route one wintry +night the villagers protested vigorously. I therefore took the road +that goes up from Kirby Malham, having borrowed a large hurricane lamp +from the "Buck" Inn at Malham. Long before I reached the open moor I +was enveloped in a mist that would have made the track quite invisible +even where it was most plainly marked, and I blessed the good folk at +Malham who had advised me to take the road rather than run the risks of +the pot-holes that are a feature of the limestone fells. The little +town of Settle has a most distinctive feature in the possession of +Castleberg, a steep limestone hill, densely wooded except at the very +top, that rises sharply just behind the market-place. Before the trees +were planted there seems to have been a sundial on the side of the +hill, the precipitous scar on the top forming the gnomon. No one +remembers this curious feature, although a print showing the numbers +fixed upon the slope was published in 1778. The market-place has lost +its curious old tolbooth, and in its place stands a town hall of good +Tudor design. Departed also is much of the charm of the old Shambles +that occupy a central position in the square. The lower story, with big +arches forming a sort of piazza in front of the butcher's and other +shops, still remains in its old state, but the upper portion has been +restored in the fullest sense of that comprehensive term. + +In the steep street that we came down on entering the town there may +still be seen a curious old tower, which seems to have forgotten its +original purpose. Some of the houses have carved stone lintels to their +doorways and seventeenth-century dates, while the stone figure on 'The +Naked Man' Inn, although bearing the date 1663, must be very much +older, the year of rebuilding being probably indicated rather than the +date of the figure. + +The Ribble divides Settle from its former parish church at Giggleswick, +and until 1838 the townsfolk had to go over the bridge and along a +short lane to the village which held its church. Settle having been +formed into a separate parish, the parish clerk of the ancient village +no longer has the fees for funerals and marriages. Although able to +share the church, the two places had stocks of their own for a great +many years. At Settle they have been taken from the market square and +placed in the court-house, and at Giggleswick one of the first things +we see on entering the village is one of the stone posts of the stocks +standing by the steps of the market cross. This cross has a very well +preserved head, and it makes the foreground of a very pretty picture as +we look at the battlemented tower of the church through the +stone-roofed lichgate grown over with ivy. The history of this fine old +church, dedicated, like that of Middleham, to St Alkelda, has been +written by Mr. Thomas Brayshaw, who knows every detail of the old +building from the chalice inscribed "[Illustration] THE. COMMVNION. +CVPP. BELONGINGE. TO. THE. PARISHE. OF. IYGGELSWICKE. MADE. IN. ANO. +1585." to the inverted Norman capitals now forming the bases of the +pillars. The tower and the arcades date from about 1400, and the rest +of the structure is about 100 years older. + +"The Black Horse" Inn has still two niches for small figures of saints, +that proclaim its ecclesiastical connections in early times. It is said +that in the days when it was one of the duties of the churchwardens to +see that no one was drinking there during the hours of service the +inspection used to last up to the end of the sermon, and that when the +custom was abolished the church officials regretted it exceedingly. +Giggleswick is also the proud possessor of a school founded in 1512. It +has grown from a very small beginning to a considerable establishment, +and it possesses one of the most remarkable school chapels that can be +seen anywhere in the country. + +The greater part of this district of Yorkshire is composed of +limestone, forming bare hillsides honeycombed with underground waters +and pot-holes, which often lead down into the most astonishing caverns. +In Ingleborough itself there is Gaping Gill Hole, a vast fissure nearly +350 feet deep. It was only partially explored by M. Martel in 1895. +Ingleborough Cave penetrates into the mountain to a distance of nearly +1,000 yards, and is one of the best of these limestone caverns for its +stalactite formations. Guides take visitors from the village of Clapham +to the inmost recesses and chambers that branch out of the small +portion discovered in 1837. + +In almost every direction there are opportunities for splendid mountain +walks, and if the tracks are followed the danger of hidden pot-holes is +comparatively small. From the summit of Ingleborough, and, indeed, from +most of the fells that reach 2,000 feet, there are magnificent views +across the brown fells, broken up with horizontal lines formed by the +bare rocky scars. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +CONCERNING THE WOLDS + + +On wide uplands of chalk the air has a raciness, the sunlight a purity +and a sparkle, not to be found in lowlands. There may be no streams, +perhaps not even a pond; you may find few large trees, and scarcely any +parks; ruined abbeys and even castles may be conspicuously absent, and +yet the landscapes have a power of attracting and fascinating. This is +exactly the case with the Wolds of Yorkshire, and their characteristics +are not unlike the chalk hills of Sussex, or those great expanses of +windswept downs, where the weathered monoliths of Stonehenge have +resisted sun and storm for ages. + +When we endeavour to analyse the power of attraction exerted by the +Wolds, we find it to exist in the sweeping outlines of the land with +scarcely a house to be seen for many miles, in the purity of the air +owing to the absence of smoke, in the brilliance of the sunlight due to +the whiteness of the roads and fields, and in the wonderful breezes +that for ever blow across pasture, stubble, and roots. + +Above the eastern side of the valley, where the Derwent takes its deep +and sinuous course towards the alluvial lands, the chalk first makes +its appearance in the neighbourhood of Acklam, and farther north at +Wharram-le-Street, where picturesque hollows with precipitous sides +break up the edge of the cretaceous deposits. Eastwards the high +country, scarred here and there with gleaming chalk-pits, and netted +with roads of almost equal whiteness, continues to the great headland +of Flamborough, where the sea frets and fumes all the summer, and +lacerates the cliffs during the stormy months. The masses of flinty +chalk have shown themselves so capable of resisting the erosion of the +sea that the seaward termination of the Wolds has for many centuries +been becoming more and more a pronounced feature of the east coast of +England, and if the present rate of encroachment along the low shores +of Holderness is continued, this accentuation will become still more +conspicuous. + +The open roads of the Wolds, bordered by bright green grass and hedges +that lean away from the direction of the prevailing wind, give wide +views to bare horizons, or glimpses beyond vast stretches of waving +corn, of distant country, blue and indistinct, and so different in +character from the immediate surroundings as to suggest the ocean. + +At Flamborough the white cliffs, topped with the clay deposit of the +glacial ages, approach a height of 200 feet; but although the thickness +of the chalk is estimated to be from I,000 to I,500 feet, the greatest +height above sea-level is near Wilton Beacon, where the hills rise +sharply from the Vale of York to 808 feet, and the beacon itself is 23 +feet lower. On this western side of the plateau the views are extremely +good, extending for miles across the flat green vale, where the Derwent +and the Ouse, having lost much of the light-heartedness and gaiety +characterizing their youth in the dales, take their wandering and +converging courses towards the Humber. In the distance you can +distinguish a group of towers, a stately blue-grey outline cutting into +the soft horizon. It is York Minster. To the north-west lie the +beautifully wooded hills that rise above the Derwent, and hold in their +embrace Castle Howard, Newburgh Priory, and many a stately park. + +Towards the north the descents are equally sudden, and the panorama of +the Vale of Pickering, extending from the hills behind Scarborough to +Helmsley far away in the west, is most remarkable. Down below lies the +circumscribed plain, dead-level except for one or two isolated +hillocks. The soil is dark and rich, and there is a marshy appearance +everywhere, showing plainly the water-logged condition of the land even +at the present day. + +There is scarcely a district in England to compare with the Yorkshire +Wolds for its remarkable richness in the remains of Early Man. As long +ago as the middle of last century, when archaeology was more of a +pastime than a science, this corner of the country had become famous +for the rich discoveries in tumuli made by a few local enthusiasts. + +It has been suggested that the flint-bearing character of the Wolds +made this part of Yorkshire a district for the manufacture of +implements and weapons for the inhabitants of a much larger area, and +no doubt the possession of this ample supply of offensive material +would give the tribe in possession a power, wealth, and permanence +sufficient to account for the wonderful evidences of a great and +continuous population. In these districts it is only necessary to go +slowly over a ploughed field after a period of heavy rain to be fairly +certain to pick up a flint knife, a beautifully chipped arrow-head, or +an implement of less obvious purpose. + +To those who have never taken any interest in the traces of Early Man +in this country, this may appear a musty subject, but to me it is quite +the reverse. The long lines of entrenchments, the round tumuli, and the +prehistoric sites generally--omitting lake dwellings--are most +invariably to be found upon high and windswept tablelands, wild or only +recently cultivated places, where the echoes have scarcely been +disturbed since the long-forgotten ages, when a primitive tribe mourned +the loss of a chieftain, or yelled defiance at their enemies from their +double or triple lines of defence. + +In journeying in any direction through the Wolds it is impossible to +forget the existence of Early Man, for on the sky-line just above the +road will appear a row of two or three rounded projections from the +regular line of turf or stubble. They are burial-mounds that the plough +has never levelled--heaps of earth that have resisted the +disintegrating action of weather and man for thousands of years. If +such relics of the primitive inhabitants of this island fail to stir +the imagination, then the mustiness must exist in the unresponsive mind +rather than in the subject under discussion. + +In making an exploration of the Wolds a good starting-place is the +old-fashioned town of Malton, whence railways radiate in five +directions, including the line to Great Driffield, which takes +advantage of the valley leading up to Wharram Percy, and there tunnels +its way through the high ground. + +Choosing a day when the weather is in a congenial mood for rambling, +lingering, or picnicking, or, in other words, when the sun is not too +hot, nor the wind too cold, nor the sky too grey, we make our start +towards the hills. We go on wheels--it is unimportant how many, or to +what they are attached--in order that the long stretches of white road +may not become tedious. The stone bridge over the Derwent is crossed, +and, glancing back, we see the piled-up red roofs crowded along the +steep ground above the further bank, with the church raising its spire +high above its newly-restored nave. Then the wide street of Norton, +which is scarcely to be distinguished from Malton, being separated from +it only by the river, shuts in the view with its houses of whity-red +brick, until their place is taken by hedgerows. To the left stretches +the Vale of Pickering, still a little hazy with the remnants of the +night's mist. Straight ahead and to the right the ground rises up, +showing a wall chequered with cornfields and root-crops, with long +lines of plantations appearing like dark green caterpillars crawling +along the horizon. + +The first village encountered is Rillington, with a church whose stone +spire and the tower it rests upon have the appearance of being copied +from Pickering. Inside there is an Early English font, and one of the +arcades of the nave belongs to the same period. + +Turning southwards a mile or two further on, we pass through the pretty +village of Wintringham, and, when the cottages are passed, find the +church standing among trees where the road bends, its tower and spire +looking much like the one just left behind. The interior is +interesting. The pews are all of old panelled oak, unstained, and with +acorn knobs at the ends; the floor is entirely covered with glazed red +tiles. The late Norman chancel, the plain circular font of the same +period, and the massive altar-slab in the chapel, enclosed by wooden +screens on the north side, are the most notable features. Going to the +east we reach Helperthorpe, one of the Wold villages adorned with a new +church in the Decorated style. The village gained this ornament through +the generosity of the present Sir Tatton Sykes, of Sledmere, whose +enthusiasm for church building is not confined to one place. In his +own park at Sledmere four miles to the south, at West Lutton, East +Heslerton, and Wansford you may see other examples of modern church +building, in which the architect has not been hampered by having to +produce a certain accommodation at a minimum cost. And thus in these +villages the fact of possessing a modern church does not detract from +their charm; instead of doing so, the pilgrim in search of +ecclesiastical interest finds much to draw him to them. + +As a contrast to Helperthorpe, the adjoining hamlet of Weaverthorpe has +a church of very early Norman or possibly Saxon date, and an inscribed +Saxon stone a century earlier than the one at Kirkdale, near Kirby +Moorside. The inscription is on a sundial over the south porch in both +churches; but while that of Kirkdale is quite complete and perfect, +this one has words missing at the beginning and end. Haigh suggests +that the half-destroyed words should read: "LIT OSCETVLI +ARCHIEPISCOPI." Then, without any doubt comes: "[ILLUSTRATION] IN: +HONORE: SCE: ANDREAE APOSTOLI: HEREBERTUS WINTONIE: HOC MONASTERIVM +FECIT: I IN TEMPORE REGN." Here the inscription suddenly stops and +leaves us in ignorance as to in whose time the monastery was built. +There seems little doubt at all that Father Haigh's suggested +completion of the sentence is correct, making it read: "IN TEMPORE +REGN[ALDI REGIS SECUNDI]," which would have just filled a complete +line. + +The coins of Regnald II. of Northumbria bear Christian devices, and it +is known that he was confirmed in 942, while his predecessor of that +name appears to have been a pagan. If the restoration of the first +words of the inscription are correct, the stone cannot be placed +earlier than the year 952 (Dr. Stubbs says 958), when Oscetul succeeded +Wulstan to the See of York. However, even in a neighbourhood so replete +with antiquities this is sufficiently far back in the age of the +Vikings to be of thrilling interest, for you must travel far to find +another village church with an inscription carved nearly a thousand +years ago, at a time when the English nation was still receiving its +infusion of Scandinavian strength. + +The arch of the tower and the door below the sundial have the +narrowness and rudeness suggesting the pre-Norman age, but more than +this it is unwise to say. + +And so we go on through the wide sunny valley, watching the shadows +sweep across the fields, where often the soil is so thin that the +ground is more white than brown, scanning the horizon for tumuli, and +taking note of the different characteristics of each village. Not long +ago the houses, even in the small towns, were thatched, and even now +there are hamlets still cosy and picturesque under their mouse-coloured +roofs; but in most instances you see a transition state of tiles +gradually ousting the inflammable but beautiful thatch. The tiles all +through the Wolds are of the curved pattern, and though cheerful in the +brilliance of their colour, and unspeakably preferable to thin blue +slates, they do not seem to weather or gather moss and rich colouring +in the same manner as the usual flat tile of the southern counties. + +We turn aside to look at the rudely carved Norman tympanum over the +church door at Wold Newton, and then go up to Thwing, on the rising +ground to the south, where we may see what Mr. Joseph Morris claims to +be the only other Norman tympanum in the East Riding. A cottage is +pointed out as the birthplace of Archbishop Lamplugh, who held the See +of York from 1688 to 1691. He was of humble parentage and it is said +that he would often pause in conversation to slap his legs and say, +"Just fancy me being Archbishop of York!" The name of the village is +derived from the Norse word _Thing_, meaning an assembly. + +Keeping on towards the sea, we climb up out of the valley, and passing +Argam Dike and Grindale, come out upon a vast gently undulating plateau +with scarcely a tree to be seen in any direction. A few farms are +dotted here and there over the landscape, and towards Filey we can see +a windmill; but beyond these it seems as though the fierce winds that +assail the promontory of Flamborough had blown away everything that was +raised more than a few feet above the furrows. + +The village of Bempton has, however, contrived to maintain itself in +its bleak situation, although it is less than two miles from the huge +perpendicular cliffs where the Wolds drop into the sea. The cottages +have a snug and eminently cheerful look, with their much-weathered +tiles and white and ochre coloured walls. From their midst rises the +low square tower of the church, and if it ever had a spire or pinnacles +in the past, it has none now; for either the north-easterly gales blew +them into the sea long ago, or else the people were wise enough never +to put such obstructions in the way of the winter blasts. + +Turning southwards, we get a great view over the low shore of +Holderness, curving away into the haze hanging over the ocean, with +Bridlington down below, raising to the sky the pair of towers at the +west end of its priory--one short and plain, and the other tall and +richly ornamented with pinnacles. Going through the streets of sober +red houses of the old town, we come at length into a shallow green +valley, where the curious Gypsy Race flows intermittently along the +fertile bottom. The afternoon sunshine floods the pleasant landscape +with a genial glow, and throws long blue shadows under the trees of the +park surrounding Boynton Hall, the seat of the Stricklands. The family +has been connected with the village for several centuries, and some of +their richly-painted and gilded monuments can be seen in the church. +One of these is to Sir William Strickland, Bart., and another to Lady +Strickland, his wife, who was a sister of Sir Hugh Cholmley, the +gallant but unfortunate defender of Scarborough Castle during the Civil +War. In his memoirs Sir Hugh often refers to visits paid him by "my +sister Strickland." + +After passing Thorpe Hall the road goes up to the breezy spot, +commanding wide views, where the little church of Rudstone stands +conspicuously by the side of an enormous monolith. Although the church +tower is Norman, it would appear to be a recent arrival on the scene in +comparison with the stone. Antiquaries are in fairly general agreement +that huge standing stones of this type belong to some very remote +period, and also that they are "associated with sepulchral purposes"; +and the fact that they are usually found in churchyards would suggest +that they were regarded with a traditional veneration. + +The road past the church drops steeply down into the pretty village, +and, turning northwards, takes us to the bend of the valley, where +North Burton lies, which we passed earlier in the day; so we go to the +left, and find ourselves at Kilham, a fair-sized village on the edge of +the chalk hills. Like Rudstone and a dozen places in its neighbourhood, +Kilham is situated in a district of extraordinary interest to the +archaeologist, the prehistoric discoveries being exceedingly numerous. +Chariot burials of the Early Iron Age have been discovered here, as +well as large numbers of Neolithic implements. There is a beautiful +Norman doorway in the nave of the church, ornamented with chevron +mouldings in a lavish fashion. Far more interesting than this, however, +are the fonts in the two villages of Cottam and Cowlam, lying close +together, although separated by a thinly-wooded hollow, about five +miles to the west. Cottam Church and the farm adjoining it are all that +now exists of what must once have been an extensive village. In the +church is a Norman font of cylindrical form, covered with the +wonderfully crude carvings of that period. There are six subjects, the +most remarkable being the huge dragon with a long curly tail in the act +of swallowing St. Margaret, whose skirts and feet are shown inside the +capacious jaws, while the head is beginning to appear somewhere behind +the dragon's neck. To the right is shown a gruesome representation of +the martyrdom of St. Lawrence, and then follow Adam and Eve by the Tree +of Life (a twisted piece of foliage), the martyrdom of St. Andrew, and +what seems to be another dragon. + +On each side of the bridle-road by the church you can trace without the +least difficulty the ground-plan of many houses under the short turf. +The early writers do not mention Cottam, and so far I have come upon no +explanation for the wiping out of this village. Possibly its extinction +was due to the Black Death in 1349. + +It is about four miles by road to Cowlam, although the two churches are +only about a mile and a half apart; and when Cowlam is reached there is +not much more in the way of a village than at Cottam. The only way to +the church from the road is through an enormous stackyard, speaking +eloquently of the large crops produced on the farm. As in the other +instance, a search has to be made for the key, entailing much +perambulation of the farm. + +At length the door is opened, and the splendid font at once arrests the +eye. More noticeable than anything else in the series of carvings are +the figures of two men wrestling, similar to those on the font from the +village of Hutton Cranswick, now preserved in York Museum. The two +figures are shown bending forwards, each with his hands clasped round +the waist of the other, and each with a foot thrown forward to trip the +other, after the manner of the Westmorland wrestlers to be seen at the +Grasmere sports. It seems to me scarcely possible to doubt that the +subject represented is Jacob wrestling with the _man_ at Penuel. + +At Sledmere, the adjoining village, everything has a well-cared-for and +reposeful aspect. Its position in a shallow depression has made it +possible for trees to grow, so that we find the road overhung by a +green canopy in remarkable contrast to the usual bleakness of the +Wolds. The park surrounding Sir Tatton Sykes' house is well wooded, +owing to much planting on what were bare slopes not very many years +ago. + +The village well is dignified with a domed roof raised on tall columns, +put up about seventy years ago by the previous Sir Tatton to the memory +of his father, Sir Christopher Sykes; the inscription telling how much +the Wolds were transformed through his energy 'in building, planting, +and enclosing,' from a bleak and barren track of country into what is +now considered one of the most productive and best-cultivated districts +of Yorkshire. The late Sir Tatton Sykes was the sort of man that +Yorkshire folk come near to worshipping. He was of that hearty, genial, +conservative type that filled the hearts of the farmers with pride. On +market days all over the Riding one of the always fresh subjects of +conversation was how Sir Tatton was looking. A great pillar put up to +his memory by the road leading to Garton can be seen over half +Holderness. So great was the conservatism of this remarkable squire +that years after the advent of railways he continued to make his +journey to Epsom, for the Derby, on horseback. + +A stone's-throw from the house stands the church, rebuilt, with the +exception of the tower, in 1898 by Sir Tatton. There is no wall +surrounding the churchyard, neither is there ditch, nor bank, nor the +slightest alteration in the smooth turf. + +The church, designed by Mr. Temple Moore, is carried out in the style +of the Decorated period in a stone that is neither red nor pink, but +something in between the two colours. The exterior is not remarkable, +but the beauty of the internal ornament is most striking. Everywhere +you look, whether at the detail of carved wood or stone, the +workmanship is perfect, and without a trace of that crudity to be found +in the carvings of so many modern churches. The clustered columns, the +timber roof, and the tracery of the windows are all dignified, in spite +of the richness of form they display. Only in the upper portion of the +screen does the ornament seem a trifle worried and out of keeping with +the rest of the work. + +Sledmere also boasts a tall and very beautiful 'Eleanor' cross, erected +about ten years ago, and a memorial to those who fell in the European +war. + +As we continue towards the setting sun, the deeply-indented edges of +the Wolds begin to appear, and the roads generally make great plunges +into the valley of the Derwent. The weather, which has been fine all +day, changes at sunset, and great indigo clouds, lined with gold, pile +themselves up fantastically in front of the setting sun. Lashing rain, +driven by the wind with sudden fury, pours down upon the hamlet lying +just below, but leaves Wharram-le-Street without a drop of moisture. +The widespread views all over the Howardian Hills and the sombre valley +of the Derwent become impressive, and an awesomeness of Turneresque +gloom, relieved by sudden floods of misty gold, gives the landscape an +element of unreality. + +Against this background the outline of the church of Wharram-le-Street +stands out in its rude simplicity. On the western side of the tower, +where the light falls upon it, we can see the extremely early masonry +that suggests pre-Norman times. It cannot be definitely called a Saxon +church, but although 'long and short work' does not appear, there is +every reason to associate this lonely little building with the middle +of the eleventh century. There are mason marks consisting of crosses +and barbed lines on the south wall of the nave. The opening between the +tower and the nave is an almost unique feature, having a +Moorish-looking arch of horseshoe shape resting on plain and clumsy +capitals. + +The name Wharram-le-Street reminds us forcibly of the existence in +remote times of some great way over this tableland. Unfortunately, +there is very little sure ground to go upon, despite the additional +fact of there being another place, Thorpe-le-Street, some miles to the +south. + +With the light fast failing we go down steeply into the hollow where +North Grimston nestles, and, crossing the streams which flow over the +road, come to the pretty old church. The tower is heavily mantled with +ivy, and has a statue of a Bishop on its west face. A Norman chancel +arch with zigzag moulding shows in the dim interior, and there is just +enough light to see the splendid font, of similar age and shape to +those at Cowlam and Cottam. A large proportion of the surface is taken +up with a wonderful 'Last Supper,' and on the remaining space the +carvings show the 'Descent from the Cross,' and a figure, possibly +representing St. Nicholas, the patron saint of the church. + +When the lights of Malton glimmer in the valley this day of exploration +is at an end, and much of the Wold country has been seen. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +FROM FILEY TO SPURN HEAD + + +'As the shore winds itself back from hence,' says Camden, after +describing Flamborough Head, 'a thin slip of land (like a small tongue +thrust out) shoots into the sea.' This is the long natural breakwater +known as Filey Brig, the distinctive feature of a pleasant +watering-place. In its wide, open, and gently curving bay, Filey is +singularly lucky; for it avoids the monotony of a featureless shore, +and yet is not sufficiently embraced between headlands to lose the +broad horizon and sense of airiness and space so essential for a +healthy seaside haunt. + +The Brig has plainly been formed by the erosion of Carr Naze, the +headland of dark, reddish-brown boulder clay, leaving its hard bed of +sandstone (of the Middle Calcareous Grit formation) exposed to the +particular and ceaseless attention of the waves. It is one of the joys +of Filey to go along the northward curve of the bay at low tide, and +then walk along the uneven tabular masses of rock with hungry waves +heaving and foaming within a few yards on either hand. No wonder that +there has been sufficient sense among those who spend their lives in +promoting schemes for ugly piers and senseless promenades, to realize +that Nature has supplied Filey with a more permanent and infinitely +more attractive pier than their fatuous ingenuity could produce. There +is a spice of danger associated with the Brig, adding much to its +interest; for no one should venture along the spit of rocks unless the +tide is in a proper state to allow him a safe return. A melancholy +warning of the dangers of the Brig is fixed to the rocky wall of the +headland, describing how an unfortunate visitor was swept into the sea +by the sudden arrival of an abnormally large wave, but this need not +frighten away from the fascinating ridge of rock those who use ordinary +care in watching the sea. At high tide the waves come over the seaweedy +rocks at the foot of the headland, making it necessary to climb to the +grassy top in order to get back to Filey. + +The real fascination of the Brig comes when it can only be viewed from +the top of the Naze above, when a gale is blowing from the north or +north-east, and driving enormous waves upon the line of projecting +rocks. You watch far out until the dark green line of a higher wave +than any of the others that are creating a continuous thunder down +below comes steadily onward, and reaching the foam-streaked area, +becomes still more sinister. As it approaches within striking distance, +a spent wave, sweeping backwards, seems as though it may weaken the +onrush of the towering wall of water; but its power is swallowed up and +dissipated in the general advance, and with only a smooth hollow of +creamy-white water in front, the giant raises itself to its fullest +height, its thin crest being at once caught by the wind, and blown off +in long white beards. + +The moment has come; the mass of water feels the resistance of the +rocks, and, curling over into a long green cylinder, brings its head +down with terrific force on the immovable side of the Brig. Columns of +water shoot up perpendicularly into the air as though a dozen 12-inch +shells had exploded in the water simultaneously. With a roar the +imprisoned air escapes, and for a moment the whole Brig is invisible in +a vast cloud of spray; then dark ledges of rock can be seen running +with creamy water, and the scene of the impact is a cauldron of +seething foam, backed by a smooth surface of pale green marble, veined +with white. Then the waters gather themselves together again, and the +pounding of lesser waves keeps up a thrilling spectacle until the +moment for another great _coup_ arrives. + +Years ago Filey obtained a reputation for being 'quiet,' and the sense +conveyed by those who disliked the place was that of dullness and +primness. This fortunate chance has protected the little town from the +vulgarizing influences of the unlettered hordes let loose upon the +coast in summer-time, and we find a sea-front without the flimsy +meretricious buildings of the popular resorts. Instead of imitating +Blackpool and Margate, this sensible place has retained a quiet and +semi-rural front to the sea, and, as already stated, has not marred its +appearance with a jetty. + +From the smooth sweep of golden sand rises a steep slope grown over +with trees and bushes which shade the paths in many places. Without +claiming any architectural charm, the town is small and quietly +unobtrusive, and has not the untidy, half-built character of so many +watering-places. + +Above a steep and narrow hollow, running straight down to the sea, and +densely wooded on both sides, stands the church. It has a very sturdy +tower rising from its centre, and, with its simple battlemented outline +and slit windows, has a semi-fortified appearance. The high +pitched-roofs of Early English times have been flattened without +cutting away the projecting drip-stones on the tower, which remain a +conspicuous feature. The interior is quite impressive. Round columns +alternated with octagonal ones support pointed arches, and a clerestory +above pierced with roundheaded slits, indicating very decisively that +the nave was built in the Transitional Norman period. It appears that a +western tower was projected, but never carried out, and an unusual +feature is the descent by two steps into the chancel. + +A beautiful view from the churchyard includes the whole sweep of the +bay, cut off sharply by the Brig on the left hand, and ending about +eight miles away in the lofty range of white cliffs extending from +Speeton to Flamborough Head. + +The headland itself is lower by more than a 100 feet than the cliffs in +the neighbourhood of Bempton and Speeton, which for a distance of over +two miles exceed 300 feet. A road from Bempton village stops short a +few fields from the margin of the cliffs, and a path keeps close to the +precipitous wall of gleaming white chalk. + +We come over the dry, sweet-smelling grass to the cliff edge on a fresh +morning, with a deep blue sky overhead and a sea below of ultramarine +broken up with an infinitude of surfaces reflecting scraps of the +cliffs and the few white clouds. Falling on our knees, we look straight +downwards into a cove full of blue shade; but so bright is the +surrounding light that every detail is microscopically clear. The +crumpling and distortion of the successive layers of chalk can be seen +with such ease that we might be looking at a geological textbook. On +the ledges, too, can be seen rows of little whitebreasted puffins; +razor-bills are perched here and there, as well as countless +guillemots. The ringed or bridled guillemot also breeds on the cliffs, +and a number of other types of northern sea-birds are periodically +noticed along these inaccessible Bempton Cliffs. The guillemot makes no +nest, merely laying a single egg on a ledge. If it is taken away by +those who plunder the cliffs at the risk of their lives, the bird lays +another egg, and if that disappears, perhaps even a third. + +Coming to Flamborough Head along the road from the station, the first +noticeable feature is at the point where the road makes a sharp turn +into a deep wooded hollow. It is here that we cross the line of the +remarkable entrenchment known as the Danes' Dyke. At this point it +appears to follow the bed of a stream, but northwards, right across the +promontory--that is, for two-thirds of its length--the huge trench is +purely artificial. No doubt the _vallum_ on the seaward side has +been worn down very considerably, and the _fosse_ would have been +deeper, making in its youth, a barrier which must have given the +dwellers on the headland a very complete security. + +Like most popular names, the association of the Danes with the digging +of this enormous trench has been proved to be inaccurate, and it would +have been less misleading and far more popular if the work had been +attributed to the devil. In the autumn of 1879 General Pitt Rivers dug +several trenches in the rampart just north of the point where the road +from Bempton passes through the Dyke. The position was chosen in order +that the excavations might be close to the small stream which runs +inside the Dyke at this point, the likelihood of utensils or weapons +being dropped close to the water-supply of the defenders being +considered important. The results of the excavations proved +conclusively that the people who dug the ditch and threw up the rampart +were users of flint. The most remarkable discovery was that the ground +on the inner slope of the rampart, at a short distance below the +surface, contained innumerable artificial flint flakes, all lying in a +horizontal position, but none were found on the outer slope. From this +fact General Pitt Rivers concluded that within the stockade running +along the top of the _vallum_ the defenders were in the habit of +chipping their weapons, the flakes falling on the inside. The great +entrenchment of Flamborough is consequently the work of flint-using +people, and 'is not later than the Bronze Period.' + +And the strangest fact concerning the promontory is the isolation of +its inhabitants from the rest of the county, a traditional hatred for +strangers having kept the fisherfolk of the peninsula aloof from +outside influences. They have married among themselves for so long, +that it is quite possible that their ancestral characteristics have +been reproduced, with only a very slight intermixture of other stocks, +for an exceptionally long period. On taking minute particulars of +ninety Flamborough men and women, General Pitt Rivers discovered that +they were above the average stature of the neighbourhood, and were, +with only one or two exceptions, dark-haired. They showed little or no +trace of the fair-haired element usually found in the people of this +part of Yorkshire. It is also stated that almost within living memory, +when the headland was still further isolated by a belt of uncultivated +wolds, the village could not be approached by a stranger without some +danger. + +We find no one to object to our intrusion, and go on towards the +village. It is a straggling collection of low, red houses, lacking, +unfortunately, anything which can honestly be termed picturesque; for +the church stands alone, a little to the south, and the small ruin of +what is called 'The Danish Tower' is too insignificant to add to the +attractiveness of the place. + +All the males of Flamborough are fishermen, or dependent on fishing for +their livelihood; and in spite of the summer visitors, there is a total +indifference to their incursions in the way of catering for their +entertainment, the aim of the trippers being the lighthouse and the +cliffs nearly two miles away. + +Formerly, the church had only a belfry of timber, the existing stone +tower being only ten years old. Under the Norman chancel arch there is +a delicately-carved Perpendicular screen, having thirteen canopied +niches richly carved above and below, and still showing in places the +red, blue, and gold of its old paint-work. Another screen south of the +chancel is patched and roughly finished. The altar-tomb of Sir +Marmaduke Constable, of Flamborough, on the north side of the chancel, +is remarkable for its long inscription, detailing the chief events in +the life of this great man, who was considered one of the most eminent +and potent persons in the county in the reign of Henry VIII. The +greatness of the man is borne out first in a recital of his doughty +deeds: of his passing over to France 'with Kyng Edwarde the fourith, +y[t] noble knyght.' + + 'And also with noble king Herre, the sevinth of that name + He was also at Barwick at the winnyng of the same [1482] + And by ky[n]g Edward chosy[n] Captey[n] there first of anyone + And rewllid and governid ther his tyme without blame + But for all that, as ye se, he lieth under this stone.' + +The inscription goes on in this way to tell how he fought at Flodden +Field when he was seventy, 'nothyng hedyng his age.' + +Sir Marmaduke's daughter Catherine was married to Sir Roger Cholmley, +called 'the Great Black Knight of the North,' who was the first of his +family to settle in Yorkshire, and also fought at Flodden, receiving +his knighthood after that signal victory over the Scots. + +Yorkshire being a county in which superstitions are uncommonly +long-lived it is not surprising to find that a fisherman will turn back +from going to his boat, if he happen on his way to meet a parson, a +woman, or a hare, as any one of these brings bad luck. It is also +extremely unwise to mention to a man who is baiting lines a hare, a +rabbit, a fox, a pig, or an egg. This sounds foolish, but a fisherman +will abandon his work till the next day if these animals are mentioned +in his presence[1]. + +[Footnote 1: 'Flamborough Village and Headland,' Colonel A.H. +Armytage.] + +On the north and south sides of the headland there are precarious +beaches for the fisherman to bring in their boats. They have no +protection at all from the weather, no attempt at forming even such +miniature harbours as may be seen on the Berwickshire coast having been +made. When the wind blows hard from the north, the landing on that side +is useless, and the boats, having no shelter, are hauled up the steep +slope with the help of a steam windlass. Under these circumstances the +South Landing is used. It is similar in most respects to the northern +one, but, owing to the cliffs being lower, the cove is less +picturesque. At low tide a beach of very rough shingle is exposed +between the ragged chalk cliffs, curiously eaten away by the sea. +Seaweed paints much of the shore and the base of the cliffs a blackish +green, and above the perpendicular whiteness the ruddy brown clay +slopes back to the grass above. + +When the boats have just come in and added their gaudy vermilions, +blues, and emerald greens to the picture, the North Landing is worth +seeing. The men in their blue jerseys and sea-boots coming almost to +their hips, land their hauls of silvery cod and load the baskets +pannier-wise on the backs of sturdy donkeys, whose work is to trudge up +the steep slope to the road, nearly 200 feet above the boats, where +carts take the fish to the station four miles away. + +In following the margin of the cliffs to the outermost point of the +peninsula, we get a series of splendid stretches of cliff scenery. The +chalk is deeply indented in many places, and is honey-combed with +caves. Great white pillars and stacks of chalk stand in picturesque +groups in some of the small bays, and everywhere there is the interest +of watching the heaving water far below, with white gulls floating +unconcernedly on the surface, or flapping their great stretch of wing +as they circle just above the waves. + +Near the modern lighthouse stands a tall, hexagonal tower, built of +chalk in four stories, with a string course between each. The signs of +age it bears and the remarkable obscurity surrounding its origin and +purpose would suggest great antiquity, and yet there seems little doubt +that the tower is at the very earliest Elizabethan. The chalk, being +extremely soft, has weathered away to such an extent that the harder +stone of the windows and doors now projects several inches. + +In a record dated June 21, 1588, the month before the Spanish Armada +was sighted in the English Channel, a list is given of the beacons in +the East Riding, and instructions as to when they should be lighted, +and what action should be taken when the warning was seen. It says +briefly: + + 'Flambrough, three beacons uppon the sea cost, + takinge lighte from Bridlington, + and geving lighte to Rudstone.' + +There is no reference to any tower, and the beacons everywhere seem +merely to have been bonfires ready for lighting, watched every day by +two, and every night by three 'honest householders ... above the age of +thirty years.' The old tower would appear, therefore, to have been put +up as a lighthouse. If this is a correct supposition, however, the +dangers of the headland to shipping must have been recognized as +exceedingly great several centuries ago. A light could not have failed +to have been a boon to mariners, and its maintenance would have been a +matter of importance to all who owned ships; and yet, if this old tower +ever held a lantern, the hiatus between the last night when it glowed +on the headland, and the erection of the present lighthouse is so great +that no one seems to be able to state definitely for what purpose the +early structure came into existence. + +Year after year when night fell the cliffs were shrouded in blackness, +with the direful result that between 1770 and 1806 one hundred and +seventy-four ships were wrecked or lost on or near the promontory. It +remained for a benevolent-minded customs officer of Bridlington--a Mr. +Milne--to suggest the building of a lighthouse to the Elder Brethren of +Trinity House, with the result that since December 6, 1806, a powerful +light has every night flashed on Flamborough Head. The immediate result +was that in the first seven years of its beneficent work no vessel was +'lost on that station when the lights could be seen.' + +The derivation of the name Flamborough has been conclusively shown to +have nothing at all to do with the English word 'flame,' being possibly +a corruption of _Fleinn_, a Norse surname, and _borg_ or +_burgh_, meaning a castle. In Domesday it is spelt 'Flaneburg,' +and _flane_ is the Norse for an arrow or sword. + +At the point where the chalk cliffs disappear and the low coast of +Holderness begins, we come to the exceedingly popular watering-place of +Bridlington. At one time the town was quite separate from the quay, and +even now there are two towns--the solemn and serious, almost Quakerish, +place inland, and the eminently pleasure-loving and frivolous holiday +resort on the sea; but they are now joined up by modern houses and the +railway-station, and in time they will be as united as the 'Three +Towns' of Plymouth. Along the sea-front are spread out by the wide +parades, all those 'attractions' which exercise their potential +energies on certain types of mankind as each summer comes round. There +are seats, concert-rooms, hotels, lodging-houses, bands, kiosks, +refreshment-bars, boats, bathing-machines, a switchback-railway, and +even a spa, by which means the migratory folk are housed, fed, amused, +and given every excuse for loitering within a few yards of the long +curving line of waves that advances and retreats over the much-trodden +sand. + +The two stone piers enclosing the harbour make an interesting feature +in the centre of the sea-front, where the few houses of old Bridlington +Quay that have survived, are not entirely unpicturesque. + +In 1642 Queen Henrietta Maria landed on whatever quay then existed. She +had just returned from Holland with ships laden with arms and +ammunition for the Royalist army. Adverse winds had brought the Dutch +ships to Bridlington instead of Newcastle, where the Queen had intended +to land, and a delay was caused while messengers were sent to the Earl +of Newcastle in order that her landing might be effected in proper +security. News of the Dutch ships lying off Bridlington was, however, +conveyed to four Parliamentary vessels stationed by the bar at +Tynemouth, and no time was lost in sailing southwards. What happened is +told in a letter published in the same year, and dated February 25, +1642. It describes how, after two days' riding at anchor, the cavalry +arrived, upon which the Queen disembarked, and the next morning the +rest of the loyal army came to wait on her. + +'God that was carefull to preserve Her by Sea, did likewise continue +his favour to Her on the Land: For that night foure of the Parliament +Ships arrived at Burlington, without being perceived by us; and at +foure a clocke in the morning gave us an Alarme, which caused us to +send speedily to the Port to secure our Boats of Ammunition, which were +but newly landed. But about an houre after the foure Ships began to ply +us so fast with their Ordinance, that it made us all to rise out of our +beds with diligence, and leave the Village, at least the women; for the +Souldiers staid very resolutely to defend the Ammunition, in case their +forces should land. One of the Ships did Her the favour to flanck upon +the house where the Queene lay, which was just before the Peere; and +before She was out of Her bed, the Cannon bullets whistled so loud +about her, (which Musicke you may easily believe was not very pleasing +to Her) that all the company pressed Her earnestly to goe out of the +house, their Cannon having totally beaten downe all the neighbouring +houses, and two Cannon bullets falling from the top to the bottome of +the house where She was; so that (clothed as She could) She went on +foot some little distance out of the Towne, under the shelter of a +Ditch (like that of Newmarket;) whither before She could get, the +Cannon bullets fell thicke about us, and a Sergeant was killed within +twenty paces of Her.' + +In old Bridlington there stands the fine church of the Augustinian +Priory we have already seen from a distance, and an ancient structure +known as the Bayle Gate, a remnant of the defences of the monastery. +They stand at no great distance apart, but do not arrange themselves to +form a picture, which is unfortunate, and so also is the lack of any +real charm in the domestic architecture of the adjoining streets. The +Bayle Gate has a large pointed arch and a postern, and the date of its +erection appears to be the end of the fourteenth century, when +permission was given to the prior to fortify the monastery. Unhappily +for Bridlington, an order to destroy the buildings was given soon after +the Dissolution, and the nave of the church seems to have been spared +only because it was used as the parish church. Quite probably, too, the +gatehouse was saved from destruction on account of the room it contains +having been utilized for holding courts. The upper portions of the +church towers are modern restorations, and their different heights and +styles give the building a remarkable, but not a beautiful outline. At +the west end, between the towers is a large Perpendicular window, +occupying the whole width of the nave, and on the north side the +vaulted porch is a very beautiful feature. + +The interior reveals an inspiring perspective of clustered columns +built in the Early English Period with a fine Decorated triforium on +the north side. Both transepts and the chancel appear to have been +destroyed with the conventual buildings, and the present chancel is +merely a portion of the nave separated with screens. + +Southwards in one huge curve of nearly forty miles stretches the low +coast of Holderness, seemingly continued into infinitude. There is +nothing comparable to it on the coasts of the British Isles for its +featureless monotony and for the unbroken front it presents to the sea. +The low brown cliffs of hard clay seem to have no more resisting power +to the capacious appetite of the waves than if they were of +gingerbread. The progress of the sea has been continued for centuries, +and stories of lost villages and of overwhelmed churches are met with +all the way to Spurn Head. Four or five miles south of Bridlington we +come to a point on the shore where, looking out among the lines of +breaking waves, we are including the sides of the two demolished +villages of Auburn and Hartburn. + +From a casual glance at Skipsea no one would attribute any importance +to it in the past. It was, nevertheless, the chief place in the +lordship of Holderness in Norman times, and from that we may also infer +that it was the most well-defended stronghold. On a level plain having +practically no defensible sites, great earthworks would be necessary, +and these we find at Skipsea Brough. There is a high mound surrounded +by a ditch, and a segment of the great outer circle of defences exists +on the south-west side. No masonry of any description can be seen on +the grass-covered embankment, but on the artificial hillock, once +crowned, it is surmised, by a Norman keep, there is one small piece +of stonework. These earthworks have been considered Saxon, but later +opinion labels them post-Conquest.[1] In the time of the Domesday +Survey the Seigniory of Holderness was held by Drogo de Bevere, a +Flemish adventurer who joined in the Norman invasion of England and +received his extensive fief from the Conqueror. He also was given the +King's niece in marriage as a mark of special favour; but having for +some reason seen fit to poison her, he fled from England, it is said, +during the last few months of William's reign. The Barony of Holderness +was forfeited, but Drogo was never captured. + +[Footnote 1: A worked flint was found in the moat not long ago by Dr. +J. L. Kirk, of Pickering.] + +Poulson, the historian of Holderness, states that Henry III. gave +orders for the destruction of Skipsea Castle about 1220, the Earl of +Albemarle, its owner at that time, having been in rebellion. When +Edward II. ascended the throne, he recalled his profligate companion +Piers Gaveston, and besides creating him Baron of Wallingford and Earl +of Cornwall, he presented this ill-chosen favourite with the great +Seigniory of Holderness. + +Going southwards from Skipsea, we pass through Atwick, with a cross on +a large base in the centre of the village, and two miles further on +come to Hornsea, an old-fashioned little town standing between the sea +and the Mere. This beautiful sheet of fresh water comes as a surprise +to the stranger, for no one but a geologist expects to discover a lake +in a perfectly level country where only tidal creeks are usually to be +found. Hornsea Mere may eventually be reached by the sea, and yet that +day is likely to be put further off year by year on account of the +growth of a new town on the shore. + +The scenery of the Mere is quietly beautiful. Where the road to +Beverley skirts its margin there are glimpses of the shimmering surface +seen through gaps in the trees that grow almost in the water, many of +them having lost their balance and subsided into the lake, being +supported in a horizontal position by their branches. The islands and +the swampy margins form secure breeding-places for the countless +water-fowl, and the lake abounds with pike, perch, eel, and roach. + +It was the excellent supply of fish yielded by Hornsea Mere that led to +a hot discussion between the neighbouring Abbey of Meaux and St. +Mary's Abbey at York. In the year 1260 William, eleventh Abbot of +Meaux, laid claim to fishing rights in the southern half of the lake, +only to find his brother Abbot of York determined to resist the claim. +The cloisters of the two abbeys must have buzzed with excitement over +the _impasse_ and relations became so strained that the only +method of determining the issue was by each side agreeing to submit to +the result of a judicial combat between champions selected by the two +monasteries. Where the fight took place I do not know, and the number +of champions is not mentioned in the record. It is stated that a horse +was first swum across the lake, and stakes fixed to mark the limits of +the claim. On the day appointed the combatants chosen by each abbot +appeared properly accoutred, and they fought from morning until +evening, when, at last, the men representing Meaux were beaten to the +ground, and the York abbot retained the whole fishing rights of the +Mere. + +Hornsea has a pretty church with a picturesque tower built in between +the western ends of the aisles. An eighteenth-century parish clerk +utilized the crypt for storing smuggled goods, and was busily at work +there on a stormy night in 1732, when a terrific blast of wind tore the +roof off the church. The shock, we are told, brought on a paralytic +seizure of which he died. + +By the churchyard gate stands the old market-cross, recently set up in +this new position and supplied with a modern head. + +As we go towards Spurn Head we are more and more impressed with the +desolate character of the shore. The tide may be out, and only puny +waves tumbling on the wet sand, and yet it is impossible to refrain +from feeling that the very peacefulness of the scene is sinister, and +the waters are merely digesting their last meal of boulder-clay before +satisfying a fresh appetite. + +The busy town of Hornsea Beck, the port of Hornsea, with its harbour +and pier, its houses, and all pertaining to it, has entirely +disappeared since the time of James I., and so also has the place +called Hornsea Burton, where in 1334 Meaux Abbey held twenty-seven +acres of arable land. At the end of that century not one of those acres +remained. The fate of Owthorne, a village once existing not far from +Withernsea, is pathetic. The churchyard was steadily destroyed, until +1816, when in a great storm the waves undermined the foundations of the +eastern end of the church, so that the walls collapsed with a roar and +a cloud of dust. + +Twenty-two years later there was scarcely a fragment of even the +churchyard left, and in 1844, the Vicarage and the remaining houses +were absorbed, and Owthorne was wiped off the map. + +The peninsula formed by the Humber is becoming more and more +attenuated, and the pretty village of Easington is being brought nearer +to the sea, winter by winter. Close to the church, Easington has been +fortunate in preserving its fourteenth-century tithe-barn covered with +a thatched roof. The interior has that wonderfully imposing effect +given by huge posts and beams suggesting a wooden cathedral. + +At Kilnsea the weak bank of earth forming the only resistance to the +waves has been repeatedly swept away and hundreds of acres flooded with +salt water, and where there are any cliffs at all, they are often not +more than fifteen feet high. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +BEVERLEY + + +When the great bell in the southern tower of the Minster booms forth +its deep and solemn notes over the city of Beverley, you experience an +uplifting of the mind--a sense of exaltation greater, perhaps, than +even that produced by an organ's vibrating notes in the high vaulted +spaces of a cathedral. + +Beverley has no natural features to give it any attractiveness, for it +stands on the borders of the level plain of Holderness, and towards the +Wolds there is only a very gentle rise. It depends, therefore, solely +upon its architecture. The first view of the city from the west as we +come over the broad grassy common of Westwood is delightful. We are +just sufficiently elevated to see the opalescent form of the Minster, +with its graceful towers rising above the more distant roofs, and close +at hand the pinnacled tower of St. Mary's showing behind a mass of dark +trees. The entry to the city from this direction is in every way +prepossessing, for the sunny common is succeeded by a broad, tree +lined road, with old-fashioned houses standing sedately behind the +foliage, and the end of the avenue is closed by the North Bar--the last +of Beverley's gates. It dates from 1410, and is built of very dark red +brick, with one arch only, the footways being taken through the modern +houses, shouldering it on each side. Leland's account and the town +records long before his day tell us that there were three gates, but +nothing remains of 'Keldgate barr' and the 'barr de Newbygyng.' + +We go through the archway and find ourselves in a wide street with the +beautiful west end of St. Mary's Church on the left, quaint Georgian +houses, and a dignified hotel of the same period on the opposite side, +while straight ahead is the broad Saturday Market with its very +picturesque 'cross.' The cross was put up in 1714 by Sir Charles +Hotham, Bart., and Sir Michael Warton, Members of Parliament for the +Corporation at that time. + +Without the towers the exterior of the Minster gives me little +pleasure, for the Early English chancel and greater and lesser +transepts, although imposing and massive, are lacking in proper +proportion, and in that deficiency suffer a loss of dignity. The +eulogies so many architects and writers have poured out upon the Early +English work of this great church, and the strangely adverse comments +the same critics have levelled at the Perpendicular additions, do not +blind me to what I regard as a most strange misconception on the part +of these people. The homogeneity of the central and eastern portions of +the Minster is undeniable, but because what appears to be the design of +one master-builder of the thirteenth century was apparently carried out +in the short period of twenty years, I do not feel obliged to consider +the result beautiful. + +In the Perpendicular work of the western towers everything is in +graceful proportion, and nothing from the ground to the top of the +turrets, jars with the wonderful dignity of their perfect lines. + +A few years before the Norman Conquest a central tower and a presbytery +were added to the existing building by Archbishop Cynesige. The +'Frenchman's' influence was probably sufficiently felt at that time to +give this work the stamp of Norman ideas, and would have shown a marked +advance on the Romanesque style of the Saxon age, in which the other +portions of the buildings were put up. After that time we are in the +dark as to what happened until the year 1188, when a disaster took +place of which there is a record: + +'In the year from the incarnation of Our Lord 1188, this church was +burnt, in the month of September, the night after the Feast of St. +Matthew the Apostle, and in the year 1197, the sixth of the ides of +March, there was an inquisition made for the relics of the blessed John +in this place, and these bones were found in the east part of his +sepulchre, and reposited; and dust mixed with mortar was found +likewise, and re-interred.' + +This is a translation of the Latin inscription on a leaden plate +discovered in 1664, when a square stone vault in the church was opened +and found to be the grave of the canonized John of Beverley. The +picture history gives us of this remarkable man, although to a great +extent hazy with superstitious legend, yet shows him to have been one +of the greatest and noblest of the ecclesiastics who controlled the +Early Church in England. He founded the monastery at Beverley about the +year 700, on what appears to have been an isolated spot surrounded by +forest and swamp, and after holding the See of York for some twelve +years, he retired here for the rest of his life. When he died, in 721, +his memory became more and more sacred, and his powers of intercession +were constantly invoked. The splended shrine provided for his relics in +1037 was encrusted with jewels and shone with the precious metals +employed. Like the tomb of William the Conqueror at Caen, it +disappeared long ago. After the collapse of the central tower to its very +foundations came the vast Early English reconstruction of everything +except the nave, which was possibly of pre-Conquest date, and survived +until the present Decorated successor took its place. Much discussion +has centred round certain semicircular arches at the back of the +triforium, whose ornament is unmistakably Norman, suggesting that the +early nave was merely remodelled in the later period. The last great +addition to the structure was the beautiful Perpendicular north porch +and the west end--the glory of Beverley. The interior of the transepts +and chancel is extremely interesting, but entirely lacking in that +perfection of form characterizing York. + +A magnificent range of stalls crowned with elaborate tabernacle work of +the sixteenth century adorns the choir, and under each of the +sixty-eight seats are carved misereres, making a larger collection than +any other in the country. The subjects range from a horrible +representation of the devil with a second face in the middle of his +body to humorous pictures of a cat playing a fiddle, and a scold on her +way to the ducking-stool in a wheel-barrow, gripping with one hand the +ear of the man who is wheeling her. + +In the north-east corner of the choir, built across the opening to the +lesser transept on that side, is the tomb of Lady Eleanor FitzAllen, +wife of Henry, first Lord Percy of Alnwick. It is considered to be, +without a rival, the most beautiful tomb in this country. The canopy is +composed of sumptuously carved stone, and while it is literally +encrusted with ornament, it is designed in such a masterly fashion that +the general effect, whether seen at a distance or close at hand, is +always magnificent. The broad lines of the canopy consist of a steep +gable with an ogee arch within, cusped so as to form a base at its apex +for an elaborate piece of statuary. This is repeated on both sides of +the monument. On the side towards the altar, the large bearded figure +represents the Deity, with angels standing on each side of the throne, +holding across His knees a sheet. From this rises a small undraped +figure representing Lady Eleanor, whose uplifted hands are held in one +of those of her Maker, who is shown in the act of benediction with two +fingers on her head. + +In the north aisle of the chancel there is a very unusual double +staircase. It is recessed in the wall, and the arcading that runs along +the aisle beneath the windows is inclined upwards and down again at a +slight angle, similar to the rise of the steps which are behind the +marble columns. This was the old way to the chapter-house, destroyed at +the Dissolution, and is an extremely fine example of an Early English +stairway. Near the Percy chapel stands the ancient stone chair of +sanctuary, or frith-stool. It has been broken and repaired with iron +clamps, and the inscription upon it, recorded by Spelman, has gone. The +privileges of sanctuary were limited by Henry VIII, and abolished in +the reign of James I; but before the Dissolution malefactors of all +sorts and conditions, from esquires and gentlewomen down to chapmen and +minstrels, frequently came in undignified haste to claim the security +of St. John of Beverley. Here is a case quoted from the register by Mr. +Charles Hiatt in his admirable account of the Minster: + +'John Spret, Gentilman, memorandum that John Spret, of Barton upon +Umber, in the counte of Lyncoln, gentilman, com to Beverlay, the first +day of October the vii yer of the reen of Keing Herry vii and asked the +lybertes of Saint John of Beverlay, for the dethe of John Welton, +husbondman, of the same town, and knawleg [acknowledge] hymselff to be +at the kyllyng of the saym John with a dagarth, the xv day of August.' + +On entering the city we passed St. Mary's, a beautiful Perpendicular +church which is not eclipsed even by the major attractions of the +Minster. At the west end there is a splendid Perpendicular window +flanked by octagonal buttresses of a slightly earlier date, which are +run up to a considerable height above the roof of the nave, the upper +portions being made light and graceful, with an opening on each face, +and a pierced parapet. The tower rises above the crossing, and is +crowned by sixteen pinnacles. + +In its general appearance the large south porch is Perpendicular, like +the greater part of the church, but the inner portion of its arch is +Norman, and the outer is Early English. One of the pillars of the nave +is ornamented just below the capital with five quaint little minstrels +carved in stone. Each is supported by a bold bracket, and each is +painted. The musical instruments are all much battered, but it can be +seen that the centre figure, who is dressed as an alderman, had a harp, +and the others a pipe, a lute, a drum, and a violin. From Saxon times +there had existed in Beverley a guild of minstrels, a prosperous +fraternity bound by regulations, which Poulson gives at length in his +monumental work on Beverley. The minstrels played at aldermen's feasts, +at weddings, on market-days, and on all occasions when there was excuse +for music. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +ALONG THE HUMBER + + + 'Away with me in post to Ravenspurgh; + But if you faint, as fearing to do so, + Stay and be secret, and myself will go.' + _Richard II_, Act II, Scene 1. + +The atrophied corner of Yorkshire that embraces the lowest reaches of +the Humber is terminated by a mere raised causeway leading to the wider +patch of ground dominated by Spurn Head lighthouse. This long ridge of +sand and shingle is all that remains of a very considerable and +populous area possessing towns and villages as recently as the middle +of the fourteenth century. + +Far back in the Middle Ages the Humber was a busy waterway for +shipping, where merchant vessels were constantly coming and going, +bearing away the wool of Holderness and bringing in foreign goods, +which the Humber towns were eager to buy. This traffic soon +demonstrated the need of some light on the point of land where the +estuary joined the sea, and in 1428 Henry VI granted a toll on all +vessels entering the Humber in aid of the first lighthouse put up about +that time by a benevolent hermit. + +No doubt the site of this early structure has long ago been submerged. +The same fate came upon the two lights erected on Kilnsea Common by +Justinian Angell, a London merchant, who received a patent from Charles +II to 'continue, renew, and maintain' two lights at Spurn Point. + +In 1766 the famous John Smeaton was called upon to put up two +lighthouses, one 90 feet and the other 50 feet high. There was no hurry +in completing the work, for the foundations of the high light were not +completed until six years later. The sea repeatedly destroyed the low +light, owing to the waves reaching it at high tide. Poulson mentions +the loss of three structures between 1776 and 1816. The fourth was +taken down after a brief life of fourteen years, the sea having laid +the foundations bare. As late as the beginning of last century the +illumination was produced by 'a naked coal fire, unprotected from the +wind,' and its power was consequently most uncertain. + +Smeaton's high tower is now only represented by its foundations and the +circular wall surrounding them, which acts as a convenient shelter from +wind and sand for the low houses of the men who are stationed there for +the lifeboat and other purposes. + +The present lighthouse is 30 feet higher than Smeaton's, and is fitted +with the modern system of dioptric refractors, giving a light of +519,000 candle-power, which is greater than any other on the east coast +of England. The need for a second structure has been obviated by +placing the low lights half-way down the existing tower. Every twenty +seconds the upper light flashes for one and a half seconds, being seen +in clear weather at a distance of seventeen nautical miles. + +In the Middle Ages great fortunes were made on the shores on the +Humber. Sir William de la Pole was a merchant of remarkable enterprise, +and the most notable of those who traded at Ravenserodd. It was +probably owing to his great wealth that his son was made a +knight-banneret, and his grandson became Earl of Suffolk. Another of +the De la Poles was the first Mayor of Hull, and seems to have been no +less opulent than his brother, who lent large sums of money to Edward +III, and was in consequence appointed Chief Baron of the Exchequer and +also presented with the Lordship of Holderness. + +The story of Ravenser, and the later town of Ravenserodd, is told in a +number of early records, and from them we can see clearly what happened +in this corner of Yorkshire. Owing to a natural confusion from the many +different spellings of the two places, the fate of the prosperous port +of Ravenserodd has been lost in a haze of misconception. And this might +have continued if Mr. J. R. Boyle had not gone exhaustively into the +matter, bringing together all the references to the Ravensers which +have been discovered. + +There seems little doubt that the first place called Ravenser was a +Danish settlement just within the Spurn Point, the name being a +compound of the raven of the Danish standard, and eyr or ore, meaning a +narrow strip of land between two waters. In an early Icelandic saga the +sailing of the defeated remnant of Harold Hardrada's army from +Ravenser, after the defeat of the Norwegians at Stamford Bridge, is +mentioned in the lines: + + 'The King the swift ships with the flood + Set out, with the autumn approaching, + And sailed from the port, called Hrafnseyrr (the raven tongue of land).' + +From this event of 1066 Ravenser must have remained a hamlet of small +consequence, for it is not heard of again for nearly two centuries, and +then only in connexion with the new Ravenser which had grown on a spit +of land gradually thrown up by the tide within the spoon-shaped ridge +of Spurn Head. On this new ground a vessel was wrecked some time in the +early part of the thirteenth century, and a certain man--the earliest +recorded Peggotty--converted it into a house, and even made it a +tavern, where he sold food and drink to mariners. Then three or four +houses were built near the adapted hull, and following this a small +port was created, its development being fostered by William de +Fortibus, Earl of Albemarl, the lord of the manor, with such success +that, by the year 1274, the place had grown to be of some importance, +and a serious trade rival to Grimsby on the Lincolnshire coast. To +distinguish the two Ravensers the new place, which was almost on an +island, being only connected with the mainland by a bank composed of +large yellow boulders and sand, was called Ravenser Odd, and in the +Chronicles of Meaux Abbey and other records the name is generally +written Ravenserodd. The original place was about a mile away, and no +longer on the shore, and it is distinguished from the prosperous port +as Ald Ravenser. Owing, however, to its insignificance in comparison to +Ravenserodd, the busy port, it is often merely referred to as Ravenser, +spelt with many variations. + +The extraordinarily rapid rise of Ravenserodd seems to have been due to +a remarkable keenness for business on the part of its citizens, +amounting, in the opinion of the Grimsby traders, to sharp practice. +For, being just within Spurn Head, the men of Ravenserodd would go out +to incoming vessels bound for Grimsby, and induce them to sell their +cargoes in Ravenserodd by all sorts of specious arguments, misquoting +the prices paid in the rival town. If their arguments failed, they +would force the ships to enter their harbour and trade with them, +whether they liked it or not. All this came out in the hearing of an +action brought by the town of Grimsby against Ravenserodd. Although the +plaintiffs seem to have made a very good case, the decision of the +Court was given in favour of the defendants, as it had not been shown +that any of their proceedings had broken the King's peace. + +The story of the disaster, which appears to have happened between 1340 +and 1350, is told by the monkish compiler of the Chronicles of Meaux. +Translated from the original Latin the account is headed: + +'Concerning the consumption of the town of Ravensere Odd and concerning +the effort towards the diminution of the tax of the church of Esyngton. + +'But in those days, the whole town of Ravensere Odd.. was totally +annihilated by the floods of the Humber and the inundations of the +great sea ... and when that town of Ravensere Odd, in which we had half +an acre of land built upon, and also the chapel of that town, +pertaining to the said church of Esyngton, were exposed to demolition +during the few preceding years, those floods and inundations of the +sea, within a year before the destruction of that town, increasing in +their accustomed way without limit fifteen fold, announcing the +swallowing up of the said town, and sometimes exceeding beyond measure +the height of the town, and surrounding it like a wall on every side, +threatened the final destruction of that town. And so, with this +terrible vision of waters seen on every side, the enclosed persons, +with the reliques, crosses, and other ecclesiastical ornaments, which +remained secretly in their possession and accompanied by the viaticum +of the body of Christ in the hands of the priest, flocking together, +mournfully imploring grace, warded off at that time their destruction. +And afterwards, daily removing thence with their possession, they left +that town totally without defence, to be shortly swallowed up, which, +with a short intervening period of time by those merciless tempestuous +floods, was irreparably destroyed.' + +The traders and inhabitants generally moved to Kingston-upon-Hull and +other towns, as the sea forced them to seek safer quarters. + +When Henry of Lancaster landed with his retinue in 1399 within Spurn +Head, the whole scene was one of complete desolation, and the only +incident recorded is his meeting with a hermit named Matthew Danthorp, +who was at the time building a chapel. + +The very beautiful spire of Patrington church guides us easily along a +winding lane from Easington until the whole building shows over the +meadows. + +We seem to have stumbled upon a cathedral standing all alone in this +diminishing land, scarcely more than two miles from the Humber and less +than four from the sea. No one quarrels with the title 'The Queen of +Holderness,' nor with the far greater claim that Patrington is the most +beautiful village church in England. With the exception of the east +window, which is Perpendicular, nearly the whole structure was built in +the Decorated period; and in its perfect proportion, its wealth of +detail and marvellous dignity, it is a joy to the eye within and +without. The plan is cruciform, and there are aisles to the transepts +as well as the nave, giving a wealth of pillars to the interior. Above +the tower rises a tall stone spire, enriched, at a third of its height, +with what might be compared to an earl's coronet, the spikes being +represented by crocketed pinnacles--the terminals of the supporting +pillars. The interior is seen at its loveliest on those afternoons when +that rich yellow light Mr. W. Dean Howells so aptly compares with the +colour of the daffodil is flooding the nave and aisles, and glowing on +the clustered columns. + +In the eastern aisles of each arm of the transept there were three +chantry chapels, whose piscinae remain. The central chapel in the south +transept is a most interesting and beautiful object, having a recess +for the altar, with three richly ornamented niches above. In the +groined roof above, the central boss is formed into a hollow pendant of +considerable interest. On the three sides are carvings representing the +Annunciation, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. John the Baptist, +and on the under side is a Tudor rose. Sir Henry Dryden, in the +_Archaeological Journal_, states that this pendant was used for a +lamp to light the altar below, but he points out, at the same time, +that the sacrist would have required a ladder to reach it. An +alternative suggestion made by others is that this niche contained a +relic where it would have been safe even if visible. + +Patrington village is of fair size, with a wide street; and although +lacking any individual houses calling for comment, it is a pleasant +place, with the prevailing warm reds of roofs and walls to be found in +all the Holderness towns. + +On our way to Hedon, where the 'King of Holderness' awaits us, we pass +Winestead Church, where Andrew Marvell was baptized in 1621, and where +we may see the memorials of a fine old family--the Hildyards of +Winestead, who came there in the reign of Henry VI. + +The stately tower of Hedon's church is conspicuous from far away; and +when we reach the village we are much impressed by its solemn beauty, +and by the atmosphere of vanished greatness clinging to the place that +was decayed even in Leland's days, when Henry VIII, still reigned. No +doubt the silting up of the harbour and creeks brought down Hedon from +her high place, so that the retreat of the sea in this place was +scarcely less disastrous to the town's prosperity than its advance had +been at Ravenserodd; and possibly the waters of the Humber, glutted +with their rapacity close to Spurn Head, deposited much of the +disintegrated town in the waterway of the other. + +The nave of the church is Decorated, and has beautiful windows of that +period. The transept is Early English, and so also is the chancel, with +a fine Perpendicular east window filled with glass of the same subtle +colours we saw at Patrington. + +In approaching nearer to Hull, we soon find ourselves in the outer zone +of its penumbra of smoke, with fields on each side of the road waiting +for works and tall shafts, which will spread the unpleasant gloom of +the city still further into the smiling country. The sun becomes +copper-coloured, and the pure, transparent light natural to Holderness +loses its vigour. Tall and slender chimneys emitting lazy coils of +blackness stand in pairs or in groups, with others beyond, indistinct +behind a veil of steam and smoke, and at their feet grovels a confusion +of buildings sending forth jets and mushrooms of steam at a thousand +points. Hemmed in by this industrial belt and compact masses of +cellular brickwork, where labour skilled and unskilled sleeps and rears +its offspring, is the nucleus of the Royal borough of Kingston-upon-Hull, +founded by Edward I at the close of the thirteenth century. + +It would scarcely have been possible that any survivals of the +Edwardian port could have been retained in the astonishing commercial +development the city has witnessed, particularly in the last century; +and Hull has only one old street which can lay claim to even the +smallest suggestion of picturesqueness. The renaissance of English +architecture is beginning to make itself felt in the chief streets, +where some good buildings are taking the places of ugly fronts; and +there are one or two more ambitious schemes of improvement bringing +dignity into the city; but that, with the exception of two churches, is +practically all. + +When we see the old prints of the city surrounded by its wall defended +with towers, and realize the numbers of curious buildings that filled +the winding streets--the windmills, the churches and monasteries--we +understand that the old Hull has gone almost as completely as +Ravenserodd. It was in Hull that Michael, a son of Sir William de la +Pole of Ravenserodd, its first Mayor, founded a monastery for thirteen +Carthusian monks, and also built himself, in 1379, a stately house in +Lowgate opposite St. Mary's Church. Nothing remains of this great brick +mansion, which was described as a palace, and lodged Henry VIII during +his visit in 1540. Even St. Mary's Church has been so largely rebuilt +and restored that its interest is much diminished. + +The great Perpendicular Church of Holy Trinity in the market-place is, +therefore, the one real link between the modern city and the little +town founded in the thirteenth century. It is a cruciform building and +has a fine central tower, and is remarkable in having transepts and +chancel built externally of brick as long ago as the Decorated Period. +The De la Pole mansion, of similar date, was also constructed with +brick--no doubt from the brickyard outside the North Gate owned by the +founder of the family fortunes. The pillars and capitals of the arcades +of both the nave and chancel are thin and unsatisfying to the eye, and +the interior as a whole, although spacious, does not convey any +pleasing sensations. The slenderness of the columns was necessary, it +appears, owing to the soft and insecure ground, which necessitated a +pile foundation and as light a weight above as could be devised. + +William Wilberforce, the liberator of slaves, was born in 1759 in a +large house still standing in High Street, and a tall Doric column +surmounted by a statue perpetuates his memory, in the busiest corner of +the city. The old red-brick Grammar School bears the date 1583, and is +a pleasant relief from the dun-coloured monotony of the greater part of +the city. + +In going westward we come, at the village of North Cave, to the +southern horn of the crescent of the Wolds. All the way to Howden they +show as a level-topped ridge to the north, and the lofty tower of the +church stands out boldly for many miles before we reach the town. The +cobbled streets at the east end of the church possess a few antique +houses coloured with warm ochre, and it is over and between these that +we have the first close view of the ruined chancel. The east window has +lost most of its tracery, and has the appearance of a great archway; +its date, together with the whole of the chancel, is late Decorated, +but the exquisite little chapterhouse is later still, and may be better +described as early Perpendicular. It is octagonal in plan, and has in +each side a window with an ogee arch above. The stones employed are +remarkably large. The richly moulded arcading inside, consisting of +ogee arches, has been exposed to the weather for so long, owing to the +loss of the vaulting above, that the lovely detail is fast +disappearing. + +About four miles from Howden, near the banks of the Derwent, stand the +ruins of Wressle Castle. In every direction the country is spread out +green and flat, and, except for the towers and spires of the churches, +it is practically featureless. To the north the horizon is brought +closer by the rounded outlines of the wolds; everywhere else you seem +to be looking into infinity, as in the Fen Country. + +The castle that stands in the midst of this belt of level country is +the only one in the East Riding, and although now a mere fragment of +the former building, it still retains a melancholy dignity. Since a +fire in 1796 the place has been left an empty shell, the two great +towers and the walls that join them being left without floors or roofs. + +Wressle was one of the two castles in Yorkshire belonging to the +Percys, and at the time of the Civil War still retained its feudal +grandeur unimpaired. Its strength was, however, considered by the +Parliament to be a danger to the peace, despite the fact that the Earl +of Northumberland, its owner, was not on the Royalist side, and an +order was issued in 1648 commanding that it should be destroyed. +Pontefract Castle had been suddenly seized for the King in June during +that year, and had held out so persistently that any fortified +building, even if owned by a supporter, was looked upon as a possible +source of danger to the Parliamentary Government. An order was +therefore sent to Lord Northumberland's officers at Wressle commanding +them to pull down all but the south side of the castle. That this was +done with great thoroughness, despite the most strenuous efforts made +by the Earl to save his ancient seat, may be seen to-day in the fact +that, of the four sides of the square, three have totally disappeared, +except for slight indications in the uneven grass. + +The saddest part of the story concerns the portion of the buildings +spared by the Cromwellians. This, we are told, remained until a century +ago nearly in the same state as in the year 1512, when Henry Percy, the +fifth Earl, commenced the compilation of his wonderful Household Book. +The Great Chamber, or Dining Room, the Drawing Chamber, the Chapel, and +other apartments, still retained their richly-carved ceilings, and the +sides of the rooms were ornamented with a 'great profusion of ancient +sculpture, finely executed in wood, exhibiting the bearings, crests, +badges, and devises, of the Percy family, in a great variety of forms, +set off with all the advantages of painting, gilding and imagery.' + +There was a moat on three sides, a square tower at each corner, and a +fifth containing the gateway presumably on the eastward face. In one +of the corner towers was the buttery, pantry, 'pastery,' larder, and +kitchen; in the south-easterly one was the chapel; and in the +two-storied building and the other tower of the south side were the +chief apartments, where my lord Percy dined, entertained, and ordered +his great household with a vast care and minuteness of detail. We would +probably have never known how elaborate were the arrangements for the +conduct and duties of every one, from my lord's eldest son down to his +lowest servant, had not the Household Book of the fifth Earl of +Northumberland been, by great good fortune, preserved intact. By +reading this extraordinary compilation it is possible to build up a +complete picture of the daily life at Wressle Castle in the year 1512 +and later. + +From this account we know that the bare stone walls of the apartments +were hung with tapestries, and that these, together with the beds and +bedding, all the kitchen pots and pans, cloths, and odds and ends, the +altar hangings, surplices, and apparatus of the chapel--in fact, every +one's bed, tools, and clothing--were removed in seventeen carts each +time my lord went from one of his castles to another. The following is +one of the items, the spelling being typical of the whole book: + +'ITEM.--Yt is Ordynyd at every Remevall that the Deyn Subdean +Prestes Gentilmen and Children of my Lordes Chapell with the Yoman and +Grome of the Vestry shall have apontid theime ii Cariadges at every +Remevall Viz. One for ther Beddes Viz. For vi Prests iii beddes after +ii to a Bedde For x Gentillmen of the Chapell v Beddes after ii to a +Bedde And for vi Children ii Beddes after iii to a Bedde And a Bedde +for the Yoman and Grom o' th Vestry In al xi Beddes for the furst +Cariage. And the ii'de Cariage for ther Aparells and all outher ther +Stuff and to have no mo Cariage allowed them but onely the said ii +Cariages allowid theime.' + +We have seen the astonishingly tall spire of Hemingbrough Church from +the battlements of Wressle Castle, and when we have given a last look +at the grey walls and the windows, filled with their enormously heavy +tracery, we betake ourselves along a pleasant lane that brings us at +length to the river. The soaring spire is 120 feet in height, or twice +that of the tower, and this hugeness is perhaps out of proportion with +the rest of the building; yet I do not think for a moment that this +great spire could have been different without robbing the church of its +striking and pleasing individuality. There are Transitional Norman +arches at the east end of the nave, but most of the work is Decorated +or Perpendicular. The windows of the latter period in the south +transept are singularly happy in the wonderful amount of light they +allow to flood through their pale yellow glass. The oak bench-ends in +the nave, which are carved with many devices, and the carefully +repaired stalls in the choir, are Perpendicular, and no doubt belong to +the period when the church was a collegiate foundation of Durham. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE DERWENT AND THE HOWARDIAN HILLS + + +Malton is the only town on the Derwent, and it is made up of three +separate places--Old Malton, a picturesque village; New Malton, a +pleasant and oldfashioned town; and Norton, a curiously extensive +suburb. The last has a Norman font in its modern church, and there its +attractions begin and end. New Malton has a fortunate position on a +slope well above the lush grass by the river, and in this way arranges +the backs of its houses with unconscious charm. The two churches, +although both containing Norman pillars and arches, have been so +extensively rebuilt that their antiquarian interest is slight. + +On account of its undoubted signs of Roman occupation in the form of +two rectangular camps, and its situation at the meeting-place of some +three or four Roman roads, New Malton has been with great probability +identified with the _Delgovitia_ of the Antonine Itinerary. + +Old Malton is a cheerful and well-kept village, with antique cottages +here and there, roofed with mossy thatch. It makes a pretty picture as +you come along the level road from Pickering, with a group of trees on +the left and the tower of the Priory Church appearing sedately above +the humble roofs. A Gilbertine monastery was founded here about the +middle of the twelfth century, during the lifetime of St. Gilbert of +Sempringham in Lincolnshire, who during the last year of his long life +sent a letter to the Canons of Malton, addressing them as 'My dear +sons.' Little remains of Malton Priory with the exception of the +church, built at the very beginning of the Early English period. Of the +two western towers, the southern one only survives, and both aisles, +two bays of the nave, and everything else to the east has gone. The +abbreviated nave now serves as a parish church. + +Between Malton and the Vale of York there lies that stretch of hilly +country we saw from the edge of the Wolds, for some time past known as +the Howardian Hills, from Castle Howard which stands in their midst. +The many interests that this singularly remote neighbourhood contains +can be realized by making such a peregrination as we made through the +Wolds. + +There is no need to avoid the main road south of Malton. It has a +park-like appearance, with its large trees and well-kept grass on each +side, and the glimpses of the wooded valley of the Derwent on the left +are most beautiful. On the right we look across the nearer grasslands +into the great park of Castle Howard, and catch glimpses between the +distant masses of trees of Lord Carlisle's stately home. The old castle +of the Howards having been burnt down, Vanbrugh, the greatest architect +of early Georgian times, designed the enormous building now standing. +In 1772 Horace Walpole compressed the glories of the place into a few +sentences. '... I can say with exact truth,' he writes to George +Selwyn,' that I never was so agreeably astonished in my days as with +the first vision of the whole place. I had heard of Vanburgh, and how +Sir Thomas Robinson and he stood spitting and swearing at one another; +nay, I had heard of glorious woods, and Lord Strafford alone had told me +that I should see one of the finest places in Yorkshire; but nobody ... +had informed me that should at one view see a palace, a town, a +fortified city; temples on high places, woods worthy of being each +metropolis of the Druids, vales connected to hills by other woods, the +noblest lawn in the world fenced by half the horizon, and a mausoleum +that would tempt one to be buried alive; in short, I have seen gigantic +places before, but never a sublime one.' + +The style is that of the Corinthian renaissance, and Walpole's +description applies as much to-day as when he wrote. The pictures +include some of the masterpieces of Reynolds, Lely, Vandyck, Rubens, +Tintoretto, Canaletto, Giovanni Bellini Domenichino and Annibale +Caracci. + +Two or three miles to the south, the road finds itself close to the +deep valley of the Derwent. A short turning embowered with tall trees +whose dense foliage only allows a soft green light to filter through, +goes steeply down to the river. We cross the deep and placid river by a +stone bridge, and come to the Priory gateway. It is a stately ruin +partially mantled with ivy, and it preserves in a most remarkable +fashion the detail of its outward face. + +The mossy steps of the cross just outside the gateway are, according to +a tradition in one of the Cottonian manuscripts, associated with the +event which led to the founding of the Abbey by Walter Espec, lord of +Helmsley. He had, we are told, an only son, also named Walter, who was +fond of riding with exceeding swiftness. + +One day when galloping at a great pace his horse stumbled near a small +stone, and young Espec was brought violently to the ground, breaking +his neck and leaving his father childless. The grief-stricken parent is +said to have found consolation in the founding of three abbeys, one of +them being at Kirkham, where the fatal accident took place. + +Of the church and conventual buildings only a few fragments remain to +tell us that this secluded spot by the Derwent must have possessed one +of the most stately monasteries in Yorkshire. One tall lancet is all +that has been left of the church; and of the other buildings a few +walls, a beautiful Decorated lavatory, and a Norman doorway alone +survive. + +Stamford Bridge, which is reached by no direct road from Kirkham Abbey, +is so historically fascinating that we must leave the hills for a time +to see the site of that momentous battle between Harold, the English +King, and the Norwegian army, under Harold Hardrada and Harold's +brother Tostig. The English host made their sudden attack from the +right bank of the river, and the Northmen on that side, being partially +armed, were driven back across a narrow wooden bridge. One Northman, it +appears, played the part of Horatius in keeping the English at bay for +a time. When he fell, the Norwegians had formed up their shield-wall on +the left bank of the river, no doubt on the rising ground just above +the village. That the final and decisive phase of the battle took place +there Freeman has no doubt. + +Stamford Bridge being, as already mentioned, the most probable site of +the Roman _Derventio_, it was natural that some village should +have grown up at such an important crossing of the river. + +An unfrequented road through a belt of picturesque woodland goes from +Stamford Bridge past Sand Hutton to the highway from York to Malton. If +we take the branch-road to Flaxton, we soon see, over the distant +trees, the lofty towers of Sheriff Hutton Castle, and before long reach +a silent village standing near the imposing ruin. The great rectangular +space, enclosed by huge corner-towers and half-destroyed curtain walls, +is now utilized as the stackyard of a farm, and the effect as we +approach by a footpath is most remarkable. It seems scarcely possible +that this is the castle Leland described with so much enthusiasm. 'I +saw no House in the North so like a Princely Logginges,' he says, and +also describes 'the stately Staire up to the Haul' as being very +magnificent. + +We come to the north-west tower, and look beyond its ragged outline to +the distant country lying to the west, grass and arable land with trees +appearing to grow so closely together at a short distance, that we have +no difficulty in realizing that this was the ancient Forest of Galtres, +which reached from Sheriff Hutton and Easingwold to the very gates of +York. + +In the complete loneliness of the ruins, with the silence only +intensified by the sounds of fluttering wings in the tops of the +towers, we in imagination sweep away the haystacks and reinstate the +former grandeur of the fortress in the days of Ralph Neville, first +Earl of Westmorland. It was he who rebuilt the Norman castle of Bertram +de Bulmer, Sheriff of Yorkshire, on a grander scale. Upon the death of +Warwick, the Kingmaker, in 1471, Edward IV gave the castle and manor of +Sheriff Hutton to his brother Richard, afterwards Richard III, and it +was he who kept Edward IV's eldest child Elizabeth a prisoner within +these massive walls. The unfortunate Edward, Earl of Warwick, the +eldest son of George, Duke of Clarence, when only eight years old, was +also incarcerated here for about three years. Richard III, the usurper, +when he lost his only son, had thought of making this boy his heir, but +the unfortunate child was passed over in favour of John de la Pole, +Earl of Lincoln, and remained in close confinement at Sheriff Hutton +until August, 1485, when the Battle of Bosworth placed Henry VII on the +throne. Sir Robert Willoughby soon afterwards arrived at the castle, +and took the little Earl to London. Princess Elizabeth was also sent +for at the same time, but whether both the Royal prisoners travelled +together does not appear to be recorded. The terrible pathos of this +simultaneous removal from the castle lay in the fact that Edward was to +play the part of Pharaoh's chief baker, and Elizabeth that of the chief +butler; for, after fourteen years in the Tower of London, the Earl of +Warwick was beheaded, while the King, after five months, raised up +Elizabeth to be his Queen. Even in those callous times the fate of the +Prince was considered cruel, for it was pointed out after his +execution, that, as he had been kept in imprisonment since he was eight +years old, and had no knowledge or experience of the world, he could +hardly have been accused of any malicious purpose. So cut off from all +the common sights of everyday life was the miserable boy that it was +said 'that he could not discern a goose from a capon.' + +Portions of the Augustinian Priory are built into the house called +Newburgh Priory, and these include the walls of the kitchen and some +curious carvings showing on the exterior. William of Newburgh, the +historian, whose writings end abruptly in 1198--probably the year of +his death--was a canon of the Priory, and spent practically his whole +life there. In his preface he denounced the inaccuracies and fictions +of the writings of Geoffrey of Monmouth. At the Dissolution Newburgh +was given by Henry VIII to Anthony Belasyse, the punning motto of whose +family was _Bonne et belle assez_. One of his descendants was +created Lord Fauconberg by Charles I, and the peerage became extinct in +1815, on the death of the seventh to bear the title. The last +owner--Sir George Wombwell, Bart.--inherited the property from his +grandmother, who was a daughter of the last Lord Fauconberg. Sir George +was one of the three surviving officers who took part in the charge of +the Light Brigade at Balaclava on October 25, 1854. + +The late Duke of Cambridge paid several visits to Newburgh, occupying +what is generally called 'the Duke's Room.' Rear-Admiral Lord Adolphus +Fitz-Clarence, whose father was George IV, died in 1856 in the bed +still kept in this room. In a glass case, at the end of a long gallery +crowded with interest, are kept the uniform and accoutrements Sir +George wore at Balaclava. + +The second Lord Fauconberg, who was raised from Viscount to the rank of +Earl in 1689, was warmly attached to the Parliamentary side in the +Civil War, and took as his second wife Cromwell's third daughter, Mary. +This close connexion with the Protector explains the inscription upon a +vault immediately over one of the entrances to the Priory. On a small +metal plate is written: + +'In this vault are Cromwell's bones, brought here, it is believed, +by his daughter Mary, Countess of Fauconberg, at the Restoration, when +his remains were disinterred from Westminster Abbey.' + +The letters 'R.I.P.' below are only just visible, an attempt having +been made to erase them. No one seems to have succeeded in finally +clearing up the mystery of the last resting-place of Cromwell's +remains. The body was exhumed from its tomb in Henry VII.'s Chapel at +Westminster, and hung on the gallows at Tyburn on January 30, 1661--the +twelfth anniversary of the execution of Charles I--and the head was +placed upon a pole raised above St. Stephen's Hall, and had a separate +history, which is known. Lord Fauconberg is said to have become a +Royalist at the Restoration, and if this were true, he would perhaps +have been able to secure the decapitated remains of his father-in-law, +after their burial at the foot of the gallows at Tyburn. It has often +been stated that a sword, bridle, and other articles belonging to +Cromwell are preserved at Newburgh Priory, but this has been +conclusively shown to be a mistake, the objects having been traced to +one of the Belasyses. + +Coxwold has that air of neatness and well-preserved antiquity which is +so often to be found in England where the ancient owners of the land +still spend a large proportion of their time in the great house of the +village. There is a very wide street, with picturesque old houses on +each side, which rises gently towards the church. A great tree with +twisted branches--whether oak or elm, I cannot remember--stands at the +top of the street opposite the churchyard, and adds much charm to the +village. The inn has recently lost its thatch, but is still a quaint +little house with the typical Yorkshire gable, finished with a stone +ball. On the great sign fixed to the wall are the arms and motto of the +Fauconbergs, and the interior is full of old-fashioned comfort and +cleanliness. Nearly opposite stand the almshouses, dated 1662. + +The church is chiefly Perpendicular, with a rather unusual octagonal +tower. In the eighteenth century the chancel was rebuilt, but the +Fauconberg monuments in it were replaced. Sir William Belasyse, who +received the Newburgh property from his uncle, the first owner, died in +1603, and his fine Jacobean tomb, painted in red, black and gold, shows +him with a beard and ruff. His portrait hangs in one of the +drawing-rooms of the Priory. The later monuments, adorned with great +carved figures, are all interesting. They encroach so much on the space +in the narrow chancel that a most curious method for lengthening the +communion-rail has been resorted to--that of bringing forward from the +centre a long narrow space enclosed with the rails. From the pulpit +Laurence Sterne preached when he was incumbent here for the last eight +years of his life. He came to Coxwold in 1760, and took up his abode in +the charming old house he quaintly called 'Shandy Hall.' It is on the +opposite side of the road to the church, and has a stone roof and one +of those enormous chimneys so often to be found in the older farmsteads +of the north of England. Sterne's study was the very small room on the +right-hand side of the entrance doorway; it now contains nothing +associated with him, and there is more pleasure in viewing the outside +of the house than is gained by obtaining permission to enter. + +During his last year at Coxwold, when his rollicking, boisterous +spirits were much subdued, Sterne completed his 'Sentimental Journey.' +He also relished more than before the country delights of the village, +describing it in one of his letters as 'a land of plenty.' Every day he +drove out in his chaise, drawn by two long-tailed horses, until one day +his postilion met with an accident from one his master's pistols, which +went off in his hand. 'He instantly fell on his knees,' wrote Sterne, +'and said "Our Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name"--at +which, like a good Christian, he stopped, not remembering any more of +it.' + +The beautiful Hambleton Hills begin to rise up steeply about two miles +north of Coxwold, and there we come upon the ruins of Byland Abbey. +Their chief feature is the west end of the church, with its one turret +pointing a finger to the heavens, and the lower portion of a huge +circular window, without any sign of tracery. This fine example of +Early English work is illustrated here. The whole building appears to +be the original structure built soon after 1177, for it shows +everywhere the transition from Norman to Early English which was taking +place at the close of the twelfth century. The founders were twelve +monks and an abbot, named Gerald, who left Furness Abbey in 1134, and +after some vicissitudes came to the notice of Gundred, the mother of +Roger de Mowbray, either by recommendation or by accident. One account +pictures the holy men on their way to Archbishop Thurstan at York, with +all their belongings in one wagon drawn by eight oxen, and describes +how they chanced to meet Gundreda's steward as they journeyed near +Thirsk. Through Gundreda the monks went to Hode, and after four years +received land at Old Byland, where they wished to build an abbey. This +position was found to be too close to Rievaulx, whose bells could be +too plainly heard, so that five years later the restless community +obtained a fresh grant of land from De Mowbray, at a place called +Stocking, where they remained until they came to Byland. + +Recent excavation and preservation operations carried out by H.M. +Office of Works have added many lost features to the ruins including +the exposure of the whole of the floor level of the church hitherto +buried under grassy mounds. Almost any of the roads to the east go +through surprisingly attractive scenery. There are heathery commons, +roads embowered with great spreading trees, or running along open +hill-sides, and frequently lovely views of the Hambletons and more +distant moors in the north. + +In scenery of this character stands Gilling Castle, the seat of the +Fairfaxes for some three centuries. It possesses one of the most +beautiful Elizabethan dining-rooms to be found in this country. The +walls are panelled to a considerable height, the remaining space being +filled with paintings of decorative trees, one for each wapentake of +Yorkshire. Each tree is covered with the coats of arms of the great +families of that time in the wapentake. The brilliant colours against +the dark green of the trees form a most suitable relief to the uniform +brown of the panelling. In addition to the charm of the room itself, +the view from the windows into a deep hollow clothed with dense +foliage, with a distant glimpse of country beyond, is unlike anything I +have seen elsewhere. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF YORK + + +Thoroughly to master the story of the city of York is to know +practically the whole of English history. Its importance from the +earliest times has made York the centre of all the chief events that +have take place in the North of England; and right up to the time of +the Civil War the great happenings of the country always affected York, +and brought the northern capital into the vortex of affairs. And yet, +despite the prominent part the city has played in ecclesiastical, +military, and civil affairs through so many centuries of strife, it has +contrived to retain a medieval character in many ways unequalled by any +town in the kingdom. This is due, in a large measure, to the fortunate +fact that York is well outside the area of coal and iron, and has never +become a manufacturing centre, the few factories it now possesses being +unable to rob the city of its romance and charm. + +There could scarcely be a better approach to such a city than that +furnished by the railway-station. Immediately outside the building, we +are confronted with a sloping grassy bank, crowned with a battlemented +wall, and we discover that only through its bars and posterns can we +enter the city, and feast our eyes on the relics of the Middle Ages +within. It is no dummy wall put up to please visitors, for right down +to the siege of 1644, when the Parliamentary army battered Walmgate Bar +with their artillery, it has withstood many assaults and investments. +Repairs and restorations have been carried out at various times during +the last century, and additional arches have been inserted by the bars +and where openings have been made necessary, luckily without robbing +the walls of their picturesqueness or interest. The bright, creamy +colour of the stonework is a pleasant reminder of the purity of York's +atmosphere, for should the smoke of the city ever increase to the +extent of even the smaller manufacturing towns, the beauty and glamour +of every view would gradually disappear. + +Of the Roman legionary base called Eboracum there still remain parts of +the wall and the lower portion of a thirteen-sided angle bastion while +embedded in the medieval earthen ramparts there is a great deal of +Roman walling. + +The four chief gateways and the one or two posterns and towers have +each a particular fascination, and when we begin to taste the joys of +York, we cannot decide whether the Minster, the gateways, the narrow +streets full of overhanging houses, or the churches, all of which we +know from prints and pictures, call us most. In our uncertainty we +reach a wide arch across the roadway, and on the inner side find a +flight of stone steps leading to the top of the wall. We climb them, +and find spread out before us our first notable view of the city. The +battlemented stone parapet of the wall stops at a tower standing on the +bank of the river, and on the further side rises another, while above +the old houses, closely packed together beyond Lendal Bridge, appear +the stately towers of the Minster. + +On the plan of keeping the best wine until the last, we turn our backs +to the Minster and go along the wall, trying to imagine the scene when +open country came right up to encircling fortifications, and within +were to be found only the picturesque houses of the fourteenth and +fifteenth centuries, many of them new in those days, and yet so +admirably designed as to be beautiful without the additional charm of +age. Then, suddenly, we find no need to imagine any longer, having +reached the splendid twelfth-century structure of Micklegate Bar. Its +bold turrets are pierced with arrow-slits, and above the battlements +are three stone figures. The archway is a survival of the Norman city. +In gazing at this imposing gateway, which confronted all who approached +York from the south, we seem to hear the clanking sound of the +portcullis as it is raised and lowered to allow the entry of some +Plantagenet sovereign and his armed retinue, and, remembering that +above this gate were fixed the dripping heads of Richard, Duke of York, +after his defeat at Wakefield; the Earl of Devon, after Towton, and a +long list of others of noble birth, we realize that in those times of +pageantry, when the most perfect artistry appeared in costume, in +architecture, and in ornament of every description, there was a +blood-thirstiness that makes us shiver. + +The wall stops short at Skeldergate Bridge, where we cross the river +and come to the castle. There is a frowning gateway that boasts no +antiquity, and the courtyard within is surrounded by the +eighteenth-century assize courts, a military prison, and the governor's +house. Hemmed in by these buildings and a massive wall is the +artificial mound surmounted by the tottering castle keep. It is called +Clifford's Tower because Francis Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, restored +the ruined wall in 1642. The Royal Arms and those of the Cliffords can +still be seen above the doorway, but the structure as a whole dates +from the twelfth century, and in 1190 was the scene of a horrible +tragedy, when the people of York determined to massacre the Jews. Those +merchants who escaped from their houses with their families and were +not killed in the streets fled to the castle, but finding that they +were unable to defend the place, they burnt the buildings and destroyed +themselves. A few exceptions consented to become Christians, but were +afterwards killed by the infuriated townspeople. + +On the opposite side of the Foss, a stream that joins the Ouse just +outside the city, the walls recommence at the Fishergate Postern, a +picturesque tower with a tiled roof. After this the line of +fortifications turns to the north, and Walmgate Bar shows its +battlemented turrets and its barbican, the only one which has survived. +The gateway itself, on the outside, is very similar in design to +Micklegate and Monk Bars, and was built in the thirteenth century; +inside, however, the stonework is hidden behind a quaint Elizabethan +timber front supported on two pillars. This gate, as already mentioned, +was much battered during the siege of 1644, which lasted six weeks. It +was soon after the Royalists' defeat at Marston Moor that York +capitulated, and fortunately Sir Thomas Fairfax gave the city excellent +terms, and saved it from being plundered. Through him, too, the Minster +suffered very little damage from the Parliamentary artillery, and the +only disaster of the siege was the spoiling of the Marygate Tower, near +St. Mary's Abbey, many of the records it contained being destroyed. +Numbers were saved through the rewards Fairfax offered to any soldier +who rescued a document from the rubbish, and as the transcribing of all +the records had just been completed by one Dodsworth, to whom Fairfax +had paid a salary for some years, the loss was reduced to a minimum. + +Walmgate leads straight to the bridge over the Foss, and just beyond we +come to fine old Merchants' Hall, established in 1373 by John de +Rowcliffe. The panelled rooms and the chapel, built early in the +fifteenth century, and many interesting details, are beautiful +survivals of the days when the trade guilds of the city flourished. On +the left, a few yards further on, at the corner of the Pavement, is the +interesting little church of All Saints, whose octagonal lantern was +illuminated at night as a guiding light to travellers on their way to +York. The north door has a sanctuary knocker. + +The narrowest and most antique of the old streets of York are close to +All Saints' Church, and the first we enter is the Shambles, where +butchers' shops with slaughter-houses behind still line both sides of +the way. On the left, as we go towards the Minster, one of the shops +has a depressed ogee arch of oak, and great curved brackets across the +passage leading to the back. All the houses are timber-framed, and +either plastered and coloured with warm ochre wash, or have the spaces +between the oak filled with dark red brick. In the Little Shambles, +too, there are many curious details in the high gables, pargeting and +oriel windows. Petergate is a charming old street, though not quite so +rich in antique houses as Stonegate, illustrated here. A large number +of shops in Stonegate sell 'antiques,' and, as the pleasure of buying +an old pair of silver candlesticks is greatly enhanced by the knowledge +that the purchase will be associated with the old-world streets of +York, there is every reason for believing that these quaint houses are +in no danger. In walking through these streets we are very little +disturbed by traffic, and the atmosphere of centuries long dead seems +to surround us. We constantly get peeps of the great central tower of +the Minster or the Early English south transept, and there are so many +charming glimpses down passages and along narrow streets that it is +hard to realize that we are not in some town in Normandy such as +Lisieux or Falaise, and yet those towns have no walls, and Falaise, has +only one gateway, and Lisieux none. It is surely justifiable to ask, in +Kingsley's words, 'Why go gallivanting with the nations round' until +you have at least seen what England can show at York and Chester? +Skirting the west end of the Minster, and having a close view of its +two towers built in late Perpendicular times, which are not so +beautiful as those at Beverley, we come to what is in many ways the +most romantic of all the medieval survivals of York. There is an open +space faced by Bootham Bar, the chief gateway towards the north; behind +are the weathered red roofs of many antique houses, and beyond them +rises the stately mass of the Minster. The barbican was removed in +1831, and the interior has been much restored, without, however, +destroying its fascination. We can still see the portcullis and look +out of the narrow windows through which the watchmen have gazed in +early times at approaching travellers. It was at this gateway that +armed guides could be obtained to protect those who were journeying +northwards through the Forest of Galtres, where wolves were to be +feared in the Middle Ages. + +Facing Bootham Bar is a modern public building judiciously screened by +trees, and adjoining it to the south stands the beautiful old house +where, before the Dissolution, the abbots of St. Mary's Abbey lived in +stately fashion. + +When Henry VIII paid his one visit to York it was after the Pilgrimage +of Grace led by Robert Aske, who was hanged on one of the gates. The +citizens who had welcomed the rebels pleaded pardon, which was granted +three years afterwards; but Henry appointed a council, with the Duke of +Norfolk as its president, which was held in the Abbots' house, and +resulted in the Mayor and Corporation losing most of their powers. The +beautiful fragments of St. Mary's Abbey are close to the river, and the +site is now included in the museum grounds. In the museum building +itself there is a wonderfully fine collection of Roman coffins, dug up +when the new railway-station was being built. One inscription is +particularly interesting in showing that the Romans set up altars in +their palaces, thus explaining the reason for the Jews refusing to +enter the praetorium at Jerusalem when Christ was made prisoner, +because it was the Feast of the Passover. + +We can see the restored front of the Guildhall overlooking the river +from Lendal Bridge, which adjoins the gates of the Abbey grounds, but +to reach the entrance we must go along the street called Lendal and +turn into a narrow passage. The hall was put up in 1446, and is +therefore in the Perpendicular style. A row of tall oak pillars on each +side support the roof and form two aisles. The windows are filled with +excellent modern stained glass representing several incidents in the +history of the city, from the election of Constantine to be Roman +Emperor, which took place at York in A.D. 306, down to the great dinner +to the Prince Consort, held in the hall in 1850. + +The Church of St. Michael Spurriergate, built at the same period as the +Guildhall, is curiously similar in its interior, having only a nave and +aisles. The stone pillars are so slight that they are scarcely of much +greater diameter than the wooden ones in the civic structure, and some +of them are perilously out of plumb. There is much old glass in the +windows. + +St. Margaret's Church has a splendid Norman doorway carved with the +signs of the zodiac; St. Mary's Castlegate is an Early English or +Transitional building transformed and patched in Perpendicular times; +St. Mary's Bishophill Junior has a most interesting tower, containing +Roman materials, and the list could be prolonged for many pages if +there were space. + +We finally come back to the Minster, and entering by the south transept +door, realize at once in the dim immensity of the interior that we have +reached the crowning splendour of York. The great organ is filling the +lofty spaces with solemn music, carrying the mind far beyond petty +things. + +Edwin's wooden chapel, put up in 627 for his baptism into the Christian +Church nearly thirteen centuries ago, and almost immediately replaced +by a stone structure, has gone, except for some possible fragments in +the crypt. Vanished, too, is the building that was standing when, in +1069, the Danes sacked and plundered York, leaving the Minster and city +in ruins, so that the great church as we see it belongs almost entirely +to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the towers being still +later. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE MANUFACTURING DISTRICT + + +It is not easy to understand how a massive structure such as that of +Selby Abbey can catch fire and become a burnt-out shell, and yet this +actually happened not many years ago. + +It was before midnight on October 19, 1906, that the flames were first +seen bursting from the Latham Chapel, where the organ was placed. The +Selby fire brigade with their small engine were confronted with a task +entirely beyond their powers, and though the men worked heroically, +they were quite unable to prevent the fire from spreading to the roofs +of the chancel and nave, and consuming all that was inflammable within +the tower. By about three in the morning fire-engines from Leeds and +York had arrived, and with a copious supply of water from the river, it +was hoped that the double roof of the nave might have been saved, but +the fire had obtained too fierce a hold, and by 4.30 a correspondent +telegraphed: + +'The flames are through the west-end roof. The whole building will +now be destroyed from end to end. The flames are pouring out of +the roof, and the lead of the roof is running down in molten +streams. The scene is magnificent but pathetic, and the whole +of the noble building is now doomed. The whole of the inside is a +fiery furnace. The seating is in flames, and the firemen are in +considerable danger if they stay any longer, as the false roof is now +burned through. + +'The false roof is falling in, and the flames are ascending 30 feet +above the building. Dense clouds of smoke are pouring out.' + +When the fire was vanquished, it had practically completed its work of +destruction. Besides reducing to charred logs and ashes all the timber +in the great building, the heat had been so intense that glass windows +had been destroyed, tracery demolished, carved finials and capitals +reduced to powder, and even the massive piers by the north transept, +where the furnace of flame reached its maximum intensity, became so +calcined and cracked that they were left in a highly dangerous +condition. + +Fortunately the splendid Norman nave was not badly damaged, and after a +new roof had been built, it was easily made ready for holding services. +The two bays nearest to the transept are early Norman, and on the south +side the massive circular column is covered with a plain grooved +diaper-work, almost exactly the same as may be seen at Durham +Cathedral. All the rest of the nave is Transitional Norman except the +Early English clerestory, and is a wonderful study in the progress from +early Norman to Early English. + +On the floor on the south side of the nave by one of the piers is a +slab to the memory of a maker of gravestones, worded in this quaint +fashion: + + 'Here Lyes ye Body of poor Frank Raw + Parish Clark and Gravestone Cutter + And ys is writt to let yw know: + Wht Frank for Othrs us'd to do + Is now for Frank done by Another. + Buried March ye 31, 1706.' + +A stone on the floor of the retro-choir to John Johnson, master and +mariner, dated 1737, is crowded with nautical metaphor. + + 'Tho' Boreas with his Blustring blasts + Has tos't me to and fro, + Yet by the handy work of God I'm here + Inclos'd below + And in this Silent Bay + I lie With many of our Fleet + Untill the Day that I Set Sail + My Admiral Christ to meet.' + +The great Perpendicular east window was considered by Pugin to be one +of the most beautiful of its type in England, and the risk it ran of +being entirely destroyed during the fire was very great. The design of +the glass illustrates the ancestry of Christ from Jesse, and a +considerable portion of it is original. + +Although Selby Abbey suffered severely in the conflagration, yet its +greatest association with history, the Norman nave, is still intact. At +the eastern end of the nave we can still look upon the ponderous arches +of the Benedictine Abbey Church, founded by William the Conqueror in +1069 as a mark of his gratitude for the success of his arms in the +north of England, even as Battle Abbey was founded in the south. + +Going to the west as far as Pontefract, we come to the actual borders +of the coal-mine and factory-bestrewn country. Although the history of +Pontefract is so detailed and so rich, it has long ago been robbed of +nearly every building associated with the great events of its past, and +its present appearance is intensely disappointing. The town stands on a +hill, and has a wide and cheerful market-place possessing an +eighteenth-century 'cross' on big open arches. It is a plain, classic +structure, 'erected by Mrs. Elisabeth Dupier Relict of Solomon Dupier, +Gent, in a cheerful and generous Compliance with his benevolent +Intention Anno Dom' 1734.' + +The castle stood at the northern end of the town on a rocky eminence +just suited for the purposes of an early fortress, but of the stately +towers and curtain walls which have successively been reared above the +scarps, practically nothing besides foundations remains. The base of +the great round tower, prominent in all the prints of the castle in the +time of its greatest glory, fragments of the lower parts of other towers +and some dungeons or magazines are practically the only features of the +historic site that the imagination finds to feed upon. A long flight of +steps leads into the underground chambers, on whose walls are carved +the names of various prisoners taken during the siege of 1648. Below +the castle, on the east side, is the old church of All Saints with its +ruined nave, eloquent of the destruction wrought by the Parliamentary +cannon in the successive sieges, and to the north stands New Hall, the +stately Tudor mansion of Lord George Talbot, now reduced to the +melancholy wreck depicted in these pages. The girdle of fortifications +constructed by the besiegers round the castle included New Hall, in +case it might have been reached by a sally of the Royalists, whose +cannon-balls, we know, carried as far, from the discovery of one +embedded in the masonry. Coats of arms of the Talbots can still be seen +on carved stones on the front walls over the entrance. The date, 1591, +is believed to be later than the time of the erection of the house, +which, in the form of its parapets and other details, suggests the +style of Henry VIII's reign. + +Although we can describe in a very few words the historic survivals of +Pontefract, to deal even cursorily with the story of the vanished +castle and modernized town is a great undertaking, so numerous are the +great personages and famous events of English history connected with +its owners, its prisoners, and its sieges. + +The name Pontefract has suggested such an obvious derivation that, from +the early topographers up to the present time, efforts have been made +to discover the broken bridge giving rise to the new name, which +replaced the Saxon Kyrkebi. No one has yet succeeded in this quest, and +the absence of any river at Pontefract makes the search peculiarly +hopeless. At Castleford, a few miles north-west of Pontefract, where +the Roman Ermine Street crossed the confluence of the Aire and the +Calder, it is definitely known that there was only a ford. The present +name does not make any appearance until several years after the Norman +Conquest, though Ilbert de Lacy received the great fief, afterwards to +become the Honour of Pontefract, in 1067, the year after the Battle of +Hastings. Ilbert built the first stone castle on the rock, and either +to him or his immediate successors may be attributed the Norman walls +and chapel, whose foundations still exist on the north and east sides +of the castle yard. + +The De Lacys held Pontefract until 1193, when Robert died without +issue, the castle and lands passing by marriage to Richard +Fitz-Eustace; and the male line again became extinct in 1310, when +Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, married Alice, the heiress of Henry de Lacy. +Henry's great-grandfather was the Roger de Lacy, Justiciar and +Constable of Chester, who is famous for his heroic defence of Chateau +Gaillard, in Normandy, for nearly a year, when John weakly allowed +Philip Augustus to continue the siege, making only one feeble attempt +at relief. Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who was a cousin of Edward II, +was more or less in continual opposition to the king, on account of his +determination to rid the Court of the royal favourites, and it was with +Lancaster's full consent that Piers Gaveston was beheaded at Blacklow +Hill, near Warwick, in 1312. For this Edward never forgave his cousin, +and when, during the fighting which followed the recall of the +Despensers, Lancaster was obliged to surrender after the Battle of +Boroughbridge, Edward had his revenge. The Earl was brought to his own +castle at Pontefract, where the King lay, and there accused of +rebellion, of coming to the Parliaments with armed men, and of being in +league with the Scots. Without even being allowed a hearing he was +condemned to death as a traitor, and the next day, June 19, 1322, +mounted on a sorry nag without a bridle, he was led to a hill outside +the town, and executed with his face towards Scotland. + +In the last year of the same century Richard II died in imprisonment in +the castle, not long after the Parliament had decided that the deposed +King should be permanently immured in an out-of-the-way place. +Hardyng's Chronicle records the journeying from one castle to another +in the lines: + + '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.' + +Archbishop Scrope affirmed that Richard died of starvation, while +Shakespeare makes Sir Piers of Exton his murderer. + +During the Pilgrimage of Grace the castle was besieged, and given up to +the rebels by Lord Darcy and the Archbishop of York. In the following +century came the three sieges of the Civil War. The first two followed +after the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644, and Fairfax joined the +Parliamentary forces on Christmas Day of that year, remaining through +most of January. On March 1 Sir Marmaduke Langdale relieved the +Royalist garrison, and Colonel Lambert fell back, fighting stubbornly +and losing some 300 men. The garrison then had an interval of just +three weeks to reprovision the castle, then the second siege began, and +lasted until July 19, when the courageous defenders surrendered, the +besieging force having lost 469 men killed to 99 of those within the +castle. Of these two sieges, often looked upon as one, there exists a +unique diary kept by Nathan Drake, a 'gentleman volunteer' of the +garrison, and from its wonderfully graphic details it is possible to +realize the condition of the defence, their sufferings, their hopes, +and their losses, almost more completely than of any other siege before +recent times. + +In the third and last investment of 1648-49 Cromwell himself summoned +the garrison, and remained a month with the Parliamentary forces, +without seeing any immediate prospect of the surrender of the castle. +When the Royalists had been reduced to a mere handful, Colonel Morris, +their commander, agreed to terms of capitulation on March 24, 1649. The +dismantling of the stately pile by order of Parliament followed as a +matter of course, and now we have practically nothing but +seventeenth-century prints to remind us of the embattled towers which +for so many months defied Cromwell and his generals. + +Liquorice is still grown at Pontefract, although the industry has +languished on account of Spanish rivalry, and the town still produces +those curious little discs of soft liquorice, approximating to the size +of a shilling, known as 'Pontefract cakes.' + +The ruins of the great Cistercian Abbey of Kirkstall, founded in the +twelfth century by Henry de Lacy, still stand in a remarkable state of +completeness, about three miles from Leeds. With the exception of +Fountains, the remains are more perfect than any in Yorkshire. Nearly +the whole of the church is Transitional Norman, and the roofless nave +is in a wonderfully fine state of preservation. The chapter-house and +refectory, as well as smaller rooms, are fairly complete, and the +situation by the Aire on a sunny day is still attractive; yet owing to +the smoke-laden atmosphere, and the inevitable indications of the +countless visitors from the city, the ruins have lost much of their +interest, unless viewed solely from a detached architectural +standpoint. We do not feel much inclination to linger in this +neighbourhood, and continue our way westwards towards the great rounded +hills, where, not far from Keighley, we come to the grey village of +Haworth. + +More than half a century has gone since Charlotte Brontė passed away in +that melancholy house, the 'parsonage' of the village. In that period +the church she knew has been rebuilt, with the exception of the tower, +her home has been enlarged, a branch line from Keighley has given +Haworth a railway-station, and factories have multiplied in the valley, +destroying its charm. These changes sound far greater than they really +are, for in many ways Haworth and its surroundings are just what they +were in the days when the members of that ill-fated household were +still united under the grey roof of the 'parsonage,' as it is +invariably called by Mrs. Gaskell. + +We climb up the steep road from the station at the bottom of the deep +valley, and come to the foot of the village street, which, even though +it turns sharply to the north in order to make as gradual an ascent as +possible, is astonishingly steep. At the top stands an inn, the 'Black +Bull,' where the downward path of the unhappy Branwell Brontė began, +owing to the frequent occasions when 'Patrick,' as he was familiarly +called, was sent for by the landlord to talk to his more important +patrons. + +The churchyard is, to a large extent, closely paved with tombstones +dating back to the seventeenth century, laid flat, and on to this +dismal piece of ground the chief windows of the Brontės' house looked, +as they continue to do to-day. It is exceedingly strange that such an +unfortunate arrangement of the buildings on this breezy hill-top should +have given a gloomy outlook to the parsonage. If the house had only +been placed a little higher up the hill, and been built to face the +south, it is conceivable that the Brontės would have enjoyed better +health and a less melancholy and tragic outlook on life. An account of +a visit to Haworth Parsonage by a neighbour, when Charlotte and her +father were the only survivors of the family, gives a clear impression +of how the house appeared to those who lived brighter lives: + +'Miss Brontė put me so in mind of her own "Jane Eyre." She looked smaller +than ever, and moved about so quietly and noiselessly, just like a +little bird, as Rochester called her, barring that all birds are +joyous, and that joy can never have entered that house since it was +first built, and yet, perhaps, when that old man married, and took home +his bride, and children's voices and feet were heard about the house, +even that desolate crowded graveyard and biting blast could not quench +cheerfulness and hope.' + +Very soon after the family came to Haworth Mrs. Brontė died, when the +eldest girl, Maria, was only six years old; and far from there having +been any childish laughter about the house, we are told that the +children were unusually solemn from their infancy. In their earliest +walks, the five little girls with their one brother--all of them under +seven years--directed their steps towards the wild moors above their +home rather than into the village. Over a century has passed, and +practically no change has come to the moorland side of the house, so +that we can imagine the precocious toddling children going hand-in-hand +over the grass-lands towards the moors beyond, as though we had +travelled back over the intervening years. + +The purple moors so beloved by the Brontės stretch away to the Calder +Valley, and beyond that depression in great sweeping outlines to the +Peak of Derbyshire, where they exceed 2,000 feet in height. Within easy +reach of this grand country is Sheffield, perhaps the blackest and +ugliest city in England. At night, however, the great iron and steel +works become wildly fantastic. The tops of the many chimneys emit +crimson flames, and glowing shafts of light with a nucleus of dazzling +brilliance show between the inky forms of buildings. Ceaseless activity +reigns in these industrial infernos, with three shifts of men working +during each twenty-four hours; and from the innumerable works come +every form of manufactured steel and iron goods, from a pair of +scissors or a plated teaspoon to steel rails and armour plate. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Yorkshire, by Gordon Home + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK YORKSHIRE *** + +This file should be named 8yksh10h.txt or 8yksh10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8yksh11h.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8yksh10ha.txt + +Produced by David Widger, Ted Garvin, Michael Lockey +and PG Distributed Proofreaders. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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