CHAPTER II

IMPORTANT FACTORS AFFECTING THE HISTORY OF

YORK

A. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION

AMONG the factors affecting this particular city
geographical position is evidently the most
important. It is to this, combined with the con-
sequent military value of the site, that York owes its
origin as a city, its importance in the Middle Ages,
and its practical importance to-day. York, which
is the natural centre for the North of England, is the
halfway house between London and Edinburgh, and
is on the shortest and quickest land or air route,
however the journey is made, between these two
capitals. The Ouse and Humber have enabled it
always to be within navigable distance of the
North-East coast. The city itself is situated on
an advantageous site in the centre of a great
plain, the north and south ends of which are open.
The surrounding hills and valleys are so disposed
that a large number of rivers radiate towards the
centre of the plain. Civilisation—if we must rank
the ultra-fierce Norsemen, for instance, among its
exponents—proceeded westwards from the coast,
and wave after wave of the invading peoples crossed
with ease the eastern and north-eastern hills, which
are far less formidable than those on the west.
York was already an important place in the days of.
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