A book about Yorkshire

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«S>YIYo*

4' 7j?

\ BOOK ABOUT
YORKSHIRE

M BY

J * S. y FLETCHER

"THE BEST SHIRE OP ENGLAND w

FULLER

WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY

WAL PAGET and FRANK SOUTHGATE, R.B.A.

AND SIXTEEN OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK : THE McCLURE COMPANY.
LONDON : METHUEN & CO.

1908

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

D YORKSHIRE IN THE OLD DAYS 1

CHAPTER II

MODERN YORKSHIRE *8

CHAPTER III

! PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE 45

i CHAPTER IV

ANTIQUITIES OP YORKSHIRE 57

CHAPTER V

THE MAKING OF THE MINSTERS 78

CHAPTER VI

THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES IQI

CHAPTER VII

THE YORKSHIRE CHURCHES . 122

CHAPTER VIII

THE YORKSHIRE CASTLES 1 45

1 CHAPTER IX

THE OREAT HOUSES • 172

■3

* CHAPTER X

THE YORKSHIRE FOLK 1 96

E

3
I

| ■> i^:>?^"

vi A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

CHAPTER XI

PACE

SPECIMENS OF YORKSHIRE DIALECT 220

CHAPTER XII

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OP YORKSHIRE ..... 235

CHAPTER XIII

LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE 273

CHAPTER XIV

CUSTOMS AND OCCASIONS 295

CHAPTER XV

ECCENTRICITIES AND CELEBRITIES 315

INDEX 343

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

IN COLOUR

BIN RHYDDING. THE COW AND CALF ROCKS frontispiece

By Wal Paget

FACING PAGB

THE WHARF*, BOLTON ABBEY 48

By Wal Paget

SWALBDALX 53

By Wal Paget

FOUNTAINS ABBEY I06

By Wal Paget

RIEVAULX ABBEY I|2

By Prank Soutkgate

BOLTON ABBEY Il8

By Wal Paget

RICHMOND CASTLE 156

By Prank Soutkgate

MARKET DAY, HELMSLEY l66

By Prank Soutkgate

THE VALE OP PICKERING 170

By Prank Soutkgate

A BIT OF OLD WHITBY 206

By Prank Soutkgate

THE WOLD COUNTRY 212

By Prank Soutkgate

CHERRY BURTON, BEVERLEY 232

By Prank Soutkgate

THE MOOR, HA WORTH 252

By Prank Soutkgate

WHARNCLIFFE WOODS, NEAR SHEFFIELD 292

By Prank Soutkgate

viii A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

PACING PAGE

KIRKHAM ABBEY 306

By Frank Southgate

IN THE DALE COUNTRY, BURNSALL ...... 320

By Frank SouthgaU

IN MONOTONE

HOLY TRINITY CHURCH AND MARKET PLACE, HULL l6

THE DROPPING WELL, KNARESBOROUGH 19

YORK MINSTER 80

MULTANGULAR TOWER, YORK 86

RIPON MINSTER 88

BEYERLEY MINSTER 96

THE ABBEY, WHITBY I04

TRINITY CHURCH AND MARKET PLACE, RICHMOND . .122

ST. AUGUSTINE'S CHURCH, HEDON ...... 140

MIDDLBHAM CASTLE I45

BOOTHAM BAR* YORK I48

CASTLE HOWARD 1 76

CONISBOROUGH CASTLE 24O

TOMB AT ROKBBY 243

THE MEETING OP THE WATERS, BOLTON WOODS . 257

THE COW AND CALF ROCKS 286

The monotone illustrations are from photographs by Messrs. J. Valentine ft Sons,
Dundee, with the exception of Bootham Bar, which is by Messrs. F. Frith ft Co.,
Rugate.

A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

CHAPTER I

YORKSHIRE IN THE OLD DAYS

Prehistoric Inhabitants of Yorkshire — Men of the Palaeolithic
and Neolithic Ages— The Roman Occupation — Notable Events in
Yorkshire between the Withdrawal of the Romans and the Norman
Conquest — Devastation of Northumbria — Great Norman Families
in Yorkshire — Rise of the Religious Houses — Relative Importance
of Yorkshire Towns in the Middle Ages — Charters of the Yorkshire
Towns — Mediaeval Life in York— The Trading Guilds and Com-
panies — Wars of the Roses — The Effects of the Reformation — The
Pilgrimage of Grace and the Rising of the North— The Civil War
— Yorkshire in the Eighteenth Century.

LONG ages before the Romans came northward to
found another Rome on the triangular strip of
land formed by the confluence of the Ouse and the Foss,
there were folk living in Yorkshire who had made
sufficient progress in art and science to be able to spin
and weave, to cultivate the land, to manage flocks and V
herds, and who showed as great a fondness for horses
as modern Yorkshiremen do. But ages before these
men of the Neolithic age lived in Yorkshire as tillers of
the soil and breeders of sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle,
they had predecessors in the Palaeolithic men, who, if
they knew little of aught but hunting, making tools,
and lighting a fire, had yet developed the knack of
drawing and carving figures to a state of remarkable
proficiency, and left evidence of their skill on the walls of
i b

</

2 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

their cave-dwellings and the handles of their primitive
weapons. Into Yorkshire the Palaeolithic man, a mere
travelling hunter, with no care about a fixed abode, came
a-hunting in the days when the British Isles of to-day
were a part of the continent of Europe. He came, as
some of his modern successors go into unexploited
countries, for what he could get His wants were
almost entirely in the way of food, and Yorkshire
offered him a comprehensive bill of fare. In summer
he could pick and choose between hippopotami, bisons,
horses, and stags for his eating ; in winter he had a
choice of reindeer, grizzly bear, rhinoceros, and mam-
moth. His life, it is apparent, was decidedly elementary :
that of his Neolithic successor was much more advanced
as regards arts, sciences, and general comfort. The
Neolithic man knew the advantages of a settled habita-
tion, and he preferred a circular erection, partly sunk in
the earth, to a cave-dwelling. He surrounded himself
with flocks of sheep and cattle, he possessed horses and
dogs, and if he had lost the art of drawing and sculpture,
he had developed an acquaintance with carpentry which
stood him in good stead. From him, filtered down
through vast ages, the Yorkshireman has in some sort
derived his love of dogs and horses and that peculiar
aptitude for looking after his own interests and his own
comfort which distinguishes every true spn of the
county.

We know little of the folk who were living in York-
shire when the Romans came northward* They lived
chiefly on the hills and moors and on the edge of the
Wolds, and the new-comers gave them a common name,
Brigantes, dwellers on high places. Recent investigation
would seem to show that there were two distinct races
then inhabiting the county, but all accurate record of
them is lost, and whatever greatness they had eclipsed,

YORKSHIRE IN THE OLD DAYS 8

by the splendour of the Roman achievements. It was
about A.D. jo when the legions came into Yorkshire,
and during the next three and a half centuries the
Romans were masters, lawgivers and makers. Eboracum
became a miniature Rome, the home of emperors and
the capital of the British province ; within its walls at
least two emperors died and one is said to have been
born; from it the Prefect governed the whole land.
Everywhere sprang up the evidences of the extraordinary
ability of the colonizers — walled city and fortified town ;
the villas of the wealthy ; the lead and tin mines of the
merchant ; the splendid roads, some traces and remains
of which are still left to us, which connected the
principal camps and centres. This was a period of
peace and prosperity to folk who dwelt between the
H umber and the Roman wall, and whatever precise part
the British natives played in the government of their
own country, it is certain that they owed their security
against the savage tribes outside their borders to the
presence of the mighty folk whose power was even then
being undermined on the Continent.

The withdrawal of the Roman legions from Yorkshire
was the signal for the outbreak of a series of long-
continued wars and upheavals. From the middle of
the fifth century to the end of the eleventh Yorkshire
was never at rest. Its history for five hundred years is
a history of battles, strifes, contentions between races
struggling for supremacy, of a nation slowly forging its
way towards liberty and power. But there were notable
events in Yorkshire during that period ; some of them
as greatly contributory to peace as others were typical
of the fiercest war. When the Romans had gone, the
English came from the England which we now call
Sleswick, and by 593, when the kingdom of Northumbria
was established, their presence and power had asserted

4 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

itself in Yorkshire. Under the rule of Eadwine —
617-633 — the country was at peace. He was not only
king of Northumbria, but overlord of all England, and
from his Yorkshire palace he ruled the country with
such firmness that, as the old English proverb says, " A
woman with her babe might walk scatheless from sea
to sea in Eadwine's day." During his reign one finds
two pictures of rare significance — one the appearance of
St. Paulinus, cross in hand, before the till then Pagan
king whom he was to convert to Christianity and
persuade to the foundation of York Minster ; the other
of Coifi, the heathen priest, casting his spear in defiance
into the heathen temple of Godmanham, on the Wolds,
in token that he too had become a convert to the new
doctrines. Whether this was the first time that
Christianity was preached in Yorkshire is a question;
it is more than probable that a Christian church existed
in York during the Roman days. But it is to Paulinus,
* whose tall stooping form, slender aquiline nose, and
black hair falling round a thin, worn face, were long
remembered in the North/' says Green, that Yorkshire
owes the heritage which was ere long to blossom in
such profusion. Nevertheless, the old Pagan faith died
hard, and Eadwine lost his life in endeavouring to
combat it The great fight at Hatfield, near Doncaster,
in 633, was one of the bloodiest in the history of that
age, and the death of the Christian king seemed to
destroy the last hopes of the infant Church. Paulinus
was forced into exile, and the Pagans overswept the
land. But in 655 the decisive victory which Oswi, king
of Northumbria, fighting under the Cross, gained over
Penda and his fellow-heathens at the, field of Winwood,
near Leeds (probably in the neighbourhood of Swilling-
ton, on the river Aire), restored Christianity to a
paramount position, and from that time the doctrines

YORKSHIRE IN THE OLD DAYS 5

preached first by Paulinus, and afterwards by the Irish
missionaries, spread all over the country. In Yorkshire
churches and religious houses began to appear on all
sides, and amongst the first was the house founded on
the cliffs of Whitby by St. Hilda, daughter of King
Oswi, who had dedicated her to the service of God in
thankoffering for his victory at Winwood. In that
house Caedmon, first of English poets, " learnt the art
of poetry, not from men, nor of men, but from God."

From the time of the coming of the Danes at the
end of the eighth century there was almost continuous \J
war in Yorkshire — sometimes of a serious sort, sometimes
confining itself to personal differences between rival
leaders. The towns and cities of the county suffered
severely from this strife. Out of the mists of the
bygone ages one occasionally draws a picture painted
in lurid colours — the picture of

" The Little Houses of an English Town"

with the little church in their midst, and the stockaded
stronghold of the great man of the place hard by, and
round them the meadows stocked with sheep and cuttle,
all suddenly broken in upon by marauders, Danes,
Norsemen, Scots, Picts, who transform the peacefulness
to horror and ruin. Murder, destruction of property,
utter sweeping away of life, the laying waste of good
land, — these were the usual attendants upon a sudden
incursion of the invaders from over-seas when they had
sailed up Humber and Ouse, or, in the case of the
Norsemen, came over the western mountains from the
Cumberland coasts. Scarcely a Yorkshire town escaped
fire and sword in those days. York Minster was
destroyed more than once, only to be rebuilt each time
on a grander scale. William of Malmesbury says of
Ripon that it was so devastated by the Danes in the

6 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

ninth century that not a single soul was left alive, nor
one stone left upon another. With the destruction of
these English towns went the destruction of the many
Roman and British remains which must have been
conspicuous in them.

The struggle between Harold Godwinsson and
Harold Hardrada, which culminated in the fight at
Stamford Bridge, on the Derwent, in 1066, may be said
to have inaugurated a new era in the history of York-
shire, for it decided the question between those two foes
and paved the way for a greater man than either. The
slow, steady, always increasing rise of Yorkshire and
the Yorkshire folk to prosperity and power began at
the Norman Conquest Yet the folk who lived in the
county at that time had little cause to love William the
Conqueror, who, indeed, left very few of them to fear or
love him. After the terrible revenge which he executed
upon the county in 1068, by way of punishment for the
rising which had ended in the slaughter of the Norman
garrison at York, the population of Yorkshire must have
been very insignificant If it be literally true that he
left not a single house standing between York and the
Tees, that he destroyed cattle, crops, and even imple-
ments of husbandry, and that in consequence of this
devastation a hundred thousand people died of famine,
one may readily conclude that there was little left of
the old English population. That York suffered is
shown plainly by the entries concerning it in Domesday
Book. There were at that time 1600 houses in the
city, and out of these 540 were in such an uninhabit-
able state that no rent could be got on their account,
while a further 400 were empty because no tenants
could be found for them. There were 145 French
householders in the city at that period, and that their
number was increased by immigrants from Normandy

YORKSHIRE IN THE OLD DAYS 7

is without question. When the country had finally
passed under the Conqueror's yoke, his own country-
men came over-seas to share in the spoils, and it was
well for the future of the race in which so many
elements mingle that they were not all greedy land-
grabbers, but included honest traders, skilled artists, and
men of learning.

William the Conqueror was always generous in
rewarding those who had done him a service, and it
was on generous lines that he parcelled Yorkshire out
amongst some of his principal adherents. His kinsman,
Alan Rufus, Earl of Brittany, received what one might
justly term a princely reward. " I, William, surnamed
the Bastard," runs the deed of gift, " do give and grant
to thee, Alan, my nephew, Earl of Bretagne, and to thy
heirs for ever, all the towns and lands which lately
belonged to Earl Edwyn in Yorkshire ; with the knights'
fees, churches, and other privileges and customs, in as
free and honourable a manner as the said Edwyn held
them." From the laconic wording of this document
one cannot gather much definite information as to the
precise value of the Conqueror's gift — as a matter of
fact it included 440 manors, 104 parishes, and 140
knights' fees, each containing 12 ploughlands or 640
acres. William was not less generous to other folk of
his following — William de Perci received nearly one
hundred lordships in the middle of the county, round
about his castlts of Spofforth and Topcliffe, and added
more to them by marrying the heiress of the de Portes,
Lords of Seamer, and possessors of large tracts round
about Scarborough ; William de Warrenne was pre-
sented with land stretching from the Lancashire border
along the Vale of Calder as far as Castleford ; the
Mowbrays were granted the wide stretch of country
dividing the western hills from the eastern moors ; the

8 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Cliffords became lords of Craven and of the hill and
moor land which stretches from Airedale far over the
Westmoreland boundary. But most important of all,
perhaps, was the grant made to Ilbert de Lacy of land
round about Pontefract, and in one of the richest and
most productive parts of the county — the country sur-
rounding the lower stretches of the Aire. It consisted
originally of 1 50 manors ; but under the Lacys it ex-
panded considerably, and a time came when they were
lords of all the country which lay between their castles
of Pontefract and Clithcroe.

Under the rigime of the great Norman barons every-
thing changed in Yorkshire, even to the names of
places. Until Ilbert de Lacy began building his great
castle at Pontefract, the place was called Kirkby ; Rich-
mond had probably no name at all until Alan of
Brittany christened it with its present appropriate one.
A The county itself is first called Yorkshire (Euforwycskyra)
in Domesday Book ; York settled down into its present
form from the Eofenvic of the Saxons, the Jorvic of the
Danes, and the Euerwic of the first Normans. But the
greatest change was in the appearance of the country-
side. Out of the ashes and wreckage of William's
devastating revenge rose the grim, menacing fortresses
which he doubtless bade his great lieutenants to build
as a condition of their fee. A new Norman keep
replaced the one torn down by the insurgents of 1068 ;
on the rocky promontories of Richmond and Pontefract
rose great castles ; every baron made haste to entrench
himself after the fashion he had practised in Normandy.
And in this work they were doubtless largely guided by
William himself, who had the keenest eye for positions
of great strategic importance. Whoever looks upon
Pontefract Castle and marks its natural advantages of
situation may be sure that they were noted many a time

YORKSHIRE IN THE OLD DAYS 9

by the great Norman during the three weeks which he
spent close by, waiting until the floods would subside
in the Aire Valley and allow him to advance on York
to wreak his vengeance with sword and Are.

But under this new state of things there were more
than castles and fortified houses built in Yorkshire.
The great Norman families which had settled in the
county were builders of churches as well as of strong-
holds, and they were as generous in their support of
the monastic communities as they were in their patron-
age of the architects, artists, and skilled workmen who
followed them to England. Wherever one goes in the
lordships associated with the names of Mowbray, Lacy,
Percy, Clifford, or Warrenne, one finds churches which
they founded and endowed. Later on the Scropes,
another family of direct Norman origin, were equally
gracious to the Church. To the Norman barons the
monastic orders which established themselves in York-
shire owed a great deal. St Mary's Abbey was built
upon land given by Alan of Brittany ; William de Perci
established the Benedictines in St Hilda's Abbey at
Whitby; the Lacys founded Kirkstall Abbey and
Nostell Priory ; Roger de Mowbray was the benefactor
of the monks of Byland. But almost every religious
house in Yorkshire was indebted to the Norman barons,
and of the greater ones all but two— Mount Grace and
Coverham — had been built within a hundred and twenty
years of the completion of the Norman Conquest

With castles and churches and religious houses
rising all over it, the land began to recover from the
devastated appearance which the Conqueror's fury had
forced upon it But other things than church and castle
and cloister were springing into existence. During the
reign of the Norman kings the Yorkshire boroughs were
gradually shaping themselves, and by the time of the

10 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Poll-Tax of 1378 — a century and a half after the strictly
Norman rule had come to an end — they were in a
position to assert themselves as places of consequence.
Of the Yorkshire towns of importance at this time it
must be pointed out that some sprang up around a
great castle, as in the case of Richmond and Pontefract ;
others had slowly fought their way to freedom and
independence without the help and often in spite of the
great feudal lords. There were towns in Yorkshire
which might be included in the class of English boroughs
of which Green makes the following remarks :

" In the silent growth and elevation of the English people
the boroughs led the way ; unnoticed and despised by prelate
and nobles, they had alone preserved the fall tradition of
Teutonic liberty* The rights of self-government, of free speech
in free meeting, of equal justice by one's equals, were brought
safely across the ages of Norman tyranny by the traders and
shop-keepers of the towns. In the quiet, quaintly named
streets; in town mead and market-place; in the lord's mill
beside the stream ; in the bell that swung out its summons to
the crowded borough-mote ; in the jealousies of craftsmen and
guilds, lay the real life of Englishmen, the life of their home
and trade, their ceaseless, sober struggle with oppression, their
steady, unwearied battle for self-government"

But the towns referred to in this passage were, as a rule,
situated on land belonging to the Crown ; the majority
of the Yorkshire boroughs sprang up in close proximity
to the strongholds of the barons and on their manors.

A trustworthy idea of the relative importance of the
Yorkshire towns in the 14th century may be gained
from the Poll Tax returns of 1378. Then, as now,
the West Riding was the most thickly crowded division
of the county, and contained the most important towns ;
outside it, with the exception of York and Hull, there
were few towns of any importance as regards population.

YORKSHIRE IN THE OLD DAYS 11

But the towns of the West Riding which were then of
no importance are now the towns which rank first ; the
towns which were at that time of high standing are now
of little commercial value. In 1 378 Pontefract was the
principal town in the West Riding, and its assessment
of £ 14 8s. iod. was contributed to by over six hundred
people, of whom four paid 6s. 8d. each. There were
then fifteen merchants of considerable wealth and stand-
ing in the town, and a large variety of trades — amongst
them that of selling indulgences, which was carried on
by two "pardoners." There were over a hundred
artisans in the place. Sixty-four houses were held by
single women — spinsters or widows; thirty-eight by
bachelors or widowers. The Cluniacs, the Dominicans,
the Franciscans, and the Carmelites had houses in the
town ; and there were three hospitals, dedicated respec-
tively to St Mary, St. Nicholas, and St Mary Magdalen.
Under the shadow of the mighty Norman castle of the
Lacys stood the great church of All Saints; in the
centre of the town, on the hill, rose the spire of the
parish church of St Giles. The population, like the
wealth, was superior to that of any other West Riding
borough. Next in importance came Doncaster; then
followed Sheffield, Selby, Tickhill, Rotherham, Wake-
field, Snaith, and Ripon. Leeds ranked next to Ripon.
It paid but £3 os. 4d. in assessment ; its population was
made up of fifty families and a few single persons, and
its wealthiest man contributed I2d. to the tax. Then
came Tadcaster, Knaresborough, and Bawtry. As for
Bradford, Halifax, and Huddersfield, they were, in
those days, of no importance whatever. As for the
towns outside the West Riding, York was still the
principal city of the North, and occupied the same
proud position which had belonged to it for fourteen
centuries. It was often the abiding-place of the

12 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

sovereigns, and for a time the home of the English
Parliament It was at a Parliament held at York in
1 321 that the famous enactment was made which pro-
vided that "The estate of the Crown or of the realm
and people must be treated, accorded, and established
in Parliament by the king, by and with the consent of
the prelates, earls, barons, and universality of the realm."
Edward III. caused the old city walls to be repaired in
1327, and in the following year he was married in York
Minster to Philippa of Hainault. Between York and
all other Yorkshire towns there lay a wide gulf ; it was
the city of kings, the headquarters of the Church in the
North ; it had traditions and associations unshared in
by any other place in the county.

One may gain some interesting facts as to the
gradual rise to prosperity and power of the Yorkshire
towns from the charters granted to their people by
kings or barons. The charter granted to Hull by
Edward I., who had secured the manor from the Abbot
of Meaux in exchange for lands in Lincolnshire, bears
date April 1, 1299. It made Hull a free town, with
the privileges of a Royal borough ; its folk had leave
to elect a coroner; they received a dispensation from
all tolls and customs, freedom to enjoy all lifetime
without scot or lot; they were empowered to build a
prison, and to hold a market once a week and a fair
once a year. The charter of Maurice de Gaunt to the
folk of Leeds, granted in 1207, established the freedom
of the burgesses, each of whom was to hold his burgage
and half an acre of land in consideration of a yearly
rental of 16/., one-half of which was payable at
Pentecost and the other half on St Martin's Day. It
also conferred upon burgesses the right to buy and sell
amongst themselves in consideration of buyer and
vendor each paying a penny to the lord ; it appointed

YORKSHIRE IN THE OLD DAYS 13

an official to collect rents and tolls, and it established
a court of justice wherein " twelve lawful men " sat to
hear charges and administer law. Sometimes the givers
and recipients of these charters differed considerably in
their idea. One of the Earls Warrenne considered that
Wakefield was in great need of better paved streets in
1331, and he did his best to first persuade and then to
force the burgesses to carry out the work. But they
steadily refusing he did the work himself, and collected
the customs of the town for three years to make up for
his expenditure. Previously he or one of his ancestors
had given the Wakefield folk a charter according them
several privileges of which one was to collect dead wood
from the neighbouring forest, and another the right of
frightening away deer, of which there were so many in
the neighbourhood that they were as much a nuisance
as rabbits recently were in Australia.

Of the life of the common people in the Yorkshire
towns of the Mediaeval Ages it is possible to reconstruct
a satisfactory picture. Dr. Raine says of the people of
York that at first they dwelt in narrow streets, in the
shadow of the Minster, keeping as close to it and to
each other as they possibly could. Houses of stone
were remarkable by their scarcity ; most of the houses
were of wood, of post and pan work, and in architecture
of the style which one sees in the older streets of York
at the present day. Before each house stood two objects
peculiar to the age— -one a dunghill, which was constantly
added to and but seldom cleared away; the other, a
stoop, or post of wood, on which the householder sat
of an evening to gossip with his neighbours. Their
speech was carried on in a dialect which no man of the
south could possibly understand. All the trading they
did was under the supervision of the civic authorities ;
their principal, and in many cases their only amuse-

14 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

ment was in decorating their parish church. Folk of
the same trade kept together ; the butchers lived in the
Shambles; the makers of spurs in Spurriergate ; the
coppersmiths in Coppersgate ; the fishermen in the
Water-lanes ; the metal-workers near the Church of
St Helen. But there were many trades in existence in
York in the Middle Ages ; at the time of Edward III.
there were nearly two hundred different trades in
operation in York. Many of these were closely mixed
up with the religious life of the city, as in the case of
text-writers, chandlers, illuminators, embroiderers, organ-
^makers, glaziers, and the like.

Religion, of course, gave great life and colour to the
Yorkshire towns of the Middle Ages. In the reign of
Henry V. there were over forty parish churches in
York, and between the people of one parish and the
next there was a keen spirit of emulation and rivalry.
Each parish endeavoured to make its church superior
in all things to the other churches of the city, and the
contributions of the faithful were on a generous scale.
According to Dr. Raine, who estimates that there were
at this time about five hundred clergy attached to the
York churches, the stipends of rector, vicar, or curate
were small, and they depended for sustenance largely
upon voluntary contributions. That the folk were
deeply religious none can doubt ; even business affairs
were done, or attempted to be done, in a religious spirit,
and there are in existence letters and statements of
account headed by the Sacred Name or monogram.
As for colour the streets were perpetually witnessing
processions and ceremonies, and on the great festivals
of the Church, such as Corpus Christi, the whole city
rang with the clashing of bells, the music of bands and
choristers, and the prayers and acclamations of the
people. As in York, so it was in the other Yorkshire

YORKSHIRE IN THE OLD DAYS 15

towns in lesser degree, according to their size and
wealth. That the folk were earnest in their religion is
ascertainable from ancient documents. One learns from
the Yorkshire Chantry Surveys of 1545-6 of two
thousand houslyng people (Easter communicants) at
Pontefract; of a like number at Doncaster; of even
more at Wakefield. One hears too of the morrow-mass
priest saying mass for "all servants and labourers" in
the parish at five o'clock in the morning at Wakefield,
and of a request by the parishioners of St Denys in
York that there might be a mass between four and five
o'clock in the morning at St. Agnes, Foss Bridge, to
suit the convenience of folk setting out on a journey.

As trade increased in the Yorkshire towns the trade
guilds were formed. The Gilda Mercatoria at York
was founded in the early years of the twelfth century,
and became so powerful that it was eventually merged
in the corporation of the city. Some remnant of it still
remains in the Merchant Adventurers; of the other
many guilds and trading companies which York once
boasted only two now exist — the Butchers 1 Guild and
the Merchant Tailors 9 . At Richmond there were thirteen
companies, who had the privilege of choosing the mayor
of the borough. One of the most ancient guilds of the
county, the Brethren of the Trinity House at Hull, is
also a body of great wealth and influence. It had its
beginnings in a religious guild of the Holy Trinity,
founded in Hull in 1369, and incorporated nearly a
century later with another, called the Shipman's Guild.
Equally famous, but much more modern, is the Cutlers 9
Company of Sheffield, founded in 1628 for the purpose
of controlling what was already a thriving industry.

Out of the ranks of the merchants there emerged
from time to time some considerable figure of a man
destined to do great things in statecraft or to lay the

16 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

foundations of a noble family. William de la Pole, one
of the most notable figures of the fourteenth century,
came of a trading family of Ravenspur, one of the
submerged towns of the Humber, and was engaged in
mercantile pursuits in Hull when Edward III. conferred
the honour of knighthood upon him and made him. first
mayor of the borough. His wealth must have been
considerable, for he is said to have lent the king over
£100,000 in ready money. He gained some reward
when the king made him a Baron of the Exchequer,
and the family fortunes were advanced a further stage
when his son, Michael de la Pole, became Admiral of
the North, Lord Chancellor, and Earl of Suffolk. There
was an eclipse when he was accused of high treason
and sent into exile ; but the sun shone again on a second
Michael, his son, upon whom the title and estates were
conferred, and who died fighting at Agin^ourt William
de la Pole, on succeeding to the title on the death of
the third Earl of Suffolk, was created marquis and
subsequently duke; but he too fell into disgrace, and
in endeavouring to escape to France is said to have been
caught by his enemies and beheaded on Dover sands.
The family came to an end with Edmund de la Pole,
Earl of Suffolk, beheaded at the Tower of London by
order of Henry VIII.

A family romance similar to that of the famous
Whittington hails from Wharfedale, and had its be-
ginning about the middle of the sixteenth century.
There was at that time living in the village of Apple-
treewick, a few miles from Bolton Priory, a boy named
William Craven, whose, father, according to some
chroniclers, was a peasant, according to others, a
farmer. Peasant or farmer, the father was a poor man,
and when his son was apprenticed to a linen-draper the
parish had to disburse the necessary money for his

• • •

• • •

* • *

• • * •

YORKSHIRE IN THE OLD DAYS 17

indentures. The apprenticeship over, William Craven
went to London to improve himself in position, travelling
thither in a carrier's cart which compassed the inter-
vening distance in three weeks. In London he did so
well and amassed so much money that he became a
man of consequence, and was made Lord Mayor in
1611-12, and knighted shortly afterwards. Yorkshire-
man-like, he did not forget his native place ; he restored
the parish church of Burnsall, built a grammar school,
and did many other things, as an inscription in the
church testified, of which the record has been lost —

" Many other workes of Charitie, whereof no mention here,
True tokens of his bounty, in this parish did appeared

But Sir William Craven's son had an even more
romantic career — he became a soldier, and after seeing
much service under Gustavus Adolphus and the Prince
of Orange, he devoted his energies to the cause of
Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, sister of Charles I.,
whom, on the death of the king and the return of the
royal widow to England, he married. Whitaker, the
historian topographer, makes a moral reflection of great
weight upon this event "Thus," he observes, "the son
of a Wharfedale peasant maCcHed with a sister of
Charles I. — a remarkable instance of that Providence
which raiseth the poor out of the dust and setteth him
among princes, even the princes of his people.' 9 But
the gallant soldier was quickly raised to higher things ;
his royal brother-in-law created him a peer, and his
nephew-in-law, Charles II., advanced him to the dignity
of Earl of Craven.

While the peace-loving inhabitants of the boroughs
and villages were desirous of nothing so much as the
advancement of trade and the bettering of their own
condition, the disturbing elements in military and

18 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

political life kept Yorkshire well acquainted with war
and contention. Between the time of the Norman
Conquest and the Reformation there was plenty of
bloodshed in the county— sometimes on a vast scale,
as at the battle of the Standard in 1138, the battle of
Boroughbridge in 1322, the battle of Wakefield in 1460,
and the great fight at Towton in the following year;
sometimes in the way of cutting off the heads of such
great folk as Archbishop Scrope in his own palace of
Bishopthorpe, and the mighty Earl of Lancaster under
the walls of his own castle of Pontefract. The battles
of the Wars of the Roses were sanguinary affairs enough
— some three thousand Yorkists perished at Wakefield ;
at Towton the number of dead, Yorkists and Lancastrians,
is said to have been at least thirty thousand, and some
chroniclers estimate it at ten thousand more.

Some interesting glimpses of the condition of things
in Yorkshire about the time of the Reformation may
be gleaned from the remarks made by Leland in his
description of the county, into which Henry VIII. had
despatched him as viewer-out of the land. York was a
strongly fortified city, fenced in by walls nearly three
miles in circumference, the principal entrances into
which were at Bootham Bar, Micklegate, Walmgate, and
Monk Bar. There were five bridges over the Ouse, and
on the left bank of the river was a strong tower, furnished
with an iron chain which could be drawn across to the
other bank in time of war. Within and about the city
there were some one hundred and thirty ecclesiastical
establishments ; in the Minster was a fine collection of
relics. There was good eating and drinking to be had
at York very cheaply, and so there was at Wakefield,
where, says Leland, a right honest man might dine well
for twopence. Beverley was a large town, well builded
of wood ; k had many great and ancient privileges, three

WELL, kNARESBOKOL'GH

YORKSHIRE IN THE OLD DAYS 19

parish churches and the Minster, houses of Black and Grey
friars and many hospitals, and between it and the banks
of the river Hull there was " a great gut," up which came
many pretty vessels. In spite of the travel-difficulties
of those days, Leland contrived to see a good deal of the
Yorkshire coast He saw the manuscripts of Robert
the Scribe, some time Prior of Bridlington, preserved in
the Priory ; he found a fleet of twenty fishing vessels in
Robin Hood's Bay ; he admired Mulgrave Castle ; he
saw the stream of water at Scarborough which Mistress
Farrow a hundred years later elevated into the begin-
nings of a " Spaw ." But Leland always had a quick
eye for the curious and unusual — he was struck by the
way in which the smoke was carried out of the hall at
Bolton Castle, and greatly taken with the little study
or book-closet called " Paradise " at Wressel Castle, on
the Derwent, which he considered one of the most
proper places of its sort to be found north of the Trent
He found Richmond a walled town with the castle " as
the knot of the cumpace of the waul " ; Masham, now
quiet enough, save at fair times, appears from his account
to have been a busy market town about 1536. It is
interesting to know that at Knaresborough he was
shown the Dropping Well, which, from what he says,
was there put to the same purpose as in these days.
He is careful to abstain from saying, as some of the
local folk say, that the water actually turns old hats,
birds' nests, and similar objects to stone, but he remarks
that it gives them that appearance. He found Knares-
borough Castle a fine stronghold, magnificently situated ;
but he heard nothing of Mother Shipton — a significant
fact, for it was about his time that she is said to have
put forth her prophecies. Of the towns which are now
the great centres of population in the county, he makes
a few pertinent remarks indicative of their condition at

20 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

that time. He says of Bradford that it was a "praty
quik " market town, which stood much by clothing, and
had one parish church in it ; of Leeds, that it was as
large as Bradford, but not so " quik " — a remark which
the Bradford man of to-day will claim to be as true
now as when Leland made it. Now and then he gives
us a glimpse of things which have been transformed —
he saw Hatfield Chase and Thorne Waste before Corne-
lius Vermuyden and his Dutchmen drained them of
water, and he had to go about them in a boat; he
speaks of Seamer, near Scarborough, as of a town of
considerable size and importance, and at Hedon he met
folk who could remember when the town was of more
importance than Hull, and had three parish churches
in its midst Some of his observations strike one with
great familiarity, as when he says that on the road
between Wakefield and Pontefract he saw many coal-
pits. But one aspect of Yorkshire which Leland saw
is now totally changed, for in his day the castles and
religious houses were in their full glory — so far, at any
rate, as their architecture was concerned.

The dissolution of the religious houses naturally
exercised a considerable effect upon civic and rural life
in Yorkshire, for monasticism had flourished in the
county to an extent unequalled in any other part of
England. Whatever desire the folk of other counties
might have for the suppression of the religious houses
was not shared in by the Yorkshiremen of the time.
Taking things as a whole, the monks were on the best
of terms with their neighbours; they educated the
children of the upper classes, and, however they may
have indulged themselves, they never forgot the poor.
It must have made a considerable difference to the lower
classes who had lived on the monastic lands when the
estates of the abbeys and priories passed into the hands

YORKSHIRE IN THE OLD DAYS 81

of lay folk. Some of the new owners became possessed
of their lands in remarkable ways: one well-known
Yorkshire family, at any rate, owes its vast possessions
to the astuteness of an ancestor who saw in the downfall
of the monks a chance of ensuring his own rise. This
was one William Ramsden, who bought up so much
land formerly held by the religious houses that the
particulars of his purchases filled two double-columned
folio pages in the Index of Grants of the Augmentation
Office. In fact, he bought so much land that it was
deemed necessary to issue an order forbidding further
sale to him. Amongst his purchases was the vast
stretch of land on which Huddersfield now stands,
and it was probably his acuteness of perception of the
natural advantages of the place which made him
secure it.

That the suppression of the monastic orders and
the gradual encroachment of the new ideas in religion
were highly unpopular amongst all classes in Yorkshire,
was amply proved by the events of the rebellion
commonly styled the Pilgrimage of Grace. "From
every parish," says Green, " the farmers marched with the
parish priest at their head upon York, and the surrender
of the city determined the waverers." There was very
soon an army of thirty thousand men in the field, and
at first there seemed every reason to believe that the
anti-Roman policy of Henry and his chief adviser,
Thomas Cromwell, would be reversed. But Cromwell's
astuteness and duplicity saved the situation, and the
rebellion was crushed and its chief begetters and leaders
were put to death. Yorkshire suffered heavily. Lord
Darcy was beheaded in London; Robert Aske, who
came from Aughton, on the Derwent, suffered a like
fate at York; and Sir Robert Constable was hanged
before the gate of Hull. Sir John Bulmer was hanged

22 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

at Tyburn, and his wife was burnt at Smithfield ; at
Tyburn also was hanged William Thirsk, Abbot of
Fountains, Adam of Sedbergh, Abbot of Jervaulx, and
William Wood, or Wode, Prior of Bridlington. With
these Yorkshire folk died equally well-born and notable
folk of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland,
and Durham.

The old religion was hard to kill in the North,
and in the Yorkshire dales it never was killed, and a
desire to restore it caused the Rising of the North in
1 569. Here, again, many Yorkshire folk of old name
and fame sacrificed everything for their faith. How
essentially Catholic Yorkshire still was may be judged
of by the letter written by Queen Elizabeth's general,
the Earl of Sussex, to his royal mistress, intimating to
her in plain terms that there were not ten gentlemen in
Yorkshire who approved of her proceedings as regarded
the cause of religion. It was a Yorkshireman, Richard
Norton, who carried the old banner of the Pilgrimage
of Grace into the cathedral of Durham when the
insurgents met there to tear down the outward sem-
blances of Protestantism and set up the altar of the
older creed. There were no troops to oppose the rising
in Yorkshire, and the insurgents passed peacefully
through the county, proclaiming the ancient faith and
gaining adherents to their cause from every side. But
the movement found no support from the folk of the
Midlands and the South, and it speedily came to
naught Unlike the result of the Pilgrimage of Grace,
that of the Rising of the North involved the punish-
ment of the common folk. Most of the principal leaders
escaped to the Continent ; one, the Earl of Northumber-
land, was carried from his house at Topcliffe to York,
and there beheaded. But of the poorer sort no less
than seven hundred were selected for execution, and

YORKSHIRE IN THE OLD DAYS 28

were hanged in the various towns in which this, the
last Catholic rising, had obtained support

When the Civil War broke out in the middle of the
seventeenth century, Yorkshire folk, as a rule, took sides
with the king ; all the great families, with the notable
exception of the Fairfaxes, taking up arms and garrison-
ing their castles and fortified houses in his behalf.
Charles himself was much in evidence in Yorkshire
during the years immediately preceding the war; it
was at York that he decided, after conferring with some
of the principal peers, to summon the Long Parliament,
which met at Westminster in November, 1640, and he
was in residence in the city from January, 1642, until
the end of April in the same year, when he rode to
Hull to demand possession of the town from Sir John
Hothatn, who had garrisoned it for the Parliament.
During the king's residence in York in 1642 he lived
in a house belonging to Sir Arthur Ingram in the
Minster Yard, and it was by his orders that a printing
press was set up in St William's College, from which
issued a number of pamphlets and proclamations in aid
of the Royalist cause, and in answer to the demands of
the Parliamentarian leaders. The gradual subjugation
of Yorkshire by the Parliamentarians under Fairfax,
Manchester, and Cromwell, who personally superintended
some of the operations, is a matter well known in history
— all the chief cities and boroughs came under the
popular cause without exception, and the others were
taken one by one and eventually dismantled York. /
surrendered, upon honourable conditions, immediately y
after the battle of Marston Moor in 1645, and when
Charles was brought to the scaffold in 1649, no Yorkshire
town or stronghold was held for him with the exception
of Pontefract, whose garrison was the last in England to
defend his cause, and the first to proclaim Charles II.

24 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

During the period which elapsed between the death
of Charles I. and the restoration of the monarchy a
considerable change was made in the aspect of York-
shire by the destruction, complete or partial, of the
castles and fortified houses. All, without exception,
had been garrisoned for the king ; some had made a
stout and lengthy resistance ; some had speedily fallen.
Each came under the displeasure of the Parliamentarian
leaders, but there was a difference in the treatment
meted out to these last strongholds of the old feudal
power. Some of them had been literally knocked to
pieces by the bombardments to which they had been
subjected, and were easily demolished; others had
suffered little, and might as easily have been repaired.
Where they were supposed to be of a menacing nature
to the folk round about they were ordered to be razed
to the ground, and in these cases, as at Pontefract, a
place especially hated by the Parliaments, there is little
left of the original structure. With the destruction of
the castles by Oliver Cromwell and his adherents, the
work of despoliation of ancient buildings begun by
Thomas Cromwell and his following a century earlier
was completed, and the magnificent strongholds and
religious houses for which Yorkshire had long been
celebrated became mere stone quarries for the builder
or resting-places for the birds.

No county in England showed more rejoicing over
the restoration of Charles II. than Yorkshire made
evident in the Yorkshire fashion of feasting, drinking,
and general jollity. The Yorkshire folk as a whole
had cared little for the rule of the Commonwealth, and
when Fairfax, perhaps the most influential Yorkshireman
of his time, who in 1660 was living in peaceful retire-
ment at Nun Appleton, amusing himself with his
coins and books, came forward to arrange the return

YORKSHIRE IN THE OLD DAYS 25

and proclamation of Charles II. with General Monk,
his fellow-countymen were only too ready to follow
his example, and welcome the king to his own again.
On May n, 1660, a grand celebration of the Merry
Monarch's return was held at York, and shared in by
those who had previously occupied opposite camps in
matters political. Fairfax sent a splendid horse from
his stables for Charles's use at his coronation, and
Yorkshire folk settled down with the rest of England
to a system more in accord with their taste than that
under which they had lived for eleven restless years.
But the newly restored monarch came to quarrelling
with the York people before he died, and his high-
handed action damaged the Stuart cause in Yorkshire
beyond hope of repair. In 1684, having already placed
a garrison in the city, much against the desire of the
citizens, Charles deprived York of its charters. What
might have resulted in an armed rebellion was ended
by the king's death in the following year, but his
successor, in spite of repeated promises to return the
charters, neglected to fulfil them, with the consequence
that the chief folk of the county, under the leadership
of the Cavendishes (afterwards Dukes of Devonshire)
and the Osbornes (afterwards Dukes of Leeds), turned
the royal garrison out of York and made proclamation
of William of Orange. This was done without blood-
shed, and from that time York is no further concerned
with war or fighting, or with the Stuarts. It turned its
back, in conjunction with all the rest of the county,
upon the Stuart Pretenders in 171 5 and 1745, and was
liberal in its provision of men and money in defence of
the House of Hanover.

During the eighteenth century Yorkshire remained
in a period of quiescence — free from war, steady in its
allegiance. There was as yet no such impetus to trades

26 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

and manufactures as that which was to come with the
introduction of steam-power, and the great towns of the
West Riding increased in size, wealth, and importance
at a very gradual rate. It is true that Defoe speaks of
the cloth-making district as M a noble scene of industry
and application/ 9 but all manufactures in Yorkshire
were on a very small scale then when compared with
the present state of things. Even at the end of the
eighteenth century Leeds could not boast of a popula-
tion exceeding fifty thousand, and Bradford had no
more than twelve hundred people engaged in its staple
trade. The industrial towns were mean, dirty, ill-paved,
badly lighted; it was not until 1755 that the Leeds
folk were enterprising enough to make better provision
in these directions. Up to the beginning of the reign of
George III. the cloth merchants sold their goods in the
open streets. The new Cloth Hall, built about that
time, stood in the park outside the town, to which the
present Boar Lane was a sort of pleasant, rural approach.
That the limits of Leeds were then very circumscribed
one may gather from the fact that from the back of the
house in which Ralph Thoresby, the topographer, lived
in Kirkgate access was immediately had into open
meadows, stretching far away into the country.
j To York itself, as capital of the county, the eighteenth
century brought naught but peace from war and strife.
silt fell off in commercial importance, but it gained much
^lin social dignity. It became the fashionable centre of
the county, as London is to-day of the whole country.
. The great people of the North had their town houses in
the city, and spent the season there; folk of lesser
degree, who had made fortunes in business, retired to
York to live in great gentility. Daniel Defoe, who
visited the county at the beginning of the century,
remarked of York that it contained much genteel

YORKSHIRE IN THE OLD DAYS 27

society, an abundance of pleasant company, and that
the cost of living in the city was very moderate. In
this Drake, the author of "Eboracum," agrees. He
speaks of the great variety of provisions in the market,
of the small cost of keeping an elegant table, and of the
well-served ordinaries at the inns. There were excel-
lent schools in the city ; assemblies were held in the
rooms designed by Lord Burlington; the drama was
well patronized, and there were opportunities for folk
who loved dancing, music, cards, and the like. The
season was, of course, in winter ; but there was a very
fashionable week in August, during the races, and most
of the folk met a month later at Doncaster for the Sep*
tember race-week, a social event of great importance.
For quite a hundred years York was a city of fashion
and social pleasure, and it was not transformed until the
introduction of steam-power initiated a striking change
all over the county which bears its name.

CHAPTER II

MODERN YORKSHIRE

Development of Yorkshire during the Nineteenth Century —
Application of Steam-power to Manufactures, Industries, and
Communication — The First Yorkshire Railways — Hudson, the
Railway King — Political Reform and Educational Facilities — The
Factory Acts — Reform Acts — Education Acts— Mechanics' Insti-
tutes and Free Libraries — Friendly Societies — Secondary and
Higher Education—Newspapers — Development of Town and
Opening Out of New Industries — Present Condition of Industry in
Yorkshire— Agriculture— The Cloth-making Districts— Coal, Iron,
and Minerals— The Steel Trade— The Yorkshire Seaports.

BETWEEN the Yorkshire of the eighteenth century
and the Yorkshire of to-day stretches a gulf so
wide that one can scarcely see across it In the days
when George the Third was King, when we were losing
our American colonies, and on the eve of the long and
disastrously expensive French wars, Yorkshire was
practically undeveloped, and more things happened to
it and its people between 1760 and i860 than had hap-
pened to them during the previous two thousand years.
In 1760 there were no railways, and intercommunication
was poor and dilatory; weavers worked in their own
houses and cottages instead of in huge factories ; educa-
tion was in a very rudimentary state, and there were
neither free libraries nor newspapers; the Yorkshire
Wolds were still unenclosed, and much land north of
the Humber was valueless; the chief towns of the
county were mean, dirty, and, in relation to their present

28

MODERN YORKSHIRE 29

condition, of no wealth or importance. At the end of
the eighteenth century, Leeds, the largest town in the
three Ridings, could not boast a population of more than
fifty thousand ; that of Sheffield was about ten thousand
less. In Bradford, a black, filthy town, intersected by a
narrow beck, choked and polluted with refuse, there
were only twelve hundred persons who were actually
engaged in the staple trades, and the place was of
small commercial value or rank. The older towns of
the county, such as Pontefract, Beverley, Knaresborough,
Richmond, were mere market centres, unlikely to in-
crease in population or wealth. The most flourishing
and busiest houses in them, as in all the little towns
along the chief highroads, were the inns, which filled a
place in the social and business life of that time now
occupied by the great railway stations and junctions.
Naturally, the king's highway was much more full of
life and colour, of noise and excitement, in those days
than it is now. All along the Great North Road, from
the borders of Durham to those of Nottinghamshire,
there was continual movement — stage coach and private
carriage, solitary horseman and crowded post-chaise, the
express waggon and the local carrier's cart, were for
ever proceeding north or south, and the cobble-paved
streets of towns like Boroughbridge and Wetherby,
Doncaster and Ferrybridge, were always ringing to the
clatter of horses' feet and the ringing of iron-bound
wheels. It was a very old-world, elementary, slow-
going Yorkshire that one might have seen a hundred
and fifty years ago, and there were few signs of a
mighty change observable even in 1760, when Farmer
George came to the throne.

The foundation-stone of the great modern fabric of
industry, enterprise, and wealth which has been reared
in Yorkshire since those days was undoubtedly the

80 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

application of steam-power to the manufactures of the
county. After the important demonstration of James
Watt in 1765, a revolution in methods and manners set
in which overspread the country in rapidly widening
waves, and by the end of the century had brought about
a truly amazing difference in many respects. Neverthe-
less, the introduction of steam-power into Yorkshire was
made with comparative slowness and not without oppo-
sition on the part of the working classes. The first
steam-mill for grinding purposes was not set up at
Sheffield until 1787 ; the preliminary attempts to intro-
duce steam-power into the Bradford trade (at a time
when there were only three mills or factories in the
town) met with such opposition that nothing came of
them. It was not until 1798 that a steam-engine of
15-horse-power began to run at Bradford, and speedily
convinced the folk thereabouts that the new force must
necessarily revolutionize the conditions of trade. At
Leeds the new motive power was at an early date
applied to the haulage of coal from the Middleton
collieries, and steam-engines were running over the
tram-lines which linked the collieries with Leeds at a
very early period of the nineteenth century.

Although there were steam-impelled vessels running
in and out of Hull during the first quarter of the last
century, it should be remembered by those who wish to
gain an accurate notion of the vast differences made in
Yorkshire between the years 1800 and 1900 that between
1800 and 1 841 the county was still under the old
rigime so far as railway facilities are concerned. It is
now, in its more crowded districts, covered by a literal
network of railway lines, but they have all been laid
within the last seventy years. A notion of the methods
of conveying men and merchandise which existed in
Yorkshire until— practically speaking — 1841 may be

MODERN YORKSHIRE 81

gathered from the case of Leeds ; then, as now, the most
important industrial centre in the county. The Leeds
services, whether for conveying passengers or goods,
were of the best, as befitted a great trading town. On
the Leeds-to-London route, and vice versd, there was a
service of very fine, well-horsed coaches, which ran
through in twenty hours, calling at the principal towns
of the Midland counties on their way. There were
eight departures per diem each way, so that one could
have been certain of getting a coach north or south,
from Leeds or London, every three hours, night or day,
and of arriving well within the next twenty-four. As
for the merchandise waggons, there was a daily depar-
ture of a train of these once a day in each direction,
and they were booked to run through from Leeds to
London, or London to Leeds, in thirty-six hours.
Similar communication existed between the other large
towns.

That there was a good deal of shortsightedness
existing amongst the first makers of our railways may
be deduced from the fact that in 1840 those interested
in the movement in Yorkshire considered that the few
lines then just opened or in course of construction
would amply serve all the necessities of the county.
To get from north to south under the regulations and
by the scant provision of the early days was no easy
task. The man who wished to travel from Newcastle
to London in the early forties had to take his place on
the stage-coach soon after five o'clock in the morning
and to be driven across country to Darlington, where he
seated himself in the train at 9.3a At 11.45 he arrived
at York ; at 1.30 at Normanton ; at 4.15 at Derby. If
all went well, he was turned out on the platform at
Euston about 11.30 in the evening, feeling, no doubt,
that he had travelled at the speed of a rocket In 1845

32 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

the best scheduled time over the 188 miles of railway
which separates London from York was 7 hours
40 minutes ; in 1895 it was covered in 3 hours 1 minute.
Nowadays the great commercial towns of Yorkshire are
as suburbs of London — a business man breakfasts in
Leeds, lunches in London, and dines in Leeds at night,
having packed into his day four hundred miles of rail-
way travel and some hours of business in the Metropolis.
If he wishes to save more time, he can go straight from
bed and bath to breakfast in the train, and in the train
he can dine as he journeys luxuriously homeward in the
evening.

A great figure in the early history of railways in
Yorkshire was that of George Hudson, a man who
began life as a linen-draper in York, foresaw the vast
revolution which railways would work, planned and
schemed very shrewdly for their development, and,
becoming a man of great wealth and influence, was
made Lord Mayor of his adopted city, and regarded as
the Napoleon of railways. Hudson was concerned in
almost every scheme of railway enterprise during his
time ; but he fell from power about the year 1850, and
from that time figured no more in the movement That
he had amassed a considerable fortune out of the new
methods of locomotion is made evident by the fact that
in the height of his fame he was able to buy Londes-
borough Park from the Duke of Devonshire, and to pay
£470,000 for it

York nowadays possesses one of the finest railway
stations in Europe ; but its accommodation of this sort
was amusingly primitive in the first days of railway
travel The first railway station at York was a building
of two rooms, situate outside the walls, at the foot of
Queen Street In one room sat the secretary of the
railway company, in the other was the entire office staff

MODERN YORKSHIRE SS

in the person of a solitary clerk ; on the platform was
an equally lonely porter. The intending passenger, on
presenting himself to the clerk, gave in his name, which
the clerk wrote down on a ticket and its counterfoil,
adding particulars of destination and fare. He then cut
ticket and counterfoil in two with a pair of scissors,
retained the counterfoil for himself, and gave the ticket
to the passenger, who thereupon sought the train. If
he was a first-class passenger, he was sheltered by a
roof ; if a third, he rode in an open truck. The guard
rode on the roof of a carriage, so that he might overlook
his charges, which included cattle and sheep as well as
human beings. But the difference between this primi-
tive state of things in 1840 and the present luxuriance
of railway management and accommodation is not more
marked than the paucity of facilities at that time and
their abundance at this. Yorkshire is now served by
several great lines — the Lancashire and Yorkshire, the
North-Eastern, the Midland, the Great Northern, the
London and North-Western, the Great Central, the Hull
and Barnsley, and the Great Eastern — and though there
are still many places which are miles from the nearest
station, the majority of Yorkshiremen are in the position
of being able to step out of their own houses into a
railway train at any hour of the day.

Contemporaneous with the improvements made in
travelling and carriage of merchandise were those
effected in political, social, and educational matters.
Always a keen politician, successive Reform Acts and
extensions of the franchise made the Yorkshireman
able to take a more active part in the political life of
the nation, and the power to vote extending first to
the shopkeeping classes, then to the working-folk of the
towns, and finally to the rural labourer, brought into
the arena of party politics whole armies of new forces.
v

84 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

The various Factory Acts passed during the nineteenth
century all tended in one direction — the improvement
in the conditions under which tens of thousands of men,
women, and children worked in the mills and workshops
of the crowded manufacturing districts. One may gain
an accurate idea of sortie of the earlier conditions of
that life from contemporary fiction, such as the " Mary
Barton " of Mrs. Gaskell, and, in a different way, from
the " Shirley " of Charlotte Bronte. Nowadays all the
worst features of the factory system have been entirely
eliminated — the operatives work under conditions which
would have been surprising to their grandfathers, and
labour is as jealously guarded as capital is protected.
The result is that the Yorkshire factory worker of
to-day is a man of sturdy independence — he has his
vote, and therefore his share and his "say" in the
affairs of his country ; he lives in a good cottage, eats
good food, and wears good clothes ; he generally has
money in the bank or in a building society, and as
often as not can boast the possession of a piano or a
harmonium in the front parlour.

Old people whose memories carry back to the first
half of the nineteenth century will tell you that there
was in those days nothing like the chances of
" eddication " that exist now all over the county. As
the modern spirit made its influence felt in Yorkshire,
a great desire to learn and to know sprang up amongst
the people. Every Act of Parliament passed in
furtherance of the cause of education was eagerly taken
advantage of, and none more readily seized upon than
that of 1870, which led to the establishment of the now
defunct School Boards. Nor was education confined
to the imparting of knowledge to the young. The
foundation of Mechanics' Institutes in the great
towns has proved one of the greatest blessings ever

MODERN YORKSHIRE 85

accorded to an intelligent working community. With
the Mechanics' Institutes sprang up Literary and
Philosophical Societies, and in connection with them
Museums, wherein scientific collections were housed.
More opportunities came with the establishing of
Free Public Libraries, Art Galleries, and Reading
Rooms. There is no county in England, there are
not many capitals in Europe, wherein better provision
is made for the education, the self-improvement, the
mental uplifting of the people, than the careful observer
will notice in Yorkshire. No worker of the towns need
be without good books, good pictures, good music, good
lectures — and he can have them all for nothing. Nor
are there many counties better equipped with secondary
schools, technical colleges, and facilities for higher
education. There is never any need to impress upon
the Yorkshireman of modern days that education and
knowledge mean power and influence — and money.

One of the greatest factors in the modern life of
Yorkshire is undoubtedly the newspaper. For nearly
two hundred years the county has had its own journals,
and many of them have been characteristically Yorkshire
in their outspokenness and in their fearless advocacy of
what their directors have conceived to be the truth. In
later days these great newspapers have exerted a vast
influence, political and social, over Yorkshire life and
thought — the Leeds Mercury (now transformed out of
all knowledge to its old self, and become a journal of
the modern information-in-tabloids order), the Yorkshire
Post, and the Sheffield Daily Telegraph. Of these the
Leeds Mercury dates from 1718, when it was founded
by one James Lister. There was a hiatus during its
eighteenth-century career, but a Mr. Bowling revived
it in 1767, and sold it in 1794 to Messrs. Binns and
Brown, who in 1800 disposed of it to Edward Baines,

86 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

in whose family it remained until quite recently. For
a period covering the greater part of the Reform period
in English politics — say from 1830 to 1890 — the Leeds
Mercury, as the organ of a staunch though never very
militant Liberalism, was a mighty force in Yorkshire,
but it began to lose power and influence as Conservatism
gained them, and its position as leading newspaper of
the county may be said to have been definitely lost to
its rival, the Yorkshire Post, by 1892, when the Tories,
under Lord Salisbury, were returned for a spell of
power which lasted for many years. The Yorkshire
Post, originally founded by Mr. Griffith Wright in 1754,
was the most formidable rival of the Leeds Mercury
during the whole of the nineteenth century, but never
its acknowledged superior until the labours of two
successive editors, the late Mr. Charles Pebody and
the late Mr. H. J. Palmer, gave it an undoubted claim
to rank as the leading organ of public opinion in
the county. Conducted with great spirit and ability,
always to be depended upon for the fullest and most
reliable news of the world, a splendid vehicle of com*
mercial and financial intelligence, a literary guide and
critic of the most honest quality, the Yorkshire Post
is one of the county possessions of which Yorkshiremen
of all shades of thought are justly proud. Not so
widely known, but only less influential in degree, is the
Sheffield Daily Telegraph, a journal which owes most of
its success and influence to the genius and ability of the
late Sir William Leng, who did great service for the
public cause in Sheffield during the period of strife
between capital and labour, which Charles Reade
described in his novel, " Put Yourself in His Place."

Some idea of the remarkable development of the
great Yorkshire towns during the hundred years which
elapsed between 1801 and 190 1 may be gained from

MODERN YORKSHIRE 87

the bare statistics of the census-takers and other official
returns. The population of Leeds in 1801 was 53,612 ;
in 1901 it was 428,968. In the same period Sheffield
increased from 45,755 to 380,793, and Hull from about
30,000 to 240,259. Bradford in 1831 could only number
43,527 ; by 1 901 its population had swelled to 279,767.
Between 182 1 and 1901 the population of Halifax
increased from 14,064 to 104,936. York in 1801 had a
population of 30,000, and had probably dwindled in
size — so far as numbers are concerned — during the
eighteenth century*; the increase in trade of the nine*
teenth raised its population to 77,914. But most
marvellous of all developments in the matter of
population is that of Middlesbrough, a town whose
entire population was housed under one roof in 1820,
and now includes sixty miles of streets and 91,302
persons within its boundaries.

Middlesbrough, like some other densely populated
— though not necessarily overcrowded — towns of York-
shire, sprang into existence through the opening out of
a new industry. The discovery of iron ore in Cleveland
by Mr. John Vaughan, in 1831, led to unexampled
results in the way of building a great and flourishing
town on a spot until then scarcely developed. Any-
thing more widely different than the Middlesbrough of
1800 and the Middlesbrough of a century later the
mind of man cannot conceive — the one was a lonely
marsh, the other is a wonder of the world. And as with
Middlesbrough so with another Yorkshire seaport, less
known, but with an equally interesting history — Goole.
In 1820 Goole was an insignificant riverside village, of
no importance ; it has now a population of 16,576, and
does an extensive shipping trade with many Continental
ports. But increase of trade and development of
industries have done great things in increasing the

88 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

population and the wealth of the county. A century ago
the trade of Huddersfield was confined to one class of
woollen goods ; it now makes all sorts of fabrics. Halifax
is in like case as regards the development of its trades.
Bradford, in 1837, was on V turning out five separate
staple articles ; it now manufactures between fifty and
sixty. The trade of Sheffield received an enormous
impetus by the invention of the Bessemer process for
converting iron into steel in 1856: in 1850 the total
annual output of steel in Great Britain was only 50,000
tons ; the introduction of the Bessemer process sent it
up to hundreds of thousands of tons. In the coal-
mining districts the opening out of new pits has led to
the transformation of many a quiet village into a busy
hive of industry, and has raised up vast masses of
population on fields once tenanted by a few shepherds.

That Yorkshire is essentially a county of hard-
working folk all observant Yorkshiremen are very well
aware, just as they are equally well aware that York-
shire folk play as earnestly as they labour. The
opportunities for labour are abundant — there is the
land, there are the textile industries, there are coal
mines, iron mines, lead mines, stone quarries ; there is
the steel trade of Sheffield, there are the various occu-
pations of the seaport towns, and there are a score
minor industries, some of them of considerable import-
ance. Few counties are richer in natural resources or
in developed trades and occupations.

Agriculture, if not one of the most flourishing, is
certainly the most venerable industry in Yorkshire, and
can be traced back to the Neolithic age. Taking it
altogether the county is more of a grazing than an
arable district, and much of the land that is now under
cultivation was formerly waste or morass. The vast
stretch of fen-like country lying between Doncaster and

MODERN YORKSHIRE 39

the Trent, and still bearing the names of Hatfield Chase
and Thorne Waste, was, until the seventeenth century,
in the same condition as the Lincolnshire and Cam-
bridgeshire fens before they were drained. The work
of Cornelius Vermuyden, a Dutch engineer, who, in the
reign of Charles L, drained both Waste and Chase, and
introduced the system of warping, transformed the
greater part of this district from being the haunt of fowl
and the preserve of fish into a rich corn-growing
country. Broadly speaking, most of the corn-growing
land is in the lower half of the West Riding, on the
eastern side; on the eastern edge of the Wolds, and
round their south-western base; and in the southern
districts of the North Riding. A vast improvement in
the farming capabilities of the East Riding was effected
during the eighteenth century by Sir Christopher Sykes
and his son, the still more famous Sir Tatton, who
between them enclosed the Wolds, improved the land
so much that what had previously been moderate
pasture began to yield as much as forty bushels of corn
to the acre, and encouraged superior methods in
breeding sheep, cattle, and horses. Perhaps the richest
corn-growing land in the county is in the East Wold
district; for pastoral richness Craven is unapproachable.
But in some parts of the North Riding the mountain
sheep find it difficult to pick up a living. There is a
story told of an old North-country farmer in the
neighbourhood of Stainmoor who was asked by a
would-be student of such matters how many sheep he
reckoned to the acre. * How monny sheep ti t' acre ? "
he exclaimed M Eh, mon, ye begin at t* wrang end—
ye should ha 9 asked hoo monny acres do we reckon ti a
sheep.' 9 But for all that there is a vast number of sheep
in the county and a great many varieties of breed. There
are several varieties of cattle, but the great majority

40 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

are shorthorns. In the breeding of horses Yorkshire-
men take a well-known pride, and will produce anything
equine from the nervous race-horse to the mighty shire
horse. Perhaps the training establishments of the
county are not so famous in these days as in the time of
John Scott, but no one who has ever visited a York-
shire horse-fair, race-meeting, or meet of foxhounds will
doubt the Yorkshire love of horse-flesh.

Perhaps the most characteristic of the Yorkshire
industries is that which gives employment to the great
bulk of the crowded populations of the West Riding,
and may be classed under one comprehensive term — the
making of clothes. All the great towns of the West
Riding are engaged in the spinning and manufacturing
of silk y linen, cotton, and wool. Woollen goods and
worsted goods are the chief objects of manufacture, and
have their own particular homes and centres. When a
Yorkshireman speaks of "Leeds goods 19 he means all
kinds of goods of the woollen industry ; when he speaks
of M Bradford/ 9 he means worsted goods. All the other
towns and districts have some specialty — the towns of
the Spen Valley, Batley, Dewsbury, Cleckheaton, and
their smaller neighbours produce clothing from reworked
material, and place it on the market under the names
of Shoddy and Mungo ; Wakefield turns out yarns and
medium woollens and worsteds ; Huddersfield worsteds
and woollens of superfine quality; Halifax produces
worsted yarns, a variety of ornamental fabrics, and has
also a great trade in carpets. Some of the manufactories
— * mills' 9 as they are called in the textile-producing
districts — are of vast size ; the silk and velvet mill at
Manningham, near Bradford, covers an area of eleven
acres and cost £500,000 to build ; at the great Saltaire
mill, where Sir Titus Salt begun the manufacture
of alpaca, between two and three thousand work-people

MODERN YORKSHIRE 41

are employed; at Crossle/s famous carpet mills in
Halifax work is found for nearly five thousand persons.
All over this district, from Bradford on the north to
Huddersfield on the south, from Wakefield on the east
to Todmorden on the west, the mills are everywhere
— vast, many-windowed erections which fill up every
valley. In the twilight of autumn and winter or in the
early winter mornings their lights are seen across the
hills for mile upon mile, producing an effect which — save
in Lancashire — cannot be seen elsewhere in England.

People who travel into Yorkshire for the first time
are apt to take their impressions of the country from
what they first see. To enter it by way of Huddersfield,
from Manchester, one would take it to be a land of
great factories ; by way of Sheffield, from Derbyshire,
a land of furnaces and awful gloom ; by way of Skipton,
from the Lancashire border, a pastoral country with
signs of a romantic past If a man could be set down
at, say, Barns ley, and told to make his way northward,
by way of Normanton, to Leeds, he might well be
forgiven if he came to the conclusion that Yorkshire is
a land of coal-mines. In this district they are every-
where in evidence, and the collier is the dominant factor,
with his powerful Union, his direct representatives in
Parliament, and his own world of life and amusements.
Out of the Yorkshire coal-field there is now produced
about thirty millions of tons of coal per annum. Amongst
its coal-measures are found large quantities of ironstone,
which is worked in the West Riding at Low Moor and
at Bowling, both near Bradford. But the greatest wealth
of the county so far as iron is concerned lies in the
Cleveland district, which has already, within fifty-four
years, produced vast quantities, and appears to be
inexhaustible. - There are other minerals of great value
in the county — the hillsides which overlook the Swale,

42 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

beyond Richmond, are pitted with lead mines, and there
are more along the valley of the Nidd ; stone of the
most excellent quality is found in great bulk near
Bradford, Tadcaster, Ackworth, and EUand ; marble
may be quarried in some of the Northern dales ; and
jet and alum are found in considerable quantity amongst
the headlands and in the neighbourhood of Whitby.

There are so many things of which the Yorkshire-
man can boast without fear of contradiction that travellers
who see Sheffield for the first time may well wonder
whether the inhabitants of the county would not prefer
to keep globe-trotters away from it Sheffield, by the
arduous, if somewhat dilatory, labours of its folk, has
gradually washed much of its face, and no longer merits
the remark of Horace Walpole, who in 1760 considered
it "one of the foulest towns in England." Smoke or
no smoke, grime or none, Yorkshiremen are proud of
Sheffield as being the centre of the steel trade, the
world's workshop for knives, scissors, razors, surgical
instruments, armour-plates, rails, saws, files, castings,
and heavy forgings. Within the smoke-canopied
boundaries of the town are some of the largest steel
and iron works in the world ; in their sheds wonderful
things are done with steel— one may watch steel wire
drawn out to the consistency of the finest human hair
or vast masses of metal dealt with as if they were so
much dough. Little wonder that out of the midst of
such a wonderful hive of modern industry all traces of
the historic past have almost vanished or that the
Sheffield man should forget that in the centre of his
crowded bustling town Mary Queen of Scots spent
fourteen years in captivity.

It is somewhat strange that a county possessing
such a lengthy seaboard as Yorkshire should have so
few seaports, and only one of the first importance. As

MODERN YORKSHIRE 43

a matter of fact, there are only three seaports actually
on the coast; for Hull is several miles along the
Humber from Spurn Point, and Middlesbrough is
about as far from the mouth of the Tees, while Goole
and Selby are, properly speaking, inland riverside ports.
Of the three coast ports, Whitby, Scarborough, and
Bridlington, there is little that can be said of their
commercial importance. Whitby has some foreign
trade, and ships coal and ironstone ; but it has decreased
in importance and wealth since the days when it built
ships (it provided Captain Cook with the vessels where-
with he journeyed round the world), and sent out a fleet
to the whaling-grounds. Scarborough has also some
foreign trade, and so has Bridlington ; but the greater
number of craft which come into their harbours are
connected with the fishing industry. Goole has an
extensive water trade with Hull, and also sends steam-
ships to Rotterdam, Antwerp, some of the northern
French ports, and to the Channel Islands, but her docks
can only accommodate comparatively small vessels.
Middlesbrough, where extensive docks were built after
the rapid development of the iron trade, does a large
trade in exporting its own products. But when one
talks of a seaport in Yorkshire, one's thoughts naturally
turn to Hull, which, since the time of Edward I., has
steadily risen in importance, and now does a vast export
and import trade with all parts of the world, but
especially with the North European ports. Naturally,
modern Hull has lost much of the romantic air which
distinguished her in the days when the High Street
merchants used to send out ships to the Greenland and
Arctic whaling-grounds. That branch of seacraft began
at Hull in the sixteenth century, and flourished there
until 1857, when the last of the whalers, the ancient
Diana,vtas wrecked on the Lincolnshire coast. Nowadays

44 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

the trade of Hull is entirely practical, prosaic, and
twentieth-century. An inspection of the docks, many
of them of vast size and capable of accommodating the
largest vessels, helps one to form some notion of the
great carrying trade done by the Hull ships. Hull,
indeed, as being its only great seaport, is one of the
sights of Yorkshire ; but it is only fair to the rest of the
county to say that the great H umber port possesses a
slight foreign atmosphere which has been gained by
much intercourse with countries over-sea.

CHAPTER III

PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE

Variety of Scenery in Yorkshire — Through the County by the
Great North Roads — Picturesque Cities and Towns— Hills and
Mountains— The Yorkshire Dales— The Moors and the Wolds-
Woodland and Forest — Marsh and Fen — The Sea-coast.]

WITHIN its vast area of over six thousand square
miles Yorkshire includes almost every variety of
scenery, and to the true-bred Yorkshireman there is
scarcely any part of the county wherein the aspect of
the land is not interesting, even in such smoke-enveloped
districts as those of Hallamshire and Barnsley, or in the
dead levels of Marshland and South- East Holderness.
It is the fashion when writing of what is picturesque in
Yorkshire to exclude the manufacturing and coal-mining
districts from consideration, and it is true that the
presence of the mill and the colliery, with their attendant
smoke and unlovely surroundings, has spoiled some of
the wildest of our valleys and most sylvan of our rural
districts ; but there are " bits " in the coal-fields, and in
close proximity to the busiest and blackest of the
industrial centres, which are still full of charm, and he
would be a hard man to please who could not find some
scene of real beauty by walking a few miles in any
direction from any particular point of the county. Of
scenery upon which the hall-mark of universal appro-
bation has been stamped the county is admittedly rich

45

46 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

beyond all other counties in England In wandering
over its mountains, through its dales, along the banks
of its rivers, across its heath-clad moors and highly
cultivated Wolds, amongst its towns and villages, around
its old castles, religious houses, and churches, and upon
its long stretch of seacoast, bold of feature and diver-
sified by modern watering-places and quaint fishing-
villages, a lover of the beautiful might spend a lifetime
in pleasing his eyes and still leave many notable things
unseen. Not even the most enthusiastic Yorkshireman
knows all the beauty spots of the Three Ridings, or
has seen all the fine things which they can show.

Through the centre of the county, from south to
north, runs a broad belt of land which is at first of a
gently undulating character, but develops before it
reaches York into a comparative level, which is generally
maintained until it reaches the Durham border. To
traverse this belt from the south-east corner of York-
shire to the bank of the Tees is to obtain an excellent
notion of the low-lying districts wherein agriculture is
still the chief industry. There are two routes by which
it may be traversed — one, along the Old North Road ;
the other, along the Great North Road, Between these
famous highways, the main lines of communication in
the old coaching days, a good deal of confusion is often
made. The Great North Road enters Yorkshire at
Bawtry ; at Doncaster the Old North Road forks off to
the left and goes northward by Ferrybridge, Wetherby,
Borough bridge, Catterick Bridge, and Scotch Corner to
the Tees at Pierce Bridge. The advantages of follow-
ing this route must be obvious to any one who will
consult a good map of the county. The Old North
Road crosses the romantic district of Barnsdale, runs
within convenient distance of Pontefract, intersects the
old kingdom of Elmete, passes within a few miles of the

PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE 47

battlefields of Towton and Marston Moor, and brings
the traveller directly to, or within easy reach of, such
old-world places as Wetherby, Boroughbridge, Knares-
borough, Ripon, Bedale, and Richmond. But the
attractions and advantages of the Great North Road
are no less considerable : it runs on from Doncaster to
Selby, thence to York ; from York through the Forest
of Galtres to Easingwold, and from Easingwold to
Thirsk, where it intersects the Vale of Mowbray beneath
the rampart of the Hambleton Hills, and passing
through Northallerton, crosses the Tees at Croft Bridge.
The man who desires to know mid- Yorkshire intimately
would do well to follow the Old North Road from south
to north, and the Great North Road from north to
south ; in such a journey he would acquire as good a
notion of what Yorkshire was before the railways as the
study of a thousand books could give him, for most of
the towns he would pass through still wear some aspect
of the old coaching days, and the fine, roomy, old-
fashioned hotels at such places as Boroughbridge,
Northallerton, and Thirsk, are truly to be counted
amongst the picturesque sights of the county.

Although there are no towns in Yorkshire which
have preserved the mediaeval quaintness which charac-
terizes Chester and Warwick, there are several places
in the county which have a full title to the epithets
picturesque and striking. York may justly be said to
be unique amongst English cities. In spite of the fact
that it has been largely modernized during the past
hundred years, it still presents an appearance of gray
antiquity, and there are few more impressive sights in
England than a prospect of it from its own walls.
Within the older parts of the city itself, around the
great Minster, in the narrow streets, amongst the ancient
churches, about the battlemented walls and bars, in

48 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

historic buildings like the Guildhall, St Mary's Abbey,
the Merchant's Hall, Clifford's Tower, and St William's
College, one is brought face to face with mediaeval
York ; at the Multangular Tower with the York which
was once the Imperial city of Roman emperors. Equally
striking, in lesser degree, are the minster towns of
Beverley and Ripon — the one standing clear of the level
cornfields at the foot of the Wolds, the other rising high
above the valley of the Ure, both full of picturesque
remindings of the old-world life of the county. More
romantically situated are Richmond and Knaresborough ;
the views of the former from Easby, and of the latter
from the banks of the Nidd beyond the bridges, are
unsurpassed in Yorkshire for beauty of effect in the
mingling of wood, water, gray rock, and impressive
architecture. Many of the Dale towns are eminently
picturesque — Leyburn, Bedale, and Ripley all make
distinct pictures — and there are few of the Dale villages
on which the eye does not rest with delight Wherever
there are things to remind one of the old coaching days
there is picturesqueness — Boroughbridge, Thirsk, North-
allerton are all places lovable to linger in. And if the
market-towns have become modernized to a great extent
they still possess many picturesque features, as the
traveller will find who visits Skipton, or Otley, or
Helmsley, or Pickering, or larger places like Pontefract
and Doncaster.

Folk who love hills and mountains may gratify a
taste for climbing either to their heart's content in
Yorkshire, and they may make choice, too, between
the wild and terrible and the gentle and pleasing.
The great rampart of mountains — a continuation of the
Pennine Range — which separates Yorkshire from the
counties on its western border — is of limestone forma-
tion, and is for the most part covered by short, wiry

• •- •

PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE 49

turf, out of which the rock frequently crops out in long
escarpments and vast masses. To the north of this
mass the mountain scenery is of the true spirit of
grandeur, especially when seen in winter. The dales
and valleys which lie in the hollows of the mountains
are then literally cut off from the world, and the snow-
clad heights above them are truly high towers of silence.
But to those who explore them in summer the York-
shire mountain-ranges are full of charm and interest
Their highest points, Ingleborough (2373 feet), Peny-
ghent (2231 feet), Whernside (2414 feet), and Micklefell
(2591 feet), are not so impressive in outline as the better-
known mountains of the Lake District, but they form
landmarks which are seen over vast stretches of country.
Around them are many notable natural features — the
dales which pierce them, the waterfalls like Hardraw
Scaur and High Force, the numerous "pots" in the
limestone, such caves as those of Weathercote and
Clapham, and the magnificent rock scenery at Malham
and Gordale. As this mountain-chain falls to the
southward it decreases in height, but not in the wildness
of its appearance — the scenery between Black Hamble-
don and Blackstone Edge is just as frowning and as
terrible as when Daniel Defoe and his horses and dog
came trembling and affrighted over the latter on a
winter's day, having had, as the author of " Robinson
Crusoe " took care to remark, the roughest of ground on
one side and a precipice on the other. They traversed
but eight miles in the course of that long day's journey.
The hills on the eastern side of the county are of
a less terrifying order. Indeed, to call the Wolds hills
would be to place them in their wrong category ; never-
theless, in the Wold district near Malton a height of
800 feet is attained at Wilton Beacon, and one cannot
deny this part of the East Riding the title of "high

£

50 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

ground." But the true hills are found north of the
Derwent, in the three ranged known as the Howardian
Hills, the Hambledon Hills, and the Cleveland Hills.
The first of these ranges, though pretty and picturesque,
is inferior in height to the general run of the Wolds ;
the second reaches its greatest height at Black H amble-
ton (1250 feet) overlooking Northallerton, a hill which
is not to be confounded with the Black Hambledbn of
West Yorkshire. Delightful scenery is found all along
the range of the Hambledon Hills and in the valleys
beneath them, and they, too, in winter, especially during
heavy snowstorms, can assume a wild and awe-striking
aspect In one respect these hills are almost unique —
they command a wide-spreading westward view, extend-
ing across the Vale of Mowbray to the western moun-
tains, which in extent and variety is scarcely equalled
in England. But charming as the Hambledons are
they must yield place to the Cleveland Hills on points
of picturesqueness and variety of scenery. In the
opinion of many people the Cleveland hill district is
the most pleasing in Yorkshire. Its highest summit,
Burton Head, is only 1400 feet above sea-level, and the
famous Roseberry Topping only a little over 1000 feet ;
but the formation of the hills, the heather-clad moors
along their sides, the beauty of the narrow dales which
pierce them, and the picturesque villages and hamlets
which lie at their feet, help to make the entire district
one of great beauty. It is true that the north-east
corner of Cleveland is now transformed into a region
of smoke and flame, consequent upon the development
of the iron trade; but one gets into fairyland long
before Middlesbrough is out of sight, and industrialism
has not yet robbed the country about Guisborough of
the charms which made Camden compare it to PuteolL
The dales of West Yorkshire are famous all the

PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE 51

world over, and they are talked of, as with intimate
knowledge, by folk who have never seen and never may
see them. The names of the rivers which run through
them to far-off sources in the mountains are equally
familiar — few English-speaking people have not heard
of Aire, Wharfe, Nidd, Ure, and Swale. Many people
who have not visited Yorkshire appear to believe that
the scenery along the banks of these rivers is of uniform
excellence. But it should be remembered that it is not
until the rivers actually enter the dales that they begin
to assume a special charm. The Aire is not a beautiful
river until one has left the manufacturing districts behind
in making a pilgrimage towards its source ; the Wharfe
is as tame and featureless at Cawood as it is lovely at
Bolton Abbey ; the Nidd is a very ordinary river until
it approaches Knaresborough ; the Ure has few features
of interest until Ripon adds dignity to it ; and the Swale
is the least attractive of all Yorkshire rivers until it runs
under Cattarick Bridge. It is the wonderful beauty of
the dales which gives beauty to the rivers, just as it is
the historical and romantic associations of ancient
castles, religious houses, and old towns that give an
added interest to the dales. Each of the western
dales has its own particular associations and historic
monuments. Airedale has Skipton Castle ; Wharfedale,
Bolton Priory and Barden Tower ; Nidderdale, Knares-
borough and Pateley Bridge; Wensleydale, richest of
all, has Jervaulx and Coverham Abbey, Middleham
Castle, with its memories of Warwick the King-maker
and Richard III., and Bolton Castle, with its associations
with Mary Queen of Scots ; Swaledale has Easby Abbey
and Richmond Castle. Out of these greater dales open
many smaller ones — the Worth Valley, rich in associa-
tions with the Brontes, out of Airedale ; the valley of
the Washburn out of Wharfedale; Coverdale and

52 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Bishopdale out of Wensleydale ; Whitsundale, Sleddale,
and Stonesdale out of Swaledale. Nor are the five
great dales all that West Yorkshire can boast, for she
has at least a half-share in the glories of Teesdale,
which, from Greta Bridge to Cronkley Fell, can show
some of the finest river and rock scenery in Europe,
and in the south she has the valley of the Calder, with
its attendant cavernous vales running into the hills.
It and they have long since been given up to
industrialism, but neither the spread of population
nor the building of great mills and workshops has
had power to change the rugged outlines of the sombre
valleys, which must once have been amongst the most
solitary and awe-striking of the North Country.

The dales of West Yorkshire are often written and
spoken of as if they were the only dales in the county.
But it should be remembered that the wide-spreading
district which, being commonly styled The North York
Moors, comprises a vast stretch of country bounded on
the west and north by the Hambledon and Cleveland
Hills, on the south by the Rye and the Derwent, and
on the east by the North Sea, is full of the most
charming dale scenery. Ryedale, Bilsdale, Farndale,
Rosedale, are all full of interest and beauty ; Eskdale
is worthy to rank with any of the dales of the west
country in scenery if it is not so rich in associations ;
the succession of vales running between Pickering and
Grosmont are, in their particular class of scenery,
unrivalled. It is this constant intersection of their
vast expanses by delightful and romantic valleys which
renders an excursion across the North York Moors so
attractive to the lover of diversified scenery. In
antiquities the moors are richer than the mountains,
and the archaeologist and antiquarian will find more
to delight him within a radius of twenty miles around

PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE 63

Pickering than in any other part of the county.
Similarly rich in remains of long-past ages are the
Wolds, but not so rich in the picturesque. Yet these
swelling chalk-hills are pierced here and there by
sudden deep depressions and hollows, wherein, sur-
rounded by masses of woodland, nestle villages and
farmsteads which seem to hide themselves from the
world above. From some of the heights of the Wolds,
and notably from Leavening Brow, there are wide-
spreading views, stretching from the Humber to York
Minster, and scarcely inferior in their extent to the
prospect which lies westward from the Hambletons.
All along the fringe of the Wolds are picturesque
villages and quaint market-towns, and from the tower
of Dalton Holme, near Beverley, there is one of the
finest views in Yorkshire.

Of forest scenery there is nothing in Yorkshire that
can compare with the beauties of the Dukeries district
of Nottinghamshire, where one is still able to form an
accurate notion of what Sherwood Forest was in the
days when Robin Hood and his Merry Men made it
their home and hunting-ground. Yet there are remains
of Sherwood Forest in Yorkshire itself, for it extended
well over the southern borders of the county, probably
as far north as Barnsdale, and certainly over the fine
expanse of country known as Wharncliffe Chase.
Here— the possible scene of the meeting of Gurth and
Wamba in Scott's "Ivanhoe" — there are still to be
seen some of the grtat oaks which made Sherwood
Forest famous. The entire country between Sheffield
and Penistone is of a romantic character, and the well-
wooded glades of Wharncliffe and Wortley are as full
of beauty as the valley of the Rivelin, which runs from
Sheffield towards the Derbyshire border. Most of the
dales and valleys are well wooded in their lower reachesi

54 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

and the centre of the country is rich in woods, coppices,
and coverts. Bishop Wood, on the edge of the old
kingdom of Elmete, covers an area of a thousand
acres, and there are still some signs that the Forest
of Bolland, on the western border, and the Forest
of Galtres were thickly wooded expanses as well as
game preserves. In the mountain districts there is
little wood, but the northern edge of the Cleveland
Hills is richly clothed, and the woods of Mulgrave, on
the seacoast, have long been famous for their beauty
and luxuriance.

In a corner of the West Riding, situate between the
river Don and the Lincolnshire border, lies the one
portion of Yorkshire which may be called marsh and
fen land. Many people would deny that it has any
claim to rank with picturesque scenes or stretches of
country, but it has charms of its own which true lovers
of natural beauty will not be slow to recognize. Until
the time of Charles I., Hatfield Chase and Thome
Waste formed a vast expanse of bog-land, almost
constantly under water, and good for nothing but a
fishery. Leland, when he came into these parts, had to
go about his business in a boat, and Camden says that
the whole district was nothing but a collection of islands
floating on wide stretches of water. But since it was
drained by Cornelius Vermuyden and his Dutch settlers
in 1626, the entire expanse, like the Lincolnshire and
Cambridge fens, has been brought under cultivation,
though it still, in places, retains its original appearance.
Its picturesqueness lies in its red-roofed towns and
villages, nestling amongst groves of trees and well-
stocked orchards; in the quaint, half-Flemish air of
Thome, its principal centre ; and in the beauty of the
churches of Hatfield and Fishlake, to build which the
stone must needs have been brought by water, just as

PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE 55

stone was brought across the Fens to build the great
churches of Holland in Lincolnshire.

The sea-coast of Yorkshire is often said to be the
finest in England, with the exception of the coasts of
Cornwall and Devon ; but this can only be held to be
true of a portion of it, for no one could by any exercise
of the imagination say much in praise of any stretch
of it lying between Spurn Point and Bridlington. The
Holderness sea-coast is flat and dull ; its highest point
is only sixty feet above high-water mark, and there is
nothing picturesque or romantic in its villages. Indeed,
the only interesting thing about the sweep from Spurn
to Skipsea lies in the fact that the North Sea has made
such encroachments upon the land that numerous places
have been completely swept away, and that Hornsea
Church, which is said to have stood ten miles from the
sea when it was built, is now within a mile of it But
tame as the coast is up to Bridlington, there is nothing
of a tame nature beyond it The mighty bulk of Flam-
borough Head is succeeded by the great cliffs of
Bempton and Speeton, the home of myriads of sea-birds.
Then comes Filey Brig, a long, shelving mass of rock
which runs far out into the sea, and is furnished with a
bell, which the tumbling waters never cease to toll.
Between Filey Brig and Scarborough are high cliffs
indented by rock-strewn bays. Scarborough and its
castle form landmarks which are seen far out at sea.
Beyond Scarborough the finest part of the coast scenery
is found. Robin Hood's Bay is one of the unique places
of the county — a quaint, curious place, where the houses
seem to be piled one on top of another, where the smell
of the sea is in every cottage and every nook of the
cliffs, where the folk seem to desire to get as near to the
sea as they possibly can. Of Whitby a thousand pens
have written, and a thousand pencils striven to paint

56 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

the charms. Just as quaint as Robin Hood's Bay are
Sandsend, Runswick, and Staithes, where Captain Cook
served his apprenticeship to one Sanderson, a grocer
and draper, ere he fell a victim to the fascinations of the
sea. Northward of Staithes the coast scenery falls off
in interest, and the modern spirit reasserts itself in the
presence of Saltbura and Redcar, two watering-places
which have recently grown into great favour, and may
be heartily recommended to all people who love bitter
north-east winds and showers of smarting sand. But
the sand only rises when the wind is troublesome ; on
quiet days the shore between these two young rivals
forms one of the finest stretches of beach on the English
coast

CHAPTER IV
ANTIQUITIES OF YORKSHIRE

Remains of the Prehistoric Age in Yorkshire — Victoria Cave,
Settle — Lothersdale Cave, Skipton — Burial-places — Canon Green-
well's Work — Long Barrows — Opening of Barrow at Rudstone —
Round Barrows — Excavation of Obtrush Roque— Megalithic
Remains — The Devil's Arrows at Boroughbridge — The Rudstone
—Earthworks, Camps, and Dykes — Camp at Almondbury — The
Dane's Dyke, Flamborough Head — Circular Ewks at Thorn-
borough, Blois Hall, and Penistone — Ancient Dwelling-places —
Lake Dwellings in the River Costa — Remains of the Late Celtic
Age in Yorkshire — Antiquities of the Roman Occupation — Roman
Remains at York and Aldborough — Traces of Roman Stations —
The Roman Roads in Yorkshire — Other Antiquities in Yorkshire
—Wayside Crosses— The Cowthorpe Oak.

TO the man who delights in delving as far as pos-
sible into the remote past, Yorkshire presents a
field of research likely to last him for a longer life than
is vouchsafed to most folk. According to competent
authorities, the woods of North Yorkshire and the
Wolds of the East Riding were inhabited in ages stretch-
ing far away into the prehistoric periods of man's life
on this earthy and there, as in many other parts of the
county, the archaeologist finds a rich abundance of the
objects he best loves to consider and to examine. Of
tumuli, primitive dwellings, stone monuments, earth-
works, camps, caves, and the like, Yorkshire can boast
as many examples as any county in England, and she
is also rich in relics and evidences of the Roman

57

68 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

occupation. These remains of the prehistoric and historic
ages are scattered all over the county — one comes across
them in the comparative solitude of the moors and
Wolds and in the crowded districts of the West Riding
— the very old is continually mixed up in Yorkshire
with the very new. In the generality of cases the
modern folk who live in close proximity to the old
things do not know much about them ; the shepherd,
who has become familiarized with hones, cup-and-ring
stones, and menhirs, has seldom any notion of their real
meaning; and the inhabitant of Boroughbridge is as
hard put to it when asked to explain the presence of
the Devil's Arrows as the Huddersfield mechanic would
be if requested to decide on the date of Almondbury
Camp. To the vast mass the presence of ancient things
has little meaning, and it thus happens that many
memorials of antiquity, instead of being jealously
guarded, are allowed to suffer any indignity which
ignorance and indifference can subject them to. The
farmer ploughs up the field in which the plain traces of
a Roman station are visible ; the builder turns a castle
or an abbey into a stone-quarry. It is a marvel that we
still have as much to show as we have, and something
to be thankful for that men betray an increasing desire
to know more about, and to take more care of, the
remains of past ages which happen to be in their
midst

In two of the many cases of the limestone district
of West Yorkshire there have been brought to light
evidences of a long-dead past Palaeolithic remains in
abundance were discovered in Lothersdale Cave, near
Skipton, and the Victoria Cave, at Settle, and have
been carefully preserved. The Victoria Cave at Settle
— so named by its discoverer, Mr. Jackson, who found
it in the year of the coronation of the late Queen —

ANTIQUITIES OF YORKSHIRE 59

contained objects ranging from the Palaeolithic and
Neolithic ages to the period when the native Britons
were overrun by the invading Saxons. A considerable
quantity of Romano-Celtic and late Celtic remains were
removed from the various layers of the cave to the
museum of Giggleswick School. Amongst them are
the bone implements and ornaments of the Neolithic
age; Romano-Celtic remains in bronze and glass; Roman
coins, pottery, and some fragments of iron. The cave
yielded the bones of numerous animals — horse, goat,
deer, stag pig, dog, badger, bear, elephant, hyaena,
rhinosceros, and bison. During its later occupation the
cave was doubtless used as a place of refuge, for the
carvings on the ornaments of the Romano-Celtic period
are of an advanced stage of art Evidences seem to
show that it was used as a retreat as recently as the
middle of the seventh century. But the history of both
caves, as seen in the objects deposited in them, goes
back to the Palaeolithic period.

Evidences of the metallic age in the shape of bronze
implements — celts, flat and flanged, palatraes, socketed
celts, spear-heads, and swords — have been discovered in
Yorkshire at several places — Bilton, Earsley Common,
Hotham Carr, Weston, and on Roseberry Topping, and
in other parts of Cleveland. Specimens of the decorative
art of the Bronze Age, which was a continuation of that
of the Neolithic period, have survived in the cup-and-
ring markings which have come to light in various
places. Cupped stones with circles were discovered on
opening a barrow on Claughton Moor, near Scarborough,
and there are cup-marked stones on Wykeham Moor,
Kilburn Moor, and at Way Hag, on Ayton Moor.

Of prehistoric burial-places, barrows long and round,
Yorkshire possesses a large number, and may claim to
rank in this respect with Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and

60 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Gloucestershire. In his "Remains of the Prehistoric Age
of England," Mr. Windle mentions nine places where
long barrows exist, and sixty more where round barrows
are numerous. With scarcely an exception these places
are on the Yorkshire Wolds or the North York Moors.
There are some at West Tanfield, near Ripon ; several
near Ilkley ; others at Ferry Fryston, on the Aire ; all
the rest of those specified are in the eastern districts of
the county — a fact which serves to show that the eastern
half of the North Riding and the Wold district of the
East Riding were more densely populated in the earliest
times than the West and South. Of the Yorkshire
barrows, long and round, a great many were opened
and examined by Canon Greenwell, who recorded the
results of his work in his book " British Barrows." Others
were examined by Professor Phillips, and during the
last half-century much has been done in the way of
gaining some idea from them of the way in which
prehistoric man was wont to bury his dead

In those earlier ages of which these things are the
sole remains we possess, men either burned their dead
or inhumed them, and according to Canon Greenwell,
cremation was more generally practised during the
Neolithic and Bronze periods than not. Thus, he found
that in the Wiltshire barrows there were three burnt
bodies to one unburnt ; in Dorsetshire, four to one ; in
Northumberland, two to one ; in the counties of Denbigh,
Merioneth, and Caernarvon the practice of cremation was
almost universal As to the manner of burning, Canon
Greenwell gives two examples from Yorkshire barrows —

" The bodies, sometimes in a complete state, at other times
fragmentary and the bones disjointed, were laid at or above
the level of the natural surface on a thick layer of clay, or, as
in this case (ue. a barrow of Westow, E. R. Yorks.), on a
pavement of flagstones ; upon them were placed, as here and

ANTIQUITIES OF YORKSHIRE 61

at Rudstone, turfs or earth, and upon that again stone ; there
do not appear, in all cases, to have been any intervening turfs,
the stone itself lying immediately upon the bones. Wood was
placed amongst, alongside, and underneath the stone, the
evident remains of it, in the shape of charcoal, being found
abundantly in some parts; and in others, where charcoal is
wanting, it is probable that the intense burning had consumed
the wood too perfectly for any remains beyond a white ash to
be left Over and upon this covering deposit of stone was then
thrown up the ordinary material of the barrow."

If the body was not burnt it was placed in the barrow
in a contracted position, very often attired in its ordinary
garments of cloth, wool, or skin. It was but slightly
enclosed from the soil, which was heaped up over it —
two slabs in the shape of an inverted y (A) were
occasionally placed over the head, or a packing of gravel
was placed round it In some cases of excavated barrows
the body is found enclosed in a cyst lined with wood or
stones; sometimes it rests in a rude coffin fashioned
out of the trunk of a tree ; sometimes upon a wooden
platform. In the long barrows funeral gifts — z>. objects
deposited with the remains, are few ; in round barrows
many. Stone, bronze, pottery, ornaments of jet, glass,
amber, and even — but only rarely — gold, are found in
round barrows, and the dead man was in some cases
presented with a flint and steel.

The number of round barrows in any particular district
invariably exceeds that of the long barrows, for the latter
was a tribal burying-place, sometimes chambered, some-
times unchambered, but in either case of some elabora-
tion, while the former was as the private grave of the
modern cemetery. The chambered long barrow is found
in great numbers in North Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ;
the long barrows of Yorkshire are as a rule unchambered,
and the bodies which they sepultured were, as it were,

62 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

built into the mound itself. The round barrows of the
Bronze period were of a remarkable variety as regards
shape — Thurnam divides them into three classes, bowl-
shaped, bell-shaped, and disc-shaped, and these again
into further sub-divisions.

In 1869 an interesting examination of Yorkshire
barrows was carried out under the personal super-
intendence of Canon Greenwell. Two of the group of
barrows near Rudstone, on the north-east edge of the
Wolds, were opened. One, sixty-six feet in diameter
was formed of earth and chalk ; it contained numerous
remains of men, women, and children, with whom had
been interred bronze and flint instruments, together with
two clay drinking vessels, elaborately ornamented. The
other, of more considerable diameter, was surrounded by
a trench ; it also was fashioned of earth and chalk, and
had originally been raised upon a prepared surface of
hardened soil. This, too, contained many human remains,
some resting in cavities lined with wood. In Baines's
" Yorkshire " there is an account of one particular dis-
covery made in opening this barrow.

" On the east side, and just within the circumference of a
central circular grave and six inches above the natural surface,
was the body of a man on the right side, head west, right hand
under the head, left up to breast. There was a plank of willow
on each side of the body, the planks being 3 feet 6 inches
long, and 1 foot 6 inches apart. It was not a coffin, but
merely a wooden protection on each side. In front of the
head was a food-vessel urn, with four unpierced ears, covered
with impressions of the end of some implement. Close by the
urn and skull was a most beautifully perfect and large barbed
arrow-point of flint, fresh as the day when made. The point
was away from the head, and it is probable the shaft (decayed)
was held in the right hand when interred. With the arrow was
part of an ammonite. . • . The body of the person buried was

ANTIQUITIES OF YORKSHIRE 63

that of a roundhead (the hrachyaphaK) with the lowest develop-
ment of forehead and the most debased skull conceivable
for that of a human being."

This barrow also contained numerous relics.

In Mr. Windle's list of round barrows in Yorkshire
there are particulars given of the various objects found
in those which have been opened and examined. Flints,
pottery, bronze axes, earrings and necklaces of jet, stone
implements, and cup-marked stones are most abundant.
One near Fimber and another near Gristhorpe contained
oaken coffins ; one at Rylston yielded unusual results in
a clothed body enclosed in a hollowed-out oak tree. A
famous tumulus known as Obtrush Roque, situate on
Rudland Moor, was excavated by Professor Phillips and
some friends in 1836. It was at that time elevated
several feet above the level of the moorland, and was
covered with heath.

"Under this," writes Professor Phillips, "was a great
collection of sandstones loosely thrown together, which had
been gathered from the neighbouring surface. On removing
them, a circle of broader and larger stones appeared set on
edge, in number twenty-five, or allowing for a vacant place,
twenty-six. Within this was another circle, composed of
smaller stones set edgeways, in number twenty-five or twenty-
six; and the centre of the inner space was occupied by a
rectangular cyst, composed of four flagstones set edgeways.
The sides of this cyst pointed east and west and north and
south, the greatest length being from east to west. On
arriving at this fortunate result of our labour, our expectations
were a little mixed as to what might follow. But within this
cyst were no urns, no bones, no treasures of any kind, except
a tail feather from some farmyard chanticleer. The country-
men said this place of ancient burial had been opened many
years ago, and that then gold was found in it. It seemed to
us that it must have been recently visited by a fox. Considering

64 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

the position of the cyst, set with careful attention to the
cardinal points ; the two circles of stones, the number of these
stones, which, if completed, appeared to be twenty-six: it
seemed no unreasonable conjecture, that the construction con-
tained traces of astronomical knowledge, of the solar year, and
weekly periods."

Professor Phillips found himself unable to decide
whether Obtrush Roque (roque = rack-heap) was the
burial-place of an Early British chieftain or of a Scandi-
navian warrior. Canon Atkinson, who, like Canon
Green well, spent much time in excavating the tumuli
of North and East Yorkshire, assigns the greater part of
them to the time of Brythonic invasion.

Of megalithic remains — dolmens, circles, and menhirs
— Yorkshire possesses few examples, but those which
she can show are full of interest. On Sleights Moor,
near Whitby, in Bilsdale, in Doedale, and on the moors
near Grosmont, there are circles, which in each case are
known as the Bridestones, a name given to similar
circles in other parts of England, but as yet unexplained
so far as meaning is concerned. There are more circles
on the moors above Cloughton, near Scarborough, and
at Beacon Hill, near Huddersfield, and the latter is
locally known as the Wolf's Fold. Of stones in an
upright position — menhirs — there are the Standing
Stones on Fylingdale Moor, three stones at Simon
Howe, near Goathland, the Long Stone at Danby, the
Lad Stone near Greetland, the Rudstone at the village
of that name on the Wolds, and the Devil's Arrows at
Boroughbridge. Of these the Devil's Arrows and the
Rudstone are of the greatest moment

The Devil's Arrows, three enormous stones standing
just outside Boroughbridge in fields intersected by a
narrow lane, have excited the wonder of sightseers for
centuries, and have formed a debatable subject for

ANTIQUITIES OP YORKSHIRE 66

antiquaries and archaeologists for just as lengthy a
period. In appearance they are three obelisk-like
masses of millstone grit, varying from 18 to 22& feet
in height, 18 to 22 feet in circumference, and having an
average weight (computed) of thirty to thirty-six tons.
There was formerly a fourth stone, of similar height and
weight; one-half of this is preserved at Aldborough,
the other half was used when Peggy Bridge, close by,
was made. All four were standing when Leland came
this way. " A little withoute the towne of Burrough-
bridge," he relates, " on the west part of Watling Street,
standith four great main stones, wrought above in com-
mon by menne's handes." But Leland's opinion on this
point, though shared in by many others, would seem to be
erroneous — the work of " menne's handes " was probably
caused by climatic influences, and the stones themselves
were most likely brought to their present situation from
the neighbourhood of Plumpton or Brimham. Drake,
in his " Eboracum," gives some account of excavations
which were carried out at the base of the central stone
in 1709, with the object of ascertaining whether the
stones had been set up by artificial means or not

" At first," he says, " a good soil was found, about a foot
deep, and then a course of stones, rough and of several kinds,
but most were large pebbles, laid in a bed of coarse grit and
clay ; and so for four or five courses underneath one another,
round the pyramid, in all probability to keep it upright, never-
theless they all seem to incline a little towards the south-east.
Under the stones was a very stony clay, so hard that the spade
could not affect it This was near two yards deep from the
surface of the earth ; and a little lower was the bottom of the
stone, resting upon the clay and was fiat As much of
the stone as was within ground, is a little thicker than what
appears above, and has the marks of a first dressing upon it"

As to the exact purposes of these remarkable stones

F

66 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

there has always been much speculation and controversy
amongst writers on antiquities and Yorkshire topo-
graphy. Stukeley held that they were of Druidical
origin, and afterwards formed the metae of races similar
to those of the Olympic games. Stillingfleet contended
that they were ancient deities set up by early inhabi-
tants of this country under the influence of the
Phoenicians and Greeks who came here trading long
before the advent of the Romans. Drake, Gale, Lister,
and Hargrove agreed in believing the stones to have
been set up by the Romans, and pointed out the con-
tiguity of Aldborough (Isurium) in support of this
theory. But modern opinion tends to the belief that
the three stones are the last remains of a great circle or
square, similar in character to Stonehenge, and that
they were in existence thousands of years before the
date to which these writers would assign them.

The Rudstone, a huge menhir standing in the
churchyard of the village of that name, on the eastern
edge of the Wolds, is larger than any of the three
stones at Boroughbridge. It is about 25 £ feet in height,
6 feet in breadth, nearly 2\ feet in thickness, and
probably weighs 50 tons. The stone, like those at
Boroughbridge, is a millstone grit, of fine grain, and
was not improbably brought from the moors near
Cloughton, north-west of Scarborough. As to its name,
Professor Phillips supposed that though the stone itself
hailed from long-vanished ages, it was made a sacred
thing in Saxon times, and was termed " Roodstone,"
*>• the Stone of the Cross. There is no doubt that the
village took i+s name from the stone, for it appears as
Rodestan in the Domesday survey.

Of evidences of antiquity in the form of earthworks,
camps, and dykes, Yorkshire can show a considerable
number. To most of them long habit or local tradition

ANTIQUITIES OF YORKSHIRE 67

has assigned a period, but it was usually founded on
the theory that all rectangular works were of Roman
origin, all circular of British, and all oval of Danish — a
theory which cannot now be defended. Much confusion
has existed on these points, and earthworks have
constantly be wrongly described, as in the case of the
moated mounds which were formerly held to be of
Saxon origin, but are now assigned, with almost abso-
lute certainty, to the Norman period. Of all earthworks,
camps, and dykes, a rough division may now be made
between those of pre-Roman origin and those which are
distinctly Roman, and again, between the latter and
those which are post-Roman.

There are traces of important British camps on the
south-east edge of the West Riding, and they are best
seen at Conisborough, at Mexborough, a little further
along the Don, and at Wincobank, near Sheffield. But
the most important work of this sort in the county is on
the summit of the hill above Almondbury, near Hudders-
field, where there is a British camp, which was probably
made use of at a later date by the Romans. Here, at
an altitude of nearly a thousand feet above sea-level,
are the plain lines of an entrenchment which covers the
hilltop, and commands a vast stretch of the surrounding
country. In form it is a central square surrounding a
mound and fosse, and having rounded extremities at
each end. That this district was thickly populated by
the British is evident from the number of British
remains on the adjacent moors.

Few earthworks of early date are so interesting as
that known as the Dane's Dyke at Flamborough Head.
This, a mighty entrenchment approaching three miles
in length, separates the Head entirely from the main-
land. It is a double entrenchment, and is provided at
intervals with projecting breastworks. But of its origin

68 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

no authority on these matters can speak with any
certainty. Mr. Windle, in his ," Remains of the Pre-
historic Age/' places it amongst the coast examples of
promontory forts, but does not attempt to decide if it
was the work of natives or of invaders protecting them-
selves from the inhabitants upon whose preserves they
were poaching. General Pitt-Rivers, who devoted so
much time to this subject, considered the Dane's Dyke
to be the work of invaders, accomplished during succes-
sive invasions, who, after arrival by sea, constructed the
vast entrenchment for their own defence against the
islanders, and at the same time threw up lines of earth-
works further inland (the earthworks are still traceable
on the Wolds) in order to push the natives towards the
western side of the country. But on this point
Canon Greenwell did not agree, and the only fact that
may be regarded as certain is that the Dyke is of vast
antiquity.

There is another entrenchment of similar character
to the Dane's Dyke at Argam, a few miles to the north-
west of Flamborough; there are numerous dykes,
camps, and entrenchments between the Tees and the
Swale, and promontory forts are traceable on the spurs
of the hills overlooking the valley of the Esk from
Guisborough to Whitby. Noticeable earthworks exist
at Skipsea on the same coast Westward there are
examples at Aysgarth, Pateley Bridge, Gisburne, and
Kirklees, and there is a camp at Austerfield, near Don-
caster, which, if British in origin, was almost certainly
afterwards used by the Romans — a remark which also
applies to the works at North Grimston and the camps
on the Wolds westward of Bridlington.

Most interesting and important, perhaps, of these in-
land earthworks of pre-Roman date are the ewks, circular
in shape, and surrounded by mounds and inner trenches,

ANTIQUITIES OF YORKSHIRE 69

which may be seen at Blois Hall, near Ripon, Thorn-
borough, near West Tanfield, and on the moors near
Penistone. There are two at the last-named situation
with a circumference of nine hundred feet ; three at
Thornborough, placed at intervals over a space of
ground a mile in extent, each extremity of which
appears to have been guarded by an earthwork; and
two at Blois Hall, with diameters of six hundred and
eighty feet. The purposes which these ewks served
is not known. They resemble a similar work at
Avebury, but have no circle of standing stones, and
from the fact that the trench is within the circle of the
mound, they do not appear to have had a military
origin, and they may therefore have been used for
religious purposes or for tribal debates and gatherings.

There are several examples of British villages in
Yorkshire, all, with one exception, in the north-east
part of the county, and there are traces of lake-dwellings
in the same district The most interesting of the
villages are found on the Wolds near Scarborough;
there are others on Blakey Moor, Egton Moor, on the
Wolds near Rudstone, and at Skipwith Common
between York and Selby. In the Journal of the An*
thropological Institute, i. 151, Duncombe gives an account
of several pile-dwellings in the river Costa near Picker-
ing, corresponding in nature to the lake-villages of
Switzerland, and yielding fragments of pottery and
bones of various animals. But the county is not rich in
antiquities of this nature.

Remains of the late Celtic age have been found in
Yorkshire in considerable variety, and may be seen in
the museum of the Philosophical Society at York, the
Mortimer Museum at Driffield, and in the Giggleswick
School Museum, as well as in the British Museum, to
which many of the objects discovered at Arras, on the

70 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Yorkshire Wolds, near Market Weighton, were removed,
the remainder being taken to York. The burial-places
at Kilham, in the East Riding, yielded rich spoil. From
one barrow was unearthed the chariot of the occupant,
with the trappings of horses, but there were no signs of
the horses themselves, though a dead man was often
interred with horses and chariot at that period. In this
grave there were two snaffle-bits of iron and rings and
ornaments of bronze. More chariot burials were dis-
covered at Arras and Beverley, and iron objects came to
light at both.

An interesting find amongst the Yorkshire tumuli
was a sword and sheath unearthed near Wensleydale,
and described by the late Sir A. W. Franks {Archct-
ologia, i. 251).

" The remarkable feature about it," says Mr. Windle, " is
that it still retains considerable portions of its handle, these
remains being of thin bronze, probably once attached to horn
or hard wood. The blade is of iron. The sheath, which,
unlike the blade of the sword, is in a good state of preservation,
is of bronze. The front is comparatively plain, but the back
is strengthened by a band of bronze, of which the upper part
spreads out into a pierced triangular plate. At about two-fifths
of its length it widens into a very prominent loop, through
which no doubt a belt or rather cord or chain was passed.
The end of the sheath, the total length of which is twenty-
three inches, is protected by a solid bifurcate chape."

In the late Sir A. W. Franks's paper, descriptions of
swords similarly discovered are given, showing that
they have been unearthed in an area extending from
Scotland to the Apennines and from Ireland to Hungary.

That Yorkshire should be rich above other English
counties in remains of the Roman period of occupation
is not surprising. The Romans came northward about

ANTIQUITIES OF YORKSHIRE 71

A.D. 50, and by A.D. 80 the Brigantian territory had
come under their rule. Of this the district round about
York was certainly the most important part, and York
itself became the chief seat of government In York
was stationed the famous Sixth Legion; at York the
Roman Emperors took up their residence when they
visited Britain ; in York Septimius Severus and Con-
stantine Chlorus died ; in York Constantine the Great
was proclaimed Emperor.

From the end of the first century to the middle of the
fifth, York, under its Roman name of Eboracum, was a
Roman city in architecture, in thought, manners, and
speech. While it was the seat of government, military
and political, Isurium (Aldborough), some twenty miles
away across country to the north-west, was the pleasure
city, where folk of means and leisure lived in great
comfort and magnificence. Isurium, like Eboracum,
was a city of considerable size, and it is within Ald-
borough and York that one looks for the principal
Roman antiquities of the county.

One of the earliest members of the Royal Society,
Dr. Lister, prepared for it, two hundred years ago, a
paper, in which he endeavoured to give his fellow-
members some idea of the aspect of Roman York ; and
since he wrote it excavations and measurements have
helped to confirm his views. Eboracum was a walled
city of rectangular shape, measuring 650 yards by 550.
From the multangular tower near St Mary's Abbey ran
a south-west wall, having a rampart within and a fosse
without, to Jubbergate, where it was joined by a similar
wall stretching in a straight line to Aldwark, whence a
third, facing north-west, extended to a point in the
neighbourhood of the Deanery garden, where it met a
fourth wall, which terminated at the multangular tower.
Wellbeloved, a competent authority, says that about

72 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

the walls of Roman York there were four gates, four
principal angular towers, and from twenty-four to thirty
minor towers. Within the walls were all the usual
buildings of a flourishing Roman city — temples, houses,
baths, public halls, all fashioned after the style of similar
buildings in Rome itself. It is supposed that the Prae-
torium occupied a site near the present Bootham Bar,
and that the Praetorian Gate was close by. Traces of
extensive baths, the tiles of which bore the emblem of
the Sixth Legion (which was in occupation here for
three centuries), have been found without the walls on
the banks of the river Ouse. The whole of the city
stood within the V-shaped tongue of land formed by
the confluence of the Ouse and the Fosse, a situation of
great importance, both for strategic and trading reasons.

The Roman antiquities at York are almost entirely
comprised within the collections of the Yorkshire Philo-
sophical Society, whose museums stand in what were
once the grounds and gardens of St Mary's Abbey. In
these grounds, a supreme object of interest to the lover
of old things, stands the Multangular Tower, with a
small portion of the original Roman wall attaching to
it* Only the lower part of this tower is of Roman
architecture ; the higher portion appears to be of post-
Norman origin. The Roman work in the tower and in
the adjoining wall is composed of regular courses of
small ashlar stones, with a string of large Roman tiles
between the nineteenth and twentieth courses. There
are traces of timber floorings at the height of 5 feet
and 14 feet The masonry of the interior is remarkably
fresh. Within the tower there are several stone coffins,
brought here from several Roman cemeteries in the city
and its environs.

It is impossible within circumscribed limits to give
any adequate account of the various Roman remains

ANTIQUITIES OF YORKSHIRE 73

now stored in the museums of the Yorkshire Philo-
sophical Society. In the stone and wood building
known as the Hospitium, a great hall of the Abbey of
St. Mary, the ruins of which stand in the grounds of the
society, there are arranged some fine specimens of
Roman pavements, altars, sepulchral monuments,
coffins, tablets, and urns. There is a noteworthy col-
lection of Roman glass, ornaments, jewels, and domestic
articles, such as lamps, candlesticks, pitchers, crucibles,
and bottles. Here are exhibited the numerous objects
unearthed from a Roman cemetery which was laid bare
when the site of the new railway station was being
excavated, amongst them a number of stone coffins,
into which, after the bodies had been deposited within
them, plaster was poured. Of tiles bearing Roman in-
scriptions, figures in bronze, chiefly of birds, funeral
urns full of bones, toys fashioned for the pleasure of
children, amulets, and coins, there are here sufficient
examples to keep the curious employed for many days.
Within the ruins of St Leonard's Hospital, also situate
in the grounds of the Philosophical Society, is a collec-
tion of coffins, sarcophagi, gritstone slabs, and other
Roman remains. Some of the ancient parish churches
of York contain fragments of Roman work. St Martin's-
cum-Gregory has in its west wall a rude sculpture of the
figures of a man, woman, and child ; and there are a
sepulchral tablet and Roman bricks in the south' wall of
All Saints. The tower of St Mary the Younger,
though of Saxon architecture, is built of Roman stone.
St. Helen's, in Stonegate, was dedicated to the Empress
Helena, mother of Constantine the Great; in another
St Helen's, abandoned at the Dissolution, her husband,
Constantine Chlorus, is believed to have been buried.
One might go on multiplying these instances of connec-
tion between the Roman Eboracum and the modern

74 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

York indefinitely, for it is still possible to identify many
parts of the city with the principal Roman buildings —
King's Court, at the end of Collier Gate, for instance,
may be taken as being the site of the palace of the
Roman Emperors, situated, in that case, in almost
exactly the centre of the city as it then was ; and Coney
Street was, in all probability, on the lines of a principal
street just within the south-west wall, running along the
bank of the river. Something resembling the Appian
Way at Rome existed at York in the first stretches of
the great highway leading to Calcaria (Tadcaster), for
along it, as along its Roman prototype, were ranged the
tombs of the rich and powerful.

Not less interesting than York (and in the opinion
of some people much more so) is Aldborough, the
Isurium of the Roman occupation. Here Roman
remains are found in sufficient quantity to enable one to
form a definite idea of what the city was like at the
high tide of its prosperity. It stood in a pleasant
pastoral country, watered by the river Ure, and was
connected by road with Eboracum, Calcaria, Olicana,
and other important Roman stations in Yorkshire. In
shape it formed an oblong parallelogram ; the circuit of
its walls was a mile and a half, and it enclosed sixty
acres of ground. The present ancient church, in the
walls of which are some fragments of Roman masonry,
may be taken as occupying a position which was the
centre of Isurium ; the Manor House occupies the site
of the western gate. All over Aldborough there are
evidences of its connection with the Romans. In the
grounds of the Manor House Mr. Andrew Lawson
founded a Museum Isurianum, wherein are exhibited
coins, pottery, iron implements, domestic utensils, and
similar objects. In these grounds, too, there are plain
traces of the city walls, and a considerable fragment of

ANTIQUITIES OF YORKSHIRE 75

them. Judging from their plan and foundations, the
streets were very narrow, and Isurium was probably a
closely packed city. Several of the smaller houses and
cottages in Aldborough have Roman remains to show ;
in some there are pavements so fresh and bright in
colour as to seem quite new. Behind one cottage is
what is described as a " basilica," a building consisting
of an ante-room, central apartment, and an apse, the
latter embellished with a Greek inscription in coloured
glass. Outside the walls various objects have been un-
earthed — generally sepulchral remains — and at a little
distance from the south-west are the plain lines of a
stadium.

There are many other Roman remains in various
parts of Yorkshire, for there were many important
stations within its borders — Danum (Doncaster), Leg-
iolium (Castleford), Olicana (Ilkley), Cataractonium
(Cattarick Bridge), Calcaria (Tadcaster), Derventio
(the site of which is fixed at Malton), Cambodunum
(Slack), and Dunum Sinus (near Whitby), were only
some of the places wherein the Roman supremacy
manifested itself. At all these, and in many other loca-
tions, Roman remains have come to light from time to
time, and b4en deposited in private collections or public
museums. Relics of the Roman age have occasionally
been discovered in unlikely places : two lads, playing in
the cavity locally known as Tom Taylor's Chamber, in
Howstean, in Niddersdale, found, in 1868, a number of
Roman coins, which had lain in water so long that they
were worn very thin, and the inscriptions almost oblite-
rated. But they appeared to belong to the second
century, and had probably been in circulation amongst
the Roman workers of the lead mines about Greenhow
HOI. Two pigs of lead, stamped with the inscription
Imp . Cos . Domitiano . Aug . Car . VII . Brig, were

76 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

found in the neighbourhood of Greenhow in I735> anc *
were deposited, one at Ripley Castle, and the other in
the British Museum.

Of the Roman stations and camps the lines are
well marked at Malton, Cawthorn, near Pickering, and
at Catterick Bridge. Near Tadcaster is a bridge —
locally termed Kettleman Bridge — which has been
declared by some authorities to be of Roman archi-
tecture. It spans the river Cock, at a point near its
junction with the Wharfe, a little way outside the town,
and is worthy of careful examination. The arch,
springing from square pier walls, has no keystone, and
the blocks of stone of which it is composed resemble,
but are much larger than, those in the Roman walls at
York. There are clearer evidences of Roman work in
the roads intersecting the county, which are known to
be of Roman origin. Here and there the local folk
point out the Roman " rig " which cuts across field or
moorland in the shape of a plainly distinct embank-
ment, and there is usually no little pride in their
possession of such a notable relic of the days which to
them seem far oft indeed.

Of antiquities hailing from the period which elapsed
between the departure of the Romans and the arrival of
the Normans, Yorkshire can show a goodly number.
There are interesting remains and relics of the Anglian
and Danish periods in the private collections and public
museums of the county. Saxon remains are very largely
identified with the churches and castles, but there are
several town, village, and wayside crosses of Saxon
origin, though in many cases all that is left of them is
a weatherworn stump or mutilated shaft An antiquity
that has nothing to do with brick or mortar or stone,
though it receives some extraneous aid from wooden
props, is the famous Cowthorpe Oak, which was already a

ANTIQUITIES OF YORKSHIRE 77

sturdy tree of two hundred and fifty years 9 growth when
the Romans left England. This, said to be the largest
tree ever known in England, is pronounced by Professor
Burnett to be sixteen hundred years old. It stands
in a meadow near the river Nidd, a few miles from
Wetherby, and still shows proof of vitality by sending
forth leaves. But the last few centuries have shorn it
of many of its glories. Two hundred years ago the
topmost branch fell ; a few years later another branch,
which had stretched ninety feet from the trunk, suc-
cumbed ; and in 1772 a third member of great magni-
tude parted company with the giant bole. The trunk,
which has a circumference of sixty feet close to the
ground, is now quite hollow, and the present principal
branch is but fifty feet in length, but in the old days
the fine old tree could cast its shade over half an acre
of land. For sturdy endurance it is the most remark-
able antiquity in Yorkshire.

CHAPTER V

THE MAKING OF THE MINSTERS

I. Early Days of Christianity in York— The Minster before the
Norman Conquest — The Labours of the Archbishops — Pious
Benefactors — Famous Workmen — Completion and Reconsecra-
tion of the Minster — Its Treasures and Relics at the Time of the
Reformation — Later History of York Minster. II. Early Tradi-
tions of Ripon Minster— St. Wilfrith of York— St. Wilfrith's
Needle — Vicissitudes of Ripon Minster prior to the Norman
Conquest — The Building of the Minster — Its Subsequent History.
III. St. John of Beverley — Early History of Beverley Minster —
Favour of William the Conqueror — Burning of the Minster in 1188
— The Rebuilding — Benefactors of the Minster— Notable Members
of the Collegiate Body — The Misericordes of Beverley — History of
the Minster since the Reformation.

IT is generally admitted that Christianity was intro-
duced into Yorkshire during the Roman occupa-
tion, and there is strong evidence that Bishops of
Eboracum were present at some of the early councils
of the Catholic Church. But there is no trace remain-
ing, nor any record left, of any Christian church in York,
and the Christian faith appears to have been entirely
driven out of the North Country during the period
which elapsed between the withdrawal of the Romans
and the coming of St. Paulinus. It is certain that the
first Christian church built in York after the latter event
was a small oratory, fashioned of wood and erected on

7«

THE MAKING OF THE MINSTERS 79

the site of the present minster in 627. In this rude
beginning of what was subsequently to be the greatest
church of the North Country, Eadwine, King of North-
umbria, was baptized by St Paulinus on the Easter
Day of that year. The wooden oratory, according to
Bede, immediately gave place to a church of stone,
wherein, six years after his conversion, the head of
Eadwine, slain at Hatfield, was reverently deposited.
During the episcopate of St. Chad, who succeeded St
Paulinus as bishop, this stone church fell into decay,
and his successor, St* Wilfrith, in entering upon his
episcopate in 669, was obliged to restore it He filled
the windows with glass, and washed the walls and stone
roof with white lime, M rendering them, 11 says the
chronicler, "whiter than snow." According to Roger
of Howden, whose chronicles begin about this period,
the minster was destroyed by fire in 741, and it was not
rebuilt until 767, when Aelberht, a§ is recorded by
Alcuin, began the building of a church on large and
even magnificent lines. He occupied himself during
the succeeding fifteen years in this work, and consecrated
the new minster ten days before his death in 782. Of
this church, which in all probability suffered very
severely during the troublous times of the ninth and
tenth centuries, and was finally destroyed by fire when
William the Conqueror laid Yorkshire waste in 1069,
there still remains a fragment beneath the existing
minster in the shape of the centre wall of the crypt

Under its first Norman archbishops York Minster
experienced as many vicissitudes as had befallen it in
the four centuries which had preceded the Conquest
Archbishop Thomas, who was appointed to the see in
1070, endeavoured to effect some repairs in the ruins of
the previous fabric, but found it impossible to mend a
thing so shattered, and therefore began the building of

80 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

a new church, cruciform in design, portions' of which
may be seen at the western extremity of the crypt
This was probably completed before the end of the
eleventh century, and it was largely damaged by fire
about forty years later. Between 1154 and 1181 Arch-
bishop Roger built a new choir, some remains of which
are also to be seen in the crypt, at the east end. During
the next fifty years little in the way of building appears
to have been done, but with the accession of Arch-
bishop Walter de Gray in 1230, a new era was inaugu-
rated, and it is from this date that the history of York
Minster, as we know it, may be said to begin, for it was
built, as it presents itself to us to-day, between 1230 and
1472. Its gradual rise is seen in its architecture. The
south transept (Early English) was built by Archbishop
Gray between 1230 and 1241 ; the north transept (Early
English) by John Romanus, Treasurer of York, between
1228 and 1256 ; the nave and the chapter house
(Decorated) were built between 1290 and 1340; the
lady chapel and presbytery (Early Perpendicular)
between 1360 and 1370; the choir (Perpendicular)
between 1370 and 1400; the two west towers and the
central tower (Late Perpendicular) between 1430 and
1472. On the 3rd July in that year the minster was
reconsecrated, and dedicated, as at first, to St Peter.

No church in Christendom owes more to the self-
denying generosity and ceaseless zeal of its bishops and
clergy than York Minster. The labours of its arch-
bishops during the time of building were indefatigable
and never ending, and they gave of their own means in
a fashion which goes far to relieve the clergy of the
pre-Reformation centuries of the charge of greed and
cupidity which is so often brought against them. Arch-
bishop Romanus, whose father, the Treasurer, had set
him an excellent example, gave largely to the building

THE MAKING OF THE MINSTERS 81

fund; Archbishop Greenfield contributed a sum equal
in our money to five thousand pounds; Archbishop
Melton gave a like sum, and paid out of his own pocket
for the glass of the great west window. When there
was a difficulty about raising funds for the wooden
ceiling of the nave, Archbishop Thoresby came forward
with the money, and to other purposes of the building
fund he applied the income from his archiepiscopal
manor of Sherburn, and made further dippings into his
private purse — doubtless a well-lined one — when it
became necessary to rebuild the choir. His successors,
Archbishops Scrope and Bowet, were similarly generous.
As there were no bazaars or sales of work or other
modern hypocritical methods of raising money in those
days, the archbishops resorted to the honest fashion of
selling indulgences, and the building fund benefited
considerably. But the archbishops were not the only
clerics who lavished generosity on the minster. Treasurer
Fitz-Urse is said to have contributed handsomely to the
unsurpassed chapter-house ; Walter Skirlaw, Bishop of
Durham, gave a large sum towards the restoration of
the central tower ; Thomas de Haxey, Treasurer, pro-
vided the library ; Dean Andrew paid for the battlements
of the choir ; Robert Wolveden, another Treasurer, left
the considerable sum of twenty pounds to be expended
on the building. Reminders of these and similar cases
of clerical generosity are still extant in the minster. '

But the generous support given to those who during
two and a half centuries were building one of the finest
churches of Europe was not confined to the clergy
solely, nor was the sale of indulgences, nor the collection
of funds by archiepiscopal briefs, the only other method
of obtaining money. The Yorkshire folk contributed to
the building fund of the minster in no niggardly fashion.
Naturally, a considerable amount of help came from the

82 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

great families of the county. The Scropes were muni-
ficent in their gifts and grants; the Vavasours and
Percys gave large quantities of wood and stone, with
free conveyance across their lands, and are commemo-
rated in the central doorway at the west front, where a
Percy is represented bearing a block of wrought stone,
and a Vavasour one which has not been worked. All
the stone came from Yorkshire quarries — from Hazel-
wood near Tadcaster, Huddleston near Sherburn, and
Stapleton near Pontefract,

Some particulars of the men who built and orna-
mented the minster have come down to us through the
medium of the Fabric Rolls. On December 10, 1405,
was signed an agreement between the Dean and Chapter
of York and one John Thornton, of Coventry, with
respect to the glazing of the great east window, one of
the chief glories of the building. He was to design and
paint the various subjects, and to finish the work within
three years. In payment for his labour he was to
receive 41. per week, and at the end of every year a
further sum of £$ f with a final payment of £10 when
the work was completed. This contract was faithfully
carried out, and the window glazed by the end of 1408
at a total cost of about £60 of the currency of that day.
The carving of the splendid rood-screen — the most
recent of the great architectural features of the minster,
having been executed after the reconsecration in 1472,
but previous to 1505 — was carried out during the
master-masonship of William Hyndeley, whose name,
with that of one of his assistants, William Fothergill,
are symbolically represented, as was the custom of that
time, in the detail of their work — Hyndeley's by the
figure of a hind lying behind foliage, Fothergill's by a
sculptured boss over the entrance to the choir. Four
other men were associated with Fothergill in the carving

THE MAKING OF THE MINSTERS 83

of the screen — John Huntley, William Bushell, William
Madis, and Jacob Dam. The particulars of prices paid
for the work are interesting — crockets cost a penny
each, or sixteen-pence a score ; a gargoyle was valued
at is. A carver's regular wages were 6d. per day.
When Hyndeley was master-mason and engaged on
the screen, he had six carpenters in employment, whose
labour cost £11 i&. 4d Three ordinary labourers
received £4 16s. qd. ; the sawyers, whose numbers are /
not given, were paid £1 7s. 8%d.

When the minster was completed and reconsecrated
in 1472, it had already gained that foremost place in
the affections of the Yorkshire folk which it has ever
since possessed, even in the dark days of Puritan
fanaticism. Princes, nobles, and prelates viewed it with
admiration and wonder; the people came to it from
far and near as to the shrine of a favourite saint And,
indeed, it contained not one but many shrines, for its
great archbishops lay interred within it, and folk were
eager to visit the last resting-places of such men as
St William, Roger of Bishopsbridge, Walter de Gray,
and John Thoresby. Moreover, within the first half of
the fifteenth century a new shrine of great repute had
been set up in the minster over the tomb of Archbishop
Scrope, a prelate of holy life and great learning, held in
high estimation by his fellow- Yorkshiremen, who re-
garded his execution in his own palace of Bishopthorpe
as no less than a foul murder. Thousands resorted to
his tomb in the minster, and it, like that of St William,
most gentle and beloved of the early archbishops of
York, gained the name of a miracle-working shrine, and
had rich offerings bestowed upon it With its shrines
and tombs, and its many chapels and chantries, York
Minster at the end of the fifteenth century must have
been a religious centre of great zeal and activity.

84 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

There are still preserved in the vestry of York
Minster some antiquities of great value and interest,
such as the Horn of Ulf, son of Thorald, whereby many
lands are held for the church ; the Indulgence Cup of
Archbishop Scrope ; a splendid oak chest of the fif-
teenth century, carved with the story of St George;
and the rings and chalices of several archbishops, taken
from their tombs. But the treasures of the minster in
these days are as nothing to what they were previous to
the Reformation. One is told of two copies of the
Gospels, written in uncial letters upon purple vellum,
and bound in elaborately jewelled covers, and said to
have once belonged to St Wilfrith ; of many mitres
thickly encrusted with gems, whereof one, given by
Archbishop Scott, was valued at 700 marks; of the
chalice and paten of Archbishop Walter de Gray,
fashioned of pure gold and studded with precious
stones ; of thuribles and reliquaries of the precious
metal ; of copies of the Holy Scriptures, the Gospels,
and Service Books, magnificently illuminated. Most
precious possession of all was the head of St William,
which was kept in a gold reliquary studded with gems
in a shrine between the choir screens, which reliquary,
at the time of the Reformation, was made the subject
of special reservation by Richard Layton, the Dean of
York, who had acted as one of Henry VIII.'s commis-
sioners, and who had so little reverence for the dead
prelates and dignitaries of the minster that he allowed
their tombs to be carelessly opened and their bones
to be ruthlessly disturbed.

Of real or supposed relics of the saints, York Minster
at the beginning of the sixteenth century possessed one
of the largest collections in England. Many of them
were personally brought from Rome to York by Arch-
bishop Roger ; others were got together by St William

THE MAKING OF THE MINSTERS 85

and by Archbishop Thurstan. For their safe keeping
Archbishop Roger designed a great cross, which was
kept behind the pulpit ; at later dates many were pre-
served in a cross behind the high altar, close to which
were three pixes, coloured red, green, and white, wherein
more relics were kept ; one hears, too, of a great gold
box or bier, and of a hollow cross of pure gold, wherein
some of the wonder-working remains of the sanctified
were treasured. Of the characters of the relics much
might be written : amongst them were a bone of St.
Peter ; a finger-joint of St John Baptist ; a tooth of St
Stephen ; a fragment of the True Cross ; an arm of
St Sebastian ; bones of Lazarus and of Martha, his
sister ; the angelic clothing of St Agnes, virgin ; the Rod
of Aaron ; and a piece of the manna which sustained the
Israelites in their wanderings through the desert. What
became of these relics at the Reformation it is impos-
sible to conjecture, but no one need speculate on the
fate of the jewel-encrusted reliquaries.

There was naturally much more colour in the pre-
Reformation life of the minster than it has known since.
Well loved and cared for as it is in these days, its daily
life is cold and bare when compared to the ceaseless
activity which went on when there were no less than
forty-four chantries within it, and the bells were for ever
proclaiming some great feast, or grand rite, or imposing
procession. It is matter for thankfulness that the great
church and its beauties escaped the fury and ignorant
vandalism of the Puritans so well. The series of brasses
which Archbishop Thoresby set up in the fourteenth
century n commemoration of his predecessors were, it
is true, rudely torn away, and, for the most part,
destroyed, and many minor acts of despoliation were
committed, but the minster passed through the storm
practically unscathed, and its glass was made the

86 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

subject of special arrangement for protection when the
Royalist leaders surrendered the city to the Parlia-
mentarians after the battle of Marston Moor in 1644.

Of the pre-Reformation archbishops between Thomas
of Bayeux and Robert Holgate much picturesque matter
might be recorded if one had space to deal with it
From the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries the Arch-
bishops of York were much more important figures in
Church, State, and social life than they have been since.
Walter de Gray was Chancellor of England from 1205
to 1 2 14 — the better part of the reign of King John,
whose great friend he steadfastly remained — and he was
Henry III.'s Regent on the two occasions which called the
king into France. Archbishop Greenfield was Chancellor
at the time of his election, and much of his life was
devoted to statecraft under the first two Edwards.
Archbishop Thoresby, Chancellor from 1349 to 1356,
was one of the most notable occupants of the seat of
St Paulinus which York ever knew, for he was not only
a great churchman, a wise statesman, and a splendid
organizer, but also a considerable social force in the
county. The archbishops who sprang from the great
families of the North naturally exercised a considerable
amount of influence. Richard Scrope, for example,
was the most popular man of his time in Yorkshire, and
still more popular after his death. Archbishop George
Neville, brother of Warwick the Kingmaker, was either
popular or meant to be so, judging by the great feast
which he gave at Cawood Castle on his elevation to the
see in 1465. No such banquet, probably, had ever
been provided in the county before — the list of dishes,
wines, and delicacies is so formidable as to suggest that
the entire population of the diocese had received invita-
tions — 1000 cooks, 500 kitcheners, and 500 scullions
prepared the feast ; 1000 waiting-men set it on the

THE MAKING OF THE MINSTERS 87

tables. For drinking there was provision made of 300
tuns of ale, 100 tuns of wine, and a pipe of Hippocras.
In fish, there were 600 pike and bream, and 12 seals
and porpoises ; in flesh, 1000 sheep, 100 oxen, 6 wild
bulls, 304 calves, 304 pork pigs, 2000 common pigs,
204 kids, 500 deer, 1 500 venison pasties cold and 4000
hot, and 4000 rabbits; in fowl, there was a choice
amongst 4000 teals and mallards, 2000 chickens, 2000
geese, 1000 capons, 2400 fowls, 1000 egrittes, 4000
pigeons, 204 cranes, 204 pheasants, 204 bitterns, 400
swans, 400 heronstorks, 500 partridges, 400 curlews, 104
peacocks, and 1200 quails. For folk of a sweet tooth the
archbishop's cooks provided 4000 cold tarts, 3000 cold
custards, 2000 hot custards, and 300 dishes of jelly.
There was never anything so grand as this afterwards.
If Cardinal Wolsey had not been called away from
Cawood to die heart-broken and miserable at the
Abbey of Leicester, some of the ancient glories and
colour might have been revived, for it was well known
that he spent his last days in Yorkshire in preparing for
a stately enthronization of himself as archbishop. But
with Wolsey the old order changed. His next successor
but one, Robert Holgate, whom Fuller somewhat con-
temptuously terms a M parcel Protestant," had, like
Luther, been a monk, and like Luther he married a
wife. This noteworthy event took place in 1 549, in the
little church of Adwick-le-Street, where he publicly
espoused Barbara Wentworth, who is said to have been
engaged to another man at the time she married the
archbishop.

The love and affection with which York Minster
is regarded by the whole county was well exemplified
during the last century, when various events necessitated
the expenditure of large sums of money upon its restora-
tion and repair. The damage caused by the half-witted

88 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

incendiary, Robert Martin, in 1829, was repaired at a
cost of £65,000, an amount further supplemented by
handsome grants of wood by the Government, and stone
from the Huddeston quarries, given by the descendants
of the Vavasours, who had first helped to build the
minster. Another fire in 1840 necessitated a further
expenditure of nearly £25,000, and since that date large
sums have been spent from time to time in renewing
and preserving the fabric. It seems strange that any
appeal should ever have to be made on behalf of this
great church, whereon the folk of the age of faith
lavished their best, but it says much for the spirit of
these days that no such appeal is ever made in vain.

II

As in the case of York, Ripon Minster (now the
cathedral church of a modern diocese, erected in 1836)
owes its interest and beauty to the archbishops. The
names which occur in the early history of York appear
again in the early history of Ripon. St Wilfrith, in
the years immediately succeeding the reintroduction
of Christianity into Yorkshire ; Archbishop Thomas in
those following the Norman Conquest; Archbishop
Roger in the twelfth century ; and Walter de Gray in
the thirteenth century — these were the early founders of
Ripon Minster, as they were of the great church at
York. Between the Archbishops of York and Ripon
a close connection existed for some centuries. It was
their favourite residence until Walter de Gray acquired
Bishopthorpe on the Ouse and built a palace there, and
the manor remained in their hands until recent times.
There was thus at all times a link between them and
the minster which some of the earliest of them set up
on the rising ground between Ure and SkelL

THE MAKING OF THE MINSTERS 89

Little is known of the ecclesiastical history of Ripon
previous to the seventh century. It is said that in 660
there was in existence, on or about the site of the
present minster, a religious house dependant upon the
Abbey of Melrose, and that its monks about this time
returned to Scotland, their house and lands being handed
over to Wilfrith, who, either before his elevation to
the See of York in 669 or between that date and his
deprivation in 678, built a new church and monastery of
a more ambitious sort Wilfrith, " whose love of Rome/'
says Green, linking him with St. Benedict Biscop,
" amounted to a passionate fanaticism," brought Italian
workmen back to England with him whenever he
returned from one of his numerous journeys to the
centre of Christendom, and they are supposed to have
been solely responsible for the architecture of the
church which he undoubtedly built at Ripon, and of
which the present crypt is certainly a deeply interesting
relic According to tradition, St Wilfrith's church was
consecrated in the presence of all the rich and powerful
of Northumbria, and the ceremony was followed by a
feast which lasted three days and three nights. There
are also traditions of the treasures which the saint
bestowed upon the church, and of a magnificent collec-
tion of illuminated books, amongst them a copy of the
Gospels, written in gold on purple vellum, and pre-
served in a golden casket ; but this, like the treasures
and relics of York, have disappeared completely.

When St Wilfrith was deprived of his see in 678,
Northumbria was divided into three episcopates — York,
Hexham, and Ripon ; but the first bishop of Ripon was
also the last, and the diocese was soon merged again in
that of York. Upon his deprivation the saint is said to
have left the country, and to have spent many years in
exile, but he returned to Ripon before his death, and,

92 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

and Aislabies — whose memories are preserved by many
monuments in the minster, were as generous to Ripon
as the Scropes, Vavasours, and Percys were to York.
Leland speaks of the widening of the nave as having
been carried out by the "help of gentelmen of the
countery."

The most interesting feature of Ripon Minster is
the passage opening out of the crypt, which is locally
termed St. Wilfrid's Needle. The crypt, entered at the
south-east corner of the nave, is of remarkably small
dimensions, being about 9 feet in height, 1 1 feet in length,
and 8 feet in width. The Needle is a narrow passage made
through the north wall, and opening at the further side
to a staircase which leads to the choir. According to
Camden, this passage was used as a test of feminine
chastity. The woman upon whose reputation some slur
had been cast was adjudged guilty if she could not pass
through the Needle ; innocent, if she could. "They
pricked their credits/ 1 says Fuller, commenting upon
this legend, " who could not thread the needle." As to
what the passage really was authorities differ, but the
probability is that it was used for the exhibition of
relics. What is much more interesting than the legend
is the fact that the crypt and the passage form the most
ancient Christian relic of absolute authority in York-
shire, for there is no doubt that here one lays hands on
actual work actually done by the workmen who accom-
panied St Wilfrith from Rome about the year 660.

To Ripon, as to Beverley, iEthelstan granted many
privileges by royal charter, and amongst others the
right of sanctuary. The boundaries of the sanctuary
were marked by eight crosses, which enclosed a space
extending a mile from the church in all directions. Of
these crosses the remains of one may be seen at Sharrow.
The right of sanctuary here was claimed as recently as

THE MAKING OF THE MINSTERS 93

the sixteenth century by a man who had possessed him-
self of another's wife and household goods. Although
no attempt was made to revive the ancient bishopric
until 1836, Ripon was always a place of great ecclesi-
astical power and importance, ranking with York and
Beverley above all churches in Yorkshire. Until the dis-
solution of the collegiate churches the minster was served
by the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, and it was
restored to the dignity of a collegiate church by James I.
in 1604, the deed providing for a clerical body consist-
ing of a dean and six prebendaries. After the formation
of the diocese of Ripon in 1836, a thorough restoration
of the minster was decided upon, and this was carried
out between 1862 and 1872 by Sir Gilbert Scott at a
cost of about forty thousand pounds, the greater part of
which sum was raised in Yorkshire.

Ill

It is to one of the earliest Archbishops of York,
St John of Beverley, who ranks with St Wilfrith and
St William as one of the three great Yorkshire saints,
that we owe the inception of the beautiful minster which
stands at the edge of the Wolds in the quaint little
town of his adoption. St John was a Yorkshireman by
birth, the son of parents of noble birth, and he was born
at Harpham, near Driffield, in the East Riding, in 640.
The name John was given to him by Theodore, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, in whose charge he appears to
have been placed at an early age. Later on he was an
inmate of St Hilda's Abbey at Whitby, and the greater
part of his life as a young man was spent in retreat from
the world. He was consecrated Bishop of Hexham in
685, and translated from Hexham to York twenty years
later, and it was during his archiepiscopate that he

94 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

founded a monastic institution, in which, after the fashion
followed at a later date by St Gilbert of Sempringham,
provision was made for the religious of both sexes at
Beverley, where there already existed a small church
dedicated to St John the Evangelist To this monas-
tery St. John retired on resigning his see in 718, and
within its walls he died in 721. To its abbot, Bere-
thune, he communicated many of the details of his life,
which Berethune afterwards told to the Venerable Bede,
whose account of the miracles wrought at St John's
shrine were derived from the same source.

During the next three centuries the fame of St John
steadily increased, and many people were attracted to
the monastery which he had founded. It, like most of
the religious houses of Yorkshire at that time, suffered
much from pirates and marauders. Towards the end of
the ninth century church and cloisters were burnt or
razed to the ground by the Danes, and the inmates
were driven to the surrounding woods. A period of
privation and poverty followed, and it was not until
iEthelstan accorded his protection to the community
about 937 that prosperity fell upon their fortunes once
more. According to the chroniclers, iEthelstan, hearing
of the marvels which were wrought at St John's tomb,
visited Beverley on his way northward, prayed in the
church, and left his dagger, or knife, on the altar with a
promise that if he were successful in his campaign, he
would return and endow church and monastery with
money and lands. He is said to have carried the
banner of St. John before him at the battle of Brunan-
burgh, and it is certain that he returned to Beverley
after his success in the North and confirmed the monks
in their holding, and gave them lands and privileges,
including the right to sanctuary, using, it is said, the
words which are still to be read in the minster —

THE MAKING OF THE MINSTERS 95

" Als fre make I thee
As hert may thynke
Or egh may see."

The right of sanctuary thus granted was exercised
until the middle of the sixteenth century. Its boun-
daries extended for a mile in every direction ; its centre
was the Frith-Stol (the free seat), which still exists in
the minster. In the Harleian MSS. is preserved a
register of instances in which sanctuary was claimed at
Beverley. Some of the cases were of murder or homi-
cide, some of debt, some of uttering bad coin, some of
treason. A criminal or fugitive might claim the right
of sanctuary twice ; if he claimed it a third time, he
became a perpetual servant of the community. Sanc-
tuary at Beverley comprised free board and lodging
within the precincts for thirty days, and thereafter a safe
conduct to the sea or to the borders of the county.

St. John of Beverley was canonized by Benedict IX.
in 1037, and the fame of his house and church steadily
increased. Edward the Confessor gave it and the town
which was growing up around it many privileges, and it
was the recipient of several favours from the Archbishop
of York. According to an ancient tradition, Beverley
was the only place which William the Conqueror gave
orders to spare when he caused the devastation of
Yorkshire. Whether this is true or not is a debateable
question ; but Freeman, in his " History of the Norman
Conquest," relates an incident which shows that William
had a wholesome fear of the power of St John. While
in the neighbourhood of Beverley some of his soldiers

" set forth," says Freeman, " to make a pray of the town, and
of those who had sought shelter in it. They entered Beverley
without meeting any resistance, and made their way to the
churchyard. The leader of the band, Toustain . . . marked
out an old man in goodly apparel with a golden bracelet on

96 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

his arm ... the English fled within the walls of the Minster.
The sacrilegious Toustain, sword in hand, spurred his horse
within the hallowed doors. But the vengeance of St. John of
Beverley did not slumber. The horse fell with its neck
broken, and Toustain himself, smitten in his own person, his
arms and legs all twisted behind his back, seemed no longer a
man, but a monster. His affrighted comrades laid aside all
their schemes of plunder and slaughter, and humbly implored
the mercy of the saint They made their way to William, and
told him of the wonder. The king had already shown himself
a friend to the Church of St. John, and now, fearing the wrath
of the saint, he summoned the chief members of the chapter
before him, and again confirmed all their processions by
charters under the royal seal."

But Freeman considered much of what is said of
Beverley at this time to be legendary, and the only thing
that seems certain of its history during the reign of the
Norman kings is that it undoubtedly enjoyed their favour
and received many privileges from them.

Of the minster as it existed in those days nothing
remains to us. On the night following the Feast of St.
Matthew the Apostle, 1188, a great fire broke out in
Beverley which did great damage to town and minster,
and whether the latter was completely destroyed or not,
it is certain that the present structure does not date
from a period earlier than the year 120a

" The whole of the eastern part of the church," says Bilson,
" including the first bay of the nave immediately west of the
crossing, dates from the second quarter of the 13th century,
and is a most admirable example of the completely developed
Gothic style. Its plan is remarkably regular and perfect, very
accurately set out, and showing no departure from the general
design, except at the eastern crossing. From the absence of
any approach to the forms of the Geometrical period, we must
conclude that the work was rapidly carried out, doubtless

THE MAKING OF THE MINSTERS 97

under a single master-hand. . • • The work of the 13th cen-
tury includes one bay of the nave arcade and triforium imme-
diately west of the great crossing. Here the rebuilding stopped
for some eighty or ninety years, the early nave being still in
existence and in use during this period. The new nave was
in course of erection in 1334. ... At the west end of the
nave especially in the north aisle, the work of the Curvilinear
and Perpendicular periods is intermingled in a very curious
way, which indicates clearly enough a sudden stoppage of the
work. This is doubtless due to the Black Death of 1349 and
the recurrence of the plague in the following years. This
stoppage may have extended over twenty or thirty years. The
building was then completed by the erection of the west front,
with its two towers, and of the north porch. The west front is
certainly one of the finest works of the Perpendicular period."

In this opinion of the beauty of the west front
Rickman, in his " Styles of Architecture in England,"
concurs. " By far the finest " (Perpendicular west fronts),
he observes, " is that of Beverley Minster.' 9

During the time that the minster was building
Beverley was frequently visited by the reigning sover-
eigns, who left many proofs of their royal favours behind
them, in the shape of grants and benevolences. The
Archbishops of York were specially interested in the
restoration : Archbishop William de Melton gave twenty
marks out of his own purse towards the building of
the new nave ; each occupant of the chair once filled
by St John furthered the work with blessings and
privileges. William de Waltham gave £40 towards
the glazing of the great east window in 1416. The
great families of the district were zealous in gifts and
help, and the stone, some of which came from Newbold,
and some from the Hazel wood quarries, near Tad-
caster, was doubtless largely contributed by the Percys
and the Vavasours. That the Percys were generous

98 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

donors one may feel sure, seeing that one of their prin-
cipal castles, Leconfield, stood close to the town. Of
one of them, Eleanor Fitz-Alan, wife of Henry, Lord
Percy, who died in 1328, the minster contains a monu-
ment, in the most ornate style of the Decorated period,
which is generally considered to be the finest example
of monumental architecture in Europe. This was pro-
bably erected about 1340— about the same period the
shrine of St. John of Beverley, whose bones had been
recovered after the fire of 11 88, in which their original
shrine was destroyed, was in great repute amongst the
faithful, who resorted to it in vast numbers, and doubt-
less left upon it rich offerings, which went to help in the
process of building.

The minster, from its early beginnings, had been
served by a collegiate body, of whom, until the end of
the eleventh century, the Archbishop of York was the
nominal head. In 1092 Archbishop Thomas established
the office of provost, and at the middle of the twelfth
century the collegiate body consisted of a provost (who
exercised lay as well as spiritual jurisdiction), a chan-
cellor, nine canons, nine canon-vicars, seven clerks, and
a sacrist In an interesting paper contributed by Mr.
Leach to the Transactions of the East Riding Anti-
quarian Society y in 1894, there are several particulars as
to the mediaeval members of the minster establishment
Thomas Becket, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury,
and canonized soon after his murder, was provost in
1 1 50. Alured, the historian, was treasurer of the
minster about the year 1200; Fulk Barratt, afterwards
Bishop of London, styled by Matthew Paris " the Anchor
of the whole kingdom," was provost about the same
time; Archbishop William de Melton was provost in
1310. Other notable provosts or canons, at one time or
another, were Robert Nevile, some time Bishop of

THE MAKING OF THE MINSTERS 99

Durham ; John Bermyngham, Treasurer of York ; Laur-
ence Booth, Archbishop of York ; John Mansell, Chan-
cellor of St Paul's; and Archbishop Scott, Lord
Chancellor and Apostolic Legate. When the collegiate
body was dissolved, in the reign of Edward VI., the
minster had a staff of nearly eighty persons — i provost,
9 canons, 3 officers, 7 parsons, 9 vicars-choral, 1 5 chantry-
priests, 2 subordinate officers, 17 clerks, 4 sacristans,
2 thurifers, and 8 choristers. Its annual value was then
about £600, and the collegiate body is said to have
possessed twenty thousand acres of land.

Freeman, in discussing York, Lincoln, and Beverley
in detail, observes that the East Riding minster yields
to neither of its greater sisters in true beauty, and there
are few churches in England in which the architecture
is so perfectly proportioned. It is a deeply interesting
church to visit ; its possession of the relics of St John,
the beauty of the Percy tomb, the elaborate architecture
of the triforium, the grace of the flying buttresses with-
out, the strength of the massive columns at the inter-
section within, its brasses and monuments, and the soft
colour of its gray stone, all help to make it attractive
and impressive. In one respect it is unique amongst
English cathedrals and minsters — its choir-stalls and
misericordes, in number and beauty of design, are un-
equalled. There are altogether sixty-eight stalls, and
of these forty-two are surmounted by elaborate taber-
nacle work. The misericordes, which date from the
early part of the sixteenth century, are supposed to
have some cryptic meaning, but the key to it has long
been lost The grotesque work is full of allegorical detail,
and the subjects are curious and amusing. No. 2 shows
a Monkey combing a Cat, an Ape mounted on horse-
back, followed by a Man carrying a club, and a Boy
riding a Fig ; No. 26, a Man lifting a beam, a Woman

100 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

haled to the Ducking-stool, and a Woman nursing a
Puppy ; No. 39, an Owl, a Fox, habited like a Friar,
preaching to Geese, and a Man shoeing a Goose ;
No. 43, a Devil and a Miser, a Devil pursuing a Fugitive
Soul, and a Devil and a Glutton ; No. 47, a Cat playing
a viol to a company of dancing Mice, a Cat catching
Rats, a Cat tossing a Mouse; No. 55, a Camel, an
Elephant driven by an Ape, a Lion laughing. It is some-
what remarkable that in the whole series of sixty-eight
there is only one evident scriptural allusion, which occurs
at No. 53, where the grapes of Eschol are represented.

At the time of the Reformation, Beverley Minster,
with its handsome revenue, its large staff of clergy, and
its great reputation as one of three principal centres of
religious life in Yorkshire, was a place of considerable
importance and influence. The suppression of the col-
legiate churches and chantry chapels transformed it into
a place of comparative silence. Its clerical staff was
reduced to a vicar and three curates, and its services
were shorn of their dignity. During the next hundred
and fifty years the fabric was grossly neglected and ill
used, and at the beginning of the eighteenth century it
was in real danger of becoming ruinous. An effort was
made during the reign of George I. to put it in repair,
and for this purpose large quantities of stone were
brought from the ruins of St Mary's Abbey at York.
But it was not until the last half of the nineteenth
century that the minster was fittingly restored to some-
thing like its original beauty. It was handed over to
Sir G. G. Scott in 1867, and benefited greatly by his
judicious treatment, and it now ranks worthily with
York and Ripon as one of our greatest historic monu-
ments. Of it, as of the churches so closely associated
with St William and St Wilfrith, Yorkshire folk have
good reason to be proud.

CHAPTER VI

THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES

The Monastic Orders in Yorkshire — Remains of the Principal
Religions Houses — Abbey and Priory Churches now used as
Parish Churches — Situation and Architecture of the Various
Religious Houses — Stories and Legends of the Foundations —
Selby and the Finger of St. Germanus — Secession from St. Mary's
at York to Fountains Abbey — Legend of Bolton Priory — Founding
of Kirkham Priory — Early Vicissitudes of the Various Orders —
Early Experiences at Fountains Abbey — Prosperous Days of the
Monastic Orders in Yorkshire — The Mitred Abbots — Life of the
Great Houses — The Compotus Books of Bolton Priory and Sawley
Abbey — Conventual Scandals— Margaret Fairfax and the Priory
of Nun Monkton— Remarkable Punishment of a Monk at Mount
Grace — Fate of the Religious Houses at the Dissolution*

PREVIOUS to the Dissolution of the Religious
Houses in the sixteenth century, Yorkshire was
distinguished above most English counties by the
number, wealth, and influence of its monastic and con-
ventual establishments. How many there were within
the borders of the county it is now impossible to say,
but such evidences as one can gather seem to show that
they were out of all proportion to the population.* Of
many of the houses there is no trace left ; of many
others the sole remains are seen in a few stones built

* Dr. Gasquct, in his "English Monastic Life," mentions over one
hundred and sixty religious houses as belonging to Yorkshire, but does not
include mere mounds or grass-covered heaps.

IOI

102 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

into a farmstead or a boundary wall. Some of the
great country houses of the county are built on the site
of the ancient religious houses — Nostell, for example,
stands on the site of the first priory ever founded in
England by the Canons Regular of St Augustine ;
Newburgh was a house of the same order ; Nun Apple-
ton and Nun Monkton, as their names would suggest,
were originally convents for women. Of the innumerable
religious houses which existed in the towns scarcely a
trace is left. There are known to have been several
such houses at Pontefract, but the town can show little
of their remains. One of the nine Carthusian houses in
England was at Hull, but the chief evidence of monasti-
cism in the Hull of to-day is in the name of a street —
Whitefriargate. Nothing remains of the once-famous
Franciscan house at Richmond but the graceful tower
of its church. All over the county, in town and village
alike, one is constantly reminded by a name, a few
stones, a ground-plan, or a local tradition that by this
stream or in the shadow of that wood, or on some spot
now given over to the workshop or the manufactory,
once stood a house of religion.

The monastic orders were well represented in York-
shire from the earliest times, and especially in the
centuries intervening between the Norman Conquest
and the Dissolution. The twelfth century was exceed-
ingly prolific in the matter of pious foundations, and
most of the important religious houses in the county
date from it or from a period within the years 1070-
121 2. Of the houses founded during that period, the
remains of about twenty are still in evidence and in a
sufficient state of endurance or of clearness as regards
their ground-plans to merit the attention and careful
examination of the archaeologist Three of these —
Whitby (founded about 1070, upon the site of a previous

THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES 103

abbey, the Streanaeshalch of St. Hilda, fd. 657), Selby
(1070), and St Mary's of York (1078) — were of the
Benedictine obedience. Four — Bridlington (11 10),
Guisborough (11 19), Bolton (1120), and Kirkham (1121)
— were houses of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine.
Eight — Rievaulx (1131), Fountains (1132), Sawley
(1147), Roche (1147), Meaux (1150), Kirkstall (1152),
Jervaulx (1156), and Byland (1177) — followed the
Cistercian rule. Three — Malton, Watton, and Ellerton,
all founded about 1 1 50— were houses of the order insti-
tuted by St Gilbert of Sempringham. One — Monk
Bretton (1157) — was a Cluniac house. Three — Easby
(1152), Eggleston (1195), an <* Coverham (1212) — be-
longed to the Praemonstratensian Canons. And one —
Mount Grace (1397) — is the sole representative in York-
shire of the great family of Cistercian monasteries. Of
these houses, four are in active touch with the present
day, in the sense that their churches, or parts of them,
have since the Dissolution been converted to parochial
use. The magnificent abbey-church of Selby, almost
as perfect as in the days of its glory, is the parish
church of the town in which it forms the great feature.
The beautiful priory church of Bridlington, after remain-
ing in a ruinous condition since the Dissolution, was
partly restored in 1857 and converted into the parish
church of the Old Town. The nave of Bolton Priory
has been used as the church of its parish ever since the
priory itself was given up to the commissioners in 1539.
The priory church of Malton was put to similar use as
the parish church of the older portion of the town.

There is a considerable variety in the condition of
the remains of the other religious houses. Fountains
Abbey is in an excellent state of preservation ; Mount
Grace enables the curious to form an accurate notion of
the arrangements of a Carthusian monastery. Kirkstall,

104 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Rievaulx, and Bolton are each notable for the remains
still existing; the ground-plans of Sawley, Jervaulx,
and Easby have been carefully laid bare, and at the
two latter, as at Roche and Guisborough, there are
noble ruins which testify to the former beauty of the
monasteries. There is much to see at Whitby and at
St. Mary's of York, but Monk Bretton can show little
beyond its gatehouse, and Meaux has still more meagre
traces of its former state. Ellerton is a lonely tower
overlooking the Swale; Eggleston a picturesque grey
mass of roofless walls set high above the Tees.

For picturesqueness of situation some of the York-
shire religious houses may compare with any in England.
The sylvan loveliness of the surroundings of Bolton
Priory and Fountains Abbey are famous all over the
world. No one who sees it for the first/ time will ever
forget the impression made by Rievaulx; those who
have spent quiet mornings by the Swale under the
shadow of the walls of Easby will look back upon them
with warm recollections of the peacefulness of the scene.
Camden said of Guisborough that it rivalled Puteoli, in
Italy, and Horace Walpole was impressed by the gloomy
grandeur of Roche. Kirkstall is nowadays set in the
midst of a valley given up to industrialism, but it must
once have made a magnificent centre-point to a grand
picture. Mount Grace has a delightful situation on the
edge of the Cleveland Hills ; Jervaulx and Coverham
are beauty-spots in one of the most beautiful of the
Yorkshire dales. Equal charm of scenery belongs to
Byland, and if Whitby stands high and lonely on a
wind-swept cliff, destitute of woodland, it makes up for
its lack of sylvan surroundings by the possession of
wide-stretching prospects of the heath-clad moorlands
on one hand and the North Sea on the other.

The architecture of the Yorkshire religious houses,

THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES 105

of which considerable remains are extant, is of a high
order. That of Whitby, Bridlington, Bolton, Kirkham,
Monk Bretton, and Eggleston is Early English and
Decorated ; of Selby, Norman and Decorated ; of St.
Mary's of York and Ellerton, Early English ; of
Rievaulx, Norman and Early English ; of Fountains,
Jervaulx, Byland, and Easby, Transitional Norman and
Early English ; of Kirkstall and Malton, Transitional
Norman; of Roche, Transitional Norman and Deco-
rated ; of Guisborough, Early Decorated ; of Watton,
Decorated ; of Coverham, Decorated and Perpendicular ;
and of Mount Grace, Perpendicular. Of Meaux and of
Sawley there are not sufficient remains left to speak
with certainty of their style of architecture, but that
of Sawley was probably largely Norman, with some
Perpendicular additions of a later date.

Around the earlier days of the religious houses
hangs a good deal of the mistiness of fable and legend.
In the case of many of them all the history that can
be obtained is from monastic chronicles in which im-
probabilities are largely mixed with accurate statements
of fact The legend of the founding of Selby, as given
by one of its own monks in a manuscript written about
the end of the twelfth century, forms an excellent example
of the stories told in similar chronicles. In the monastery
of Auxerre, in France, says this historian, there was living
about the time of the Norman Conquest a monk named
Benedict, who was visited in a dream by St Germanus,
who bade him fly to a far country, and showed him in a
vision the place whereat he was to tarry and to set up
a house in honour of that saint Benedict hastened to
cany out this behest, and took with him a finger of St
Germanus. Crossing the Channel, he came, after some
wanderings, to Salisbury, where he was met by one who
furnished him with a reliquary of gold wherein to store

106 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

the precious finger. Taking ship once more from a
port on the south coast, he sailed east and north, and
after more adventures by sea came up the Humber and
Ouse, and at Selby recognized the spot which the saint
had shown him in his vision. Landing at a point near
the present abbey church, he set up a cross, built him-
self a rude shelter beneath an oak tree, and occupied
himself in praying and in devotion to St Germanus's
finger. While thus engaged, Hugh, Sheriff of Yorkshire,
passed along the Ouse and saw him, and landing to
make inquiry, was so struck by the sight of the relic
that he immediately took Benedict under his protection,
sent carpenters to build him a chapel and cells, and
obtained from William the Conqueror a grant of land
for the use of Benedict and the monks who flocked to
him. This was the beginning of the great abbey which
became only second to St Mary's at York in wealth
and importance.

It was because of internal dissension in St. Mary's
of York that Fountains Abbey came into existence.
Sixty years after the foundation of St Mary's its monks
were a prosperous community — so prosperous, indeed,
that idleness and luxury of a certain degree began to
tempt them from the paths of self-denial and labour.
The discipline of the abbey began to be relaxed, and
there were signs that the abbot cared more for political
power than for the deepening of the spiritual life. The
majority of the monks of St Mary's were content with
this state of things, but there were seven who became
anxious as to their salvation and longed to embrace
some stricter rule. To them came news of the austerity
and piety of the lives of the Cistercians who had settled
in the solitudes of Rievaulx, and they became impelled
by a desire to forsake St Mary's and set up a similarly
constituted house of their own. Then they received an

* - • «

« > • •

THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES 107

important addition to their numbers in Richard, at that
time Prior of St Mary's, who was thenceforward their
head. Other monks joined them at the same time, until
at last there were thirteen who were anxious to forsake
the rule of St. Benedict for that of St Bernard. In
1 131 Prior Richard and his twelve followers openly
expressed their desire to the Abbot of St Mary's, who,
supported by the rest of the community, resisted the
proposal for a separation, alleging, with much reason,
that such a proceeding would bring the house into
disgrace and cause an undesirable scandaL In the
June of that year Prior Richard appealed to Thurstan,
then Archbishop of York, to make solemn inquiry into
the whole matter, and particularly into the rules and
life of the abbey. On October 6, 1132, Archbishop
Thurstan, attended by a retinue of clergy, proceeded to
St Mary's to hold the inquiry then demanded. A
scene ensued which assumed highly discreditable
aspects — the abbot and his supporters suddenly refused
to enter into discussion with the archbishop, and a
general melee occurred, which ended in Thurstan's re-
treat to the minster, whither he conveyed Prior Richard
and the other twelve malcontents. There he kept them
until Christmas, and during the intervening weeks nego-
tiations went on with the Abbot of St. Mary's, one
result of which was that two of the monks returned to
the present fold. But one of them soon repented him,
and went back, accompanying the rest of his brethren
and Prior Richard a little later to Ripon, where Thurstan
entertained them at his archiepiscopal palace for the
Christmas festivities. These over, he seems to have
come to a definite conclusion as to what was to be done
with them, for he forthwith conducted them in person
to a lonely spot on the banks of the little river Skell,
made it over to them with the adjacent hamlet of Sutton,

108 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

and giving them his fatherly benediction, left them in
the middle of winter, to begin the strenuous life for
which they hankered and to lay the primitive foundations
of Fountains Abbey.

There is a curious similarity in the legends associ-
ated with the founding of Bolton Priory and the less
famous priory of Kirkham. The story usually told of
Bolton is so well known, chiefly through the poetry of
Wordsworth and of Rogers, both of whom adhere to
the legend, that it has come to be looked upon as
actual fact, whereas it is largely imaginative or distorted
from the exact circumstances of the case. That of
Kirkham is more dependable, and hence scarcely merits
the epithet of legendary ; but it is remarkable that in
both stories the foundation of the two houses is ascribed
to a pious desire on the part of parents, deprived
by sudden accidents of only sons, to commemorate
them by building churches and cloisters near the scenes
of their deaths. In the case of Bolton Priory, the
legend runs that the only son of the Lady Adeliza de
Romilte was drowned in attempting to cross the Strid,
a narrow chasm through which passes the Wharfe, and
that she founded the house and endowed it richly in his
memory. But, according to evidence brought forward
by Whitaker in his " History of Craven," and by Dug-
dale in his " Monasticon Anglicanum," Alice de Romilli
gave her estate of Bolton to the monks of Embsay, in
exchange for their lands at Stretton and Skibeden, and
her son William de Romill6 was a consenting party to
the transaction. The most ingenious explanation of
the discrepancy between history and legend is that
young Romilll was really drowned in the Wharfe after
the signing of the deed, in which he is mentioned as
being then alive, and that his death was made a pretext
for removing the priory of Augustinian Canon3, which

THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES 109

his family had founded at Embsay, to a more con-
venient site at Bolton.

The points of similarity between the Bolton legend
and the Kirkham story are interesting, inasmuch as
both deal with accidents arising from youthful love of
sport, and that both victims were only sons. At the
beginning of the twelfth century most of the land in the
neighbourhood of Kirkham, on the Derwent, was held
by Walter l'Espec, who, later in life, figured largely at
the Battle of the Standard. His only son, another
Walter, who was devoted to the chase, was hunting one
day along the river banks, when his horse was suddenly
startled by a wild boar and flung its rider, who, after
being dashed against a stone which forms part of a cross
near the gatehouse of Kirkham Priory, was dragged to
a spot whereon the high altar of the church was subse-
quently erected. His father, inconsolable at this heavy
affliction, applied to his brother William, then rector of
the neighbouring parish of Garton, for spiritual consola-
tion, and, by his advice, built and endowed three
religious houses — at Kirkham, at Rievaulx, and at
Warden, in Bedfordshire. To Rievaulx he himself
eventually retired, and died a monk there. There seems
little doubt that this is a veracious story, yet it is
singular that no version of it is given in the early
charters of Kirkham Priory. Dugdale, who quotes it in
his "Monasticon Anglicanum," appears to have got it
from local tradition. It is singular, too, that its date
should coincide with that of the Bolton legend, and
that two great families should have been plunged into
grief from similar causes at almost exactly the same
time.

Although there was nothing that could have been
very fascinating to the monks themselves in the priva-
tions which followed the actual beginnings of most of

110 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

the religious houses, the various stories of these priva-
tions which have come down to us of these times are
fascinating enough. The stories of almost all the
monastic establishments are alike in respect of the fact
that each began in poverty and ended in riches. Nothing
in their histories is more interesting than the account of
the struggles and trials which befell the seceders from
St Mary's, after Archbishop Thurstan left them on a
winter's day, houseless and most likely penniless, on the
banks of the Skell. To-day Fountains Abbey is one of
the loveliest spots in Yorkshire ; according to Burton,
its site was, in those days, anything but lovely or desir-
able. " It had never been inhabited/' he says, " unless
by wild beasts, being overgrown with wood and brambles,
lying between two steep hills and rocks, covered with
wood on all sides, more proper for a retreat of wild
beasts than the human species." The settlers made
their first house under a great elm tree, contriving a roof
by plaiting straw and thatch across the lower branches.
Their friend the archbishop found them in bread for a
time, and the river supplied them with drink ; but they
were so hardly put to it at last that they stripped the
surrounding trees of their leaves and boiled them with
salt for food. Once, when they had but two loaves
between them and starvation, a beggar came asking
alms, and, after some hesitation, they gave him one,
and were rewarded immediately afterwards by a visit of
men from Knaresborough, bringing them provisions.
Sometimes they earned a little money by making mats ;
but, for the most part of two years, their lives were
filled up by prayers and starvation. It is to the eternal
glory of these men that not one drew back, nor did any
regret the flesh-pots of St Mary's. But the struggle to
live was fierce, and at last they sent one of their number
to St Bernard himself at Clairvaux, beseeching his help,

THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES 111

who, out of his love for them, sent them a monk named
Gregory, who taught them the rules of the order, and
instructed them in the art of building. Even then they
were little helped, and at the end of two years' bitter
struggling with famine and cold they thought of emi-
grating to Clairvaux, and begging a shelter from St.
Bernard. But then died Hugh, Dean of York, and left
them all he had ; and to join them came two canons of
York, attracted by the fame of their piety, and all began
to be well — from the standpoint of the man who thinks
of the things of this life. Whether it was so well from
a spiritual aspect one may take leave to doubt But no
one will doubt the sanctity and the fortitude of the
founders of Fountains.

However poor the religious orders were when they
first began to build they speedily became well-to-do,
almost without exception. The benevolent and charit-
able, the piously disposed, the cautious-minded, who
wished to stand well with the Church, showered money
and lands upon them, and the shelter of trees or of rude
wooden huts was exchanged for comfortable cloisters
and warm dormitories. Most of the benefactions were
in land, and many of the abbots and priors were land-
lords of vast stretches of country. The successors of
the first monks of Fountains were as rich as they had
been poor. At the beginning of the sixteenth century
they owned over sixty thousand acres of land, with lead
mines, stone quarries, fisheries, and well-stocked game
preserves, and it was a current saying that the abbot
might walk from Penyghent to the confines of the lands
of Ripon without stepping off his own property. When
the abbey was surrendered at the Dissolution it was
worth £1125 a year, according to Burton, and it had
plate to the value of £700, together with 2300 horned
cattle, 1300 sheep, 86 horses, and 80 pigs, as well as

112 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

large quantities of grain. Bolton Priory was scarcely
less wealthy — about the end of the thirteenth century
its annual revenue was reckoned at nearly £900, and it
had large stores of sheep and cattle. In one year it sold
wool to the value of £8000 of our present currency, and
its mills, farms, church-dues, and mill-dues brought in
£2000 reckoned on the same basis. Bridlington Priory
was particularly rich in church livings ; it held many
of the most important in the East Riding, and it had
a peculiar concession made during the reign of Stephen
in the right to the goods of all fugitives and felons who
came within its jurisdiction, and to all wreckage cast
up on the beach between Flamborough Dyke and Earl's
Dyke. Small houses, like Kirkham and Watton,
possessed considerable revenues ; Kirkham, at the Dis-
solution, was worth over £300, and had 442 ounces of
plate, equalling the worth of Rievaulx in income and
plate almost to a few pounds ; Watton was worth £450
a year, and thus richer by £150 than Ryland. The
Cistercians of Mount Grace were reported to the Crown
as being in deep poverty in 147 1, but they got over it
before the Dissolution, for their annual revenue was then
about £350, and the prior was handsomely pensioned
off with £60 a year. Easby appears to have been one
of the poorest of the abbeys. In 1534 it had a revenue
of but £188 16s. 2d., but its monks were charged with
so many pious duties in the way of charity that only
£111 16s. iod remained for their own use. Then once
a week they were required to distribute to five poor
people as much food as came to the annual value of
£2 15& nrf. ; on the Feast of St Agatha they were to
spend £4 in buying corn and fish for the poor, and from
the Feast of All Souls until the Feast of the Circumcision
they were to give a loaf of bread, a flagon of ale, and a
portion of food to one pauper every day. There were

• • • «

- «

THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES 113

also other benefactions incumbent upon them, and the
poor of that neighbourhood doubtless missed them.
But there were poorer houses than Easby — Ellerton,
Leland's "Priori of White Clothid Nunnes," which
Whitaker called " one of the humblest of all monastic
foundations/ 9 was worth but £1$ ios. 6d. ; and Eggleston,
in spite of greater pretentiousness, was only valued at
£36, upon which small sum an abbot and eight monks
were subsisting when it was surrendered. Such examples,
however, only serve to throw into stronger relief the
wealth of such communities as St Mary's of York,
valued at £1600, and of Selby, which was returned as
being worth £800.

The Abbots of St Mary's and of Selby were the
only mitred abbots north of the Trent Pope Alex-
ander II. conferred upon the Abbot of Selby and his
successors, for ever, the right to wear the abbatical ring,
mitre, pastoral staff, dalmatic, gloves, and sandals ; to
bless the altar cloths and all other church vestments, and
to confer the tonsure on postulates. A similar privilege
was granted to the Abbot of St. Mary's at an early
period in the history of the house. Of the two
dignitaries the Abbot of St Mary's may be said to have
been the most considerable, not only because he ruled
over a richer and more influential community, but
because he had a seat in Parliament

Ancient and curious to modern ears are some of the
stories that have come down to this age from mediaeval
times in illustration of the daily life of the religious
houses. At Fountains Abbey the notion put before the
community was that of a full day — a day in which there
should not be one single moment of idleness. It began
at two o'clock in the morning, and ended at eight in
the evening, and all the tasks performed were expected
to be done in silence. But there are abundant records

114 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

to show that all the day was not spent in labour or in
prayer. After the pinch of poverty was over and
money filled the abbatial coffers, the community had
its pleasures which were pretty much like those of other
folk. One learns from the communal records of solemn
feasts whereat cakes and ale, candied fruits, and more
solid comestibles were indulged in ; one learns, too, that
conjurers, gymnasts, jesters, fabulators, and wandering
minstrels and play-actors came to entertain the abbot
and his fellow-monks. There is an item in the treasurer's
accounts showing payment of 4//. to "A fool called
Solomon/' whose performance was evidently satisfac-
tory, for he repeated it on another occasion. But as
a contrast to these merrymakings one hears of the
meetings in chapter when one brother brought accusa-
tion of wrong-doing against another, who, if adjudged
guilty, was there and then laid upon the floor and
soundly scourged, or, if the offence were indeed terrible,
was sent for imprisonment in one of the three dungeons
which may still be seen, furnished with iron staples,
beneath the Abbot's Lodging.

Nothing relating to the monastic life of the mediaeval
age could be more amusingly interesting than an account
of the conditions under which the Gilbertines lived in
their house of Watton in the East Riding. It was in
high favour with the religiously disposed ladies of
Yorkshire in its day, and in the year 1326 Archbishop
William de Melton consecrated fifty-three new sisters
on one occasion. The nuns of Watton were fenced
about by some exceedingly elaborate rules. They kept
the common seal of the house, tithed the lambs, cut and
apportioned the cloth, and were responsible for all
domestic arrangements. They washed, patched, and
mended clothes, and saw to the meals of the community.
Their part of the abbey was enclosed by a high wall ;

THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES 115

round the wall ran a moat The monks were strictly
forbidden to enter the nuns' cloister. The nuns were not
to receive presents or letters, they were not to con-
verse with the monks, and the monks were expressly
prohibited from begging fire of the nuns at night. If
the canons went into the nuns' cloister, it was to be in
numbers, and they were neither to see nor be seen. If
the grand prior had occasion to go there, several nuns —
three at least — were to surround and accompany him,
and he was never to be alone with one of them, not
even for the purposes of confession, which was to be
performed with witnesses. The particulars of the
clothing permitted to the Gilbertines of Watton are
interesting. The canon had three tunics, a coat of
lamb-skin, a furred cloak, a hood lined with lamb-skin,
two pairs of stockings, one pair of woollen socks, a pair
of day-shoes of red leather, a pair of slippers for night
use, a cloak of linen, and a white scapulary. The nuns
wore black linen caps, coats of lamb-skin, and black
veils, and if they desired it they might have a shift, but
it must be of coarse cloth. Also they had five tunics,
three for work and two for prayer and recreation ; they
had a scapulary, too, for the rougher sort of work. It
was laid upon them that they should wash their hoods
seven times a year ; it was also laid upon them that
they should strictly avoid the luxury of a bath.

Very different to the communal life of Fountains or
Bolton was the life of the Carthusian who prayed and
laboured in the quietude of his cell in the Priory of
Mount Grace under the woods of Arncliff. Round the
great cloister court stood the cells, each separate from the
other ; each a little house in itself, comprising a living-
room, a bedroom, an oratory, a cupboard for tools, each
surrounded by a garden. By the doorway of each
house, on the side opening into the court, is a hatch in

116 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

the wall by which the monk took in his food. In his
house and garden he worked and prayed and meditated,
never quitting them except for the morning and evening
services in the church. Only on Sundays and feast-
days did the whole community meet together to dine in
the refectory. It was a life of solitude, and it may
have been the solitude which caused one of the monks
of Mount Grace to see visions. In the State Papers of
Henry VIII. there is an entry (Hen. VIII. S.P. 1047)
which refers to his case —

" At Monte Grace ther is a brother that hath revelations,
but what his revelations be surlie I can not tell, but a great
name goith upon hym throughe oute our religion in this realme.
I pray God that his revelations may prove better than the
maides of Kent His name (as I here say) is Flecher."

This must have been the Robert Fletcher who at the
Dissolution was pensioned off with the annuity of £7 ;
but there are no further particulars of him or his visions.
There is in existence — in the library of the Duke of
Devonshire — a manuscript Compotus, or House-book,
of Bolton Priory wherein are set forth many details and
particulars of the income and expenditure of the house
at the time of its greatest prosperity, together with
several other interesting items of information respecting
the state kept up by the prior and brethren. The Prior
of Bolton was head of the house, owner of its lands, and
steward and treasurer of its wealth. He managed all
its business matters, kept its common seal, bestowed
patronage, entertained distinguished guests, had his
own lodgings, his own men-at-arms, and was altogether
a great man. When he rode to York or to London,
he was attended by a numerous retinue ; when he
went a-hunting he was followed by a gay cavalcade
of servants and retainers. Next in dignity came the

THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES 117

sub-prior, who discharged all the prior's duties when
the latter was absent The sacristan had charge of
the church plate, relics, and all valuables; the bursar
was responsible for the management of the kitchen, the
cellar, and the refectory ; the guest-master was in charge
of all visitors who did not lodge with the prior ; the
infirmarar was a practised physician. There were
generally in residence in the house eighteen canons,
who were fully professed ; four lay brethren, who were
usually artists, and who saw to the embellishment of the
church; twenty gentlemen retainers, proficient in the
use of weapons ; a hundred and twenty free servants,
and a large number of bondsmen who performed menial
offices. To feed all these people was no light task, and
the Cotnpotus shows that they used a goodly quantity
of food and liquor in the course of a year. The records
for one particular year show that they consumed 319
quarters of wheaten bread, 1 1 2 of barley meal, 80 of
oatmeal, 80 of a mixture of wheat, oats, and barley,
636 of malted oats, 39 of oatmeal for the dogs, and
41 1 of provender for the horses. They used 147 stone
of ewe-milk cheese, 64 oxen, 35 cows, 1 steer, 140 sheep,
67 pigs, 113 stone of butter, and vast stores of venison,
fish, game, and poultry. The servants, free and bond,
washed their meals down with ale, which was brewed in
the house from their own malted oats; the canons,
gentlemen retainers, lay brethren, and guests, drank
wine. They spent £90 on one Feast of the Assumption
in wine alone, and there is an entry showing that their
purchases in one year amounted to nearly 2000 gallons.
There are some extracts in Whitaker's " History of
Craven," taken from the Cotnpotus of Sawley Abbey,
which are equally interesting. In the year 1381 the
income of Sawley was £347 14-r. 7&<£, and the expendi-
ture was £355 13-f. io}<£, leaving a balance on the

118 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

wrong side of the book. Some particulars of the prices
of produce are given. Wheat sold at 6s. 8d. per
quarter, barley at 4&, beans at the same price, and oats
at 2s. Wool fetched 2s. per stone. One entry shows
that Thomas Boulton was paid 24s. for the year's milk
of 24 cows. A considerable quantity of ale seems to
have been consumed — 225 quarters of malted oats and
barley were used in its production. There are some
entries with regard to the wages of the staff— the cock
received 14s. id. per annum ; the tailor, las. ; and the
poultry keeper, 2s.i 155 quarters of meal were used for
baking purposes ; the horses consumed 140 quarters of
oats. The community owned at that time 70 cattle, 30
milk cows, and 35 horses. It does not appear to have
devoted much money to charitable purposes : its total
expenditure in benefactions in 1381 was 5*. Sd

That stories of a scandalous nature should gradually
centre round the religious houses was only to be
expected In the days of their poverty all the folk
had naught but good words for them ; when they grew
rich, and showed evidences of luxury and high living,
the people began to wag their heads. But most of the
things said were said against the Churchman's besetting
sins — gluttony and a soft life. When the folk saw the
Lord Abbot of Fountains or the Prior of Bolton ride
abroad with the state of a belted earl or of the king
himself, they were apt to compare the theoretical idea
of monachism with the practical reality. When they
heard of rich spices and condiments being sent for all
the way from Boston in Lincolnshire in order to tickle
the palates of the prior and his guests at a grand feast
at Bolton, they probably recalled stories which still
lingered in the dales of the privations of the first
Cistercians at Fountains. It was natural, too, that
scandal should arise around the Gilbertine houses,

THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES 119

wherein men and women lived, in spite of the stringent
rules which separated one sex from the other. Stories
were noised abroad in the neighbourhood of Watton,
but there seems to be no foundation for them beyond
the fact that ladies were very fond of entering the
sisterhood there.

There was a sad scandal at the Benedictine convent
of Nun Monkton in the closing years of the fourteenth
century. The prioress at that time was Margaret Fair-
fax, a young and apparently attractive lady, who appears
to have had little vocation for the religious life. She
had fifteen nuns under her care, and she and they, it
was noised abroad, cared less for religion and their vows
than for pleasure and folly. And so, according to the
Harleian MSS., there visited the priory in 1397 one
Thomas Dalby, Archdeacon of Richmond, who, after
due inquiry, reported that Prioress Margaret wore, and
allowed her nuns to wear, such vain things as precious
furs, clothing of silk, rings of value, tunics fastened with
brooches, and similar matters whereby the devil ensnares
to himself the souls of foolish women. Moreover, it
was charged against the prioress that she was far too
friendly and intimate in her relationships with certain
clerics and gentlemen of the neighbourhood, allowing
them to visit her in secret, and favouring similar esca-
pades on the part of her sisters. And so the edict went
forth that the prioress should indulge no more in light
loves nor in the putting on of vain apparel, and should
neither admit men to the house nor receive visits from
them, but there is nothing to tell us how far these
commands were carried out

Some frail brother caused a scandal at Mount Grace
in the last days of the house's history, but what his
offence was the chronicler who tells of his strange
punishment (State Papers of Henry VIII.) was unable

120 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

to say. Judging from the severity of the punishment,
the crime must have been a terrible one in the eyes
of his fellow-monks.

" Att Monte Grace," he says, " one of the monckes was
beried in a donge helle, for what cause surlie I can nott tell.
But howso ever it be the Prior and his Covent wyll defende
the cause as much as they may ; but I thynck verely in my
conscience, saying that the church and churchyarde is ordened
for the bodies of christian people to be beried therein, that it
be not lawfull for them to berie ther brother in a donge hell,
for braking of a poore seremony, or yete that ony of ther
traditions or statutes shodde cause any such a filthy acte to be
done."

Whatever state or magnificence the Yorkshire
religious houses had was quickly swept away by the
high-handed proceedings of Henry VIII. The abbots
and priors, monks and lay brethren, were pensioned or
provided for, and were reduced to the position of
ordinary clerics or plain folk. The treasures of the
churches and the furniture of the cloisters became
Crown property ; the lands were sold to the highest
bidders ; lead was stripped off the roofs and disposed
of in company with the timber, and within an incredibly
short space of time the great houses were little more
than rows of roofless walls and gables. In some cases
the local populations seem to have been only too ready
to join in the work of demolition. At Whitby, for
instance, the fisher-folk assisted to strip St Hilda's
Abbey with such readiness and zest that a few days
sufficed to reduce it to a shell. There is a local
tradition that most of the valuables were loaded upon
a ship in Whitby harbour for conveyance to London,
and that the vessel and its rich consignment was
promptly wrecked outside the bar. The treasures of

THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES 121

other monasteries disappeared no less rapidly in the sea
of time, and their former owners and guardians were
swallowed up just as inevitably. No one probably
regretted the change so much as the very poor, who,
taking things all in all, had known the monks for
dependable friends in time of need.

CHAPTER VII

THE YORKSHIRE CHURCHES

North Riding Churches : Saxon Remains — Kirkdale Sundial
—Fortified Churches— Wall Paintings at Pickering— North Riding
Brasses. West Riding Churches: Church Dues at Bradford —
Inscription in Almondbury Church — Warmsworth Church — Asso-
ciations of Sheffield Parish Church— Chantry Chapel at Wakefield.
East Riding Churches : Howden Church and the Bishops of
Durham — Hedon Church — Patrington Church — St Mary's,
Beverley — Hull Parish Church. Modern Churches in Yorkshire.

HISTORIANS are not particularly clear as to the
fate of the Yorkshire churches at the time of
the Norman Conquest, or, rather, at the time of the
Norman Conqueror's great act of revenge. According
to some chroniclers, the whole of the county, from
Humber to Tees, was laid waste, nothing being spared
save the collegiate church of Beverley, and the town
huddled together under its walls. And one would
think that in the long silence which followed there
would be little done to preserve or to restore whatever
ecclesiastical architecture the land possessed before
1070; but there is a good deal of Saxon architecture
still existing in Yorkshire (and a good deal more in the
Saxon style, executed after the Conquest), and we know
that during the hundred years immediately following
the accession of William of Normandy church-building
was carried on at a rapid rate. By the end of the
fourteenth century Yorkshire was as rich in churches

122

• «
•I

THE YORKSHIRE CHURCHES 138

as any county in England, and the building of churches
went on to the time of the Reformation. Of examples
of Saxon, Norman, Transitional, Early English, Deco-
rated, and Perpendicular architecture, therefore, the
Three Ridings are able to show a goodly number ; and
lovers of old-world things will only regret, on seeing
them, that they are only too often set in the midst of
ugly modern surroundings.

In the North Riding most of the churches are of
the Norman, Transitional, or Early English periods ;
examples of the later styles are not often encountered.
The finest specimen of Norman work in the Riding is
the little church of Salton, near Pickering ; in the same
district is Lastingham, where there is a Norman crypt
which is unique in this country. Norman chancel
arches and doorways are found in many churches ;
there are excellent examples at Alne, Appleton Wiske,
Liverton, Low Kilburn, and PickhilL Of Early English
work, the church of Skelton, on the Ouse, a few miles
north of York, is a perfect and rare example ; and there
are others in the churches of Patrick Brompton, Bedale,
Bossal, and Hornby. Examples of Decorated architec-
ture are found at Croft, Kirkby Wiske, and Ainderby
Steeple ; of Perpendicular at Thirsk and Burneston ;
and, as regards woodwork, at Richmond, Wensley, and
Aysgarth. Outside the recognized orders of architec-
ture are some curious specimens of church-building,
or of church mutilation ; some of the Dale churches
in the far west are of an aspect and character scarcely
to be understood by the student of archaeology. But
when one remembers that most of them — such as
Muker, Lunds, and Stalling Busk — are the mother-
churches of parishes which cover scores of miles of wild
country, and that little care was taken of them, one can
understand a good deal. In the eighteenth century

124 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

many of the North Yorkshire churches suffered terrible
indignities at the hands of churchwardens and congre-
gations, and were transformed into something like
whitewashed barns, or pulled down altogether. And
yet there were folk who had some zeal for the Church
even in those degenerate days. When it was deemed
necessary to repair the out-of-the-way church of Keld,
in the loneliest stretches of Swaledale, in 1789, the folk
had no money to spend upon it, and progress seemed
impossible. Thereupon the incumbent, Mr. Stillman,
determining to raise the money himself, set out on foot
for London ; and journeying there and back in this
manner, begged all that he could from rich and poor,
and came home again with the necessary funds in his
possession. His total expenses on this arduous journey
were — sixpence.

In the . North Riding the chief valuable feature of
church architecture is the number of Saxon remains.
Mr. J. E. Morris remarks that out of 197 churches which
he visited in the Riding he noted the occurrence of
Saxon-carved stones, crosses, and hog-backs in not less
than 48. He mentions the churches of Kirkdale, Stone-
grave, Appieton-le-Street, Hovingham, Hornby, Kirkby
Hill, Bulmer, Terrington, and Middleton as containing
Saxon masonry. Stones bearing Saxon inscriptions
exist at Hackness and Wensley ; one which was found
at Yarm has since been removed to Durham. Sundials
with Saxon inscriptions are in existence at Old Byland,
Edstone, and Kirkdale.

The sundial at Kirkdale Church is famous as having
inscribed upon it the longest-known inscription of the
Anglo-Saxon period. The stone is seven feet in length,
and is said to occupy its original position over the south
door. It was discovered by the Rev. William Dade,
rector of Barnston, in 1771, and was read as follows by

THE YORKSHIRE CHURCHES 125

the late Rev. D. H. Haigh : Orm Gamalsvna BOHTE
s[an]c[tus] gregorivs minster donne hit vfjes al
tobrocan and tofalan and he hit let macan
newan from grvnde chr[lst]e and s[an]c[tu]s
gregorivs in eadward dagvm c[ynl]ng and [l]n
Tosti dagvm Earl and Haward me wrohte and
Brand pr(/£POSITU]s. A further inscription runs:

DlS IS DAEGER SOL . MERCA MT ILCUM TIDE. There is

some dispute amongst archaeologists as to the exact
meaning of the words "MINSTER" and "PRS," some
holding that the first means "monastery" and the
second "prior," and thus advancing the claim that a
religious house stood on the site ; while others follow
the theory advanced in the translation, Orm, the son of
Gamal f bought St. Gregory s church when it was broken
and fallen, and caused its restoration to Christ and St.
Gregory in the days of King Edward and Earl Tosti.
And Hawarth and Brand, priests % wrought me. The
occurrence of Earl Tosti's name fixes the date of the
inscription at some period between 1055 and 1065.

One of the most interesting features of the church
architecture of the North Riding is the number of
towers which were fortified as a precaution against
marauders from the Border. At Bedale, where the
tower is of massive proportions, there was a portcullis at
the foot of the newal stair, and its presence was only
made known by the effects of a stroke of lightning,
which released it. In the lower story of the tower is a
chamber provided with a fireplace and a garderobe.
Similar chambers are found in the towers of Middle-
ham, Thornton Watlass, and Masham. The fireplace in
Middleham church tower is formed of ancient tomb-
stones, elaborately ornamented, one with the figures of
keys, which Whitaker considered to be emblematic of
the office of some former constable of the adjacent

126 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

castle. That of Masham is also built up of tombstones,
similarly carved.

In 1853 a very remarkable series of mural paintings
was discovered above the arcades of the nave of the
parish church of Pickering. The paintings had been
hidden under coats of whitewash for centuries, and
when they were stripped of this disfigurement, so many
people came to see them that the then vicar caused them
to be plastered over once more. Of late years they
have been thoroughly cleaned and restored, under the
supervision of Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt, and they now form
one of the finest examples of mural art in the world.
The frescoes represent such subjects as St. George and
the Dragon, St Christopher and the Infant Christ,
Herod's Feast, Coronation of the Blessed Virgin,
Martyrdom of St Thomas k Becket, Martyrdom of St
Edmund, St Catharine of Alexandria, the Seven
Corporal Works of Mercy, and scenes in the Life of
our Lord. Some of the paintings are as amusing as
they are remarkable. In Herod's Feast the king and
his guests are seen seated at dinner; on the ground
lies the headless body of St. John the Baptist; the
executioner stands behind him, and the daughter of
Herodias stands close by with her charger. In the
centre of the picture she is seen carrying the head on
the charger; further on St John's head has been
restored to his shoulders, and he is imparting a bless-
ing to the maiden as she lies prostrate at his feet. In
one of the series illustrating the life of our Lord, the
Saviour is seen rescuing Adam and Eve from the jaws
of a grotesque monster of gigantic size. A notable
feature of the pictures is that the costume and armour
worn by most of the figures are of the fifteenth-century
fashion, a circumstance which seems to establish the
date of their execution.

THE YORKSHIRE CHURCHES 127

The churches of the North Riding are poor in
brasses, but there is one at Wensley which is of excep-
tional interest This, a fine specimen of Flemish work
of the fourteenth century, representing a priest fully
vested, with hands folded beneath the chalice, which
rests on his breast, is without doubt the memorial of
Simon de Wensley, a member of the family of Scrope,
who at one time was vicar of the church. The coloured
glass of the North Riding churches is also poor, and
most of the many recumbent figures are mutilated. The
finest examples are those of the Fitz- Alans at Bedale,
and the Marmions at Tanfield. Monumental slabs,
decorated with incised or low-relief floriated crosses,
are found in great numbers; and there are between
twenty and thirty churchyard crosses, some of them of
Saxon origin.

In the West Riding there are remains of Saxon
work, and fragments of pre-Norman work, at several
places. At Dewsbury, where St Paulinus is said to
have preached on the banks of the Calder, in which he
subsequently baptized many thousands of persons, there
are some carved stones, which are said to be of Saxon
execution, together with part of a cross, and the un-
doubted remains of a Saxon tomb. At Ilkley there
are three crosses in the churchyard, which unquestion-
ably date from a period prior to the Norman Conquest,
though their exact origin is uncertain. The ornamenta-
tion of these crosses corresponds with that of some
fragments preserved at Otley. It represents, for the
most part, human figures, birds, and animals. The
tower and a considerable part of the fabric of Kirk
Hamerton church, on the Nidd, is Saxon, and so is the
mutilated font. Of Norman work the Riding can show
many fine examples. Two of the smallest churches in
the county, those of Adel, near Leeds, and Birkin, near

128 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Ferrybridge, rank amongst the most perfect Norman
churches in England. There are considerable Norman
portions in the churches of Campsall (close to which is a
fine specimen of an Early English vicarage), Brayton,
Conisborough, Leathley, and Bardsey. At Fishlake,
near Doncaster, and at Thorpe Salvin, on the southern
border, there are particularly good Norman portals.
Of the Transitional period, Arksey and Wragby are
noteworthy examples. During the Early English
period some of the principal West Riding churches
came into existence. Of this period Snaith, Golds-
borough, Knaresborough, Almondbury, Towton, and
Nun Monkton are the most remarkable examples.
The Decorated period was much more prolific, especially
in the south of the county, where the churches of Peni-
stone, Silkstone, Royston, Darfield, and Darton are all
of great interest Thornhill, Methley, Otley, Ilkley,
Whixley, and Aldborough are also of this period, but of
an earlier stage than those of the district south of
Wakefield. But the great churches of the West Riding,
like those of a considerable part of the East Riding
and of the Lincolnshire Fens, either sprung up in the
Perpendicular period or received important additions
during its existence. To this period belong such
churches as Bradford, Halifax, Almondbury, Wakefield *
(now the cathedral church of the diocese of Wakefield),
Sheffield, Rotherham, Ecclesfield, Harewood, Bolton
Percy, Kildwick, Skipton, and many others of great
interest and importance.

Of the histories of the great parish churches volumes
might be written, which need not necessarily be dry or
tedious. How the church began, who founded it, what
vicissitudes it experienced, what changes it saw, who
ministered within it, what its architecture, monuments,
registers can tell us — all these are things which should

THE YORKSHIRE CHURCHES 129

surely interest every one. Some of the West Riding
churches have histories of more than usual interest
One need only think of what might be written about
Halifax, mother-church of one of the largest parishes in
England ; of Wakefield, growing from small things to
the greatness of a cathedral ; of Dewsbury, linked to
the far past by memories of St. Paulinus ; of Eccles-
field, the "Minster of the Moors," — in order to realize
the atmosphere of historic value which hangs about the
edifice which is not seldom the oldest thing in the
place.

In more than one Yorkshire town of great size and
wealth the parish church is by far the most interesting
thing to be seen, not merely because of its antiquity, but
on account of its history. In such a thoroughly modern
town as Bradford, for example, the parish church is almost
the sole remaining link with the past Here there was
a Norman church, to the rectory of which Alice de Lacy
presented Robert Tonnington in 1281. Twelve years
later the rector preferred a vicar to the living, and
Bradford has been a vicarage ever since. In 1292,
according to the valuation prepared for Pope Nicholas,
the value of the vicarage was £13 6s. 8d. Whether
this Norman church stood on the site of the present
church is not certain ; the church as one sees it to-day
was built very leisurely, and was not finished until the
end of the fifteenth century. It has strong local associa-
tions in several ways — there is strong presumptive
evidence that the cost of building it was borne by the
Bradford people themselves, and that they were a little
slow in parting with their money ; the stone of which it
is built was got from local quarries, probably at Windhill
or Idle ; many of its vicars were scions of well-known
Bradford families. During the Civil War, church and
people became more closely knit together by an unusual

180 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

bond — Bradford was strongly Parliamentarian in its
sympathies, and was garrisoned by Sir Thomas Fairfax
in that behalf. He, having but a small force and very
little powder, had small chance against the Earl of
Newcastle and his army, and was very soon obliged to
turn the church into a fortress. Around the tower the
Bradford folk hung woolpacks — because, says one
local legend, they were so proud of their church that
they wished no harm to befall it. In spite of this pre-
caution the tower was considerably shaken, and Black
Tom and his men, trying to retreat by breaking through
the Royalist lines, were captured, slain, or hard put to
it to make their way to Leeds. Before this there had
been a previous attack upon Bradford by the Royalists,
which was solely resisted by the townsfolk, one of whom
wrote an account of the affair, wherein he states that the
besiegers set up a battery in Barkerend Road, a little
way from the church, and made great play with their
artillery against the tower. But he adds that they
never hit it

In a return of particulars relating to Bradford parish
church made by order of the Archbishop of York about
a hundred years ago, there are some quaint particulars
as to the fees which up to then had been paid to
the parish clerk. All families having a separate
fire paid him 2d. ; every man who owned a plough
paid 4<£ ; he had 2d. for every notice he made in church
or churchyard ; for a funeral he got 6d. if it were in the
churchyard, 5 s. if it were in the church, but if it were
in the chancel 7s. A document of much earlier date
specifies the smaller tithes of the vicarage, setting forth
that the vicar enjoyed certain rights over calves, pigs,
geese, turkeys, fowls, hens, eggs, milk, and other matters.
If a parishioner had six calves in one year he paid 8
groats, and the vicar gave him back i^d. a-piece for as

THE YORKSHIRE CHURCHES 131

•

many calves as he was short of ten ; but if he had five
calves, then he paid i6d for half a calf. A similar rule
governed the dealings of vicar and parishioner as to
pigs and milk. With respect to geese, the vicar could
do one of two things — he could either collect id. for
every goose hatched and brought up within a year, or
he could take geese in kind For every fowl he received
a due of \\<L ; hens were under the same law as geese ;
every fowl keeper paid id at Easter, instead of follow-
ing an older custom which ordained the payment, at
Shrovetide, of one egg for every hen and two for every
cock. All persons over sixteen years of age paid an
Easter offering of 2d. ; each householder paid id. for
his house, a halfpenny "for his reek or smoke," id.
for his garden. In the same document are particulars
of the old surplice fees. In publishing the "spurrings"
6d. was paid ; for a burial in the church, 5 groats ; for
every corpse "born underhand," lod; for a child,
" usually carried upon the head of a woman," $d.

On the cornice of the clerestory of Almondbury
Church there is an inscription, carved in oak, in raised
Old English characters, which is one of the rarest
matters of its sort in England, and is the most notable
specimen of its sort in Yorkshire. The following version
of it was made by Mr. G. R. Dore, of Huddersfield, and
was printed in the " English Dialect Society's Almond-
bury and Huddersfield Glossary/' in 1883. The inscrip-
tion begins at the west end of the nave and runs round
the church, the greater portion of it, of course, being
on the north and south sides. Over that part of it
which ornaments the west end is an inscription in
similar characters testifying that one Geoffrey Daystun,
or Doyston, was the maker ; at the east end appears
the date, 1526, and the sacred monogram.

182 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

West

tbow • nan ■ onkpnd i
baue : in i tbp i mpnd •

mp : blodp ; face :
mp • wondps • wpde i
on : euerp * spde •

for : thp • tret pas •

North.

thou ! spnnar • hard ;
turn • beder i ward •

DC : bold : thP : SavpOT • frt :

onkpnd i tboio ! art •
from i me i to • de • pt •

t : nercp • 1 i wold i aritpe •
for • lone ; of i the \
the : Jwpss • sneard ! me •

lot : schouraeous • kpne • and • sharp •
lot : a : crwu i of i tbon i
mp i bed i all • to i torn i

toptb : a : spepr i tbep \ tbeolpd ; mp : barf
wptb : naplis • tre i
tbep : naplpd i me i

fast : both : fopt - and i bid i
tor i thp i trespas \
mp : pasp5 : was :
to : oede i the • from i the i fende i

East.

penne • canon i wrptt
nor ; mi i indptt •

South.

papnes i that ; I : bad •

so : tboro i mad i

mp : bodp : bloo : wj : wonds : both

lam ; and ; lona •
tbow : dops • me : mor ! dere •
wben • thou ; dops i swer •

THE .YORKSHIRE CHURCHES 133

»c • mikere • of • mp • fcodp ;

tften : tbe : Jurist • dpd !
that : spepll i mp • Mod i

on : tbe • nont i of • cauere •
quarfor I fordp \ tbe • tbep •
stoeropna • laptop i

area : aoa • amospn •

pf : tDoiD i wpll : ao : SO :

to i Deupn : sail i tDoiogo •
owona i anaels : to I spna •

An inscription of a similar character, and probably
of the same date, appears on the rood-loft of the fine
church at Campsall, near Doncaster. It contains one
particularly forcible and characteristic line —

" Bewar of the devyl when he blawis his horn"

Yorkshire folk of the Doncaster district are fond of
telling unsuspecting strangers that in their "parts" may
be seen the longest church in England. There is a
favourite story told of a Doncaster man who, being in
London at some period of the eighteenth century, was
minded to visit St Paul's Cathedral, and was shown
over it by a very consequential verger, who enlarged to
the countryman in a pompous fashion upon the great-
ness and grandeur of Wren's great church. To this the
Doncaster man replied that he fully appreciated the fine
qualities of St Paul's, but at the same time could
mention a Yorkshire church which, if not so high or
so wide, was at any rate considerably longer. The
verger was greatly astonished to hear this, and demanded
the name of the church, receiving the answer, Warms-
worth, near Doncaster, with a further assurance of its
extraordinary length. The verger then said that though
he could not visit Yorkshire at that time in person, he
knew of a friend who was presently setting out to York,
and he would request him to take Warmsworth in his
way and make an accurate measurement. In due time

184 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

the friend arrived at Warmsworth, and there discovered
the trick — the body of the church stands on the bank
of the Don, a good half-mile from the village, in the
centre of which stands the tower, a low twelfth-century
erection of much architectural interest Thus Warms-
worth church is said to be half a mile long.

There is a curious sidelight on this in the following
extract from one of John Ray's works, and a further
oddity in the extract is the fact that the narrator con-
founds Warmsworth with Sprotborough, which is on
the opposite bank of the Don : —

" We went for fourteen year, eight on us, into f low country,
a shearing to a spot they call Sprodboro', three mile ower
Doncaster, Rotherham rooad. It looks queer to see steeple
and bells in f toan, an' f church a mile off in t* fields. Old
men said it shiften itsen. Theer wur marks on f steeple
wheer t church had been built up to it three different tawms.
It wor at toan there wur an old man could tell on it shiften."

As in the case of Bradford, Sheffield's chief antiquity
is its parish church, and Sheffield folk do well to be
proud of it, and thankful that anything of its original
fabric remains, for it suffered sore indignities at one
time and another from misguided people who persisted
in " altering " and " restoring " it, and was only renovated
to an appearance in keeping with its true self some
twenty-five years ago. Particular acts of vandalism
were committed early in the last century: Hunter,
visiting the church in 1817, found that inscriptions were
being defaced, monuments broken, brasses torn away
from their slabs. He particularly remarks that the two
finest brasses in the church, in memory of Stephen
Bright and of Lady Elizabeth Butler, had been torn
down and cast amongst a heap of rubbish. It was then
that he began to copy the epitaphs and inscriptions,

THE YORKSHIRE CHURCHES 186

only to find that most of them were illegible. He
quotes one, which had been copied in 1673, wherein are
some particulars of a bequest, pious enough, but not
very usual : —

" Robert Rollynson, mercer. Ob. 8 Nov. 1631,
aet 91. Death is the end of all things. . . . He gave
30 buckets, with hooks to hang them upon, in the
church, and at his own cost made a large pool, walled
in at the upper end of the town, to receive water from
certain springs, which may be let out to run down
the channels upon any occasion of fire. . . ."

It has often been remarked that although Mary
Queen of Scots was kept in captivity at Sheffield for
twelve years, there is very little known of her stay there,
and practically nothing remaining that was connected
with her imprisonment beyond a restored fragment of
the manor house. But in the parish church there is a
link with her and her times in the shape of the fine
monument to the memory of her keeper, the sixth Earl
of Shrewsbury, whose virtues and greatnesses are duly
commemorated in a long Latin inscription, penned by
John Fox, author of that doubtful political tract, the
"Book of Martyrs." Here, too, is a link with the
troublous times of the Civil War. Near the chancel
door, in 1700, was buried one William Walker, of
Darnall, in this neighbourhood, a man of some position,
well known as a fanatical republican, and the author of
a book called " Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos." Whether
the story be true or not, it is certain that it was
believed hereabouts that this was the man who struck
off the head of Charles I. at Whitehall in 1649.

There are two chantry chapels standing upon bridges
in the West Riding — one at Rotherham, the other at
Wakefield. That of Rotherham is of plain architecture,

136 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

and has little history, except that it was for some time
desecrated to the purposes of a gaol. The Chapel of
St. Mary on the bridge over the Calder at Wakefield is
much more interesting. It was built, at their own cost,
by the townsfolk of Wakefield about 1342. It appears
to have been served in early days by two priests, who
had a house close by. When the " Valor Ecclesiasticus "
was compiled in 1534, the yearly value of the chapel
was £\2 8s. lid., and the two priests, Richard Saul and
Tristram Harton, had each an income of £6 y. yd.
When the Dissolution came, the value was £14 1 5-& 3<£ i
the ornaments and vestments were valued at £1 2s. 6d. t
and the plate at £4 4s. Sd. The two priests, Saul and
Harton, were then described as "unlearned/' and in
1548 were pensioned off with £$ per annum each, so
long as nothing better in the way of preferment came
in their way. The chantry was spared, " for that it is
builded upon the myddlemoste arche of the said bridge
of Wakefield being no smalle strengthe therunto " — and
service was resumed in it upon the accession of Queen
Mary. At her death the priests were driven out again,
and the chapel and its land were given over to the
trustees of the poor, who let their newly acquired
property off to tenants. For three hundred years the
old place underwent barbarous treatment An old-
clothes dealer took it, and hung his rags and tatters on
the delicate traceries ; then it was converted to the uses
of a warehouseman ; afterwards more worthily used as
a library and news-room. Then it fell again, and a
maker of cheese-cakes sold his wares in it until it passed
into the hands of a corn-factor, who finally resigned it
to a tailor. In 1842 a movement for its restoration was
initiated. Here again followed misfortune. Although
everything was meant for the best, everything turned
out ill. Sir G. Scott took down the whole of the chantry

THE YORKSHIRE CHURCHES 137

above the basement, and re-erected it on the exact lines
of the previous work ; but thinking that the old weather-
beaten west front would not last, he executed a new one
— a copy of the old — in Caen stone, and the ancient
front was set up in the grounds at Kettlethorpe. The
result has been that the new front is already much more
decayed than the old one, which bids fair to outlast it
altogether, and should certainly be replaced in its proper
position.

In the East Riding there are Saxon remains of
considerable interest at Skipwith, near Selby, and at
Aldbrough, on the sea-coast. At Skipwith the two
lower stages of the tower are Saxon ; at Aldbrough
there is in the south aisle a circular inscription which
records the fact that Ulf (presumably Ulf, Earl of Deira,
who bestowed much land on York Minster, where his
horn is still preserved) caused the church to be made for
himself and Gunwara. Within the circle formed by the
inscription are lines which show that the stone was used
as a dial of eight hour-spaces. There are interesting
Norman remains at Goodmanham, the Godmundinga-
kam whereat Eadwine, King of Northumbria, had a
palace, in which he received St Paulinus when the
missionary-saint first came into Yorkshire, and where,
after the conversion of Coifi the priest to Christianity,
the people burnt the pagan temple ; at Bubwith (a very
fine chancel arch) ; and at Rudston, where the Norman
tower, with Norman arch opening into the nave, and
the diapered Norman font, are worthy of particular
attention.

In one respect the East Riding can claim a supe-
riority to the West and North Ridings — it possesses
some of the finest churches of the Decorated and Per-
pendicular periods which can be found in England. In
no other part of Yorkshire can one meet with such

188 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

splendid examples of church architecture as at Patring-
ton, Hedon, Howden, and at St. Mary's, Beverley. The
Riding is further distinguished by the fine, cathedral-like
parish church of Hull ; the churches of Pocklington,
Flamborough, Driffield, and Hemingborough ; and the
Transitional-Norman work in the churches at Filey,
Kirkburn, Burton Agnes, and Swine. The East Riding
is also rich in brasses — those in memory of the St.
Quintins at Harpham are very fine fifteenth-century
work, and there is an equally notable specimen of the
same period at Bainton, in memory of Roger Godeale,
a former incumbent, temp. Henry VI. At Beeford there
is a brass representing Thomas Tonge, rector, 1472 ; at
Brandsburton there are more brasses of the St Quintin
family. Flamborough has a brass in memory of Sir
Marmaduke Constable, who fought, with a large com-
pany of his kinsfolk, at Flodden Field, when he was
already seventy years of age. There are other brasses
of interest at Winestead (the birthplace of Andrew
Marvell), at Wei wick, and at Cottingham.

Many of the great churches of the East Riding gain
much in impressiveness and grandeur by the fact that
they stand in a flat country. Howden, for example,
standing on a level stretch on the banks of the Ouse,
presents a noble appearance to those who approach it
from any point If it were still standing in its original
completeness, Howden Church would rank with Selby
Abbey and Beverley Minster ; as it is, it is one of the
most notable things in the county. The little town
which lies at the foot of its great tower is sleepy enough
— except during the September horse fair — and it
retains sufficient of an old-world appearance to be in
keeping with the half-ruinous mass of grey stone, around
which cling many associations. Howden, from the time
of the Norman Conquest, belonged to the Bishops of

THE YORKSHIRE CHURCHES 139

Durham, many of whom, during the twelfth, thirteenth,
and fourteenth centuries, lived in the manor house, of
which considerable remains still exist The greater
part of the church as it stands to-day was built by
Bishop Skirlaw in the fourteenth century, and it is said
that he made the tower of an unusual size in order that
it might be used as a place of refuge by the people in
case of a sudden flooding of the low-lying land on
which Howden is built. In those days most of the land
lying between the edge of the Wolds and the Ouse was
undrained marshland, and the bishop's precaution was
wise. It is fortunate that the tower and splendid
example of the Perpendicular style has escaped the fate
of the choir and chapter-house, and a thousand pities
that some effort is not made to restore the latter. From
the summit of the tower there is a remarkable view over
the level land which lies between the Wolds and the
far-off hills of the west country.

In recent times a statue of one of Howden's most
famous sons has been erected in the centre of the town.
Roger de Hoveden (Houeden), whose annals cover a
period of English history from the middle of the eighth
to the beginning of the twelfth century, was rector of
Howden about the year 1200, before the church became
collegiate. Whether he was much in residence here,
however, is doubtful, for he held high office at Court,
to which fact is due the fulness and accuracy of his
chronicles.

Like Howden, Hedon, once one of the foremost
market towns in the Holderness country, is now a half-
deserted, sleepy little place dominated by a mighty
church. " Ther wer thre paroche chirches in the time
of mind," remarks Leland in his account of Hedon,
" but now ther is but one of St Augustine, but that is
very fair." Very fair " the Pride of Holderness n still

140 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIBE

remains, its great tower rising in impressive grandeur
above the little town, and forming a landmark that may
be seen for many miles by land and sea. One wonders
to find such a vast church in such a small place ; but
when it was built Hedon was a " fair haven," possessing
rich merchants and good vessels, sending members to
Parliament, and ranking before Hull in importance, and
its mayor treasures a civic mace which was probably
wrought for his first predecessor in 141 3. But there is
little else of interest in the "decaied" town save the
church. It may be that it was very largely the work
of Hugh de Hedon, who succeeded Robert de Fatring-
ton as master-mason of York Minster, but there is
nothing to record the fact

While Hedon Church is styled the "King" of
Holderness (as well as the " Pride "), its neighbour of
Fatrington is called the "Queen." To most people
Fatrington is the more interesting of the two — it would
be difficult, indeed, to find a more beautiful church than
this, which Archdeacon Wilberforce was wont to call
" the model parish church of England." Its exquisite
architecture, the grace and beauty of its tall spire, the
perfection of detail and arrangement of its plan, make
it the most remarkable church in the Riding, if not in
Yorkshire, According to a theory strongly supported
by the late Canon Raine, Fatrington Church was the
work of Robert de Fatrington, and was the cause of his
appointment to the master-masonship of York in 1368.
The design is clearly that of one mind, and the fabric
was probably complete, as it now stands, soon after the
middle of the fourteenth century.

Fatrington Church is distinguished in its possession
of one of the finest Easter sepulchres in the country.
It has four compartments ; in the lowest are the figures
of three soldiers; the second appears to have been

THE YORKSHIRE CHURCHES 141

intended for the reception of the Host ; above this is a
quaint representation of the Saviour rising from the
tomb, which is guarded by angels ; the fourth compart-
ment, like the second, is empty. The whole is in an
excellent state of preservation.

In the parish registers of Fatrington there are many
curious entries of strange events, noted by successive
vicars, who appear to have thought the church books
a proper repository for various matters, ranging from
putting a new " ffaine " on the top of the great spire to
a cure for distemper among horned cattle. The follow-
ing entry is of considerable interest : —

"Be it remembered that in the year 1762 there was so
great a drought from Candlemas till harvest that there was a
great scarcity of hay and fodder, so that several cows in many
parts of England were sold at a guinea per head. Hay at
£3 3-f. a load. In the next year, 1763, there were such almost
continued rains that the com was much swamped and damaged,
and the hay, though plentiful, was very ordinary. The banks
of the rivers broke, and great inundations ensued in almost all
parts of Europe, especially in England, and particularly in
Yorkshire and Holderness, where the whole land between
Bilton and Hull was laid underwater so deep that the turnpike
houses were deserted, and there was no travelling from Bilton
to Hull for months together, from 6 th January 1764 to the first
day of April But in a boat one man and horse, attempting
to go through, were drowned."

If Beverley were deprived of its splendid minster,
it could still boast the possession of one of the finest
parish churches in England. St Mary's is remarkable
for its size, proportions, architecture, and ornamentation
— in many respects it has no equal amongst Yorkshire
churches. The fine west front, the massive centre
tower, the fifteenth-century wood ceiling of the chancel,
the Minstrel's Pillar, the wealth of sculpture, and the

142 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

numerous monuments and curiosities, all tend to make
St. Mary's only second in interest to the minster itself.
The only matter in connection with the church which
arouses regret is that it has been despoiled of its par-
ticularly rich collection of brasses. Here, as at Patring-
ton, there are some curious entries in the church registers
and churchwardens' accounts. In March, 1593, was
paid to " Jo Feckett for a fox & her cubbes, according
to the statute xijrf. ; " in July, 1642, James Johnson
received xviijd. "for killing three owles in Woodhall
Clover, that he did steadily affirme them to belong to
this church." There is a curious entry in 1687 which
records that there was paid " To the singers, upon day
of rejoicing for her ma* being with child, & for
candles, j 1 ijj." In 1698 Archbishop Sharp visited the
church, and there is a memento of the event in an entry
which certifies that the churchwardens paid " vs for two
quarts of Canary for the Archbishop."

In point of size the parish church of Hull is said to
be the largest church in England, and its dimensions
are certainly cathedral-like. The architecture is remark-
able for the fact that considerable use was made of
brick in building the choir. No Yorkshire church has
suffered more rough treatment than this — it was placed
under interdict in 1522; the doors and windows were
made up, and the tongues were torn out of the bells.
During the troublous times of the seventeenth cen-
tury it was often turned into a stable or a barracks, and
it formed a bone of contention between Independents
and Presbyterians under the Commonwealth, and was
eventually divided between them, one sect worshipping
in the nave, and the other in the choir with a separating
wall between them. Until i860 it was in a very forlorn
and dilapidated condition, but Sir Gilbert Scott restored
it in admirable keeping with its original character, and

THE YORKSHIRE CHURCHES 148

it is now a model of what one would expect in the
principal church of a great town.

Of modern churches there are several examples in
Yorkshire which are well worthy the attention of the
archaeologist, just as it is also true that there are a great
many, built during the debased days of the eighteenth
century and early in the nineteenth, which are so ugly
and so representative of all that is bad in architecture
that one would be glad to see them swept off the face
of the land. The two finest specimens of modern
architecture in the county are, perhaps, the parish church
of Doncaster, and All Souls' Church at Halifax, both
designed by Sir G. G, Scott That of Doncaster —
which from even a little distance wears a venerable
and somewhat time-worn air which is very deceptive to
strangers — replaced a former edifice that was destroyed
by fire in 1853. It * s a splendidly conceived church in
the Decorated style ; that of All Souls', at Halifax, is
Geometrical There is a worthy example of Mr. Butter-
field's art in the church at Baldersby, near Thirsk,
which is early Decorated in style, and has a campanile
and spire rising to a great height The new church
built by Sir Tatton Sykes at Sledmere, is certainly one
of the most notable pieces of ecclesiastical architecture
in the East Riding; it is Geometrical Decorated in
style, and has been lavishly ornamented and furnished.
A fine example of the late Decorated style is found at
Escrick, near York — a modern church built by Mr.
Penrose, and containing some notable features in the
way of marble pillars, stained glass, monuments by
Thorwaldsen and Wyatt, and a font by Tognoli, who
instructed Canova in the art of drawing. Of modern
churches built in the great towns the parish church of
St Peter, at Leeds, is the most important in many
ways, though there is little to be said in praise of its

144 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

situation, architecture, or beauty. It was built about
1840, during the eventful vicariate of Dr. Hook, and
was primarily intended to afford as much accommoda-
tion as possible to the church-going population of the
town, which was then feeling the effects of the Oxford
Movement Hence the presence of cumbrous and
heavy galleries, and the use made of all available space
in every part of the church in order to provide seats.
There were many other churches built in Leeds about
this time, and at a little later period in Sheffield, Brad-
ford, Hull, and the other large towns, and most of them
are singularly remarkable for ineffectiveness of design
and ugliness of execution. In Leeds, however, there is
one really good example of modern Gothic architecture
in the church of All Souls, built by Sir G. G. Street
twenty-five years ago. It forms a worthy memorial to
the life and labours of Dean Hook, one of the greatest
vicars of Leeds, and the foremost churchman in York-
shire of the nineteenth century.

r.tu

CHAPTER VIII

THE YORKSHIRE CASTLES

Situation and Relative Importance of the Yorkshire Castles —
Remains and Architecture— York Castle and Clifford's Tower —
Pontefract Castle in History — Middleham Castle and its Associa-
tions with the Earl of Warwick and Richard III. — Bolton Castle
and the Scropes — Mary Queen of Scots at Bolton Castle— Rich- t*

mond Castle and its Early History — Skipton Castle and the |«. ; "

Cliffords — Scarborough Castle — Helmsley Castle and the Duke of ti }

Buckingham — Harewood Castle and Sir John Cutler — Associa- :JJ »

tions of Knaresborough Castle— History and Associations of the ' •* *

Minor Castles— Fortified Houses. •; •

«: J

'i i

NO county in England was so encrusted with castles,
fortresses, and fortified houses as Yorkshire was
in the old days, and there are none now so rich in ruins
and remains. How many castles there were in mediaeval i.

days not even the most learned can say with accuracy —
of some strongholds that were known to exist there is
now no trace whatever — of others the fragments are so *\

few and insignificant that it is impossible to say any- ;[

i
I*.

r :

thing definite of the original structure. In some cases,

as at Richmond and Middleham, there is so much of :i*

the castle left as to give one a very tolerable notion of kR)

its grandeur ; in others, as at Topcliffe and Malton, one J*

must trust to pure conjecture as to where and what the

castle was. But in wandering about the county no one

can fail to be struck by the number of ruins, or by the

situations in which most of them are found. In most

l 145

146 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

cases the castle occupies the most prominent place in a
district or landscape, especially when it was the chief
stronghold of a great family. Conisborough, which had
almost certainly been a Saxon fortress before it became
a Norman castle, commanded the valley of the Don ;
Pontefract, frowning from a rocky promontory over
a wide stretch of Airedale, might well be called the key
of Yorkshire; Richmond, similarly perched above
Swaledale, was practically impregnable; Scarborough
can only be approached by a narrow strip of land ;
Knaresborough and Pickering dominate their surround-
ings, and even fortresses like Middleham and Sheriff
Hutton, set in the midst of a pastoral country, were so
situated as to impress the eye while they commanded
the land and the people. Relatively, of course, the
castles were not of the same consequence — Pontefract,
from its vast size, its commanding situation, and the
importance of the burgh in the Middle Ages, would
attain an importance which such baronial strongholds as
Crayke or Gilling could not acquire ; Skipton, because
of its command of the western border, became at times
the scene of lively operations which were 'rarely known
at the smaller castles. Much of the history of the
county centres round the castles of York, Pontefract,
Middleham, Bolton, Skipton, Scarborough, and Rich-
mond, and of these, and of other strongholds, scarcely
less important, there are fortunately remaining sufficient
quantities of the original structures to enable the student
to form an accurate estimate of their size and appearance
in their best days.

A good deal of the architecture of the Yorkshire
castles is Norman — not a surprising circumstance when
one bears in mind the fact that the first care of the
dominant party after the Conquest was to build castles
in the most advantageous positions. Perhaps the best

THE YORKSHIRE CASTLES 147

examples of pure Norman work in the county — so far as
military architecture is concerned — are found at Rich-
mond, Scarborough, and Conisborough ; but there are
other interesting examples at Pontefract and at Spof-
forth. The great majority of the castles, however, are
of architecture of the Edwardian period. The gate-
house, which is all that remains of Whorlton Castle, is a
fine specimen of the Perpendicular style, and there is
more Perpendicular work at Sheriff Hutton, Snape,
Tanfield, and Barden. In many cases domestic archi-
tecture has been mingled with the original style. Bolton
Castle is one of the best examples in this country of a
complete fourteenth-century stronghold, and is further
remarkable as being able to convey a sense of the
perpetual menace which a mediaeval fortress must have
been to the surrounding country. But in the cases of
many of the castles the remains are very fragmentary,
and at such noted places as Tickhill and Sandal it is
difficult to work out a satisfactory notion of the ground*
plan without expert assistance.

The considerable pile of buildings, situate on a
V-shaped tract of land lying between the Ouse and the
Foss, which goes by the general name of York Castle,
is chiefly interesting because it stands on the very spot
first settled by the Romans and previously dwelt upon
by the Brigantes. The mound in its midst, like the
corresponding mound on the other side of the Ouse,
called Bale Hill, had without doubt been used as the
base of some form of fortification, stockade, or castle,
long before the terrible Norman keep of William the
Conqueror rose upon it. That keep disappeared within
the next two centuries; the one which crowns the
mound to-day, Clifford's Tower, was probably built
during the reign of Edward I. Architecturally it
is quite unique; it consists of sections of four

148 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

cylindrical towers, running into each other. Within the
interior grows a walnut tree, said to have been planted
by George Fox, the Quaker, who was imprisoned here
for conscience 1 sake. It is usually said that the marks
of fire plainly seen on the walls of Clifford's Tower date
from the dreadful Massacre of the Jews in York in 1 190,
of which there is such a realistic account in the chron-
icles of William de Newburgh, but the probability is
that little of the tower was then in existence. It was
round about the mound on which it stands, however,
that the desperate Jews first slew their wives and
children and then themselves, and that those who shrank
from this heroic method were brutally massacred by the
Christians, and there is a well close by into which,
tradition says, many dead and dying were flung.

Around Fontefract Castle there is a stirring atmo-
sphere of romance, of history, and of medievalism. No
other castle in the county has been so much mixed up
with great names, great passages in history, and cele-
brated deeds and actions — famous and infamous — as
Pontefract has. Dean Swift had good reason to say,
" I love Pomfret ... it is in all our histories/' It not
only figures largely in the histories but in Shakespeare
as the "bloody prison" wherein so much royal and
noble blood was shed, and it is certain that few of the
mediaeval strongholds have a darker record than that
which hangs over all that remains of what was once the
most important castle of South Yorkshire. Judging
from old prints, Pontefract Castle must have been a
fortress of vast size and strength ; its situation, on the
summit of a great promontory-like rock, is unrivalled in
Yorkshire for military convenience and advantage, and
one easily understands, after a cursory inspection of it,
how it was that its garrison contrived to hold out so
long for the king during the Civil War. There is now

• . •

THE YORKSHIRE CASTLES 149

little of the actual masonry left, but the massive towers
of the keep and the fragments of smaller towers, helped
by the recent excavations, which have laid bare much
of the original ground-plan, give one a vivid idea of the
strength of the castle in its great days.

Fontefract was one of the hundred and fifty manors
which William the Conqueror gave to Ilbert de Lacy,
and it was very probably at William's own instigation
that Ilbert began to build the castle. By the Lacys the
whole of the castle was built, and from it they exercised
a jurisdiction which extended as far as the Lancashire
borders. It remained in their hands until the beginning
of the fourteenth century, and then passed into the '>

possession of the Earls of Lancaster. Thomas, Earl of
Lancaster, grandson of Henry III., kept great state at
Fontefract until he came into conflict with Edward II.
over the Gaveston affair. That led to his being tried
in his own hall, and sentenced to death, execution by
beheading being promptly carried out on the little H

eminence to the north-east, now known as St. Thomas's
Hill. That was in 1322; somewhere about the begin-
ning of 1400 it was announced that Richard II., after
various imprisonments in the Yorkshire castles, had :t

died at Pontefract It seems unlikely that the real
truth as to the manner of Richard's death will ever be ]■

known. Shakespeare, following the current tradition :r

of his time, says that the king was slain by Sir Piers L

of Exton, but Archbishop Scrope, who was in excellent
case for assured knowledge, asserted that Richard was
starved to death. {!

Archbishop Scrope himself was tried at Pontefract
before Henry IV., who, a few days later, had him
beheaded in his own palace at Bishopthorpe. Ponte-
fract, indeed, was seldom without trials, captives, or
bloody deeds. To it, after the fight at Agincourt, were

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••• .

•• ;

152 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

inflicted upon the lover a nameless punishment which
speedily caused his death. But another version has it
that the punishment was inflicted by the neglected wife,
who then attended him with sedulous care until he died,
and founded masses for his guilty soul, and further
proved her devotion by remaining true to his memory
until her own death fifty years later.

Middleham was seen at its best in the days of
Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, who kept great state
in its somewhat gloomy halls. Here the famous king-
maker entertained Edward IV. on a scale of royal
magnificence, though the king was something more of
a prisoner than a guest Lytton, in " The Last of the
Barons,' 1 has given us a picture of Middleham Castle in
those days, but a good deal of it is the result of pure
imagination rather than of historical research. There
is no doubt, however, that the great earl lived the life
of a proud and influential prince at Middleham, and
that it was then one of the most important castles in
the country. Nor is there any doubt that at Middleham
his son-in-law, Richard III., spent much of his time,
and made a better impression upon his neighbours than
he did on folk outside the county. The Yorkshire folk
of those days, indeed, appear to have admired Richard
deeply, possibly because he showed a great fondness for
them and their country, and contemporary records show
that a very excellent feeling existed between them. At
Middleham Castle Richard's only son by his marriage
with Anne Neville was born in 1473, and at Middleham
he died eleven years later. It was Richard III. who
made the church of Our Lady and St Alkelda a collegiate
institution and its rector dean of the collegiate chapter.
Of this body Charles Kingsley was at one time a canon.

Bolton Castle, the original stronghold of the great
family of Scrope, so famous in the history of the North,

THE YORKSHIRE CASTLES 153

is perhaps the most interesting fortress in Yorkshire, so
far as romantic association is concerned ; for almost
everything connected with the doings of the Scropes is
romantic, and Bolton Castle is the only one now remain-
ing of the many houses in which Mary Queen of Scots
was imprisoned at one time or another during her
captivity in England. The position of the castle is
striking and formidable ; its curtain walls are of im-
mense thickness, and the towers of the angles are nearly
a hundred feet in height It was built by Richard, the
first Lord Scrope, during the reign of Richard II., and
Leland observes of it that it cost 18,000 marks, or
£1 2,ooo. Henry VIII.'s itinerant saw many things at
Bolton Castle which astonished him when he visited it
in the sixteenth century — " a fair clock, cum motu soils
et lunae" for one thing, and a system for getting rid of
smoke for another. " One thing I much notyd in the
haull of Bolton," says he, " how chimneys were conveyed
by tunnils made in the syde of the walls, betwixt the
lights in the haulL And by this means, and by no
covers, is the smoke of the hearthe in the haull wonder
strangely conveyed. 1 ' Leland also relates that all the
timber which was used in making the castle was brought
from the forest of Engleby, in Cumberland, and was
conveyed by special draughts of oxen over a sort of
tram-road designed by Lord Scrope.

The Scropes kept great state at Bolton Castle for
three centuries. They were great soldiers, great states-
men, and great ecclesiastics, and one of the best of
them was the Archbishop of York, who was beheaded
in his own palace of Bishopthorpe. One of them —

M Lord Scrope of Bolton, stern and stout,
On horseback who had not his peer ;
No Englishman Scots more did doubt "—

led a stout body of dalesmen to Flodden ; another has

154 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

the epithet of " keen " bestowed upon him in the Border
ballad of " Kinmont Willie," In Wensley Church there
are many memorials of the family ; but their burial-
place was the abbey church of Easby, in Swaledale, of
which religious house they were munificent patrons.
The direct line became extinct during the seventeenth
century by the death of Emanuel Scrope, eleventh Lord
Bolton and first Earl of Sunderland ; and his daughter
Mary married the Duke of Bolton, a very eccentric
individual, who built Bolton Hall, close by, used to give
dinner-parties which lasted twelve hours, and almost
killed all who joined in them, and who loved to go fox-
hunting by torchlight at night

Mary Queen of Scots came as a prisoner to Bolton
Castle in July, 1568, immediately after the affair at
Langside, which caused her to flee across the Solway in
a fishing-boat Although she thus came out of Scotland
in an apparently destitute condition, she journeyed from
Carlisle to Bolton in something like royal state, for her
retinue across the moors and mountains consisted of six
personal attendants, forty-three horses, and a cavalcade
of forty persons. Large as the castle was, it proved too
small for this company, and one-half of the queen's suite
had to be lodged in the adjacent village. The castellan
of Bolton at that time does not seem to have been quite
prepared to entertain so distinguished a guest, for it
is on record that Lady Scrope was obliged to borrow
bedding, linen, and furniture from Sir George Bowes
wherewith to make ready the queen's apartments. Of
the precise nature of Mary's detention here it is scarcely
possible to speak with accuracy — she was a guest in
theory but a prisoner in fact Nominally she was in
charge of Sir Francis Knollys, who strove to relieve the
tedium of her confinement by teaching her to read and
write English. She was also allowed to go out riding,

THE YORKSHIRE CASTLES 155

and used to gallop all over the surrounding country
with a numerous retinue, of whom she always rode
ahead. It was during her six months' residence at
Bolton that Mary began the intrigue with the Duke of
Norfolk which eventually cost him his head, and Lady
Scrope, who was the duke's sister, acting as intermediary
between them. It was probably the discovery of this
which brought about the sudden removal of the queen
from Bolton to Tutbury in the January of 1569. But
according to a tradition of Wensleydale, Mary had pre-
viously made an attempt to escape from the custody
of Sir Francis Knollys and the ninth Lord Scrope.
Wensleydale folk say that she escaped from one of the
windows of Bolton Castle, and made her way to a point
of the hill called Leyburn Shawl, where she was re-
captured. This point is known to this day as "The
Queen's Gap." But there is no record of this in either
the Hatfield or the Cecil papers of the period, although
they contain a considerable body of information as to
Mary's movements at this time.

Richmond Castle may rightly be said to wear the
most romantic air and to enjoy the most striking
situation of any stronghold of the North. At the
beginning of the wilder stretches of Swaledale a mighty
promontory juts out from the hillside on the northern
bank of the river, to which it suddenly descends by a
precipice-like wall of rock. On the edge of this stands
the great castle, whose square Norman keep, the finest
in Yorkshire, towers above the walls and gables of the
romantic little market town behind it. Town and
castle are alike beloved of the artist and the antiquary,
not only because of their situation, but for their mediaeval
appearance and atmosphere. The wide market-place,
with its quaint church of Holy Trinity, sandwiched in
between houses and shops ; the beautiful tower of the

156 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Grey Friars' house, of which no other remains are left ;
the narrow street called Friars Wynd ; the fine old
bridge over the Swale beneath the castle ; the views
up Swaledale, and of the pastoral country about
Catterick Bridge — all these things combine in making
Richmond and its castle attractive in a rare degree.

Richmond Castle had its origin immediately after
the Conquest To Alan Rufus, one of his most useful
and trusty lieutenants, William the Conqueror gave
nearly 170 manors in this part of Yorkshire, and Alan,
perceiving the natural advantages of the great promon-
tory over the Swale, commenced to build a mighty
castle there, and took the title of his earldom from the
place to which he probably gave its present name.
But Alan's castle was a small affair in comparison with
what his successors made of it — the builder of the great
keep was Conan, Duke of Brittany and Earl of Rich-
mond, who placed it on the north side of the enclosure
fortified by his predecessors with walls, embattlements,
and towers, and further strengthening it with a barbican,
which protected the gate and drawbridge, made Rich-
mond Castle practically impregnable. It is scarcely
possible to conceive that so strongly fortified a place
could ever have succumbed to assault from the primitive
methods and appliances of mediaeval times, and that
may account for the fact that it does not figure largely
in history. Although the folk of the North were
almost perpetually embroiled in some war or other, and
the Scots were continually crossing the border to foray
and maraud, no fighting ever woke the echoes of
Richmond Castle, and the Civil War passed by, leaving
it, almost alone of Yorkshire castles and fortified houses,
ungarrisoned for the king. Nor are there many incidents
in its history which are of great interest or importance.
It was made a prison in 11 74 for a royal captive,

. • •

• « • •

• • -

• • • •

*

THE YORKSHIRE CASTLES 157

William the Lion, King of Scotland, who, being captured
at Alnwick by Ranulph de Glanville, was confined in
one of its smaller dungeons until he took the oath of
allegiance to Henry II. It may have been the home
at some period of their unhappy lives of Constance of
Brittany and her children Arthur and Eleanor. In the
hands of one family it never remained for any great
period. William the Conqueror's grant to Alan Rufus
was of 440 manors in different parts of England — one of

the richest and most influential " honours " of the time —
but by the time that Charles II., in 1675, made his
natural son, Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond, every
acre of land had gone, with the exception of the five
enclosed within the walls. During the intervening
centuries the earldom and dukedom had been held by
various folks. Its earliest holders, the Dukes of
Brittany, at times sided with the French kings, and on
those occasions their honour was attainted and re-
possessed by the English Crown, into whose hands it
Anally passed in the reign of Richard II. After being
held by the Nevilles and the Tudors, it seems to have
been handed about at the personal pleasure of the
monarchs — the first duke was a natural son of Henry
VIII., its second the Duke of Lennox, its third a
natural son of the Merry Monarch.! But with these
later titles the vast possessions of the Norman holders
did not go, or were only attached in modest degree.

If the romance of Richmond Castle is largely that of
situation, the romance of Skipton is chiefly that of
personal association with a notable family. After the
Conquest William the Conqueror made large grants of
land in the Airedale and Wharfedale districts to William
de Romill6, who saw in the rocky mound of Skipton a
situation after the Norman ideal. There, commanding
one of the most fertile valleys in England, he built a

168 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

castle, which, after some changes of ownership, came
eventually into the hands of Robert de Clifford,
Governor of Carlisle, early in the fourteenth century.
Thus began an association between the Cliffords and
Skipton which continued, with one break of twenty
years, until the seventeenth century, and may be said
to still exist, seeing that their lineal descendant, Lord
Hothfield, still owns castle and lands.

Few great families were of more importance than
the Clifford family was in the three centuries during
which its members played considerable parts in English
history, and few houses had greater possessions. Their
lands stretched from Brougham Castle to Skipton, and
in addition to these two strongholds they had other
fortified houses such as Appleby, Brough, Pendragon,
and Barden. They were a fighting race from the begin-
ning — Robert de Clifford fell at Bannockburn ; Thomas,
eighth in succession, at St. Albans ; his son John,
who is said to have stabbed the boy Earl of Rutland on
Wakefield Bridge, was slain at Ferrybridge during the
Wars of the Roses, in which the Cliffords sided strongly
with the Lancastrians. But the son of that same " black-
faced " lord, Henry, famous to all time as " The Shepherd
Lord " and " The Good Lord Clifford," was as eminent
in the love of peace as his forefathers had been in the
lcve of war. He, carried away by his mother when the
Yorkist cause temporarily triumphed and the Cliffords
were for a time deprived of their estates, spent his youth
and early manhood under the care of shepherds — at
Londesborough, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, where
the Cliffords had estates, and in Cumberland — and, as
Wordsworth says of him, had learnt

" The wisdom which adversity had bred."

In the reign of Henry VIIL, the tenth Lord Clifford

THE YORKSHIRE CASTLES 159

was created Earl of Cumberland, and it was during his
life that one of the most exciting and romantic events
connected with Skipton Castle took place. His son
had married Lady Eleanor Brandon, daughter of the
Duke of Suffolk, and niece of Henry VIII., and when
the Pilgrimage of Grace broke into flame, she was in
residence at Bolton Priory. The insurgents besieging
Skipton Castle threatened that unless the castle was
given up to them they would seize Lady Eleanor,
subject her to vile indignities, and slay her two infant
children. In order to save her, Christopher Aske,
brother of Robert Aske, the insurgent leader, but a
loyalist and fighting against him, stole out of Skipton
at night in company with the vicar of the town and
two serving-lads, and crossing the moors into Wharfe-
dale, brought away the lady and her family in safety.

The third Earl of Cumberland, George Clifford, was
as fond of the sea as his ancestors had generally been of
fighting. He made no less than nine voyages to far-off
places — usually to the West Indies — at his own cost,
and appears to have depleted the family wealth con-
siderably by his love of adventure. He had no son, and
only one daughter, the famous Lady Anne Clifford,
Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery, who,
after the death of her kinsman Henry, the fifth and last
Earl of Cumberland, entered into full possession of the
Clifford estates and houses, and signalized her accession
by repairing the havoc which time and the Civil War had
wrought upon them, Skipton Castle in particular being
in need of restoration, since it had undergone a three-
years' siege before it surrendered to the Parliamentarian
troops.

In the parish church of Skipton, close to the castle,
there are several very fine monuments of the Cliffords ;
one of them was erected by the Countess of Pembroke

160 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

in memory of her father, the third Earl of Cumberland.
It is of black marble, and is ornamented by no less
than seventeen shields, whereon are blazoned the quarter-
ings and bearings of the numerous great families allied
with the Cliffords by marriage. Underneath the altar
of the church is the vault wherein many of the Cliffords
were buried. An examination of this vault and its
contents was made by Dr. Whitaker, the historian of
Craven, in 1803, and his account of what he saw is
extremely interesting.

" Immediately under his tomb," he writes, " lay Henry, the
first Earl, whose lead coffin was much corroded, and exhibited
the skeleton of a short and very stout man, with a long head
of flaxen hair, gathered in a knot behind his skulL The coffin
had been closely fitted to the body, and proved him to have
been very corpulent, as well as muscular. Next lay the remains
of Margaret Percy, his second countess, whose coffin was still
entire. She must have been a slender and diminutive woman.
The third was the Lady Ellinor's grave, whose coffin was much
decayed, and exhibited the skeleton (as might be expected in
a daughter of Charles Brandon and the sister of Henry VIII.)
of a tall and large-limbed female. At her right hand was
Henry, the second Earl, a very tall and rather slender man,
whose thin envelope of lead really resembled a winding-sheet,
and folded, like coarse drapery, over the limbs. The head
was beaten to the left side ; something of the shape of the face
might be distinguished, and a long prominent nose was very
conspicuous. Next lay Francis, Lord Clifford, a boy. At his
right hand was his father George, the third Earl, whose lead
coffin precisely resembled the outer case of an Egyptian
mummy, with a rude face and something like female mamma?
cast upon it ; as were also the figures and letters of G. C. 1605.
The body was close wrapped in ten folds of coarse cere cloth,
which being removed, exhibited the face so entire (only turned
to copper colour) as plainly to resemble his portraits. The
coffin of Earl Francis, who lay next his brother, was of the

THE YORKSHIRE CASTLES 161

modern shape, and alone had an outer shell of wood, which was
covered with leather, the soldering had decayed, and nothing
appeared but the ordinary skeleton of a tall man."

The Norman keep— still formidable although in
ruins — which towers above the two bays of Scarborough,
is possessed of a special interest in the fact that it is the
only stronghold of real importance on the Yorkshire
coast; indeed, it may be said to have been the only
castle on the coast, for some structures dignified by the
name were merely fortified houses. In situation Scar-
borough Castle is remarkable; it stands upon a vast
mass of rock, twenty acres in extent at the head, which
rises from the sea on two sides, and is there unscaleable,
and on the other two from the land by an equally
precipitous acclivity. The only connecting link between
this natural peninsula and the mainland is a narrow
strip of land which the original builders were quick to
command by the erection of a barbican and drawbridge,
overlooked and dominated by the keep, which was
flanked by curtain walls. These walls vary in length ;
that on the north ceases where the cliff becomes too
precipitous to be scaled from below ; that on the south
runs parallel and almost to the same length with the
ditch lying between the castle and the town. Few
natural situations are capable of being so securely
fortified as this castle rock, and it is probable that what-
ever folk there were at Scarborough previous to the
first mention of it in history used it as a place of refuge
and security. But there are no accounts of Scarborough
in any of the chronicles previous to that of the " Heims-
kringla," wherein it is set forth that Harold Hardrada,
after landing in Cleveland, came round to Scarborough
and fought with the burghers, taking strategic advantage
of the Castle Hill to help him in his assault. For, says

M

162 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

the chronicler, he caused a great pyre to be made on
that hill and set on fire, and when it was well alight,
his men took great forks and threw masses of the burn-
ing matter upon the town beneath, and one house caught
fire from another, and the borgarmenn surrendered, and
Harold slew the greater part of them, and seized all

they .had

This was in 1066, and within the next few years
Scarborough had been given by William the Conqueror
to William le Gros, Earl of Albemarle and Holderness,
who forthwith began to build a castle on the hill from
whence Harold had caused fire to be cast upon the
town. This castle had become dilapidated when the
Crown lands were resumed by Henry II. in 1154, and
the present structure was erected by that monarch, and
has been Crown property ever since. Its governors
were almost always selected from one of the great
families of the North, and its impregnable character
made it a principal royal stronghold in troublous times.
Hither, in 1312, fled Edward II. with his favourite, Piers
Gaveston, whom he left at Scarborough while he him-
self went forward to York. Gaveston withstood the
efforts of the Barons, who then laid siege to the castle
for some time, but was eventually starved out, and soon
afterwards beheaded. The insurgents of the Pilgrimage
of Grace besieged it in 1536, but without success, the
governor, Sir Ralph Evers, making a stout defence
against them. In 1557 Thomas Stafford, second son of
Lord Stafford, and an adherent of the rebel Wyatt, got
possession of the castle by a stratagem. He dressed up
thirty of his followers as rustics, and got them into the
precincts, when they disarmed the garrison and admitted
more of their own sort; but they were almost imme-
diately turned out by the Earl of Westmoreland without
bloodshed, which seems to argue that they were a craven

THE YORKSHIRE CASTLES 168

company. During the Civil War the castle was twice
besieged. Sir Hugh Cholmley held it for the king for
well over a year, and when he surrendered it in the
July of 1645, his officers and men were so weak that
some were carried out in litters and some needed the
support of a friend on either side. Then, in 1648, Colonel
Matthew Boynton garrisoned it once more for the king,
and a second siege lasted from August until December,
when he surrendered. During the second siege the
keep, having been undermined, was partly destroyed.

A few years after the Restoration, Scarborough
Castle received a prisoner in the person of George Fox,
the Quaker. A company of soldiers brought him across
country from Lancaster and lodged him in King
Charles's Tower, and there he suffered so many priva-
tions and indignities that one wonders how he endured
them. In his first quarters the chimney smoked so
much that he could scarcely breathe, and he took occa-
sion to tell the governor, who was a Papist, that it
resembled the purgatory in which he supposed he, the
governor, believed ; in the second he had no fireplace,
or no fire, and was well-nigh starved to death ; in the
third there were so many holes in the roof that the
water came in as through a sieve. Also, his guardians
gave him precious little to eat — a threepenny loaf had
to last him three weeks — and they had an unpleasant
trick of mixing ill-tasting drugs with his drinking water. *
However, he appears to have borne all these discomforts
with exemplary patience until the day when Charles II.
suddenly discovered that Master Fox was "a man
principled against plotting and fighting, and ready at
all times to discover plots rather than to make them,"
and so gave him a free pardon and a safe conduct, and
allowed him to depart in search of better food, drink,
and lodging.

164 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

An excellent example of a Norman castle, built
upon earthworks originally constructed at some far
earlier period of history, is found at Helmsley, where
there are romantic associations with the second Duke
of Buckingham. In Mr. Clark's work on " Mediaeval
Military Architecture/' he suggests that the earthworks
at Helmsley, if not belonging to the plan of the original
builder, Robert de Roos, may be the work of the
Romanized Britons. However that may be, Robert
built his castle here about the end of the twelfth
century, and the keep, a formidable square of 53 feet
and nearly 100 feet in height, is one of the last, if not
the last, of its sort built in England This dominated
an enclosure round which ran a thick curtain wall, built
against the earthworks previously mentioned, and fur-
nished with towers at the angles, and gate-houses and
barbicans of considerable strength. Here the descen-
dants of Robert de Roos dwelt in great security and
content for seventeen generations, until the castle, town,
and manor of Helmsley passed by marriage to the
family of Manners, one of whom, Thomas, was created
Earl of Rutland in 1525. Katharine Manners, daughter
and only child of the sixth earl, came into possession of
all the vast estates of the family on his death in 1632,
and through her marriage with George Villiers, the first
Duke of Buckingham, favourite of James I., Helmsley
became associated with one of the most notable figures
in the history of the Stuart period, George Villiers, the
second duke, who played so many parts during the days
of Charles II.

The second Duke of Buckingham's connection with
Helmsley came towards the end of his life. Three
years before the Restoration he repaired his already
shattered fortunes by a marriage with Mary, daughter
of Sir Thomas (Lord) Fairfax, whom he espoused at

THE YORKSHIRE CASTLES 166

Bolton Percy Church. On the death of her father, in
1671, the duchess — described by Madame de Longue-
ville as being "a little round crumpled woman, very
fond of finery" — inherited his estates and riches, and
her husband doubtless squandered her substance as he
had squandered his own. He appears to have made
Helmsley a sort of refuge in his last days, and near
Helmsley he died in 1687. Some misapprehension has
been caused as to the actual facts of his death because
of Pope's well-known version of the story, which repre-
sents the once gay butterfly of fashion to have died
in a poor inn at Kirby Moorside. But the oft-quoted
description —

" In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half-hung,
The floor of plaster and the walls of dung,
On once a flock-bed, but repair*d with straw,
With tape-ty'd curtains, never meant to draw,
The George and Garter dangling from that bed
Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red,
Great Villiers lies . . ." —

is more remarkable for imagination than for corre-
spondence to the real truth. Buckingham had retained
at least sufficient of his fortune to enable him to keep
up some state at Helmsley, and he there spent most of
his time in hunting, and his fatal illness began suddenly
while on a hunting expedition near Kirby Moorside.
He was not carried to an inn in that town, but to a
respectable house in the market-place occupied by folk
of some standing, and there he died. Nor was he, as
Pope suggests, without a friend at the last, for Lord
Arran was with him when he died, and caused his body
to be embalmed before it was carried to Helmsley
Castle. But in one respect Pope was not far from the
truth. Buckingham, M after having been possessed of
about £50,000 a year, and passed through many of the

166 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

highest posts in the kingdom/' did indeed die " victor
of fortune/ 1 for Lord Arran was obliged to announce
that there was not a single penny in hand for the funeral
expenses.

In the parish register of Kirby Moorside there is the
entry of Buckingham's death —

" 1687 — April 17th, George Vilaus, lord dooke of bookingham"

Some years after the ill-fated courtier's death the
Helmsley estates were sold by his executors to Sir
Charles Duncombe, Lord Mayor of London, and at one
time Secretary to the Treasury, who paid £90,000 for
castle and manor. This gave Pope's vitriolic pen
another chance —

" And Helmsley, once proud Buckingham's delight,
Slid to a scrivener, and a City knight."

But Helmsley, in point of fact, entered into more
prosperous times than it had ever known by the ex-
change, for the Duncombe family, since ennobled by
the title of Earl of Feversham conferred upon its head
in 1868, has become as famous for its benefactions as
Buckingham, with all his pride, was for his extravagance.
There is another link between a Yorkshire castle, a
famous character of his time, and Alexander Pope at
Harewood. The old castle overlooking the Wharfe at
one of its pleasantest stretches is not imposing in size
or terrifying in aspect ; it was, in fact, but a mansum
numeric which Sir William de Aldeburgh obtained leave
to crenellate in. 1367 ; but it is very picturesque, and
contains some fine examples of rich Decorated work,
and it is interesting because of its intimate connection
with the Gascoignes and the Wentworths. There are
no records of any disturbance around its walls during
the Civil War, but it was dismantled about that time,

• *• •

THE YORKSHIRE CASTLES 167

and in an uninhabitable condition when the famous
miser, Sir John Cutler, acquired it. Pope has epitomized
the greed and penury of this strange mortal in well-
known lines

" Cutler saw tenants break and houses fall ;
For very want he could not build a wall :
His only daughter in a stranger's power ;
For very want he could not pay a dower ;
A few gray hairs his reverend temples crowned ;
Twas very want that sold them for two pound !
What e'en denied a cordial at his end,
Banished the doctor, and expelled the friend ?
What but a want — which you perhaps think mad,
Yet numbers feel— the want of what he had ! "

It may be wondered why Sir John Cutler bought Hare-
wood at all ; but he certainly recouped himself for his
outlay in some degree by tearing every scrap of timber
out of the old castle that he could lay hands on and
selling it

One of the castles which suffered most severely
during the Civil War, and from the dislike of the
Parliamentarians to the survival of the strongholds, was
Knaresborough, which occupies a fair position above the
romantic windings of the Nidd, but is now no more than
a collection of ruinous fragments. Even in these there
is nothing left of the original Norman castle in which
the Estotevilles, the great and powerful barons of
Knaresborough, kept their state — the existing ruins
date from about the beginning of the fourteenth century.
But what is left of the keep is of great interest ; in the
dungeon, according to local tradition, one sees the
prison wherein the murderers of Thomas k Becket spent
twelve months of strict seclusion after the commission
of their crime. Some chroniclers say that they were
actual prisoners ; others that they were refugees ;
another story relates that such a heavy curse lay upon

168 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

them that no man would speak to them, and that the
very dogs refused to eat the crusts which they threw
aside. According to one legend, the four knights, Sir
Thomas Briton, Sir William Tracy, Sir Reginald Fitz-
Urse, and Sir Hugh de Morville, being reconciled to
the Church after their sojourn at Knaresborough, made
an expiatory pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre in
Jerusalem, and dying in that city, were buried at the
door of the church of the Knights Templars. As
regards historical fact it is certain that Becket's
murderers fled to Knaresborough, of which Hugh de
Morville was at that time castellan, and remained there
for a year, but on what conditions is not known.

Over the dungeon in which Becket's murderers are
said to have been willingly or forcibly confined (though,
as a matter of fact, they were free of the whole castle)
is a vaulted room wherein one may gaze upon some
curiosities, such as a suit of armour worn by one of the
Slingsbys at Marston Moor, the walking-stick of John
Metcalfe, the famous blind road-maker (Blind Jack of
Knaresborough), an ancient chest which is said, on what
seems pretty good authority, to have been the property
of William the Conqueror, a smaller one which used to
hold the books and papers of the Forest of Knares-
borough, and a quantity of cannons used at the siege,
one of which weighs nearly forty pounds. Over this
is another chamber, wherein Richard II. was confined
in 1399, previous to his removal to Pontefract. But
there is little more of Knaresborough Castle left than is
comprised in these chambers and the ruined walls of
the keep above them. When Leland saw it in the
early part of the sixteenth century, it was a fair and
strong fortress.

"The castle standith magnificently and strongly as a Rok,"

THE YORKSHIRE CASTLES 169

he says, "and hath a very deep diche hewn out of the Rok,
where it is not defendid with the ryver Nydde that there
renneth in a deade stony bottom. I nombired a eleven or
twelve towers in the woal of the Castle, and one very fayre
besides; in the second area there long two other lodgings
of stone."

Like Scarborough, Knaresborough was a royal
castle, and in 1616 it was given with the honour and
lordships of the district by James I. to his son Charles,
for whom it was garrisoned during the Civil War. It
surrendered in 1646, and was then demolished by a
local builder named Rhodes, who turned it into a quarry,
from whence he got material for the houses which now
surround its ruins.

Of the many other castles and fortified houses of
Yorkshire enough might be written to fill many volumes.
Some were places of importance; many were manor
houses whose owners had obtained the royal licence to
crenellate them. There is scarcely one that has not
some romance attached to it ; all could supply material
for a monograph. Wressel, on the bank of the Derwent,
just above the confluence of that river with the Ouse,
is intimately connected with the Percys, Earls of
Northumberland. It must have been a place of great
importance in its palmy days, for the Compotus, or
Household Book, shows that no fewer than 230 persons
formed the retinue. Leland called it one of the finest
houses north of Trent, and spoke enthusiastically of a
little study in one of its towers which went by the name
of Paradise. Sheriff Hutton, again, the stronghold of
the Buhners and the Nevilles, earned Leland's special
praise: no house in the North, he says, was more
like a princely lodging. Its ruins are striking — great
masses of masonry, which stand up boldly in a level land,
and may be seen for many miles — and in plan and

170 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

strength it must have been very like the Sc rope's castle
at Bolton. Pickering is distinguished by two features —
its striking situation and its command of wonderfully
lovely views. It, like Helmsley, is a Norman castle,
built upon earthworks of a previous date, and its
remains are of great interest to archaeologists and those
interested in military architecture of the Middle Ages.
Like Pontefract and Knaresborough, it was once a
prison of Richard II. As with these, so it is with many
other castles in Yorkshire-— each has something to tell
and to show.

But not less interesting are the mere fragments or
mere traces of castles which were famous in their time, and
have now become of small importance so far as actual
presence is concerned. Who that explores the grimy
labyrinths of Sheffield would ever suspect that in the
tongue of land formed by the confluence of the rivers
Sheaf and Don there once stood a castle wherein Mary
Queen of Scots spent many years of captivity ? Not a
trace is now left of Sheffield Castle, but it was once a
formidable stronghold, and Mary was kept there, under
the care of the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury, from
1570 to 1584. During that period she was twice allowed
to repair to Buxton in order to benefit her health ; at
other times her chief recreation, as at Bolton, was found
in riding exercise. She was in strict keeping at Sheffield.
u I have her sure enough," wrote the Earl of Shrews-
bury to Queen Elizabeth, "and shall keep her . . .
either quick or dead, whatever she or any for her may
invent to the contrary." Who, again, viewing the slight
remains and traces of Sandal Castle, overlooking Wake-
field and (the valley of the Calder, would imagine that
there stood a stronghold of great importance in York-
shire history, or that beneath it was fought one of the
bloodiest battles of the Wars of the Roses ? And there

J

THE YORKSHIRE CASTLES 171

are many other places, where castles and strongholds
of great name in their time existed, at which one seeks
in vain for even a stone, a ditch, or a local legend. There
may be a faint notion in the mind of some greybeard
that upon a certain spur of the hill, or on a commanding
mound, there once stood a great castle wherein dwelt
knights in armour, but beyond this there is nothing for
eye nor ear.

CHAPTER IX
THE GREAT HOUSES

The Halls and Manor-houses of Yorkshire — Some Chief
Examples — Wentworth Woodhouse and the Fitzwilliam Family —
Castle Howard and the Earls of Carlisle — Burton Constable —
Manuscripts at Burton Constable — Temple Newsam : the Birth-
place of Henry Darnley — Art Treasures of Nostall Priory — Hare-
wood House — Farnley Hall and its Associations with Turner —
Studley Royal and its Pleasure Grounds — Gisburne Park and its
Pictures — Roman Remains at Brough Hall — Legends of Cromwell
at Newburgh Park — Woodsome Hall and the Kaye Family — Old
Timbered Halls and Manor-houses — Historic Associations of the
Yorkshire Country Seats.

IT may justly be said of Yorkshire that almost every
village and hamlet within its borders possesses its
great house, and that some can show more than one.
In the midst of nearly every rural settlement rises the
castle, hall, or manor-house of the great man of the place,
landlord or landlord's tenant, and in addition to that the
outlying districts are freely dotted with similar dwellings.
No one who follows any of the principal highways which
traverse the county can fail to be struck by the excessive
number of what are usually known as gentlemen's resi-
dences, or by their situation. People who know nothing
about it usually imagine Yorkshire to be so crowded
with industrial life as to have no spare inch of room for
park or pleasure-ground, and can scarcely believe it
possible that shady groves and pastoral quiet can be

found within it. But there are as many green expanses,

172

THE GREAT HOUSES 178

as much welcome shade, and as inviolate seclusion to be
found in Yorkshire as in Warwick or Worcester, and
they are discovered sometimes in the most unlikely
districts. No one who has travelled in the neighbour-
hood of Sheffield or Rotherham would ever imagine
that such a thing as a nobleman's park could be dis-
covered amidst the general grime and soot and smoke,
and clanging of steel and iron. Yet Wentworth Wood-
house lies in the very midst of this oppressive indus-
trialism — surrounded by a park which is eight miles
in circumference. No one, again, seeing the bustle and
hurry of Huddersfield, would believe that anything so
charmingly old-world, so full of the atmosphere of peace
which distinguished Elizabethan time as Woodsome
Hall is, could stand, as it were, round the next corner.
And the reverse is just as true— no one who watches
the deer in Wentworth Woodhouse Park would readily
believe that Sheffield is literally close at hand ; no one
who feels himself taken back into the sixteenth century
at Woodsome would remember that he was in the very
thick of one of the busiest industrial districts in the
world Thus some of the great houses and their sur-
roundings are as oases in the desert — they are too often
the only places wherein the human lungs get a chance
of clear air.

But the majority of the great houses in Yorkshire
are well away from modern sights and sounds. The
castle, hall, or manor-house is best seen in the midst of
a village, and its peculiar influence over village life is
best studied on the spot. When it is the residence
of a family which has been settled in the place for
several generations, it is a sort of head office of the
whole community, which has naturally grown up around
it as towns grew up round the old castles. Where it
is sub-let to a tenant, its influence upon the surrounding

174 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

community is much less marked ; where, as is unfor-
tunately the case in many instances, it is a brand-new
or comparatively newly-built structure raised by some
successful tradesman or speculator who wishes to play
the rdle of country gentleman, it has no influence at all,
and rather excites ridicule in the rustic mind. For the
rustic Yorkshireman likes old houses and old families,
just as he likes old ale and ripe cheese, and he has an
affection for the hall and the manor-house which towns-
folk scarcely understand. And there is much to be
thankful for in the fact that the vast majority of the
country seats of Yorkshire are old houses, dwelt in by
old families, who are allied to the folk around them by
a multitude of ties and bonds which even the disturbing
influences of a new age cannot break.

To the Yorkshireman of the southern parts of the
county Wentworth Woodhouse is what the castle of the
Scottish chieftain was to his clansmen. It is the great
house of the district, and the seat of one of the oldest
families in England. The FitzWilliams, of Norman
origin, were settled at Sprotborough, a village pictur-
esquely situated on the Don, just outside Doncaster,
from a very early period, and the churches in that
district are rich in memorials of them. They were
always of a princely generosity and hospitality, and
kept open house at Sprotborough as they did hundreds
of years later at Wentworth Woodhouse. Until the
beginning of the sixteenth century, when it was removed,
there stood near the ancient church of Sprotborough a
cross, whereon was engraven the following inscription : —

11 Whoso is hungry and lists to eat,
Let him come to Sprotburgh for his meat,
And for a night and for a day
His horse shall have both corne and hay,
And no man shall ask him when he goeth away."

THE GREAT HOUSES 175

Of similar antiquity were the Wentworths, who had
settled at Wentworth and taken their surname from the
place as early as the twelfth century. Their grandeur
culminated in the famous Earl of Strafford, Thomas
Wentworth, whose son, the second earl, was the last of
his line. From him the lands passed to his nephew,
Thomas Watson, whose son became first Marquis of
Rockingham, and was succeeded by Ms son, the second
and celebrated marquis, twice Prime Minister of Eng-
land. He, too, was the last of his line, and from him
the estates passed to his nephew, Earl Fitzwilliam, who
thus gathered up into himself the honours and riches of
several great houses.

As a show-place Wentworth Woodhouse is in some
respects unique. It stands in a magnificent park, richly
wooded and well watered, and particularly well stocked
with various breeds of deer. As regards size, the house,
which was built upon the site of a previous mansion,
some parts of which still remain, by the first Marquis of
Rockingham, is one of the largest private houses in the
world. Its south front is 700 feet in length ; it boasts
a marble saloon 72 feet square ; there is accommoda-
tion for a hundred and fifty horses in its stables, and
evidences of wealth, taste, and luxury are everywhere.
But the great feature of the house is its fine store of
pictures. Here is the best collection of Vandycks to be
found in the country, and they are all the more interest-
ing because many of them were painted on the spot
One of the Vandycks — Lord Strafford dictating to his
secretary — is of particular interest, because it is men-
tioned in the great Lord President's will, with express
instructions that it should never be taken out of the
house. But in addition to the Vandycks there are
notable examples of the art of Reynolds, Lely, Tyssens,
Tenters, Titian, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and many

176 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

more great masters. Here, too, are some interesting
personal mementoes of the Earl of Strafford and his
master — the Bible and Prayer-book of the king, and the
oak billiard-table made for the earl. And in the chancel
of the old church, adjoining the modern one, near the
house, is the earl's tomb, and above it a small figure of
himself in the act of prayer.

At Wentworth Woodhouse the Fitzwilliams kept
great state. They used to drive into Doncaster at the
September race-meeting, attended by retinues fit to wait
upon a prince, and when the late Queen Victoria was
their guest for the St Leger of 1836, the cavalcade
which attended her to and from the town was gorgeous
and brilliant in colouring. Here, too, they kept up
until quite recently the custom of their forefathers at
Sprotborough. On certain nights whosoever was hungry
and liked to eat might dine with Earl Fitzwilliam in his
ancestral hall after the fashion of the feudal days, and
this keeping up of old-world customs did much to make
the Fitzwilliam name respected throughout the district.

With Wentworth Woodhouse as a great baronial
house and a repository of art treasures one may rank
Castle Howard, the seat of the Earl of Carlisle. It was
built during the first thirty years of the eighteenth
century by Sir John Vanbrugh, who was engaged at
the same period in building Blenheim Palace for the
Duke of Marlborough. There is a similarity of design
and plan about the two houses, but competent autho-
rities, such as Fergusson, prefer Castle Howard to
Blenheim. "On the whole," says Fergusson, "with
all Vanbrugh's grandeur of conception, it has fewer of
his faults than any other of his designs ; and, taking it
all in all, it would be difficult to point out a more
imposing country house possessed by any nobleman in
England than this palace of the Howards/' The

• r *

ft r-

THE GREAT HOUSES 177

epithet " imposing " is well deserved. Castle Howard is
a magnificent mansion of vast size, standing in a great
park in a delightful part of the county, surrounded by
the finest groves, the most luxuriant gardens, and the
most appropriate artificial aids to ornamentation that
the mind can conceive, and it houses a collection of art
treasures at which one can only stand agape with
wonder. Even such a blasi observer of men and things
as Horace Walpole was amazed when he visited Castle
Howard in 1772. "Nobody had informed me," he
says, " that I should at one view see a palace, a town,
a fortified city, temples on high places, woods worthy
of being each a 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.' 9

The family whose country seat this is, acquired its
Yorkshire possessions by the marriage of Sir Philip
Howard, a kinsman of the Duke of Norfolk, with
Elizabeth, co-heiress and sister of Lord Dacre. Part
of her dowry was Hinderskelf Castle, on the site of
which Castle Howard now stands. The grandson of
this Sir Philip was created Earl of Carlisle by Charles
II., when that monarch was restored to his throne, and
achieved some reputation as a statesman. But the
most famous heads of the family were the third earl,
who built Castle Howard and laid out the grounds, and
the seventh, who as Lord Morpeth had a brilliant
scholastic career, and made a great name for himself
in the House of Commons, and as Earl of Carlisle was
known as one of the most successful Viceroys of Ireland.
He has been described as * a happy combination of the
statesman, orator, courtier, and scholar ... so pure
and amiable that his whole career presents a uniform
brilliancy of worth without one shade upon it" This

N

178 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

earl never married, and the title and estates passed to
his brother, who also died without issue, leaving them
to another branch of the family.

It is difficult in visiting a house like Castle Howard
to avoid the feeling that one is walking through a
museum rather than a private residence, so richly
stored is it with art treasures. The various Earls of
Carlisle appear to have been collectors of an ardent and
persevering nature, and the result is that one is con-
fronted by a wealth of pictures, books, old china, and
antiquities such as can scarcely be conceived. The
collection of pictures is one of the finest in England,
and probably the very finest in Yorkshire. It was
greatly enhanced in value by the acquisition of a con-
siderable part of the Orleans collection in 1798, and is
chiefly noticeable because of its fine examples of the
work of Agostino, Annibale, and Lodovico Carracci and
their pupils, and for Flemish pictures of the Rubens
period. But there are examples of some of the best
work of many great masters — Canaletto, Claude, Cuyp,
Domenichino, Gainsborough, Holbein, Mabuse, Lely,
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Tintoretto, Vandyck, Velasquez,
and Zucchero amongst them. Of the vast array of
pictures The Three Marys of Annibale Caracci is
usually held to be the most important, but there are
many which are made the subject of special comment
in Waagen's " Art Treasures in Great Britain."

A most interesting house, though one that is little
heard of, Burton Constable, the seat of the family of
that name since the Norman Conquest It was held
in direct succession for nearly eight hundred years,
when the line failed, and was diverted to kinsfolk who
assumed the name. The house, built on the site of an
older foundation, is of various periods of architecture
and stands in a park of great size, well stocked with

THE GREAT HOUSES 179

deer, and formerly containing a once famous herd of
wild cattle. Its collection of pictures is chiefly made
up of family portraits, and includes one of Sir Henry
Constable, created Viscount Dunbar by James I., a
title which remained in the family until the direct line
became extinct. Architecturally, the house is most
remarkable for the square towers at each end of its
four corners, for the monogram of Cuthbert Constable
which ornaments the parapet, for the grand staircase,
and the magnificent library, nearly 120 feet in length,
wherein were stored valuable collections of manuscripts
relating to the history of East Yorkshire, and the papers
of Dr. Burton, author of "Monasticon Eboracense,"
together with the papers rescued by the antiquarian,
Roger Dodsworth, Charles Fairfax, and a York citizen
named Thompson, from the fire which broke out in St.
Mary's Tower at York during the siege of 1644.

Just as close to the busy work-a-day world and the
smoke of Leeds as Wentworth Woodhouse is close to
the clanking machinery and grime of Rotherham stands
Temple Newsam, a house of many notable associations
with historic folk and events, and the repository of a
fine collection of pictures. It occupies a somewhat
commanding position on high ground overlooking the
stretches of the Aire, and is in itself picturesque and
attractive — a red brick house, covering three sides of a
quadrangle, Carolean in architecture, and topped by a
parapet or balustrade composed of stone letters forming
the ascription : All Glory and Praise be given to God the
Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost, on High ; Peace upon
Earth, Good Will toward Men ; Honour and true Allegi-
ance to our Gracious King, Loving Affections among his
subjects, Health and Plenty within this house. In this
mansion, built by Sir Arthur Ingram, are incorporated
some remains of a former house, and in one of the rooms

180 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

thus preserved was bora the ill-fated Henry Darnley, son
of the Earl of Lennox and his wife Margaret, daughter
of Henry VII., and husband of Mary Queen of Scots.
This chamber may still be seen : its title of the King's
Chamber and its authenticity as the birthplace of
Darnley rests on the authority of Ralph Thoresby the
topographer, who, as a Leeds man, was certainly in a
position to know what he was talking about

Temple Newsam has passed through the hands of
many owners. Founded — probably by Henry de Lacy
— as a preceptory of Knights-Templars in the twelfth
century, it was afterwards in the hands of the Hospitallers,
who gave it up to the Crown during the reign of
Edward II. It was successively held after that by Sir
Robert Holland, the Countess of Pembroke, and the
Darcys, who lost it when Thomas, Lord Darcy, was
beheaded on Tower Hill for his share in the Pilgrimage
of Grace. Henry VIII. then gave it to Matthew Stuart,
fourth Earl of Lennox, father of Henry, Lord Darnley,
and it then passed into the hands of Darnley's son,
James I., who, after he succeeded to the English crown,
gave it to the Duke of Lennox, who in his turn sold it
to Sir Arthur Ingram, a rich farmer of customs in the
City of London. He it was who built the present
mansion, which has descended by various links with its
builder to the family of Meynell-Ingram.

The chief art treasures of Temple Newsam are the
pictures, displayed in a fine gallery forty yards long and
ten wide. There is a portrait of Rembrandt by himself;
a John the Baptist by Guido ; several portraits by Sir
Joshua Reynolds ; a very fine landscape by Claude ; a dead
Christ by Annibale Caracci ; and numerous examples of
Diirer, Poussin, Jan Asselyn, Mieseraldt, Van de Velde,
and other members of the Dutch school. Waagen notices
this collection in his " Art Treasures in Great Britain."

THE GREAT HOUSES 181

An equally fine and interesting collection of pictures
and interesting objects is housed at Nostell Priory, the
seat of Lord St Oswald, whose ancestor, Sir Thomas
Winn, a London merchant, bought the estate from its
former owners, the Wolstenholmes, after they had been
reduced to poverty by their adherence to the Royalist
cause at the time of the Civil War. Nostell, although
lying on the edge of the colliery districts, and having
an important coal-mine in active operation at its very
gates, is one of the finest and most interesting of the
great country houses of Yorkshire. Just within its park,
which is stocked with a fine herd of fallow deer, stands
the parish church of Wragby, notable for its architecture,
which is of the Transitional-Norman period, and for the
unusual ornamentation of the pulpit and fineness of the
stained glass. The house itself is an imposing building
in the Italian style, and was built early in the eighteenth
century. But Nostell had been a place of importance
long before the Winns became possessed of it Here,
during the reign of Henry I., was established one of the
first of the 1 70 houses of August inian Canons eventually
set up in England. It became a house of considerable
influence, and was much favoured by the Lacys of
Pontefract Castle. It had at one time great possessions
in the north ; but at the time of the Dissolution it was
heavily in debt, and had, moreover, given rise to con-
siderable scandal. Leland visited it during his travels
in this part of Yorkshire, and pronounced it a very fair
and well-builded house, with " a marvelous fair conduct
of water." But there is now scarcely a trace of it left,
save a few stones built into some outbuildings. There
is in the library at Nostell a manuscript history of the
priory, written while it was under the rule of Prior
Quixley, about the end of the fourteenth century.
There, too, are preserved some relics of Napoleon

182 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Buonaparte — a flint-lock presented to him by the gun-
makers of Paris, a portrait of him executed out of his
own hair on ivory, and a counterpane which covered
him during his last days at St Helena. The great
glory of the house, however, lies in its pictures. These
are examples of a great many of the Dutch and Flemish
masters — Wynants, Vandyck, Jan Miel, Van de Velde,
Van der Hoeck, Ruysdael, Van Boom, and others ; and
there are also some fine pictures by Guido, Salvator
Rosa, Caracci, and Gainsborough. Many of the walls
were decorated by Angelica Kauffman, and the house
is noted for its collection of Chippendale furniture.

Possibly the most notable and interesting object of
art at Nostell is the famous picture of Sir Thomas
More and his family, a large portrait - group about
twelve feet by eight, which is generally ascribed to
Holbein. In this are depicted some twelve members
of the great chancellor's household ; over each figure is
inscribed its name and age. But around the question
of the authenticity of the picture much controversy has
arisen ever since the days of Horace Walpole, who
believed it to be not the original, but a copy of the
original, which was certainly at one time in possession
of William Roper, Sir Thomas's son-in-law, whose
family became related to that of the Winns by marriage.
Waagen, too, had grave doubts as to whether the
Nostell picture was the original. Erasmus mentions
that he saw Holbein's sketch for the great portrait-
group in 1529. "Methought I saw shining through
this beautiful household a soul even more beautiful/'
he says. But by 1529 Holbein had returned to Basel,
where the genuine copy of the sketch is still preserved,
and it is not known that he ever painted the finished
picture. Three copies of the original sketch, varying
somewhat in details, are in possession of English

THE GREAT HOUSES 188

families. If Holbein did paint the picture, it is possible
that that of Nostell is it ; if not, the Nostell replica of
his sketch, with which it faithfully agrees, is all the
more interesting.

Where Harewood House, the fine seat of the Earls
of Harewood, now stands, there once stood an old
English mansion called Gawthorpe Hall, famous as
being the house of the Gascoynes and the birthplace of
the great chief justice who sent Henry V. to prison for
contempt of court, and afterwards a favourite retreat
of the Earl of Strafford in the troublous years when he
was engaged in the affairs of the Council of the North
at York Between its timbered walls and the present
stately house of the powerful Yorkshire family of
Lascelles a vast difference lies. Harewood House is
a palace — "thoroughly English and aristocratic," re-
marks Fergusson. It was built for the first Lord Hare-
wood by John Carr of York, and the interior was
decorated by Adams, and the grounds and gardens laid
out by "Capability" Brown. It was twelve years in
building, and cost a handsome fortune, and it has since
been improved and partly rebuilt It contains some
fine paintings of the British school, but its chief glory
is a superb collection of old china, which is said to be
worth £100,000. It was formed by the eldest son of
the first Earl of Harewood, who died some years before
his father, and is chiefly of S&vres and old Dresden. The
surroundings of Harewood House, especially the gardens,
are very palatial, and the entire place, at which more
than one sovereign of Europe has been entertained, is
suggestive of great baronial grandeur. Harewood House
stands high above the Wharfe on its southern bank ; on
the northern, a few miles away, there is a house, much
more unassuming in aspect, to which every lover of art
who is fortunate enough to visit it turns his steps with

184 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

an interest verging on actual excitement "Farnley
Hall/' said Ruskin, " is a unique place : there is nothing
like it in the world — a place where a great genius was
loved and appreciated, who did all his best work for the
place, and where it is treasured up like a monument in
a shrine." Whoever sees Farnley Hall for the first time,
its picturesque, old-world architecture, its oriel windows,
its delightful gardens, its charming prospects over the
valleys of the Washburn and the Wharfe and across the
heath-clad moors in front, will not wonder that Turner,
greatest of English landscape painters, was so fond of
it But there was yet another reason why Turner loved
Farnley Hall so much — it was the house of his great
friend and patron, Walter Fawkes, whose society and
friendship he valued greatly, and who made his house
the famous artist's home whenever he came to visit
him.

Turner first came to Farnley in 1803, and he con-
tinued to visit his friend regularly until 1820. During
his visits he used to make drawings and paintings of
various objects and scenes — of "bits" of the house, of
rare birds shot on the estate, and of corners of the
grounds and gardens. Thus began the famous Turner
Collection at Farnley Hall, which has made its name a
household word in the art world. The great majority
of the pictures are in water-colour, and the scenes which
they depict range from Wharfedale and the Yorkshire
coast to Switzerland and Italy. In addition to these
drawings there are some of Turner's best works in oil
and his designs for illustrating the British poets. But
the collection is not now as full or valuable as it was at
one time, for a part of it was sold fourteen years ago.

There are many other art treasures and objects of
interest at Farnley Hall — pictures by Velasquez, Greuze,
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Janssens, and Snyders ; some old

THE GREAT HOUSES 185

oak carving and panelling which came from the neigh-
bouring hall of Hawksworth, and several Cromwellian
and Stuart relics. Of these the most interesting are
the hat, sword, watch and chain worn by Oliver
Cromwell at the battle of Marston Moor ; a drinking-
cup fashioned out of one of Sir Thomas Fairfax's boots ;
a chimney-piece made out of the oak bedstead in which
James I. slept when he stayed at Hawksworth Hall,
and a letter written by Charles I. to Thomas Fawkes
(bearing date April 14, 1626), in which his majesty
requests the trifling loan of £13 6*. 8d.

The Fawkes family, to which all these enviable
treasures belong, is one of the most ancient in Yorkshire.
It hailed originally from the south of France, and one
of its earliest members to make a name in this country
did so by helping to garrison Bedford Castle against
Henry III. When the castle fell and its defenders
were at the king's disposal, he hanged every one of
them save Fawkes, whom he pardoned on condition
that he returned to his own country. But he or some
other Fawkes must soon have returned, for a William
Fawkes became lord of the manor of Farnley in the
thirteenth century, and there the Fawkeses have remained
ever since. They became connected with the equally
ancient family of Hawksworth by the marriage of
Nicholas Fawkes and Anne Hawksworth during the
reign of Henry VIII. These two families were ulti-
mately merged in one, under somewhat romantic
circumstances. Francis Fawkes, who died in 1786, was
the last male of his race in the direct line, and the
estates should have passed to Mr. Vavasour, of Weston,
his cousin on his father's side. But it chanced that
Fawkes once called on the Vavasours when he was
returning home from hunting, splashed with mire from
head to foot, and presumably not very presentable.

186 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

They were about to give a dinner-party, and Mrs.
Vavasour showed Fawkes that his company was not
desired He left the house in a huff, and, riding straight
to his cousin Hawksworth, asked him to lend him
three hundred guineas on the spot This Hawksworth
and his wife did without demur, handing him the
money in a bag, which he returned to them unopened
some months later. After that he would never have
anything to do with the Vavasours, but left all he had
to the Hawksworths, and he was so careful that they
should succeed to everything, that during the next
twenty-five years he made a new will every year, in
exactly the same terms, so that there should be no
doubt as to his intentions.

Of the great houses eminent in Yorkshire for the
beauty of their pleasure-grounds, Studley Royal, the
seat of the Marquis of Ripon, is perhaps the most
remarkable. Taken in conjunction with Fountains
Abbey, Studley Royal, indeed, is possibly the beauty-
spot of the whole county. Oddly enough, the very
patent fact that its beauties are largely artificial does
not make any difference to the lover of pure nature who
visits it, for time has thrown a softening atmosphere
over the formal lines and effects of the designers. It
would be hard to find anywhere in England a place
wherein such lovely scenes may be enjoyed as the eye
falls on at Studley Royal — wood and water, grey ruins
most romantically situated, delightful effects of colour,
verdant landscapes, all these things may be indulged in
to satiety. And very naturally they form a ceaseless
point of attraction to the workers of the large manu-
facturing towns, who resort to them in thousands
whenever a convenient opportunity offers itself.

The pleasure-grounds of Studley Royal, or rather,
the making of them, formed the recreation of a man

THE GREAT HOUSES 187

who had previously laboured hard in the service of his
country. John Aislabie, of Ripon, had assisted in the
duties of Government for many years, and had been
a Chancellor of the Exchequer of marked ability, when,
about 1720, he retired to Studley Royal to spend the
rest of his life in the peaceful pursuits of landscape
gardening. He had acquired the estate by his marriage
with the heiress of the ancient family of Mallory, which
had been settled there for some centuries, and he was
minded to improve it by laying out the extensive
grounds on the Dutch plan, which was just (then
much in favour. He and his gardener, William Fisher,
did everything themselves, so far as the designs and
contrivances went — they diverted the river Skell, planted
woods and hedges, made roads and walks, set up
temples and statuary, devised surprise views, improved
vistas and prospects, and transformed what had doubt-
less been a very ordinary demesne into a fairyland But
the crowning glory of these labours came when John
Aislabie's son, William, purchased Fountains Abbey
and its surroundings from the Messenger family, and
added the grand old ruins to the pleasure-grounds
which his father had laid out with such loving care.

One of the largest of the country-houses on the
western border of Yorkshire, Gisburne Park, the resi-
dence of the Earl of Ribblesdale, is notable for its
collection of portraits of prominent Parliamentarian
leaders in the dissensions of the seventeenth century.
There is a portrait of President Bradshaw, by Walker ;
and one of Henry Marten, by Sir Peter Lely, which
originally belonged to the Lambert family, and was
brought here from the old house, Calton Hall, at which
they lived in Kirkby Malham. There is also a portrait
of General Monk, executed by a contemporary artist.
At this house, or, rather, in a previous house, some

188 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

parts of which have been incorporated in the present
one, Cromwell was lodged on the night succeeding the
battle of Preston. Whitaker, in his " History of Craven/'
speaks of seeing at Gisburne Park a portrait of Cromwell
by Sir Peter Lely, which he believed to be the actual
painting commissioned by the Lord Protector with the
injunction that the artist should paint him exactly as
he was. In it warts, scars, seams, and tufts of hair are
literally produced — "it gives a truer, that is a worse
idea of the man than any other portrait of him/' says
Whitaker. There are other famous pictures at Gisburne
Park— examples of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Cuyp, Gerard
Dow, Janssens, Nollekens, and Mabuse, and to the fine
collection of family portraits of the Listers has been
added Mr. Sargent's striking presentment of the present
Earl of Ribblesdale.

Of the houses of the North Riding which deserve
notice, Brough Hall, the seat of Sir John Lawson, has
some remarkable claims to the attention of the lover of
art and of antiquities. To begin with, it stands on or
near the site of a Roman station, Cataractonium ; it is
well situated in the midst, of a peculiarly interesting
country, full of historical and archaeological associations,
and it houses a fine collection of pictures and curiosities.
Near it is Catterick Bridge and its inn, the George,
once of great repute in the old coaching days ; Catterick
Church, wherein lies poor Dick Braithwaite — " Drunken
Barnaby" — the versifier; and Bolton-on-Swale, the
home of Henry Jenkins, the oldest Englishman. The
hall itself is of Elizabethan architecture, though modern-
ized, and its interior boasts some fine specimens of the
decorative work of that period. Here are stored some
of the more notable of the antiquities discovered in
excavating and trenching the Roman station close by.
There is an enormous metal pot or cauldron, large

THE GREAT HOUSES 189

enough to hold twenty-four gallons, which, when dis-
covered, was literally filled with money, and was later
on put to the ignoble uses of a brewing-vat In the
garden are some carvings and figures from the same
source, which also yielded a Saxon fibula. Amongst
other relics preserved in the house are a glove and
garter once worn by Charles Edward Stuart, the Young
Pretender. Of the pictures, the most interesting is the
portrait by Sir Peter Lely of Miss Lawson, famous as
being the only virtuous woman among the beauties of
the court of Charles II. ; a portrait of Arabella Fermor,
the heroine of " The Rape of the Lock ; " and a pieta
attributed to Vandyck. There are also works by Peru-
gino, Maas, Van Orlay, Ghirlandajo, and Garofalo.
Here is preserved the original contract for making
Catterick Bridge in 1422-1425. It was, by the grace of
God, to be fashioned after the style of the bridge over
the Tees at " Barnacastella," and the price was to be
£173 6s. 8d. There was in those days a chapel at the
Catterick end of the bridge, dedicated to St Anne, and
there are still some traces of it It seems to have
escaped Leland's notice when he crossed the Swale, for
he remarks of " Keterick brigge " that it possessed but
one building, and that was an " ign "

Oliver Cromwell is associated in various fashions
with some of the great houses of Yorkshire, but with
none so much as with Newburgh Priory, the interesting
seat of Sir George Wombwell. This, one of the most
picturesque houses in the county, has many points of
interest. It was originally a priory of Augustinian
canons, and was founded by Roger de Mowbray in 1145,
and William of Newburgh, famous as a chronicler, was
at one time one of its inmates. It was a house of
some importance in its day, and had a revenue of
£367 8s. i<L at the time of the Dissolution. That the

190 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

present house is so beautifully surrounded is due to the
forethought and enterprise of one of the priors, who, about
the end of the fourteenth century, obtained permission to
empark the surrounding country. After the Dissolution,
Newburgh passed into the hands of Anthony Belasyse,
chaplain to Henry VIII., whose descendant was created
Baron Fauconberg by Charles I. It was his son, the
second lord, who married Oliver Cromwell's daughter,
Mary, in 1657, and thus brought the Lord Protector
into touch with Newburgh.

The Cromwell stories told of this house are interest-
ing in high degree. One, the very sound of which
seems to argue its improbability, is to the effect that in
giving his daughter's hand to Lord Fauconberg, Oliver
demanded that all the oaks in Newburgh Park should
have their heads cut off Another is that Crom-
well's body was conveyed here at the Restoration, and
hidden away in a strong room in order to avoid the
desecration which is commonly supposed to have been
visited upon it A third is that here are preserved, at
any rate, as many of the great man's bones as Lady
Fauconberg could gather- together. In the " Report of
Manuscripts in Various Collections " occurs the follow-
ing passage relating to the third story: "In a brick
sarcophagus, in a loft at the top of the house, carefully
secured against violation, the bones of the Protector are
supposed to rest, surreptitiously rescued by the filial
piety of his daughter." How much truth there may be
in these legends probably none but the owners of New-
burgh Priory know. But whether Cromwell's body or
parts of it are treasured there or not, it is certain that
the house contains some interesting Cromwellian relics
— his sword, saddle, bridle, and pistols, are there. Here,
too, are many treasures in the way of old books and
pictures, old-fashioned furniture, and the like, and there

THE GREAT HOUSES 191

is a thoroughly old-world air about the house which
gives it a peculiar charm.

The Fauconberg family, which came to an end so
far as the direct male line was concerned in 1815, was
in its day one of the most notable families in Yorkshire.
In the adjacent church of Coxwold, of which Laurence
Sterne was vicar for some years, the Fauconberg and
Belasyse monuments are numerous and conspicuous, if
not very beautiful. The most successful one, from an
artistic point of view, is that which bears an inscription
testifying to the fact that it was wrought by the unaided
hand of Thomas Browne out of Hazlewood stone. It
represents Sir William Belasyse and his lady, 1603,
and is an excellent example of coloured Renaissance
work. But there is one monument which is more
amusing than artistic — it represents Henry Belasyse
and his father, Lord Fauconberg, the former in a Roman
habit, the latter in his peer's robes, with angels support-
ing a coronet above their heads ! But they were folk of
eminence and character in spite of this seeming vanity,
and one of them was the very good friend and patron
of Laurence Sterne, who probably dined as often at
Newburgh Priory as at his own table in Shandy Hall,
just behind Coxwold church.

If half a dozen people of taste and perception were
taken round the chief country seats of Yorkshire, and
were afterwards asked to name one which pleased them
above all others as being the ideal retreat which a
country seat should be, five out of the six would un-
hesitatingly decide on Woodsome Hall, the Yorkshire
seat of the Earl of Dartmouth. This, a fine specimen
of a Yorkshire family mansion of the sixteenth century,
although in close approximation to Huddersfield, is one
of the most charmingly situated places in the county. It
stands on a hillside embowered in trees, and commands

192 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

a view of a picturesque valley, as reposeful and quiet
as Huddersfield is bustling and noisy. The house
itself is a dream of old days — long, low, and many-
gabled, with a stone outside staircase communicating
with the upper chambers, and a wealth of green stuff
climbing over the walls. Over the stone porch in the
centre is the date 1600, but this is the date of the
refronting — the house was built nearly a century
earlier.

If Woodsome Hall is a thing of beauty without, it
is a peep into the England of long ago within, for there
have been few changes made in the interior. One walks
into a great hall about thirty feet square, and finds one's
self in the sixteenth century. A gallery, intended for
the use of minstrels and musicians, runs along one side,
and is filled with armour, antiquities, and portraits of
the family of Kaye, the original builders of Woodsome
Hall. Over the hearth are the names of Arthur and
Beatrix Kaye in great letters, and between them is an
escutcheon, quartering the arms of Kaye and Finchen-
den. A curious picture represents Arthur Kaye with
branches springing from his loins, whereon are growing,
as fruit, the heads of his children and their children.
Underneath it are these lines —

" Fructus Wodsoniae domus.

" Here Arthur lies in quiet rest,
Who justly delt and none opprest,
This tree too sprung out of his brest,
His fruit, o. Christ, that follow The be blest"

Under the portrait of the wife of John Kaye are the
following lines, setting forth the —

THE GREAT HOUSES 198

"Vita Uxoris Honrstae.

" To live at home in howswyverie,
To order well my famylye,
To see they lyve not idyllye,
To bring upe children vertuislye,
To relyve poor folk willinglye,
This is my care with modestye,
To lead my life in honestye."

The Kayes, who were kinsfolk of several Yorkshire
families of high standing, were people of substance, and
also of frugal dispositions in certain respects. Both
sides of the canvases on which the pictures of John
Kaye and his wife are painted have, for instance, been
used, and they now hang on cranes in the hall, so
that the curious may turn them about and study
reverse as well as obverse. They, like many other things
in this fine old house, are unique in more than one
way.

In the western borders of Yorkshire there are many
fine old timbered houses, of the sixteenth century, and a
great many stone-built manor-places, which seem pecu-
liar to that part of the county. Shibden Hall, near
Halifax, is a picturesque old place, interesting in
another way, because it was once the temporary resi-
dence of Sir Thomas Browne, who is said to have
written a portion of his " Religio Medici " within its
walls. Riddlesden Hall, near Bingley, is another excel-
lent specimen of the same period, which is much visited
and admired, though it is now divided into tenement
dwellings. Horsforth Old Hall, also in Airedale, now
used as a farmstead, is a good type of the smaller
manor-house of the Tudor or Early Stuart period.
Round about Halifax, Bradford, and Dewsbury, there
are many of these houses — solid, picturesque, old-world
o

194 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

affairs of grey stone, typical of the sturdy folk who
built them. There are still more in Airedale and
Wharfedale, most of them now fallen from their high
estate and become farmhouses. But Yorkshire has no
lack of old-world residences. There are few finer
examples of Elizabethan architecture in England than
Heath Old Hall, on the banks of the Calder, near
Wakefield ; Howsham Hall, on the Derwent ; Bowling
Hall, near Bradford ; and Oakwell Hall, near Birstal ;
and the last two are well known (to Yorkshiremen) to
be haunted. Haunted, too, is the quaint old fifteenth-
century house called Kiddal Hall, on the road between
Leeds and Tadcaster, which is much visited because of
its picturesque, ivy-surrounded bay window. This, too,
is now a farmhouse. Many of the finest houses in the
county have fallen upon evil days in the matter of
usage. At Great Houghton, in the south of Yorkshire,
there is a fine specimen of a Tudor manor-house which
has historic associations of no mean order. Thomas
Wentworth, the great Earl of Strafford, married his
countess from it ; it was garrisoned for the king during
the CiVil War, and it subsequently passed into the
hands of the Milnes family, and gave a title to Richard
Monckton Milnes (first Baron Houghton) when he was
raided to the peerage. There are ancient folk in the
village who can remember seeing its splendidly panelled
rooms gay with brilliant throngs, but it has now
degenerated into a public-house, and black-faced colliers
drink their ale where fine gentlemen once sipped their
wine.

There are more country seats of particular interest
and importance in Yorkshire to-day than there were
religious houses at the time of the Dissolution, and
every one of them has some history and association of
its own. Many of them possess art treasures of great

THE GREAT HOUSES 195

value ; in some cases these are open to the inspection
of the public, in some they are not To describe them
all, to give an account of all that they contain, to cata-
logue in the briefest fashion all the legends and stories
connected with them, would be an impossible task* But
the traveller who explores any part of Yorkshire may
always be sure that the great houses are in some sort
epitomes in stone of the doings of the families to which
they belong. When one finds an old house, and an old
family living in it, one begins to bridge history. If one
is permitted to peer into the recesses and treasure-
chambers of the old house, one's eyes are sure to fall on
things first seen by eyes that have been dimmed for
many a century. It is one of the greatest charms of
Yorkshire that while industrialism and the modern
spirit have spread so rapidly within her borders, she yet
retains a multitudinous array of antiquities to bind her
to the ages which have gone. Of these the old country
houses are not the least important

CHAPTER X
THE YORKSHIRE FOLK

The Yorkshireman by Reputation and Tradition — The Yorkshire-
man to Outsiders — Characteristics of Yorkshire Folk — The Towns-
man — The Countryman — The Folk of the Mining Districts — The
Yorkshire Love of Money — Seriousness of the Yorkshireman in
Business Matters — And in Religion and Politics — Attitude and
Temper of Yorkshiremen at Critical Periods in History : The
Reformation ; The Civil War ; The Rising of 1745 > The Reform
Movement — Famous Yorkshiremen — Yorkshire Folk who have
helped to make Yorkshire — The Fairfax Family — Lady Anne
Clifford— Sir Tatton Sykes— William Wilberforce— The Crossleys
of Halifax— Sir Titus Salt— W. E. Forster— John Metcalfe— The
Yorkshireman's Love of Relaxation — Horse Racing — Cricket and
Football — Love of Dogs and Pigeons — The Yorkshireman's
Thoroughness.

IT is usually held, all the world over, that the York-
shireman possesses certain qualities and character-
istics which distinguish him from all other Englishmen,
and one has only to cross the borders of the county
into Derbyshire or Durham or Lancashire to discover
that one's nearest neighbours are of a decided opinion
that the folk of the Three Ridings are in truth a people
peculiar to themselves. It scarcely seems credible that
the mere intervention of narrow rivers like the Tees or
the Ribble can make so much difference, or that the
folk who live on the Derbyshire side' of Sheffield can be
so vastly dissimilar to those who dwell on the Yorkshire

side, but it is the truth that the geographical lines of

196

THE YORKSHIRE FOLK 197

demarcation denote a gulf which nothing has yet been
able to bridge. Just as everything that lies within its
boundaries has an undefinable atmosphere or colour
which is comprised in the word Yorkshire, so there is
something about the Yorkshireman which clings to him
wherever he goes. It is not his speech, though that
never leaves him ; it is not his hard-headed fashion of
conducting business transactions; it is not his keen
perception or shrewd instinct — it is something which is
part of himself, ingrained in him from birth, and as diffi-
cult to name >or classify as the fleeting vapour seen far
off on one of his own hillsides. He is Yorkshire. That
is all that the outside world, the world which is not
Yorkshire^ can say of him ; but in saying so much, it
says a great deal. It may say it with a smile or with a
sneer, and not seldom with a mixture of envy and ill-
temper, but it is always conscious that whatever is
Yorkshire merits respect and admiration, and demands
both with a calm insistence which is typical of folk who
know their own greatness. And thus it is that the
world in general has come to regard the Yorkshireman
as a hard-headed, hard-fisted, persistent person, whose
eyes are usually fixed on some object to which he
desires to proceed in the straightest possible line, and
who is by no means particular as to whose corns he
treads on in his effort to reach it He is, in short, the
incarnation of forcefulness — the man who speaks and
strikes quickly, and does neither twice.

It is something more than possible that to those
who live well outside the borders of his own county the
Yorkshireman, on first acquaintance, is anything but a
desirable or a pleasant person. Although Yorkshire is
vastly larger than its two rivals, Lincolnshire and Devon-
shire, so far as mere surface goes, and possesses a popu-
lation numbering nearly four millions of souls, its folk

198 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

are still clannish to a degree, and apt to look upon the
strangers within their gates as being no better than
foreigners. In addition to this peculiarity the York-
shireman has another, which obliges him to carry the
Yorkshire atmosphere with him wherever he goes. He
has travelled to the uttermost parts of the world ; but
his first care on settling anywhere, whether it be in New
Zealand or in London, is to gather his fellow- Yorkshire-
men about him, to make with them a close corporation
or society, the prime object of which is in all cases the
holding of convivialities whereat the menu and the
toast-list must be printed in one or other of the multi-
tudinous dialects for which the county is celebrated.
Other men seeking foreign parts — and it must be
remembered that to the true-bred Yorkshireman
Lincoln or Dublin are just as foreign as Hong Kong
or Chicago— are gradually assimilated by their sur-
roundings ; the Yorkshireman either converts his new
surroundings to his own use and his own likings, or
goes elsewhere, undisturbed and unashamed. Thus it
is that so many people, the inhabitants of London in
particular, discover that unless the Yorkshireman is
given way to he is by no means an amenable person to
live with. He is never surprised; he does not stand
in awe of anything; and he is not easily impressed.
And having been born with an ineradicable belief that
Yorkshire is the finest country in the world, and that
Yorkshiremen are the most capable examples of the
human race yet evolved, he has a habit of conveying to
all outsiders, not always in the most delicate fashion, a
suggestion that themselves and their opinions are only
worth consideration when his own have taken first place.
It is not to be gathered from these undoubted
peculiarities of the Yorkshireman that he is an arrogant,
bumptious fellow who has small consideration for others.

THE YORKSHIRE FOLK 199

In point of fact, he is one of the fairest-minded men in
the world when it comes to discussion of great and
serious questions, but he is very conscious of his own
powers, and believes in reminding himself of them as
strenuously as he believes in backing his own case in
argument It must be remembered that he comes of
a fighting stock, that in him runs the blood of half a
score races, and that he is by nature inclined to insist
on himself and to fight for his own hand. Pugnacious-
ness is accordingly strongly developed in him, and to
pugnaciousness is added far-sightedness, shrewdness,
and a great instinct for taking care of himself and his
privileges and rights. He is outspoken and often loud-
voiced; he has a vein of scepticism which rarely
becomes cynical; he likes to know the rights and
wrongs of a thing before he makes up his mind about
it ; and he is strong for justice and law. He is bluff,
hearty, and offhand in his demeanour ; of a respectable
hospitality, but never extravagant in generosity or
benevolence ; and he possesses a nice discrimination
and a strong sense of humour, which join hands in
making him free of ridiculous situations where mere
sentiment is concerned.

In so large a county there must necessarily be
differences between urban and rural populations. These,
however, are not so marked in Yorkshire as in most
counties where one finds large towns surrounded by
sparsely populated districts. There is no such difference,
for example, as one would find between the Londoner
and the rustic labourer of Essex or Surrey — the sturdy
independence of the townsman in Yorkshire is present
in scarcely appreciably less degree in his cousin of the
villages. Naturally the town populations are most
remarkable for quickness, intelligence, and knowledge.
In the crowded centres of the West Riding men are

200 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

quick of thought, ready of tongue, fond of debate,
always ready to join in any wrangle of words, and strict
in keeping up their acquaintance with the topics of the
hour. It is no exaggeration to say of the men of towns
like Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Halifax, and Hudders-
field, that they are great readers, thinkers, and talkers.
In the rural districts, where wit has not such opportu-
nities of sharpening itself against wit, thought and
speech are slower, but the racial characteristics are not
less wanting. The rural labourer of the agricultural
districts of Yorkshire has no affinity with the smock-
frocked, hobnail-booted Hodge of the comic papers,
who opens a wide mouth and scratches a shock head
when he is asked a simple question. He has a pecu-
liarly ready and stinging turn of wit, and is perhaps in
the forefront of his class as regards intelligence, just as
he is in his wage-earning capacity. Full of a ready wit,
too, is the collier — numbered by tens of thousands in
the Yorkshire coal-field district — a man who is neither
of the towns nor the villages, who is almost entirely a
product of the last hundred years, who carries indepen-
dence almost to the point of rebellion, and is more
sturdily jealous of any infringement upon his rights or
liberties than the artisan of the city or the worker in
the fields. But in all these classes there is one dominant
note which spreads also through the middle classes, and
had already made its influence felt amongst the aris-
tocracy — the note of individual freedom which has come
down through the ages as a heritage from their Saxon
and Norman and Danish forefathers. They are of the
sort, taking them altogether, who call no man master.

While he is not the man to make a god of money,
the Yorkshireman has a liking for wealth which prompts
him to lay hold of as much of it as he can, and to take
care that it is made safe in his possession. To him

THE YORKSHIRE FOLK 201

money means power, comfort, even luxury ; but, above
all, it means independence. Amongst the working
classes there is a dislike of the thought of an old age
supported by parish relief or lived out in the union or
workhouse ; hence the vast amount of money treasured
up in building societies, savings banks, and similar
institutions. The power to make money evokes an
admiration amongst Yorkshiremen which is scarcely
paralleled elsewhere. It is not the man whose fathers
left him the accumulations of numerous generations
who is to be looked up to and praised, but the man who
began with nothing, and by sheer force of character and
industry has raised himself to a proud position, who
gains the plaudits of the multitude in the county of
broad acres. If amongst the plaudits there should be
a few whispers to the effect that a little sharp practice
was not wanting, nobody attaches any great importance
to them, nor cares whether they are true or false — the
making of the money is the chief thing. It is money,
says the philosophic Yorkshireman, that has given us
our great public buildings, endowed our churches,
hospitals, and infirmaries, and made life easier and
brighter for everybody, and it has usually flowed to us
through the pockets of the millionaire and the merchant-
prince ; therefore let them multiply ! And so, however
much he may be inclined to the teachings of Socialism
as regards the multiplication of millionaires, almost
every Yorkshireman feels a distinct pride in the great
plutocrats of the county, and is not slow to point out
the tangible proofs of what they have done with, at any
rate, some of their money.

Money-making being, then, a serious thing with him,
the Yorkshireman naturally looks upon business as the
most important and serious factor in human exist-
ence. If he is a business man — that is to say, if he is

202 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

introduced to some particular form of manufacture or
commerce as soon as he leaves school, and told that that
is to be his life-work, whether it be keeping a grocer's
shop or running a great manufactory — he throws all his
energies of mind and body into his affairs, and becomes
so preoccupied in them— during working hours at any
rate, for he knows the monetary value of recreation and
rest — that he can literally think of nothing else. And
he naturally possesses a mighty admiration for com-
merce in any and every branch — to manufacture, to buy
and sell, to trade, to chaffer and bargain, are instincts
with him ; and though he has a regard for the profes-
sions, and a sympathetic soul for the arts and sciences,
he is first and last a born trader. The old merchant-
venturer strain is. in his blood, and he is seen at his best
on the exchange, in the market, or behind the counter.

He is just as serious, too, in his mental attitude
towards questions of religious and political belief.
Nowhere, perhaps, in the world are religion and politics
treated with such intense seriousness as in the great
Yorkshire industrial towns, especially in that section of
the West Riding in which the centres of population
run together. A general election arouses feelings in
towns like Leeds and Bradford which can only be
compared to those of Roman Catholics what time a
Conclave is in progress at Rome. On such an occasion
the Yorkshireman becomes a thorough-going partisan,
and develops a fervour, an enthusiasm, a passionate
belief in his own creed, an equally passionate distrust
of his opponent's, in a degree surprising and bewildering
to outsiders who take their politics less seriously. There
is no diminution of business energy, but one would
think, to hear the conversation in train and tram, club
and exchange, at market and street corner, that every-
body's chief concern is the political situation. The

THE YORKSHIRE FOLK 203

truth is that because of long centuries of fighting for
rights and privileges the Yorkshireman, whether he be of
this political camp or that, feels that politics is a serious
matter, second only in degree of seriousness to its elder
sister, religion. As befits a county of such venerable
ecclesiastical traditions and history, Yorkshire stands by
religion in a very real and practical sense. It is a land
of churches, chapels, and Sunday schools, and if the
folk are somewhat broad in their notions of the accepted
creeds, it makes small difference to their prevalent
belief that the founts of virtue and truth are reached by
the old ways. The practical thoroughness which
distinguishes the Yorkshireman in everything is seen
in his attitude towards the particular creed to which
he gives his adherence. There are Catholic families in
Yorkshire who kept the faith through the days of
persecution and penal disability. Nowhere was a more
strenuous resistance shown to the persecuting statutes
of 1665 than by the Nonconformists of Yorkshire, whose
ministers suffered imprisonment and privation, and
increased their following by the examples of patience
and stern adherence to principle which made the names
of Heywood and Grimshaw household words amongst
the folk of the West Country. Just as thorough-going
were the Yorkshire folk who found the religious stagna-
tion of the eighteenth century stirred by the eloquence
of John Wesley. And nowhere in England was the
great revival which we know as the Oxford Movement
so prolific of result as it was at Leeds, which Dean
Hook found a town of indifference and left a city of
pious zeaL

No better idea of the gradual growth of the York-
shire temperament can be gained than by a brief
examination of the attitude and temper displayed by
Yorkshiremen at some of the critical periods of history.

204 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

The rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace was
almost entirely confined to Yorkshire folk, for the out-
break in Lincolnshire was suppressed as suddenly as it
had arisen. In Yorkshire it sprang from the Yorkshire
love of old and settled things, the jealousy of those who
believed in the ancient system, and were suspicious of
the new methods which were being forced upon the
people, and the discontent of the common folk, who
were quick to forget whatever abuses had centred in
the religious houses, and quicker to remember that the
monks had been their true friends. It was a movement
shared in by all ranks and conditions, from peer to
peasant, and it is characteristic of the Yorkshire spirit
of earnestness that it was regarded throughout the
county as a holy war. A similar spirit of ^thoroughness
actuated the vast majority of Yorkshiremen at the
time of the Civil War. With the almost single excep-
tion of the Fairfax family, the powerful folk of the
county were for the king, and some of them fought
for him when the struggle was useless. The garrison of
Pontefract kept the Royalist flag flying after Charles's
head had fallen at Whitehall, and proclaimed Charles II.
with demonstrations of contemptuous defiance to the
Parliamentarian besiegers. This thorough-going adher-
ence to the Royalist cause arose from no particular
affection for the Stuarts, it was the Yorkshireman's way
of showing his belief in the principle of monarchy as
opposed to vague and chaotic theories of government
Belief in that principle led him to rejoice greatly at the
restoration of Charles II. ; it led him also to take sides
with the established government, Hanoverian though it
was, when Charles Edward came, in 1745, to make the
last effort of the Stuarts for the reclamation of their
lost kingdom. The same thoroughness characterized
the Yorkshire attitude at this crisis — it recognized the

THE YORKSHIRE FOLK 205

truth and reasonableness of the policy which Walpole
had been impressing on the nation for years, that
peace and prosperity were much more likely to come
from the Hanoverian monarchs than from a doubtful line
of clouded reputation, and it threw its weight once more
into the scale on the side of definitely established things,
and with such earnestness that school children vied with
each other in collecting funds for replenishing the royal
war chest An equal thoroughness in responding to
the needs and requirements of the time was shown when
the great Reform movement set in. No other county
in England was so quick to further the spread of educa-
tional facilities, to ameliorate the lot of the worker, to
perfect sanitation, and to use to the full all the
advantages which followed the extension of political
liberty and the introduction and application of steam
and electricity.

The Yorkshire characteristics of perseverance and
strenuous devotion to whatever work was in hand are
strikingly exemplified in the life-stories of the many
eminent men and women who sprang from the York-
shire soil. Forcefulness of character and strength of
purpose are the dominant notes in the lives of the
statesmen, scholars, ecclesiastics, scientists, authors,
artists, inventors, soldiers, sailors, whose names make
up the Yorkshire roll of honour. There are few towns
or villages in the county which have not some connec-
tion with the great. Beverley was the birthplace of
Cardinal Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, whose opposition
to the policy of Henry VIII. cost him his head. Andrew
Marvell was born at the little village of Winestead, near
Hull; Hull itself is rich in memorials of the great
William de la Pole, founder of one of the most powerful
families of the Middle Ages, and of William Wilber-
force, the emancipator. Lord Chief Justice Gascoigne

206 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

lived and is buried at Harewood; at Harewood, too,
the much-dreaded Earl of Strafford found rest from the
cares of office. The Fairfax family sprang from Denton*
in Wharfedale; the Fitzwilliams from Sprotborough,
overlooking the Don. Marton, a small village in Cleve-
land, was the birthplace of Captain Cook; Roger
Ascham came from Kirkby Wiske. Sir Henry Saville,
one of the greatest Greek scholars of his time, and the
founder of two professorships at Oxford, was a Halifax
man ; Richard Bentley was born at Oulton, just outside
Leeds. John Radcliffe, founder of the Radcliffe
Library, and John Burton, author of " Monasticon Ebora-
cense," were natives of Wakefield. John Wycliffe was a
native of Swaledale, if not of the village of Teesdale,
whose name he bears ; Miles Coverdale took his name
from the little valley which turns out of the more famous
Wensleydale. Newton Grange, in Ryedale, was the
birthplace of Roger Dodsworth ; Ralph Thoresby was
a native of Leeds ; Francis Drake and Thomas Gent
were York men. John Gower sprang from Stittenham,
on the edge of the Forest of Galtres ; William Congreve
from Bardney, near Wetherby. Sowerby Bridge was
the native place of John Tillotson, Archbishop of
Canterbury; Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London, was
born at York, which also gave the world three such
different personages as Guido Fawkes, John Flaxman,
and William Etty. W. P. Frith was the son of a
Harrogate innkeeper; Lord Leighton of a Scar-
borough physician. Joseph Priestley, the experimental
philosopher, was a native of Birstal ; John Smeaton,
who built Eddystone Lighthouse, came from Whitkirk,
a village near the historic house of Temple Newsam,
within whose walls Darnley, the ill-fated husband of
Mary Queen of Scots, was born and educated Martin
Frobisher is said to have been born at Doncaster;

• • •

1 « • •

THE YORKSHIRE FOLK 207

Admiral Lawson, the hero of numerous engagements
with the Dutch, was a native of Brough, on the banks
of the Humber. Charlotte, Emily, and Ann Bronte
were born at Thornton, a manufacturing village near
Bradford; Annie Keary was a native of Stonegrave,
near Malton ; Mary Linskill was a Whitby woman, and
is buried in the churchyard on the cliff, near the
monument to Caedmon, first of English poets. These
are but a few names of people and places ; the list might
be multiplied almost indefinitely.

It may help towards a clearer understanding of the
Yorkshire folk and the Yorkshire character if one con-
siders some typical examples of the Yorkshiremen — and
of, at any rate, one Yorkshireman — who have helped to
build up the social and public life of the county. York-
shire is what it is to-day, not because it was once the
stronghold of great feudal magnates, but because it has
produced men and women of forceful and purposeful
natures, who were quick to seize opportunities, never
afraid of work, never doubtful of ultimate success, never
weary in carrying out whatever task was in hand. It is
significant of much that such men sprang from all
classes of life, all grades of society — the aristocrat is
found devoting his life to inventions or to the public
service, and in several cases acting as champion of the
people's cause ; the son of the peasant, by sheer industry
and genius, becomes a power in the land, founds a great
commercial enterprise, and dies as famous as he was
originally obscure.

A typical Yorkshire family was that of Fairfax, which
in the seventeenth century exercised more influence
in the county than any other, and stood almost alone
amongst the great houses of the north in supporting
the cause of the Parliament against Charles I. The
Fairfaxes were statesmen, soldiers, men of action, but

208 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

they were also scholars, lovers of books and of art,
encouragers of literature and thought Denton, where
they originally settled by the marriage of Sir William
Fairfax to Isabel Thwaites, heiress, in 1515, is one of the
loveliest spots in Wharfedale, and though the old house
is now replaced by a modern mansion, there are numerous
memorials around it which recall its illustrious inhabi-
tants. At Denton the first Lord Fairfax lived and
died, and at Denton, Ferdinando, the second lord, who
defended Hull against Charles I., was born and spent
his youth. There, too, was born the great Sir Thomas
Fairfax — known in his day as Black Tom Fairfax — who
made such a figure in the Civil War, besieged Pontefract,
took Leeds, was thanked by both Houses of Parliament
for his notable victory over the Royalists at Selby, and
was acknowledged to be one of the greatest generals
of his age. Another Fairfax, whose pursuits were of a
different nature, was also bora at Denton — Edward, the
natural son of a Sir Thomas Fairfax, who gained dis-
tinction in the Italian wars of the sixteenth century.
Instead of turning to arms he turned to literature, and
in a pleasant retreat at Fewston, in the picturesque
valley of the Washburn, a few miles from the parental
roof, he made the first translation of " II Gerusalemme
Liberata." Literature and kindred arts occupied the
leisure of Black Tom when the stormy days of the Civil
War were over. He settled down at Nun Appleton,
near the confluence of the Wharfe with the Ouse, and
there in a great mansion, surrounded by a richly wooded
park, gave himself up to his books and manuscripts,
his medals, coins, engravings and objects of vertu. At
Nun Appleton he entertained Andrew Marvel], and in
the church of Bolton Percy, close by, he made the great
mistake of his life in marrying his daughter Mary to
the dissolute and unprincipled George Villiers, Duke of

THE YORKSHIRE FOLK S09

Buckingham, who proceeded to waste the fortune thus
secured. It was at Nun Appleton, too, that the con-
ferences between the great opposing parties which
resulted in the restoration of Charles II. took place, and
it is noteworthy that the horse which the Merry Monarch
rode at his coronation was sent to him from the Nun
Appleton stables, as a present from the great general
who had fought so strenuously against his father. No
man of his time had more influence than Black Tom
Fairfax, and Yorkshiremen who have some love of
letters will never forget that it was he and his father,
Ferdinando, who saved the literary treasures of York
Minster, and gave Roger Dodsworth the chance of
arranging the historical records of the county for the
benefit of topographers and antiquarians to come.

The Yorkshire characteristic of dogged persistency
was surely never more exemplified than in the career
of Lady Anne Clifford, the famous Countess of Dorset,
Pembroke, and Montgomery, a lady who believed in
having her own way, and displayed a resolute persever-
ance in getting it which would have done credit to her
father, the third Earl of Cumberland, a sturdy sea-dog
who spent vast sums in making voyages to the New
World. Lady Anne, born at Skipton in 1590, was a
woman of character. She spent the earlier part of her
adult life in squabbling with her family as to her or
their possession of the lands and houses of the Cliffords,
and it was not until the Civil War was over that she
gained full control of them. From that time until her
death, in 1675, she spent the whole of her time in
repairing the ravages made during the war. Skipton
was practically in ruins ; she set to work on a thorough
restoration of it, and made some important additions
to the original fabric The romantic tower of Barden,
overlooking Bolton Priory, had also fallen on evil times.

210 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Lady Anne repaired it and placed over its door the
inscription which may still be read there, wherein it is
set forth that it "had layne ruinous ever since about
1589, when her mother then lay in itt, and was greate
with child with her." Every house and stronghold of
the Cliffords was similarly restored by this indefatigable
lady, and over each she caused to be inscribed the
inscription, " God's Name be Praised/' and a reference
to the twelfth verse of the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah :
" Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many genera-
tions, and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the
breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in." But Lady
Anne was a notable woman in more ways than this.
She had learnt much as a girl from her tutor, Daniel,
the poet, and her love of letters caused her to erect the
monument to Edmund Spenser in Westminster Abbey.
She was a brilliant conversationalist, a patron of the
fine arts, and her house, as Whitaker says, was "a
school for the young, a retreat for the aged, an asylum
for the persecuted, a college for the learned, and a
pattern for all" Few spots in Yorkshire are more
interesting from association than the octagonal room
in the tower of Skipton Castle, wherein are two pictures
of the great lady who in a turbulent age insisted on
following a path of her own, and cared nothing for those
who opposed her.

Never was there a Yorkshireman, perhaps, who gave
such colour and tone to the local life around him, or
so won the affections of the people, or wrought such
lasting good amongst them, as Sir Tatton Sykes, of
Sledmere, on the edge of the Wolds. Of this " great,
broad-shouldered, genial Englishman" the folk of his
part of the world are never weary of talking. Born in
1772 and living until 1863, he accomplished during his
long and busy life a variety of labours and tasks which

THE YORKSHIRE FOLK 211

most men, however enterprising and pertinacious, would
have been afraid to venture upon. He and his father,
Sir Christopher Sykes, brought the Yorkshire Wolds
into their present state of high cultivation. Until the
middle of the eighteenth century the Wolds were un-
enclosed, and were practically worked on communal
principles by the Wold sheep-farmers, who turned their
flocks loose upon them. Under the supervision of the
Sykeses, and at their expense, the great rolling wastes
were enclosed, planted, and drained, and what had been
mere sheep-pasture was transformed into one of the
richest corn-growing districts in the world. Sir Tatton
himself was a great farmer ; he had one of the finest
breeds of sheep ever known, and he was particularly
successful in breeding hunters and race-horses. Of his
prowess as a sportsman volumes might be written. He
saw every St Leger at Doncaster for over sixty years.
When he went to the Derby at Epsom, he used to ride
there and back from Sledmere, for he had an old-
fashioned prejudice against railways which nothing ever
conquered. He was a famous gentleman-jockey in his
younger days, and performed rare feats in the saddle.
Once he rode from Sledmere into the North of Scotland
to ride at a local race-meeting, and as soon as the race
was over, he mounted his cob and set off for Doncaster
to see the St Leger, arriving on the Town Moor just
before the famous race started, after a four days 9 journey,
in which he took care not to distress his horse. Although
one of the richest county magnates of his day, Sir
Tatton was the simplest of men in his tastes and habits.
He invariably breakfasted on new milk and apple-tart,
and he usually lodged at Doncaster with a cow-
keeper, who was his host on these occasions for nearly
half a century. He was one of those men who never
cease from labour of some description; he rose at

212 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

daybreak, had ridden a score of miles over the ooun
side before breakfast, and if he was not engaged in hunt
or horse-racing, was always busy about his estate,
would take the tools from a wayside stone-breaker 1
break a heap of stone while the man went up to 1
house for refreshment ; he spent a great deal of his ti
in clearing out ditches and brushing hedges ; in eve
thing that he undertook he was practical and thorouj
He personally concerned himself in the joys and sorro
of his tenants and neighbours, and no man could ha
been more respected or loved. All round about Sl<
mere he built and restored churches, erected a
endowed schools, and did his best for the good of t
community, and it will well be understood that when
died the Yorkshire folk felt that in him there h.
passed away a great, honest-hearted, clean-soul
gentleman.

Another East Riding man and a contemporary
Sir Tatton ,Sykes was William Wilberforce, the phila;
thropist and emancipator, whose statue, set high upon
Doric column, looks over half his native town of Hu!
In him the Yorkshire character of forcefulness came 01
in high degree. The descendant of a family of Hi
merchants, and born in the quaint High Street of tl
old seaport, he was destined for public life from h
youth, and was little more than a boy when he w;
elected member of Parliament for his native town i
178a It must have been soon after his election th;
Boswell, the biographer of Dr. Johnson, heard hii
speak at York, and was greatly impressed by his el<
quence. "I saw," says Boswell, describing the seer
and his own impressions, " what seemed a Shrimp moui
on the table, but as I listened he grew and grew till th
Shrimp became a Whale I " The freedom and indepei
dence of the Yorkshire character doubtless rendere

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THE YORKSHIRE FOLK 218

force doubly urgent and eloquent in his appeals

lalf of the enslaved ; that the Yorkshire people

ized the greatness of his life and its work is

1 by their admiration of him as parliamentarian

iilanthropist Hull has several memorials of him,

ie most fitting monument to his memory is the

1 for the Blind at York, established in testimony

worth in 1833, and bearing his name. That name

nee been borne in honourable fashion by the

ipaWs descendants, and notably by Archdeacon

rforce, pioneer of the movement for the renova-

>f the parish churches, and by the witty Bishop of

d, whose humour was not seldom strongly reminis-

>f its Yorkshire origins.

ie manufacturing districts of the West Riding of

;hire have produced during the past century many

pies of the merchant prince, and it is much to the

of the Yorkshire temperament that in the notable

in which these captains of industry have accumu-

vast fortunes, they have never forgotten the claims

: towns or districts in which they were made The

iations of Halifax with the Crossley family form

ccellent case in point. Three brothers of this name,

cis, John, and Joseph, the sons of parents of a

ile condition, built up by their own industry and

ircefulness the most considerable carpet factory in

world and amassed huge fortunes. Beginning in

smallest way, they eventually evolved the great

at Dean Clough, wherein between four thousand

five thousand hands are employed, and in addition

his they engaged busily in public life, Francis

sley — who was eventually created a baronet — repre-

ag North-West Yorkshire, and John Crossley

ig far Halifax in the House of Commons for many

s. The evidences of the munificence of the three

214 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

brothers are everywhere in Halifax. On the Moor
stands a magnificent orphanage, wherein are fed, clothed,
and educated between two and three hundred children
of both sexes ; it was built by the Crossleys at a cost of
£56,000, and endowed by them to the extent of £3000
a year. In the centre of the town lies a People's Park,
given to Halifax by Francis Crossley, who caused it to
be laid out by Sir Joseph Paxton. Great ranges of
almshouses, beautifully built and pleasantly surrounded,
bear the Crossley name, and show the desire of the
three brothers to benefit their less fortunate townsfolk.
But great as were the public benefactions of the Cross-
leys, it is well known in Yorkshire that their private
and unostentatious charity far exceeded them, and that
they never turned a deaf ear to any well-founded appeal
for help. Of the people themselves, they shared their
wealth with the people in a generous and ready spirit

A man of similar enterprise and spirit was Sir Titus
Salt, one of the few men who have realized an early
dream of founding and perfecting a model community.
He, like the Crossleys of Halifax, began his career as
a manufacturer in modest fashion, a small warehouse in
Bradford being the scene of his early labours. His
shrewd prescience enabled him to see a great future for
himself and for English trade in the manufacture of
alpaca fabrics, and he began his experiments on a mass
of unpromising material which had been thrown aside
as unsaleable in a wool-broker's office. His success in
dealing with this was remarkable and unprecedented,
and his business increased so rapidly that within a few
years he found it possible to carry out a cherished
project of creating a great industrial centre on plans of
his own. He found a suitable location on the banks of
the Aire, a few miles out of Bradford, and made a name
for it by joining his own with that of the river — Saltaire.

THE YORKSHIRE FOLK 215

Here he built an enormous mill, covering nearly six
acres of ground, fitted with every appliance for the
comfort and convenience of workers, and fireproof from
roof to basement Near the mill he built a handsome
church, fine schools for the children, an institute for his
workmen, and common dining-hall, baths, washhouses,
almshouses, dispensary, and a model village of good
houses, arranged on a symmetrical plan, and much more
ornamental and pleasant in aspect than workmen's
dwellings are wont to be. He laid out a fine park on
the banks of the river, and provided it with every
facility for the playing of outdoor games. Nowhere in
England is there another place like Saltaire, healthily
situated in the midst of a wide valley, and swept by the
breezes from the heather-clad moors above.

William Edward Forster, whose name is so closely
identified with the spread of elementary education in
England, and who was one of Mr. Gladstone's most
trusted and reliable lieutenants until the great Liberal
statesman became a convert to the Home Rule doc-
trines, was, like Titus Salt, a Bradford manufacturer.
The friend of Thomas Carlyle, and allied with the
Arnold family by marriage, he was a type of the cul-
tured class of business men which is well represented in
the great manufacturing centres of Yorkshire. Full of
natural ability, shrewd, far-seeing, he was the ideal
member of Parliament for a town like Bradford, which
he represented for many years. To his intimate ac-
quaintance with the needs of the working classes in the
industrial towns was due the Elementary Education
Act of 1870, a measure that was taken full advantage of
by Yorkshiremen, who, under its provisions, began to
provide educational facilities in widespread and generous
fashion. With this measure Forster's name was always
most closely identified, but the sterling qualities of his

216 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

character, and the honesty and thoroughness of his poli-
tical faith, were brought out most strongly in the closing
years of his career, when, as Under-Secretary for Ireland,
he carried his life in his hand, but never flinched or
swerved from what he conceived to be the path of duty.
One of the greatest Yorkshiremen who ever lived, if
the most striking perseverance and indomitable resolu-
tion in the face of apparently insurmountable obstacles
are to be counted as greatness, was John Metcalfe,
usually known as Blind Jack of Knaresborough. Born
of very humble parentage, Metcalfe lost his sight before
he was seven years old. His resourceful nature asserted
itself even at this age, for he immediately began to
acquire knowledge in many different directions, and,
amongst others things, obtained sufficient mastery over
the violin to enable him to earn a living by playing at
country merrymakings and public entertainments. As
he grew to manhood his energies took him further
afield, and he acquired all manner of useful information
in the practical matters of life. He became so well
acquainted with the country in which he lived that he
could travel to any given point in the straightest pos-
sible line, and it is recorded of him that he once con-
ducted a stranger from York to Harrogate, across
country by short cuts and by-paths, on a particularly
dark night in winter, his companion, who could scarcely
see a yard in front of his horse's ears, being unaware
that his guide was blind until they reached their
journey's end Metcalfe turned his readiness and re-
sourcefulness to good account when he became a sur-
veyor and bridge-builder. He did everything by feeling,
and it is said that he could estimate the weight and
value of a haystack by merely measuring its area with
his arms. Bridge repairing and building led him, in
1765, to undertake road-making, and his first of many

THE YORKSHIRE FOLK 217

larkable engineering feats was the turnpike road
ween Harrogate and Boroughbridge. This proved
:h a success that his services were ever afterwards in
nstant demand, and many of the principal highways
Yorkshire owe their excellence to his skill and clever-
ss. How a blind man, and a man, moreover, who
id been totally blind since early childhood, could
rcomplish the wonderful things which Blind Jack of
Lnaresborough achieved during his long and arduous
fe must always be a marvel, just as his life must
lways be an example to folk who suffer from similar
lisadvantages.

It must not be supposed that the Yorkshireman is
>ne of those individuals who have so much concern for
work that they can spare no time for play. Nowhere
in England is there so much recreation as in Yorkshire,
especially in the great towns and the industrial districts.
It is a curious fact, but it is a fact beyond dispute, that
Yorkshiremen of the middle and lower classes, hard-
working and constantly toiling men that they are, can
always find time for amusements, especially of an outdoor
nature. They are never too busy to go to a favourite
race-meeting, a county cricket match, or some famous
athletic gathering, and there are few of them who are
not keenly interested in sport of some description.
M. Boutne/s contention that sport forms the chiefly
appreciated pleasure of the English is especially true in
the case of the Yorkshireman. Horse-racing naturally
takes the first place in his affections. How fond he is
of it can only be discovered by going to Doncaster on
the St Leger Day. But wherever races are in progress
in Yorkshire— or out of it — there the Yorkshiremen
congregate in tens of thousands. Their love of the
chase is not so easily gratified, but there are always
considerable crowds at the meets of the famous packs

218 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

of hounds, and many a sport-loving townsman will turn
out and follow on foot, well content if he gets a long
run, sees some sport, and goes home dog-tired.

Almost every athletic game known to the world,
even to such foreign games as baseball and lacrosse, is
indulged in in Yorkshire, but those which are most
prominent are cricket and football. These two great
English games may be said to have developed a busi-
ness-like character and complexion in the county of
broad acres. County cricket in Yorkshire is an affair
which involves the receipt and expenditure of thousands
of pounds, the keeping up of a large staff of players and
officials, and it is treated as seriously as if it were some
high affair of State. The doings of the county eleven
during the season are watched as jealously as if they
were the deeds of an army engaged in an arduous cam-
paign, and the names of the various players are as
household words. An equal amount of enthusiasm
prevails as regards football, into the playing of which
the monetary consideration enters even more deeply.
In the populous districts crowds of anything from ten
thousand to thirty thousand are found round the foot-
ball enclosures every Saturday afternoon ; the gate-
money runs into hundreds of pounds, and the management
of the various clubs is a serious business, which requires
great care and attention.

In all this pursuit of pleasure and relaxation, the
Yorkshireman is actuated by the same characteristic
which actuates him in his business relations. He is
Thorough — he works hard when he works, and he plays
hard when he plays. If his form of sport is dog-racing,
he gives a devotion to his greyhound or his whippet
which fond parents give to their children. If he is fond
of pigeon-flying, he cheerfully sacrifices every moment
of his spare time to training his birds until they can fly

THE YORKSHIRE FOLK 219

)m the south of France to the middle of Yorkshire.
here is no half-heartedness about him in anything.
[e plays to win and he means to win, whatever game
e plays at or in whatever pursuit he follows. Natu-
ally he is in deadly earnest about his games, and
othing could amuse the volatile more profoundly than
lis immense seriousness about his amusements. It is
lot that he takes his pleasure sadly, for he is always
:heerful and brisk about anything he does ; but it is his
characteristic when he takes off his coat and rolls up his
sleeves, whether in work or play, to give the matter in
hand a whole-souled attention, and to move heaven and
earth to carry it to a successful issue. That is why the
Yorkshireman is hard to beat

CHAPTER XI

SPECIMENS OF YORKSHIRE DIALECT

Variety and Number of Dialects in Yorkshire— Specimens
from Various Districts — Ben Preston's Dialect Poems — " Ah Niver
Can Call Her my Wife " — Words from Sheffield and Hallamshire —
'•The Cutler's Song"— The Dialect of Craven— Letter Written by
a Craven Man in 1760 — North Yorkshire Dialect — "The Sweeper
and Thieves" — Words in use about Almondbury and Hudders-
field — East Yorkshire Dialect— Beverley Gaol— -Authorities and
Works on the Yorkshire Dialects.

TO south-country folk the great majority of York-
shiremen, whether of the towns or the rural
districts! and often without distinction of class, must
needs appear to speak a language as " hard and rude "
as the Northumbrian English of the fourteenth century
seemed to Higden when he wrote his " Polychronicon."
To the unthinking Southerner, who knows little and
cares still less about philology, the Yorkshireman who
speaks in the loudest fashion and makes use of even
a few of the many thousands of words peculiar to the
country, must seem as much of a savage as any native
of the wilds of Africa. But it is not only the outsider
who finds himself puzzled by the Yorkshire dialects —
there are so many within the wide-spreading borders of
the county that a Yorkshireman of one district con-
stantly finds difficulty in understanding a Yorkshireman
of another. The man from Sheffield does not talk as

talks the man of Stainmoor ; the native of Holderness

220

SPECIMENS OF YORKSHIRE DIALECT 221

ffers in speech and vocabulary from the Bradford man
; widely as a Cockney from a Scotsman. Up to now,
i though many clever scholars have done good work in
Titing about the various Yorkshire dialects, no philo-
Dgist has ventured to give us a complete survey of it,
iid the vast number of words and terms which he
vould have to deal with are either to be looked for in
expensive glossaries of words in use in particular dis-
:ricts, or gathered from the lips of the people. Of the
general speech of the county it may be briefly said that
its foundation is Anglian, mingled in various districts
with, Norse, Danish, Flemish, and Low Dutch. Its
Anglian character is most preserved on the west borders
of the county ; in the north, and especially in Cleveland,
the Norse influence is very plain, especially in matters
of pronunciation ; in Holderness the Flemish and Low
Dutch strain makes itself apparent All over the county
there are quaint forms of speech ; words absolutely
strange and non-understandable to the stranger; a
different method of dealing with grammatical rules
and of pronunciation. And it need hardly be said of
thousands of the words and idioms used in Yorkshire
that the outsider would look for them in vain in the
recognized English dictionaries. For this reason the
Yorkshireman is often told by the Southerner, more or
less contemptuously, that it is a pity he and his fellow-
countrymen do not learn to speak English " correctly.' 9
But, in point of fact, the Yorkshire forms of speech, in
spite of their peculiarities, are nearer the true standard
of pure, unpolluted English than any other in England,
and it might truly be claimed of the Yorkshire folk-
speech generally that it is not dialect, or dialects, but
a language.

It is impossible within circumscribed limits to give
even the briefest account of the Yorkshire folk-speech

93SL A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

in its various forms and varieties. When one confronts
the work of men who have spent years upon years in
preparing glossaries of the words and idioms in use in
particular districts, and notes what a vast number there
are which must be as Greek to the ordinary Englishman,
one cannot help wondering if any one man will ever
deal with the county dialects as a whole. All that can
be done here is to present some specimens of the dialects
taken from various parts of the county, together with a
few words which would be familiar enough to the folk
from whose districts they are taken, but must needs
seem grotesque, strange, and often harsh of sound and
grim of aspect to strangers. Some of these words bear
their derivation on their faces; others may provide
mental exercise of a stiff nature even to folk with some
etymological knowledge.

Any one who desires to make acquaintance with the
Yorkshire common speech would do well to read the
works of popular authors who have written prose and
verse in the variety of dialect with which they were
most conversant. Of these dialect writers the late Ben
Preston (whom Mr. Baring-Gould styles "a very re-
markable man, whose poems deserve to be better
known and more widely read than they are ") occupies
a position of pre-eminence. His masterpiece, " Natterin 9
Nan," is too long to be quoted here, but the following
poem, an excellent example of his pathos and humour,
illustrates the common form of speech in the Bradford
district : —

"AH NIWER CAN CALL HER MY WIFE.

" Ah'm a weyver, ye knaw, an 1 auf deead,
So ah due all at 1 iwer ah can,
To put away aht o' my heead,
The thowts an' the aims of a man.

SPECIMENS OF YORKSHIRE DIALECT 288

Eight shillin' i' t* wick's what ah arn
When ah've varry gooid wark an 1 full time,

An 1 ah think it's a sorry consarn
For a fellah 'af s just in his prime.

M Bud ahr maister says things is as well

As they have been or ewer can be,
An' ah happen sud think so myseP

If he'd nobbud swop places wi' me.
Bud he's welcome to all he can get,

Ah begrudge him o' noan ov his brass,
An' ah'm nowt bud a madlin * to fret,

Ur to think o' yond bewtiful lass.

"Ah niwer can call her my wife,

My love ah sal niwer mak' knawn.
Yit the sorra that darkens her life,

Thraws its shadda across o' my awn.
When ah knaw 'at her heart is at ease,

Theer is sunshine an' singhV i* mine ;
An'. misfortunes may come as they please,

Yit they seldom can mak* ma repine.

" Bud that Chartist wor nowt bud a sloap —

Ah wor fooild by his speeches an' rhymes,
For his promises wottered my hoap,

An' ah leng*d for his sunshiny times ;
Bud I feel 'at my dearest desire

Within ma al wither away,
Like an ivy-stem trailin' i' t* mire

It's deein for f want of a stay.

" When ah laid i' my bed day an' neet,

An 1 wor geen up by t* doctors for deead,
God bless her ! shoo'd com' wi' a leet

An' a basin o' grewil an 9 breeacL
An' ah once thowt ah'd aht wi' it all,

Bud soa kindly shoo chatted an' smiled,
Ah wor fain to turn ower to t' wall,

An' to bluther an' roar like a child.

" An 1 ah said, as I thowt of her een,
Each breeter for tf tear 'at wor in't,

* Simpleton.

224 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

It's a sin to be niwer forgeen,

To yoke her to famine and stint.
So anil een travel forrad thro life,

Like a man throo a desert unknawn ;
Ah mun neer hcv a hoam nur a wife,

Bud my sorras al all be my awn.

" Soa ah trudge on aloan as ah owt,

An' whotiwer my troubles may be,
They'll be sweetened, poor lass, wi* the thowt

'At IVe niwer browt trouble to thee.
Yit a burd hes its young uns to guard,

A wild beast a mate in his den,
An 9 ah cannot bud think 'at its hard —

Nay, deng it, ah'm roarin' agen."

It will be observed that in this poem there is scarcely
a word which can justly be called "dialect," with the
exception of " madlin " ; other words of foreign sound
and appearance to the ordinary Englishman are simply
the ordinary words of common English speech spelt
after the Yorkshire fashion of pronunciation. " Nobbud,"
for example, is naught but ; " bluther " is blubber ;
"forrad" is forward, and so on. But one is not to
suppose that this form of speech prevalent about Brad-
ford is without its own particular idioms; there are
lines in " Natterin* Nan * and in " T Spicy Man " which
no outsider could understand without a glossary.

One meets with many curious words in the dialect
spoken in the Hallamshire district, some of them, in-
deed, so curious that the Yorkshiremen of other parts
may well be excused for ignorance of their meaning.
Blawch is to gossip ; Seye, to wait or stop ; a left-
handed man is Boll-pawed; an eccentric person is a
Ffapadasha. To set anything to rights is to Colly*
woggle ; Farrantly is to do things in a seemly, decent
manner. Gloppen is to frighten; Lippen, to depend
upon ; Sood/e, to go unwillingly. A projecting tooth

SPECIMENS OF YORKSHIRE DIALECT 226

; a Gabbertush ; a Punky is a dirty fellow or a chimney-*
veep; a great disturbance, riot, or commotion is a
falak. Pime is to peep; Stovin, to ramble; an
isipid thing or person is Welsh ; to be awkward is to
'tratnmack ; Thony weather is damp weather. Soant

a fool ; a Freem lad is a good-looking boy ; a Guizend
iss is a sluttishly dressed young woman. To Cronk

to exult over an enemy with insolence ; to Goster is
> boast and bully. Mammocks are small pieces of
lything ; Moskered is the equivalent of rotten, moul-
ded ; Oss is to attempt A Pause man is a worthless
How ; And-farrand is old-fashioned ; An Eapus means
inds full. To Threap is to bear an opponent down in
gument ; to Blare is to put out the tongue ; to
ruzzle, to make a great to-do ; to Snattle is to waste
me; to Whakker is to tremble. Liquid manure is
Jled Ackermetut, Ackermetoota, or Ackermantut ; broad
pe is Beggar's Inkle; a delicate child is said to be
vffling; to talk secretly is to Colly fdble; rags and
tters are Raltallacks.

Abel Bywater, a Sheffield man, originally appren-
:ed to a maker of awl-blades, and afterwards a chemist,
lblished an account of the Sheffield dialect as it was
•oken in his time — 1 795-1873 — and gave in it a brief
ossary, a picture of the gloomy and smoky town and
; knife-grinders and cutlers, and some passages in
alect, which have been pronounced to be the best-
itten examples of the local folk-speech ever produced.
f these the following ditty is an excellent specimen,
will be observed that in it, as in Ben Preston's poem,
sre is scant use of uncommon words or phrases, and
stt the odd effect is due to the reproduction of the
riosities of local pronunciation : —

226 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

"THE CUTLER'S SONG.

" Cum all yo cutlin heroes, where'ersome'er yo be,
All yo coot works at flat-backs, cum lissen unto me ;

A baskitful for a shiilin,

To mak em we are willin,
Or swap em for red herrins, ahr beDies tubbe fillin,
Or swap em for red herrins, ahr bellies tubbe fillin.

" A baskitful o flat-backs o'm shooar well mak, or mooar,
To ger reit entot gallara, whear we can rant an rooar ;

Thro flat-backs, stooans, an sticks ;

Red herrins, booans, an bricks,
If they dooant play Nausa's fansa, or onna time we fix,
We'll do the best at e'er we can to braik sum ore ther necks.

" Hey, Jont, lad, is that thee, lad, where art ta' waddling to ?
Dusta work at flat-backs yit, as thah's been used to do ?

Hah, cum, and thah's gooa wimma,

An a sample o will gi'tha ;
It's won at oVe just fooaged uppa Jeffra's bran new stidda.
Look at it well, it duz excel all t' flat-backs e ahr smitha.

" Let's send for a pitcher a ale, lad, for o'm gerrin varra droi ;
O'm ommast chooakt we smitha-sleck, the wind it is so hoi.

Ge Rafe and Jer a drop,

They sen they cannot stop,
They're e sich a moita hurra to get tot penny hop,
They're e sich a moita hurra to get tot penny hop.

" Here's Steeam at lives at Heela, hell soon be here, o kno ;
He's larnt a new Makkarona step, the best yo iwer saw ;

He has it sooa compleat,

He troies up iverra street,
An ommast braiks all f pavors we swatlin dahn his feet,
An Anak troies to beat him wheniwer they dun meet

" We'll raise a tail * be Sunda, Steeam, o kno whoa's one to sell ;
Well tee a hammer heead at end, to mak it balance well ;
Its a reit new Lunnon tail ;
Well ware it kail for kail
Ah*r Anak brout it we him, that neet he cum bi t' maiL
Well drink success unto it — hey ! Jont, lad, teem f ant f ale ! '

* Pig-tail, queue, t Pour,

PECIMENS OF YORKSHIRE DIALECT 227

he poor Southerner, confronted with some of the
5 used in the dialect of Craven, might reasonably
er what "mak" of men, manners, and language
id fallen in with. Aunder is afternoon! or after
r ; cattle are Beoss ; anything good to eat is Belly-
er; sl glutton is a Gob-Slotch. The nightmare is
1 Bitch-daughter; a mean, niggardly person is a
mer-scupple ; to be highly enraged is to be a Heigh*
ad; to be a vacillator is to merit the epithet
r-Keivy. The see-saw dear to children is called
<um-Jydy ; a mother's darling is a Mam's -font ;

are Nang-nails ; a penurious person is a Nip-
; strangers are Outcamlins or Outners ; a Raffle-
n is a rake or disorderly, loose-living fellow; a
yot of taxes used to be called Window-Peeper.
thing candle is called Pigtail ; a person in per-
ry, embarrassment, or trouble is Paddy-Noddy ; all

are Truntlement. And " perfect " is still Par/it,
was in the days of Chaucer and Wyclif.
he following letter, actually written from London
young Yorkshireman of the rural districts to his
er in the Skipton district, is given in Carr's well-
n work on the " Dialect of Craven " as a specimen
le pure Craven dialect' 9 It will be observed that
itains a good many words and idioms which require
ining to the unlearned reader.

"Lundun, May 17, 176a

lONNERD BRUDER,

" I send to let te kna, tat I gat galy endwaies, bud
ly il tired. I fand it a faul, lang muckky griselee wey
n a whaint * huge reeky blac spot, wen ye cum at it,
hods a mas a fouks, nit yau at I knew. First seet I sa
lile oud wumman wee a mandful of barn lakens,t Wa,

* Strange, quaint. t Children's toys.

228 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

sed I whats tat, nesht seet I sa war a girt hugh kirk wand
about we iron, it take like ony girt crag, then I met a girt
clemterlee * felloe wee a bottil of beesoms teed on his back,
tey wir mead o woo gam,f he caud urn spun mops. Then
I mopt up into a mirk ginnel, an I sa a blinnd man wee his
back up ageean a wo,} he begd hopenies. Then I mopt a
piece farther an I sa a girt Uther§ swine criing wa bys onny
sweet harts. Gots lude it pat me in mind o' mee bonny,
conny charmin, Peggee Locket, slife sed I to meesel, I wad
shoe wer hear. — Mony a time her I flayd a hullot \ out of her
Gransers gang house J an maad it fli in too a laup hole ith
leath att Garth heed ; egots if I'd hed Somme a Coats gunn I
wad sea a kelk'd it, I wod a varily a mead it sound again.
An as I war telling about mee Peggee Locket monny a time
hev I ligged ith boddem of an oud dyke an wach'd her com
tof hey, what a mas o conny sangs sho usd to sing when shoe
usd to milk oud Cherry ith croft heead. An as i war tellin she
about Lundun, I rammld up a piece of a lang loan, I sa a deal

bonny lasses deftly dond,** as iff tey had been gang into 'th
Kirk, an yan on em ast me to gang inn, an like a girt hobbie

heod/ft * mo P t "^ efter her > an 8 ^ 10e nm up a stee into a loft
topp like only kitlin.tt I end hod tee, err taul fo, then shoe
caud me up efter her, an when I hed climmd up 't stee, she
mad sic a din wee her fit, as if shoe hed Sommee a Coats clogs
on, upp comes a fello wee a bottil a summat, an I pood out
wee me Jackalegs an cut oht stoper, it war prim stuff, it mad me
faxt, an I soon began to huddle an Cratch wee her, an caud her
my bonny, conny charmin lass, sho chatterd like ony pianet,§§ till

1 was fawn fast asleep. When I wacken'd, I war o bee mee
sel. Waa worth her an the Divil rive her, for shoe hed
greap'd me poccit an stown a ginny e goud et I adled last year
wee maing.J] I mooded TT mysell upp an set out agean, bud
I war stark giddy an stampd away bud now I his grone to

* Clumsy. t Wool yarn. % Wall.

{ Idle. || Owlet. 1 Passage between bire and farmhouse.

** Smartly dressed. ft Fool-head. XX Or you'll &UL

§| Magpie. 1 1 Mowing. f f Polled myself together.

SPECIMENS OF YORKSHIRE DIALECT 229

fans * for em aw, an has gitten a rair plase, for I hev nout to

do, but riddil ass,t an dra thin drink for me maister's servants,

an mauder about, an sleep i'th nook ta holf o me tim Prey

me blessin to me Gransar and Granny, an dutee to my Sister

Knell, an see I hev nout else, I conclude Your affectionate

bruder,

"William Armitstead.

W P.S. — Sa rite ath backside e yer letter fir yur Bruder
Mister W. A. nit Willee Ad. at his house ath Royal Hynessess
prinses Doweegess of Whales at his house at the upper end of
Lesterclouz the vara nesht dure to f th Razzar Grundershopp.

*' N.R— Direct for Mr. Win. Armitstead, mind tat"

The dialect in use in the north of Yorkshire, and
especially in the Cleveland district, is the most notable
of all the forms of folk-speech in the county, and is so
important from an etymological and philological
standpoint that one feels no wonder that those who
know it and have studied it should dignify it with the
title of language. It is rich in words and idioms, and
the Norse accent in which it is pronounced is more
pleasing to the ear than the harsh accent of the south
and west districts of the county. Its glossary is exten-
sive, and yields words unfamiliar to most English folk.
Amell is the Cleveland equivalent of between ; a spider
is called an After cop : a bonfire is a BdUybleeze ; a saucy,
forward girl is a Brawl. A tiny child is said to be
Doory ; an old, withered person is Dozzerid ; a worthless
person is Draff; one weak of intellect is Oaf -rocked;
one who never succeeds in life and business is a Nought
tdow. Flattery is Flam; Joblijock is an interference
with domestic comfort ; to Yaffle is to gabble or talk in
a mumbling fashion. A matter of dispute or conten-
tion is a Fendrhead; to Fraunge is to be up to a lark,
ready for any frolic ; to Frag is to eat until you cannot

* Grown too cunning. t Riddle ashes.

280 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

eat any more. Hig is equivalent to petulance ; a Hempy
is a youngster whose mischievous nature may bring
him within reach of the hangman's rope; Loose-€-tK-
Heft is an idle, dissolute person, upon whose word no
dependence can be placed A fat, dirty woman is a
Mannsitt; a brother-in-law is a Maugk ; tidy housewives
are said to be Menceful.

The following lines, published at Bedale about a
hundred years ago, illustrate the difference of pro-
nunciation between the North Riding folk speech and
that of the South- West Riding, already illustrated in
" The Cutler's Song." Between these, again, and the
pronunciation of the Holderness dialect there is a great
difference, which will be observed by a comparison
with specimens to be produced : —

"THE SWEEPER AN' THIEVES.

" A sweeper's lad war late o' t 1 neet,
His slaape-shod shoow 'ed leeam'd his feet ;
He call'd ti see a good au'd deeam
'At monny a tahm 'ed trigg'd his wame *
(Foor he war then fahve mile fra yam).
He ax'd i' t* lair ti let him sleep,
An' he'd t' next daay the'r chimlies sweep.
Tha supper'd him weel wi' country fare,
Then showM him tiel his hoal i' t' lair.
He crept intul his streaky bed,
His pooak t o' seeat X beneath his heead ;
He war content, ner cared a pin,
An' his good frien' they lock'd him in.
T' lair fra t' hoos a larl piece stood,
Atween 'em grew a lahtle wood.
Aboot midneet, ur nigher morn,
Tweea rogues brak in ti steeal ther corn*
'Eving a leet i' lantern dark,
Tha seean ti winder fell ti wark ;

♦ Filled his stomach. t Bag. J Soot

SPECIMENS OF YORKSHIRE DIALECT 281

An' wishing tha'd a lad ti fill,

Young brash (wheea yet 'ed Kggtt quite still),

Thinkin' 'at t* men belang'd ti t' hoos,

An 9 that he noo wud be ov ewse,

Jump'd doon directly on ti t 1 fleear,

An' t' thieves then baith ran oot o' t* deear,

An' stopp'd at nowther thin na thick —

Fully tha aim'd it war Au'd Nick.

T' sweeper lad then ran reet seean

Ti t 9 hoos, an' telTd 'em what war deean.

Maister an' men then quickly raase,

An' ran ti t' lair wi hauf ther clais ;

Tweea hosses, seeks, an' leet tha fand,

Which 'ed been left by t 1 thievish band.

Theease all roond t' country sahd tha cry'd,

But nut an awner e'er apply'd,

Foor neean dast tf hosses awn na t' seeks,

They war seea freeten'd o' ther necks.

Yah hoss an' seek war judged by t' sweeper's share,

Acoz he'd kept baith t' farmer's corn an' lair."

" It is a somewhat amusing fact," remarks the author of
the "Glossary of Words in use about Almondbury and
Huddersfield," "that in a company of Yorkshiremen each
thinks his own dialect the most genuine. ... By no means
inconsistently with this amusing view of their position they
hold two canons — ist, that no south countryman can speak
Yorkshire at all; and, that they themselves speak the most
perfect and classical English. It is clearly no fault of theirs,
then, but a subject of praise, that they never can banish their
vowel sounds nor shake off the drawling so well known, and
the terrible'roughness of their speech, which is very remarkable
to a southern ear."

Round about Huddersfield the vowel difficulties must
needs seem insuperable to strangers— the long i is
pronounced aw; Bible is pronounced as if written
Bawble or Bauble ; wife as wawf ; while the a in dance,
chance, and similar words is pronounced like the 8 in
John. Captain Harland, who wrote a glossary of words

282 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

in use in Swaledale, characterized the dialect of the
West Riding as " barbarous jargon.' 9 Of its sounds,
and of the aspect of its words when printed as pro-
nounced, one may judge from some specimens given
by the author of the Almondbury and Huddersfield
glossary, the late Mr. Easther, sometime head-master of
Almondbury (locally pronounced Aumbry or Amebry)
Grammar School. Our is Akr ; were is Wur ; out is
Aat; admire, Adtnaur ; any, Onny; bright, Brest;
cow, Caa; card, Caird ; Charles, Charley, Chales, ChaUy ;
chosen, Chossen; clout (cloth), Claat; frozen, Froszen ;
house, Haase; half, Hofe; park, Paerk; school,
Schooel; spoken, Spokken; spread, Spredd; sweat,
Swedt With various local differences this is the usual
vowel pronunciation of the more populous part of the
West Riding. Its difference to the pronunciation of
the Cleveland and Holderness districts is very marked
in respect to words in which o and a figure importantly.
As in other parts of the county, there are many
curious words and idioms in the Almondbury district
The derivations of some are very evident, as in the case
of Ale afloits, which means things in disorder ; " Til
awaud tha'U do it " = " 111 guarantee that you do it ; "
blurry = a mistake or error ; Cocket = merry ; and
Crazelty = tumble-down, dilapidated Less obvious is
the derivation of such words as Tormochel, a naughty,
' troublesome child ; Mug, a gentle movement ; Hooned,
harassed, overworked ; Fugle, to cheat ; F ageing > flutter-
ing ; Rocken, reached ; and Fluppy, careless. Nor does
one easily understand why a volunteer should be styled
a Pigtnarine. '

The dialects of the East Riding are largely in-
fluenced by the Low Dutch and Flemish admixture which
have come into them, and there is a curious similarity
between that of Holderness and the common speech of

• •

• - - •
* • •

» • • •

* • a •

SPECIMENS OF YORKSHIRE DIALECT 283

Jutland overseas. In the following well-known East
Riding ballad it will be noticed that the dialect puts
aside the use of definite and indefinite articles — the
East Yorkshire clips them out as being quite unneces-
sary to plain speech : —

"BEVERLEY GAOL.

" Cum all ye young lads that in Yorrkshir do dwell,
Cum listen tit my ditty, an thruth to you Ah'll tell,
As Ah had ne money nor ne Mend tl gi bail,
Oh ! Ah was afooaced tl gang alang tl gaol.

" An when Ah gat there, oh ! this Ah did admeyr,
TI se monny lusty lads a sittin' aroond feyr,
Sum was whislin' ; sum singin ; hey an others leeakin sad,
Blame 1 thinks Ah, but this is Bedlam ; they'r all gannin mad.

" Then in com gaoler, an' thus he did say,
' Noo, my lads, as thoo's money, for thy garnish thoo mun pay.'
Ah paid doon ml money an Tbacca it was browt ;
Oh ! ther was se monny on us it was seean smeeak 't oot.

" Then in com TonkSy, and thus he did say,
' Noo, my lads, tl y'r quhathers you all mun away,'
Sthraightway we was convey*d wheear dungeon was oor doom :
Ther was iron-boddom'd bed-stocks all fixed aroond room.

" WI a noggin o' sthreea, oh ! Ah meead up ml bed ;
Ah'd nowt bud my britchis tl heighten my head ;
My cooat it was my cuverlid, my blanket, an my sheet ;
Ah presarved my weeastcooat tl lap aboot my feet

" Then thoz Ghaman ducks,* they com waddlin aboot ;
What yan, an what another, oh ! they seean fan me oot,
What yan, and what another, oh ! they fooac'd me oot o' bed ;
Ah was ommost worried alive, my boys, an hauf stahv'd tl dead.

" Then in com TonkSy, deers to unfaud ;
While Ah stood a dodherin an didherin wl caud,
Ah gat intit my cleeas an doonstairs Ah was convey'd,
An then for brakast, for us all, skilly it was made.

* Fleas, or some larger and more obnoxious insect.

234 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

" An thus Ah've pass'd my time for a twelvemonth an a day,
An neeabody cum, brass for to pay ;
But if iwer Ah gets oot ageean, and can bud raise a friend,
Oh, Diwel may tak toll-shop at Bevlah toon-end ! "

Of the works dealing with the Yorkshire dialects
which have already been published, the following may
be consulted for full particulars of the districts to which
they give special attention: — The English Dialect
Society's Glossaries dealing with Swaledale (written by
Captain Harland and published in 1873), Whitby (F.
K. Robinson, 1875), a Second Part of the same (1876),
Mid- Yorkshire (C C. Robinson, 1876), Holderness (F.
Ross, R. Stead, and T. Holderness, 1877), East York-
shire Words (Professor Skeat, 1879), Almondbury and
Huddersfield (Easther and Lees, 1883), Sheffield (S. O.
Addy, 1888), Supplement to the same (1891). There
are also: "A Glossary of the Cleveland District," by
Canon Atkinson, 1868; Plumber's "Hallamshire Glos-
sary," 1829; "The Teesdale Glossary," 1849; "The
Craven Dialect," by W. Carr, 1830; Abel Bywater's
"Sheffield Dialect," 1854; "Dialect of Leeds," 1862;
"Bilsdale Dialect," 1832; "Whitby Glossary." 1855;
W. S. Banke's "Wakefield Words," 1865 ; Dr. William's
"List of Words used in the Mountainous District of
the West Riding," published in the Arcfueologia for
181 1 ; and Blakeborough's "Yorkshire Wit, Character,
Folklore, and Customs," 1898. For older forms of
Northumbrian English, such books as Richard Rolle's
(the Hermit of Hampole) rhyming sermon, the " Pricks
of Conscience " (reprinted about forty years ago for the
Philological Society), are useful and instructive as
showing how little certain forms of speech and word
have changed amongst the common people since the
fourteenth century.

CHAPTER XII

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE

Famous Yorkshire Men of Letters — Associations of Great
Writers with Particular Places — Caedmon at Whitby — Sir Walter
Scott at Rokeby and at Conisborough — Charles Dickens at Greta
Bridge — The Originals of Wackford Squeers and Dotheboys Hall —
The Bronte Sisters at Haworth — Scenery of the Bronte Novels —
William Wordsworth in Yorkshire — Ebenezer Elliott, the Corn-
Law Rhymer of Sheffield — Daniel Defoe in Yorkshire — Sydney
Smith and his Yorkshire Rectory — Laurence Sterne at Sutton and
Coxwold — Some Modern Literary Associations.

THE Yorkshireman, taking him as a whole, is much
more a man of action than a man of letters ; he
is far more likely to invent a steam-engine or a wool-
combing machine than to write a novel or compose a
poem ; he prefers the labours of the open field to those
of the quiet study, and the noise and bustle of the
market to the cloistered calm of retreats wherein
bookish men love to linger. That he has a genuine
love of books any one may readily discover who visits
the great Yorkshire towns and sees with his own eyes
the magnificent public libraries from which the people
procure their literature; but his love is that of the
reader bent on acquiring information or getting amuse-
ment rather than of the man afflicted with the caccethes
scribendi from his youth upwards. His racial charac-
teristics impel the Yorkshireman to the workshop,

the farm, the market, the manufactory, the chemist's

23s

886 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

laboratory, the barrack-room, and the battleship ; they
dispose him to the production of practical and material
things rather than to the creation of an epic or the
devising of a romance. It may be this tendency to
the material which has given Yorkshire many great
inventors and scientists, but few poets of any rank;
she can boast, nevertheless! of Caedmon, Andrew Mar-
veil, Edward Fairfax, John Gower, and William Con-
greve, and in these later days of William Watson and
Alfred Austin. She has had scholars and philosophers
like Alcuin, Roger Ascham, Richard Bentley, Joseph
Priestley ; two of her dalesmen, Miles Coverdale and
William de Wyclif, helped to make English in the early
days of the New Learning. Her sextette of painstak-
ing topographers and historians — Thoresby, Whitaker,
Dodsworth, Hunter, Burton, Drake — rank with the
first of their order ; hers, too, were Isaac Taylor and
Canon Atkinson. Of minor writers on topographical
subjects the county has produced a vast number, and
there are few towns or villages which have not had at
least a slim octavo— though more usually several stout
quartos— devoted to them. Therein lies a significant
feature in the Yorkshire roll-book of things accom-
plished in letters — the Yorkshireman who has a desire
to write almost invariably turns to the practical; he
will write, not fiction, for that is largely ephemeral, not
verse, for he has something of a contempt for mere
spinning of rhymes, but something solid and useful,
which will be stored away in libraries and consulted,
and perhaps read, centuries after he has said farewell
to earth. And so he writes a history of his own town,
or of some religious house or famous castle, or he
collects the folk-lore of his country-side, or deciphers
time-worn inscriptions, and does work that is often
never valued and appreciated at its true worth. It is

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 287

in work of this character that the literary capacity of
the Yorkshireman pours itself out ; he is all for the
solid side of the writing art, and cares little for its
lighter ones.

But in spite of the fact that Yorkshire has not
produced a poet of the rank of Alfred Tennyson, son
of its sister shire of Lincoln, or a novelist of the dis-
tinction of Thackeray, it can boast of literary associa-
tions equally delightful with those of the Lake District
or of the Scott Country. They are associations of place
with person, and it matters little that the persons so
associated are in some cases foreigners — that is to say,
not of Yorkshire birth. Whole districts in the county
are connected with great writers in a fashion which
makes it a keen pleasure to travel in them merely
because of such connections. Caedmon is inseparably
connected with Whitby ; Sir Walter Scott with Rokeby,
on the Tees, and with Conisborough, on the Don ; no
one could visit Greta Bridge and the stretch of country
between it and Barnard Castle without many thoughts
of Charles Dickens ; the great moorlands about Haworth
are still eloquent of the Bronte sisters; Wordsworth
has identified his work with Craven, Wharfedale,
and the moors between Wensleydale and Swaledale;
Ebenezer Elliott's spirit is still suggested by the sturdy
aspect of smoke-enclouded Sheffield. The modern
traveller who may chance to cross the Pennine Range
into Yorkshire in the neighbourhood of Blackstone Edge,
will see many of the sights which Daniel Defoe saw
when he came to be a Yorkshireman for the time being
two hundred years ago, and though Foston-le-Clay is
now not the isolated place that it was when Sydney
Smith complained of it that it was twenty miles from
a lemon, there has been little change at Coxwold since
the days when that other Yorkshire incumbent, Laurence

238 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Sterne, lived there. All these are places and districts
which must needs rank as literary shrines of the first
importance ; they are certainly of a character to repay
with ample value the lover of literature who will visit
them with their associations uppermost in his mind.
And there are many others of less degree in the county
— Winestead, in Holderness, the birthplace of Andrew
Marvell; Sedbergh, high up in the north-west moun-
tains, where Hartley Coleridge spent some time ; Danby,
where Canon Atkinson used the leisure of a long and
busy life to such rare advantage; Hun man by, where
Archdeacon Wrangham accumulated so many books
that a visitor from Oxford was amazed to find them
literally lining every room in the house from garret to
basement; — at all of these places, and in others, one
may find the pleasures which spring from the reflection
that behind those walls or on this ground great men
lived and strove for others' good and pleasure, and by
their labours gave a new greatness to town or village.

To speak of Caedmon and Whitby is to speak of
the birth of English poetry. Most folk are familiar
with the picturesque old seaport, the very appearance of
which is strangely suggestive of antiquity. Through
its midst, winding its way from the heather-clad York-
shire moors to its outlet into the North Sea, runs the
river Esk, and high above its southern bank, overlooking
town and harbour, stands the noble ruins of one of the
noblest of England's great religious houses, the abbey
founded by St. Hilda in the seventh century. Many
famous men, of great repute for their piety or their
learning, lived under St Hilda's roof in the early days
of Northern Christianity, but none achieved such fame
as that which, during successive centuries, accumulated
round the name of the cowherd to whom the divine
gift of song came when, according to the chronicler,

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 289

he was already well-stricken in years. How often has
the story been told to English ears, yet always with a
new sense of delight I

" Being sometimes at feasts, when all agreed for glee's sake
to sing in turn, he no sooner saw the harp come towards him
than he rose from the board and turned homewards. Once
when he had done this, and gone from the feast to the stable
where he had that night charge of the cattle, there appeared to
him in his sleep One who said, greeting him by name, ' Sing,
Caedmon, some song to me.' 'I cannot sing/ he answered;
'for this cause left I the feast and came hither. 1 He who
talked with him answered, ' However that be you shall sing to
me.' 'What shall I sing?' rejoined Caedmon. 'The begin-
ning of created things, 9 replied He. In the morning the cow-
herd stood before Hild and told his dream. Abbess and
brethren alike concluded ' that heavenly grace had been con-
ferred on him by the Lord. 9 They translated for Caedmon a
passage in Holy Writ, ' bidding him, if he could, put the same
into verse.' The next morning he gave it them composed in
excellent verse, whereon the abbess, understanding the divine
grace in the man, bade him quit the secular habit and take on
him the monastic life."

Little wonder that those who lived nearer Caedmon's
own time than we do should have considered that " he
learnt not the art of poetry from men, nor of men, but
from God."

It was during the lifetime of St. Hilda that Caed-
mon lived on the Whitby cliffs, and she and some of the
inmates of her abbey had been canonized for hundreds
of years ere some visible mark of recognition of the
cowherd's influence upon English poetry arose, near the
walls wherein his songs " of the Creation of the World,
of the Origin of Man, . . . the Horror of Hell-pangs,
and the Joys of Heaven " were composed and chanted

240 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

to his brother monks. But now, in the churchyard
which lies between the ruins of the abbey and the edge
of the cliffs, there stands a memorial cross in memory
of Caedmon, which was unveiled by the Poet Laureate
in 1898. It is of sandstone, and is architecturally of a
similar character to the Saxon cross of Hexham. On
the front are four decorative panels : one of our Lord in
the act of benediction, another of David playing the
harp, a third of St Hilda, a fourth of Caedmon in the
stable. Underneath the panels is an inscription : " To
the Glory of God and in memory of his servant Caedmon.
Fell asleep hard by, A.D. 68a" The situation of this
memorial is worthy of its subject Near it rise the
graceful walls of all that is left of the abbey ; close
by stands the quaint, old-fashioned parish church of
Whitby ; beneath the cliff shine the red roofs of the old
town, half hidden by the wisps and trails of blue smoke
which curl lazily above the grey gables of the houses ;
the Esk winds far away into the wild hills ; seaward the
North Sea is gay and smiling or wild and dark, accord-
ing to the temper of the skies and winds. Perhaps the
spirit of Caedmon's poetry is best felt on the cliffs
where it was written when the skies are grey, the winds
wild, and the sea beats with loud thunder against the
dark rocks — something in the scene there presented
suggests the storm and stress of his day, when Christi-
anity was still in the throes of its struggle with the
paganism of Northumbrian

There are two districts in Yorkshire which are
closely associated with the genius of Sir Walter Scott,
and when he knew them both alike were distinguished
for beauty of scenery and picturesqueness of detail.
But Conisborough, on the banks of the Don, has long
since lost much of its romantic charm by reason of the
inroads of industrialism, and the old castle, in which

I » »

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 241

some of the most striking scenes of " Ivanhoe " are laid,
is now surrounded by the unlovely appurtenances of a
colliery village. Its degeneracy in this respect makes
the lover of Scott all the more grateful for the unim-
paired beauty of Rokeby, far away from mines and
manufactures, set on the banks of the Tees and the
Greta, amidst the most delightful prospects and sur-
roundings. It is the fashion to depredate Scott's poem,
which was suggested to him by his visits to his friend
Mr. Morritt, in the years 1811-12 ; but it possesses one
feature which makes it remarkable amongst work of its
class — the truthfulness and fidelity of the local descrip-
tions. Compare the passage in which Scott describes
the ravine through which the Greta flows to meet the
Tees with the effect actually produced upon one's own
mind by the scene itself—

" The open vale is soon passed o'er.
Rokeby, though nigh, is seen no more ;
Sinking mid Greta's thickets deep,
A wild and darker course they keep,
A stern and lone, yet lovely road
As e'er the foot of minstrel trode I
Broad shadows o'er their passage fell,
Deeper and narrower grew the dell;
It seem'd some mountain rent and riven,
A channel for the stream had given,
So high the cliffs of limestone grey
Hung seething o'er the torrent's way,
Yielding, along their rugged base,
A flinty footpath's niggard space,
Where he who winds 'twixt rock and wave,
May hear the headlong torrent rave,
And like a steed in frantic fit,
That flings the froth from curb and bit,
May view her chafe her waves to spray,
O'er every rock that bars her way,
Till foam-globes on her eddies ride,
Thick as the schemes of human pride

R

242 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

That down life's current drive amain,
As frail, as frothy, and as vain I
The cliffs that rear their haughty head
High o'er the river's darksome bed,
Were now all naked, wild and grey,
Now waving all with greenwood spray ;
Here trees to every crevice clung,
And o'er the dell their branches hung :
And then, all splinter'd and uneven,
The shiver'd rocks ascend to heaven ;
Oft, too, the ivy swathed their breast,
And wreathed its garland round their crest,
Or from the spires bade loosely flare
Its tendrils in the middle air,
As pennons wont to wave of old
O'er the high feast of baron bold,
When revell'd loud the feudal rout,
And the arch'd halls returned their shout :
Such and more wild is Greta's roar,
And such the echoes from her shore,
And so the ivied banners gleam,
Waved wildly o'er the brawling stream."

Scott himself was vastly impressed with the beauty
of Rokeby when he visited it for the first time in 1809,
two years before he formed the plan of his poem. " It
is one of the most enviable places I have ever seen," he
says in a letter to his friend Ellis, " as it unites the rich-
ness and luxuriance of English vegetation with the
romantic variety of glen, torrent, and copse which dig-
nifies our northern scenery." It was the scenery which
gave most of its charm to the poem. Lockhart admitted
that he never understood or appreciated half the charm
of "Rokeby" until he had visited the house of the
Morritts on Tees-side. But there was much more than
scenery to appeal to Scott in this corner of Yorkshire.
On the opposite side of the Greta from Rokeby stands
the Mortham Tower, a square, fortified stronghold which
came into possession of the Rokebys — whose sign of the

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 243

three rooks is still to be seen on the walls — by marriage
soon after the battle of Bannockburn. It is said to be
haunted by the spirit of a headless lady, the stains of
whose blood mark the old staircase ; and even in these
utilitarian days, which have transformed it into a farm-
house, it is full of suggestions of feudalism and romance
and of memories of the days wherein force was the
greater part of law or right Then, on the other side of
Rokeby, on the way to the romantic town of Barnard's
Castle, there is Eggleston Abbey, a Premonstratensian
house of small note in monastic chronicles, but occupy-
ing a most picturesque situation, sure to appeal to such
an enthusiastic lover of the romantic as Scott was.
Here the poet laid the closing scenes of his poem.
To-day the grey ruins are very much as they were when
Scott saw them — " wild and waste " — but they are full
of attraction. There are still some monuments to be
seen amongst them, but the most notable tomb was
removed from the abbey to a position on the banks of
the Tees near Rokeby before Scott's time, and is still
to be seen there, placed between two wych-elms. Here
it was that Scott laid the scene of the fight between
Bertram and Wilfred, broken in upon by Philip of
Mortham. But there are few spots in the neighbour-
hood with which Scott's name is not associated. He
described the view from Barnard's Castle, and, in the
opinion of some folk, credited the watcher with seeing
more than really can be seen from the tower which
overhangs the Tees; he did not fail to notice the
Roman camp behind the Morritt Arms at Greta Bridge ;
he used the fastnesses of Scargill Cliff as the retreat of
Guy Denzil and his fellow-desperadoes. And antici-
pating Turner — and many lesser-known artists — he
strove to picture in words the meeting of the Greta and
the Tees in that fairy-glen spot beneath the slope

244 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

crowned by the Mortham Tower, a scene which many
lovers of natural beauty declare to be the loveliest bit
of river scenery in England.

" ' Twas a fair scene.' The sunbeam lay
On battled tower and portal grey,

t And from the grassy slope he sees
The Greta flow to meet the Tees,
Where, issuing from her darksome bed.
She caught the morning's eastern red,
And through the softening vale below
Rolled her bright waves in rosy glow,
All blushing to her bridal bed,
Like some shy maid in convent bred,
While linnet, lark, and blackbird gay,
Sing forth her nuptial roundelay."

To a scene higher up the Greta, the richly wooded
banks of Brignall, we owe one of Scott's most spon-
taneous lyrics.

u O Brignall banks are wild and fair,
And Greta woods are green,
And you may gather garlands there
Would grace a summer queen ! *

Whatever Conisborough may be nowadays — and
not even a South-East Yorkshireman could justifiably
contend that it possesses any attraction, outside the
castle itself, to the lover of the picturesque — it appealed
greatly to Scott Writing to Mr. Morritt, at Rokeby,
in 1811, he speaks of flying past Conisborough on the
mail-coach in the early morning, and of the romantic
effect produced by the dawn upon the round tower and
its flying buttresses. But Scott's own description of the
surroundings of Conisborough Castle is well known, and
is all the more interesting nowadays because of the
changed conditions which have come over the scenes
than which, in his opinion, there were few in England

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 245

more striking or beautiful. " The soft and gentle river
Don," he says, "sweeps through an amphitheatre in
which cultivation is richly blended with woodland ; and
on a mount ascending from the river, well defined by
walls and ditches, rises this ancient edifice, which, as its
name implies, was previous to the Conquest a royal
residence/ 1 Nowadays, no accurate writer could describe
the Don as soft and gentle ; it comes to Conisborough
soiled and polluted by the smoke and filth of Sheffield
and Rotherham, and although the woodland is still
there, it is blackened and stunted by the fumes and
mephitic odours of a thousand chimneys and furnaces.
Immediately facing the old Norman castle wherein the
funeral feast of Athelstane the Unready was celebrated
lies one of the largest collieries in England ; between it
and the green uplands which once shut in the southward
prospect stands a colliery village of unlovely streets,
unlovely public buildings, sordid, sombre, ugly. The
round hill on which the castle stands is still kept sacred,
and the formidable keep still dominates the landscape,
but the lover of old things finds more pleasure in
examining its interior arrangements than in looking
over the battlements at the too-obtrusive evidences of
modernity in the shape of railway trains, coal-mines,
and smoke-clouds which have followed the development
of the natural resources of the district. There is more
pleasure to be had by the lover of " Ivanhoe " in en-
deavouring to fix upon the scene wherein Wamba and
Gurfh hold converse in the forest That may have been
at any point on the northern edge of the great forest
of Sherwood — a Yorkshireman would prefer to place it
amongst the woods of Wharncliffe.

Charles Dickens, like Sir Walter Scott, is closely
associated with the interesting country which surrounds
the meeting of the Tees with the Greta at Rokeby.

246 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Lovers of "Nicholas Nickleby" will remember the
famous advertisement of Dotheboys Hall, " near Greta
Bridge in Yorkshire," and Dickens students will not
need to be told that it was a little-altered version of
actual advertisements which used to be inserted in local
newspapers in various parts of England, and were
doubtless brought to the notice of Dickens himself.
That a system of cheap education had been going on
in this district of Yorkshire for a long time before
Dickens's exposure made the " Yorkshire " school im-
possible! is evident from contemporary records. Here,
for example, is an advertisement which appeared in the
Norfolk Chronicle of April 29, 1775 —

" A Boarding School at Stairforth, near Barnard Castle,
Yorkshire : Youths are made proficient in the languages, as
well as sciences, by Warcup Kirkbride, and assistants. The
pupils are boarded, cloathed, and supplied with all necessaries
at Twelve Pounds per year each. For character and reputa-
tion, and usage of the children, enquiry may be made of many
genteel families in Norwich, whose children are now educating,
several of whose parents have been at the school in person.' 1

There is no doubt that the character of these schools,
taking them as a whole, was utterly bad, that they
were hot-beds of oppression, extortion, and neglect, and
that the honest Yorkshireman, in whom Dickens saw
some resemblance to his own John Browdie, epitomized
even local feeling about them when he advised the
novelist, who had represented himself as desirous of
placing a little boy, the son of a widow, in one of them,
to keep the child away from their tender mercies, so
long as there was a gutter to lie asleep in in London.
Mr. Helmer, of Romaldkirk, during the course of some
correspondence in the Yorkshire Post in the spring of
1898, printed a letter written by a boy who, with his

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 247

brother, had been an inmate of a Yorkshire school in
the neighbourhood of Greta Bridge. It was addressed
to Mr. Helmer's grandfather after the boy had left the
school, and certain passages in it would almost suggest
that it had been known to Dickens, the similarities
arising from the fact that similar reports became common
matter of local gossip.

" My dear Friend, — Agreeable to our promise we have the
pleasure of writing a few lines informing you of our journey
and safe arrival at home on Wednesday last.

" On leaving , Mr. rode in his chaise with a lady and

Edwin sitting between them. I and another boy were ordered
to run behind the chaise to Bowes, which we did, and were
greatly exhausted. Previous to leaving the school I had con-
cealed a piece of the black bread to bring home with me. I
put it into my jacket pocket, from which I had occasion to
take 'out my pocket-handkerchief at an inn about thirty miles
on the road, and accidentally drew out the bread, which was
instantly snatched up by a man at the inn, who, on hearing

I was a scholar from Mr. 's school, refused to return it,

saying that he knew Mr. , and would keep it and show it

to him. This I presume was one of the school spies, as I had
been questioned before on the road by others who I have no
doubt were of the same description. The guard of the stage
from York to London, who came all the way, was very kind,
and in many instances prevented our being imposed upon on
the road. We arrived at the inn on Snow Hill with ios. left,
which I delivered to my father, who was there to receive us,
and having no luggage whatever we walked home.

• ••••••

" Since we have been home we find that many things have
been sent to us which we never had. A box containing two
plum-puddings of about twelve pounds each, with apples,
oranges, etc., have been embezzled from us at the schdol,

where they were delivered at Christmas last. Mr. has

also made charges for medical assistance and medicine to a

248 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

considerable amount, which we never had, with various other

impositions which I have not room to detail, which are by no

means creditable, such as stopping great part of our spending

money under pretence of paying for garters, braces, slates,

pencils, etc., all which it was his place to furnish without any

extra charge whatever ; it is a very shabby advantage to take

of us who had not the means of helping ourselves.

" Fearing I may tire your patience, I must now conclude

by again, etc., etc.

"(Signed) Henry ."

It is usually said that the Yorkshire schoolmaster
whom Dickens had in his mind as the prototype of
Wackford Squeers, was a man named William Shaw,
who kept a school at Bowes, near Greta Bridge. Bowes
is a small, somewhat melancholy town, which possesses
further literary associations in the shape of its connection
with the ballad of " Edwin and Emma," the materials
of which the poet Mallet got from a local legend, and
it seems a fitting atmosphere for such abodes of
wretchedness as Dotheboys Hall was. That a man
named William Shaw had a school there in the early
part of the last century is certain ; it is also certain that
the people of the neighbourhood always contended, after
the publication of " Nicholas Nickleby," that Dickens
intended Squeers for a portrait of Shaw ; it is certain
again that Shaw was defended as having been cruelly
misrepresented by the novelist. A considerable amount
of light is thrown on the whole question by the follow-
ing letter of Mr. F. G. Kitton's, the well-known authority
on Dickens and his work, which appeared in the York-
shire Weekly Post, March 19, 1898. It seems to show
that Dickens certainly] used Shaw and his physical
peculiarities as a model for Wackford Sqeers.

" Sir, — I have read with interest an article in the Yorkshire
Weekly Post on the subject of • Dickens and Dotheboys Hall,'

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 249

in which the author dilates upon the much-discussed question
concerning the prototype of Squeers. As a writer on Dickens
and his works, I have paid considerable attention to this matter,
endeavouring by means of careful research to obtain trustworthy
evidence, and you may possibly think it worth while noting in
your columns that quite recently I have succeeded in discover-
ing a very remarkable piece of evidence, which seems to me
to point conclusively to the fact that, in describing Squeers,
Dickens had in his mind, principally, a well-known Yorkshire
pedagogue named William Shaw. In the novelist's private
diary (now preserved in the Forster Collection of MSS., etc.,
at South Kensington Museum) he had entered, under date
February and, 1838, the following memorandum, which I have
printed for the first time in ' The Novels of Charles Dickens ' : —

1(1 Shaw, the schoolmaster we saw to-day, is the man in
whose school several boys went blind some time since from
gross neglect The case was tried, and the verdict went
against him. It must have been between 1823 and 1826.
Look this out in the newspapers. 9

"The 'we' of course refers to Dickens and his illustrator
'Phiz,' who were then carrying on their investigations in
Yorkshire respecting the cheap boarding-schools. Sixteen
years before 'Nickleby' appeared, several actions were tried
before Judge Park, in which the parents of children who had
been ill-used at a school evidently kept by this identical Shaw
were the plaintiffs, the result of the litigation being that the
defendant Shaw was cast in heavy damages.

"There were many cheap boarding-schools existing in
Yorkshire at the time 'Nickleby' was written, the proprietors
of which (with, perhaps, a few exceptions) bore a strong
likeness to Shaw (Squeers). An examination of the London
newspapers of that date discloses the fact (as correctly stated
by your correspondent) that nearly the whole 'tribe/ when in
the Metropolis, took up their quarters in the neighbourhood
of Snow Hill. On Shaw's business card, a copy of which I
have seen, his address is given as at ' Bowes Academy, near
Greta Bridge, Yorkshire,' while on the back is printed the

250 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

statement that he ' attends at the George and Blue Boar, High
Holbom/ during the first three weeks in the months of January
and July. Curiously enough, there appears (on the card referred
to), in die handwriting (maybe) of Shaw himself, an intimation
that he ( leaves the Saracen's Head, Snow Hill, half-past seven
o'clock, Thursday morning, 25th July.'

"The novelist's portrait of Squeers (and that by 'Phiz'
also) may have too closely resembled the physical peculiarities
of Shaw, who consequently became the chief sufferer, and who
soon afterwards fell a victim to the obloquy which was due to
that type of Yorkshire pedagogues generally. My point is that
if Dickens had any single individual in his mind more than
another when delineating the proprietor of Dotheboys Hall,
the significant entry quoted from his diary sufficiently indicates
that Shaw was that person.

"Fred C. Kitton."

Whether William Shaw of Bowes was a cruelly
misused scapegoat for the sins of others or not, it is
certain that he was one of a gang of Yorkshire school-
masters — and mistresses, too, for one of the Bowes
schools was kept by a Mrs. Adamthwaite — who lived
upon the ill-treatment of children, and no man could
have done a better public service than Dickens did
when he exposed the whole system. His method of
acquiring information and particulars for Nicholas
Nickleby, so far as Nicholas's experience of the York-
shire school and its master was concerned, betoken the
practical mind of the trained journalist. He and
Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz") journeyed from London
to Greta Bridge, and arrived at the New Inn (now
converted into the farmhouse called Thorp Grange) on
January 31, 1838, their experience in travelling in
winter doubtless giving the novelist many suggestions
for the chapter wherein he describes the journey of
Wackford Squeers, Nicholas, and the small boys.

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 251

Dickens and Browne stayed that night at the New
Inn, and there interviewed the man who served as the
original of John Browdie. Next day they went on as
far as Barnard Castle, and put up at the King's Head,
an old-fashioned, comfortable hostelry, still in active
life, of which Dickens always retained a pleasant
memory. There they stayed two days, and it must
have been on the first of these that the novelist entered
the shop of Mr. Humphrey, a working clockmaker,
whom he had heard of as mender of the clocks at the
neighbouring schools. He managed to persuade Mr.
Humphrey to go on a repairing expedition at once, and
to take him with him in the character of assistant And
one may be sure, from this mere circumstance, that the
pictures of childish misery which Dickens drew in writing
of Dotheboys Hall were seen by him with his own eyes.
The local folk, at any rate, though they said he had
made a mistake in representing William Shaw as a
scoundrel, never denied the truth of his presentment of
the Yorkshire school. It is an eloquent tribute to the
power of the great novelist's pen that all such establish-
ments have disappeared from the districts they had so
long disgraced.

The districts most closely associated with the names
of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte, the three gifted
sisters of whom Yorkshire folk are as proud as Warwick-
shire folk are of Shakespeare, are nowadays intimately
connected with industrialism in one form or another,
and at first sight present few features which are pic-
turesque or charming. The surroundings of Haworth —
always excepting the grand stretches/>f moorland which
begin on the edge of the village — are like those of
Thornton, the Spen Valley, and Hartshead, chiefly
marked by evidences of busy commercial life, and
Bronte devotees who make pilgrimages to them are apt

262 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

to be disappointed by the unromantic character of their
scenes. Vast manufactories, tall chimneys, crowded
streets of mean architecture, a great preponderance of
new things, a lack of the obviously old — all this does not
seem to be in keeping with the genius of the Bronte novels.
And yet it was the very spirit of the moors, and of the
little industrial villages set in the valleys that intersect
them, and of the people, rough, sturdy, uncouth, inde-
pendent, primitive in their passions and emotions, that
brought those novels into being. Changed as Haworth
is during the last fifty years, one understands the work
of the Brontes all the more clearly after one has seen
something of the village and its people, and of the
moors that stretch from beyond it towards the wild
scenery of the Lancashire border.

One finds one's first associations of place with the
Brontes at Thornton, a large manufacturing village
lying on the high ground between Bradford and Halifax.
Its appearance to-day is that of many similar places in the
same district — a great, bustling place of mills, factories,
workshops, long streets of workmen's houses, with the
usual modern appurtenances in the way of institutes,
libraries, schools, and electric tramcars. There is little
on its surface that is ancient, but it has a history which
goes back to the Norman Conquest, and it was doubtless
an old-fashioned place when Patrick Bronte came to it
from his previous cure of souls at Hartshead, in the
valley of the Calder, in 1815. He took up his residence
at the vicarage in Market Street; a plain, featureless
house, which was soon vacated by subsequent vicars in
favour of a more suitable residence, and there Charlotte
Bronte was born in April of the following year. There,
too, during the next few years, were born Emily, Anne,
and BranWell Bronte. But the stay of the family at
Thornton was brief— Patrick Bronte was presented to

• %
I • * •

♦ • «

. • • •

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 25S

the vicarage of Haworth, in the Worth Valley, in 1820,
and thither he removed his family in the February of
that year. The family at that time consisted of father,
mother, and six children — in 1821 Mrs. Bronte died,
and two of the children died in infancy, so that from
thenceforward Patrick Bronte and his four gifted
children lived lonely lives in the old vicarage. How
lonely their lives were may be gathered from the pages
of Mrs. Gaskell's « Life of Charlotte Bronte," but it was

«

a loneliness which, in the cast of the three sisters, led
to the compassing of great things.

Haworth, when the Brontes lived in it, was a very
different place to the Haworth of to-day. It had then
no railway communication with the outer world; its
folk were rough in speech and manner ; some of their
customs were semi-barbarous; their character was
rugged as the scenery amidst which they dwelt. It is
now scarcely possible to imagine place or people as they
were in those days — so many alterations have been
made in one, and time has wrought so much of change in
the other. The ancient church of Howarth, one of the
oldest in that part of Yorkshire, was pulled down, much
to the discontent and annoyance of a large number of
people, in 1879, and replaced by a new structure. The
vicarage, in which Charlotte Bronte died in 1855,
and where her father, after forty-one years' incumbency,
breathed his last in 1861, was altered almost out of
recognition some years previously, and there is little
to be seen, save the Bronte relics in the museum,
Charlotte's autograph in the church register, and the
inn, where Branwell used to sit and boast, which is
intimately connected with the family. But the moors
behind the churchyard are still unchanged, and they
remain, as they must ever remain, the true shrine of the
devout lover of the Bronte novels.

254 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

The Spen Valley, which must at some period have
been romantic and picturesque in the extreme, but is
now chiefly distinguished by its busy manufacturing
towns and villages, its monster mills and sky-reaching
chimneys, is closely associated with the life and work
of Charlotte Bronte. During her father's incumbency
of Hartshead, he was married to Miss Branwell, and at
Hartshead vicarage their daughters Maria and Elizabeth,
who died a few years later at Haworth, were born. At
Roe Head, a few miles away, Charlotte was at school
for a time, and she was subsequently a teacher in a
school kept by her old mistress at Dewsbury Moon
From the places of the Spen Valley, and from some of
its people, she drew the materials for her novels " Jane
Eyre" and "Shirley." Birstall, for example, is the
Briarfield of "Shirley ;" Oakwell Hall is the Fieldhead,
Kirklees Hall the Nunnely, and Hunsworth Mills the
Yorke Mills of the same novel. The Rydings, Birstall, is
the Thornfield Hall of * Jane Eyre," and Kirklees Hall
was presented in the same novel under the name of
Ferndean Manor. The Luddite riots in the Spen
Valley suggested to Charlotte the risings so graphically
described in " Shirley," and the Parson Helstone of the
book was drawn from Mr. Roberson, then vicar of
Liversedge.

Charlotte Bronte went from Haworth to school at
Roe Head in the winter of 1831, and a schoolmate
who witnessed her arrival has left an interesting pen-
picture of what she saw.

" I first saw her coming out of a covered cart," she says,
" in very old-fashioned clothes, and looking very cold and
miserable. . . . When she appeared in the schoolroom her
dress was changed, but as old. She looked a little old woman,
so short-sighted that she always appeared to be seeking some-
thing, and moving her head from side to side to catch a sight

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 255

of it. She was very shy and nervous, and spoke with a strong
Irish accent When a book was given her, she dropped her
head over it till her nose nearly touched it, and when she was
told to hold her head up, up went the book after it, still close
to her nose."

Charlotte and Emily Bronte are buried at Haworth,
where all the rest of the family are also interred, with
the exception of Anne, who died at Scarborough, and
was buried in the churchyard of the parish church, high
above the red roofs of the old town. Her tomb, marked
by a plain stone, may be seen, standing amongst a
number of similar humble memorials, from the road
which leads to the castle, and is probably of small
regard to most of those who pass it.

There are many places in Yorkshire which possess
particular attractions in the eyes of the devout lover of
Wordsworth, and two at least have personal associations
with his life. His ancestors were Yorkshire folk — most
likely farmers — who lived on the southern borders of
the county in the wide-spreading parish of Penistone, in
the records of which their name often occurs between the
fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. They appear to have
left Yorkshire for Cumberland in the eighteenth century,
and it was probably the Wordsworth who went there
that carried with him the carved chest, bearing the date
1525, which the poet owned as part of his household
possessions at Rydal Mount An even more interesting
association is that with Brompton, a village lying
between Pickering and Scarborough, and noticeable for
some other things than its connection with Wordsworth.
In its church, on October 4, 1802, the poet was married
to his old schoolfellow and playmate, Mary Hutchinson,
who, ten years previously, had left Penrith to act as
housekeeper to her brother, a farmer, at Sockburn, on
the Tees. The brother took the farm known as Gallows

256 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Hill! near Brompton, in 1800, and there had with him
not only Mary, but their sister Joanna, the u wild-
hearted maid" of Wordsworth's poem, "To Joanna."
Her name appears in the register of the church as one
of the witnesses to the marriage.

Wordsworth was accustomed to give high praise to
the scenery of Yorkshire, and wherever he made a pen-
picture of it, he succeeded in grasping its true character-
istics with the accuracy and fidelity of the true artist.
One has only to visit some of the Yorkshire scenes
which he describes in order to realize the simple truth
of his descriptions. Take his picture of the scene of the
legend of Hart Leap Well, on the moors lying between
Wensleydale and Swaledale —

"As I from Hawes to Richmond did repair,
It chanced that I saw standing in a dell
Three Aspens at three corners of a square ;
And one, not four yards distant, near a well

" What this imported I could ill divine :

And, pulling now the rein my horse to stop,
I saw three Pillars, standing in a line,
The last stone-Pillar on a dark hill-top.

" The trees were gray, with neither arms nor head ;
Half-wasted the square Mound of tawny green ;
So that you just might say, as then I said,
1 Here in old time the hand of man hath been.'

" I looked upon the hill both far and near,
More doleful place did never eye survey ;
It seemed as if the Springtime came not here,
And Nature here were willing to decay."

The last two lines are accurate in their characteriza-
tion of the loneliness and desolation of the place to
which the knight saw good to bring his paramour, and
would enable any Wordsworthian to identify the spot,

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 267

in spite of the fact that the well is now no more than
an insignificant cavity, and that the four aspen trees
have dwindled to one.

Wordsworth had a particular liking for the scenery
and associations of the Craven district of Yorkshire,
and especially of the grand rock scenery in the neigh-
bourhood of the sources of the Aire. He describes
Gordale Scar in a peculiarly happy metaphor —

" Gordale chasm, terrific as the lair
Where the young lions couch?

and is equally felicitous in speaking of Malham Cave as
of some work

" By Giants scooped from out the rocky ground
Tier under tier?

emphasizing in the first that awe -striking darkness
which strikes all who see Gordale for the first time, and
in the second the peculiar escarpment of the cove from
whose foot the Aire springs in full flood after its sub-
terranean passage of two miles from Malham Tarn.

Most folk are familiar with Wordsworth's poem,
" The Force of Prayer," wherein he presents the usually
accepted version of the origin of Bolton Abbey, and
gives a pen-picture of the narrow chasm in Bolton
Woods through which the Wharfe hurls itself—

" Young Romilly through Barden Woods
Is ranging high and low ;
And holds a Greyhound in a leash,
To let slip upon buck or doe.

" The Pair have reached that fearful chasm,
How tempting to bestride !
For lordly Wharf is there pent in
With rocks on either side*

258 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

" This Striding-place is called The Strid,
A name which it took of yore :
A thousand years hath it borne that name,
And shall a thousand more.

" And hither is young Romflly come,
And what may now forbid
That he perhaps for the hundredth time
Shall bound across The Strid ?

" He sprang in glee, — for what cared he

That the river was strong, and the rocks were steep?
But the Greyhound in the leash hung back,
And checked him in his leap."

Few places in Yorkshire of a similar notoriety have
been so often and so variously described both in prose
and verse as the Strid, but Wordsworth's simple lines
remain paramount in the matter of fixing one's conception
of the scene firmly in one's mind. Just as memory-
haunting, and as true to the spirit of the place, are the
lines of the same poem which tell of the building of the
Abbey—

"The stately Priory was reared ;
And Wharf as he moved along
To Matins joined a mournful voice %
Nor failed at Evensong."

Those who have a long and intimate acquaintance
with Bolton Abbey will appreciate the peculiar fitness
of the epithet mournful — no other word could so exactly
convey an idea of the music of the river as it sweeps
round the promontory on which the ruins of Lady
Adelign's foundation stand amidst a sea of green.

Few literary pilgrimages could be more delightful
than one undertaken through the scenery of " The White
Doe of Rylstone," wherein Wordsworth made use of an
ancient Craven legend to the effect that soon after the
Dissolution of the Religious Houses a white doe used to

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 259

travel every Sunday morning over the hills and moors
which lie between Rylstone and Bolton, and was found
in the Abbey churchyard during divine service, at the
close of which she made her way back by the way
she had come. In this, essentially a Yorkshire poem,
Wordsworth interwove many local stories, much folk-
lore, and a good deal of legendary history, Rylstone, a
few miles from Skipton, on the highway leading to
Upper Wharfedale, was the home — the " sequestered
hall" — of the Nortons, an old and powerful Yorkshire
family, who took a prominent part in the Rising of the
North, and lost their lands — and some of them their
lives — in consequence. There are some remains of
their old home still to be seen in the village, and on
the Fell above — which the white doe must have crossed
on her way to Bolton — stands the ruin of a tower which
was built by Richard Norton, probably for keeping watch
over the surrounding country. But the most interesting
associations of the poem are with Bolton Abbey itself,
ranging from the pastoral quietness of the churchyard
scene to the vivid lines which commemorate the old
legend that in one of the vaults of the Abbey the
Claphams and the Mauleverers were buried in upright
positions

" through the clink in the fractu r ed floor
Look down and see a grisly sight :
A vault where the bodies are buried upright I
There face by face, and hand by hand,
The Claphams and Mauleverers stand.*

That Wordsworth himself, during his stay in Wharfe-
dale, ever saw this is much more than doubtful ; Whitaker,
the historian of Craven, who had the fullest opportunities
for acquiring all possible knowledge of Bolton Abbey,
though familiar with the opening to which the past
alludes, was never able to see anything through it that

260 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

would warrant Wordsworth's description as being more
than in keeping with local tradition.

Ebenezer Elliott, the Corn Law rhymer, united
the Yorkshire quality of plain speech with the fierce
impetuousness of the Border "reivers," from whom he
was somewhat fond of boasting his descent His father,
even fonder of such a boast than Ebenezer himself, was
what Yorkshire folk know as " a character/ 9 and his own
wife set forth a pen-picture of him which is as original
as it is amusing — " A little, broad-set, dark, ill-favoured
man, with black hair, black eyes, thick stub nose, and
tup shins." It is recorded of him that he was a Radical
of the most violent sort — in some fray between the
populace and the military he administered a sound
cudgelling to a cavalry officer, and he never lost an
opportunity of showing an active dislike to constituted
authority. From him the future poet doubtless derived
the burning indignation and fierce enthusiasm which
lift the Corn Law rhymes out of the slough of politics
into the clearer atmosphere of poetry. Ebenezer Elliott
was certainly born amidst surroundings and under
conditions which are not usually supposed to encourage
the first hopes of the poet He was born at Masborough,
an adjunct of Rotherham, and his father at the time was
no more than a badly paid clerk in one of the iron
foundries. Smoke, dirt, the ceaseless clang and clank
of hammers, sombreness, and sordiness, must have been
familiar to Elliott from the earliest age. Like many
another man of genius, he was a dull boy, backward
with his book, but he was roused to hard work in the
acquisition of learning by the sight of a book in which
a friend had collected specimens of herbs and flowers,
and he educated himself by wide reading and reflection.
He began to write verses in his boyhood, and was always
singularly happy in his description of natural scenery.

-h>"OT

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSfflRE 261

But it was not until the Corn Law agitation set in that
the true fount was opened within him. He had then
known something of the trials of life, for after engaging
in business at Rotherham he failed to meet his obligations,
and at the age of forty was obliged to begin life afresh.
This time he succeeded in making a respectable fortune,
and, in spite of the fact that poets are held to be
unbusinesslike, he acquired a character for being a
shrewd, far-seeing tradesman, who knew how to buy in
the cheapest and sell in the dearest markets.

During the prosperous period of his life, when money
was flowing in freely from his business, and his fame as
a poet had been established by the burning and scathing
Corn Law rhymes, Elliott was visited by Stanton, a
well-known American writer of his day, who found him
in his stocking feet in his iron warehouse, and had a
long conversation with him. Stanton describes him as

" a burly ironmonger, rapid in speech, glowing with enthusiasm,
putting and answering a dozen questions in a breath ; eulogizing
American republicanism, and denouncing British aristocracy;
throwing sarcasms at the Duke of Wellington, and anointing
General Jackson with the oil of flattery; pouring out a flow of
racy talk about church establishments, poetry, politics, the price
of iron, and the price of com . • . but a true poet, a worshipper
of nature, full of grace and sweetness, and with a heart (apart
from the accursed politics) overflowing with the milk of human
kindness."

Elliott's associations with the actual scenery of
Yorkshire should be looked for in what is left of old
Sheffield, for it was from the starved workers of its
squalid courts and alleys that he drew inspiration for
his stirring rhymes in denunciation of the tax upon
bread. But there are more desirable spots wherein
there linger some memories of him. He was devotedly

862 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

fond of the heights which rise between the Derbyshire
border and the smoky wilderness of Sheffield, and loved
to contemplate the varieties of scenery which one may
see from them. He spent much time in wandering in
the valley of the Rivelin, a few miles from Sheffield,
wherein he found quietude and repose which must have
been very cheerful and refreshing to him after constant
acquaintance with the noise and bustle of the smoky
town. Most of his later years were spent at Argilt,
near Barnsley, where he died in 1849. There is a
statue of him in Weston Park, one of the popular
recreation grounds of Sheffield, of whose folk, hard-
headed, full of fight when wronged, keenly alive to
oppression and injustice, he was a typical example.

According to some local topographers, Daniel Defoe
was a Yorkshireman, born at Halifax ; according to
others, he was merely a Yorkshireman by temporary
residence in that town. That he lived there for some
time is certain, and there is a good deal to be said for
the theory that he wrote u Robinson Crusoe" during
his stay there. But Defoe in his time saw a good deal
of Yorkshire, and the literary-minded folk who are fond
of connecting persons with places, and contrasting the
present-day condition of the latter with the accounts
given of them by the former, may derive a great deal
of interest and amusement from reading his descriptions
of the various Yorkshire towns which he visited when
making his tour of Great Britain in 1727. He appears
to have been greatly impressed by York, which he found
the social centre of the county, very select and genteel
as to its society and manners, and withal as cheap to
live in, and so excellently provided with educational
facilities, that the great families of the North preferred
it as a residence to London. Some of Defoe's references
to places in Yorkshire are particularly interesting, as

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 268

showing that the character of the country has not
changed in any important degree. Thus he speaks of
" Black Barnsley," and remarks that it was then eminent
for the working of iron and steel, and so overladen with
grime and smoke that all the men looked like black-
smiths. Herein he followed out the notion of previous
writers who assumed that Barnsley was called Black
because of its smoke, whereas Black is clearly derived
from the Anglo-Saxon blaec = exposed, but he also
establishes the fact that the Barnsley of 1727 was very
much like the Barnsley of to-day. Nor is there much
difference— especially on wild, desolate, winter days,
when the storm-fiends are in full rage — between the
Blackstone Edge of our time and the Blackstone Edge
over which Daniel Defoe, his horses, and his shivering
dog crossed in travelling over the Pennine Range into
Yorkshire. From its almost inaccessible ridges the
descent to the valleys still looks as frightful and pre-
cipitous as it seems to have looked to the author of
a Robinson Crusoe."

One comes most closely in touch with Defoe at
Halifax, where he lived for some time, and of whose
inhabitants, trade, and customs he appears to have
made a close study. He found Halifax a remarkably
thriving town; the cloth trade, he says, was in a
flourishing condition when he went there, and the
merchants had just begun to make shalloons, and they
were making kerseys as numerously as ever before.
Also there was a mighty trade in cattle, and no fewer
than three market-days per week. He notes one curious
fact : at Halifax, in autumn, in his time, there were sold
enormous numbers of black cattle, and this, he says,
is what was done with them —

" The usage of the people is to buy in that season (autumn)

264 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

beef sufficient for the whole year, which they kill and salt and
hang up in the smoke to dry. This way of curing their beef
keeps it all the winter, and they eat their smoked beef as a
very great rarity. Upon this it is ordinary for a clothier that
has a large family to come to Halifax on a market day, and
buy two or three large bullocks from j£S to ;£io apiece ; these
he carries home and kills for his store, and this is the reason
that the markets at all those times of the year are thronged
with black cattle, as Smithfield is on a Friday . . • thus one
trading manufacturing part of the country supports all the
countries round it, and numbers of people settle here as bees
about a hive."

Defoe spent some time at Huddersfield, examining
into the conditions of the trade and manufacture of the
town, which was then a centre for the weavers of a well-
populated district who came into it on market-days to
sell their goods. He remarked two things here par-
ticularly — first, the quantities of oatmeal porridge and
oatcake consumed by the natives; and second, the
excellent quality of the ale they drank, and of which,
no doubt, they pressed him, with true Yorkshire hospi-
tality, to drink freely. He also visited Sheffield and
Leeds, and thought them important centres of industry
even then. And, indeed, he appears to have found
Yorkshire an altogether desirable county, rich, energetic,
and possessed of the resources which still distinguish her.

Admirers of Sydney Smith who visit Foston-le-Clay,
on the banks of the Derwent, will wonder how such a
brilliant personality could endure twenty years of life
in such a quiet and even dull place. It was not as
though he was a callow curate, coming to his parish
straight from college, for Sydney Smith had already
made a name for himself as author, wit, and brilliant
conversationalist in London when he came to Foston ;
the first incumbent it had had for a century and a half.

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 265

There was no habitable rectory, so he went to live at
Heslington, near York, until he could build one. This,
when finished, he described as the ugliest and most
comfortable house in Yorkshire ; Lord Macaulay, who,
with other of his literary friends, visited him there,
described it as " the neatest, most commodious, and most
appropriate rectory " he had ever seen. The new rector's
method of furnishing his new house was unique. He
had very little furniture, very poor means of buying
more, and a great many empty rooms to fill. But with
what money he had he purchased a quantity of wood
in the rough, and hearing of a carpenter who was out
of work, he secured his services and furnished his rooms,
the furniture most probably being designed by himself.
In spite of his somewhat isolated situation — he used to
speak of himself as being M twenty miles from a lemon "
— he appears to have passed his time with some degree
of pleasantness. He was not without congenial neigh-
bours, for Castle Howard is only a few miles from
Foston, and Lord and Lady Carlisle visited him and
he visited them, and he entertained at various times
such congenial friends as Brougham, Macintosh, Jeffrey,
and other fellow-contributors to the Edinburgh Review.
It is not surprising to hear that Sydney Smith was
by no means popular or even welcome with his fellow-
clergymen, for the Yorkshire parson of his time was
Tory to the backbone, and Smith's Radicalism was in
their eyes as a red rag in those of a bull An amusing
story is told of a meeting of clergy at which he was
present and made a speech which must have been
listened to with astonishment, if not with horror. There
was an inn in Thirsk called the Three Tuns, and to this,
some time in 1825, the clergy of the Archdeaconry
of Cleveland were summoned in order to consider
the desirability of petitioning Parliament against the

266 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

proposed Catholic Relief. Sydney Smith, attending the
meeting in his clerical capacity, presented a counter-
petition, and in enforcing its claims upon his brother-
clerics— and, incidentally, the claims of some better
courses of procedure — said —

"The best thing we could have done would have been
never to have met at alL The next best thing we can do,
now we are met, is to do nothing. The third choice is to take
my petition. The fourth, last, and worst, is to adopt your
own. The wisest thing I have heard here to-day is the
proposition of Mr. Chaloner, that we should bum both petitions
and ride home. Here we are, a set of obscure country clergy-
men, at the Three Tuns Inn at Thirsk, like flies on the chariot
wheel, perched upon a question of which we can neither see
the diameter, nor control the motion, nor influence the moving
force. What good can such meetings do? They emanate
from local conceit, advertise local ignorance, make men who
are venerable by their profession ridiculous by their pretensions,
and swell that mass of paper lumber which, got up with infinite
rural bustle, and read without being heard in Parliament, are
speedily consigned to merited contempt"

One may safely aver that never had the clergy of
Cleveland listened to such plain truths in such equally
plain language.

Laurence Sterne, parson and novelist, had a family
connection with Yorkshire long before he came into the
county to hold many livings and to write "Tristram
Shandy " and " The Sentimental Journey." His great-
grandfather, Richard Sterne, was translated from the
Bishopric of Carlisle to the Archbishopric of York in
1664, and reigned over the Northern Province for close
upon twenty years. He was a man who had seen and
done things in his time. He had been chaplain to
Archbishop Laud, and had attended that ill-fated prelate
at the last scene on Tower Hill ; he helped to prepare

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 267

the Polyglot Bible, and he is said to have shared in
writing " The Whole Duty of Man." He was a good,
if not a brilliant archbishop, and was rewarded by one
of the ugliest of the many ugly monuments in York
Minster. His great-grandson's connection with the
Church in Yorkshire was deep-seated, if one may judge
by the number of livings he held. In 1738, a few days
after his ordination to the priesthood, he came to his
vicarage of Sutton-in-the-Forest, a village in the Forest
of Galtres, near Easingwold ; in 1742 he was presented
to the living of the neighbouring village of Stillington ;
in 1760 he became vicar of Coxwold, in which village
he then took up his residence, continuing to hold all
three livings until his death in 1768.

Most people connect Laurence Sterne's Yorkshire
life with Coxwold, but, as a matter of fact, not only his
life, but his literary labours, were much more associated
with Sutton-in-the-Forest He lived in the vicarage
there for twenty years, and there he wrote and pub-
lished the first two volumes of * Tristram Shandy."
After his presentation to the living of Stillington he
divided his Sundays — when he happened to be at home,
for he spent a good deal of his time in London and in
York — between the two places, preaching at Sutton in
the morning and at Stillington in the afternoon. He
naturally drew his characters from the people of his own
district, and those of them who were able to read and
understand " Tristram Shandy " when it appeared, were
not slow in charging him with slandering some of the
worthies of the neighbourhood, amongst them Dr. John
Burton of York, author of " Monasticon Eboracense,"
whom he, without doubt, satirized under the name of
Dr. Slop. Some of the local names of fields and places
in " Tristram Shandy," such as Ox Moor, Ox Close, Ox
Lane, are still in evidence at Stillington and Sutton,

268 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

and the scene wherein Dr. Slop falls into a puddle may
be identified with one near the vicarage of the last-
named village. The path by which Sterne crossed the
fields from Sutton to Stillington may also be followed
by his devotees of to-day.

But although Sutton-in-the-Forest is more closely
associated with Sterne's life than Coxwold is, it is not
to be denied that some of the most characteristic and
interesting of his Yorkshire experiences centre in the
picturesque little place wherein his house, Shandy Hall,
still stands very much as he left it Coxwold itself is
a pretty village, possessing an interesting church, full of
monuments of the families of Belasyse and Fauconberg ;
a Grammar School, founded in 1603 by Sir John Harte,
citizen and grocer of London ; an almshouse of curious
quaintness ; an old inn ; and a wide street, enclosed by
old-fashioned houses and cottages, and dominated by a
stately elm of goodly proportions.

Shandy Hall, where Laurence Sterne lived for
eight years, stands on the roadside a little way out of
the village, and is noticeable enough, with its old-world
gables, small-paned windows and high chimneys, to
attract attention without reference to its now world-
famous occupant of a hundred and fifty years ago. The
inscription over the doorway is somewhat misleading,
for it declares that Sterne's great work was written
there, as well as " The Sentimental Journey." But it is
certain that the latter was written at Coxwold, as well
as the final volumes of the former. Of Sterne's life at
Coxwold he himself has left a well-known picture.

" I am as happy as a prince at Coxwold," he writes, towards
the end of his residence there, "and I wish you could see in
how princely manner I live — 'tis a land of plenty. I sit down
alone to venison, fish, and wild fowl, or a couple of fowls or

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 269

ducks ; with curds, strawberries, and cream, and all the simple
plenty which a rich valley (under Hamilton Hills) can pro-
duce. ... I have a hundred hens and chickens about my
yard, and not a parishioner catches a hare or a rabbit, or a
trout, but he brings it as an offering to me."

There is a local tradition to the effect that the person
who succeeded Laurence Sterne in the tenancy of
Shandy Hall discovered a quantity of the great man's
manuscripts in a cupboard of the house, and turned the
papers to practical use by lining the paper-hangings of
a room with them. One would give a good deal to
know if the work thus destroyed was another " Tristram
Shandy."

It should be remembered that the living of Coxwold
was given to Sterne by Lord Fauconberg as a direct
compliment to the cleverness of M Tristram Shandy."

" No one was so talked of in London this year [1760]," says
Forster, in his " Life of Goldsmith," referring to Sterne's sudden
leap into fame, " and no one so admired as that tall, thin,
hectic-looking Yorkshire parson. He • . . was everywhere
the honoured guest of the rich and noble. His book had
become a fashion, and East and West were moved alike. Mr.
Dodeley offered him ^650 for a second edition and two more
volumes; Lord Fakonberg gave him a curacy of £150 a year;
Mr. Reynolds painted his portrait; and Warburton, not having
yet pronounced him an ' irrecoverable scoundrel,' went round
to the bishops and told them he was the English Rabelais.
1 One is invited to dinner where he dines,' said Gray, ' a fort-
night beforehand;' and he was boasting himself of dinner
engagements fourteen deep, even while he declared the way to
fame to be like that to heaven, through much tribulation, and
described himself in the midst of his triumphs ' attacked and
pelted from cellar and garret.' "

One can scarcely think of Sterne as having suffered

270 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

"much tribulation" between 1738 and 1760; and he
was doubtless never so happy in his life as when, after
all his London triumphs and his Continental wanderings,
he came back for a brief period of rural life at CoxwolcL
Certainly one may suppose with some justification that
his thoughts turned enviously to Shandy Hall when,
eight years after honour and fame came to him, he died,
untended and alone, in a common lodging-house in
Bond Street

There are several houses in Yorkshire which have
literary associations peculiar to themselves. At Tankers-
ley Park, one of the most beautifully wooded domains
in the county, but now transformed into a colliery
district, Sir Richard Fanshawe, virtually a prisoner by
order of the Commonwealth, solaced his confinement
by translating the " Lusiad " of Camoens. The vicarage
of Ecclesfield was the home of Alfred Gatty, the anti-
quarian and archaeologist, and of his wife, the authoress
of " Parables from Nature/ 9 for sixty years, and it was
also the birthplace of their daughter, Mrs. Ewing, who
wrote so many delightful books for children. In the
churchyard of the same village is the grave of Hunter,
the historian, and of Dr. Scott, Mrs. Gatt/s father, who
in his time was Nelson's chaplain, and was with him in
his last moments at Trafalgar. In the same district is
Wharncliffe Lodge, where Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
lived for some time, and from which she wrote some of
her most characteristic letters. She was accustomed to
describe the view from the top of the hill at Wharncliffe
as the finest in Europe, and she was a competent
authority on travel in her day. Equally pleased with
Wharncliffe was John Taylor, the Water Poet, who,
after an amusing journey in Yorkshire, stayed here with
Sir Francis Wortley, and was entertained in a fashion
that afforded him much gratification. Horace Walpole

LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS OF YORKSHIRE 271

was at Wharncliffe, too, in 1760, and sneered a little, in
his biting way, at the way in which the Wortley Montagu
of his time was lodged, but he also took care to praise
the fineness of the surrounding scenery. At Walton
Hall, near Wakefield, there are interesting associations
with Charles Waterton, the naturalist and traveller, who
under its ancient roof arranged the results of his wander-
ings and wrote his accounts of them. This house, too,
possesses further interest in the fact that after Water-
ton's death it passed into the possession of Edward
Hailstone, a true lover of antiquities, who formed a
magnificent library relating to Yorkshire history, archae-
ology, and folk-lore, and bequeathed it at his death to
the Dean and Chapter of York. Skelton Castle, on the
north-east coast of Yorkshire, has some amusing asso-
ciations with the eccentric John Hall-Stevenson, the
" Eugenius " of Sterne's w Tristram Shandy," who during
his occupancy of it gathered around him under its roof
a strange collection of mad spirits who called them-
selves the Demoniacs. Very different were the gather-
ings of literary folk who during the middle Victorian
days met at Fryston Hall, the home of the poet, poli-
tician, and patron of learning who was first known as
Richard Monckton Milnes, and afterwards as Lord
Houghton — its visitors' book contains the autographs
of almost all the great folk of that time.

Of the present-day Yorkshiremen and Yorkshire-
women who have done something to carry on the
literary traditions of a county which has produced its
greatest flowers of imaginative art in the three sisters
of Haworth, it is scarcely possible to do more than
write in meagre fashion. But Yorkshire can boast the
possession of two modern poets whose works have made
their names famous throughout the English-speaking
world. Alfred Austin, who succeeded to the Poet

272 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Laureateship on the death of Lord Tennyson, is a
native of Leeds ; William Watson, of one of the most
beautiful stretches of Wharfedale. A Yorkshirewoman
who wrote well and lovingly of the romantic country
which lies between Whitby and the North York moors
was Mary Linskill, a native of the picturesque old
seaport which had long been immortalized by its asso-
ciations with Caedmon. She is buried in the churchyard
on the cliff at Whitby, near the Caedmon Memorial
Cross; her stories, "Between the Heather and the
Northern Sea," " The Haven under the Hill," and " In
Exchange for a Soul/ 9 still charm lovers of the sea-coast
and the moorlands. The North Riding gave us another
novelist in Annie Keary, the author of " Castle Daly/ 9
who was a native of Stonegrave, near Pickering ; and
York was the birthplace of the entertaining writer who
under the name of John Strange Winter has written so
much and so well, and charmed Ruskin himself with
" Bootle's Baby." Yorkshire, too, claims the late George
Gissing, who was a native of Wakefield. She possesses
at the present moment a small band of writers of fiction
who have achieved success, and of these one may speak
with pride of the work of Halliwell Sutcliffe, who has
drunk deeply of the air of the Yorkshire fells, and seen
far into the hearts of their people. And outside imagi-
native art Yorkshire possesses a man of letters in the
truest sense in the person of Joseph Wright, now en-
gaged at Oxford in preparing a monumental work,
"The English Dialect Dictionary," who has been a
student of the most strenuous description all his life,
and forms a rare example of the grit and tenacity which
distinguish the Yorksbireman who attempts a great
task. In Dr. Wright's work Yorkshire scholarship of
the present age will make itself worthy of the days of
Priestley, Bentley, and Ascham.

CHAPTER XIII

LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE

The Hand of Glory at the Spital Inn— Robin Hood's association
with Barnsdale, Whitby, and Kirklees— Arthur and the Knights of
the Round Table at Richmond Castle — Story of Potter Thomson —
The Building of Kilgrim Bridge— Ralph Calvert and the Devil-
Giant Rombald and the Calf Rock at Ilkley— The Devil's Arrow
at Boroughbridge— The Worms of Loftus and Sockburn — Hob o*
th' Hole and his Vagaries— Legend of Eskdale Bridge— St. Hilda
and the Shaker — Legends of Semerwater and Gormise— The
Dragon of Wantley— The False Son of Rokeby.

LIKE every other English county, Yorkshire possesses
a rich store of legend and folk-lore peculiar to
itself, and it also has a further volume of similar material,
which it shares not only with other counties, but with
other countries. Many of its best-known legends and
stories are mere variations of folk-lore narratives, which
appear in other forms in the literature of almost all
lands, and have had a common origin in some age of
which no record now exists. Stories of bridges built
by the devil, of snakes and reptiles turned into stone by
the virtues of a saint, of man-eating worms and dragons,
of cities submerged by lakes — all these things are com-
mon to most literatures, and the only originality about
them, when related of some particular district or place,
lies in the local treatment which they receive. In most
of the common legends of Yorkshire there is a great
trace of Scandinavian and Teutonic influence, and there

T 273

274 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

is a constant tendency to attribute things unexplainable
by natural causes to diabolic power. The recent spread
of education has swept away much of the old supersti-
tion, but there are still many inhabitants of the rural
districts who believe in such things as the Bargest,
the Padfoot, and the White Rabbit, and who would
gladly welcome the services of the Wise Man or Wise
Woman, if those once all-important personages were
now in existence. Old folk, of course, who remember
the Wise Man and the Wise Woman, still cherish a
belief in their powers, and can tell strange stories of the
deeds they were credited with accomplishing, such as
turning cream into butter by means of a charm, or
curing a cow upon which all the skill of the farrier had
been exerted to no effect The real folk-lore of the
county lies in the stories which these people could tell
if they would, or if they had the powers of narration,
and much of it will never be set down, for the younger
generation has other matters to think of, and turns away
with a deplorable contempt and incredulity from the
old fireside and ingle-nook tales in which our grand-
fathers took a great delight Thus the chief legends
and folk-lore stories of the county which are known are
derived more from books than from men, and it is very
often the case that their details are better known to the
archaeologist, and the student of such matters, than to
the folk of the neighbourhood from which they spring.

A weird tale relating to the old tradition of the
Hand of Glory hails from the neighbourhood of Rey
Cross. It took place amidst exactly those surroundings
that a romanticist would have chosen, had the tale been
of his own invention : in a lonely inn, upon the high-
road between Rey Cross and Bowes, faced by a bleak
moorland. The Hand itself was at one time severed
from the body of a criminal, upon whom execution had

LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE 275

been done, and pickled for the purpose of preservation.
In it a candle, formed of the melted fat of a dead man,
was placed, the whole being said to possess strange
properties, and properties invaluable to those of the
same class as the criminal from whom the Hand of
Glory had been cut

In the year 1797 the Spital Inn on Stainmore was
managed by George Alderson, his wife and son, much
of the housework being entrusted to the servant Bella.
The hostelry, which was of solid but narrow build, was
at that time an important posting-place for the stage-
coaches crossing Stainmore, between York and Carlisle,
and here the horses were changed and stabled. The
oaken door of the old inn was approached by a flight
of stone steps, and the deep-set windows were iron-
barred. A large fire shone from the wide hearth one
chilly evening, as the Alderson family, grouped about
it, were engaged in various homely employments, the
women spinning; the men discussing the profit they had
brought away with them, and bestowed safely in the
bedroom of George Alderson, from the fair of Broughton
HilL Outside the wind howled on the moor, and scuds
of rain rattled against the window-panes. Suddenly a
knock sounded on the door.

" Open the door I " said Alderson ; " it's a night not
fit for a dog 1 "

" Just slacken the chain, Bella," added his wife.

Bella opened the door with caution, for no visitor
was expected, and the last stage-coach had long since
passed on its way. The figure of an old, bent woman
presented itself to her eyes. She was drenched to the
skin and shivering with the cold. To the hospitable
welcome the landlord accorded her, she answered with
a petition that she might merely rest in the old arm-
chair beside the hearth : she awaited, she said, the first

276 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

gleam of daylight, for she was journeying south, and
would drowse in the corner there until the sun had
risen. No one, she begged, would put themselves out
for her. The landlord and his wife and son, therefore,
bid her good night and betook themselves upstairs to
bed. The shrewd servant-girl, however, determined to
watch the ancient woman's slumber. A few words
addressed to her elicited by degrees the fact that her
voice had more of a masculine ring about it than was
usual with old crones, and a hasty movement of the
damp feet towards the kindly blaze of the fire betrayed
the visitor yet further ; for the girl perceived that she
was equipped with the riding-gaiters of a man. Feign-
ing drowsiness, she stretched herself upon the settle.
Shortly afterwards the old woman stood up, straight
and strong, and remained standing in an attitude of
acute attentiveness, and beneath her lowered lids did
Bella mark her movements. All at once, producing
something from beneath her cloak, the figure approached
the girl until she stood over her, and Bella saw that the
light that the woman was holding proceeded from a
candle placed in the grip of a shrivelled hand which she
had drawn from her cloak. As she stood over her,
she repeated in masculine tones—

" Let those who rest more deeply sleep ;
Let those awake their vigils keep."

Then, turning from the servant, she deposited the
human, withered hand, still grasping the light, upon the
table, and repeated —

" Oh, Hand of Glory, shed thy light ;
Direct us to our spoil to-night."

With which she drew the window-curtains back.

" Flash out thy light, oh skeleton hand,
And guide the feet of our trusty band."

LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE 277

At these words the candle flared with a wild, bright
gleam, and the figure walked to the door, and cast it
wide open, sounded a piercing whistle, another yet
again, and went down a step or two of the stone flight ;
upon which Bella, springing to her feet, pushed her
violently from behind, so that she rolled down the steps
into the road. Then she rushed upstairs, and hammered
frantically at the landlord's door. But no answer came
from within. Next she tried the door of his son,
uttering loud cries to wake him, but in vain. And now
shouts and fierce blows upon the door beneath an-
nounced that the Hand of Glory had done its summon-
ing work With a sudden inspiration she flew downstairs,
where the hand burnt still with its weird flame, and
extinguished it by dashing a cupful of milk over the
light A moment later, and Alderson and his son, both
bearing arms, burst into the room, soon gauged the
meaning of the uproar, and addressing the robber-band
from the open window, discharged shots among them,
commanding them, if they valued their lives, to be gone.
A colloquy took place among the ruffians, and one of
their number, groaning deeply, fell. Then one of the
band called out —

" Give up the Hand of Glory, and we will not harm
you." Young Alderson, resisting this proposition with
the contents of his blunderbuss, the robbers made good
their retreat, and troubled the place no more. The
Hand of Glory remained in the Alderson family for
sixteen years, an undeniable witness to the heroism of
the servant Bella, from whose own lips, as an old
woman, the account was taken down.

This strange story of the moors bears likeness to
several legends told in similar desolate districts ; but
there is plenty of evidence that it is still a matter of
popular credence in the neighbourhood between Rey

278 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Cross and Bowes that the authenticity of this version
cannot be disputed.

Round about Barnsdale "that most famous cut-
throat, Robin Hood/ 1 as Fordun calls him in the
" Scotichronicon," assumes no longer the half-mythical
shape that modern credulity has at length bestowed on
him, but becomes an undeniable personality. Some
evidence that the great outlaw was born at Bradfield,
near Sheffield! has been brought to light ; but however
that may be, it is certain that a considerable part of
his mirthful, lawless life was spent on Yorkshire ground,
for there is abundant mention of him in various districts
—in Fountains, Whitby, Wakefield, or Kirklees, where
he met his death, and especially in Barnsdale. It was
here that the jocund mind of Robin suggested to him
the delightful humour of frightening the stately Bishop
of Hereford into performing a dance of propitiation,
having first compelled him to hand out large sums of
money on condition of his safe release. In the " Reli-
ques " of Percy an account of the bishop's entertainment
is given —

" Then Robin he took the bishop by the hand,
And led him to merry Barnsdale ;
He made him to stay and sup with him that night,
And to drink wine, beer, and ale.

" ' Call in a reckoning,' said the bishop,
* For methinks it goes wondrous high. 1
* Lend me your purse, master,' said Little John,
' And 111 tell you by and by. 1

" Then Little John took the bishop's cloak,
And spread it upon the ground,
And out of the bishop's portmanteau
He told three hundred pound.

" * Here's money enough, master,' said Little John,
1 And a cdmely sight 'tis to see;

LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE 279

It makes me in charity with the bishop,
Though he heartily loveth not me.'

" Robin Hood took the bishop by the hand,
And he caused the music to play,
And he made the old bishop to dance in his boots,
And glad he could so get away."

At one time a great part of Barnsdale was so thickly
wooded as to form an ideal haunt for bands of robbers
largely depending for their revenues on the spoil of the
travellers that journeyed along Watling Street, and it
was probably here that Robin Hood, according to
legend, was hearing Mass in equanimity, although
perfectly aware that his enemies were on his track.
His devotions over, he sprang to his feet, and the
victory, in spite of the delay, was his.

On the roadside near Barnsdale is Robin Hood's
Well, opposite which, in Skelbrooke Park, tradition has
placed the site of the Bishop of Hereford's dance about
the oak, but nothing of the tree remains.

Whitby Lathes is the scene of another marvellous
tale relating to Robin and Little John. The story goes
that these famous men came to Whitby one day, and,
being without food or drink, betook themselves, per-
chance, in search of sport, to the Abbey of St Hilda
for a night's accommodation. Here they were received
with marked attention and politeness, says the story.
For it is quite possible the good monks were even
more hard up than they for entertainment One of
the topics of discussion seems to have been the gentle
art of archery, and on the assertion of Robin and his
henchman that they could perform marvels with their
* trusty bows/ 1 the abbot suggested, on the following
morning, that they should give a display of their skill
from the tower of the abbey. Each drew his bow, both

280 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

in a south-easterly direction, and both of the arrows
embedded themselves two miles away from the spot
where they were freed, in two separate fields at Kirby
Lathes. Needless to say, the amazement of the abbot
knew no bounds, and he caused pillars to mark the
places to be raised in the fields, where Charlton, an
historian of Whitby, declares they were still standing
in the middle of the eighteenth century.

But Kirklees has the honour of being the storing-
place of the last memories of Robin Hood. Robin,
now growing old, had fallen sick of a cold, and hearing
of the skill in physics of the Prioress of Kirklees, who,
it is suggested, may have been his aunt, begged of her
that she would cure him by letting him blood. But
the prioress, it would appear, had no tender com-
passion on him for being of her own kith and kin, and
most certainly no approval of his antics with the clergy,
and she determined upon bleeding him to such an
extent that he should trouble the religious world no
more. So she imprisoned him in a small room and left
him to himself. Poor Robin Hood, at his last gasp,
bethought him of his stout friend, and

" Blew out weak blasts three.
Then Little John, when hearing him,

As he sat under the tree,
I fear my master is near dead,

He blows so wearily."

Upon which Little John speeds to the priory, breaks
open the bolts and bars which hinder his progress to
his master, and hearing how sadly things have fared
with Robin, swears he will burn the priory to the
ground. But Robin will not hear of it

" I never hurt fair maid in all my time,
Nor at my end shall it be,

LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE 281

But give me my bent bow in my hand,

And a broad arrow Til let flee :
And where this arrow is taken up,

There shall my grave digged be.'

With which he drew his bow with all his might, proud
even at that pass to show his skill, and shot across the
park, and the place that marks his arrow marks his
grave. The best known version of his epitaph, now
illegible, is that of Dr. Gale, once Dean of York —

11 Hear undernead dis laid stean
laiz robert erl of Huntington
nea arcir ver azhie sa geud
an pipl kauld im robin head
sick outlawz az hi an iz men
vil england nivr si agen.*

Almost entirely synonymous with the German
tradition of Barbarossa is the fanciful story 'of King
Arthur and his knights, which one comes across at
Richmond Underneath the solid pile of rock, upon
the crest of which the castle stands, immured in vaulted
caverns, King Arthur and his Knights of the Round
Table are said to lie in slumber so deep that nothing
but the day of England's dire necessity shall break it.
Then they shall wake, spring to their feet all ready
armed, and once more the land will ring with the praise
of their prowess. Nevertheless, in the vault where the
knights lie slumbering there hangs an enchanted sword
and an enchanted horn, and although their slumber is
so intensely profound that nothing short of the utmost
peril that can threaten England will cause them to stir
even in their sleep, the legend inconsistently maintains
that whoever by some chance shall penetrate to their
rocky chamber and draw sword or blow horn, shall cause
them to awake. And here one finds confusion of two
traditions — the first shared amongst various other castles

282 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

as well as that of Richmond, but the second indigenous
to Richmond only. Once upon a time there lived in
Richmond one Thompson, following the trade of a
potter. This gentleman seems to have been of a
roving temperament and an inquiring mind, for upon
the occasion perpetuated by lore, he was evidently
engaged in rambling round the castle, poking his nose
into whatsoever aroused his interest, in the course of which
idle exploration he happened — as occurs more frequently
to idlers than to busy-bodies — upon a genuine discovery.
He chanced upon a passage that led into the bowels of
the earth. And here, no doubt, his Yorkshire instinct
of "gettin' a bit o' brass," urged him along the passage
in which he now found his feet; in the hope of finding
some treasure trove in the shape of jewels or coin. At
last the passage terminated in a vault, where to the
humble potter was revealed a strange sight : the great
king and his doughty knights bound in a magic slumber.
His eyes now fell upon the hanging horn and sword,
and he laid hands on the sword with a notion of draw-
ing it forth from its scabbard. A murmuring and a stir-
ring now rose among the knights, upon which the good
potter took to his heels and fled along the passage, and
out by the opening he had found. As he turned to fly
a voice cried —

" Potter, Potter Thomson !
If thou hadst either drawn
The sword or blown the horn,
Thou hadst been the luckiest man
Ever yet was born ! "

But it is quite evident that at that juncture Potter
Thompson was not exactly of a " coming-on disposition,"
having been probably scared by these uncanny doings
out of his steadfast Yorkshire wits. Else it is difficult
to understand why, when the desire of gain had lured

LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE 283

him thither, the desire of gain — realization of which the
voice had promised him — did not lure him back once
more. No doubt, however, he would calm his agitated
soul with the reflection that discretion was the wiser
part of valour, and assure himself that it were hardly
discreet to again trouble the slumbers of so great a king
and all his knights.

As the legend of Richmond, with variations, is
shared in common with various other castles, so the
story of Kilgrim Bridge can be traced in several parts
of the North of England in connection with the building
of sundry bridges. Round about here the river Ure
had been, it seems, for some time past especially
turbulent and uncontrollable, and though the people of
the district were patient in erecting bridge after bridge
over it for their own use, the river did not follow the
example of their patience, but impatiently destroyed
each structure as soon as it was put up. At last the
devil had compassion on the folk of Kilgrim, and made
them the handsome offer of a bridge that should be
indestructible on the slight condition that the inhabitants,
in return for his consideration, should sacrifice the first
living creature to him that should cross his bridge. The
stipulation being granted, the bridge was constructed by
the devil, and while he was probably chuckling over his
own diabolical cunning, a shepherd of Kilgrim, whose
head was evidently screwed on the right way, circum-
vented the evil one by swimming across the Ure himself,
and whistling for his dog when he reached the opposite
bank. In this way the Kilgrim folk were saved from
the foul fiend's clutches by a dog, and the fact, we are
told, that the canine victim's name was Grim, sufficiently
accounts for the name of the bridge — Kill Grim.

Another diabolical narration is told in the country
between Wharfedale and Nidderdale in the following

284 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

interesting fashion. Some long time ago there lived in
the village of Thorpe-sub-Montem, a skilful shoemaker,
Ralph Calvert by name, justly renowned for his
excellence in his craft, and largely encouraged by no
less a man than the Abbot of Fountains himself. To
the Abbey of Fountains, therefore, it was the shoe-
maker's wont to carry new boots at Christmas-tide and
inTthe season of midsummer, for which purpose it was
incumbent on him to traverse stretches of lonely moor-
land, broken by occasional hills, in his own company.
On the night before Ralph set out on one of his half-
yearly sojourns he celebrated the solemnity of the
impending venture by a convivial evening, during the
course of which, it is safe to surmise, from subsequent
happenings, that he spent more of his time beneath the
table than above it. After which, being deposited in
bed, dreams of no pleasant nature troubled his repose,
for he woke his good wife in a state of parlous fright,
and informed her that he thought he was already on his
way to Fountains, and had come to a solitary place in
the hills when the devil appeared before him, claiming
his person as his due. The morning came, and Calvert
started on his route, drove his bargains with the monks,
and fared home once more. But within a short
distance of the village, on arriving at a trifling beck,
which usually he merely stepped across, he found to
his dismay that it was swollen to a prodigious size, and
almost impassable. He, however, making the best of
this pass, took off his boots and stockings, and waded
across to the other side. It then suddenly occurred to
him that the place beneath his eyes was the horrid place
of his dream, and this alarmed the shoemaker so much
that in order to dispel his uneasiness, he set up a tune,
as boys do to disguise their alarm, upon which the strain
was taken up by another voice, and Calvert perceived a

LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE 285

portly gentleman standing before him, who introduced
himself, by the shoemaker's leave, as the devil. The
tremulous Ralph then bethought him of the stone bottle
upon his person, with which he was used to cheer his
lonely marches, and, drawing it out, proffered a draught
to his visitor. This courtesy chancing to please the arch-
fiend mightily, he forthwith declared that Caldert should
have any favour that he might demand. The shoemaker
begged that a bridge might be spanned across the
unruly flood, and the devil, acceding with great ami-
ability, bade him take leave of him then, but return to
the spot in four days 9 time. The four days passed,
amidst universal excitement in Thorpe-sub-Montem,
and on the morning of the appointed day an eager
concourse set out for the place with the shoemaker,
amongst their members the village priest, bearing a
vessel of holy water. There stood the bridge that the
devil had promised, and the father, after a cautious
inspection, pronouncing the structure to be no phantasy,
blessed it with holy water, or ever his flock might cross
over. And to this day there are folk who will solemnly
tell you that this harmless-looking erection was certainly
built by the devil.

Not far from Ilkley the Cow and Calf Rocks are
perched, a great mass of rock, right over the highroad
above Ben Rhydding. The Cow Rock is the last huge
rampart of the stupendous block of stone that skirts the
edge of the moor, and the Calf, smaller, but still vast,
lies down below on the side of the hill, looking as if it
had pulled itself up short in a race to the valley beneath.
Long ago, Rombald the Giant, it seems, had chosen the
gloomy moorland over these rocks for his hunting-
ground, and his tastes inclined in the direction of much
and violent exercise, for which he was eminently suited,
since it appears that to take in several miles at a stride

286 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

was a mere nothing to him. But on one occasion, when

stepping from Great Alme's Cliff to the Cow Rock,

a trifling matter of eight miles or so, Rombald the

Giant had the ill-luck to miss his footing, lumbered too

weightily across to the edge of the ridge in his anxiety

to recover himself completely, and chipped off the block

of stone, now known as the Calf. To prove the veracity

of this account, you can see to this day his footprint,

which will go far to show that the bulk of Rombald the

Giant was rather more than a featherweight

Once more we come in vivid contact with a memorial

of the evil one, in the form of those remarkable objects

close to Boroughbridge, the Devil's Arrows. Although

various learned constructions have been put upon these

three huge, needle-shaped stones, in order to account

for them, the local legend in the long run seems to give

most general satisfaction. For some reason best known

to himself, the devil seems to have borne a rooted

grudge to the little town of Aldborough, and having

vowed vengeance upon it, gave vent to these noteworthy

sentiments —

" Borobrigg keep out of the way,
For Audboro' Town
I will ding down."

Upon which he took up a stand on Howe Hill, near
Fountains Abbey, and hurled at Aldborough the huge
darts which have perpetuated his name in the neigh-
bourhood. Luckily for " Audboro' Town," however, the
devil in this instance had no more notion of accurate
measurement than the Giant Rombald, for miscalculating
his aim, the bolts fell short of Aldborough, burying them-
selves at a safe distance of a mile from it.

Distributed over different localities of Yorkshire are
various versions of the worm or dragon fable, which
plays so stirring a part in English lore, and figures with

LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE 287

such fascination in the fairy-books. At Grendale, near
Loftus, a block of stone was dug up from the ground
at no great distance of time, on which were carven
presentments of an effigy and a sword, and ingenious
traditions would have one to understand that the stone
is the chronicle of the valour of one Sir John Conyers
who, like the patron saint of England, at Loftus, " slew
a monstrous and poysonous vermine or wyverne, an
aske or werme which overthrew and devoured many
people in fight ; for that the scent of that poison was
so strong that no person might abyde it." In this
Loftus tale we trace a variation on the theme of the
dragon of Grecian mythology that Perseus slew. Again,
at Sockburn, and at Kellington, the dragon legend
crops up, and is commemorated by the usual stone
bearing the images of a man, a serpent, and a sword,
but local lore seems to have preserved little that is
distinctive and free from confusion of the origins.

An attractive sprite, who figures uncertainly as
Hob-o'-the-Hole, Hobthrush, Hobthrust, Hob-o'-th'-
Hewst, and Hob, seems to haunt Yorkshire dales and
moorlands for the purpose of playing practical jokes
of a Will-o'-the-Wisp order upon unsuspecting Arca-
dians. He made the life of a certain Farndale farmer
such a plague to him that at last the good man could
stand it no longer, and, gathering his chattels together,
he set out with great speed in a cart from the home
whence the imp had driven him. Having fared some
way on his journey, and at length enjoying a peace
which the pranks of the demon had made for some
time quite impossible, he passed on his road an
acquaintance, who, observing the goods in the cart,
hailed him with, "Ah sees thou's ffittin'." Upon
which from the bottom of the churn, whose butter, no
doubt, he had frequently troubled, came the voice of

288 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Hobthrush, "Ay, we's flittin'." And the farmer, after
the first shock of surprise, drily returned, " Well, lad, if
thou's going wi' us, we may as well go back to fowd
spot"

Nevertheless, in spite of his deeds of annoyance and
malice, Hob seems to have lent himself now and then
to the benevolent custom of curing the whooping-cough,
and to have turned the cavern in Runswick Bay, where
he loved to dwell, into a sort of consulting-room ; for
to the mouth of this cave would the mothers of Runswick
convey their sick babies, and plead with the goblin in
good faith, saying —

" Hob Hole Hob 1
My bairn's gotten t' kink-cough :
Takt off— tak* oft"

At Glaisdale there occurs yet one more legend
attaching to the building of a bridge. The river Esk is
traversed in this place by a single graceful arch, erected,
it is said, by a gentleman named Ferris, who, like Leander,
was very badly in love with a lady whom, by reason of
the exasperating tide between them, he could not easily
attain to. His visits to his love could therefore be
accomplished only by crossing the flood, and doubtless
eventually reaching her in a rather moist and ludicrous
condition. Things appear to have become desperate at
length, and the marriage of the lovers looming still far
ahead, this Yorkshire Leander resolved to seek a fortune
in a foreign land, and return to Hero and pour his
riches in her lap. Upon the night of his departure he
approached the Esk at the point where he was wont to
cast himself into the stream, but discovered that the
tide had swollen so that to attempt to ford it would be
to attempt his life. Upon departing, Ferris registered
an oath in Heaven that if he should come back a man

LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE 289

of mark and money, he would cause a bridge to be
thrown across the river at the point which had witnessed
his despair, declaring that future generations of lovers
should profit by his past pain. The tale concludes
sympathetically by assuring one of his safe return to the
lady of his heart, of the fact that he had spent his time
wisely and well in coining large sums of money, and it
is safe to assume that all ended happily.

In the Whitby legend of St. Hilda and the snakes
one perceives some analogy to the Irish tradition of
St Patrick and the creeping things. St Patrick, it is
said, betook himself to the summit of a commanding
mountain on the western coast of Ireland, afterwards
called Croagh Patrick, and from that height addressed
the toads and snakes of the Green Isle, decreeing an
instantaneous and universal emigration amongst them,
and bidding them, with perhaps no remarkably saintly
consideration, betake themselves to any shores but his.
But the Irish saint deserves at least the credit of having
spared the reptiles their lives, whereas the Yorkshire
saint had neither mercy nor toleration; for, being
grievously troubled by the proximity of many snakes
in the neighbourhood of her cloister, and frequently
concerned by the complaints of the sisterhood, she
desired so urgently of Heaven that the existence of the
creeping things be ended, that finally her prayer was
answered and the snakes turned into stone, in which
interesting form, for the better corroboration of tra-
dition, they are still to be found at Whitby, with the
slight drawback that not one of the creatures can boast
a head among them. Legend, however, has omitted to
assure us that this item was stipulated for by Hilda in
her prayers, consoling us with the reflection that when,
without ceremony, she swept them with her fury down
the cliffs, it was highly probable that in the process they
u

290 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

may have lost their heads. And who could blame
them ? — for it is evident that her religious enthusiasm
must have been something quite out of the common.

About the lake of Semerwater, near Wensleydale,
there hovers the fascination of an ancient saw. On the
site of the beautiful lake, long ages ago, it is believed
there once stood a city of great size, great wealth, great
magnificence, and, as the story would seem to show, of
colossal heartlessness. For to this town, in depths of
snow, of want, and misery, came a poor old man
tagging f° r f°°d aQ d shelter on one bitter night But
so much riches and such great possessions had hardened
the hearts of the inhabitants and blinded their compre-
hension, and from marble porch to marble porch was he
driven with abuse and blows, and no man would give to
him. At length he chanced on his last hope of charity,
a humble cottage, and here he was welcomed, warmed,
and sent away in comfort. On the morrow, upon his
departure, the old man, journeying towards the hills,
ascended one of them, and extending his arms over the
city of the marble hearts, cried aloud —

" Semerwater rise 1
Semerwater sink !
Swallow all the town
Save this lile house
Where they gave me meat and drink t *

And the earth opened, the water rose, and rushing
over the city, caused it to sink for ever out of human
ken. But now and again, to those who are patient and
watch without wavering, a glimpse of the ancient city,
of its towers and spires, is vouchsafed, if they gaze
through the depths of Semerwater lake.

The same mystery clings to Gormire lake at the
base of Whitestone Cliffe, and a similar tale is told of it,

LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE 291

for it is supposed to cover a mighty city, overthrown by
a terrible earthquake, and it is also thought within the
bounds of possibility that a close observer might; under
certain conditions, detect its gorgeous roofs through the
water. A local distich running thus —

" When Gormire riggs shall be covered with hay,
The White Mare of Whitestone Cliffe shall carry it away,"

voices the belief that the lake is bottomless, and further
supposition ventures that Gormire has no outlet And
yet it is a matter of popular superstition that a goose
that had strayed into the fissure beneath Whitestone
Cliffe, came out again, some twelve miles further off,
wearing, one would fancy, a surprised expression on its
face, the evident hero of blood-curdling past adventures,
for though it had escaped with its life, it had left all its
feathers behind.

To the order of mystical and uncertain personalities
the Dragon of Wantley belongs, but he is celebrated in
various rhymes and ballads, and his memory kept green
by multitudinous allusions, and his cave at Wharncliffe
religiously visited by such folk as are of a speculative
turn of mind. But whatever the exact nature of the
dragon may have been — whether we may relegate him
without hesitation to the ranks of the various M mon-
strous and poysonous vermines or wyvernes" which
seem to have been so plentiful in Yorkshire in the olden
days — or whether, as in the u Reliques " of Bishop Percy,
we are to treat him with a slighting sarcasm, at least it
is certain that a dragon, human or superhuman, was
overthrown by the valiant More of More Hall. The
ancient ballad in the " Reliques," of which the date is
quite uncertain, hands the dragon down to posterity as
a lawyer, of a singularly grasping and felonious character,
who, without compunction, ruined three orphans in his

292 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

charge. Upon which, More of More Hall, stricken by
the contemplation of their condition, took up their cause
with such zealous fervour that the tables were turned
upon the dragon, who, unable to bear with his exposure,
and, it is to be trusted, his remorse, died of a broken heart

" In Yorkshire, near fair Rotherham,

The place I know it well ;
Some two or three miles, or thereabouts,

I vow I cannot tell ;
But there is a hedge, just on the hill edge,

And Mathew's house hard by it ;
O there and then was this dragon's den,

You could not choose but spy it

" Old stories tell how Hercules

A dragon slew at Lerno,
With seven heads and fourteen eyes,

To see and well discern-o ;
But he had a club, this dragon to drub,

Or he had ne'er done it, I warrant ye;
But More of More Hall, with nothing at all,

He slew the dragon of Wantley."

Another superstition would have us believe that the
Dragon of Wantley was nothing more nor less than a
confirmed and dangerous wine-bibber, of whom the
country was at length well quit by the interference of
a chieftain of the opposite moors, who caused him to
drink himself to death. Again, it is surmised that the
fabulous thing was a monstrous wolf or such-like fear-
some creature that infested the neighbouring woods,
and was finally slain by the hero of More Hall. But
whatever the dragon actually was, there is no doubt
that his habits were strangely unpleasant, for —

* Houses and churches
Were as geese and turkeys ;
He ate all, and left none behind —
Save some stones, dear Jack, which he could not crack,
Which on the hill you will find.*

» » • •

* • • «

LEGENDS AND FOLK-LORE 298

The Felon Sow of Rokeby, however, takes upon
herself a definite shape. Ralph of Rokeby, sang old
Yorkshire minstrels, was the uneasy owner of a huge,
obstreperous sow, and, as is not uncommon, perhaps,
with those who are in possession of somewhat that
brings them more disquiet than consolement, the divine
spirit of charity fell on Ralph. It occurred to him
to commiserate the case of the Friars of Richmond,
who came nigh on starvation, and to bestow the Felon
Sow of his bounty upon them. Nevertheless, in spite
of her bacon, she had her drawbacks.

"She was mare than other three,
The grisliest beast that e'er might be,

Her head was great and grey ;
She was bred in Rokeby wood.
There were few that thither goed

That came on lyve away.

" Her walk was endlong Greta side.
There was no man that durst her bide,

That was frae heaven to hell ;
Nor never man that had that might,
That ever durst come in her sight,
Her force it was so fell."

To Greta-side was the unfortunate Friar Middleton
despatched as ambassador to the Felon Sow. But it
is evident that the worthy man was not exactly buying
a pig in a poke ; he was aware of the delicate tact and
confidence required for the task. For he summoned to
his aid Peter Dale and Brian Metcalfe, and together
they three approached the Felon Sow who was u liggan "
under a tree. She, nevertheless, possessed " more than
mortal knowledge/' it is plain, and betrayed a certainty
that the friars had no intention of turning her into a
pig in clover by lashing out with violence and keeping
the diplomatic embassy at a distance. Finally, they

294 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

secured her with a tether, and she feloniously proceeded
a short way in delusive peace. But suddenly resenting
the restraint upon her liberty, and making very light
of the Latin verse with which Friar Middleton endea-
voured to soothe her, the Felon Sow, bursting her bonds,
escaped to her haunts on the banks of the Greta. The
desperate friar and his two men were forced to make
good their way home to the lean larder at Richmond
Priory. At length, hunger pinching the holy friars sore,
they determined upon one more attack upon the Felon
Sow. Two marvellously strong men, of whom Gilbert
was the name of one, undertook the capture of the sow.
The pitched battle that took place is thus set forth in
the ballad —

" . . . Gilbert grieved was so sare

That he raved off both hide and hair.

The flesh came from the bone.
And with force he felled her there,
And won her worthily in war,
And held her, him alone.

" And cast her on a horse so hee,
In two panniers well made of tree,

And to Richmond anon
He brought her. When they saw her come
They sang merrily Te Deum

The friars, every one.*

CHAPTER XIV

CUSTOMS AND OCCASIONS

The Gibbet Law of Halifax— Riding the Stang— Custom of the
Penny Hedge at Whitby— The Wakeman's Horn at Ripon— The
Curfew Bell at Richmond — Horn-blowing at Bainbridge — Old
Methods of Paying Rent— Stamford Bridge Pie— The Great
Padding of Burley — Festival of Bishop Blaize — The Barnaby Fair
at Boroughbridge— The Bird Fair at Kirkham Priory— The Nether-
dale Rant — The Village Feasts — Statute-hiring Fairs — Bull-fighting
and Cock-fighting — Well-worship — Wedding and Funeral Customs
— Country Customs — The Old-fashioned Christmas.

THE most notable custom that ever had existence in
Yorkshire was undoubtedly that by which those
naughtily disposed persons who offended against the
cloth-laws of Halifax paid for their villainy with their
lives. It may rightly be called a custom, for it was
purely local, and nothing like it obtained anywhere else
in England. No law could be more drastic, and no
procedure more rapid than that instituted at Halifax ;
the criminal was speedily tried after arrest and pretty
speedily executed, having regard to the necessity of
allowing him to prepare himself for death, and one hears
nothing of clemency or mercy on the part of the judges.
These judges formed a court of summary jurisdiction of
the most stringent kind, and it may justly be said of
them that they never shrank from their duty. The
court came into existence after this fashion. During
the fourteenth century, Halifax, already famous for its

295

296 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

manufacture of cloth, formed the centre of a somewhat
thickly populated district called the Forest of Hardwick,
wherein there were seventeen other townships, all engaged
in the same trade. The manufacturers of these towns
suffered so severely from the depredation of thieves that
they obtained power to hold a court at Halifax for the
summary trial and punishment on conviction of all
offenders. It consisted of the bailiff of Halifax, four
jurymen of Halifax, and four other jurymen from town-
ships within the forest Its one law was simple enough —
any person found guilty of stealing cloth to the value of
thirteen pence halfpenny, should, after three market or
meeting days had elapsed since the day of trial, be
carried to the gibbet, and there suffer decapitation.
After a time this law was taken by local custom to
include all manner of petty thefts, and from about 1347
until April, 1650, the gibbet was frequently used.

The matter-of-fact fashion in which this drastic law
was carried out is well illustrated by the following
account of it, taken from an old book written soon after
the gibbet ceased to be used, but while it was still stand-
ing in Halifax : —

<c Immediately after the Apprehension/' says the writer,
" the Felon is brought to the Lord's Bailiff in Halifax, who by
Virtue of the Authority granted unto him by the Lord of the
Manor of Wakefield, under the particular Seal appertaining to
that Manor, keeps a common Jail in the said Town, and therein
detains the Prisoner till his TryaL In order whereunto the
Bailiff at the Complaint of the Prosecutor issues out his Sum-
mons to the Constables of Four several Towns, within the said
Precincts, to require four Freeholders of each Town, as members
of the said Forest, to appear before him at a certain Day, that
then and there they may make a Jury to examine such matters
of fact, as shall be alledgM and brought before them. At the
time of their Appearance, both the Felon and Prosecutors are

CUSTOMS AND OCCASIONS 297

plac'd before them Face to Face ; and if the thing stol'n be
Beast or Horse, or anything of that kind, 'tis produc'd to view ;
but if it be a thing Portable, it is laid before them in the Room
where they are assembled ; And if upon examination they find,
that the Felon is not only guilty of stealing the Goods then laid
or being within their view, but that the said Goods are of the
Value of thirteen Pence half-peny, or more, then is the Felon
adjudged by the said Jury to be beheaded, according to ancient
Custom. . . . After the Felon had been found guilty and
declared so by the Jury, he was not put to Death instantly, but
confin'd in Prison for about a week; not only that he may
have Time to prepare for his latter End, but also to expose
him openly to the World; For there being one general Market
Day in the Week, and two other Days of more than Common
Stirrings, the Felon was at every one of these days set in the
public Stocks, with the Goods he had stol'n on his Back, if
he could carry them, but if not they were placed before his
Eyes, that all Passengers might see them. And this was done
in Terror to others, that they might take warning by his wicked
Deeds, never to commit die like. After he had thus been
handled for about a Week, he was brought by the Lord's iBailiff
to the Place of Execution, the Scaffold now standing at this
Day. There was a peculiar Engine formed for the Purpose,
the Figure whereof may be seen in Bishop Gibson's Camden's
Britannia. In this Engine the Ax (which is yet to be seen
at the Bailiff's House) was drawn up by a Pulley, and fastened
with a Pin to the Side of the Scaffold. If it were an Horse or
Ox, or any other Creature that was stol'n, it was brought along
to the Gibbet, and fastened to the Cord by a Pin that stayed the
Block so that when the 'Time of Execution came ... the
Bailiff or his Servant, whipping the Beast, the Pin was pluck'd*
out, and Execution done ; but if it was not done by a Beast,
the Bailiff or his Servant cuts the Rope."

How many offenders suffered capital punishment
under the Gibbet Law of Halifax it is impossible to say
with any certainty, for there was no record preserved

298 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

previous to the year 1 538. In that year a register began
to be kept in the books of the parish church, and it
would appear from it that there were twenty-five execu-
tions during the reign of Elizabeth, and a similar number
between the advent of James I. and the disuse of the
gibbet in 165a The last culprits who died in this fashion
were Anthony Mitchell and John Wilkinson, for stealing
two young horses and nine yards of doth. Public feel-
ing was aroused by this final execution, and the bailiff
was warned that any further exercise of the ancient
prerogative would lead to a rising amongst the townsfolk.
In certain matters the Yorkshire folk of the old days
were quick to take the law into their own hands. The
shrews and the scolds were ducked in the village pond ;
the husband who beat his wife unmercifully was visited
with the punishment known as Riding the Stang, or
Skimmington. This peculiar form of showing local dis-
approval of marital cruelty was made the occasion of
rowdy scenes, which not seldom resulted in violence and
even bloodshed. The method of the punishment, how-
ever, was more designed to hurt the feelings than the
body of the culprit Supposing John Smith to have
beaten his wife in a brutal fashion, the community, man
woman, and child, turned out into the village street with
all the musical instruments, tin cans, whistles, old kettles,
ancient frying-pans, and similar matters that they could
lay hands upon, and formed a disorderly procession to
John Smith's house. In their midst was carried an
effigy of John Smith himself, fashioned out of an old
suit of clothes, stuffed with straw, and ornamented
according to the fancy of the makers. It was usually
fastened upon a ladder, or a long pole, but there were
variations of this; at Grassington, in Wharfedale, for
instance, the effigy was carried in a cart instead of on
pole or ladder. Making as much noise as possible, the

CUSTOMS AND OCCASIONS 299

procession passed through the village to John Smith's
house, and drew up before it Then the leader spoke
the Nominy — a set of doggerel rhymes setting forth the
crime of the sinner against whom this rude act of justice
was directed. It varied slightly in different parts of the
county ; the following version of it, in the Holderness
dialect, was actually spoken at a stang-riding at Hedon
on three successive days of February, 1 889 : —

" Here we cum, wiv a ran a dan dan ;
If s neeather fo' mah cause nor tha cause that Ah ride this stang,
But it is fo' Jack Nelson, that Roman-noaased man.
Cum all you good people that live i' this raw,
Ah'd he 1 ya tak wahnin, ftf this is oor law ;
If onny o J you husbans your gud wives do bang,
Let em cum ta uz, an' well ride em the stang.
He beat her, he bang'd her, he bang'd her indeed ;
He bang'd her afoar she iwer stood need.
He bang'd her wi' neeather stick, steean, iron, nor stower,
Bud he up wiv a three-legged stool, and knockt her backwards
ower.

Up stairs aback o' bed,

Sike a racket there they led,

Doon stairs, aback o' deer,

He buncht her whahl he meead her seear.

" Noo, if this good man dizzant mend his manners,
The skin of his hide sal gan ti the tanner's ;
An if the tanner dizzant tan it well,
He sal ride upon a gate spell ;
An if the spell sud happen ti crack,
He sal ride upon the devil's back ;
An if thi devil sud happen ti run,
We'll shut him wiv a wahld-goose gun ;
An if the gun sud happen ti miss fire,
Anil bid ya good neet, for Ah's ommost tired."

This spoken, the entire assemblage broke out into
discordant yells, groans, hisses, and beating of drums,
kettles, and frying-pans, after which the procession
re-formed, and made its way to the village green, where

300 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

the effigy was solemnly burned in a great bonfire.
Sometimes the windows of the victim's house were
broken ; not infrequently the victim himself made such
retaliation as he could, and cases have been known of
the carrying out of retaliatory measures to a violent
extent The stang-riding usually took place on three
successive occasions ; it may well be conceived, then,
that by the third night the victim was goaded to fury
and anxious for reprisal. And thus it was that the mob
sometimes found itself fired upon from the upper windows
of house or cottage, and some of its members more or
less severely wounded.

A survival of a locally made law exists at Whitby,
and has become an annual custom which is joined by
large assemblages of townsfolk and visitors. It is
known as the Penny Hedge or Horngarth, and consists
of the driving of so many stakes into the east bank of
the Esk, on the Vigil of the Ascension, the stakes to be
of sufficient strength and fixed with sufficient firmness
into the strand to withstand the force of three tides.
The custom originated in this fashion : — There lived in
a hermitage near Sleight, just outside Whitby, a monk
of great reputation for sanctity, who was surprised in
his cell one day by a wild boar that had rushed in there
for safety from its pursuers, three members of the
families of Bruce, Percy, and Allotson. They, hot with
the chase, demanded the boar of the old man, who, full
of pity for the hunted animal, refused to yield it, where-
upon they attacked him, and so injured him that he died
almost immediately. But before he died he forgave his
murderers on condition that every year on the Eve of
the Ascension they should assemble at sunrise on the
bank of the Esk at an appointed place, and should there
cut so many stakes with a knife bought for one penny
and plant them at the brim of the water, which ceremony

CUSTOMS AND OCCASIONS 301

done, the officer of Eskdaleside should blow three times
upon his horn, " Out upon you ! " in shame of them for
their crime. In the Abbey Register there is a descrip-
tion of a mediaeval performance of this custom —

" Thos. Cockrill, being Bayliff to the Abbot, did meete by
sonn-rise the Rymeres, the Strangewayes, the Eldringtenes,
and Allotsons (who were bound to this service) in the Strye
Head End by Lyttel Beck. And the said Cock'll did see
every one cutt down with a knyfe (he appoynting the wood) so
much as should serve. From thence they came, not the
nearest way; but, bringing them upon their backs, went a good
way before they came into the way. So comminge to the
water at the towne end, they maid the hedg, which should
stand three tydes; and then the officer did blow, Owte upon
they?

There are not many horns blown in Yorkshire now-
adays, but two of them will probably continue to be
blown as long as the county exists. Folk who chance
to linger overnight in Ripon will have their pulses
stirred at nine o'clock of the evening by a series of
lusty blasts from a trumpet which sets the old city
ringing with echoes. This is the ceremony of the
Wakeman's Horn, which has been in existence for
several centuries. Until the reign of James I. the head
burgess of Ripon was called the Wakeman, and the
Town Hall still bears across its front the legend :
" Except ye lorde keepeth ye city ye Wakeman waketh
in vain." One of his principal duties was to set a watch
every night by blowing a horn, and for its discharge he
was recompensed by an annual payment of 4*/. from
the holders of all houses having two doors, and 2d. from
tenants who had only one. The custom has never fallen
into disuse, and some say that it has existed for a
thousand years. It is now discharged by an official

80S A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

horn-blower, who discharges three blasts before the
mayor's house and three at the market cross.

At Bainbridge, in Wensleydale, a horn-blowing
custom is in existence which dates from the time when
the Forest Laws were in force. The horn is blown at
ten o'clock every night from the Feast of Holy Rood to
Shrovetide. One of the horn-blowers of Bainbridge,
James Metcalfe, who died in 1864, being then nearly
ninety years of age, had been in office since 1795, and
the cow's horn which he used was said to be several
hundreds of years old. There was another horn in the
village which dated from 161 1. The horn now in use is
an African buffalo's, and its induction to the service
was marked some years ago by a grand procession
wherein figured twelve white horses and two donkeys,
all magnificently accoutred, together with the horn-
blower, arrayed in equally grand fashion.

At Ripon, as at Richmond, the curfew bell is rung
every night — at Ripon, from the minster ; at Richmond,
from the tower of the quaint church in the market
The hour is nine at Ripon and eight at Richmond, and
local tradition at the last-named has it that there has
never been any break in the custom since the days of
its ordinance by William the Conqueror.

There were at one time some curious local customs
extant in Yorkshire in the matter of paying rent, con-
cluding bargains, and discharging obligations. Here and
there in some of the old churches (there is an excellent
example at Hemingborough), is found what appears at
first sight to be a monument, ornamented by an effigy
of a corpse in its winding sheet, but is in reality intended
to serve as a meeting-place for folk who wished to enter
into solemn agreement Over the reminder that death
must come to all, upon a shelf or slab placed there for
the purpose, rent was paid, bargains concluded, and

CUSTOMS AND OCCASIONS 803

negotiations carried out to a conclusion. In some cases
particular graves or monuments acquired a reputation
of their own for these purposes — the Harvey Tomb in
York Minster, for instance, was largely used in this way
by the citizens of York and the country folk who came
into the city, as was also the tomb of St Alkelda at
Middleham. Of strange methods of paying rent there
are some curious examples in the neighbourhood of
Penistone which were lately in existence — a tenant at
Langsett holds his farm on payment of a snowball
at midsummer and a red rose at Christmas ; another, at
Carlton, by presenting his landlord with a right-hand
glove one year and a left the next

A strange reminiscence of the famous battle of
Stamford Bridge still exists at the village of that name.
According to the local legends the fiercest passage of
the fight was when the rival armies contended for
possession of the bridge over the Derwent, and during
its progress a Norseman, of gigantic stature and strength,
posted himself on the bridge and kept the English at
bay, slaying them in such numbers that he soon had
a ring of corpses at his feet At last an English soldier,
embarking upon the Derwent in a washing-tub, made
his way underneath the bridge and stabbed the Norman
through the open timbers. In order to commemorate
this great feat of arms the folk of Stamford Bridge
make a huge pie every year, shaping it after the fashion
of the Englishman's improvised craft, and share it
between themselves amidst much music and merry-
making.

There used to be a feasting of somewhat similar
nature at Burley in Wharfedale, but the piice de resist-
ance there was a pudding instead of a pie. The Burley
gathering took place every seven years, and was known
as the Feast of the Great Pudding. It was attended

304 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

by vast crowds from all parts of the neighbourhood,
and seems to have been distinguished for material
pleasures and grossness almost as much as the Strat-
ford-on-Avon Mop. About thirty stones of flour and
as many of fruit were used in making the Great
Pudding, which naturally took some time to boiL
When it was boiled it was distributed in portions
to the waiting crowds; but according to the local
chroniclers it was very seldom properly cooked, and the
scene of its distribution, under the great elm tree in
the village street, was marked by rough passages
between the recipients, who used to bedaub each other
with the paste.

A hundred years ago Bradford folk used to cele-
brate the Feast of Bishop Blaize, patron saint of the
wool-combers, by holding grand processions which ter-
minated in feasting and merrymaking. They held one
in 1811, another in 18 18, and a third in 1825. The
last named was of great magnificence, probably because
the staple trade of the town was just then receiving
considerable impetus. The procession was headed by
twenty-four wool-staplers mounted on horses covered
with a fleece. Behind him followed eight and thirty
worsted-spinners, attired in white stuff waistcoats and
white stuff sashes, mounted on steeds caparisoned
in nets of thick yarn. After them rode fifty-six
masters 9 sons and apprentices, wearing ornamented
caps, coloured coats, waistcoats, and pantaloons. Then
came an effigy of Bishop Blaize, accompanied by a
retinue of chaplains, guards, and shepherds, and attended
by a hundred and sixty wool-sorters in gay attire. To
these succeeded thirty comb-makers, a number of
charcoal-burners, a body, five hundred strong, of wool-
combers, wearing wool wigs, and a closing guard of
dyers in blue aprons crossed by wool slivers of red

CUSTOMS AND OCCASIONS 305

and blue. This picturesque assemblage patrolled the
streets for several hours.

One of the favourite events in the Yorkshire life
of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was the
Barnaby Fair at Boroughbridge, which was held on
the Feast of St Barnabas, in June, and attracted large
crowds of people from all parts of the county, and
from places beyond its borders. Horses, cattle, and
sheep were brought to the little coaching-town on the
Ure in those days in thousands, and in addition to
the livestock, larger quantities of agricultural imple-
ments and hardware were offered for sale. Housewives
used to replenish their stock of pots, pans, pewter, and
tin at this sale, and husbands were expected to carry
home a large supply of such small matters as pins and
needles. Although the fair was nominally set down
for two days — June 22 and 23 — it often lasted three
weeks, during which time everybody made holiday.
Small vessels, known as " Barnaby boats,' 9 used to come
up the Ure from Hull and Selby and York, bringing
merchandise for sale at the fair, and gipsies, tinkers,
hawkers, pedlars, and the like, used to encamp around
the town. While the fair was in progress, advantage
was taken by the Boroughbridge folk of an ancient
charter, which accorded licence to any householder of
the town to sell ale and beer without formal magisterial
permission for a period of forty-eight hours. Those
who took advantage of the ancient privilege were
required to hang a bush of green stuff in front of
their houses, and these irregular taverns were accord-
ingly known as "bush-houses." Some of the staples
wherein the bushes were fixed are still to be seen in
Boroughbridge.

A fair of a curious sort, which used to attract large
numbers of people, was held at one time on the bridge
x

806 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

near Kirkham Priory. There, and at the cross near
the gatehouse of the priory, there used to assemble, at
two o'clock in the morning of the Monday succeeding
Trinity Sunday, the bird-fanciers of the countryside,
bringing larks, thrushes, and all manner of singing-
birds for disposal and for exhibition. Bargaining and
chaffering and exchanging went on until the sun rose,
when the fair was held to be over for business purposes,
and the proceedings became of a convivial nature.

Conviviality was the distinguishing feature of the
great annual feast known as the Netherdale Rant. It
was supposed to be held at Pateley Bridge, and to last
for a few days ; but after making a beginning at the
capital of Nidderdale, it became a movable feast,
and travelled up the valley, until the country-folk were
literally weary of eating, drinking, and merrymaking.
Some survival of the Netherdale Rant still exists, but
it lacks the boisterousness and the somewhat gross
pleasures of the old days, when bull-baiting, cock-
fighting, and a good deal of horseplay were the favourite
methods of amusement

The village feast still exists all over Yorkshire — in
some districts in quite an unimpaired state. It is
celebrated on the day of the patron saint of the village
church, and is regarded by old and young as one of
the two great occasions of the year, Christmas Day
being the other. At "f feast" friends and relations
come to visit the villagers ; open house is kept by
everybody; much food and drink are consumed; all
and sundry are welcome. Sweet-stalls, merxy-go-rounds,
shooting-galleries, Aunt Sallies, and various similar
matters, attract the children and the young folk ; sports
take place in the afternoon, and dancing in the even-
ing ; and the old people look on contentedly while the
young ones enjoy themselves. Many a man who has

# » I- •

CUSTOMS AND OCCASIONS 307

gone far away from his native village will return to it
years afterwards, just to join in the annual festivities
once more, and there is never such a chance of meeting
the past and present of a place as is presented at the
feast.

To the labouring rustic of youthful years nothing
is more attractive than the statute-hiring fairs, which
take place at the chief agricultural centres at various
times of the year, but chiefly about Martinmas. These
fairs are rapidly losing a great deal of the picturesque-
ness which they had in the days when men and boys
stood about in the streets or market-places bearing
something to indicate their particular proficiencies — the
shepherd his crook, the thresher his flail, the waggoner
his whip. Nowadays the servant-maids, dairymaids, and
kitchen-wenches are usually assembled in some hall,
the unco 9 guid having decided that it was not fitting
that they should stand in the streets until some em-
ployer of labour accosted them. Thus the fairs are
robbed of one of their most picturesque features — the
presence of labourers, male and female, literally waiting
in the market-place until some man shall hire them.
Truth to tell, the ploughboy and the maidservant alike
regard the statute-hiring fair as a day of amusement,
and they will do their best to attend several before
they finally take a new situation. The side-shows,
menageries, exhibitions of petrified men, sword-swal-
lowers, and fat women attract them greatly. The boys,
too, are invariably attracted by the ballad-monger,
from whom they buy new songs, which they will subse-
quently sing as they follow their horses across the land.
They learn the tune by giving the itinerant vendor a
penny to sing it over to them. At these statute-hiring
fairs it is the custom for the hirer to give, and the
hired to receive, a coin known as the u fastening penny."

308 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

It may be a sovereign or it may be half a crown —
whatever it is, it concludes the bargain between master
and man, mistress and maid.

There is one characteristic of the modern feasts and
fairs for which one has good reason to be thankful — they
are not marked by exhibition of cruelty to animals. In
the old days no village feast passed by without some
such exhibition, either of bull-baiting, badger-baiting,
cock-fighting, or dog-fighting. Here and there in the
villages one finds the staples to which a bull was
fastened — sometimes in the open space before the village
inn, sometimes near the stocks and the pound, sometimes
close to the church. In some of the towns, landmarks
show where bull-baiting was carried on. There is a
Bull Green at Halifax ; at the Bull Ring in Wakefield
the cruel old sport was carried on until comparatively
recent times. Nowadays a love of healthier forms of
sport animates townsfolk and village folk alike, but
there is little to be said in favour of those misguided
persons — chiefly recruited from the colliers and the
working men of the town — who indulge in rabbit-cours-
ing, a form of amusement infinitely lower than the
baiting of bulls or the drawing of badgers.

Like many other things that have changed in rural
life in Yorkshire the village wedding has undergone a
strange transformation. Nowadays everybody is in a
position to buy and to wear fashionable clothes, and
young Hodge, when he leads Mary or Susan to the
altar of the parish church, is not appreciably removed
from the grandeur of the townsman whose clothes
have been made by a fashionable tailor — he wears, at
any rate, a good black coat and new trousers, and can
sport a hat and gloves without awkwardness. In the
old days one frequently saw a man married in a top-hat
and a frock-coat which had graced the nuptials of his

CUSTOMS AND OCCASIONS 809

father and grandfather. This made the rustic wedding
picturesque and amusing ; nowadays it is pretty much
like other weddings. But many of the old customs
remain, such as a laudable desire on the part of the
bridegroom to get the first foot out of church, concerning
which a strong superstition still exists. Also, the old
custom of scrambling money is still in force, and will die
a hard death.

There were always many more interesting ceremonies
connected with funerals than with weddings in Yorkshire.
For some curious reason the home-bred Yorkshireman
regards the funeral of friend, acquaintance, or relative as
a sort of joyful occasion, an occasion whereon one
should eat, drink, and be solemnly merry. The eating
and drinking, at any rate, are very much to the fore,
and seem to have been so from a period long lost in
the mist of ages. It is quite a common thing to hear
Yorkshire folk discuss the celebration of a funeral, and
to pass criticism and judgment according to the repasts
and collations provided by the friends of the dead. " I
doant call that much of a do/' a critic will observe.
" They buried him wF cowd ham. Now, I've putten away
three childer, and they wor all buried wf roast beef and
plum puddin'." At the death of a well-to-do farmer
there was hospitality exercised which would have
satisfied Sancho Fanza himself. The better class were
regaled in the parlour with wines, spirits, and cakes ;
the smaller folk were offered ale or spirits in the front
kitchen ; the labourers had ale and bread and cheese in
the back kitchen. There was always a heavy funeral
dinner of roast and boiled at which the family and
certain privileged and invited guests sat down, and
potations of no limited quantity often succeeded the
reading of the will. Here and there hospitality was
carried to a foolishly extravagant degree, and a lax

310 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

generosity was exercised in providing gloves, hatbands,
and mourning scarves for those who followed the corpse
to its last resting-place.

In an account book kept daring the eighteenth
century by the Dawson family, of Wrose Hill, near
Bradford, there is an amusing entry of the various sums
disbursed at the obsequies of one of its members : —

" The accounts of Martin Dawson fiuneral, who departed
this life April 23, 1748 1 — Payd for winding, &s. 6d. ; da for
spices, 12s. $d. ; do. for mutton, 5** &?. ; do. more, 4*. ; da a
pigg, as. 6d>; do. pidgeons, is. 6d. ; do. mutton, 5*. ; a ham of
bacon, gs. &d. ; 7 henns, 4*. 4^/. ; butter, 10 lbs., 5*. ; io| galls,
of ale, 1 or. 6d; sallett, 6d.; pipes and tobacco, &£; saman,
5 pounds, $s. qL ; turbut, 7 pounds, $s. qd. ; oranges, barm,
and bread, is. lod. ; for veal to John Hodgson, gs. ; paid for
5 dozen plates, is. 5^.; for the cook, 3;.; for his coffin,
1 or. 6d. ; vicar dues for burial; total £$ A 5 * 7<*"

In the neighbourhood of Keighley, and especially in
the Worth Valley, long before the days of the Brontes,
the people used to hold funeral feasts locally known as
Arvills, which almost invariably terminated in wild
scenes of riot and sometimes of bloodshed. But these
have long since fallen into disuse, as have also the
customs which obtained in the same neighbourhood
with respect to the marriage ridings to the parish church
at Bradford.

There was a curious funeral custom in use in the
upper stretches of Wharfedale in the old days, which
may or may not have been peculiar to that isolated
corner of the country. On the day of the funeral, all the
mourners and attendants being in readiness, the coffin
was brought to the door of the house and placed on
chairs or trestles there prepared for it The chief person
of the party then announced a hymn and recited die

CUSTOMS AND OCCASIONS Sll

first verse, which was sung to a very slow tune. At the
end of the verse the coffin was raised and carried in
procession towards the church, stoppages being made at
intervals for the singing of other verses of the hymn,
which was concluded at the entrance to the churchyard.
Hereabouts, it was the custom for all who met a funeral
procession to pause and uncover the head — a tribute of
respect to the dead not often seen in England.

There are to this day several wells in Yorkshire
which are supposed to possess certain virtues, whether
from supernatural reasons, mineral properties, or through
the virtue of some saint, it is not always easy to make
out In the old days these wells used to be decked out
or "dressed," pretty much as the roadside wells in
Ireland often are. Above them was placed the image of
the saint whose name they bore ; around them, attached
to twigs or branches of trees, were bunches of flowers
and bit of gay-coloured cloth or linen. There is an
interesting allusion to a well of this sort in the Sessions
Rolls of the West Riding, 1597-98 :—

" Fforasmuch as it is manifestly proved to this Court (a W. R .
court setting at Wetherby) that Ffrancis Thompson and George
Allen of Hunsingore did in a most contemptuous manner bring
into Hunsingore Church a Toie called the Flower of the Well
in the tyme of divine service wherebie the Vicar was disturbed
in saieing the said service. It is therefore ordered that the
said Francis and George shall be presently stripped naked from
the middle upwards and whipped throwe this town of Wetherby
for their said offence."

The " Toie " here referred to was probably the image
of the saint which had ornamented some well of the
neighbourhood. Nowadays the sacred wells are chiefly
resorted to by people who wish to be cured of some
disease— there is one just outside Pontefract, for example,

312 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

called St Ive's Well, the waters of which are in great
repute amongst those unfortunate folk who suffer from
sore eyes.

In some parts of the county the people used to
dress clocks as well as wells. The clock-dressings of
Upper Wharfedale were famous occasions whereon
parties of friends' used to meet together and hold great
merrymakings, and one cannot help suspecting that,
whatever the origin of the custom may have been, the
dressing of the clock was eventually a mere pretext for
a feast of jollity and social delights.

Many of the old country customs have fallen into
complete disuse, others only survive here and there.
The harvest-home supper was once a great event in
the rural year, nowadays it is seldom heard of. In
Holderness, when the last load was safe in the "stagga'ih"
(stackyard), it was the custom to throw apples and nuts
amongst the children, and the foreman labourer recited
a " nominy " beginning —

" Here we are, as tite as nip,
We niver flang ower bad yance iv a grip,
An then oor Jack gav her the slip.
Hip! Hip! Hooray!"

Children playing about the stackyard while the
thatcher was at work used to salute him with a rhyme
which is doubtless many a century old —

" Theaker, theaker, theake a span !
Come off yer lather an' hang yer man."

If the theaker was in a mood to reply, he would
answer this rhyme with another —

" When my maister has thatched all his streeah,
He will then cum doon an' hing him that says seeah."

It is around Christmas that the old customs linger
most fondly, though no one who knows country life

CUSTOMS AND OCCASIONS 318

intimately dare contend that Christmas is what it was
in the good old days. The railways, the electric tele-
graph, the penny post, have changed much in modern
life — everybody lives next door to everybody else
nowadays, and the joyous reunions, which were a dis-
tinguishing feature of Christmas in the times of stage-
coach and post-chaise, are now a thing of the past. Yet
there are villages where many of the old customs and
observances are still kept up. On the feast of St.
Thomas (December 21) the women of the parish go
a-Thomasing, collecting contributions in money or
kind, which are afterwards shared between them ; on
Christmas morning the boys, and on New Year's
morning the girls, go round for Christmas "boxes;"
old-fashioned plays, like the Tup's Head, the Horsis
Head, St. George of Merry England, are rehearsed in
hall and kitchen ; the waits usher in Christmas with
the old carols, and the mummers make fun in the
evenings. The mistletoe-bough has not yet been
entirely superseded by the un-English Christmas tree ;
children still go from door to door with a rude repre-
sentation of the Crib of Bethlehem; roast beef and
plum-pudding still form the staple dishes of the
Christmas dinner. There are children, too, in the
old-fashioned villages who are lucky enough never to
have heard of Santa Claus, but who have a profound
belief in Father Christmas, and hang their stockings
by the chimney for him to fill with gifts.

The "Dominies" used by the boys in going from
house to house Christmas-boxing vary somewhat in
different parts of the county. In the Holderness
district the lines are —

"Ah wish ye a Merry Chris'mas and a Happy New Year,
A pocket full o* munny an* a cellar full of o' beer ;

314 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Two fat pigs, an' a new-coved coo ;

Good maisther and misthress hoo di ya do ?

Please will ya gi ma a Chris'mas box ? "

Further west, in the Osgoldcross district, the nominy
is thus varied —

" I wish yon a Merry Chris'mas, a Happy New Year,
A pocket full of money an 9 a barril full of beer,
An' a good fat pig to kill every year.
Please will you 'stow us a Chris'mas box ?•

But however the rhymes may vary, the boy who
recites them must be letter perfect, or he will be told
that he does not know his nominy, and sent off empty-
handed to learn it The first boy who presents himself
at the door gets largesse of more substantial amount
than those who succeed him. He it is who "lets
Christmas in/' and must shout the nominy at the top
of his voice in hall and kitchen. It will be a sad
day when these old country customs circling round
Christmas are suffered to fall away into disuse, for
they form the strongest link which exists between old
times and new.

CHAPTER XV

ECCENTRICITIES AND CELEBRITIES

The Yorkshire Tendency to Eccentricity and Forcefulness —
Walter Calverley and the Peine Forte it Dure— Guy Fawkes and
Gunpowder Plot — Eugene Aram's Career—- Mother Shipton — John
Wroe the Prophet— Parson Carter of Lastingham — Benjamin
Smith, the Dancing Parson — Reverend Mr. Adcock of Burnsall —
Squire Osbaldeston — Peg Pennyworth — James Hirst and his
Adventures — Peter Barker, the Blind Carpenter— The Hermit
of Rombald's Moor — Old Mealy-face — Henry Jenkins, England's
Oldest Man — Robert Flower of Knaresborough — Airey, the
Grassington Play-Actor.

IT is by this time fairly well known to the world
that there is something in the Yorkshire character
which is decidedly " queer," and nobody knows it better
than the Yorkshireman himself. The " queerness " may
be thus illustrated : supposing a party of six men set
out on a definite journey through an unknown country,
certain of the point at which they aimed, but uncertain
of the best means of reaching it, and that in order to
get a clear notion of the most convenient route they
held a conference and debated the matter, and, so far
as five of them were concerned, came to an agreement,
it would certainly be found that the sixth was a
Yorkshireman, and that rather than do as the others
did, he would get to wherever they were going by his
own way — alone, if need were ; if not alone, then only as
leader of his companions. There are few Yorkshiremen

3i5

816 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

who do not believe in their inmost hearts that they
know at any rate a little more than their neighbours,
and fewer still who allow anything whatever to divert
them from their own favourite paths of thought or
action. Outsiders may call them pig-headed, thick-
headed, even mad; but one might as well seek to
control the wind as to alter a Yorkshireman's determina-
tion, or turn him from his way. He does not even
care if all the world believes him to be making a fool
of himself, for he is secretly conscious that there is
much method in his madness.

In the little gathering of eccentric characters and
famous celebrities of whom some mention is now to be
made, a discerning eye can quickly see this characteristic
of the true-born Yorkshireman. It used to be said that
Jimmy Hirst of Rawcliffe was an addle-headed old
fool, but Jimmy was clever enough in the getting of
money, and in taking care of it ; and if he rode a bull
and trained pigs to act the parts of pointers, it was at
least an innocent and highly diverting amusement.
Other eccentrics, like Job Senior, Old Mealy-face, Peg
Pennyworth, and Play-actor Airey, had much common
sense in their minds ; and one discovers many Yorkshire
qualities in Mother Shipton and Prophet Wroe, in a
saint like Robert Flower, an old-fashioned countryman
like Squire Osbaldeston, and a country parson like
Carter of Lastingham. Even those ever -popular
criminals, Guy Fawkes, Eugene Aram, and Walter
Calverley, make the Yorkshire "queerness" evident
One might have guessed from Calverle/s manner of
meeting his fate, from Aram's speech at York Castle,
and from the great conspirator's taciturn treatment of
his captors, that they were all Yorkshireman, and full
of the Yorkshire spirit of having, or endeavouring to
have, everything their own way.

ECCENTRICITIES AND CELEBRITIES 317

Amongst the various tragic happenings in Yorkshire

history during the past few hundred years, few, with the

exception, perhaps, of Eugene Aram, have excited such

a thrilling interest as the case of Walter Calverley. He

was the representative of an old Yorkshire family that

had been settled at Calverley Hall, near Leeds, and had

commanded attention and respect for several centuries.

He had evidently been well instructed in the genteel art

of making ducks and drakes of his father's money, for

having married a woman of standing in the county,

he became deceived by the glitter of the gold of his

guardian's niece, which probably cast a dazzling radiance

round the girl herself, and was brought to so desperate

a pitch that, in the hope of getting rid of his wife, he

began to ill-use her. Matters grew worse, and it is

likely that Calverley was somewhat deep in debt ; but

in spite of her husband's cruelty, Mrs. Calverley persisted

in treating him with meekness and submission. At

length he made an attempt upon her life, and, in his

madness, put one of his own children to death. Upon

which charge Calverley being arrested, he was carried

to York Castle, but, contrary to custom, refused to

open his lips in his defence, thus drawing down upon

himself the penalty of the peine forte et dure. The

motive for his silence, however, is uncertain. Whether

he did it that his property might stay with his heirs

(for under the existing law the estates of a convicted

criminal passed out of the hands of his sons), or whether

his refusal to defend himself seemed to Calverley the

last atonement in his power, is yet unknown. But

justice ordained that he should be pressed to death

in York Castle, which sentence, in the year 1604, was

carried out

The tragic interest attaching to the name of Walter
Calverley is heightened by the fact that he subsequently

S18 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

became the figure round which the famous play of the
Yorkshire Tragedy was skilfully woven. The family
is further worthy of remembrance as the stock from
which the prototype of Sir Roger de Coverley sprang —
Sir Walter Calverley, the friend of Addison.

Indissolubly united to memories of Guy Fawkes b
the village of Scotton and the old hall there ; for,
although born in 1570 at York the son of Edward
Fawkes, an advocate of the Consistory Court at York,
on the death of his father, when Guy was still a child,
his mother married Dionis Bainbrigge, a gentleman of
Scotton, whither the Fawkes removed, and it was here
that the education of the conspirator was undertaken.
Mr. Robert Davies, F.R.S., town clerk of York, to whom
we most probably owe an interesting but anonymous
treatise on the family of Fawkes, goes far to prove that
before he went to the home of his step-father, Bain-
brigge, Guy Fawkes had been strongly influenced by
Protestantism, but that the family of his step-father, with
the Percys, Winters, and others of the district, being of
the Catholic faith, the religious tendency of the boy's
mind was now turned into the opposite channel It is
remarkable that, of the seven conspirators mixed up in
the. Gunpowder Plot, this particular quarter of Nidderdale
furnished six: Guy Fawkes, Thomas Winter, Robert
Winter, Christopher Wright, John Wright; and Thomas
Percy.

St Robert's Cave at Knaresborough is the scene of
one of the most remarkable crimes in the annals of
English law — the murder of Daniel Clarke by Richard
Houseman and Eugene Aram.

At Ramsgill, some eighteen miles from Knares-
borough, Eugene Aram came, in 1704, into the world
where he was destined to occupy so prominent and
unhappy a position. It is certain that the father of

ECCENTRICITIES AND CELEBRITIES S19

Aram followed the pursuit of a gardener, but whether
it was for Sir Edward Blackett at Newby Hall, or Sir
William Ingilby at Ripley that he worked, has not
been accurately ascertained. Nevertheless, it is evident
that he had ambitions for his son, and that he was not
slow to. detect the scholarly bent of Eugene's mind,
for he contrived to have him educated at Burnsall, in
Wharfedale, by Adcock, the parson of that place, who,
it would seem, was a person of eccentric habits ; but the
boy, if we are to credit his own assertions, claims to
have procured whatever schooling came his way by his
own efforts. It appears, however, that Eugene was at
one time compelled to work with his hands 'as well as
his head, for part of his younger days were spent in
labour in the garden where his father worked. One
does not doubt that, during this period, his heart was
not in the manual toil that he was forced to do, but
with the books he loved so dearly, for he used up all
the leisure he could secure in acquiring Hebrew, Latin,
Greek, Celtic, and various modern languages, and in
instructing himself in mathematics, heraldry, antiquities,
and the sciences. It is matter of sincere regret that
so much intellect and erudition should not have been
put to uses far more noble than the dastardly crime
which has been laid at Aram's doors ; and one is filled
with pity at the reflection that the reputation of a man
who devoted so much time and labour to the acquisi-
tion of wisdom, should be based on horror instead of
veneration.

His first employment was that of book-keeper to a
London merchant, after which he was tutor at Gowthwaite
Hall to William Craven, the scholar and philanthropist
Aram's wedding with Anne Spence of Lofthouse was
celebrated at Middlesmoor Church, and tradition affixes
that the first child of the marriage breathed its first and

320 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

last in this parish. But since in 1734 we find him
established at Knaresborough a master of a small
school in White Horse Yard; he cannot have remained
so very long at Middlesmoor, and various entries in the
parish books of Knaresborough indicate the birth of
other children to him, and make mention of some
deaths in the household, his name in these entries being
uniformly spelt Eujenius.

At this time Richard Houseman, a flax-dresser of
Knaresborough, occupied the next cottage to Eugene
Aram, in natural consequence of which the two men
were much thrown together. At this point; having
struck up a friendship with a third Knaresborough
man, Daniel Clarke, of uncertain and mysterious pur-
suits, the character of Eugene Aram, as set forth in
the chronicles, changed completely. It is said that
the three joined together in robbing unsuspecting folk
of valuables, and that they concealed their booty in
St Robert's Cave. In this cave, one winter's night in
1745, an altercation most probably occurred between
the three concerning the possession of certain articles
of price, and Aram and Houseman, acting in collusion
against Clarke, murdered him, according to popular
belief, and buried him in the cave. The disappearance
of Clarke aroused some comment, but it is likely that
his roaming character being known, the fact of his
sudden vanishing may not have been considered incom-
patible with his usual habits, and nothing was said to
Houseman or to Aram interrogating them as to his
whereabouts. Aram, however, deserted Knaresborough
shortly afterwards, and took up his abode in London,
where he followed his old profession of teaching!
but changed his place of habitation later, eventually
settling at Lynn. As to Houseman, he dressed flax
still, and became, it is said, more surly and uncertain

ECCENTRICITIES AND CELEBRITIES 321

of temper than he ever had been before. It is strange
to remark that his rooted objection to leaving his
own hearthside daily until after nightfall provoked no
comment in Knaresborough, nor quickened suspicion
concerning the disappearance of Daniel Clarke, his
accomplice.

At length, in 1758, they reaped their harvest of justice,
for, after the passage of several years, some rustics em-
ployed in a quarry close to St. Robert's Cave chanced,
whilst digging the ground, on the skeleton of a man.
Whom other, the Knaresborough people maintained,
should the skeleton be than all that remained of Daniel
Clarke, who disappeared out of their midst thirteen years
previous to the discovery ? It is said that on Richard
Houseman reflectively handling one of the bones, and
commenting that it was no more one of Daniel Clarke's
bones than his, he was at once accused of complicity
in the murder of Clarke, and though, by turning King's
evidence, he escaped with his life, it is believed that
his guilt was as great, if not greater, than Aram's.
Eugene Aram, in consequence, "set out from Lynn
with gyves upon his wrists," and at York, where the
trial took place, defended himself in a speech of great
learning and power, bearing much weight on the fact
of his previous student's life, and its incompatibility
with the serious charge brought against him. Never-
theless, sentence was passed upon him, and he was
executed at York in August, 1759. The same day the
body of Eugene Aram was brought to Knaresborough,
and the key of the stable door at the Angel inn was
turned upon it till the following morning, when it
was hung from the gibbet on the wayside of the
Plumpton road. Whereupon his faithful wife, the story
runs, taking up a position underneath the chains from
which her husband swung, gathered up the poor mortal

324 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

of strengthening it, for on his restoration to health he
declared himself visited by supernatural beings, and
announced that on him were laid strict injunctions to
deliver a new gospel In 1822 he devoted himself to
the Society of Johanna Southcote as their inspired
Elijah, finding by his impudent assurance a large fol-
lowing to credit his assertions. Upon these disciples
subscribing largely to his mission, he set out to preach
his gospel to the Jews, and was not content until he
had inundated England, Spain, France, Austria, Italy,
and elsewhere. At his return he was publicly bap-
tized, and subsequently publicly circumcised, after which
his impudence grew even more marked. In 1830,
although the existence of Mrs. Wroe was exceedingly
well known, the Prophet gave out to his disciples that
he had had a revelation that seven virgins should
be told off to him to minister to his comfort ; and
having easily procured the seven virgins, scoured the
country upon his mission with the foolish women. In
the "Yorkshire Oddities" of Mr. Baring Gould, one
meets with an interesting anecdote of Wroe. On one
occasion he gave out that a trance would fall on him for
twelve days, during the accomplishment of which feat
his followers flocked to his bedside from all over the
country, and dropped their entrance-fees into a capacious
basket at the foot of the Prophet's couch. At a certain
time of the day, however, Mrs. Wroe had orders to
close the doors against visitors ; and leaving the house
on one opportunity, she exposed the tranced Prophet
to the view of her neighbours, enjoying, in evident
possession of his full faculties, beef-steak, pickled
cabbage, and oat-cake in the ingle-nook.

In spite of this shameless exposition, the Prophet
Wroe prevailed upon his people to subscribe large
sums of money for the building of a mansion, which

ECCENTRICITIES AND CELEBRITIES 326

he declared the spirit had informed him must be
erected at once. Therefore a large piece of land was
procured for him at Wrenthorpe, and the Prophet's
palace rose. This house he bequeathed in his will to
the Society, but revoking this important document,
finally left it to James Wroe, his son. In 1840, 1848,
1853, and 1859, he visited America, and in 1850, 1854,
1859, I ^62, Australia. He died in Australia in this
last year of his preaching, which act of thoughtlessness
on his part was keenly resented by the Australians, for
he had given them his eminently trustworthy promise
that he would live for ever.

At Lastingham, some time ago, there lived a certain
cleric, surnamed Carter, who was severely called over
the coals by his archdeacon for supporting an extensive
family on the proceeds of a public-house. The customs
indulged in by the customers of Parson Carter were not
altogether sweet-smelling in the nostrils of his eccle-
siastical authorities, wherefore inquiry was made into
his business, which evoked the following rejoinder from
Mr. Carter : —

" I have a wife and thirteen children, and with a stipend
of ^20 per annum, increased only by a few trifling surplice
fees. I will not impose upon your understanding by attempting
to advance any argument to show the impossibility of us all
being supported from my church preferment But I am
fortunate enough to live in a neighbourhood where there are
many rivulets which abound with fish, and being particularly
partial to angling, I am frequently so successful as to catch
more than my family can consume while good, of which I
make presents to the neighbouring gentry, all of whom are so
generously grateful as to requite me with something else of
seldom less value than two or three-fold. This is not all.
My wife keeps a public-house, and as my parish is so wide
that some of my parishioners have to come from ten to fifteen

886 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

miles to church, you will readily allow that some refreshment
before they return must occasionally be necessary, and when
can they have it more properly than when their journey is
half performed? Now, sir, from your general knowledge of
the world, I make no doubt but you are well assured that
the most general topes in conversation at public-houses are
politics and religion, with which ninety-nine out of one hundred
of those who participate in the general clamour are totally
unacquainted ; and that perpetually ringing in the ears of a
pastor who has the welfare and happiness of his flock at heart,
must be no small mortification. To divert their attention from
these foibles over their cups, I take down my violin and play
them a few tunes, which gives me an opportunity of seeing
that they get no more liquor than is 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, and generally with
the donation of a sixpence, they shake hands with my children
and bid God bless them. Thus my parishioners enjoy a triple
advantage, being instructed, fed, and amused at the same
time. Moreover, this method of spending their Sunday is so
congenial with their inclinations, that they are imperceptibly
led along the paths of piety and morality, whereas, in all
probability, the most exalted discourses, followed with no
variety but heavenly contemplations, would pass like the
sounds of harmony over an ear incapable of discerning the
distinction of sounds."

John Adcock, the parson of Burnsall and the tutor
of Eugene Aram, lives still in the memories of the folk
of that district as a character of exceeding quaintness
and originality, and one who did not seem to concern
himself with the opinions of other people, nor to care
what effect his eccentricities produced upon respectable
convention. Officiating upon one occasion at a marriage
service, the party had just arrived at the injunction to
the woman to " love, honour, and obey " her husband,

ECCENTRICITIES AND CELEBRITIES 827

when the bride put her foot down, and observed that
she considered this provision somewhat harsh. Upon
which the Rev. John Adcock, concurring readily with
her objection, added that it was certainly inconvenient,
and they would therefore wink at it and proceed to the
next At another time, having ascended his pulpit and
pulled forth his sermon, he suddenly found out that
some person of a mischievous turn of mind had taken
the trouble to stitch all the leaves of the discourse
together, but instead of arranging them in the proper
sequence, had altered the order completely. Upon
which he announced the state of affairs to the assem-
blage, concluding with the remark that he would, never-
theless, deliver the discourse as it had been arranged
for him, and that his congregation would merely have
to call their best intelligence into play in order to make
head or tail of it Once more he was in^ difficulties
over his sermon, for he discovered he had left it behind
him before starting for church. However, his ready
ingenuity coming as usual to his aid, he gave out that
instead of his own manuscript he would read a portion
of Holy Scripture ten times as good.

In close proximity to the parish of the eccentric
parson of Burnsall, Benjamin Smith, the incumbent of
Linton, from 1742 to 1776, was even more unconven-
tional in his habits than John Adcock. In common
with Mr. Carter, of Lastingham, he had no religious
scruples against footing it with the rest, the distinctions
between them being that whereas Carter contented
himself with the encouragement of others in the merry
practice, Mr. Smith found his keenest pleasure in in-
dulging himself in the art It is even asserted that he
daily practised his steps before a large looking-glass,
and that, with his back to the cleric, a youth of the
village was carefully stationed, his bow and fiddle in

328 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

hand. .Smith had had this rustic instructed in per-
formance on the violin, and every day he took up his
stand to play, with the tantalizing injunction laid on
him never by any chance to look round at the capering
cleric The story terminates as all tales in which a
strict injunction figures prominently do: in the usual
disobedience, the inevitable penalty, for the delinquent
fiddler, on being discovered by Smith in spying, was
immediately kicked downstairs.

One of the best-known characters on the Turf at
the beginning of the present century was George
Osbaldeston, the " Old Squire " of his brethren in sport
Besides his passion for riding to hounds, he was vastly
interested in the breeding of foxhounds, which practice
he carried on to a large extent himself, his hounds
fetching bigger prices than any one else could procure.
For ten couples that the Old Squire had bred, Lord
Middleton gave, it is said, two thousand guineas. A
man of slight build, but with plenty of " stay " in him,
George Osbaldeston took part in no sport in which he
did not excel He was a fine cricketer, a bold rider, a
dead shot, and had in his day a reputation which was
world wide. His quarrel with the famous Lord George
Bentinck is still remembered as characteristic of the Old
Squire. In a race at Manchester, Osbaldeston rode his
own horse to the post, winning four hundred pounds on
his success from Lord George. Bentinck, however, who,
in a trial trip on the day before, had seen the squire's
horse bested, declared that he had been done out of
the amount he had lost to Osbaldeston, and refused to
pay up, and for some time they avoided each other.
At length they ran up against each other at New-
market, and Osbaldeston suggested that Lord George
should fork out Bentinck, still swearing that he had
been cheated by the Old Squire, consented to pull out

ECCENTRICITIES AND CELEBRITIES 829

his purse, and at the subsequent "meeting/' fired in
the air with the remark that it was now " two to one
on the squire." The Old Squire followed suit, also
fired in the air, retorted 'with " the bet is off I" and the
friendship between the two from that day was firmly
cemented

Mrs. Margaret Wharton, one of the well-known
Whartons of Skelton Castle, was a spinster of almost
fabulous fortune, who was born in the year of the Great
Revolution — 1688 — and all but saw the next century
out In spite of her immense wealth, and her occa-
sional corresponding generosity, she obtained in her
day the nickname of Peg Pennyworth, consequent on
her curious mania for buying "penn'orths" of every
article she had need of.

Mr. Baring-Gould, in his "Yorkshire Oddities,"
narrates the following accounts of this eccentric maiden
lady: —

" She frequently catered for herself, making her own pur-
chases, and taking them home in her carriage. Once, having
purchased some eels, she put them in her pocket, entered her
coach, and called on a lady friend, and invited her to come
out with her for an airing. The warmth of Peg's pocket re-
vived the seemingly dead eels, and they began to wriggle out
to enjoy a little fresh air. The lady who was sitting beside
Peg, happening to look down, saw what she thought was a
serpent writhing into her lap, and several hideous heads break-
ing out of the side of Mistress Margaret Wharton. She uttered
an awful shriek, bounded to her feet, pulled the checkstring,
and cried, ' Madam, madam, you are swarming with adders !
Coachman, stop! Let me out! Let me out!' Mistress Wharton
coolly looked at the eels, now escaping rapidly from her pocket,
gathered them up, and shoved them into her reticule, saying,
' I protest, madam, it is only my eels come to life. Sit you
down again, and don't be frightened.'

880 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

" One day at Scarborough she had ordered a large meat-pie
to be baked for dinner. It was a very large one, to serve lor
herself* some visitors, and all the servants. When it was made
she ordered the footman to take it to the bakehouse, but he
declined, saying that it was not his place, neither did it comport
with his dignity to be seen in Scarborough stalking through the
streets in plush and tags, bearing a huge meat-pie. Mistress
Margaret then ordered the coachman to take it, but he declined.
'Bring out the carriage, then, 9 said Peg Pennyworth. The
horses were harnessed ; the coachman put on his powdered wig
and mounted the box; the footman took his place behind;
and Mistress Margaret Wharton, bearing the meat-pie, sat in
state in the carriage. ' Drive to the bakehouse.' So the coach-
man whipped his horses, and the meat-pie was carried rims to
the baker's. An hour or two later the carriage was ordered
out again. The coachman remounted the box, the footman
took his stand behind, and the lady drove to the bakehouse
to fetch her pie, which she carried back thus to her house;
1 Now, 9 said she to the coachman, € you have kept your place,
which is to drive ; and you ' — turning to the footman — 'have
kept yours, which is to wait ; and now we shall all have some
of the pie.' "

Peg Pennyworth died in 1791, in the 103rd year of
her age.

The son of a farmer at RawdifTe, Jimmy Hirst, born
in 1738, was, perhaps, the oddest creature that Yorkshire,
or possibly England, has ever known. It seems strange
that a child, whose first impulses seem to have been
towards bizarre conduct of every conceivable description,
should have been designed, as Jimmy originally was, for
the Church. His school reports, however, representing
him in excessively impish lights, common-sense urged
his parents to resign their hopes of seeing him in hood
and stole, and picture him from henceforth with a spade
or other instrument of farming in his hand. But die

ECCENTRICITIES AND CELEBRITIES 831

farming notion took no root in the affections of Jimmy,
in consequence of which he was desired to set them
upon the trade of tanning, and becoming apprenticed
to a tanner, his next independent action was to fall
extravagantly in love with his employer's daughter.
The parents of the young girl relented somewhat
towards the 'prentice when he saved their child from
drowning, and consented with a good grace to the
match. As ill luck would have it, the affianced wife of
Jimmy died suddenly, and it is possible that to this
misfortune may be traced the extraordinary quips and
quiddities that marked the remainder of Hirst's strange
life. He left the scene of his bereavement, returned to
the paternal roof, and flung himself with all his curious
enthusiasm into the pursuit of training the j notorious
bull-calf Jupiter to jump, and to carry him on his back.
The elder Hirst dying suddenly, Jimmy came in for
a windfall of £1000, to the speedy! multiplication of
which he devoted himself to such purpose that he con-
verted the thousand pounds into six thousand, invested
it, gave up the farm, and turned himself to a freer
indulgence of his natural eccentricity. His chief passion
appears to have been for the construction of multitudinous
ingenious machines for chopping turnips, cutting straw,
thrashing corn, and other quaint contrivances ; but the
device that lingered longest in the ears of the country-
side was the wickerwork palanquin he built for his
own accommodation, to which he invariably had four
Andalusian mules harnessed, setting forth in this guise
for every race-meeting in the county far or near. The
springs of this carriage were original in the extreme,
and it is not often that one sees a vehicle furnished with
various clocks and dials to indicate times and distances
such as those which graced the palanquin of Jimmy
Hirst He went, however, one step further than the

882 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

contrivance of this carriage when he built, with modi
elaboration, a flying-machine for himself, hurling himself
in it from the mast of a vessel in the Humber, and — we
are sorry to record — greatly to the delight and apprecia-
tion of his large audience, instead of flying quickly up,
flew promptly down — into the water.

The visit of Jimmy to London town to see the
king is still remembered and enjoyed. The curiosity
of George III. was tickled by the various accounts he
heard of Jimmy, and he sent forth a royal command
to the homely Yorkshireman to visit him. Mr. Hirst,
however, was not particularly struck by the condescension
of the monarch, and in no hurry to comply with his
request At length, however, he bestirred himself, and
ordered a new suit for the occasion. In a lamb-skin
hat nine feet round, an otter-skin coat faced with scarlet
and lined with red flannel, and waistcoat made of the
feathers of drakes' necks, breeches of list, red and white
striped stockings, and shoes with large silver buckles,
he clambered into the palanquin and set out for London.
It is not matter of surprise that his progress was pretty
much the same as that of a king ; vast crowds of people
were gathered along his route, and in London itself the
mules had difficulty in getting along at all for the crush.
Next morning he went to court, and on being presented
to the king, seized hold of his hand and wrung it,
exclaiming, " Eh, I'm glad to see thee such a plain owd
chap. If thou ever comes to Rawcliffe, step in and give
me a visit. I can give thee some rare good wine, or a
sup of brandy and water at any time." At Jimmy's
departure he escorted the king and his courtiers to where
his quaint vehicle was standing, and showed them that
the contrivance which held his supply of wine was
empty. Upon which George III. commanded that it
be filled from his own cellars. When he got back to

ECCENTRICITIES AND CELEBRITIES 333

Rawcliffe he indulged himself yet further in the bull-
baiting, cock-fighting, hunting, and bear-baiting, to which
sports he was so strongly attached. But, on one day,
when putting his bull-mount Jupiter at a fence, the
beast fell, and broke the leg of his master. Thereupon
Hirst, fertile as ever in ingenuity, built an appliance for
his wounded leg, by which a string, fixed to a hook in
the ceiling, supported his limb for him, raising it to
whatever height he required. A coffin made for the
reception of himself was his next realized scheme, which
had folding-doors, glass panels, and an arrangement for
ringing a bell.

Then he bethought himself of keeping a sloop, fared
forth on the sea in her, was not unnaturally excessively
ill, and registered a vow from that time never to set
foot on her deck again. In 1829 the whimsical old
man found himself approaching death, at the age of
ninety-one ; but, still intent on making a striking last
appearance on the world's stage, he ordained that, for
the sum of a sovereign each, twelve ancient maiden
ladies should bear him to his grave.

A Hampsthwaite celebrity is the wonderful blind
joiner, Peter Barker, who came into this life in the year
1 808. Losing his sight completely when he was only four,
he was trained in the art of fiddling so as to ensure his
turning an honest penny at village fairs and dances. It
is not to be marvelled at that, deprived of so many joys
common enough to those who have their sense of sight,
he should seek solace in the pleasures of the tavern for
a space, at length abandoning his idea of the fiddling
profession, and resolving with great determination on
that of a joiner. Strangely enough, his success in this
line was immediate, for his first feat was the making
of a chair, from which he rapidly proceeded to higher
branches of a carpenter's craft, and, being amply

384 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

furnished with orders, gave general s a tis fa ction, besides
rousing universal interest. Amongst other work, he
lowered the front of the pulpit and reading-desk at
Hampsthwaite church, brought a pew forward, and faced
it with old oak panels. In this church he sang in the
choir, rang the Curfew bell, and employed his spare
time in making beds and curtains. Besides this, he
taught himself to read from raised type, constructed a
fiddle for himself, and entertained the villagers by
discoursing sweet music on this instrument Bat the
most astonishing achievement of the blind joiner was
the taking to pieces of the Hampsthwaite church clock,
the cleaning of the works, and the putting of the
mechanism together again. It is said that his sense of
touch was so fine that he could find out what time of the
day it was by running his fingers over the face of a
clock. In 1873 he died, justly renowned, and is talked of
to this hour.

Job Senior of Burley in Wharfedale, one more
example of the peculiar characters that Yorkshire has at
various periods produced, has been handed down to the
present age as the Hermit of Rombald's Moor. He
was the natural child of a man who left him money, was
born near Ilkley, and, from all accounts, was a sturdy,
good-looking young fellow. He first attracted the notice
of the Ilkley folk as a person of much physical strength,
was at one time hired as a wool-comber, from that
proceeded to hostlering, and finally abandoned himself
somewhat to a loose and begging existence. When he
had reached the ripe age of sixty years, he was strongly
attracted to a prepossessing cottage and bit of land on the
edge of Rombald's Moor, determined by hook or by
crook to possess it, and accordingly laid siege to its
legal owner, a decrepit old widow named Mary Barret
The consequent representation of Senior to the Widow

ECCENTRICITIES AND CELEBRITIES 835

Barret, that she was so lovely as to inflame his heart to
protect her, failed at first to convince the lone widow.
However, she consented at last to become his wife. One
night Mrs. Senior said she was ill, and as she complained
of cold, her affectionate husband took up the hearth-
stone, and, digging a capacious pit, laid his wife in the
earth. She, it is to be supposed, was far too feeble to
crawl out of it, and reposed too much trust in her husband
to imagine he meant any ill. So she contented herself
with remarking that she could do with something to eat ;
whereupon the hero of Rombald's Moor melted some
very fat bacon on the fire, filled a spoon with the
scalding grease, and, approaching the pit, thrust the
boiling fat down her throat For some time he lamented
the death thus caused, but roused himself in order to
contest the property of the land and cottage with the
children of his wife's first marriage, who returned and
said it was theirs. Her last husband, however, was
determined to stick to the place, but in his absence one
day from the house, a sum of money successfully, as
Senior thought, concealed, was removed from the spot
and the cottage roughly despoiled. Grief put an end to
his sanity. Out of the ruins of the place he made
himself a den, no bigger than a dog-kennel, into which
he was obliged to creep on his hands and knees. He
lived henceforward on oatmeal, buttermilk, and potatoes,
with which he had sown the land round his strange
hermitage. He might be observed sitting, one leg either
side of a peat fire outside his den, raking roast potatoes
out of the embers, and heating his water and buttermilk
in stone bottles deposited in the glow of the fire. For
years he wore the same clothes, was, like a certain monk
of old, too holy to wash himself, wrapped his legs in
trusses of straw, and filled his rough clogs with hay.
Of his garments none of the original stuff remained ;

386 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

it was replaced by multi-hued patches. A girdle of
hemp kept them from falling in pieces or to the ground
and his head-gear was a crown without a brim. A
length of hemp-string dangled from the hat, to which
a pipe was secured, and in this guise, a staff in one
hand, he journeyed over the country, receiving charity
in exchange for a display of vocal peculiarity, for the
hermit could sing in a bass, a tenor, an alto, or a treble:
Curious visitors came to see him, and in reply to
their questions and enquiries, he would often reply that
land was better than the love of women, and that
potatoes solaced old age more than the prattle of
children.

A person of much individuality, who adorned the
neighbourhood of Topcliffe, and died in 1868, having
been thrice married, is neither dignified nor made
distinctive by his chroniclers under any surname of
his own, but is rudely referred to as Old John Mealy-
face. His reputation is based upon his essentially
Yorkshire form of wit, an amusing instance of which
supplies us with the origin of his nickname. His mode
of living was close-fisted in the extreme, and it seems
that his poor wives were hard put to it to obtain even
sufficient food to keep them from starvation. "Owd
John," however, had the particular wife with whom the
story deals in such subjection, that she dare not bake
herself a loaf of bread in presence of her lord, but
waited till his back was turned to satisfy her hunger.
But Old Mealy-face was not to be done. Whenever his
business was so pressing as to call him from his house,
he had a knowing custom of pressing his face into
the flour-bin, so that any petty larceny on the part of
Mrs. John would be immediately discovered by him.
The clergyman of the district visited Old Mealy-face
one day, and announced to him that the Lord had

ECOTNTRICTTIES AND CELEBRITIES 887

called him to another sphere of work, and that there-
fore he would be perforce obliged to leave the scene
of his past parochial labours. Upon Old Mealy-face
inquiring if the stipend were any higher, and the
clergyman admitting that it was, by one hundred
pounds, Old John retorted that so he had concluded,
or else the Lord might call till he was hoarse but his
servant the clergyman would have been as deaf as the
adder that stoppeth her ears.

"1670. Decern. 9. Henry Jenkins, a over aged
and poore man, of Ellerton, buryed." In this manner
the memorable decease of the oldest Englishman is
summarily dealt with in the parish registers of Ellerton.
How old this interesting ancient, supposed to have
been born in 1500, and known to have come to an
end in 1670, precisely was, one has no means of ascer-
taining; but the monument in Bolton churchyard
erected to his memory represents him as no less than
one hundred and sixty-nine years. He witnessed the
succession of six kings and two queens — Henry VII.,
Henry VIII., Edward VL, Mary, Elizabeth, James I.,
and Charles I. He lived through the Dissolution of the
Religious Houses, the Overthrow of the Papal Supre-
macy, through the Marian Persecutions, and the Defeat
of the invincible Spanish Armada; and through the
Revolution, which followed on the deposition of Charles I.,
to the organization of the Commonwealth. He is even
reputed to have declared that he could recall the battle
of Flodden Field, and he used to hold forth towards
his latter end of how in 15 13 he journeyed to North-
allerton on a pack-horse, commissioned to carry the
store of arrows, with which the horse was laden, to the
English troops, then moving north to their attack upon
the Scots. For a hundred and forty years, accounts

affirm, he plied the trade of a fisherman 1 ; when he was

z

888 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

more than a century old he could swim across rivers,
and his last nine years were spent in pursuing the
occupations of a harvester. It is quite evident that
the oldest Englishman must have been an exception
to every known rule of longevity, or else, after die
attainment of four score years, instead of fishing and
swimming across rivers, the remaining eighty years of
his life would have been but " labour and sorrow."

Picturesque Knaresborough, the birthplace of Eugene
Aram and Mother Shipton, comes once more into play
as the abode of Robert Flower, the famous saint and
anchorite. Although the details of the opening years
of his life are obscured in part by superfluous tradition,
in part by a lack of any tradition at all, it is pretty
certain that he was the son of Tooke Flower of York,
who was mayor of that town in the reign of Richard
the First From the first it was evident that he was
destined for the monastic life; he became, it is pro-
bable, a monk of Whitby, or of Fountains. Finally,
some accounts declare, he was made first Abbot of
Newminster in Northumberland. Exactly how he made
his way to Knaresborough, or if the cave there, which
he made so famous, was a temporary or permanent cell,
is not definitely known, but it is believed that St
Robert at first had two hermitages — one at Knares-
borough, another at Starbeck, and that the last was
pulled down by William de Estoteville, in the twelfth
century, lord of the castle and forest of Knaresborough,
while the saint himself was inside. Thereupon St
Robert, tireless in his devotion to his object, surrounded
himself with a bower of trees. His enemy forthwith
resolved that the trees should be hewn down. At this
juncture, however, an apparition came before him in
his slumbers — the spirits of three men fearsomely
armed with burning engines of iron set with sharp

ECCENTRICITIES AND CELEBRITIES 889

teeth, with iron clubs and what not, and so terrified
de Estoteville that, fearing the vengeance of Heaven,
he altered his purpose, and now resolved to give up
two oxen, two horses, all the land between the saint's
cell and Grimbald Crag, with two more oxen to till
the earth, to St Robert of Knaresborough. In this
cave, then, the hermit lived in peace for many years,
much visited by reverent believers for his ghostly
advice and guidance, and here some particularly trust-
ful person hobbled on a broken leg for the spiritual
medicine of the holy man, which, whether by prayer
or unguents, he caused to instantaneously heal. St.
Robert's chapel is cut out of the solid rock, and is
10 feet long, 9 wide, and 7 high, but the image of a
knight in armour at the entrance has most probably
been affixed in more modern times ; it is said, however,
that he did much himself towards the adorning and
enlarging of the chapel himself. When the news of
his death, in 12 18, was announced abroad, the monks
of Fountains, greedy to claim as their own St. Robert's
remains, and anything else he might happen to have
left of his goods, hurried at once to Knaresborough.
An old account remarks, with some humour, that of
the mortal flesh of St Robert, but little remained to
remove, he had punished his mortal body to such
purpose with fasting, prayer, and the scourge. Such
as the remains were, however, a to-do was raised about
them, the townspeople ranging themselves to a man
against the claims of the monks ; and outside the
hermit's cave they eventually got to grips with each
other. Upon which a body of armed men from the
castle appeared on the spot, dispersed the clamorous
brethren, and commanded that the bones of the saint
should be laid to rest under the stones which his knees
had worn by long prayer. For some time after there

840 A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

was a miraculous effusion of oil from St Robert's tomb,
which yielded marvellous cures, and was very greatly
in demand as a healing salve all over the land, both far
and near.

A common carrier between Grassington and Skipton,
afterwards postmaster of Grassington, Thomas Airey
was, about 1807, manager of a highly quaint and
entertaining theatre in that village, run entirely by the
rustics of the district, and built by their united ingenuity
out of an old barn. This house of entertainment was
divided into pit and gallery, but when the noble gentry
of Grassington condescended to grace the performance
with their dignified persons, a box was constructed to
hold them, which was accomplished by fencing in a
part of the pit and adorning the fence with brown paper
painted so as to resemble the elegant folds of curtains.
The stage scenery was, of necessity, excessively simple
and supremely elastic ; the illuminations on the boards
consisted of six halfpenny candles. But curious to
relate, among the primitive Arcadians who disported
themselves in the Grassington barn-theatre in the time
of Thomas Airey, were to be discovered Harriet Mellon,
afterwards Duchess of St Albans, and no less a person
than Edmund Kean himself. It is needless to add,
however, that neither of the two great players had
at that period made their names. Both Kean and Miss
Mellon were members of a strolling company, of which
the manager was one Goldsmith, and from Skipton
they would proceed to Grassington, where Airey, with
others of his village company, would join with them for
the public entertainment It seems that Goldsmith's
players took up their quarters for some little time
at Grassington, for disunion sprang up between his
members ; upon which, Airey, claiming Kean and Miss
Mellon, and various other local lights in the play-acting

ECCENTRICITIES AND CELEBRITIES 841

line, struck out a path of his own, and from hence-
forward liberally indulged in romantic and tragic dramas,
in which, says a writer of that date, their pronunciation
was ludicrous in the extreme. During the course of the
evening's entertainment they would be invariably stuck
fast in the mire of some word that, to their rustic senses,
was outlandish, whereupon they would call upon the
village schoolmaster to supplement their defective learn-
ing. The schoolmaster, however, had a finer perception
of humour than their honest dulness credited him with,
and he would furnish them with such interpretations as
11 Afryka " for Africa ; " pump M did very well for pomp,
"paggyantry" for pageantry, and u fattygewed " for
fatigued. In Hone's " Table Book " one comes across
a laughable description of Thomas Airey playing the
part of Lady Randolph, and fancying himself mightily
therein ; while the doctor, lawyer, and parson of the
place were killing themselves over the evident corduroy
breeches and manly clogs which obtruded themselves
under her ladyship's gown. On one memorable oppor-
tunity Airey was confuted by the following stage-
direction : " They sit down and play a game of piquet"
Having scratched his head for some few minutes over
this, he called on his friend the schoolmaster to help
him out of his distress. The schoolmaster supplying
him with the information that " piquet " was the French
for pie cut, the play-actor of Grassington commanded
that a pasty be brought upon the stage, which being
done, he set to work and carved it vigorously. He died
in 1842, no doubt much lamented for the innocent
amusement he had so cheerfully provided for the village
folk of Grassington.

INDEX

Aaron, rod of, in York Minster, 85

Ackworth stone quarries, 42

Adam of Sedbergn, 22

Adams, i8j

Adamthwaite, Mrs., 250

Adcock, Rev. John, eccentricities

of, 3*9> 3*6-3*7
Addison, Joseph, 318

Adel Church, 127-128

Aelberht, 79

iCthelstan, King —

Sanctuary privilege granted to
Ripon by, 92 ; affords protec-
tion to Beverley, 94
Agincourt, battle of, 16, 149
Agriculture, 38-39
Ah niwer can call her my m'/e,

quoted, 222-224
Ainderby steeple, 123
Aire, River —

Beauty of surrounding scenery, 51

Sources of, Wordsworth's descrip-
tions of scenery round, 257
Airedale, associations and historic

houses in, 8, 51, 146, 157-158,

193, 194
Airey, Thomas, barn-theatre of, 316,

340-34I .,
Aislabie family monuments, 92

Aislabiejohn and William, pleasure*
grounds of Studley Royal made
by, 186

Alcuin, 79, 236

Aldborough —
Church, 128; Saxon remains in,

«37
Devil's Arrows near, legend of,

65,286

Roman occupation of, 66, 71, 74-

75.

Aldeburgh, Sir William de, 166
Alexander II., Pope, 113
Almondbnry —

British camp at, 58, 67

Church, 128; old English in-
scription in, 131-133

Dialect of, 232, 234
Alne Church, 123
Alnwick, 157

Alpaca mills at Saltaire, 40, 214-215
Alum, Whitby, 42
Aimed, Treasurer of Beverley circ.

1200., 98
Andrew, Dean of York, 81
Antwerp, trade between Goole and,

43
Apennines, 70

Appleby, 158

Appleton Church, 123

Appleton-le-Street Church, 124

Appletreewick, 16

Aram, Eugene, career of, 316, 317,

318-321
Archaologia, cited, 70
Architecture (for different styles see
their names, as Decorated, Nor-
man. Perpendicular, etc.) —

Beverley Minster, of, 96-97, 99

Castles, of, 146-147

East Riding churches, of, 137-

138. 13?
Modern, in Yorkshire churches,

I43--44
Monastic houses, of, 104-105

North Riding churches, of, 123

Ripon Minster, of, 91

Saxon, 122, 124

West Riding churches, o( 127-

128, 129

York Minster, of, 80

Arctic whaling-grounds, Hull boats

sent to, 43

343

344

A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Argam Dyke, 68

Argilt, 202

Arksey Church, 128

Armitstead, William* letter of,
quoted^ 227-229

Amcliff, 115

Arnold family, 215

Arran, Lord, 165-166

Arras, antiquities discovered near,
60-70

Art collections in Yorkshire —
Brough Hall, at, 188-189
Burton Constable, at, 179
Castle Howard, at, 178
Famley Hall, at, 184-185
Gisburne Park, at 187-188
Harewood House, at, 183
Nostell Priory, at, 181, 182-183
Temple Newsam, at, 180
Wentworth Woodhouse, at, 175

Art galleries, establishment of, 35

Art Treasures in Great Britain,
cited, 178, 180

Arthur, King, and his knights,
traditions of, at Richmond, 281-
283

Ascham, Roger, 206, 236

Aske, Christopher, 159

Aske, Robert, 21, 150

Asselyn, Jan, examples of, at
Temple Newsam, 180

Athelstmne the Unready, funeral
feast of, at Conisborough, 245

Atkinson, Canon, 236, 238 ; cited, 64

Aughton, 21

Augmentation Office, 21

Augustinian Canons, Yorkshire
Houses of, 181, 189

Austerneld, 68

Austin, Alfred, 236, 271-272

Auxerre, 105

Avebury, pre-Roman earthworks at,

Ayssarth— ■

Church woodwork at, 123

Earthworks at, 68
Ayton Moor, 59

B

Bainbridge, horn-blowing custom
at, 302

Bainbrigge, Dionis, 318

Baines, Edward, 35-36

Baines's Yorkshire, quoted, 62-63

Bainton Church, 138

Baldersby Church, 143

Bannockburn, 158

Barden Tower, 51, 147, 158; re-
storation of, 209-210

Bardney, 206

Bardsey Church, 128

Baring-Gould, Mr. —

Cited, 324 ; quoted, 222 9 329-330

Barker, Peter, the blind joiner, 333-

834

Barnacastella bridge, 189

Barnard Castle, literary associations

<* *37« 243i *5i
Barnsdale, 46, 53; Robin Hood's

connection with, 278-479

Barnsley, 41, 45

Barratt, Fulk, 98

Barret, Maty, 334~335

o£ from,

Bronze Age, of, 62

Cremation, evidence
60-61

Long and round, descriptions of,
and of their contents, 61-64
Batley, 40
Bawtry, 1 1, 46

Beacon Hill, Wolfs Fold on, 64
Becket, Thomas a—

Provost of Beverley, 1150., 98;
murderers of, 167-168
Bedale, 47-48 ; church of, 123, 125,

127
Bede, the Venerable, 79, 94
Bedford-
Castle, 185

Church, 138
Belasyse, Anthony, 189
Belasyse family monuments, 191,

Bempton, 5 J
Benedict iX, Pope, 95
Benedictine Houses in Yorkshire,

103
Bentinck, Lord George, quarrel o£

with Squire Osbaldeston, 328-329
Bentley, Richard, 206, 236
Berethune, Abbot of Beverley, 94
Bermyngham, John (Treasurer of

York), 99

INDEX

845

Bessemer process for converting

iron into steel, invention of, 38
Beverley—

Chariot-burials at, 70

Description of, in the time of the
Reformation, 18-19

Favour of Norman Kings shown

to, 95-9*> "2
Fisher, Cardinal, the birthplace

of, 205
Minster of—

Architecture of, 96-97, 99

Choir-stalls and misericordes,
09-100

Destruction of, by fire, 1 188., 96

Endowment of, 94

Generosity of Archbishops and
great families in building of,

97-9*
Officials of, 98-99

Origin of, 93

Percy shrine, 98

Restoration of, 100

Monastery at, 94

Picturesqueness of, 48

St Mary's Church, 138, 141-142

Sanctuary right of, 94-95

Otherwise mentioned, 29, 53

BtvtrUy Gaol, quoted, 233-234

Bilsdale, 52, 64

Bilson, quoted, 96-97

Bilton, 59

Bingley, 193

Binns and Brown, Messrs., 35

Birlrin Church, 127-128

Birstal, 194, 206, 254

Bishop Wood, 54

Bishopdale, 52

Bishopthorpe Palace —
Gray, Walter de, built by, 88
Scrooe's beheadal at, 18, 149, 153

Black Barnsley, Defoe's account o£
1727., 263

Black Friars, 19

Black Hambledon, 49, 50

Black Hambleton, 50

Blacket family, 91

Blackett, Sir Edward, 319

Blackstone Edge, 49, 237, 263

Blakey Moor, British village on, 69

Blenheim Palace, 176

Blois Hall, pre-Roman earthworks
at, 69

Bolland, forest of, 54
Bolton—
Castle of—

Architecture of, 147

Mary Queen of Soots at, 51,

154-155

Scrope family, connection withy

«5*-i54
Otherwise mentioned, 19, 146

Hall of, 154

Priory of—
Architecture o£ 10S
Beauty of surroundings, 104

Church of, 10
?mftt
117

Computus

• 103

of, details

from, 116-

Legends of founding of, 108

109
Order of, 103
Wealth of; in later days, It2,

118
Wordsworth's poetry, in, 257,

*S*> 259
Mentioned, 16, 51

Strid, the, Wordsworth's descrip-
tion of, quoted, 257-258

Otherwise mentioned, 337
Bolton, Duke of, 154
Bolton, eleventh Lord (Emanuel

Scrope), 154
Bolton Percy, 128, 208
Bolton-on-Swale, 188
Boom, Van, example of, at Nostell

Priory, 181
Booth, Laurence, 99
Boroughbridge —

Bamaby Air at, 305

Battle of, 18

Devil's Arrows at, 58, 64-66,
286

Picturesqueness of, 48

Road between Harrogate and,
217

Otherwise mentioned, 29, 46, 47
Bossal Church, 123
Boswell, quoted, 212
Boulton, Thomas, 118
Bourbon, Duke of, 150
Boutney, M., 217

Folk-lore of neighbourhood of,

274, 277-278
Literary associations of, 248-250

846

A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Bowes, Sir George, 154
Bowet, Archbishop, 81
Bowling —

Hall of, 194

Ironstone of, 41
Bowling, Mr., 35
Boynton, Colonel Matthew, 163
Bradfield, near Sheffield, 278
Bradford—

Church, history of the, 128, 129-

Dialect of, specimen of, 222-224
Feast of Bishop Blaise at, 304-

305
Forster, William Edward, asso-
ciation with, 215
Leland's account of, 20
Population of, 1831 and 1901., 137
Salt, Sir Titus, connection with,

214
Steam power, introduction of, 30
Stone-quarries near, 42
Trade and industries of, 38, 40 ;
at the end of eighteenth century,
26, 29
Otherwise mentioned, 11,41, 144,
193- I0 4t «», 202
Bradshaw, President, 187
Braithwaite, Dick, 188
Brandon, Charles, 160
Brandon, Lady Eleanor, 159
Brandsburton Church, 138
Brayton Church, 128
Bridestones, 64
Bridlington —
Foreign trade of, 43
Priory of—
Church of, 103, 105
Hanging of Abbot of, 22
Order of, 103
Wealth of, 112
Otherwise mentioned, 19
Otherwise mentioned, 55, 68
Brigantes, 2, 147
Bright, Stephen, 134
Brignall, Scott's lyric on, quoted

from, 244
Brimham, 65

British Borrows, cited, 60
British remains, 67-70 ; destruction

of, 6
British Museum, 69, 76
Briton, Sir Thomas, 168

Brittany, Alan of, 8, 9

Brittany, Constance of, 157

Brittany, Dukes of; 157

Brompton, Wordsworth's connec-
tion with, 255-256

Bronte sisters, Yorkshire districts
associated with, 34,51, 207, 237,

251-255
Bronte, other members of family of,

252, 253, 254
Bronze Age —

Burial of the dead in, 6b

Remains of, 59

Round barrows of, 62
Brough —

Famous names associated with,
158, 188, 207

Hall, art collection of; 188-189
Brougham Castle, 158
Brougham, Lord, 265
Brown, "Capability," 183
Browne, Hablot K. ("Phiz"),

Yorkshire visit of, in company

with Dickens, 250-251
Browne, Sir Thomas, 193
Browne, Thomas, monument by,

190
Brunanburgh, battle o( 94
Brythonic invasion, 64
Bubwith, Norman remains at, 137
Buckingham, second Duke of

(George Villiers), connection with

Helmsley, 164-166, 208-409
Buhner Church, 124
Buhner family, 169
Bulmer, Sir John, 21-22
Burial-places, prehistoric, remains

of, 59-64
Burley-in-Wharfedale —

Feast of the Great Pudding at,
303-304

Hermit of, 334-33$
Burlington, Lord, 27
Burneston Church, 123
Burnett, Professor, citia\ 77
Burnsall, 17, 319, 326
Burton Agnes Church, 138
Burton Constable House, 178-179
Burton, Dr. John, no, in, 178,

206, 267
Burton Head, 50
Bushell, William, 83
Butler, Lady Elizabeth, 134

INDEX

347

Butterfield, Mr., 143
Byland Abbey, 9, 103, 104, 105
Bywater, Abel —
Account of Sheffield dialect by,

22 5» 334; The Cutlers Song,

quoted, 226

Caedmon, association of, with
Whitby, 5, 207, 236, 237, 238-
240

Caernarvon, prehistoric cremations
at, 60

Calcaria. See Tadcaster

Calder valley, 7, 52

Calton Hall, 187

Calverley Hall, 317

Calverley, Sir Walter, the prototype
of Sir Roger de Coverley, 318

Calverley, Walter, crime and sen-
tence of, 316, 317-318

Calvert, Ralph, legend of, 284-285

Cambodunum. See Slack

Camden, cited, co» 54, 92, 104

Campsall Church and vicarage, 128,

133

Canaletto, example of, at Castle
Howard, 178

Canova, 143

Caracci, the, examples of, in York-
shire art collections, 178, 180,
181

Carlisle, Earls of, Yorkshire seat
of, 176-178, 265

Carlton, method of paying rent at,

303

Carlyle, Thomas, 215

Carmelites in Pontefract, 11

Can, John, builder of Harewood,

183
Can's Dialect of Craven —

Quoted, 227-220 ; cited, 234
Carter, Parson, of Lastingham, 316,

325-326
Carthusian Houses in Yorkshire,

102, 115-116
Castle Howard —

Description of, 176-178

Visits of Sydney Smith to, 265
Castleford, 7» 75

Castles in Yorkshire {for particu-
lar castles see their names) —
Architecture of, 146-147
Situations and relative importance
of, 145-146

Cataractonium. See Catterick
Bridge

Catholic Relief, Sydney Smith
quoted on, 266

Catterick Bridge —
Contract for making, 189
Roman station at, 75-76
Otherwise mentioned , 46, 5 1 , 1 56,
188

Cavendish family, 2 J

Cawood Castle, 86-87

Cawthorn, Roman station at, 76

Cecil Papers, cited, 155

Chantry Surveys, 1545-1546, cited,

15

Charles I., 17, 23, 24, 39, 54, 135,

151, 169, 184, 190, 207, 208

Charles II., 23, 24-25, 157, 163,
177, 188, 204, 209

Charles Edward, the Young Pre-
tender, 189, 204

Charlton, cited, 280

Chester, 47

China, collection of, at Harewood
House, 183

Chippendale furniture, collection of,
at Nostell Priory, 181

Cholmley, Sir Hugh, 163

Christianity, introduction of, 4-5,

78
Christmas, old customs of, 312-314

Churches in Yorkshire. (See also
East Riding, North Riding,
West Riding)—
Founding and endowing of, 9
Modern, 143-144
Cistercian Houses in Yorkshire, 103
Circles, 64
Civil War-
Bradford garrisoned for Parlia-
ment in, 130
Castles held for the king, and dis-
mantled by Parliamentarians —
Harewood, 166
Knaresborough, 167, 169
Middleham, 151
Pontefract, 148, 1 50-1 51
Scarborough, 163

348

A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Civil War— <oniimud
Yorkshire loyalty to the Stuart
cause in, 23-25, 204

Clairvaux, no, 11 1

Clapham cares, 49

Claphams, the, tradition as to burial
of, 259

Clark, Mr., cti*L> 164

Clarke, Daniel, murder of, 318-322

Claude, examples oL in Yorkshire
art collections, 178, 180

Claughton Moor, 59

Clfckheaton, 40

Cleveland—
Dialect of, 221, 229-230 ; glos-

sary of, 234
Mineral wealth of, 37, 41
Otherwise mentioned, 59, 161,
206

Cleveland Hills, 50, 52, 54

Clifford family (ut also Comber-
land, Earls of; ami Dorset,
Countess of), account o( and of
their connection with Skipton, 8,
o, 158-161

Cbtheroe Castle, 8

Clock-dressing, old custom o£ 312

Cloughton, 64, 66

Cluntac Houses in Yorkshire, It,
103

Coal-mines in Yorkshire, 20, 38,

41
Coifi, heathen priest, 4, 137
Coleridge, Hartley, 238
Colliers, characteristics of, 200
Congreve, William, 206, 236
Conisborough —

Association with Sir Walter
Scott, 237, 240-241, 244-245

British remains at, 67

Castle of, 146-147

Church of, 128

Present-day aspect of, 240-241,
244-245
Constable, Cuthbert, 178
Constable, Sir Henry, 178
Constable, Sir Marmaduke, 138
Constable, Sir Robert, 21, 150
Constantine Chlorus, 71, 73
Constantine the Great, 71, 73
Conyers, Sir John, dragon table of,

287
Cook, Captain, 43, 56, 206

Corn Law rhymes, 260-261

Costa River, pile-dwellings in, 69

Cottingham Church, 138

Cotton industry, 40

Council of the North, 182-183

Coverdale, 51

Coverdale, Miles, 206, 236

Coverham Abbey, 9, 51, 103, 104.

105
Cowthorpe Oak, 76-77
Coxwold, connection of Laurence

Sterne with, 190, 237, 267, 268-

270
Craven district —

Dialect of; 227-229, 234

Grant to the Clifford fiunily in* 8

Literary associations o£ 237,
258-259

Pastoral richness of, 39

Wordsworth's descriptions of,

Craven, first Earl of, career of, 17

Craven, William, career ot 16-17,
310

Crayke Castle, 146

Cremation in prehistoric times, 60-
61

Croagh Patrick in Ireland, 289

Croft Church, 123

Cromwell, Mary, 189

Cromwell, Oliver —
Yorkshire visits during the Civil
War, 23-24, 1 50-151, 188 ; relics
of, 184 ; portrait ot, 187 ; con-
nection with Ncwburgh Priory,
189-190

Cromwell, Thomas, anti-Roman
policy of, 2X-22, 24

Cronkley Fell, 52

Cross, tne^ fragment oQ at York
Minster, 85

Crossley brothers, association of,
with Halifax, 41, 213-214

Cumberland, 22, 255

Cumberland, first Earl of (Henry
Clifford), 160

Cumberland, second Earl of (Henry
Clifford), 160

Cumberland, third Earl of (George
Clifford), 150, 160, 209

Cumberland, fifth Earl of (Henry
Clifford), 159

Cumberland, tenth Earl of, 158-159

INDEX

Customs, ancient Yorkshire, 295

et seq.
Cutler, Sir John, 167
Cutlers Song, The, quoted, 226
Cuyp, examples o( in Yorkshire

art collections, 178, 187

Dacre, Lord, 177

Dade, Rev. William, 124

Dalby, Thomas, archdeacon, 119

Dalton Holme, 53

Dam, Jacob, 83

Danby—

Atkinson, Canon, at, 238

Long stone at, 64

Remains of, in Yorkshire, 76;
Dane's Dyke, 67-68

Yorkshire incursions of, 5-6, 94
Danum. See Doncaster
Darcy, Thomas Lord, beheadal of,

21, 150, 180
Darfield Church, 128
Darlington, railway communication

between London and, 1840-

1845. 3i
Darnley, Henry, birthplace of, 179,

206

Dartmouth, Earl o£, Yorkshire seat

of, 191
Darton Church, 128
Davies, Mr. Robert (F.R.S.), cited,

318
Dawson. Martin, funeral account

of, 310

Daystun, or Doyston, Geoffrey, 131

Dean Clough, mills at, 213

Decorated Architecture —
East Riding churches, in, 137-138
Harewood Castle, at, 166
Modern examples of, 143
North Riding churches, of, 123
West Riding churches, of, 128

Defoe, Daniel—-
Quoted, 26; cited, 26-27; York-
shire associations of, 49, 237,
262-264

Denbigh, prehistoric cremations in,
60

Denton, Fairfax family at, 206, 208

Derby, 31

Derventio, 75

Derwent, River, 50, C2, 194
Devonshire, Dukes of, 25, 32
Devonshire House library, compotus

in, 116
Dewsbury—

Church of, 129; Saxon remains
in, 127

Industry of, 40

Mentioned, 193
Dewsbury Moor, 254
Dialect of Craven (Carr) —

Quoted* 227-229 ; cited, 234
Diana, The, 4$
Dickens, Charles, associations of,

with Yorkshire, 237, 245-251
Dodsworth, Roger, 179, 206, 209,

236
Doedale, bridestones on, 64
Dogs, Yorkshiremen's love of, 2
Dolmens, 64
Domenichino, example of, at Castle

Howard, 178
Domesday Book, 6
Dominicans, House of, at Pontc-

fract, 11
Don, River, Scott's description of,

MS
Don valley, 146

Doncaster —
Parish church ot, 143
Race meetings at, 27, 176, 217
Rank of, among Yorkshire towns,

1378., II
Religious life in mediaeval, 15
Roman station at, 7c
Otherwise mentioned, 29, 46, 47-
4* !33t*o6

Dore, Mr* G. R., 131

Dorset, Pembroke, •and Montgom-
ery, Countess of (Lady Anne
Clifford), career of; 159-160,
209-210

Dorsetshire, barrows of, 59-60

Dow, Gerard, example of, at Gis-
burne Park, 187-188

Drake, author of Bboraeum —
Cited, 27, 66, 236 ; quoted, 65

Drake, Francis, 206

Driffield—
Church of; 138
Mortimer Museum at, 69
Otherwise mentioned, 93

850

A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Druidical remains, possible, 66
Dugdale, c%Ud % 108-109
Dunbar, Viscount, 178
Duncombe, ciied % 69
Duncombe, Sir Charles, 166
Dunum Sinus, 75
Diirer, examples of, at Temple

Newsam, 180
Durham, 22, 29, 124
Durham, Bishops of. See Nevile

aiu/Skhiaw •

Eadwine, King of Northumbria, 4,

79. »37
Earl's Dyke, 112

Early English Architecture, ex-
amples of—
North Riding churches, in, 123
West Riding churches, in, 128

Earsley Common, 59

Earthworks, camps, and dykes, 66-

Easby Abbey-
Architecture of, 105
Beauty of, 104
Order of, 103
Revenue of, 1 1 2- 1 1 3

Scrope family, connection with,
154

Otherwise mentioned, 48, 51

Easingwold, 47

East Riding-
Churches of —
Architecture of, 137-139
Brasses in, 138
Saxon remains in, 137
Dialect of, 221, 232-234
Farming capabilities of, 39
Wold district of . See Wolds, the

Easther, Mr., cited % 232, 234

Eboracum. See York

Eboracum (Drake). See Drake

Ecclesfield—
Church of, 128-129
Literary associations of, 270

Eddystone Lighthouse, 206

Edstone sun-dial, 124

Education, elementary, Yorkshire
appreciation of, 215

Edward I., 12, 43, 147

Edward II., 149, 162, 180
Edward III., 12, 14, 16
Edward IV., 152
Edward VI., 99
Edward the Confessor, 95
Eggleston Abbey —

Architecture of, 105

Order of, 103

Picturesqueness of, 104, 243

Revenue of, 113

Scott, Sir Walter,
with, 243
Egton Moor, British village on, 69
Elisabeth, Queen, 22, 29S
Elisabeth, Queen of Bohemia, 17
Elland stone-quarries, 42
Ellerton Nunnery, 103,104, 105, 113
Elliott, Ebeneser, career of, 237,

Elmete, kingdom ot, 46, 54
Embsay, 10S

Engleby in Cumberland, 153
English, first landing o£,
English Dialect Society's

131, 231, 234
Erasmus, quoted) 182
Escrick Church, 143
Esk valley, 68
Eskdale, 52

Eskdale Bridge, legend of, 288-289
Espec, Walter 1', 109
Estotevilles, the, 167
Estoteville, William de, 338
Etty, William, 206
Evers, Sir Ralph, 162
Ewing, Mrs., 270
Ewks, 68-69

Factory Acts, 34

Fairfax family-
Parliamentary sympathies o£ m
the Civil War, 23, 204, 207 ;
connection with Denton, 306,
208; considered as a typical
Yorkshire family, 207-409

Fairfax, Charles, 179

Fairfax, Edward, 208, 236

Fairfax, Ferdinando, 20&-209

Fairfax, Margaret, 119

Fairfax, Mary, 164-165, 208

INDEX

351

Fairfax, General Sir Thomas—

Activity in the Civil War, 23,
24-25, 130, 150, 208 ; marriage
of his daughter, 164 ; relic of,
184
Fairfax, Sir William, 208
Fanshawe, Sir Richard, 270
Farrow, Mistress, 19
Farndale, 52
Farnley Hall, description and history

of, 183-186
Fauconberg family, 190, 268
Fauconberg, first Baron, 189
Fauconberg, Lord, 269
Fawkes family of Farnley, 185-186
Fawkes, Edward, 318
Fawkes, Guy, 206, 316, 318
Fergusson, quoted, 176, 183
Fermor, Arabella, portrait of, 188
Ferris, story of; 288-289
Ferry Fryston, prehistoric barrows

at, 60
Ferrybridge, 29, 46, 158
Feversham, Earl of, 166
Fewston, 208
Filey—

Brig, 55

Church, 138
Fimber, 63
Fisher, Cardinal, 205
Fisher, William, 18?
Fishing industry, 43
Fishlake Church, 54, 128
Fitz-Alan, Eleanor, 98
Fitz-Alan family, memorials of, in

Bedale Church, 127
Fitz-Ranulph, Robert, 151
Fita-Urse, Sir Reginald, 168
Fitz-Urse, Treasurer (of York), 81
Fitzwilliam family, 175-176, 206
Flamborough —

Church of, 138

Dane's Dyke, 67-68, 112

Otherwise mentioned, 55
Flaxman, John, 206
Fletcher, Robert, 116
Flodden Field, 138, 153
Flower, Robert (St. Robert of

Knaresborough), 316, 338-340
Flower, Tooke, 338
Force of Prayer^ The, quoted, 257-

258
Fordun, quoted, 278

Forster, William Edward, career of,

215-216
Forster's Life of Goldsmith, quoted,

269
Fosse, River, 1, 72
Foston-le-Clay, Sydney Smith at,

337* 264-266
Fothergill, William, 82
Fountains Abbey —

Architecture of, 105

Daily life in, 113-114

Hanging of Abbot of, 22

Order of, 103

Origin oi, 106-108

Privations endured by founders

of, IIO-III

Purchase of, by the Aislabie

family, 187
St. Robert of Knaresborough,

connection with, 338, 339
Wealth acquired by, 111-112, 118
Otherwise mentioned, 186, 278,

338
Fox, George, imprisonment o£ in

Scarborough Castle, 148, 163
Fox, John, 135
Franchise, extensions of, 33
Franciscans, House of the, in Pon-

tefract, II
Franks, Sir A. W., died, 70
Free public libraries, establishment

„ of » 35
Freeman —

Quoted, 95-96 5 cited, 99

Frith, W. P., 206

Frobbher, Martin, 206

Fryston Hall, 271

Fuller, quoted, 87, 92

Funeral customs in Yorkshire, 309-

3"

Fylingdale Moor, menhirs on, 64

Gainsborough, examples of, in York-
shire art collections, 178, 181

Gale, Dr., Dean of York, 281

Gale, cited, 66

Galtres, Forest of, 47, 54, 267

Garafalo, example of, at Brough
Hall, 189

Gascoigne family, 166, 182

862

A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Gascoigne, Lord Chief Justice, 182,

Gaskell, Mrs., cited, 34, 253

Gasquet, Dr., ate/, 101, note

Gatty, Alfred and Mrs., 270

Gaunt, Maurice de, 12

Gaveston, Piers, 140, 162

Gawthorpe Hall, 182

Gent, Thomas, 206

Geometrical style of architecture,
modern example of, 143

George I., 100

George III., 26, 28, 29, 332

GhirUndajo, example o£ at Brongh
HaU,i8o

Giggleswick School, 59, 69

Gilbertines, community of, at Wat-
ton, 114-115, 118-119

Gilda Mercatoria of York, 15

Gilling Castle, 146

Gisburne, earthworks at, 68

Gisburne Park, portraits at, 187-188

Gissing, George, 272

Gladstone, Mr., 21 5

Glaisdale, legend of Beggar's bridge
at, 288-289

Glanville, Rannrph de, 157

Glossary of Words in use about AU
mondbury and Huddarsfidd—
Quoted, 231 ; cited, 131, 234

Gloucestershire, 60, 61

Goathland, 64

Godeale, Roger, 138

Godmanham, 4, 137

Goklsborongh Church, 128

Goldsmith, manager of a strolling
company of players, 340

Goole—
Growth of, in 19th century, 37
Water trade of, 43

Gordale, 49

Gordale Scar, Wordsworth's de-
scription of, quoted, 257

Gonmre Lake, legend of, 290-291

Gower, John, 206; 236

Gowthwaite Hall, 319

Grassington —
Barn-theatre of, 340-341
Riding the stang at, 298

Gray, Sir Richard, 150

Gray, Walter de, Archbishop, 80,
83, 84, 86, 88, 91

Great Central Railway, 33

Great Eastern Railway, 33

Great Houghton, 194

Great North Road-
Course of, 46-47
Picturesque life on, 29

Great Northern Railway, 33

Greeks, 66

Green, Richard Henry,
10, 21, 89

Greenfield, Archbishop of York. 81,
86

Greenhow, Roman'remains near, 75

Greenland whaling -grounds, Hull
boats sent to, 43

Green well, Canon-
Antiquarian investigations ot\ 60,
62 ; auoted, 60-61 ; cites; 68

Greetland, Lad Stone at, 64

Grendale, dragon table c£, 2S7

Greta, Scott's description of the,
quoted, 241-242, 244

Greta Bridge—
Dickens's association with neigh-
bourhood of, 237, 245-251
Scenery round, 52

Greuse, example of, at Faxnley
Hall, 184

Grey Friars, 19

Grimbald Crag, 339

Grimshaw, Rev. — , 203

Gristhorpe, 63

Gros, William le, Earl of Albemarle
and HoJderness, 162

Grosmont Moors —
Bridestones on, 64
Scenery round, 52

Guido, examples of, in Yorkshire
art collections, 180, 181

Guisborough —
Beauty oC, 50

Religious house at, 103, 104, 105
Otherwise mentioned, 68

Gunpowder Plot, Yorkshire con-
spirators in, 318

Gunwara, 137

H

Hackness Church, 124
Haigh, Rev. D. H., 125
Hailstone, Edward, 271

INDEX

353

Halifax-
All Souls' Church, 143
Bull Green at, 308
Crossley family, associations with,

213
Defoe, Daniel, connection with,

262-264
Gibbet Law of, 295-298
Men of, 200

Parish Church of, 128, 129
Population of, 1821 and 1901., 37
Trade and industries of, 38, 40,

41

Otherwise mentioned, 11, 193,
206
Hall-Stevenson, John, 271
Hallamshire district —

Dialect of— words from, 224-225 ;
Glossary of, ciUd, 234

Mentioned, 45
Hambledon Hills, 50, 52
Hambleton Hills, 47, 50, 53
Hampsthwaite, the blind joiner of,

331-334
Hand of Glory, legend of, 274-277
Hanoverians, Yorkshire support of,

25, 204-205
Hardraw Scaur, 49
Hardwick, Forest of, gibbet law of,

296-298
Harewood —

Castle, history of, 166-167

Church of, 128

Great men associated with, 166-
167, 206

House, description of, 182
Harewood, Earls of, 182
Hargrove, cited, 66
Harland, Captain, 231, 234 ; quoted^

232
Harleian MSS., cited > 95, 119
Harold Godwinsson, 6
Harold Hardrada, 6, 16 1
Harpham, 93, 138
Harrogate, 206, 217
Hart Leap Well, Wordsworth's de-
scription of, quoted t 256
Harte, Sir John, 268
Harton, Tristram, 136
Hartshead—

Literary associations of, 254

Present-day aspect of, 251-252
Harvest-home customs, 312

2 A

Hatfield—

Battle of, 633., 4, 79

Chase, draining of, 20, 39, 54

Church of, 54
Hatfield Papers, cited, 155
Haunted houses, 194
Hawksworth, Anne, 185
Hawksworth Hall, 185
Haworth —

Literary associations of, 237, 251-

255

Present-day aspect of, 251-252,

253
Haxey, Thomas de, Treasurer of

York, 81
Hazelwood, 82, 97
Heath Old Hall, 194
Hedon —

Church of (the Pride of Holder-
ness), 138, 139-140

Importance of, in former times,

20, I39~Z40
Stang-riding at, in 1889., 299

Hedon, Hugh de, 140

Heimskringla, cited, 161

Helena, Empress, 73

Helmer, Mr., letter to grandfather
of, quoted % 247-248

Helmsley —
Castle of, architecture and his-
tory of; 164-166
Mentioned, 48

Hemingborough Church, 138, 302

Henry I., 181

Henry II., 157, 162

Henry III., 86, 149, 185

Henry IV., 149

Henry V., 14, 182

Henry VII., 180

Henry VIIL—
Connection with Yorkshire and
old Yorkshire families, 16, 157,
158-159, 160, 189; anti-
Roman policy of, 18, 21-22,
84, 120; State Papers of,
auoted> 116, 120

Heshngton, 265

Hexham, bishopric of, 89, 93

Heywood, Rev. — , 203

Higden, 220

High Force, 49

Highway, King's, life and colour
on, in eighteenth century, 29

354

A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Hinderskelf Castle, 177

Hirst, Jimmy, eccentricities of, 316,

330-333
History of Craven (Whitakery—

Cited, 108, 117

Quoted, 187
Hob-o'-the-Hole, legends of, 287-

288
Hoeck, Van der, 181
Holbein —

Examples of, at Castle Howard,
178 ; portrait of Sir T. More
and family attributed to, 182
Holdemess—

Christmas nominy in, 313-314

Dialect of, 221, 232-234

Harvest-home customs in, 312

Riding the stang, custom of, in,

Sea-coast of, 55

South-East, 45
Holgate, Robert, Archbishop of

York, 86, 87
Holland (Lines.)* 5$
Holland, Sir Robert, 180
Hone's Tablt Book, cited, 341
Hook, Dean, 144, 203
Hornby Church, 123, 124
Hornsea Church, 55
Horses, Yorkshuremen's love of, 2
Horsforth Old Hall, 193
Hotham, Sir John, 23
Hotham Carr, 59
Hothneld, Lord, 158
Houghton, first Baron (R. M.

Milnes), 194, 271
Houseman, Richard, implication of,

fti murder of D. Clarke, 318,

320-321
Hoveden, Roger de, 139
Hovingham Church, 124
Howard, Sir Philip, 177
Howardian Hills, 50
Howden and its churchy 138-

139
Howsham Hall, 194

Howstean, 75

Huddersfield —

Defoe's account of, 264

Dialect of, 321-232

Men of, 200

Trade and industry of, 38, 40

Woodsome Hall, 173

Otherwise mentioned, 11, 31, 41,
58,191

Huddleston, 8a, 88

Hudson, George, 32

Hugh, Dean of York, in

Hull—
Charter of, 1299., 12
Great men of, 205
Monastidsm in, traces of, 102
Parish Church o£ 15, 138, 143-143
Parliamentary sympathies of,

1642., 23
Population o£ 1801 and 1901, 37
Steam vessels at, in early nine-
teenth c en t u ry, 30
Trade of, 43-44 ; trade goOds of,

IS

Trinity House, IS

Whaling industry of, 43

Wilberforce, assodatioQ with,
212-213

Otherwise mentioned, 10* 21, 43,
144, 208, 305
Hull and Barusley Railway, 33
Humber, the, 5, 53 J sn bm er g ed

towns of, 16
Humphrey, Mr., association with

Dickens, 251
Hunmanbv, 238
Hunsworth Mills, 254
Hunter (historian), 134-135* 236,

270
Huntley, John, 83
Hutchinson, Joanna, 256
Hutchinson, Mary, 255

Idle quarries, 129
IUdey—

Barrows, prehistoric, at, 60

Church of, 127, 128

Cow and Calf Rocks, legend of,
285-286

Roman station at, 75

Otherwise mentioned, 74, 334
Indulgences, sale of, 81
IngUby, Sir William, 319
Ingleborough, 49
Ingram, Sir, Arthur, 23, 179, 180
Irish missionaries in Yorkshire, 5

INDEX

855

Iron —

Bessemer process for converting
into steel, 38

Cleveland, of, 41
Iron ore, discovery of, in Cleveland,

37
Isnriam. See Aldborongh
/vanhoe, scene of, 53, 241, 245

Jackson, Mr., 58
ames I., 93, 164, 169, 178, 180,
184,398,301
James I. of Scotland, 150
Jane Eyre, scene of, 254
Janssen, examples of, in Yorkshire

art collections, 184, 188
Jeffrey, 265
Jenkins, Henry, life of, 188, 337-

338,
Jervaulx Abbey, 22, 51, 103, 104,

Jet, Whitby, 42

Jewitt, Mr. Llewellyn, 126
ews, massacre of, in York, 1190,
148
Journal of the Anthropological In*
jtitute, cited, 69

K

Kauffinan, Angelica, 181
Kaye family, 192-193
Kean, Edmund, 340
Kearv, Annie, 207, 272
Keighley, wedding and funeral

customs in neighbourhood of, 310
Keld Church, repair of, 1789., 124
Kellington, dragon fable of, 287
KiddalHall, 194
Kilborn Moor, 59
Kildwick Church, 128
Kilgrim Bridge, legend of, 283
Kilham, Celtic remains at, 70
Kingsley, Charles, 152
Kinmont Willie* 154
Kirby Lathes, 280
Kirby Moorside, 165, 166
Kirk Hamerton Church, Saxon re*

mains in, 127

Kirkburn Church, 138
Kirkby. See Pontefract
Kirkby Hill Church, 124
Kirkby Malham, 187
Kirkby Wiske, 123, 206
Kirkdale Church, sun-dial at, 124-

125
Kirkham Priory —

Architecture of, 105

Bird fiur at, 306

Legend of founding of, 108, 109

Order o£ 103

Wealth of, 112
Kirklees —

Earthworks at, 68

Robin Hood's connection with,
278, 280-281
Kirkstall Abbey, 9, 103-104, 105
Kitchenman family, 01
Kitton, Mr. F. G., letter from, on

the prototype of Squeers, quoted,

248-250
Knaresboroagh —

Aram, Eugene, connection of,
with, 318-322

Castle of, 19, 146, 167-169

Church of, 128

Dropping Well at, 19

Romantic situation of, 48

St Robert of (Robert Flower),
338-340

St. Robert's Cave, murder of
Daniel Clarke in, 318, 320-321

Shipton, Mother, connection of,
with, 322-325

Otherwise mentioned, 1 1, 29, 47,

Si

Knights-Templars, 179

Knollys, Sir Francis, 154

Lacy family, 8, 9, II, 181

Lacy, Alice de, 129

Lacy, Henry de, 179

Lacy, Ilbert de, 8, 149

Lambert family, 187

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway,

33
Lancaster, Thomas Earl of, be-

headal of, 18, 149

S56

A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Langsett, method of paying rent at,

303

Langside, battle of, 154

Lascelles family, 183

Last of the Barons, The, cited, 152

Lastingham —
Church, Norman crvpt at, 123
Public-house kept by parson at,
325-326

Lawson, Admiral, 207

Lawson, Miss, portrait of, 188

Lawson, Mr. Andrew, 74

Lawson, Sir John, 188

Lay ton, Richard, Dean of York, 84

Lazarus, bones of, at York Minster,

Leach, Mr., cited, 98

Lead-mines, 42

Leathley Church, 128

Leavening Brow, 53

Leconfield, 98

Lee, Edward, Archbishop of York,
ISO

Leeds —
All Souls' Church, 144
Charter of, 1207., 12-13
Communication with London in

1841., 31
Eighteenth century, in, 26
Leland's account of, 20
Oxford Movement in, 203
Population of, in eighteenth cen-
tury, 26, 29 ; in 1 80 1 and 1901.,

37
Rank of, among Yorkshire towns,

1378., 11
St Peter's Church at, 143-144
Steam power, introduction of, 30
Temple Newsam. See that title
Woollen industry of, 40
Otherwise mentioned, 41, 200,
202, 206, 208, 272
Leeds, Dukes of, 25
Leeds Mercury, 35-36
Legcolium. Sec Castleford
Legends and folk-lore, 273 et seq.
Leighton, Lord, 206
Leland —
Description of his travels in York-
shire, 18-20, 323; cited, 54,
153. l 6 * 189. ; quoted, 65, 90,
92, "3. 139, 'S3. 16&-169
Lely, Sir Peter, examples of, in

Yorkshire art collections, 175.
178, 187, 188
Leng, Sir William, 36
Lennox, Duke of, 180
Lennox, fourth Earl of, 180
Lennox, Charles, Duke of Rich-
mond, 157
Leyburn, 48
Leyburn Shawl (the Queen's Gap),

155
Lincolnshire, 54, 55, 204

Linen industry, 40

Linskill, Mary, 207, 272

Linton, 327

Lister, Dr., cited, 66, 71

Lister family portraits at Gisbame

Park, 188
Lister, James, 35
Literary and Philosophical Societies,

formation of, 35
Little John, legends of, 279-281
Liversedge, 254
Liverton Church, 123
Lockhart, cited, 242
Lofthouse, 319
Loftus, dragon fable of, 287
London, railway communication

with the North, 1840-1845., 31-

32

London and North- Western Rail-
way, 33

Londesborough, 158

Londesborough Park, 32

Longueville, Madame de, quoted,
165

Lothersdale Cave, 58

Low Kilburn Church, 123

Low Moor, 41

Luddite riots in the Spen Valley,

*54
Lunds Church, 123

Lynn, 320

Lytton, Lord, cited, 152

M

Maas, example of, at Brough Hall,

189
Mabuse, 178, 188
Macaulay, Lord, quoted, 265
Macintosh, 265
Madia, William, 83

INDEX

867

Malham —

Cave of, Wordsworth's descrip-
tion of, quoted, 257

Rock scenery of, 49
Mallory family, 91, 187
Malton —

Castle of, 145

Priory of, 103, 105

Roman station at, 75, 76

Otherwise mentioned, 49
Manchester, Earl of, 23
Manna of the Israelites, piece of, in

York Minster, 85
Manners, Katherine, 164
Manners, Thomas, Earl of Rutland,

164
Manningham, silk and velvet mill

at, 40
Mansell, John, 99
Marble-quarries, 42
Margaret, Queen, 150
Margaret Tudor, Princess, 179
Markenfield family, 91
Market Weighton, 70
Marlborough, Duke of, 176
Marmion of Tanfield, family of, 127
Marshland, 20, 39, 45, 54
Marston Moor, battle of, 23, 47, 86
Marten, Henry, 187
Martha, sister of Lazarus, bones of,

at York Minster, 85
Martin, Robert, 88
Martinmas, statute hiring-fairs held

at, 307-308
Marton, 206

Marvell, Andrew, Yorkshire asso-
ciations of, 138, 205, 208, 236,

238
Mary Queen, 136
Mary Queen of Scots —

Captivity of, at Sheffield, 42,
*35> 170 ; at Bolton Castle, 51,
I53i «54-i55 ; Darnley, the
husband of, 179, 206
Mary Barton, cited, 34
Masborough, 260
Masham —

Church of, 125, 126

Leland's account of, in 1536., 19
Mauleverer family, tradition as to

burial of, 259
Mealy-face, Old John, eccentricities

of, 316* 336-337

Meaux Abbey, 12, 103, 104, 105
Mechanics' Institutes, foundation

°f> 34-35
Medieval Military Architecture^

cited, 164

Megalithic remains, 64-66

Mellon, Harriet, 340

Melrose, Abbey of, 89

Melton, Archbishop, 81, 97, 98,

"4
Menhirs, 64-66

Merchant adventurers, 15
Merioneth, prehistoric cremation

in, 60
Messenger family, 187
Metallic Age, remains of, 59
Metcalfe, James, 302
Metcalfe, John (Blind Jack of
Knaresborough), genius of, 168,
216-217
Methley Church, 128
Mexborough, 67
Meynell-Ingram, family of, 180
Micklefell, 49
Middleham —
Castle of—
Associations of, with Richard
III. and the Earl of War-
wick, 51, 151-152
Remains and situation of, 145,
146
Church of —

Fortified tower of, 125
Tomb of St. Alkelda at, 303
Middlesbrough —
Export trade of, 43
Growth of, in nineteenth century,

Otherwise mentioned, 43, 50
Middlesmoor Church, 319
Middleton —

Church of, 124

Steam power introduced into
collieries of, 30
Middleton, Lord, 328
Midland Railway, 33
Miel, Jan, example of, at Nostell

Priory, i8l
Mieseraldt, example of, at Temple

Newsam, 180
Milnes family, 194
Milnes, Richard Monckton, 194, 27 1
Mitchell, Anthony, 298

I

868

A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

1

Monastic Houses in Yorkshire —
Architecture of, 104-105
Demolition of, 90-21, 1 20-1 21
Early straggles of, 109- 1 1 1
Numbers of, 101 and noU % 102
Orders of, 103
Picturesqueness of, 104
Remains o£ 101-104
Scandals as to, 1 18-120
Wealth acquired by, 111-112

Monasticon Anglicamtm^ cited, 108,

Monk, General, 25; portrait o(

187
Monk Bretton, religions house at,

103, 104, 105
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortlev, 270
More of More Hall, legend of, 291-

292
More, Sir Thomas and family, por-
trait of, 182-183
Morpeth, Lord, 177
Morris, Mr. J. E., cited* 124
Morritt, Mr., 241, 244
Mortham Tower, 242-245
Morville, Sir Hugh de, 168
Mount Grace Monastery —

Architecture of, 105

Communal life at, 11 5-1 16

Order of, 103

Scandal in connection with, 119-
120

Wealth of, 112

Otherwise mentioned, 9, 104
Mowbray, family of, 7, 9
Mowbray, Roger de, 9, 189
Mowbray, Vale of, 47, 50
Maker Church, 1 1 23
Mulgrave —

Castle of, 19

Woods of, 54
Mango industry, 40

N

Napoleon Buonaparte, relics of,

181
Nelson, Horatio, 270
Neolithic Age —

Burial of the dead in, 60

Inhabitants of Yorkshire in, 1, 2

Remains of, 59

Netherdale Rant, 306

Nevile, Robert, Bishop of Durham,

Neville family, 151, 157, 169
Neville, Lady Anne, 151-152
Neville, George, Archbishop of

York, feast given by, 86-87
Newbold quarries, 97
Newburgh Priory —

History of, and its connection
with Oliver Cromwell, 189-191

Order of^ 102
Newburgh, William de, 148, 189
Newby Hall, 319
Newcastle, communication b et w een

London and, 1840, 31
Newcastle, Earl of, 130
Newminster, Northumberland, 338
Newton Grange, 206
Nicholas, Pope, 129
Nicholas NuJMy % Yorkshire

o£ 246

Nidd, River, 48, 51

Nidderdale (Nidd Valley)—
Associations o£ 51
Gunpowder Plot conspirators

from, 318
Lead-mines of, 42

Nollekens, example o£ at Gisburne
Park, 188

Norfolk, Duke of, 155

Norfolk Chronicle, 1775* advertise-
ment from, f9toied 9 246

Norman Architecture —
Conisborough Castle, at, 147
East Riding churches, in, 137
Helmsley Castle, at, 164
Knaresborough Castle, at, 167
Middleham Keep, at, 151
North Riding churches, in, 123
Pickering Castle, at, 170
Pontefract Castle, at, 149
Richmond Castle, at, 147, 155,

156
Scarborough Castle, at, 161, 162
Skipton Castle, at, 157
Spofforth Castle, at, 147
West Riding churches, in, 127-

129
York Castle, at, 147

Norman barons settled in York-
shire, 7-9

Norman Period, earthworks o£ 67

INDEX

869

Normanton, 31, 41
Norsemen, 5

North-Eastern Railway, 33
North Grimston, 68
North Riding —
Churches of—
Architecture o£ 123
Decorations of, 126-127
Eighteenth • century treatment

of, 124
Fortified towers of, 125
Saxon remains in, 124, 127
Corn-growing land in, 39
Dialect of, 221, 229-231
Marble-quarries of, 42
Pasturage in, 39
Prehistoric remains in, 60
North Roads. .S* Old North Road

and Great North Road
North York Moors-
Dale scenery oi, 52
Prehistoric burying •places on,
60
Northallerton, 47, 48, 50
Northumberland, 22, 60
Northumberland, Earl of, 22
Northumbria —
Division into three episcopates,

Kingdom of, 3-4
Norton family, 91, 259
Norton Richard, 22, 259
Nostell Priory —

Founding of, 9, 102

History and account of, 180-182
Nottinghamshire, 29, 53
Nun Appleton —

Fairfax, General, at, 24, 208

Nunnery of, 102
Nun Monkton —

Church of, 128

Nunnery of, 102, 119

Oakwell Hall, 194, 254

Obtrush Roque, description of, 63-

04
Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury,

90-91

Old Byland, sun-dial at, 124

Old English inscriptions in Almond-
bury and Campsall Churches,

I3I-I33
Old North Road, course of, 46-47
Olicana. &*Ilkley
Orlay, Van, example of, at Brough

Hall, 189
Orleans, Duke of, 150
Orleans collection of 1798., 178
Osbaldeston, George, "The Old

Squire," 316, 328-329
Osborne family, 25
Osgoldcross district, Christmas

nominy in, 314
Oswi, King of Northumbria, 4-5
Otley, 48, 127, 128
Oulton, 206
Oundle, 90
Ouse, River, 1, 5, 72
Oxford Movement, 144, 203
Oxford, Bishop of, 213
Oxley family, 91

Paleolithic

Inhabitants of Yorkshire in, 1-2

Remains of, 58-59
Palmer, Mr. H. J., 36
Paris, Matthew, quoted, 98
Parliament at York, 12
Pately Bridge, 51, 68 ; Netherdale

Rant at, 306
Patrick Brompton Church, 123
Patrington Church (Queen of Hol-

derness), 138, 140-141
Patrington, Robert de, 140
Paxton, Sir Joseph, 214
Pebody, Mr. Charles, }6
Pembroke, Countess of, 180
Penda, King of Merda, 4
Pendragon, 158
Penistone—

Church of; 128

Pre-Roman earthworks at, 69

Rent customs around, 303

Wordsworth family, associated
with, 255

Otherwise mentioned, 53
Pennyworth, Peg, 316
Penrose, Mr., 143

360

A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Pcnyghcnt, 49
Percy family —
Lordships presented to, by the
Conqueror, 7; St. Hilda's
Abbey established by, 9;
generosity to the Church, 82,
92, 97-9° ; mentioned, 169
Percy, Margaret, 160
Percy, Thomas, 318
Percy's Retiques—
Quoted, 278-279 ; legend of
Wantley Dragon in, 291-292
Perpendicular Architecture —
Castles, in, 147
Churches of—
East Riding, 137, 139
North Riding, 123
West Riding, 128
Perugino, example of, at Brough

Hall, 189
Philippa of Hainault, 12
Phillips, Professor —
Barrows examined by, 60 ; quoted,
63^64 ; cited, 66
Phoenicians, 66
Pickering —
Castle, 146, 170
Church, mural paintings at, 126
Scenery round, J2, 53
Otherwise mentioned, 48, 69
Pickhill, 11, 123
Picts,5

Pierce Bridge, 46
Piers, Sir, of Exton, 149
Pilgrimage of Grace, enthusiasm
for, and leaders of, in Yorkshire,
21-22, 150, 159, 162, 180, 204
Pitt-Rivers, General, cited, 68
Plumpton, 65
Pocklington Church, 138
Pole, de la, family of, 16, 205
Poll-tax, 1378., 10
Pontefract —
Castle of—
Architecture of, 147
Association with historical

events, 146, 148-151
Description of, 1378., n
Razing of, by Parliamentarians,

Situation of, 8-9
Otherwise mentioned, 18 j

Coal-pits near, 20 |

Pontefract— continued
Loyalty to the Stuarts in, 23, 204
Religious Houses at, 102
Religious life in mediaeval, 15
St. Ive's Well near, 311-312
Siege of, in the Civil War, 208
Town of, 10

Otherwise mentioned, 8, 29, 46,
48, 82

Pope, Alexander, quoted, 165, 166,
167

Portes, de, Lords of Seamer, 7

Porteus, Beilby, Bishop of London,
206

Poussin, example of, at Temple
Newsam, 180

Prsemonstratensian nannm* Houses
of, in Yorkshire, 103, 243

Prehistoric remains in Yorkshire, 57
et seq.

Preston, Ben, poems of, and quo-
tation from, 222-224

Priestley, Joseph, 206, 236

Puteoli, Guisborough compared
with, 50, 104

Quixley, Prior, 181

Rabbit-coursing, 308

Radcliffe, John, 206

Railways-
Early, between Yorkshire and

London, 31-33
Present-day facilities, 32, 33

Raine, Dr., cited, 13, 14, 140

Ramsden, William, 21

Ramsgill, 318

Raphael, example of, at Wentworth
Woodhouse, 175

Ravenspur, 16

Rawdifie, 330, 332, 333

Ray, John, quoted, 134

Reade, Charles, cited, 36

Reading-rooms, establishment of, 35

Redcar, 56

Reform Acts, 33

INDEX

861

Reformation, the —

Beverley, effects of, in, ioo

York Minster despoiled in 'time
of, 84-86

Yorkshire in time of, 1 8-23
Religious life in mediaeval towns,

14-15
Remains of the Prehistoric Age of

England^ cited, 60, 68
Rembrandt, portrait by himself at

Temple Newsam, 180
Rent, old methods of paying, 302-

303
Report of MSS. in Various Cottec-

turns, quoted, 190
Rey Cross, folk-lore of neighbour-
hood of, 274, 277-278
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, examples of,

in Yorkshire art collections, 175,

178, 180, 184, 187
Rhodes, builder, 169
Ribblesdale, Earl of, 187, 188
Richard II., 149, 153, 157, 168, 170
Richard III., 51, 151, 152
Richmond —

Beauty of, 155-156

Castle of—
Architecture of, 147
History of, 156-157
Remains of, 145
Romantic situation of, 146, 155
Otherwise mentioned, 51

Church woodwork at, 123

Curfew-bell, ringing of, at, 302

Franciscan House at, 102 ; legend
of Felon Sow of Rokeby and
friars of, 293-294

Lead-mines near, 42

Romantic situation of, 48

Town of, 10

Trade guilds of, 15

Traditions of Arthur and his
Knights at, 281-283

Otherwise mentioned, 8, 19, 29,47
Richmond, Alan, first Earl of, 151
Richmond, Conan Duke of Brittany

and Earl of, 156
Richmond, Dukes of, 157
Rickman, quoted, 97
Riddlesden Hall, 193
Ridsdale family, 91
Rievaulx Abbey —

Origin of, 109

Rievaulx Abbey — continued
Wealth of, 112

Otherwise mentioned, 103, 104, 105
Ripley —
Castle of, 76
Picturesqueness of, 48
Ripon —
Archbishops of, connection be-
tween those of York and, 88
Curfew-bell, ringing of, at, 302
Destruction of, by the Danes, 5-6
Diocese merged in that of York,

89 ; formation of (1836), 93
Minster of —
Architecture of, 91
Destruction of, by the Danes, 90
Generous support of clergy and
county in building of, 88,
91-92
Modern building, origin of,

90-91
Previous churches on site of, 89
Restorations of 1862 and 1872.,

St. Wilfrid's Needle, 92
Picturesqueness of, 48
Rank of, among Yorkshire towns,

Sanctuary right at, 92-93
Wakeman's Horn, blowing of,

301-302
Otherwii

lerwise mentioned, 47, 51, 60,

Rivelin, valley of the, 53, 262

Rivers, Earl, 150

Roberson, Mr., 254

Robert the Scribe, 19

Robin Hood, 53 ; legends of, 278-

281
Robin Hood's Bay, 19, 5$
Robinson Crusoe, 262
Roche Abbey, 103, 104, 105
Rockingham, first Marquis of, 175
Rockingham, second Marquis of, 175
Roe Head, 254
Roger, Archbishop, 80, 83, 84, 85,

Roger of Howden, 79
Rogers, cited, 108
Rokeby —

Beauty and associations of, 237,
241-243, 245

Felon Sow of, legend of, 293-294

862

A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Rollynson, Robert, 135
Roman occupation —

Earthworks, camps, and dykes,
67, 68» 243

Eboracnm under the Romans, 3

Remains of, 70-76, 188-189;
destruction of, 6
Romanus, Archbishop, 80-81
Romanus, John, Treasurer of York,

80
Rombald's Moor, the hermit of,

Romille, Lady Adeliaa de, 108

Romille, William de, 108

Ross, Robert de, 164

Roper, William, 182

Rosa, Salvator, example of, at Nos-

tell Priory, 181
Roseberry Topping, 50, 59
Rosedale, 52

Roses, Wars of the, 18, 150, 158, 170
Rotherham —

Chantry chapel at, 135-136

Church of, 128

Otherwise mentioned, 1 1, 260, 261
Rotterdam, trade with Goole, 43
Royston Church, 128
Rudland Moor, 63
Rudstone —

British remains near, 61, 62, 69

Norman remains at, 137
" Rudstone, the," 64, 66
Rufus, Alan, Earl of Brittany, 7,

*56. '57
Runswick Bay, 56, 288

Ruskin, John, quoted, 183

Rutland, Earl of, 158, 164

Ruysdael, example of, at Nostell
Priory, 181

Rydal Mount, 255

Rye, River, 52

Ryedale, 52

Ryland, 112

Rylston—
British remains found near, 63
Legend of White Doe of, 258-259

St. Agnes, 85

St. Albans, battle of, 158

St. Albans, Duchess of, 340

St. Augustine, Canons Regular of,

93, 102, IO3

St Chad, 79

St. Gilbert of Sempringham, Houses
of the Order of, 94, 103

St. Hilda-
Abbey of. Set Whitby Abbey;
history of, 5 ; Streancscharea
of, 103 ; connection withCaed-
mon, 238-239 ; legend of the
snakes and, 289-290

St. John Baptist, 85

St John of Beverley —
Lue of, 93-94 ; canoniarion c£
95 ; shrine of, 98

St. Mary's Abbey. Sttumdtr York

St. Oswald, Lord, 180

St. Patrick and the snakes, legend
0^289

St Paulinas, Christianity [t%m 1ml
in Yorkshire by, 4, 5, 78-79, 127,
129, 137

St. Peter, 85

St Quintin family, 138

St. Sebastian, 85

St Stephen, 85

St. Wilfrith—
York Minster restored by, 79 ;
connection with Ripon, 88-90;
mentioned, 84, 93, 100

St. William, 83, 84, 93, 100

Salisbury, Lord, 36

Salt, Sir Titus, model community
founded by, 40, 214-215

Saltaire, model community o£ 40,
214-215

Saltburn, 56

Salton Church, 123

Sanctuary, right of, 92-95

Sandal Castle, 147, 170

Sandsend, 56

Sargent, Mr., portrait by, at Gis-
bume Park, 188

Saul, Richard, 136

Saville, Sir Henry, 206

Sawley Abbey, 103, 104, 105 ; details
from compotes of, 1 17-118

Saxon remains-
Churches, in, 122, 124, 127,

137 „
Crosses, 76

Earthworks, 67

INDEX

868

Scarborough —

British village near, 69
Bronte, Anne, tomb of, at, 355
Castle of—
Architecture of, 147
Situation and history, 55, 146,
161-163
Otherwise mentioned, 7, 19, 43,
206
Scargill Cliff, 343

School Boards, establishment of, 34
Scotch Corner, 46
Scots, 5

Scott, Archbishop, 84, 99
Scott, Dr., 270
Scott, John, 40
Scott, Sir Gilbert, work of, in York-

shire, 93, 100, 136, 142, 143
Scott, Sir Walter-
Association with Yorkshire, 53,
237, 240-245 ; quoted, 241-242,
244,245
Scotton, Guy Fawkes's connection

with, 318
Scrope family —
Guts to the Church, 9, 82, 92 ;
connection with Bolton Castle,
152-155
Scrope, Richard, Archbishop of
York—
Beheadal of, 18, 153; genero-
sity in the building of York
Minster, 81 ; shrine of, 83 ;
indulgence cup of, 84 ; popu-
larity of, 86 ; cited, 149
Seamer, 20
Seamer, Lords of, 7
Sedbergh, 238
Selby—
Abbey —
Architecture of, 105
Legend of founding of, 105-106
Mitred abbot of, 113
Order and beauty of, 103
Wealth of, 113
Rank of, among Yorkshire towns,

1378., 11
Otherwise mentioned, 43, 47,
208,305
Semerwater Lake, legend of, 290
Senior, Job, career of, 316, 334-336
Sentimental Journey, The, 266, 268
Septimius Severus, 71

Settle, Victoria Cave at, 58-59

Shakespeare, cited, 148, 149

Shandy Hall, 191

Sharow, 92

Sharp, Archbishop, 142

Shaw, William, the prototype of
Wackford Squeers, 248-250

Sheffield-
Castle of, 170
Cutlers' Company of, 15
Dialect of, 225-226, 234
Elliott's associations with,26 1-262
Mary Queen of Scots in, 42, 135
Parish Church of, 128, 134-135
Population of, 1801 and 1901.,

29.37
Steam-mill introduced into, 30

Steel and iron works of, 42

Trade of, 38

Went worth Woodhouse Park, 173

Otherwise mentioned, 11, 41, 53,
144, 200, 237
Sheffield Deify Telegraph, 35, 36
Sherburn, 82
Sheriff Hutton Castle, 146, 147,

169-170
Sherwood Forest, 53, 245
Shibden Hail, 193
Shipton, Mother, account of, 19,

316, 322-323
Shipton, Tobias, 322
Shirley, scene of, 34, 254
Shoddy industry, 40
Shrewsbury, Earl and Countess of,

170
Shrewsbury, sixth Earl of, 135
Silk industry, 40
Silkstone Church, 128
Simon Howe, menhirs on, 64
Sixth Roman Lr^ion, 71, 72
Skelbrooke Park, 279 '
Skelton—

Castle of, 271, 329

Church of, 123
Skibeden, 108
" Skimmington," 298
Skipsea, 55 ; earthworks at, 68
Skipton—

Castle-
Connection with the Clifford

family, 1 58-161, 209-210
Origin of, 157-158
Otherwise mentioned, 51, 146

v-

364

A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Skipton — continued
Lothersdale Cave, 58
Parish Church —
Monuments of the Cliffords in,

1 59-161
Period of, 128
Scenery round, 41
Otherwise mentioned, 48, 200
Slopwith-

British village at, 69
Saxon remains at, 137
Skirlaw, Walter, Bishop of Durham,

Slack (Cambodunum), 75
Sleddale, 52
Sledmere —

Church of, 143

Sykes, Sir Tatton, at, 210, 212
Sleights, 200

Sleights Moor, bride stones on, 64
Sleswick, 3
Smeaton, John, 206
Smith, Benjamin, eccentricities of,

327-328
Smith, Sydney, at Foston-le-Clay,

237, 264-260
Smithfield, 22
Snaith, 11, 128
Snape Castle, 147
Snyder, 184

Sockburn, dragon fable of, 287
Southcote, Johanna, 324
Southhill, Ursula. See Shipton,

Mother
Sowerby Bridge, 206
Spen Valley —

Industry of, 40

Literary associations of, 254

Present-day aspect of, 251-252,
254
S pence, Anne, 319
Spencer, Edmund, monument to,

210
Speeton, 55
Spital Inn, legend of Hand of Glory

at, 275-277
Spofforth Castle, 7, 147
Sprotborough, 174, 206
Spurn Point, 43, 55
Stafford, Thomas, 162
Stainmoor, 39, 275
Staithes, 56
Stalling Busk Church, 123

I Stamford Bridge —

Battle of, 6 ; CommemoratioD Pie
0^303

Standard, battle of, 18, 109

Stang-riding, custom of, 298-300

Stanton, quoted, 261

Stapleton, 82

Starbeck, 338

Statute hinng-fairs, 307-308

Steam power, application oC to
manufacturers and locomotion, 30
etseq.

Steel trade, 38, 42

Stephen, King, 112

Sterne, Laurence, Yorkshire asso-
ciations of, 190, 237-238, 266-
270

Sterne, Richard, Archbishop of
York, 266-267

Stillingfleet, cited, 66

Stillington, 267-268

Stillman,.Mr., 124

Stittenham, 206

Stone-quarries, 42

Stonegrave, 124, 207, 272

Stonesdale, 52

Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, Earl
of, I7S. 176, 182, 194, 206

Street, Sir G. G., 144

Stretton, 108

Stuart, Matthew (fourth Earl Len-
nox), 180

Stuart cause, loyalty to, in York-
shire, 23-25

Stuart Pretenders, 25

Studley Royal, pleasure-grounds o£
beauty and making of, 186-187

Stukeley, cited, 66

Suffolk, Duke of, 159

Suffolk, Earls of, 16

Sunderland, first Earl of, 154

Sun-dials, Saxon inscriptions on,
123-125

Sussex, Earl of, 22

Sutdiffe, Halliwell, 272

Sutton, 107

Sutton-in-the-Forest, 267

Swale, River, 51

Swaledale—
Historic monuments of, 51, 146,

154, ISS-IS6
Lead-mines of, 41-42

Otherwise mentioned, 52, 206,237

INDEX

865

Sweeper at? Thieves, The, quoted,

230-231
Swift, Dean, quoted, 148
Swine Church, 138
Swillington, 4
Swiss lake villages, 69
Sykes, Sir Christopher, 39, 211
Sykes, Sir Tatton, character and

work of, 39, 143, 210-212

Tadcaster —
Kettleman Bridge, 76
Rank of, among' Yorkshire towns,

I378. »
Roman station at, 74, 75

Otherwise mentioned, 42, 74, 82,

Tanfield—
Castle of, 147
Church of, 127

Tankersley Park, literary associa-
tions of, 270

Taylor, Isaac, 236

Taylor, John, the Water Poet, 270

Taylor, Tom, 75

Tees, junction of with the Greta—
Literary associations of, 241, 243-

244,245
Scott's description of, quoted, 244

Teesdale, 52, 206

Temple Newsam, history of, 179-
180

Teniers, example of, at Wentworth
Woodhouse, 175

Terrington Church, 124

Theodore, Archbishop of Canter*
bury, 93

Thirsk—
Church of, 123
Picturesqneness of, 48
Otherwise mentioned, 47, 266

Thirsk, William (Abbot of Foun-
tains), 22

Thomas, Archbishop, 79-80, 86, 88,

Thompson, Potter of Richmond,

legend of, 282-283
Thoresby, Archbishop John, 81, 83,

85,86

Thoresby, Ralph (Topographer),
26, 179, 206, 236

Thornborough, pre-Roman earth-
works at, 69

Thome, 54

Thorne Waste, draining of, 20, 39,

Thomhill Church, 128
Thornton —

Literary associations of, 207, 252

Present-day aspect of, 251-252
Thornton, John, 82
Thornton Watlass Church, 125
Thorpe Salvin Church, 128
Thorpe-sub-Montem, legend of

Devil's Bridge at, 284-285
Thorwaldsen, 143
Thurnam, cited, 02
Thurstan, Archbishop of York, 85,

107, no
Thwaites, Isabel, 208
Tickhill, importance of in 1378.. n
Tickhill Castle, 147
Tillotson, John, Archbishop of

Canterbury, 206
Tintoretto, example of, at Castle

Howard, 178
Titian, example of, at Wentworth

Woodhouse, 175 .
Todmorden, 41

Tognoli, font by, at Escrick, 143
Tonge, Thomas, 138
Tonnington, Robert, 129
Topdiffe, 336 ; Castle of, 7, 22, 145
Tosti, Earl, 125
Towton —

Battle of, 18, 47

Church of, 128

Tracy, Sir William, 168

Trade of mediaeval Yorkshire towns,

13-U
Trade guilds, 15

Transactions of the East Riding

Antiquarian Society, cited, 98
Transitional period of architecture,

examples of, in West Riding

churches, 128
Tristram Shandy, scenes of, 266,

267-268
Tudor family, 157
Turner collection at Farnly Hall,

183-184
Tutbury, 155

QlUt
tJOO

A BOOK ABOUT YORKSHIRE

Tyburn, 22

Tyssens, example of, at Wentworth
Woodhonse, 175

U

Ulf, Earl of Deira—
Horn of, at York Minster, 84;
Aldbrougb Church built by,

Ure, River, 51

Vanbrugh, Sir John, 176

Vandyck, examples of, in Yorkshire
art collections, 175, 178, 181, 189

Vaughan, Mr. John, 37

Vaughan, Sir Thomas, 150

Vavasour family-
Gifts of, to the Church, 82, 88,
92, 97 ; story of their disin-
heritance from Farnley, 185-
186

Velasquez, examples of, in York-
shire art collections, 178, 184

Velde, Van de, 180, 181

Vermuvden, Cornelius, drainage of
Hatfield Chase and Thome Waste

by, 20, 39* 54
Victoria Cave, 58-59
Village feasts, 306-308
Villiers, George. Sa Buckingham
Vinci, Leonardo da, example of, at

Wentworth Woodhonse, 175
Vindicia contra Tyrannos, 135

W

Waagen, ciUd % 178, 180, 182
Wackford Squeers, the prototype of,

248-250
Wages at beginning of sixteenth

century, 83
Wakefield—

Battle of, 18, 150

Bull Ring in, 308

Chantry chapel of St. Mary at,

135. 136-137
Coal-pits near, 20

Wakefield — continued
Famous men of, 206
Industry of, 40

Literary associations of, 271, 27a
Mediaeval, 13, 15, 18
Parish Church of, 128, 129
Rank of, among Yorkshire towns*

1378* «
Otherwise mentioned, 170, 194*

271, 278

Walbran, Mr., cUea\ 91

Walker, William, 135

Walpole, Horace —

Quoted^ 42, 176-177 ; cited* 104,
182 ; Yorkshire visits of, 270-
271
Walton Hall, literary amoriatkins

of, 271
Wantley Dragon, legends of, 291-

292
Warden (Bedfordshire), origin of

religious house at, 109
Warmsworth Church, 133-134
Warwick, 47, 173
Warwick the King-maker (Richard

Neville), 51, 151, 152
Warrenne, Earls o£ 7, 9, 13
Washburn, valley of, 51
Waterton, Charles, 271
Watson, William, 236, 272
Watt, James, 30
Watton, GilberrJne community at,

103, 105, 112, 114-115, 118-119
Way Hag, 59
Weathercote Caves, 49
Weddel family, 91
Weddings, village, 308-309
Wellbeloved, cited, 71-72
Wells, sacred, 311-312
Welwick Church, 138
Wensley Church —

Brass at, 127

Saxon stone at, 124

Scrope family, memorials ot, in,

*54
Woodwork in, 123

Wensley, Simon de, 127

Wensleydale —
Historic monuments o£ 51, 151
Literary associations of, 237
Sword and sheath, ancient, found
near, 70

Wentworth, Barbara, 87

INDEX

867

Wentworth family, 166, 175
Wentworth Woodhouse, 173, 174,

I7S-I76
Wesley, John, 203
West Riding—

Chantry chapels in, 135-136
Churches of, 127-129
Coal and iron of, 41
Corn-growing land in, 39
Dale scenery of, 50-52
Dialect of, 232
Industries ofV 40
Sessions Roll of, quoted, 311
Towns of, in 1378., 10-11 ; in
the eighteenth century, 26
West Tanficld, 60, 69
Westmoreland, 22
Westmoreland, Earl of, 162
Weston, 59, (j
Wetherby, 29, 46, 47, 76-77
Wharfe, River, 51
Wharfedale—
Clock-dressings in, 312
Funeral customs in, 310-31 1
Great names associated with, 16,

157, 206, 237, 272
Historic monuments of, 51, 194
WharnclhTe—
Dragon of Wantley, legend o£

291
literary associations of, 53, 245,
270-271
Wharton, Mrs. Margaret (Peg
Pennyworth), eccentricities of,

329-330
Whernside, 49

Whitaker, Dr. (Historian of

Craven) —
Quoted, 17, 113, 160-161, 187,

2IO; cited, 108, 117, 125,259;

mentioned, 236
Whitby—
Abbey of —

Architecture of, 105

Benedictines in, 9, 103

Demolition o£ 120

Founding of, 5, 102-103

Literary associations of, 93,
238-240

Picturesqueness of, 104
Caedmon, association with, 237-

239 ; Caedmon's Cross, 240
Commercial importance of, 43

Whitby— continued

Jet and alum o£ 42

Legends of — Robin Hood
legends, 278-280; St. Hilda
and the snakes, 289-290

Literary associations of, 207, 272

Penny (ledge or Horngarth cus-
tom at, 300-301

Otherwise mentioned, 55-56, 68,

338
IVkite Doe of Rylston, Tie, scenery

of legend of, 258-259

Whitestone Cliffe, legends of, 290-
291

Whitkirk, 206

Whitsundale, 52

Whixley Church, 128

Whorlton Castle, 147

Wilberforce, Archdeacon, 213 ;
quoted, 140

Wilberforce, William, 205, 212-213

Wilkinson, John, 298

William the Conqueror —
Rule of, in Yorkshire— the har-
rowing of the land, 6-7,18-9,
79,95, I22 ' *4? ' grants of land*
in Yorkshire made by, 106,
*49> 156, I57» 162 ; chest of,
in Knaresborough Castle, 168

William de Waltham, 97

William of Malmesbury, cited, 5-6,

9°

William the Lion, King of Scot-
land, 157

William of Orange, 25

Wilton Beacon, 49

Wiltshire, prehistoric burial-places
in» 59> 60, 61

Wincobank, 67

Windhill quarries, 129

Windle, Mr.—
Cited, 60, 63, 68 ; quoted, 70

Winestead—
Church, 138

Marvell, Andrew, birthplace of,
205,238

Winn, Sir Thomas, 180

Winter, Robert and Thomas, 318

Winwood, battle of, 655., 4, 5

Wiske Church, 123

Wolds, the—
East Wold corn-growing land,
39* 49-5o