Full text of "Bygone Yorkshire"

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LIBRARY

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BY(;Oi\E YORKSHIRE,

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MICKLEGATK BAU, VORK.

BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

EDITED BY

WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S.

AUTHOR OF

"OLD CHURCH LORE," "CURIOSITIES OF THE CHURCH,

"OLD-TIME PUNISHMENTS," ETC., ETC.

HULL AND YORK :
A. BROWN & SONS.

London: Simpkin, Marshai.t,, Hamilton, Keni", & Co., Limhed

18C)2

y' G,?-"'
-<

preface,

T T gives me pleasure to once more be the
-^ means of making another addition to the
Kterature of the county I love so much. In the
pages of this work will, I believe, be found
welcome contributions to our local history. In
preparing the work I had the good fortune to
obtain the friendly co-operation of writers deeply
interested in the subjects about which they have
written. I offer to my contributors my warm
thanks.

William Andrews.

Hull Literary Club,

30th AwjUMt, 189:2.

396051

Contents*

TACK

Lakk-Dwkllixgs of Yokkshike. By T. Tindall Wildridgc 1

Ax Ancient Monolith. By W. H. Thompson 39

Relics AND Remnants. By John Nicholson 40

Yorkshire Castles : Some of their Historic Associations.

By Edward Lamplough ... 64

Y'oRK Castle. By Sidney W. Clarke . . 74

Castles and Castle Builders : Bolton Castle and the

SCROPES 82

Ramparts, Walls, and Bars of York. By W. Camidge... 93

The Ivanhoe Country. By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, b.a. ... llo

Knichts Templars. By J. J. Sheahan ... 124

St. Mary's Abbey, Y'ork. By George Benson 145

Byland Abbey : Its Historical Associ.\tions. By Edward

Lamplough ... ... ... ... .. ... ... 154

Robin Hood in Yorkshire. By Charles A. Federer, l.c. p. 164

The Pilgrim ace of Gr.vce. By W. H. Thompson 174

The History, Traditions, and Curious Customs of Y^ork ^^>c»*>,

Minster. By George Benson t^^^

A Story of the Gunpowder Plot. By the Rev. Geo. S.

Tyack, b.a 204

The Spinning- Wheel. By I. W. Dickinson, b.a 213

RiPON and its Minster. By George Parker 221

RiPON Spurs. By T. C. Heslington 240

Cai>tain Cook, the Circumnavigator. By W. H. Burnett 244

Farnley Hall. By .1. A. Clapham 255

Index 265

BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Xafte:::=2)weUino6 of IPorftebirc.^

By T. Tindall Wildridge.

THE researches and conclusions of science
lead us to the acceptance of the general
theory that at a period far remote from our day,
though by no means at any early stage of the
world's existence, the present arrangement of its
crust, by a gradual alteration of the mundane
equilibrium, took the place of a disposition of
land and water differing totally from that now
familiar to us. Our continents, it is proved, have
taken the place of other continents whose slow
submersion occasioned the vast oceanic expanses
of the southern hemisphere. Geological facts can
be read in the light of this theory ; but the
strongest direct evidence, as so strongly adduced
by Professor Huxley, is found in the considera-
tion of the present state of the living organic

2 BYGOXE YORKSHIRE.

world ; that is in the geographical distribution of
animals and plants. The innumerable coincid-
ence (astounding in the face of any other theory)
among the branches of the African, Papuan, and
Australasian races are clear testimony of their
being survivals of old-world types ; either in their
continuance upon the fragments left of their
ancient continents or in the new countries which
rose to meet their footsteps as they hastily or
insensibly retired before the rising waters.
The fauna, other than the human animal,
and the flora of those accidental remnants
of the early continents, are also alone
sufficient to warrant the assumptions to the
acceptance of which the survivals of old human
customs and folk matter have led.

How often this awful oscillation — silent and
slow in itself for the most part, though perhaps
culminating towards crises, and almost necessarily
catastrophic in its effects at one stage or another
— has occurred, or to what extent present life is
influenced by alternations of equilibria other than
the last great reversal, are questions which
nor conjecture nor science can yet touch ; they
are closed doors, awaiting keys which geology
may yet furnish.

LAKE-DWELLINGS OF YORKSHIRE. 3

The abundant traces of that most recent
re-adjustment of the globe — most recent, yet before
all history — are corroborated by the hundred-
tongued voice of tradition, and, moreover, a long
rearguard of facts also remains yet in the misty
region known as "prehistoric times" to keep up
a line of communication, in a more or less defined
manner, between Now and the earliest period
of the present condition of the earth.

I venture to think we have in the lake
dwellings of the world a unique and an almost
universal relic of those early times, not necessarily
in any one instance dating from the turn of that
measureless tide, but at any rate so far in the
past that men had either the necessity which
must have compelled existence among watery
wastes, or had not yet lost the habits which earlier
necessity had made characteristic.

We have to consider here the water-dwellino^s
which belong to prehistoric times. Yet it is as
well to mention that, just as in other directions
we find all the arts of the ancients having their
counterparts among savage races of to-day, so
there are to be found in many parts of the world
tribes 3^et living on lagoons and at mouths of
rivers, — in water-dwellings which have a strong

4 . BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

family likeness to what we call the prehistoric
lake-dwellings. This, of course, according to
many circumstances which would have to be
considered, may or may not help the theoretical
view with which this paper commences, but it
may obviate objection to reflect that, until a certain
point of civilization is reached, the tendency of
man is to continue to rule his life and actions by
the ancestral standard.

Narrowing the limits of the subject it may be
briefly stated that a series of discoveries, initiated
by Dr. Keller in Switzerland in 1854, and more
amply illustrated b}^ Dr. Munro in 1890, in a
magnificent collection of statistics, have estab-
lished the fact that a broad and indefinite
belt of Europe — including, Hungary, Switzerland,
Germany, France, Holland, and the British Isles
— contains an immense number of remains of
ancient structures, which, built on piles or masses
of sticks and brushwood on the beds of lakes, were
the habitations, farm buildings (?), and strongholds
of a people living through the Stone and Bronze
ages, commencing in most primitive times and
coming down by "a gradual, quiet, and peaceable
development," to a period of artistic skill and
absolute culture, till — and it is here that Mr,

6 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Franks and Dr. Munro correct previous conclu-
sions — they were finally driven out by a fresh race,
which, after impressing its own character on the
lake-dwellings, abandoned them.

To come to the British Isles, the lake-dwellings
of Scotland and Ireland, though including some
early examples, are mostly of a date compara-
tively late. Under the unmelodious name of
Crannoges or Crannogs, they had been known
for centuries, and have even taken part in the
events of recorded mediaeval history ; though their
archaeological import was not recognized till 1839,
and not fully until the Swiss discoveries gave
enlightened zest to inquiry. In these cases the
late use of the structures as military fortresses
seems to have obscured the consideration of their
original purpose.

In the lake-dwellinofs of the continent there
have been found sufficient relics to afford a not
altogether indistinct idea of the life and occupa-
tion of the inhabitants, and it may be instructive
to review some of the details, incorporating
the conclusions to which they have given rise,
before the Yorkshire examples are dealt with.

The Lake-dwellers came into Europe as a
pastoral people, provided with the cow% sheep.

LAKE-DWELLINGS OF YORKSHIRE. 7

pig, goat, and dog ; they were not wanderers, but
settled in groups, consisting in some cases of
hundreds of faraiUes. The race did not Hve
exclusively on the water, as there are remains of
coeval hill-dwellings.

They were likewise agriculturists. Their
tillage is considered to have been extremely
simple, but it was evidently systematic, and
conjecture is given ample scope by Dr. Keller's
remark to the effect that some of the products
found are of a quality not excelled by the best
growths of the present day. The chief crops
appear to have been wheat, two-row^ed barley,
and flax.

Their food was the flesh of the domestic
animals, and of animals of the chase, fish, milk,
corn-meal, rye, crab-apples, plums, pears, sloes,
acorns, waterchestnuts, hazelnuts, cherries, rasp-
berries, grapes, and blackberries. The broken
state of the bones found is a peculiarity of
remarkable uniformity of occurrence. Not only
are all marrow bones found broken up, but
the hollow bones of the heads and jaws
containing cellular tissue have been opened
with a readiness which, by constant use,
became almost art. Professor Rutmeyer adduced

8 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

from this that there was ''no superfluity,"
but it is quite as feasible to suppose that the
palates and cookery of the lake-dwellers were
capable of rendering these parts, not the
"• miserable pittance " he describes, but a dainty.
From finding the jaws of dogs similarly cracked,
it has also been held that those animals were
likewise eaten ; the fact, however, of dogs being
kept at all by the islanders, together with the
finding of immense quantities of small bones
which would, if the general conditions were those
of scarcity, have been gnawed and eaten by
the canines, points rather to plenty.

The communities had their hunters and
fowlers, whose game were stags, roes, wild boars,
beavers, otters, and squirrels ; to which may be
added the bear, wolf, and urus ; also geese, sw^ans,
and other birds. As well as by their skill with bows
and arrows, and javelins, they entrapped the
wild animals by means of pits, and probably gins.
They caught the beaver and the otter by means
of floating valve-traps. They had also their
fishers, who caught pike and other abounding fish
by nets and line, by hooks of boar tusks, and by
barbed darts.

Their clothing would vary according to the

LAKE-DWELLINGS OF YORKSHIRE. 9

season. They spun flax into thread, and by a
simple process wove it' into cloth of va^^ious
textures and patterns still existing. Sheep and
other skins would be commonly used as clothing.
Spindle whorls of stone and pottery, and parts of
rude w^eaving frames have remained to us. They
also made mats and ropes, and no doubt wove
basketw^are of some kind.

Corn-grinding (without removal of the bran),
cooking, spinning, weaving, and the making of
clothes would be the domestic occupations.

What may be termed town-occupations would
be pot making and w^eapon making.

Pots are found of widely sundered degrees of
fineness. Urn and plate forms are met, but mere
jars are the most common. The material w^as
the nearest clay mixed with gravel, quartz, or
roughly pounded flint, and burnt with a moderate
heat. The great bulk of the pottery is plain, but
some examples are ornamented with indentations,
bosses, and zig-zag ornament, some are coloured
with graphite, and some with red ochre. The
proficiency shown in attaining regularity of shape
without a wheel is proof that pottery was the
occupation of a '' trade," and probably the products
were objects of barter. Red ochre is a common

10 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

" find," and reminds us of the ancient German
practice of artificially reddening the hair.

The remarks as to trade apply to weapons.
Flint was the primeval tool. It was less common in
Switzerland than elsewhere. It was used to
manufacture other tools of flint, of bone, and
of stone, and the processes were chipping, grind-
ing, and methods facilitated by the use of water
and sand. Nephrite was also a tool material,
but it is only met naturally in Egypt and Asia.
Though found in the oldest lake-dwellings, it
probably reached them by barter, and was
imported in the form of tools already made,
as no chips have been identified, and broken
tools are found carefully re-ground. Flint itself
is considered to have been imported in bulk from
France and Germany into more southern locali-
ties. Bone and horn were utilized in a variety
of ways for weapons and implements, and the
abnormal tree-forms produced by the gall insects
were adapted into clubs and mallets. Betw^een
stone and bronze times, there was a restricted
use of copper.

Upon the acceptation of bronze, the weapon
makers gradually adopted bronze casting, using
the stone forms as models, though with less and

LAKE-DWELLINGS OF YORKSHIRE. 11

less adherence to them; ornament became in-
creasingly easy, and elegance common.

The introduction of iron, it is impossible not to
agree with Dr. Munro, is synonymous with con-
quest, and the undoubted advance made at its
advent, in both use and beauty, was by a different
race of people — the Kelts, who, following after the
stone and bronze workers, whether Bythons or
Goidels, first stamped the system with their
mark, and then, as a racial mode of life, put an
end to it.

The other arts participated in the same forward
movement. Pottery, though it never reached
the Roman standard, became " fit and elegant."
The texile fabrics took up patterns which became
the prototypes of the tartans.

The piles of the dwellings were straight stems
of trees of the vicinity, mostly oak, beech, fir,
pine, and birch. The trees were felled by fire, or
by hatchet. The piles, of from 8 to 12 inches
diameter, were driven into their places by heavy
mallets and hand-stones, and were disposed in
regular rows. The spaces between the outer
piles were in some cases wattled together with
twigs and lesser branches. A framework of
trunks, pinned or mortised upon the heads of the

12 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

piles, was the support for a platform of fir planks.
Openings were left at some portions of the
platform for the deposit of refuse, and the constant
easting away of broken or disused objects
occasioned large quantities of these to be
accumulated in a way that reminds of the " oyster
heaps" of Denmark. The heaps of refuse in
Holland are sometimes 20 feet in depth. It is
imagined also that the interstices between the
boards of the floor were somewhat open. The
walls were of clay, 4 to 6 inches in thickness,
kept in position by a foundation of wattling or
basket work. In the middle of the floor of each
hut w^as a hearthstone. The roof was formed of
bark, straw, or rushes.

In other, and a smaller number of cases, the
platform was built up on horizontal layers of
brushwood and sticks, held together and bounded
by rows of stakes and small piles. This
description is styled the '' fascine."

From the first period to the last the
arrangements are similar. The difference between
pile and fascine dwellings appears to be caused
but by the difference of the situations, and the
composition of the lake beds. As the period of
progress set in, however, and when probably

LAKE-DWELLINGS OF YORKSHIRE. 13

hostility became an increasinof factor, we find the
dwellings further from the shores, the trunks
are larger, and much of the timber is squared.

It seems to be generally concluded by the
continental archaeologists, in which opinion Dr.
Munro concurs, that the reason of the choice of
isolation by the lake-dwellers was what can only
be termed a general hostility, w^hether between
clan and clan, tribe and tribe, or nation and
nation. The view of universal hostility, as the
normal condition of those times, is contradictory
of the peaceful progress so weightily pointed and
argued upon by the archaeologists, that, though
conflicts cannot be supposed to have been unknown
or even rare, they have left so little general trace
that the above conclusion, though difficult to
refute, needs to be strengthened by more
complete evidence before it can be admitted
without question. These remarks only appl}^ to
the stone and bronze ages, for there can be little
doubt the race w^iich brought the custom of
water-dwelling from the east, fell before a
land-living: race which followed from the same
direction, bringing with it a superior physique
and iron weapons, and the manner of the end
of the lake-dwellings of Central Europe is told

U BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

by the signs of fire which so many of them
bear.

Dr. Keller, in his original report, stated his
belief that the first consideration in the building
of pile dwellings in the Swiss lakes w^s the wish
to secure themselves from the irruption of human
enemies and the attacks of wild beasts. In his
work of 1866, however, he modified the statement,
and abandoned the idea that the protection was
against beasts. He was led to this conclusion by
the authority of the eminent naturalist. Von
Hochstetter, who states that '' wild beasts avoid
the human race, and even uncivilized man is
nowhere in the world so helpless as to fly to the
water for protection from ravenous animals."
The ferocious animals of the Alpine regions. Dr.
Keller later admitted, were only bears, lynxes
and w^olves, for history mentions no others, and.
these are the only ferocious animals whose
remains are found in or near the lake dwellinofs.
He speaks of the absence of any record of the
seizure of a man by bear or lynx, and quotes
Conrad Gessner to the effect that the wolf does not
attack men — unless his ordinary sustenance failed
him — and Stumpf, who wrote in the middle of the
16th century, that there were fewer wolves in

LAKE-DWELLINGS OF YORKSHIRE. 15

Helvetia and among the Alps than in any other
country in Europe.

With regard to wild beasts, which would in
England be the wolf, and more rarely the bear
and lynx, it has to be remembered that a settle-
ment is chiefly for the security of the females and
more especially of the young, and there are
numerous instances of wolves devouring children
in ordinary times, to say nothing of the frequency
with which the usual sustenance of the wolf does
fail him. But if we look upon these settlements
as in some measure farmsteads, we can have no
doubt that in some, wherever flocks and herds were
pastured during the day, they would be driven
into pens or huts, even perhaps the cabins of the
people, at night. Herodotus distinctly states
that the Poeonians regularly stabled their cattle
on lake-dwellings. Indeed the excreta of
domestic animals are found in the relic beds of the
dwellings. There can be little doubt, therefore,
that the protection of the flocks and herds from
wild beasts was one reason why the early settlers
of Europe continued in their water-homes
generation after generation. In the case of the
Dutch "■ terp " mounds the circumstances were of
course exceptional. But while contending that

16 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

folding of cattle was one consideration, I hold that,
whether Professor Hochstetter is ri<Tht or not as

to the animals, that it was a secondary one — and
that there must be some other reason for so
curious a mode of life, which, as I have ventured
to suggest, was the continuance of primeval
habit.

It would have been more feasible to have
abandoned the theory of protection against
enemies, for Dr. Keller himself points out how
peaceful and progressive was the development of
human life in the settlements. He successfully
controverted, so far as related to the epochs of
stone and bronze, the theories of M. Troyon,
who spoke of irruption of foes, and burnings
of lake-dwellings as explanatory of the differing
epochs, though Dr. Keller undoubtedly went
too far in taking it for granted he had dis-
proved the same for the iron age. The nature of
the structures does not suggest that they were
intended as a protection against forces of men.
Their arrano^ement and situation is unstrateo^etic in
the extreme, and though in cases they had inter-
communication, in more they had none. Unless
their construction above the water was very
differen.t from what is supposed, they would afford

LAKE-DWELLINGS OF YORKSHIRE. 17

little protection against determination. They
were, to be brief, as destitute as a Yorkshire village
of to-day of any pretence of fortification, and in
most instances the buildings were in very shallow
water. The Kelts did not apparently receive any
check in their irruptions.

Von Hochstetter held that the people had
their chief settlements on land, and that the
lake-dwellings must have been used for some
special purpose, which purpose he does not suggest.
But the almost universal discovery of all the
implements of household economy, as Dr. Keller
observes, — and the evidences of their active use, —
show that the structures were residences during
many centuries.

Upon the whole, the grade of civilization of the
continental lake-dwellings cannot be considered
low, and the conditions must have been tolerable
even to comfort, pre-necessitating a long period
of applied activity and more or less continuous
peace.

It is an ascertained fact that population, broadly
speaking, increases in the ratio and as the result
of rising opportunities and possibilities
of support, rather than that increase of
population compels the finding of new means.

18 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

The withdrawal of water from the land by-
Nature's drainage, and especially by her peat-
fillings giving new levels, together with the
reduction of forests to fields, gave the opportuni-
ties. More land became available, populations
grew up by the sides of the lake-dwellings, which,
now in the hands of a new race without the water-
instincts of their predecessors, fell into compara-
tive desuetude. There is a note of this heard
in early literature. Hippocrates (born 460 B.C.)
speaks of the lake-dwellers as seldom visiting
the city or markets.

Several instances might be given of later
continuance. In the 13th and 14i:h centuries
the Apanoean lake-chain had a lake called the
Lake of Christians, because occupied by Christian
fishermen, who lived in wooden huts on piles.
The still later use of the Irish and Scotch
Crannogs might be mentioned, but these were
scarcely inhabited as ordinary dwellings, but as
fastnesses, fortresses, and prisons, with mediaeval
superstructures of stone. The English examples
are earlier than either the Scotch or Irish.

In leavinof the consideration of the abandon-
ment of the dwellings, it is to be noted that the
firing of a large number of the Swiss examples

LAKE-DWELLINGS OF YORKSHIRE. 19

not only caused the structures to be left in haste
with all their paraphernalia upon them, but in
many instances caused the permanent preservation,
by carbonization, of details which would otherwise
have become obliterated in a few years.

There is at least one instance of a water-
dwelling in Wales.

In England, water-dwellings are represented at
present by remains found in London, in
Berkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, and lastly in the
East Riding of Yorkshire.

It is the series of discoveries in the last named
with which we have to do. The remains consist
of an indefinite number of structures at and near
Ulrome, in Holderness, and of one instance near
the mouth of the River Hull ; and all the
examples are practically along the course of the
same ancient stream.

The low-lying situation of Holderness, and the
great extent to which its surface formerly lay
under water, are facts so well known that it may
seem unnecessary to do more than merely allude to
them. A few words more, however, may be useful.
The reason of the present abundance of water in
the district is of course the fall from the wolds, of
which Holderness and parts to the west are the

20 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

natural basin. Before, however, the \'et con-
tinuous encroachment of the North Sea had
removed so much of the eastern margin of the
district, there is no doubt that the coast hne was
much higher than at present, and formed an
effectual barrier to the wold shed, so that its only-
escape was southward towards the Humber.
The surface of the country, rarely a plain, was
chiefly characterised by innumerable hollows, in
many cases of considerable extent. This con-
formation naturally led to the accumulation of large
bodies of water in lagoons which, connected by
sinuous necks and streamlets, cut up the land into
a multitude of islands, and slowly concentrated
themselves in the River Hull. The earliest
name of the inhabitants of East Yorkshire was the
Parisii, the "dwellers in the watery district,"
and doubtless the designation of these people,
said to be Brigantes, was scarcely a tribal
distinction, but simply owing to their residence
in this locality. The etymologies of the district
are full of the same aqueous references, as
Holderness, Hull, and the numerous combinations
of ey (sea) an island. Doubtless under Paris yet
lie the beams of lake-dwellings.

In process of time, the peat era commenced,

LAKE-DWELLINGS OF YORKSHIRE. 21

and the meres and lakes began to fill up, till at
length all the deeper hollows of the land were
obliterated, and the waters spread in marsh-
making expanses, in part drying up at a higher
level and in part waiting for mediaeval Commis-
sioners of Sewers to take in hand the w^ork of
drainage, not yet perfected.

Such being the character of the district it is
not surprising to find that its early inhabitants,
the Parisii of the Brigantes, or their nameless
predecessors, lived in lake-dwellings.

The establishment of this fact is due to the
antiquarian zeal and judgment of Mr. Thomas
Boynton, of Bridlington Quay, late of Ulrome
Grange, Holderness. A collector and keen
student of the prehistoric rehcs of the district,
Mr Boynton, in 1880, then resident at Ulrome,
was struck by the situation in which certain bone
implements were found, and his subsequent
examinations led not only to the complete
demonstration of the existence of the remains of
one lake-dwelling, but to the discovery of
six or eight others.

The importance of the preceding remarks as to
the water system of Holderness will be seen when
it is stated that these lake dwellings are situated

22 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

on the course of a small stream, the Stream
Dyke, more commonly called the Skipsea Drain,
which now runs into the sea at Barmston, but
which previous to the inauguration of the
Beverley and Barmston Drainage scheme, just
before the end of the last century, was a natural
tributary of the river Hull. The coastline being
broken down, the waters have now a certain
amount of eastward escape.

The circumstances of the discovery were as
follow. In the spring of 1880 the Drainage
Commissioners having had occasion to deepen the
Skipsea drain, which has a very heavy bed of
mud, Mr. Boynton observed among the earth
thrown out upon one of his fields, " the West
Furze" several implements of perforated bone.
Causing the earth to be turned over, he was
rewarded by the discovery of other similar
discoveries, as well as of two picks made from
antlers of the red deer, a piece of red ochre, and
several stones shewing traces of having been
applied to some use. In May of the following
year the drain was at a very low level, and Mr.
Boynton, taking advantage of the circumstance,
had the water dammed ; a number of men were
set to work and dug through the peat till a bed

LAKE-DWELLINGS OF YORKSHIRE. 23

of gravel was reached at a depth of 9 feet 6
inches from the surface. This excavation resulted
in the finding of three more bone implements,
at a depth of 7 feet, several stakes, piles, and
remains of brushwood, which decided Mr.
Boynton to excavate the site as soon as
opportunity offered. In the following December,
the work was begun, and upwards of 3000 cubic
feet of earth were excavated, disclosing, as the
digging proceeded, the remains of an artificial
construction of wood, which strongly resembled
the fascine-foundationed dwellings in the Swiss
lakes.

There was distinct evidence of the same site
having been occupied by two consecutive
dwellings, the foundations of the first being
simply brushwood held in place on the peat by
stakes of oak and alder roughly pointed, or rather
rounded, and driven through the peat into the
lake bed. In this portion were found the
following objects :

An upper grinding-stone of whinstone,
bluntly semilunar in shape, 12 inches

by 7.

Two flint cores and about fifty large flakes.
A flint knife.

24 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

A flint saw (small).

Two flint scrapers.

Three natural pebbles, showing wear as

hammer-stones.
A granite anvil, circular and flat.
A granite anvil having a small cup-like cavity.
A large number of bone implements, viz. :

Sixteen perforated articulate extremities of ox.

A perforated scapula.

A cervical vertebra, un tooled, but still

retaining in the vertebral foramen

remains of a shaft.
These eighteen bones are considered not to
be hoes or any agricultural implements, but
weapons. With shafts of tough wood, they
could, there is not the least doubt, be wielded
with terrible eflect as clubs, maces, or "skull
crackers."
Two hand-picks of deer horn, in each case the
main trunk of the horn being deprived of all
the antlers, excepting that of the brow, which
forms the pick. There is evidence that such
picks were used for quarrying, though doubt-
less also for other purposes. One of these
specimens shows a remarkable instance of
the use of the flint saw.

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26 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Most of the bone relics were found at the west
side of the dwelhng.
Other bones (food) etc :

Ox, the ordinary species most abundant ;
Bos longifrons and Bos primigenius.

Horse or small pony, a considerable portion
of skull.

Beaver ; among these are several jaw
fragments, one with the chisel-like
incisors as effective as when they first cut
down Holderness trees. Mr. Boynton
states that the marks of beavers' teeth
were abundant on the timber of the
dwelling. [Is it possible that Man
availed himself of a work the Beaver
had commenced ? The situation is
precisely such as beavers would choose
for their dam, having been on a narrow
strait between two lagoons].

Large Dog or Wolf, one jaw, uncracked.

Pig.

Sheep.

Deer.

Otter, posterior portion of skull.

Goose.

Other birds, small.

LAKE-DWELLINGS OF YORKSHIRE. 27

Above this dwelling were the remains of the
other. Above the brushwood w^ere placed trunks
and branches of trees — oak,birch, ash, willow, hazel,
and alder — in a horizontal position, arranged
sufficiently squarely w^ith the plan, and so laid as
to bind one another, vertical stakes further
strengthening the mass and holding firmly the
superincumbent layer of brushwood, one foot in
thickness. The thickest trunks w^ere from 15 to
18 inches in diameter and from 15 to 18 feet in
length, and in many parts so preserved by the
peat as to be quite sound. The stakes of the
upper dwelling were undoubtedly sharpened with
a metal hatchet.

The upper dwelling was much larger than the
lower, the foundation being built up from the
lake peat bed on the north side.

At the south end of the platform was the
remains of a bridge or causeway about two feet
wide, built of brushwood and sticks, like the
platform, held in the position by upright stakes
stuck in the peat at intervals of about five feet.
It is considered that when the second dwelling
was raised upon the inundated remains of the
first, the causeway was left at the original height.
It may on the other hand have been built so

28 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

as not to form a dam to hold up the water in the
northern lagoon. We can well imagine this foot-
bridge being just at the ordinary level of the
water, which in rainy seasons would flow across
it. This causeway ran east and west across the
end of the platform and communicated with both
shores, and as well as being the access to the
dwelling was, it is not unlikely, used as the bridge
of this district. Where it adjoined the platform
at the east side were two uprights, suggesting
a narrow wicket. In the case of some Scotch
crannogs and Swiss dwellings the causeways are
considered to have been purposely sunk, so as to
be familiar only to habitues.

The objects found in the second dwelling
belong, as a matter of course, to a later period.
They were : —

A bronze spearhead, much corroded, but

perfectly complete, and with part of the

wooden shaft still remainino^.

A fragment of a jet armlet.

Fragments of pottery, found in and near the

site, since pieced together and found to be :

1st. A plain pipkin or porridge caldron,

with the marks of fire yet upon it ;

dimensions 12 inches diameter at

LAKE-DWELLINGS OF YORKSHIRE. 29

the widest part, below the mouth,
which curls over to an inch less in
diameter; the sides slope off' flatly
to the base which is 7|- inches in
diameter. The height is also 7^
inches.
2nd. A noble jar, probably used as a
corn storer ; height 2 feet 3 inches,
greatest diameter 2 feet, round
bulbous sides, base 15 inches ;
with a thick round rim. The
other is the merest crock, but this
vase, though made without a wheel,
shews a symmetry and regularity of
contour speaking of long practice of
the potter's art. Like other
I pottery of this class, both vessels

are made of clay mixed with an
abundance of granular flinty
fragments.
The most noteworthy relics have yet to be
mentioned. These are three human skulls with
fragments of a fourth. All are of male adults,
the interior grooves of the fragments of
the fourth showing indications of great
aoje ; the dura mater of these fraofments

30 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

is preserved with surprising integrity.
None of the three skulls shews any sign of
violence. One of them has (separate) a portion of
the upper jaw attached to the orbit ; it has four
teeth, sound, small and worn flat in the way
characteristic of teeth in prehistoric skulls, a
peculiarity due to the mastication of much hard
dry food, as well as to fine grit, which the system
of grinding caused to be deposited in the meal.
Considering the extreme hardness, however, of the
granite or whinstone grinding-stones, it is
probable that the latter reason is over-estimated.
Such an appearance of the teeth may be an
indication that these people lived largely upon
hard cakes rather than bread made into
loaves.

Mr. Boynton to his discoveries of lake
dwellings in this interesting district has given the
distinctive names of the localities in which
they have been found, or their indications
observed. Thus the dwelling above described is
at the West furze. It may be noted that this is
the name of the field by which access to the site
of dwelling is had from the Skipsea highroad, but
that Mr. Boynton many years ago cleared away
the furze which gave its name. In this field

LAKE-DWELLINGS OF YORKSHIRE. 31

there are several hollows occasioned by the
excavation of sand for the building of Ulrome
Grange — a modern farmstead — and this was
the probable source of the sand with which the
lake- dwellers kept their platform and floors
sprinkled.

The other localities w^here lake-dwellings may
be expected to be unearthed in the future are
Round Hill, Barmston, Grassmoor, and Little
Kelk, as well as several other places where
Mr. Boy n ton, whose astute observation is not
to be surpassed, declares prehistoric remains to
exist.

Round Hill has in fact been subjected to some
small experimental excavation. The site appears
to be larger than that of West Furze, but of
similar character. Here also there are signs of
two diflerent periods of construction, for, as
pointed out by Mr. Boynton, the sharpened end
of one pile had penetrated and remained in the
stump of an older one, which must necessarily
have become decayed before the other had been
driven down. The brushwood here is thicker
than that of the dwelling at West Furze. Up
to the present, the discovery of relics has not
been great. They are ; —

32 BYGONE YORKSHIRE,

A small stone celt.
Part of a perforated stone hammer.
Half of a jet armlet. Compared with the
rude implements with which it was
contemporary this is a work of great
beauty and finish. Its 'ornament con-
sists of ^YQ prominent ridges one at
each margin and three in the centre,
wdth two smaller in the intervals.
If the bracelet has been turned,
it has been by an imperfect instru-
ment, though the probability is that
it has been made entirely without any
such assistance.
This dwelling is to be opened out by Mr.
Boynton by means of a grant from the Society of
Antiquaries. The previous excavations by that
gentleman have been entirely at his own expense.
The depth and solidity of the surrounding earth
render these explorations matters of no trifling
cost, while there is an element of inconvenience,
not to say danger, in the exhalation of marsh
gases, which occasionally are so powerful that
ignition would be possible.

Withm sio^ht of this lake-dwelhno^ district looms
the high artificial hill upon which the Norman

34 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Castle of Skipsea stood. It is supposed, how-
ever, that it was raised in prehistoric times.
Poulson speaks of barrows near it, but Mr.
Boynton asserts that the mounds in question are
not barrows.

The restoration shewn in the cut is ahuost
purely ideal. To the west, beyond, is seen
the elevation known as Goose Island, and which,
there are numerous traces to prove, was anciently
made into a veritable island by artificial cuttings.
This, it was presumed, was used as pasture land,
with perhaps a corn enclosure ; the ground
occupied by the spectator — West Furze — is also
high. From very slight indications, assisted by
analogy with other lake dwellings, the platform
is supposed to have been palisaded. If there
were horizontal bars, they would probably be
secured by thongs of hide, or by flaxen ropes.
The form of the huts is simply copied from Swiss
examples in which portions have remained, and it
is supposed that, as in those cases, the walls w^ere
of clay some four inches thick built upon wattle
or basket work. The Swiss huts are known to
have been thatched with straw and reeds, but the
Ulrome huts are considered to have been covered
in with bark. The hearth (no stone was

LAKE-DWELLINGS OF YORKSHIRE. 35

discovered) is supposed to have been in the middle
of the floor, and the only chimney an aperture in
the roof, the primitive arrangement in most
Iceland kitchens to-day.

The Venezuelan pile-dwelling is given as afford-
inof a vivid illustration of the modern savasre
method. It is sketched from a photograph by
Mr. Frederick A. Ober.

The only other locality in Yorkshire besides
Ulrome where any trace of water-dwellings has
been observed is in High Street, Hull. In April
1884, while workmen were excavating behind the
old mansion now known as Etherington Buildings
(numbers 50 and 51), in order to lay the
foundations of a new warehouse, they met with
a quantity of remains. These were several
upright trunks of trees, oak and birch, the largest
of which was about fifteen inches in diameter.
Their tops, though not smoothly cut, appeared to
have been hewn with a fair amount of neatness.
They were not dressed in any way ; short
stumps of branches projected from the sides,
and seemed to have been intentionally
left of about one length. The tops of
the piles were met at a depth of about
10 feet, and the removal of the earth round

3C BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

them to a depth of 4 feet further failed to loosen
them in the least degree. Between the piles
were a number of branches and twigs of birch
laid loosely in a horizontal position. Near these,
and in other parts of the site laid open, about a
quarter of an acre, to the depth of 16 feet was
an immense quantity of bones, laid in various
accumulations. These included bones of: —

Ox.

Calf

Sheep.

Lamb.

Horse or Pony (small).

Deer.

Pig.

Goose.

Sea Fowl (indefinite).
Many of the bones were reduced to a friable lime,
many of the teeth having also the inner
medullary portion decayed out as noticed in some
of the Ulrome teeth. There was the usual
characteristic of the breaking up of the marrow-
bones and the cracking of the jaw sinuses. Birch
leaves and twigs were found in small quantities
elsewhere than near the piles, in places where the
soil was black and peaty. The whole of the

LAKE-DWELLINGS OF YORKSHIRE. 37

remains were embedded in warp mud or river silt
of a grey colour when dry, but at the time a mere
soft black mud in which all objects were nearly
indistinguishable. The workmen did not draw-
attention to the remains until the time was nearly
at hand for pouring in the concrete foundation.
The owner of the premises, Mr. Alderman
Samuel Woodhouse, f.r.h.s., on hearing of them,
sent word to the writer. Going down immedi-
ately, I secured the services of one of the labourers,
who assisted me to collect a number of the bones
for subsequent identification. Within a few
hours the concrete was poured into the hollow.
Had a prompt and continued investigation been
made from the first finding of the piles, it is
probable that further indications of antiquity
would have been discovered. From the above it
was evident, however, that the river had formerly
had a deeper channel, had deposited its silt fully
twenty yards from the present bank, and that
here had been a structure, probably a pile-
dwelling of prehistoric man.

The lake-dwellinofs of the Stone and Bronze
periods are the witnesses in history of a large
proportion of the pre-Keltic inhabitants of
Europe, who persistently lived up to their

38 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

traditions till the laro'er-framed Kelts over-

whelmed them, and destroyed their system. The
indications of Iron speak of the conquering Kelts,
who relinquished the lake mode of life as readily as
they seem to have taken it up. For Goidels,
Bythons, or Kelts the lake-dwellings, peat
preserved, have proved their Herculaneum.

an ancient fIDonoIitb*

By W. H. ThOxMpson.

AMONGST the prehistoric monuments of
Yorkshire, beyond doubt one of the most
notable is the ancient monohth standing in the
churchyard of the pleasant little village of Rud-
ston, situate some five miles from Bridlington.
Whether this stone owes its present position to
the agency of nature or of man, has long been a
debated question, but in either case there is the
strongest evidence to shew that from very early
times it was regarded as an object of more than
ordinary reverence by our ancestors. And though
in these later days not looked upon with any
feelings of religious awe, even still it remains
to antiquaries and scholars a relic of peculiar
perplexity and interest.

This remarkable stone, which is about 24 feet
in height above the ground, is a huge block of
fine close-grained grit, such, according to
Phillips, " as might easily be obtained on the
northern moorlands about Cloughton, beyond

10 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Scarborough, to which ancient British settlement
a road led from Kudston by Burton Fleming
and Staxton." Its weight is estimated at about
40 tons, it having been determined that its depth
underground is equal to the height above. At
the top of the same, are long furrows, but
whether these are natural or artificial is regarded
as uncertain.

The mass is taller than either of the stones at
Boroughbridge, in the North Biding, popularly
known as the " Devil's Arrows," which in many
points it closely resembles. Like as in their
case, tradition has associated it with Satanic
agency. The story is, that the devil did not approve
of the building of Budston Church, therefore he
flung this mighty missile, with the view of
destroying both artificers and building. But his
malice was futile, his sinister designs frustrated,
and the stone remains to-day a memorial of
ineftectual malignity. Certain it is that its
appearance, " its broad, dusky mass," as has been
remarked, ^' covered with black lichens, is
wonderfully mysterious and * eerie,' especially
when projected against an evening sky."

The monolith is really of unknow^n age, and
has been thought to be probably of sepulchral

42 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

character. Standing, as it does, in a district
thickly studded with the round tunuih of those
hr achy cephalic Aryans of whom Canon Greenwell,
Mr. Mortimer, and others, have written so
much, it is not strange that the " Rud-stone " has
been associated with the name of the so-cahed
ancient Britons. It has been supposed, and with
good reason, that we have in it a Druidical
monument of the same mysterious people who
erected the Titanic temple on Salisbury plain,
"long-headed" or "broad-headed" Celts, or who-
ever these aboriginal inhabitants of England may
have been.

The position of the stone in the village
churchyard, and its close proximity to the church
itself, goes a long way to support the view that
once it was invested with some sort of reliofious
character. The reverence for " holy " stones was
formerly a very widespread form of religious
superstition, both amongst civilized and un-
civilized peoples. And this further we know,
guided by the general conduct of the early and
mediaeval churches, that there was no spot where
they were more likely to erect a Christian
sanctuary than in the vicinity of a place
hitherto connected with heathen rites and

AN ANCIENT MONOLITH. 43

ceremonies. It/|fwas their common policy to
replace a pagan god by a Christian saint, a
heathen festival by a holy day, and a temple of
idols by one dedicated under a purer faith.
Nothing more natural than that a church should
be erected close to a monolith, and regarded with
superstitious veneration.

At the same time, we consider that the
popularly current etymology of the name
Kudston, should be taken with a great deal of
reservation. Rood-stone, it is said, rood as in
rood-loft, that is, stone of the cross or holy stone,
it being suggested that it may have been a cross
of the early Christian converts. Unfortunately,
however, this does not altogether pass muster
with the philologists. Some others again say,
rud, that is red stone, but it happens the block
is not, nor ever was, red. The derivation given
by the Rev. E. M. Cole, in his " Scandinavian
Place Names," whilst it does not in any way
conflict with the theory as to the sacred character
of the monument, certainly better falls in with
modern philological methods. He derives it
from the old Norse " hrodr-steinn," that is '' famous
stone," and we personally strongly incline to this
etymology. The great pre valance of Scandinavian

44 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

place-names in Yorkshire, and indeed in the
north of England generally, is a fact so
universally admitted that it needs from us
no proving. The '' Rud-stone " was just such
an object as to strike the imagination of
the fierce northern vikings, and if they
found no ready-made legend as to its
history existant, nothing more natural than
that they should proceed to invent some
wild theory of their own to account for its
presence. We very shrewdly suspect, indeed,
that the tradition we have already - referred to
as to the Satanic origin of this interesting
relic, might be traced back to the old Norse
mythology.

Nobody can reasonably question that the
village owes its name to the monolith. And this
being so, the form in which it appears in
Domesday Book, undoubtedly gives support to
Mr. Cole's hypothesis. There it appears as
Rodestan and Rodestein, a very close following
to the etymology we have quoted.

Concerning the origin and character of
prehistoric monuments there must always, in the
very nature of things, be a certain amount of
perplexity and doubt. And the present case in

AN ANCIENT MONOLITH. 45

point is no exception to this general rule.
However plausible our theories may be, and
however near our surmises may approach to the
truth, the early story of this rude obelisk must
ever remain more or less obscure, veiled in the
dim mists of a long bygone past.

1ReliC6 anb IRcinnant^.

By John Nicholson.

IN a glass case in the Mortimer Museum,
Driffield, is an oak stake from the lake-
dwelling at Ulrome. It is warped and twisted
out of shape through being inadvertently placed
too near a hot fire in drying ; but it bears upon it
most eloquent marks of unwritten history. The
pre-historic man, who took this stake to serve as
a support to the platform on which his and other
dwellings stood, took his bronze saw to shorten
the timber ; and as he sawed with his imperfect
tool he turned the wood round, so as to ring it
and make it break easily. We have seen boys do
the same to-day, and like the man of old, the}^
formed a spiral instead of a circle, and gave up
the work in disgust. Both bronze and flint tools
were discovered in the ancient British dwelling-
place at Ulrome, but the narrowness of the saw
mark on the piece of oak led me to the conclusion
that it was the work of the men of the Bronze
age rather than of the Stone age.

RELICS AND REMNANTS. 47

Further traces of these Ancient Britons as
hill-men may be found in the pit dwellings on
Baildon Moor, on the North Yorkshire Moors, in
the well-known village near Bempton ; and a
series of pits in a grass field at Great Kendall,
near Driffield may, I venture to affirm, be taken
as relics of the Britons, who roamed and lived
here ere Caesar's legions disturbed them. If the
circular, rustic, coarse-thatched summer-houses
found in our parks and gardens were partly sunk
in the ground, they would give not a bad idea of
the rude dwellings of these ancient Britons, but
to render the likeness^ more complete, they would
need a hole in the roof, by which escaped the
smoke of the fire kindled on a flat stone in the
middle of the floor.

While the farm men were ploughing on the
farm at High Bonwick, near Skipsea, two years
ago, the ploughshare struck against a large stone,
which when unearthed led to the discovery of
many others, two cart loads being taken away.
Among them was a quern stone or hand-mill for
crushing grain. Believing the slight mound to
have been a tumulus, Mr. Topham invited me to
assist in excavating it. A trench dug across it
revealed marks of cremation ; charcoal, lime, and

48 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

burnt earth being plentiful. Pieces of imperfectly
burnt pottery, of coarse material were discovered,
forming parts of large vases having wide mouths
of eleven inches diameter. Several pieces of this
grayish pottery lie before me as I write, the
workmanship shewing the contact of a higher
civilization than that of the untutored Briton, so
that these pieces must be called Romano-British
pottery.

Beyond these silent mounds and deserted pit-
dwellings, that speak eloquently to the learned,
with halting and stammering tongue to the
observant, and wdth no speech to the unlearned
and unobservant, we have little to remind us of
the aborigines of these islands. Our river names
— Derwent, Aire, Esk, Don, Swale, Tees. Ure, —
are all ancient British. Such names seem imperish-
able, like the flint of which they fashioned
their arrow heads and their other weapons and
tools. Houses and the w^ork of men's hands may
be destroyed and sw^ept off* the face of the earth,
but these names are like the rivers themselves,
" men may come and men may go, but they go
on for ever." Penygant and Otley Chevin, and
perhaps Ben Rhydding shew marks of early
British parentage. In Westgate, Driffield, there

nELICS AND REMNANTS, 49

used to be a pool of water called the Plash.
This name, and Hard Flask, Malham, probably
retain the British word Jieasg, a marsh or wet
place.

Now another class of persons appears, a race of
soldiers comes to the front. They came, they
saw, they conquered, and the remnants of their
macadamised military roads or streets, with their
castras or camps, are evidence of their genius and
skill. Under the Romans, York became the
second if not the first city in the land. Hither
came the emperors, the proudest of their day, and
if Constantino the Great were not born in the
ancient city, capital of our broad-acred shire,
'twas there he assumed the imperial purple, and
had presented to him the Tufa, or globe of gold
symbolic of his sovereignty over Britain. When
he embraced Christianity, he mounted a cross on
the globe, and this united symbol may be seen on
the top of the sceptre swayed by the sovereio^n,
and is frequently held in the hand of the
monarchs depicted on the great seal. This same
symbol crowns the mighty dome of Wren's great
masterpiece, the cathedral of the metropolis.

Of the magnificence of Roman York many
relics have been found, but considerinof the lonsf

50 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

residence of that race here, these antiquities are
less numerous than might be supposed. Of the
walls of York, the Multangular Tower and the
wall which leads from it towards Bootham Bar
are undoubtedly Roman ; but earthenware, glass-
ware, metalware, weapons, coffins, and tesselated
pavements have been found in large quantities.

In Yorkshire, the Romans had stations at
Cataractonium (Catterick), Isurium (Aldborough),
Olicana (Ilkley), Eboracum (York), Cambodunum
(Slack), Calcaria (Tadcaster), Legiolium (Castle-
ford), Danum (Doncaster), Petouaria (Brough),
Derventio (Stamford Bridge ?), Delgovitia
(Malton), Praetorium (Filey). The sites of the
last three are debatable, but probable. A well
known antiquary complains that the Roman
antiquities of East Yorkshire have been very
imperfectly explored. As a Roman station on
the Derbyshire Derwent is named Derventio, we
have good reason to expect that a station bearing
a like name in Yorkshire would be similarly
situated. Stamford Bridge is the only place
below Malton where the Derwent is fordable, and
its distance from York accords very well with
that given in the first Iter of Antonine. Thirteen
Roman miles, that is nearly twelve English ones,

RELICS AND REMNANTS. 51

brings us to Old Malton, which will accord well
with Delofovitia. Here Roman remains of an
extensive and important character have been
found, while at Norton, a suburb of Malton, was
found the stone sign of a goldsmith named
Servulus, who before announcing his name and
trade prays the Genms loci to be auspicious to
him. Discoveries in 1857 at Filey yielded a
fragment of an imperial inscription, the
stone foundations and pillar bases of a large and
important hall, as well as large quantities of
pottery and other antiquities. The evidences of
Roman occupation of this place would doubt-
less have been much greater, had not a
considerable part of the promontory on which
the station stood been carried away by the
encroachments of the sea. That a Roman road
led from Filey to Malton is certain. Its course
has been traced, and in the neighbourhood of
Flotmanby it is commonly called *' The Street."
There were, of course, many Roman roads in
Yorkshire, as throughout the country, which are
not described by Antonine. One of these is a
road which appears to have diverged from the
road from York at Malton and proceeded in a
more direct line to Filey. Its existence is

52 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

proved by several camps on its course, and by the
name of a village through which it passes, —
Wharram le Street. Another road also led from
Stamford Bridge to Filey, the course of which
has been traced for two-thirds of its leno^th. The
line of the latter road is considerably to the south
of the former. It is known as Garrowby Street.
A third unrecorded road led from Brouo-h to
Market Weighton, whence it continued forward
to Malton, with probably a direct branch from
Weighton to York. This road, which has
been traced at Drewton, near South Cave
and near Weighton, was till very recent
times called Humber Street by the country
people.^

York is the only city in the kingdom that has
an Archbishop and a Lord Mayor. From
Paulinus to Macla^yan a lontr line of
illustrious men have filled the Archbishop's
throne, and to this day they sign themselves
Ehor, a contraction of the Roman name
(Eboracum) for York. When the title Lord was
bestowed on the Mayor is not known, but is of
considerable antiquity. Not now, but in former
times, the Lady Mayoress retained her title for

* Boyle, '* Lost Towns of the Humber," p. 6.

EELICS AND REMNANTS. 53

life, but not so the Mayor, for does not the old

couplet say

" The Lord Mayor is a Lord for a year and a day,
But the Lady Mayoress is a Lady for ever and aye."

After 400 years of military occupation, the
victorious sixth legion left York, and the Romans
left Britain to defend their own lands from
foreign invasion. Their career as an attacking
force ceased for ever, and they offered an
ineffectual resistance to the rude rough force that
was destined to come to the front and change the
destinies of nations. Luxury and indulgence
were more potent to wreck Rome than the volume
of valour which rolled from the North.

Our place-names shew few traces of the
Roman. Physical names given by the Briton
live on, and the names of their towns, slightly
altered, are easily recognised in their Latin dress
in the Iters, but even names ending in caster, and
which are accredited to the Imperial conquerors
of the Briton, such as Tadcaster, Doncaster,
Acaster, etc., were not so called by the Romans ;
indeed on the whole map of Roman Britain there
are only one or two names containing castra, a
camp. Cave, on the Roman road to and from
Brough, seems to be a Latin word, and is so

54 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

named in Domesday Book ; while our common
word, street, is from the Roman strata, a road or
way. Even the great Roman road from Dover
to Chester was named by the Saxons, WatUng
Street ; and the great wa}' across the heavens,
the Milky Way, was called Watling Street too,
both after King Weatla of their mythology.
Ermyn Street, another Roman road, is also
named after Eormen, one of the chief Anglo-
Saxon divinities.

The Romans gave us the names of the months
of the year, some of them, as July, August,
named after their Emperors, some, as March,
June after their divinities, and others after the
order of their succession, as September, October,
November, December. The Roman year began
in March, and our civil accounts now are made up
to March, and not up to December.

Even while the Romans were here, there
appears to have been an immigration of Saxons,
who, though soldiers, were ever settlers. The
genius of the race was, and is, to found a home.
So, for over 300 years, the Saxon w^ave of
emigration swept westward, drove the Celts
into the highlands, mountain fastnesses, and
corners of the island, and studded the country

RELICS AND REMNANTS. 55

with iiigs, hams, and fords. During the
Heptarchy, Northumbria was the only kingdom
which possessed a silver and a copper coinage.
The silver coins were the sceatta and the penny.
The earliest sceatta known is preserved at York,
and was minted there by Alfred of Northumbria,
who was buried in Little Driffield Church in 705.
Southern England may boast its Alfred the
Great, but we may surely pride ourselves on our
Alfred, surnamed the Wise, whose learning,
wisdom, and courage are so touchingly related in
Sharon Turner's glowing pages.

On the steep romantic slopes of Drewton Dale,
stands a huge mass of breccia formed of flint and
chalk fragments, and known by the name of St.
Austin's stone ; and tradition says that St.
Augustine, the first Christian missionary to
Britain, preached the gospel to the natives from
this stone. Since then it has frequently been
used as a preaching station. Such was the effect
of the preaching of Paulinus, the first Archbishop
of York, that he is said to have baptized 10,000
persons in the River Swale at Belperby. He
first consecrated the river, and then commanded
the converts to go in, two by two, and baptize
each other in the name of the Holy Trinity.

56 BYGONE YORKSHIRE,

The names of the days of the week are Saxon
or Danish, for Professor Hodgetts builds up a
beautiful fabric, which he calls *' The Myth of the
Week," shewing that the Northmen, of set
purpose arranged the names of the days of the
week in the order they now are, in accordance
with their mythological ideas.

The Saxon and Danish drinking cups were so
formed that they w^ould not stand upright, as the
contents were intended to be drunk at one
draught. They were called tumblers, and our
drinking glasses bear the same name to-day,
though they are not the same shape as the
Saxon vessels, neither do they tumble w^hen
placed on the table.

It was nearly 400 years ere the Saxon
kingdoms were united under the Northumbrian
Egbert, and such county names as Kent, Sussex,
Surrey, Norfolk, Suffolk, Northumberland, Essex,
and Middlesex tell us of some of their kingdoms.
But a fresh invasion was commencing that
weakened the kinofdom of Ano^le-land, and the
Saxons in turn became the prey of a foe, fiercer
and braver than they, whose long boats scoured
the oceans, and discovered America ages before
Columbus was born, whose chisels carved runes

RELICS AND REMNANTS. 57

throughout Europe, whose warriors formed the
body-guards of Eastern potentates and dethroned
Western kings. They poured into the land, and
spread over it hke a flood, carrying death and
destruction wherever they went. Their progress
was as a fire, but a newer growth arose from the
ashes, and Pha3nix-hke, England reappeared
England still. These Northmen, like their
brethren the Saxons, were colonists as well as
soldiers, and what nation in the history of the
w^orld has been such a colonisingf nation as ours,
the product of colonising parents. A Northman
gained a piece of ground, either by conquest,
purchase, or appropriation, built thereon his
farmbuildings, and named it after himself; just as
a man to day will acquire property and name the
the street after himself In like manner Saltaire
got its name.

Northern England was very largely peopled by
these men from the North, and Yorkshire being-
then, as now, a large county, they divided it into
Thirds or Ridings. Lincolnshire was also
similarly divided, but there these divisions, as
Ridings, are obsolete. The Ridings were divided
into Wapentakes, for political and judicial
purposes, as our forefathers w^ere jealously and

58 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

zealousy believers in Local Self Government.
At the installation of a new governor or chieftain
of a Wapentake each warrior in the district
attended and touched the chieftain's spear with
his, in token of fealty. This touching or "tigging"
was the soldier's oath of allegiance ; and a childish
imitation of this ceremony gives us the well-
known game of " tig," in which he who does not
"touch wood" is treated as an outlaw, pursued
and run down, while those who do " touch wood "
are exempt from pursuit. At the installing
ceremony, a king's thane would claim exemption
from swearing fealty on the ground that he gave
allegiance to the king ; and so, in their game,
children cry "Kings!" w4ien they desire
exemption.

The rush of the tidal wave up the higher reaches
of the Humber and the lower part of the Trent and
Ouse is locally known as the Egir, a word which
savours strongly of the Northman, seeing that
Oegir was his sea-god. Used first as a name for
the sea, it has come to denote the Ogres with
which nurses terrify children. The Humber was
a frequent resort of the Northmen, and the
roaring wave, as it came tumbling and foaming up
the narrowing bed of the estuary, might well

RELICS AND REMNANTS. 59

cause fear and alarm for the safety of their
undecked sea-dragons, as even well-founded
vessels to-day have to make provision for the
oncoming of the Egir. Some philologists derive
this word from the Anglo-Saxon egor, the sea,
water. The word hrag shews a sad case of
declension. Bragi was the god of eloquence and
poetry, the guardian and patron of bards and
orators, but in process of time his name came to
signify fluent and honied speech. Thus hragr
Karla was simply an eloquent man, and a further
downward step degraded it as an epithet of vain
boasters. So our Norse forefathers knew what
hrag was, just as we know what it is.

When two countrymen conclude a bargain or
agreement, there need be no word spoken, only a
clasp of the outstretched hand, and the
agreement is complete — they have given their
hands to it. The foUowinof instance is taken
from the Story of Burnt Njal (900 a.d.,)
— " Hrut held his peace for some time, and
afterwards he stood up and said to Oswif, * Take
now my hand in handsel, as a token that thou
lettest the suit drop.' So Oswif stood up and
said (speaking to Hauskuld), ^ This is not an
atonement on equal terms, when thy brother

60 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

utters the award, but still thou (speaking to
Hrut) hast behaved so well about it that I trust
thee thoroughly to make it.' Then he took
Hauskuld's hand, and came to an atonement in
the matter." So when the most bindinsr covenant
(the marriage tie) is entered into, bride and
bridegroom join hands at the altar.

The dangerous ridge of rocks known as Filey
Brigg, is said to have been built by the devil,
who accidentally lost his hammer in the sea.
Plunging in after it, he grasped a fish in mistake,
and exclaimed " Ah ! Dick ! " and the fish has
borne the name haddock ever since, while its
shoulders bear the sooty impress of the satanic
grasp. In this fragment of folk-lore we have
relics of two Norse lays. The hammer gives the
clue which leads to Thor, the Thunderer, the
rumble of whose car formed the thunder, whose
hammer flight formed the lightning, and whose
flaming beard formed the streamers of the
Northern Lights. The Lay of Thrymm tells us
Thor did lose his hammer, that it had to be
recovered by diving downwards, for the thief
Thrymm had hidden it,

" Miles measured eight
Deep down in mould,"

RELICS AND REMNANTS. Gl

and he refused to restore it until they brought
him Freyja to wife. She would not consent, so
Thor was disguised as Freyja, and as the
marriage could not be solemnized without the
hammer, it was brought forth and placed on the
knee of the disguised bride.

" Laughed then the Hard-hitter's
Heart in his breast,
As hard-hafted hammer
He handled again,

So came at last

Odin's son to his hammer."

That a fish should be seized is noteworthy, seeing
that when the gods were chasing Loki, he
changed himself into a salmon (not haddock), but
Thor caught him by the tail.

Belemnites are locally called thunder-bolts.
Is this also a relic of the idea which represented
Thor as the god who threw thunder-bolts ?

The chano^e of Thor into the devil of the
legend is easily accounted for, for when the gods
of our idolatrous forefathers were dethroned from
their seat of honour by a change of faith, they
were not deprived of power. They became
devils, evil spirits, and ghosts, and maybe
they exercised a more marked influence thereby.

62 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Freyja, the goddess of love and purity in the
Norse mythology, whose name we have embalmed
in Friday, was reverenced with love and adoration.
Dr. Dasent, in " Norse Tales," says, " To that love
and adoration, during the Middle Ages, one
woman, transfigured into a divine shape,
succeeded by a sort of natural right, and round
the Virgin Mary's blessed head, a halo of lovely
tales of divine help, beams with soft radiance, as
a crown bequeathed to her by the ancient
goddesses. Flowers and plants bear her name.
One of our commonest and prettiest insects is
still called after her, but which belonged to
Freyja, the heathen ^ Lady,' long before the
western nations had learned to adore the name of
the mother of Jesus."

If Thor has become the devil ; if Bragi, the
god of eloquence, has degenerated into hrag ; and
Oegir, the sea-god, into an o^re to terrify
children, or into the egir of the Humber, it may
be that Freyja has become the ghostly White
Lady, often headless, so common to the north of
England.

The many personal names ending in so7i tell
us of a practice adopted in England from
Scandinavia, and among others of Norse origin

RELICS AND REMNANTS. 63

may be mentioned, Asman, Bee, Beal, Bligh,
Bull, Brand, Bugg, Cant, Canty, Cattle, Clegg,
Diggle, Dring, Flack, Gamble, Gant, Grice,
Gunnill, Healey, Hmnble, Ingall, Jagger, Kelk,
Kettle, Knot or Nutt, Lill, Lundy, Mundy,
Pape, Kayner, Raines, Raven, Scaife, Schofell,
Spink, Spurr, Starr, Stott, Straker, Swain,
Thorold, Thirkle, Thirkettle, Tock, Torr, Turpin,
Tutt, Vickars.

Eventually Northmen and Saxon submitted
to another Northman, known as William the
Conqueror, and Englishmen became the common
name of the people inhabiting this country, a
name respected and feared abroad, and revered at
home.

l^orftebire Castles : Some of tbeir Ibistoric
associations.

By Edward Lamplough.

FENCING themselves in the wild Northland
ao^ainst warlike Saxon thanes and stubborn
peasants, the Normans have left us many memorials
of stormy mediaeval days.

The frequent surges of Scottish invasion
rolled back, or broke before they could reach the
Humber, although Scottish spears flashed before
the walls of York, and grim baronial fortresses
frowned unscathed from savage wastes, where
burning villages gleamed red in the distance when
night closed over the scene. Built rather to hold
the Northumbrians in check, than for the protec-
tion of the borders, the Castles of Yorkshire were
remarkable for number, strength, and importance.
Built on rocky eminences, by the margin of
rivers, beside the sea, on storm-wasted clifls, and
in every position calculated to improve the
prospect of defence, they are knit into the closest
strands of national history — such strongholds as

YORKSHIRE CASTLES. 65

Pontefract, Scarborough, and York, being only
secondary to the national fortresses of Dover and
London.

Legend, verse, and romance tend to immortalise
these famous Northumbrian fortresses. Con-
ingsborough, not to be described within these
limits, was once a possession of Harold
Godwinsson, and Sir Walter Scott has set the
massive old keep in the glittering pageantry of
his ^' Ivanhoe " with all the grace of the master
artist.

Many-towered Pontefract, built of Ilbert de
Lacy, a kingly pile indeed, should be depicted
against a background of stormy darkness, with a
lurid tinge of sunset fire upon its turrets, for it
was indeed a place of tragedies. Through its gates
passed the rebel Earl of Lancaster, captive to
the sword and spear of Sir Andrew Harcla and
Sir Simon Ward, after the sanguinary day of
Boroughbridge ; to emerge again, pallid from a
dungeon of endless night, a disgraced and
condemned man, the headsman before him, a
howling crowd around, his only refuge the
iofnominious and violent death that awaited him.
In such sorrowful plight, but with less ignominy,
in later years, when Bolingbroke wore Richard's

66 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

crown, the betrayed Archbishop of York passed
forth en route for his princely palace of
Bishopthorpe, there to bend his neck to the same
doom that had overtaken his brother, the Earl of
Wiltshire, in the first days of Henry's triumph.

Pontefract was the last prison that housed
Richard of Bordeaux before the axe of Sir Piers
Exton, or the slower and more cruel pangs of
famine, broke down the walls of life, and left only
the wan clay, eloquent of cruel death, to be carried
to London for the satisfaction of his cousin and his
late discontented subjects.

Lord Grey, the Earl of Rivers, Sir Thomas
Vaughan, and Sir Richard Haute, passed through
its evil portals in Gloucester's murderous day,
leaving hope behind, dead to court and camp,
honour and ambition, to be haled forth at the
tyrant's command, and meet a death little less
tragic and cruel than that inflicted by assassin's
steel. In Tudor days the castle became the
scene of a strange military pageant, when the
pilgrims marched in with banner and cross — the
might of the Catholic north — bearing the insignia
of Christ's wounds in witness of their holy war.
When w^aiting and cunning had won for the
executioner s sword that which soldier's steel had

YORKSHIRE CASTLES. 67

not dared to attempt, Lord Darcy paid with his
hfe, on Tower Hill, the penalty of surrendering
the King's fortress to the pilgrims.

Sandal Castle stands in the foreground of
those tragic scenes, fruit of Bolingbroke's'^
ambition, that are grouped around the roses of
York and Lancaster. It is the wintry ending of
the year, and Duke Richard is cooped within the
fortress, with 4000 famous men-at-arms, the
flower of the Yorkist chivalry. Outside, Black
Clifford and a host of Lancastrians, resolute,
impatient, watched the fortress until Duke
Richard, tempted by the danger of a foraging
party, or stung to action by the sight of an
enemy, orders the warders to let down the
drawbridge, and issues forth into open field, his
falcon banner straining in the blast, amid pelting
snow-flakes, all his chivalry behind him. Seldom
has bloodier conflict been fought. Hemmed in,
retreat cut off, Duke Richard fought out his
quarrel to the death. With him fell the flower
of his chivalry, and the young Earl of Rutland,
happy in his early and honourable death.
Thence the Lancastrian lords carried the heads
of Salisbury and York to rot over Micklegate bar.
Three months later, and young Edward of March

68 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

entered the city, triumphant after '' the celebra-
tion with pahiis and spears " on Towton Field, and
set the headsman to work, replacing the wasted
heads of his father and Salisbury with those of
Devonshire and Sir William Hill.

Another Yorkshire fortress, Cawood Castle, is
said to have been a Saxon stronghold in the days
of Athelstan, the bracelet-giver and the lord of
jarls and heroes, who trod Yorkshire soil with a
huge army at his back, when Anlaf invaded the
North, and the defeat of the Saxon King would
have entailed a change of dynasty.

We may linger a moment over Knaresborough
Castle, standing out boldly from a background of
flame and smoke when the wild Scots were over
the border in 1319, and burned the towns of
Knaresbro and Skipton. During the revolt of
the villeins under Wat Tyler, John of Gaunt's
wife, Constance of Castile, came to Knaresbro,
with torches gleaming redly on the dusky night,
for the country was stirred to its centre, and the
villeins of Beverley and Scarborough were deeply
moved ; and her lord's castle of Pontefract dared
not open its gates to receive her. The lady
abode in Knaresborough Castle until Lancaster
returned from Scotland.

YORKSHIRE CASTLES. 69

The Black Clifford comes before us in
association with his castle of Skipton. He it
was who slew young Rutland on Wakefield
Bridge, and lived to shed first blood at Ferry-
bridge, when the great Warwick, central figure
of a disordered army, through which fear
was working, slew his steed, and vowed that he
would there make his stand, befall what would.
Clifford, however, fell that day, being smitten on
the bare throat by a headless arrow, and so lost
his part in the carnage on Towton Field.

Wild war-notes echo around the walls of
Clifford's Tower, York, raised from blood and
ashes of a city scathed by siege, assault, and
famine ; but Kingsley has told the story of
Danish storm and Norman siege, of Hereward's
prowess, and Earl Waltheof s defence.

Bosworth Field opened the gates of Sheriff
Hutton Castle to Richard of Gloucester's captives
— the children of his brothers Clarence and
Edward. Young Warwick passed to the Tower,
and judicial murder on the scaffold, to ease the
Tudors' jealousy ; and his cousin Elizabeth passed
to the palace, and by her marriage with the
victor united the houses of York and Lancaster,
and gave support to the base Tudor blood.

70 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Gladly we pass to that more heroic war, when
Helmsley Castle belched from cannon and musket
its deadly hail against Sir Thomas Fairfax and
his stormers. There fell the gallant soldier, his
shoulder shot through by musket lead, and it was
long feared that Parliament would lose one of its
most daring commanders.

Scarborough Castle, cresting the precipitous
cliff by the stormy North Sea, brings us visions
of Piers Gaveston, as Pembroke receives his
surrender and hurries him from Yorkshire soil to
face the headsman with his lifted axe. We see it
held in close leaguer by the Pilgrims in Henry
VIII. 's days ; and again when Westmoreland
invests, and compels Thomas Stafford to
relinquish the prize so cunningly achieved, and
pay for his brief fame the price of his forfeited
head. The Stuart times brought heroic days to
Scarborough, days of siege and storm, when
cannon roared, and fierce stormers came on again
and again, until the dark day dawned when the
King's flag came fluttering down. In the leaguer,
Sir John Meldrum received his death wound
during a furious assault delivered on the 17th
May, 1645.

We may not linger over Mulgrave Castle, and

YORKSHIRE CASTLES. 71

its legend of the giant Wada and his wife, and of
the tragic death of King Etheh^ed. Ardulph
avenged the man whose dignities he aspired to, in
a furious battle with the conspirators, and Wada
returned to his fortress, crushed by defeat, to die
of a terrible disorder.

Middleham, a seemly stronghold for the Nevilles,
passed to Richard of Gloucester when Warwick's
crest went down, to rise no more, amid the surges
of Barnet. There Gloucester's son Edward was
born, and there he compelled the Bastard of
Fauconbridge to lose his head, in 1471, although
he had received the King's pardon.

During its long history, Richmond Castle
never sustained siege or assault. To the security
of its strong walls Ralph de Glanville bore his
royal prisoner, William the Lion, plucked from
the front of the army, during his famous tilting
match in Alnwick Fields, a.d. 1174.

Ravensworth Castle is said to be of pre-
conquest origin. When Henry V. invaded
France, Henry, Lord Fitzhugh, gathered beneath
his banner sixty-six men-at-arms and 209 archers,
and fought gallantly in his master's quarrel.
Boldly and truly he performed his knightly
vows, smote Turks and Saracens in the field,

72 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

dared the perils of Eastern travel to worship at
Jerusalem, and rested after his labours in
Jervaux, beside his ancestors.

Bowes Castle carries us back to the Roman
occupation, for the castle is supposed to have been
built by Allan Niger on the ruins of the Roman
station, w^hen a sound of battle was in the land,
Cumberland and Westmoreland being in arms with
Earl Gospatrick. At Bowes, 500 archers were
posted to maintain the King's authority, bulwarked
by thick walls that secured them from Saxon axe
and sword.

The record grows beyond bound, not admitting
a glance at that memorable period when each
Yorkshire fortress held for the King, the towns
of the west were crushed, the Fairfaxes driven
out, and disloyal Hull, with raised bridges and
closed gates, defied Newcastle and his cavaliers,
and kept open the pathway for Fairfax and his
parliamentarians. Sir Thomas returned to the
scene of his old exploits, and raised such a storm
that Newcastle had to withdraw his blockade
of Leslie and his Scots. Days of humiliation
followed. Marston Moor destroyed the King's
supremacy in the north, and crown and throne
w^ent surely down from that fatal day. Over all

YORKSHIRE CASTLES. 73

Yorkshire cannon boomed, and siege was laid to
the King's fortresses, until the last of them
hauled down the royal colours.

On the 30th of April, 1646, the order was
issued that the followinof Yorkshire fortresses
should be rendered untenable : — Knaresborouo^h,
Pontefract, Sheffield, Cawood, Middleham, Bolton,
Craike, Helmsley, Wressel, and Skipton : a
decision not to be wondered at when the cost of
their reduction is remembered — a cost of weary
months of siege and storm, with dreadful effusion
of blood, to make secure the fruit of Marston,
Naseby, and other glorious but sanguinary fields.

By Sidney W. Clarke.

WHATEVER were the failings of our
Roman conquerors, they had at least
one, and in those days a great, redeeming
feature — they were masters of the art of warfare,
as it was practised in their times. Such being
the case, they w^ould not be long in possession of
their new conquest before recognising the
importance of holding, in the heart of the
enemy's country, such a naturally strong position
as the commanding ground in the angle formed
by the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss.
In the dim and distant past, long before the
coming of the Roman legions, the place may have
been the site of a rude stockade, raised by
woad-stained Britons for the protection of their
humble village. But this is mere conjecture ; of
the existence of York in pre-Roman times we
have no record. It is certain, however, that
Eboracum, as York w^as anciently named, was a
post of much importance to the Romans during

YORK CASTLE. 75

their occupation of England, and on account of
its exposure to the attacks of the still unsubdued
and hostile northern tribes it became a permanent
military station, and the headquarters of the
Sixth Legion. Here Emperors were born, lived,
and died ; and from Eboracum as a centre, the
Komans commenced in the north of England
their great work of civilization, the benefits of
which we reap to this day. There is little
doubt but that it was Roman skill and
labour that reared the first castle or fortress at
York.

When the Romans were called away to take
part in the defence of their fatherland, their
place in Britain was, in the course of time, taken
by the Saxon and the Dane. It is not until five
hundred years have elapsed since the departure
of the Romans that the first authentic mention of
a castle at York is found. In the year 936 York
was the centre of a rebellion against the rule of
Athelstan. We are told that the King, after
having signally defeated his enemies at Brunan-
burgh, retaliated upon the rebels by entirely
destroying their stronghold — the castle at York.
It is not known when or by whom this castle was
built, but it has been supposed that it was erected

76 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

by the Saxons or Danes upon the site of the
Roman fortifications.

York played a prominent part in the troubles
that followed the advent on our shores of the
Norman invader. When William marched
northwards, in 1068, to complete the conquest of
England, York submitted at once. To control
the city, WilHam had recourse to his usual
expedient, he built a castle on the site of the old
structure destroyed by Athelstan, and where in
later years Clifford's Tower was to stand. The
Conqueror garrisoned his new fortress with five
hundred picked men-at-arms, under the command
of Robert Fitz Patrick and other trusty knights.
If York had at first tamely submitted to William,
it was not long before the citizens endeavoured to
throw off his yoke, and in 1069 they rose and
attacked the castle. William hurried to the
rescue, defeated the rebels, and for the second
time gained possession of the place, where in
eight days he built another castle on what is
known as the Bail Hill. For a short time York
was quiet, but it was the calm before the storm.
On the twenty-first of September, 1069, a
combined force of English and Danes attacked
and captured the two castles, the Norman

YORK CASTLE. 1-1

o^arrisons, consistinor in all of about three
thousand men, being almost cut to pieces, only a
mere remnant escaping to carry news of his loss
to the Kinof. The first work of the victors was
to utterly demolish the castles, and this done, the
Danes sailed away with their plunder, and the
English dispersed to their homes. William took
a terrible revenge. He appeared before the city
and demanded admittance, and on being refused,
at once commenced to besiege the place. The
defenders held out for a time, but were at length
compelled by famine to capitulate. William
disregarded the terms that had been offered and
accepted, and slew every man that had opposed
him, afterwards destroying the city, and
devastating the entire district between York and
Durham. How effectually this was done is a
matter of history — men, women, and children
died of hunger ; not a house was left standing ;
and for nine years following the spirit of
desolation brooded o'er the broad acres of the once
fertile Yorkshire. When he had completed his
fiendish work, William returned to w^hat remained
of York for Christmas, rebuilt the castles, and
then turned his back for ever on the county he
had ruined,

78 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

For the next scene in the eventful history of
the Castle we must look to the reio^n of Richard
the Lion-Hearted, when there took place one
of those fanatical and bloodthirsty outbreaks
of the popular hatred of the Jew^s that so often
disgraced the Christianity of the Middle Ages.
For a vivid account of this barbarous event Sir
Walter Scott's " Ivanhoe " should be referred to, it
will be sufficient to here give a mere outline of
the painful episode. The example was set by the
men of London, who celebrated the coronation of
Richard by a rising against the Jews. Other
towns followed ttie lead of the metropolis.
At York the mob waited for a favourable
opportunity to show their zealous bigotry.
During the commotion caused by a fire in the
city, the house of one of the leading Israelites
was attacked, the inmates massacred, and the
premises plundered. The Jews, in alarm, sought
the protection of the Castle, which was afforded
them by the governor. They quickh^ removed
their families and their valuables to this harbour
of refuge, where they might have remained in
safety until the storm blew over, but for their own
timid fears and foolish conduct.

The governor one day had occasion to leave

YORK CASTLE. 79

the Castle for a short time, and *' when he would
have returned," says an old account, "he was
prevented by the Jews, who feared lest in this
time he miofht have made some ao^reement with
their enemies to deliver them up." This fatal
lack of confidence enraged the Governor, and he
obtained from the High Sheriff permission
to besieofe the Castle. '' Now was shown the
zeal of the Christian populace ; for an innum-
erable company of armed men, as well from the
city as country, rose at once and begirt the
fortress round." The rabble was led and
encouraged in its thirst for blood by several
monks and priests, one of whom, at least, was
deservedly punished w^hen he was struck by a
stone thrown from the battlements, and killed.
The wretched Hebrews offered to purchase their
lives at a heavy ransom, but to no avail. Then,
in their peril, one of their teachers urged them to
die for their faith, but by their own hands, rather
than to trust to the tender mercies of the
Christian wolves who were crowding round the
walls. Many determined to follow this terrible
advice, and having broken up their vessels of gold
and silver, they set fire to the Castle, and then
'' whilst their companions who had chosen life

80 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

looked sullenly on, each man prepared for the
slaughter. Being told by their Elder that those
who bore the steadiest minds should first cut the
throats of their wives and children, the celebrated
Jocenus began the execution by doing that
barbarous act on his own wife, Anna, and his five
children. The example was speedily followed by
the rest of the masters of families ; and
afterwards the Rabbi cut the throat of Jocenus
himself, as a point of honour he chose to do him
above the rest. In short, the whole crew of
miserable men, who had thus voluntarily given
themselves up to destruction, slew themselves or
one another." Next day the terror-stricken
survivors told their persecutors the terrible tale
and begged for mercy if they surrendered. The
besiegers appeared to relent, but no sooner were
they admitted within the gate, than they fell
upon and slew every Jew they found. Over
fifteen hundred Jews fell victims to the hatred of
their fellow citizens. The Castle suffered greatly
from the conflagration, but it was speedily rebuilt,
and the keep, Clifford's Tower, was soon after-
wards added.

In succeeding centuries the Castle was allowed
to fall to ruin, but when the struggle between

YORK CASTLE. 81

King and Parliament began, it was repaired and
strengthened, and furnished with cannons. It
stood a long siege on behalf of the King, but at
last passed into the possession of the Parlia-
mentary armies. The end of York Castle as a
fortress was near ; on the night of the 23rd of
April, 1684, a fire broke out in CliiFord's Tower,
and spreading to the powder magazine, caused a
violent explosion, the result of which was that
only the outer walls were left standing. The fire
was thought to have been the wilful act of the
occupants, who had removed from the Tower
shortly before its discovery. Since that night,
over two hundred years ago, York Castle has
only existed as a picturesque ruin, and as
enclosing within its precincts various prisons and
Courts of Justice.

Caetles anb Castle Builbere : Bolton Caatle
an& tbe Scropes.

ALTHOUGH characterised by the durabihty
of the material used, and by the excellency
of the workmanship, the military works of the
Romans have largely disappeared during the
mutations of the centuries. What the Roman
held he defended, and some remains of military
works are yet to be found within the island.
Dover shows the flat attenuated Roman brick,
laid in uniform courses, and the ruins of
Richborough and Pevensey are of surpassing
interest. The remains of the great wall of
Hadrian may also be referred to as an example of
the stupendous character of Roman work, and
one which speaks highly for Roman faith,
thus labouring to protect one of its remotest
colonies from the irruption of barbarian foes.

The British forts or castles were simply round
or square erections, crowning the summits of lofty
eminences that commanded the surrounding
country. The hills were cut in terraces, and

CASTLES AND CASTLE BUILDERS. 83

girdled by a wall of stones, sometimes loose,
sometimes cemented. For examples, the ram-
parted hill of Sarum may be referred to,
and the Catter-thuns of Angus as described by
Pennant.

The Romans not infrequently utilised the sites
of ancient British defences, and the later comers,
Saxons, Danes, and Normans, during the
centuries of convulsion before the Plantagenets
were established, frequently built their fortresses
over the old Roman foundations. The Saxon is
supposed to have built rudely, making use of
wood chiefly, and summoning the serf to attend
with his axe. Some writers give the keep of
Coningsborough as a fine example of Saxon
work, but it has also been referred to the Norman
Earls of Warren. The comparative ease with
which the Conqueror subjugated the North, after
the Danes w^ere bought off, and York starved
into submission, justifies the opinion of Ordericus
that the lack of castles was one reason why the
revolts of the English were so easily put down. A
very short time sufficed to alter that, as the
Anglo-Norman monarchs found to their cost.

Certainly the Normans were great castle
builders,. and Yorkshire soil affords us abundant

84 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

examples of their work. Without defensive
works they could scarcely have maintained
themselves north of the Humber, as witness the
massacre of Copsi, by the first Norman Earl of
Northumbria, who, a.d. 1068, entered Durham
in triumph with 1200 mail-clad Normans,
shedding the blood of Saxon burghers in the
mere wantonness of power, but w^ho fell, with all
his followino- beneath the veno^eful Saxon axes
that same night.

Of the Norman castle the keep was the
principal feature, and it was defended by a double
wall, a moat, and a barrier of wooden piles. The
entrance was strongly defended by a barbican,
drawbridge, gate, and portcullis. It is scarcely
necessary to remark that the Norman fortresses
not infrequently comprised several strong
towers.

Stephen of Blois, to secure his throne, gratified
the barons by according them permission to build
castles, for it behoved royalty to be exceedingly
careful in the conferring of this much-valued
privilege ; and they were trusted subjects who
received the royal licence to fortify their houses
or build castles. Stephen was a frank and
generous man, despite his usurpation, but the

CASTLES AND CASTLE BUILDERS. ^h

Conqueror and his sons had experienced so much
trouble in the besieo^ing of the fortresses of their
rebelHous barons, that he might have accepted
the lesson and used greater discretion in
tlie matter. In the course of his troublous
reign, 1100 castles are said to have been
built, doubtless with great oppression of the
peasantry, for Norman towers were erected with
heavy labour, to resist the flight of centuries
and stand the blows of siege and storm. In
the building of Windsor Castle, Edward III.
called upon each county for its proportion of
skilled craftsmen. The building and maintenance
of a castle imposed the service known as
Castellorum Operatio, performed by personal ser-
vice or payment. Castle ward was imposed upon
those who lived within the boundary protected by
the castle, and it was not unreasonable to call
upon them to contribute to the cost of watch and
ward.

Thus speaks the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle with
respect to Stephen's castles. The traitors '' no
faith kept ; all became forsworn, and broke their
allegiance, for every rich man built his castles,
and defended them against him, and they filled
the land full of castles. They greatly oppressed

86 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

the wretched people by making thein work at
these castles, and when the castles were finished
they filled them with devils and evil men." A
sad account of the national troubles follows.
, Stephen's reign was a long chapter of conflicts
and sieges ; but when Henry II. succeeded to the
throne, he resumed possession of the grants of
crown lands made by the late King ; but had to
do it with an army at his back, for many bold
barons raised drawbridge, and manned tower and
wall against his powers. One by one the new
castles fell, and were levelled with the dust.
Hugh de Mortimer defended Bridgenorth with
spirit, and Henry owed his life to the devotion of
one of his followers, who threw himself before his
Majesty in time to receive an arrow aimed at the
King. The devoted vassal died in Henry's arms,
with his last breath imploring the royal pro-
tection for his only child, a girl of tender years.
In due course Henry honourably fulfilled his
charge.

The great barons of England were almost
beyond the reach of law, with their strong castles
and numerous vassals ; but probably they would
compare favourably with the mass of European
nobles in respect to their treatment of those who

CASTLES AND CASTLE BUILDERS. 87

were under their control. The ferocious, lawless,
and overbearing spirit of the Scottish barons is
abundantly illustrated in the pages of Scottish
historians.

The old castles of England are not only
interesting in themselves as monuments of a long
departed feudalism, but they are doubly
interesting in their association with the old
English families. Take for an example that
strong mediaeval fortress, Bolton Castle, the seat
of the Scropes.

Lord Scrope, High Chancellor of England,
obtained King Richard's licence to fortify his
manorial residence at Bolton, in the third year of
his reign ; and eighteen changeful years swept
past before the lordly pile was completed at a
cost of 18,000 marks. Patient oxen drew the
necessary wood from Engleby Forest, in
Cumberland, and the masonry of the castle was
calculated to withstand leaguer and storm, should
evil days of internecine strife trouble the nation.

The castle builder was a notable man in his
day, and had served with the martial Edward in
his French wars. The castle was worthy of the
man, although it owed all its strength to art.
Four towers, connected by a curtain wall, as

88 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

shown in the accompanying engraving, con-
stituted the castle. It was further defended by a
deep moat. It is chiefly remarkable for its
irregularity ; no two sides of towers or curtains
being equal ; and this peculiarity exists in the
large turret that projects between the two towers.
Indeed there is no pretentions to external beauty,
but the solidity of the building, and the height of
the towers, invest it with a gloomy but imposing
grandeur. Such a fortress might have defended
a Louis XI. or served as a prison house for
cardinals and barons, caged behind iron bars, like
wild beasts. It was indeed, for a few months,
the prison of the unfortunate Mary Stuart, a.d.
1568-9 ; and according to tradition, she had
almost effected her escape, but was overtaken
and re-captured in the ^'Queen's gap" on
Leyburn shawl. When Bolingbroke landed at
Ravenspurne, a.d. 1399, one of the first victims of
the revolt against the unhappy Richard was
Scrope's son, the Earl of Wiltshire, who was
captured in Bristol Castle, with Sir John Bussy
and Sir Henry Green. Those unfortunate men
had amassed large fortunes by farming the
national revenue, and Henry gratified the public
hatred by the execution of the prisoners. When

90 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Bolingbroke was established upon the throne,
Parhament confirmed the attainder of treason
against Wiltshire, and his aged father pleaded
with the sorrowful pathos of age for his children,
that their honour and inheritance might not
suffer. Henry re-assured the aged father with
kind and gracious words ; but his lordship
endured not many more years or sorrows before
death came to his relief The old man retained
his affection for King Richard to his life's end,
and endowed a chantry in his castle of Bolton,
wherein daily service was performed to secure the
repose of Richard's soul.

King Henry's hand fell heavily upon the house
of Scrope. Another son, Richard, Archbishop
of York, headed a formidable rising against the
King's authority, and charged him with treason,
usurpation, murder, and the withholding of the
crown from the lineal heir, the Earl of Marche.
The Yorkshiremen so loyally supported their
archbishop that the King's army dared not
risk a conflict. Prince John and the Earl of
Westmoreland accordingly concluded a treaty
with the insurgents, but no sooner were they
disbanded than he arrested Scrope and others.
The betrayed primate was executed at his palace

CASTLES AND CASTLE BUILDERS, 91

of Bishopthorpe, on the 8th of June, 1405.
Mowbray, Sir Robert Plumpton, Sir John
Lamplugh, and other unfortunates, shared the
same fate. The heads of Scrope and Mowbray
were spiked on York walls.

The family was not ruined by these mischances,
and kept well to the front, and one of the Scropes
is referred to in the Ballad of Flodden Field : —

'•' And with the lusty knight, Lord Scrope,
The power of Richmondshire will rise."

Of the same ancestry were the Scropes of
Masham and Upsall, of whom Henry, the third
baron, was implicated in the Earl of Cambridge's
cruel conspiracy to assassinate Henry V. The
traitors were executed at the north gate,
Southampton, at the moment when, with
favouring winds, the royal fleet sailed from the
harbour with the army of Agincourt and
Harfleur. Scrope had been a close friend of
Henry's, and the indignant King marked his
wrath against the traitor by allowing him to
undergo all the butchery that punishes high
treason. The other conspirators were simply
beheaded.

Let us take a last glance at the old castle,
choosing: for date the 5th November, 1645. It has

92 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

been long and valiantly defended by Colonels
Scrope and Chaytor for King Charles, but the
provisions are exhausted, the horses eaten, and
famine has conquered. Siege works are silent, grim
Parliamentarians are drawn up to receive the
surrender, and the famine-stricken and war-wasted
handful of loyal gentlemen march out with the
honours of war, and proceed to Pontefract.

The Barony of Scrope of Bolton expired with
Emmanuel, the thirteenth Lord, and Earl of
Sunderland, a.d. 1630. The last Lord Scrope of
Masham and Upsall, died a.d. 1517, having three
sisters, '* among whose descendants and repre-
sentatives this barony is in abeyance."

IRamparte, Malle, anO Bars of l^orJ^.

By W. Cam I DC, e.

" York, York for my monie,
Of all the citties that ever I see
For raerrie pastime, and companie."

THE ancient and historic City of York
presents many claims to pre-eminence
amongst the cities of England. It is certainly
the oldest city of Britain, flourishing nearly two
thousand years ago, and is of greater antiquity
by centuries than the history of the nation.
Central in position, it is still the capital of the
largest county, and the most celebrated town of
the north of Eno^land. It has been the chosen
residence of Royalty ; in its early days sheltering
the masters of the world, and in later times it
has frequently been the temporary home of the
kings, queens, and royal princes of the nation,
and a chosen spot for coronations. More than
once it has been the seat of the imperial courts,
and the centre of imperial justice, the birth and
burial place of Emperors ; the dwelling-place of

94 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

the king's legate, and the centre of the councils of
the North. It has been the rendezvous of the
greatest generals, and the largest armies of the
day, from the Roman legions downwards ; the
subject of siege, the heart of martial glory, the
birth-place of armies and of great military forces,
the meeting-place of gemotes, parliaments,
councils, and conventions. It has been the abode
of monks, friars, and nuns of ever}^ order, the
treasure home of antiquities, the early abode of
literature and of art, the residence of wealth and
splendour, the palace of merchant princes, the
heart of commerce. Its broad deep river navi-
gable to the sea, on which warships rode and
innumerable vessels with merchandise floated,
made it the mart of distant lands, the market-
place of foreign and English commodities, and the
manufactory of goods of many kinds. It is the site
of the grandest cathedral of the nation ; the
cradle of Christianity, and at one time the
foundation spot of about forty-five churches,
seventeen chapels, sixteen hospitals, and nine
religious houses. It has been the birthplace of
civil and ecclesiastical dignatories, for all its
time the residence of an archbishop, dean,
prebendaries, and archdeacons ; and the temporary

RAMPARTS, WALLS, AND BARS OF YORK, 95

residence or business-place of the wealthiest
families of the county, the chief of the Romano-
British cities, and as far as can be ascertained one
of the only two cities which bore the title of
" Municipium," certainly one of the only two
which had a '^Lord Mayor/' It has given birth to
the most wonderful superstitions, and the most
remarkable ghost stories, it is and has been the
home of freedom, the cradle of the nation's
greatness, the birthplace of the nation's histories
and laws, thQ theatre of many meetings in which
the destiny of the country and the fortune of
kings were involved, especially of the Plantagenet
line, staking its all on the Royal family which
bore its name.

" The child of Rome, the nurse of Kings ! around thy
name has grown

A power of majesty and might, to ancient days unknown ;

Old Tiber saw tM^orld enslaved, and wreck pronounced
her p-rffne,

But to old Ebor her grandsons bring the spread of free-
dom's fame.

Rome lived the mistress of the world, to die in shattered
pride

York lives in growing nations' hearts, their mother and
their guide."

The past history of York not only generates
feelings of pardonable pride in its sons and

90 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

daughters, but inspires in the minds of all who
have any reverence for the things of ancient
days, the most profound regard and respect, for
it transcends in brilliant achievements and social
grandeur all that has been accomplished in other
and larger cities ; prse-Roman in existence it was
moulded into a second Rome when this people
grafted themselves upon it, and the spirit and
character infused into it by Rome is not yet
dead.

Its first effort at defence was probably earth
mounds thrown up by the Romans f^^ their
predecessors, certain it is that when the Romans
settled within its precincts they soon established a
permanent camp in the city, and when they had
completed the conquest of the north they built a
walled station of much smaller dimensions, but of
similar character to the present w^alls, which
served all their then needs. This wall building
probably occurred about a.d. 79, during the second
campaign of Agricola, although the wall did
not enclose the whole of the city as the walls did
in later days.

In the earliest part of the second century
(a.d. 109), York became the headquarters of the
ninth legion, and in little more than twenty years

RAMPARTS, WALLS. AND BARS OF YORK. 97

afterwards the military population was increased
by the addition of the sixth legion (Legio Sexta
Victrix), whilst stations or castella were established
in several of the villages adjacent and more
remote. The fortress or military station was
established on the north-east side of the river,
and the walled enclosure measured about 452
yards in length and 530 yards in breadth, including
within its area the ground from Bootham Bar to
Holy Trinity or Christ Church in length, and from
what is now Monk Bar to the fringe of Coney
Street in breadth, taking in what is now
Petergate ; Minster yard, Ogleforth, College
Street, part of Aldwark ; St. Andrewgate, the
Bedern, Goodramgate, Girdlergate (Church
Street), St. Sampson's Square, Feasegate, Jubber-
gate (Market Street), Davygate, Davyhall (New
Street), St. Helen's Square, Stonegate, Little
Stonegate, Swinegate, Grape Lane, Blake Street,
Duncombe Street, Mint Yard, Museum Street,
St. Leonard's Place, and other places. This fort-
ress was dissected by two main roads, one of which
ran in a straight line from the present Bootham
Bar in the direction of Walmgate, and the other
from about the centre of Lord Mayor's Walk to the

site of the present Mansion House and Guildhall,

98 BYGONE YORKSHIRE, .

where a bridge in all probability crossed the Ouse.
These roads were in direct line with the Roman
roads to Easingwold (Eisicewalt) and Aldburgh
(Isurium) to Malton (Derventio), to Brough on
the Humber (Prsetorium) and to Tadcaster
(Calcaria), whilst within the walls the Roman
palace with all its accessories was erected. To
serve these roads the wall was pierced by four
openings or gates, one occupying the site of the
present Bootham Bar, another situate about
midway on Lord Mayor's Walk, but a little
nearer to Monk Bar, another was in King's
Square, and the other in St. Helen's Square.
They were called the Praetorium, Decuman, and
lateral gates with towers at each of the four
corners.

One of the corner towers is called the
"Multangular Tower," and being happily
preserved to this day is representative of Roman
York. It is now inclosed in the grounds of the
Yorkshire Philosophical Society, and internally
its floor is 8 or 9 feet lower than the ground
outside of it, it is a shell of masonry presenting
nine faces, and measures 45 feet in its
diameter outside ; whilst its gorge, which is open,
is twenty-four feet inside ; like its contiguous

RAMPARTS, WALLS, AND BARS OF YORK. 95»

walls (a little of which remains) it is 5 feet in
thickness. Additions have been made to its
height since its original erection, but Roman
work is clearly traceable for 15 feet from its base,
and is of rubble, faced on both fronts with Ashlar
blocks of stone, of 4 or 5 inches cube. There
is also a band of brick in the Roman part
of the tower, each brick being 17 inches
long, 11 inches broad, and 2|- inches
thick, laid in five courses. On the top of
the purely Roman work an upper story of early
English work has been erected, which is 3
feet thick, and 12 feet high, and which is
composed of larger stones, and pierced by nine
cruciform loops, each set in a pointed recess.
Branching from this tower, in a south-easterly
direction, more than 50 yards of the original
Roman wall is still preserved, whilst on the other
side of the tower a small portion of the wall has
likewise been preserved. There is no rampart
discoverable about the Tower or the portions of
the wall still intact, and if they ever existed,
which is more than probable, the ground about
them has been levelled up to their crown.
A ditch in all probability did exist out-
side the original wall, but that in the

100 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

lapse of years has disappeared, or rather been
filled up.

Another portion of the Roman wall also still
exists in the garden adjacent to Mr. Edwin
Gray's residence on the west side of Monk Bar,
whilst a considerable portion is also laid bare on
the property belonging Mr. Daniel Lund close to
the east side of the bar. It was unburied in 1860
whilst the foundations for Mr. Lund's property
were being: duof, and is a most interesting: and
instructive piece of Roman masonry.

Another short length is untombed further
east and nearer to, or somewhat behind, St.
Cuthbert's Church. It is more than likely that
considerable portions of the original Roman wall
still remain buried under the ramparts or earth-
work thrown up after the vacation of the city by
the Romans. The present walls are generally
built a little outside of the original Roman walls,
and their foundations are of a much o^reater
height, so that in forming the rampart on which
to erect the mediaeval walls, the old work would
necessarily be covered up with earthwork, as is
evidenced by the fact that in the several places
where the rampart has been removed in recent
years, the Roman wall has been uncovered and

M AMP ARTS, WALLS, AND BAMS OF YORK. 101

exposed to view. The greater part of the Roman
wall which has been laid bare is faced with
original Ashlar blocks, and the interior is
composed of a very solid cement, or mortar, and
cobbles, which are all but immovably fastened
together, and remarkably akin to the multangular
tower. The Monk Bar portion is apparently
built on the level of the adjacent street, but in
Roman times that street would be much lower,
which fact favours, if it does not actually prove,
the idea of ramparts. A mural Roman tower on
the line of the walls was discovered some years
ago, a few yards south of Bootham Bar, the site
of the old Praetorium Gate, but it was removed
for street-making purposes.

After the Romans withdrew from York, it is
likely that their successors found it necessary for
the purposes of defence to throw up earthworks
on the right and left banks of the Ouse, especially
where no walls existed, and this they did by first
digging a broad and deep ditch, the earth from
which was thrown inwards, and formed a ridge or
bank which varied in height from 15 to 30
feet, with a proportionate breadth. The bottom
of this ditch was in most places 40 feet deep, and
consequently below the summer level of the rivers

102 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Ouse and Foss, from which it drew its supply of
water. The ditch was about 50 yards wide,
and surrounded a space more than three times
the size of the original Roman area. Beyond the
Roman wall it is assumed that nothino^ but
ramparts and ditches existed for some time after
this people had vacated the city, and the
earthworks on the south-west side of the Ouse
were clearly the first to be thrown up ; still the
work exhibited in these ditches and ramparts
evidence so much of Roman Castrameltation,
that there can be little doubt about it being-
executed by the Britons, immediately after the
retirement of the Romans ; it was done in all
probability in the early part of the fifth century
to keep out strangers when Rome had gone.
During the eighth century the defences of the
city were further increased by the upcasting of
two large mounds of earth, on which fortresses of
some kind were erected, for in the year 922
Athelstan is credited with seriously damaging a
fortress thrown up by the Danes. One of the
mounds is situate on the north-east bank of the
river Ouse, and upon it Clifford's Tower was
afterwards erected ; the other is on the south-
west bank, and is called Bayle Hill, on which a

RAMPART.S, WALLS, AND BARS OF YORK. 103

structure at one time existed. These mounds
were moated round in the same manner as the
ramparts, the ditch around Clifford's mound
being fed by the Foss, and the other by the
Ouse ; the former is 50 feet high, and 100
feet in diameter at the top, with a very
steep slope ; whilst Bayle Hill is of somewhat
smaller dimensions but of similar character, each
of them had a lower and larger area or platform,
extending from the bottom of the mound to the
edge of the moat, and of horse-shoe shape. In
the early part of the tenth century the walls were
added to, or erected on the ramparts, but the
masonry nmst have been of an unsubstantial
character, as little or no trace of it is known to
remain. Amongst the first actions of William
the Conqueror on his ultimately receiving the
submission of the citizens, was to order and
arrange for the erection of a castle on each of the
mounds to supplant the then existing stockade,
the construction of which erection he committed
to WiUiam Malet, Robert Fitz Richard, Gilbert
of Ghent, and 500 selected knights. Whilst no
trace of the erection on Bayle Hill now remains,
the Clifford mound still bears a most interesting
ruin of bygone days. Originally these mounds

104 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

were approached by drawbridges, which could be
worked at the will of the occupants of the towers,
as the need of defence or isolation arose. The
Conqueror also set to w^ork to strengthen and
rebuild the walls, w^hich survive to this day.
Tw^o towers were also built on the Ouse at the
w^est end of the defences, called respectively
Lendal tower, and North Street postern tower,
from which a strong chain was passed across the
river Ouse to guard its passage, and to protect
the w^ar vessels lying in the river above this point.
Starting at the Lendal Tower to make a
circuit of the city by way of the walls, we no
sooner get to the north side of that tower than
we come upon a wall built on the ridge of a very
high bank, which runs for 114 yards, when,
after a short break at the Museum Gates, it
joins the Roman wall and continues a few
yards more, where it forms a junction with
the Roman Multangular tower. Beyond this
tower the Roman wall is again utilized, and a
new wall joined to it, which after a stretch of 217
yards, runs into Bootham Bar, built on the site of
the Roman prsetorium gate ; the whole of these
walls w^ere afterw^ards covered by the fortified
area and walls of St Mary's Abbey, including the

RAMPARTS, WALLS, AND BARS OF YORK. 105

two posterns in Marygate, which all stand some
little distance in the rear of the City walls, and
outside the old City boundary. From Bootham
Bar the wall takes a north-easterly direction for
316 yards, and then turning at right angles in a
somewhat irregular line, it continues for 340
yards, when it reaches Monk Bar. From this
latter bar the wall runs for 262 yards, when it
again enters an angle, and continues about 130
yards, turning once more where it formerly
terminated in a postern which crossed the road,
which when in existence was called Layerthorpe
Postern. The river Foss, which in bygone days
was a deep and broad stream, running out of the
Forest of Galtress, rendered walls unnecessary
from this point for a considerable distance.
Leland says " For two flite shottes the broad and
depe water of Foss, comming out of the Forest of
Galtress, defendeth this part of Cyte without
Waulle." Two arrow flights may be taken as
432 yards. At the bend of the river a small
rectangular tower of red brick commences the
wall again, which continues for 332 yards, when
it reaches Walmgate Bar, from whence again the
wall continues for 370 yards, until it reaches
Fishergate Bar, after which it continues about

106 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

175 yards, and terminates in Fishergate Postern,
soon after it has made a turn at riofht anofles, and
changed its course to the north-west. At this
postern the Foss was reached again, but in late
years a considerable foreshore has been made,
otherwise the river, along with the Clifford Tower
moat, secured the defence of the City at this
point. Castlegate Postern, with a short wall of
70 yards running down to the river Ouse, and
ending in a water tower, came next. On the
other side of the stream was Skeldergate Tower
and Postern, from whence the walls ran about 50
yards, and then at the skirt of Bayle Hill the
wall rises somewhat rapidly, leaving the Hill
inside with its moat or ditch nearly all round it.
The wall is continued for 243 yards when there is
another sharp turn westward, from whence it
continues for 568 yards until it reaches Mickle-
gate Bar ; this portion of the wall is built rather
in the rear of the crown of the rampart, and
shows more of the erection in the front than at
the back. The wall is resumed at the contrary
side of the bar, and continues for 152 yards,
when it makes a turn at right angles, and runs
towards the river for 527 yards, sinking as it
reaches the stream, where it ends in a round

RAMPARTS, WALLS, AND BARS OF YORK. 107

tower called North Street Postern, into which one
end of the water chain was received.

All alonof the walls, but at irregfular intervals,
there are many buttresses, with a number of
towers, bastions, bays, turrets, arcades, saliens, etc.
During their existence the walls have frequently
needed repairs and restoration, as the result
chiefly of attacks made upon them, and they
display work of every age from the eleventh
century. Formerly these repairs were done at the
bid of kings and at the city's expense (save once)
but in recent years they have been restored by
subscription and otherwise, so that they can now
be perambulated from end to end with the
slightest intermission, and they form a pleasant
and interesting walk, much used by both citizens
and stranofers. The entire circuit of these old-
day erections is about two miles and three-
quarters, and although one or two short lengths
have been removed for the widening of roads, etc.,
still they are nearly as continuous as ever, and
are easy of access. Gates are fixed at each
entrance, which are closed and locked every night
at dusk, but otherwise they are always accessible.
Connected with the walls there are four Bars, and
in days past each of them possessed a Barbican,

108 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

but the demon of progress has robbed the city of
all of them, save one. They are very interesting
structures, and at one time formed part of an
effective line of defence ; they are each erected
upon Roman roads, though their claim to be
Roman workmanship cannot be sustained ; they
are in all probability of greater age than the
walls which jut out of them, and they are alike
somewhat in character, rectangular in plan, of
two or three stages, and a central passage, yet
each possessing distinctive features. Bootham
Bar is 24 feet broad by 21 feet deep ; it has two
portcullis grooves, and one of the instruments is
still in existence : it may be seen to advantage in
the room above the gateway, the oak bars are 4
inches by 3 inches, framed in squares of 7 inches,
and there is in it a small wicket-gate. There are
two chambers or stories above the opening,
which makes the bar 46 feet high. The outer
portal is flanked by two buttresses, which rise to
the upper floor, from which springs two cylindrical
bartizan turrets. Each turret is pierced by a
long cruciform loop, with a curtain between them,
in which are two small square-headed windows,
three stone warriors adorn the coping, and the
upper stage is adorned by a tablet within a garter

RA.\fPARTS, WALLS, AND BARS OF YORK. 109

bearing the Royal arms, sustained on the lower
stage by shields on either side containing the
city arms, the whole of which have been recently
restored, painted, and gilded. Buttresses also
flank the inner arch, whilst on the first floor are
two small lanced openings, with more stone

BOOTHAM BAR.

warriors on the parapet pilasters, whilst Bartizan
towers run up the front. The Barbican was
50 feet long, 27 feet broad, and 25 feet high, with
two low Bartizans and embrassures having cruci-
form loops ; it was approached by two shoulder-
headed doorways from the Bar, but it was pulled
down about sixty years ago, on making a new

110 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

street from Bootham into the city. This bar is not
occupied, as it forms part of the approach to the
walls running from Bootham to Monk Bar, and
recently opened to the public.

Monk Bar is a massive and handsome structure,
27 feet long, and 35 feet deep, it is 63 feet high
to the crest of the turrets, and is of three stories.
There was originally a portculHs in it, but it is
gone, the winch for lifting it, however, still
remains, and also the rebates for two gates. A
new front has been added to the inner face, and
into this front a shallow recess and platform has
been introduced ; the roof of the passage has four
diagonal and two ridge ribs, whilst outsidet here
are two angles capped from the first floor with
Bartizans, each of which is pierced by a cruciform
loop. An outer arch projects slightly, on which is
built a battlemented screen, bearing the arms of
France and England, overhung by an helmet and
canopy, and on each side are the City arms, with
canopy all recently painted, gilded, and repaired.
The top of the outside of the Bar is surmounted
by six life-sized figures in the act of throwing
down stones, the approach to the rooms is by
stairs in the north pier, which serve also as an
approach to the walls to Bootham Bar, The

RAMPARTS, WALLS, AND BARS OF YORK. Ill

chambers, which are occupied by a police
constable, are vaulted, but the Barbican, which
was 42 feet long by 27 broad, along with a guard-
room on the south-east side, have been removed
to make a better approach to the City — the place
of the doorway to the guard-house is still
discernable ; the Barbican had a sally-port on the
north-west side.

Walmgate Bar is the only Bar of the four
which retains its Barbican. Thirty-five years ago
a great effort was made to remove it, so as to
improve the road to and from the cattle-market
which surrounds it, but happily the effort failed.
The Bar is 24 feet broad and 21 feet deep; its
passage is roundheaded, and the cover of the
passage is constructed of timber ; the remnant of
the portcullis is shown by an oak bar and the
iron teeth. The inside of the Bar is a modern
addition, and stands on two massive wood pillars.
There is also a wood railing running round the
top, at the front, which is also evidently of recent
date ; at the back there are two angles, which
are capped from the first floor, and crowned with
circular Bartizans, the arms of Henry V.,
recently repaired, painted, and gilded, adorn the
front^ and the City arms the outer entrance of the

112 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Barbican. The Barbican is 56 feet deep, and 24
broad, and the walls are all parapeted, and contain
two small circular Bartizans, it also bears the City
arms, but they are a modern addition. This Bar
suffered much in the siege of York by Cromwell's
army, being nearly opposite to part of the
attacking forces ; it is now tenanted by a police
constable, and formerly had a cottage built in
front of it, and another on the south-west side of
the Barbican, but they have both been removed
within the last sixty years.

Micklegate Bar is accounted Roman workman-
ship, and whilst some things can be urged in favour
of the theory, the evidence fails to be conclusive ;
it is 26 feet broad, 35 feet deep, and 53 feet high,
it has three floors, and at the outside three
embattled turrets, resting on bold sets off which
rise considerably above the Bar proper ; they are
finished by circular Bartizans, and have cruciform
loops ; a square-headed loop is inserted over the
outer gate, with another above it, flanked by two
of a cruciform character. The coping is capped
by three full-length figures, whilst the outer front
is adorned by three shields, one bearing the arms
of England and France, and two bearing the City
arms, with canopy's helmet and lion's head ; the

RAMPARTS, WALLS, AND BARS OF YORK. 113

inside also bears a shield with Queen Elizabeth's
arms upon it. They have all been recently
renovated and beautified by the Corporation.
The barbican has long since been removed, but
when in existence it was 48 feet deep, and 27 feet
broad, flanking bartizans adorned its high pointed
entrance gate. Micklegate Bar, in olden times
called Tower Gateway, has especially a record as
the spot where rebels' heads were posted after
beheading, as

"When York did overlook the town of York."
The inner ramparts have been greatly
encroached upon in past days, and considerable
portions have been filched from their proper
owners. The walls have in modern days been
pierced immediately adjacent to, and on both
sides of the Bars, for footpaths and carriageways ;
and openings have also been made in Nunnery
Lane for foot and vehicular traffic, and in Thief
Lane for the admission of trains into the old
railway station, also in two places below the old
station for the passage of traffic and passengers
to the new station ; and at North Street Postern
and Fishergate Postern, for foot and vehicular
traffic. An opening was made in the 14th century
from what is now George Street to Fishergate,

114 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

and a portcullis was fitted into the opening, but

the opening was built up again in the time of

Henry YII., and remained in that condition until

1830, when it was again opened for the convenience

of the newly-erected Cattlemarket. All the

Posterns have been removed save Fishergate ;

and short lengths of walls have also been

demolished at the bottom of Skeldergate, also

adjacent to Bootham Bar, and at Layerthorpe

Bridge end, to meet modern improvements and

convenience —

"Time's gradual touch
Has moulder'd into beauty many a tower,
Which when it frown'd with all its battlements
Was only terrible."

^be 3\)anboe Countrij.

By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, b.a.

IT happens not infrequently that one makes a
fictitious name, under which it pleases him
to come before the pubhc in some branch of
Hterature or art, famihar as a household word,
the real man being at the same time completely
unknown. Somewhat similarly a master in the
maofic of romance will now and ao^ain throw over
a district a spell, under which the real human
interests that wax and wane there throughout the
centuries are hidden by the forms with which his
fancy has peopled it. Such a spell Sir Walter Scott,
the true '' wizard of the north," threw over part
of Yorkshire, when he chose the neighbourhood
of Rotherham for the chief scenes of '' Ivanhoe."
To many among us the names of the vicinity
recall far other pictures than those which their
bustling nineteenth century industry actually
presents. We see wide woods stretching away
from Rotherham to Doncaster on the one hand
and to Sheffield on the other, amid which, at

116 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

distant intervals, the towers of Norman keeps or
the walls of Franklins' farmsteads glint through
the trees or overtop them, while knights and
monks, Jews and jugglers, palmers, outlaws, serfs,
and all the motley crowd to which the pen,
wonderful as a magic wand, has given life, supply
animation to the scene.

But Rotherham has no need to dress herself in
fictions to become interesting, history's sober robe
is not less attractive, if less romantic. In 1643,
for instance, one move of the great game then
playing out between the King and his "■ faithful
Commons" was made at that town, when the
Earl of Newcastle, at the head of the royalist
troops, besieged and stormed it ; and afterwards,
when the Commons cried checkmate, and the
game was over, the King, defeated and deceived,
passed through Rotherham a prisoner in the
hands of the Scots. Almost a hundred years
earlier (Jan. 31, 1569) another royal captive,
whose story still glows with romantic interest
after the lapse of three centuries, spent a night at
Rotherham in her progress from one prison to
another, — Mary, the ill-fated Queen of Scots.
The old town, too, has had noble sons to render
her memory famous, foremost amongst whom are

THE IVANHOE COUNTRY. 117

two great churchmen of bygone days. Thomas
de Kotherham, was born there in 1423, and
became successively Secretary of State, Keeper
of the Privy Seal, and Bishop of Rochester (in
1468) ; in the same year he went as Ambassador
to France, and in the following one was elected
Chancellor of Cambridge University, an honour
thrice more conferred on him between then and
1483 ; in 1471 he was translated to the See of
Lincoln, and finally became, in 1480, Archbishop of
York. Two monuments of his bounty he be-
queathed to his native town ; he founded the
College of Jesus, endowing it largely with lands
and chattels, all of which were confiscated at the
spoliation of chantries and colleges under Edward
VI., and to his taste and munificence we owe the
grand old parish church, ''one of the finest
[)erpendicular churches in the north." ^

Had he, too, one wonders, a hand in the
erection of the little Chapel of Our Ladye, towards
the rearing of which, then '* to be built on Roth-
erham Bridge," John Bokyng, master of the
Grammar School, left 3s. 4d. by will in the year
1483 ? It is not unworthy of the reputation he
has earned by his greater works in stone, simple

*Rickinan't5 "Gothic Architecture."

lib BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

indeed in design and details, yet " wel wrought,"
as Leland describes it. From chapel to alms-
house, from alms-house to prison, and found finally
as a shop — such is the story of the profaning of
this little sanctuary on the bridge. Has not the
time come for the " house of prayer " to be
redeemed from its position as "a house of
merchandise ? "

Curiously enough, the other great ecclesiastic
above referred to as hailing from Rotherham also
filled the See of Lincoln. The hamlet of Gilfit
and the town of Sheffield contend with
Rotherham for the honour of Robert Sanderson's
birth in 1587, but his biographer, quaint Izaak
Walton, gives the palm to the last, and
unquestionably he was educated at the Grammar
School there. He entered Lincoln College,
Oxford, in 1603, became a prebendary of Lincoln
Cathedral in 1629, Regius Professor of Divinity
at Oxford in 1642, and at the restoration in 1660
was consecrated Bishop, the nineteenth in
succession to the See after his townsman Scott.
During the Commonwealth he suffered severe
persecution, which will perhaps in part account
for his death in 1662, after an episcopate of little
over two years. His Oxford lectures are still

120 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

highly esteemed, and the first preface to the
Prayer Book, written by him as a member of the
Savoy Conference, bears evidence of his wisdom.

But in thinking of the Ivanhoe Country our
minds turn naturally to spots which carry more
obviously than the busy town the marks of
antiquity and of romantic story ; and chief among
these is Conisborough Castle.

We all recall the scenes of rude magnificence,
the strange mingling of funeral pomp and noisy
revelry accompanying the obsequies of Athelstane,
which were so startlingly interrupted by the
re-appearance of that easy-going descendant of
the English Kings. Of all Sir Walter's graphic
pictures, none is more striking than his word-
painting of that massive keep with its courtyard
and moated walls. Later and more careful
investigation (the great novelist's inspection of
the place was, he tells us, " no more than a
transient " one) has shewn, unfortunately for the
story, that Conisborough Castle was in King
Bichard's time, and long before, in Norman hands,
and was probably even of Norman construction.
Before the Conquest the estate belonged to Earl
Harold, but it was granted by William to his
own namesake, the Earl of Warren, who probably

THE IVAN HOE COUNTRY.

121

found there a rude fortress largely formed of
earthworks reared originally in the earliest
English, or even in British times. By him and
his successors the site was utilized for the

THE KEEP, CONISBOKOUGH CASTLE.

gradual formation of a castle more in accord wdth
Norman habits and the requirements of con-
temporary warfare. The most interesting portion
of the work remaining is the keep, which before

122 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

the invention of gunpowder must have been
absolutely impregnable, and the erection of which
is ascribed by competent authorities to Hameline
Plantagenet, half-brother of Henry II., and
husband of Isabel de Warren, trreat o:rand-
daughter and heiress of the orio^inal o^rantee.

This keep is built in three storys, with open
ramparts above and a dungeon beneath, the
latter not subterranean, but simply a windowless
cavity in the massive substructure, reached by
a hole in the floor above. The first story is also
left in darkness, and is gained by a flight of steep
steps mounting to the door, 20 feet from the
ground. The walls of this, probably a store-
chamber, are 18 feet thick. A staircase winding
within the walls leads to a second chamber,
circular, as is the whole tower, and provided with
a fireplace, and two windows pierced through
walls 12 feet in thickness. This is the room
within which takes place the funeral feast de-
scribed in ** Ivanhoe." The third story, consist-
ing of a similar chamber, w^as the one occupied by
Rowena and her maidens as they sat working
the silken pall, and chanting hymns for the dead.
Lying off* this is a little chapel, of oblong
hexagonal plan, formed within one of the but-

THE IVAN HOE COUNTRY. 123

tresses, with a little vestry on the left side.
This is "the small and very rude chapel " in
which the bier of Athelstane stood while the
kneeling priests sung their requiems ; but as we
note its groined roof, the carved capitals, the
quatrefoil windows, and other architectural feat-
ures, we take exception to the second adjective ;
whatever else might be rude within the keep,
care and skill were unquestionably devoted to
the decoration of the chapel. Close at hand is
the little closet (also in the thickness of the
wall) within which the widowed Edith is de-
scribed as keeping vigil for the soul's rest of her
son.^

Other sites there are within the district which
mark it as the Ivanhoe Country ; there is
Brinxworth Priory ; and Thorp Salvin, near
which, it is suggested, stood Torquilstone ; and
Tinsley, probably Templestowe. But in this
brief paper there is no room for conjectural
matters ; our space barely permits us to enter
upon the wide field of certainties.

* Sir Walter seems to place the chapel and Edith's chamber on the
second sfeory : they form part of the third.

Iknigbte ^Templars*

By J. J. Sheahan.

OF course everybody knows that in the
middle ages of the Christian Church there
existed two great and powerful religious military
Orders, otherwise soldier-monks, but all may
not be aware of the objects of such extraordinary
institutions. One of them is known in history as
the Knights Templars and the other the Knights
Hospitallers. The Templars is perhaps the most
remarkable body, as wxll as the most familiar to
English ears. It was a fighting fraternity from
the beginning, whereas the other originally
consisted of a few ordinary monks embodied to
attend upon sick pilgrims — though in later times
they blossomed into a regular military order,
acting with and in many ways not very dissimilar
to the Templars. At all events the deeds and
prowess of the combined fraternities in defence of
the Christian faith in the far East were the
delight, astonishment, and admiration of
Christendom for ages. It is a singular fact

KNiailTS TEMPLARS. 125

that in both bodies were strangely blended the
character of the monk with that of the soldier.

Close upon 300 years after the death of our
Lord, certain excavations were effected in and
about Jerusalem at the instance of St. Helena,
mother of the first Christian Koman Emperor,
Constantine the Great ; and amongst other
singular discoveries then made, the sacred tomb
of the Divine founder of Christianity was laid
bare. Over and about it Constantine built the
great Church of the Resurrection, afterwards
changed to that of the Holy Sepulchre. Ever
since those remarkable events took place it has
been considered by Christians, especially in the
middle ages, a pious act to make a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem and the various spots hallowed by the
sacred feet of the Redeemer, and consecrated
by his presence. As the nations became
Christianized this spirit increased, so that at
length it was considered something like a disgrace
by the ricli and strong to omit this then
considered necessary act. Consequently the
powerful, the lordly, and the rich visited Palestine.
They generally went in bodies — vulgo gangs — for
protection, or when in small parties, accompanied
by stout attendants, as the Eastern Dick Turpins

126 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

were numerous and always on the alert. Many
rich men who could not travel gave grants of
land to the Church or to the Templars, in lieu
thereof. An instance of the latter is to be found,
as it were, at our '' own door." About half a
dozen miles from Hull is a small remnant of the
once splendid and richly-endowed Abbey of
Melsa, or Meaux, which was founded in 1150, by
William le Gros, Earl of Albemarle, and Lord of
Holderness — '' who having made a vow to make
a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre, and being
in consequence of increasing corpulency unfit to
perform such a journey, built and endowed this
monastery in commutation of his vow."

When Palestine was conquered by the Arabs
in 637, that fierce people respected the religious
spirit of the pilgrims ; but in 1065 the Holy City
and its territory fell into the hands of semi-savages
— the Turcomans — both the native Christians
and the pilgrims were fearfully oppressed.
The citizens were driven from their churches,
above 3,000 of them were indiscriminately
massacred. Divine worship was intercepted, and
the pilgrims were generally plundered and
frequently murdered. The repeated reports
of those atrocities produced a deep sensation

KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 127

over the whole of Christendom. The first
naturally to take alarm was the Byzantine
raonarchs. In 1073 the Greek Emperor
approached the Pope on the subject, with many
expressions of profound reverence and respect ;
but circumstances interposed. However his
successor, Pope Urban II., succeeded in thoroughly
arousing the religious chivalry of the nations, and
aided in a great measure by the burning zeal of a
simple monk (Peter the Hermit) who was a native
of Amiens, in France, and who had made a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and witnessed the
cruelties perpetrated by the Turks, and then
travelled through Europe preaching everywhere
to crowds in the open air — producing the most
extraordinary enthusiasm by his impassioned
descriptions. Pope Urban then held a Council
at Clermont, in France, in 1095, at w^hich the
first crusade to Palestine was ordered.

From all parts of Europe thousands and tens
of thousands flew to arms at the summons of the
Father of the Faithful — nay, millions, hurried to
the Holy Land. Men of all ranks, '' the flower
of European chivalry," journeyed eastward to
rescue the Sepulchre of Christ from the abomina-
tion of the heathen ; and in 1099^ the joyful

128 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

intelligence reached Europe that the Crusaders
had captured Jerusalem ! But though the foe
had been driven from the city they did not leave
Palestine, but took possession of the lofty
mountains bordering on the sea coast, and main-
tained themselves in various impregnable castles
and strongholds, from whence they issued forth
upon the highroads, cut off the communication
between «Terusalem and the seaports, and revenged
themselves by the indiscriminate pillage of all
travellers. In a word, between those marauders
and the wild Bedouins, who on their fleet Arab
horses, made frequent incursions from beyond the
Jordan, and kept up desultory and irregular
warfare in the plains, the pilgrims, coming either
by land or by sea, were alike exposed to hostility,
to plunder, or to death.

It was to succour those pious enthusiasts from
the dangers to which they were exposed that the
Hospitallers, and subsequently the Templars, were
called into existence by the religious and military
fervour of the period. The Knights Hospitallers
of St. John of Jerusalem were instituted about
the year 1090 by some Italian merchants, who did
a lucrative trade with Palestine. These good
Italians purchased a piece of ground in the

KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 129

Christian part of the city, and built thereon two
hospitals for pilgrims of either sex. Though the
monks were not military, but merely male nurses,
yet to that complexion did they come at last ;
and that does not seem so very astonishing when
one learns that they had always, not only to
attend the sick in hospital, but to contrive to
protect them from the robbers long before they
reached the hospital — and that Pope Innocent II.
published a Bull, dated 1130, calling upon the
bishops and clergy of the Church Universal to
give them aid, as they were then retaining at
their own expense a body of horsemen and foot
soldiers to defend the pilgrims in going and
coming from the Holy Places. We read, too,
that in the year 1168, the character of the
fraternity " was entirely changed ; " hence it may
be pretty safely concluded that it was about that
time the nursing monks became a military
body — though it must be stated that their duties
towards the hospitals w^ere not then discontinued.
The Order of St. John of Jerusalem still exists
in places ^^ over-sea." The Knights of Malta are
still to be found at that place, and the present
existence of the Knights of Rhodes is but more
or less a questionable matter. Those Knights

130 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

were Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem. The
Hospitallers had many fine establishments in
England (including Yorkshire) and possessed
considerable property there. A large portion
of the property of the Knights Templars reverted
to them by grant.

In 1842 was published an excellent and most
erudite work — '' The History of the Knights
Templars, the Temple Church, and the Temple,"
by C. W. Addison, Esq., of the Middle Temple,
and in it the learned author states " that it is
acknowledged that the Templars have filled one of
the most interesting and romantic periods in the
records of the world, " and that it is " the most
extraordinary and romantic body known to
history." The order was founded early in the
twelfth century by Hugh de Pay ens, and
eight other noble French Knights, for the
protection of the Holy Sepulchre, and of the
pilgrims resorting thither. This holy society in
arms renounced the world and its pleasures, and
took the usual religious vows in the Church of
the Resurrection, in the presence of the Patriarch
of Jerusalem. Baldwin, King of Jerusalem,
granted them a place of habitation, they called
themselves '' Poor Soldiers of Jesus Christ," and

KNIGHTS TEMPLARS, 131

a little later (in 1118) the King removed them to
more distinguished quarters, within the sacred
inclosure of the Temple on Mount Moriah.
Then the "poor soldiers" became the ''Knight-
hood of the Temple of Solomon," and in some
years afterwards they were called Knight
Templars, or Knights of the Temple. They
received at the same time the fine Church of the
Virgin within the precincts of the Temple. The
fraternity had wisely chosen the before-named —
Hugh de Payens — " a valient soldier, who had
fought with credit and renown at the siege of
Jerusalem " — their superior by the title of '' The
Master of the Temple ; " and the rule for their
observance, as given in Mr. Addison's history,
and sanctioned by the Pope in 1128, was very
austere and stringent.

The Templars having received from the King,
the Patriarch, and Prelates of Jerusalem, as well
as from the Barons of the Latin Kingfdom,
various gifts and revenues for their maintenance
and support, began to entertain more extended
views as regards their sacred duties ; for instance,
the just-mentioned Latin Kingdom, consisting of a
great portion of the Holy Land, then under
Christian control, received serious attention, as

132 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

the hostile tribes of Mussehxien, which were
everywhere surrounding it, were gradually
recovering from the stupefying terror into which
they had been plunged by the success of the first
crusaders, and were now assumins: an aofofressive
and threatening attitude. Hence the holy
warriors determined, in addition to the protection
of pilgrims, to make the defence of the Christian
Kingdom of Jerusalem, of the Eastern Church,
and of all the holy places, a part of their particular
profession. This, on the authority of Mr.
Addison. The time seemed ripe for such a
movement. The name and reputation of our
soldier-monks in the East had speedily spread
throuofhout the West, and various illustrious
pilgrims from Europe aspired to become members
of the far-famed Templar body. The authorities,
too, in Jerusalem, foresaw the advantages that
would accrue to the Latin kingdom by the
increase of the power of those warriors,
and even Kinor Baldwin II. exerted himself
to extend the order throughout Christendom,
so that he might, by means of so politic an
institution, keep alive the holy enthusiasm
of the West, and draw a constant succour
from the bold and warlike races of Europe

KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 133

for the support of his Christian throne and
kinordom.

In 1128, the Master of the Temple, Hugh de
Payens, visited the King of England, Henry I.,
at Normandy, and Mr. Addison tells us (on the
authority of the '' Saxon Chronicle ") that the
King received the distinguished Templar " with
much honour, and gave him much treasure in
ofold and silver ;" and that afterwards he sent him
into England, where he was " well received by all
good men, who gave him treasure ; and in
Scotland also ; and that they sent in all a great
sum in gold and silver by him to Jerusalem ; and
that there went with him and after him so great
a number of men as never before since the days
of Pope Urban." Hoveden, another historian,
confirms this statement. Grants of land, etc.,
were made at the same time to Payens and his
brethren, some of which w^ere afterwards con-
firmed by King Stephen on his accession to the
throne in 1135.

Before his departure from England, Payens
established in London, without Holborn Bars,
the first house of the order in Britain. Over it
he placed a Prior, who received the power of
admitting members into the community : and as

134 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

houses of the Temple increased in number in
England, sub-priors came to be appointed, and
the superior of the Order here was then called the
Grand Prior, and afterwards the Master of the
Temple, id. est, the London Temple.

After having laid in Europe other foundations
of the great monastic and military institution,
which was destined shortly to spread its ramifica-
tions to the remotest quarters of Christendom,
Payens returned to Palestine, accompanied by
a valiant band of newly-elected Templars, drawn
principally from France and England ; but, in
1136, shortly after his arrival, the clever Master
died, and his successor, though a skilful and
valiant general, was unable to sustain the tottering
empire of the Latin Christians. And so the brave
Templars were soon worsted with overpowering
numbers in several battles, and many of their
fortresses were captured. The important
principality of Edessa fell into the hands of the
enemy, and after much slaughter the Latin
Kinofdom was almost shaken to its foundations.
The Prior of France, who now became Master,
convened a general Chapter of the Order at Paris,
which was attended by Pope Eugenius III.,
Louis VII., King of France, and many prelates,

KSIGHTS TEMPLARS. 135

princes, and nobles from all parts of Christendom.
The second crusade was there arranged. St.
Bernard was commissioned to preach it, and with
the sanction of the Sovereign Pontiff, the Templars
assumed the blood-red cross — the symbol of
martyrdom — as the distinguished badge of the
order. From this they were afterwards called
the Red Cross Knights, and sometimes Red
Friars. At this famous assembly various dona-
tions were made to enable the Templars to
provide the sinews of war more effectually — one
was the grant of an estate in Hertfordshire, made
by Bernard Baliol, and shorty before this date
the Dukes of Brittany and Lorraine and the
Counts of Brabant and Fourcalquier had given to
the order various lands and estates. In fact,
about this period their possessions and power
continued to increase in every part of Europe.

Preparations were now quickly made for the de-
parture of the crusaders to the Holy Land. The
Master collected all the brethren of the Western
provinces ; the French King, as well as Conrad,
Emperor of Germany, raised powerful armies ;
and the start was made. Conrad elected to
proceed a different route ; but in Asia his army
was attacked by the Turks and cut to pieces.

136 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

He escaped in a marvellous manner, and reached
Jerusalem with only a few attendants. The
others arrived in safety, and soon laid siege
to the splendid city of Damascus, which was
defended by the great Noureddin, Sultan of
Aleppo. The siege was a prolonged one, and
we know but little of its incidents, except that
its end w^as disastrous. To be correct, we must
say that the second crusade was a miserable
failure, though it is said that their united
numbers were estimated at 1,200,000 fighting
men. King Louis and the remnant of his army
returned to France.

The English nobility were well represented in
this sad failure. Among them were the two
renowned warriors Roger de Mowbray and William
de Warrenne. The former was one of the most
powerful and warlike of the Barons of England.
On this occasion he fought under the banner of
the Temple, and in admiration of their piety and
valour he gave the holy warriors of the order,
on his return to England, many valuable estates
and possessions, several of which were in
Yorkshire. " These donations," Mr. Addison
informs us, "were truly magnificent." And about
the same period King Stephen of England and

KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 137

Matilda, his wife, " granted and confirmed to God
and the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the Brethren
of the Knights of the Temple of Solomon, at
Jerusalem, four manors, two churches, two mills,
some common pastures, etc., etc." In 1152,
Ralf de Hastings and William de Hastings gave
them lands at Hurst and Wykham, in Yorkshire,
which were afterwards formed into the Preceptory
of Temple Hurst, near Selby. William Asheby
granted to them the estate whereon the house
and church of Temple Bruere were afterwards
erected. In a word, the order at this period
rapidly increased in power and wealth in England,
and in all parts of Europe. All this proves that
the failure of the crusade did not lessen in public
estimation the Order of the Templars.

The w^ar continued to be carried on briskly by
Templars, Hospitallers, and the forces of
the King of Jerusalem. The enemy invaded the
territory of Antioch, and threw their garrisons
into several strong places. The Prince of Antioch
and all his nobility were slain in battle, and
Noureddin sent the head and right hand of the
Prince to the Cailiff of Bagdad. The banner
of the enemy waved for a time on the summit
of the Mount of Olives, but in a nio^ht attack

138 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

they were defeated with terrible slaughter, and
pursued all the way to the Jordan. Alone and
unaided the Templars attempted to take by
storm the important city of Ascalon, but they
were surrounded and overpowered by the Infidels,
and slain to a man. The Christians were now
fighting generally at great disadvantage as regards
numbers. They were mostly overwhelmed by
the number of the enemy. Mr. Addison says
that volumes might be written on the number of
fierce engagements and the valour of both
Christians and Pagans, and that the extra-
ordinary feats of slaughter and capture recorded
of them are almost numberless. To gfive one or
two instances. In June, 1156, the Templars,
drawn into an ambuscade whilst marching near
Tiberius, 300 of them were slain on the field,
and eighty -seven taken by the enemy, among
the prisoners was the Master of the Temple, and
his brother, the Marshal of the Kingdom.
Shortly afterwards thirty Templars put to flight,
slaughtered, or captured 200 Infidels ; and in a
night attack on the camp of Noureddin, they
compelled that famous chieftain to fly without
arms and half naked from the field of battle.
Writing of the. valour and military enthusiasm of

KNIGHTS TEMPLARS, 139

the Templars, Cardinal de Vitzry, Bishop of
Acre, says, " When summoned to arms they
never demanded the number of the enemy, but
where are they?" And he continues ''Lions
they are in war, gentle lambs in the convent,
fierce soldiers in the field, hermits and monks
in religion. They may be frequently read of as
being always foremost in the field, and the last to
retreat/'

Here we introduce a new and most remarkable
character, to whom has been accorded the credit
of having given the death blow^ to the Kingdom
of Jerusalem and the power of the crusaders.
This famous personage was a young Kurdish
chieftain who had made himself Sultan of Egypt,
and who aspired to the presidency of the
Mahomedan world, and w^hose name was Salah-
Eddin, shortened to Salladin. He, commanding
an army of 40,000 horse and foot, invaded
Palestine in 1187, and commenced ravaging the
southern borders. He then besieged the City of
Gaza, but the warlike monks suddenly and
unexpectedly threw open the gates, made a sally
on the enemy's camp, and performed such
prodigies of valour that the infidel leader aban-
doned the siege and retired into Egypt. In

110 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

1175, Xeureddin died, and Saladdin became
Sovereign of Egypt and Syria, and very soon
levied an immense army, and again planted the
standard of Mahomet upon the sacred territory
of Palestine. Great and numerous deeds of
valour quickly followed, which want of space
denies us the pleasure of recounting or even of
glancing at. Sufficient to say that the Templars,
Hospitallers, and other Christian forces fought
defiantly and valiantly for a long time, but in the
end they were defeated with immense slaughter.
A great battle had been fought at Ascalon, much
of Palestine was destroyed by fire and the sword,
many of the houses of the Templars were
pillaged and burnt, several of their castles were
taken by assault, and the Latin kingdom was in a
deplorable condition. In this sad state of affairs,
Saladdin, then distracted by the intrigues of the
Turcoman chieftains of Syria, agreed to a truce
for four years, in consideration of the payment by
the Christians of a large sum of money. In this
interval a grand council was held at Jerusalem, at
which it was determined that Heraclius, the
Patriarch, and the Masters of the Temple and the
Hospital should proceed to Europe to endeavour
to obtain succour from the western Princes, but

KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 141

more especially from Henry II. King of England.
At Verona, during the journey, the Master of
the Temple fell sick and died, and the others
landed in safety in England early in 1185. The
English monarch received them kindly at
Reading, and promised to bring the whole matter
before his Parliament. The Patriarch and his
companion then proceed to London, where the
former consecrated the original — the circular
portion — of the new Temple Church near the
present Fleet Street. He also consecrated the
Church of the Knights Hospitallers at Clerken-
well. Parliament assembled the next month in
the Monastery of the Hospitallers at Clerkenwell,
but the barons objected to a pilgrimage of the
King to Palestine, in consequence of his old age,
but they, however, offered to raise the sum of
50,000 marks in furtherance of the cause of the
Templars. This reply caused great consternation
amongst the Eastern Christians.

Meanwhile Saladdin had been vigorously
preparing for the renewal of the war, as in May
1187, it re-commenced. A bloody battle was
fought near the brook Kishon, but a great
conflict near Tiberius a little later, was terribly
decisive. After the conquest of nearly forty

142 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

cities and castles, many of which belonged to the
military orders, Saladdin laid siege to Jerusalem,
which lasted fourteen days. The once formidable
number of warriors of the Temple had been
reduced to " two miserable knio^hts with a few
serving brethren." The surrender took place on
October 2nd, 1187, and the profanation of the
Temple that followed was aw^ful.

After the fall of the Holy City the war was
continued in various parts of the country.
Several strong places resisted the Mahometans,
and during 1188, the two fraternities of Knights
of the Cross played important parts against some
extraordinary exertions of Saladdin. A third
crusade had been preached in Europe with
considerable effect, and the King of England sent
a large sum of money for the defence of Tyre.
In the spring of 1189, the Grand Master of the
Temple, with a large force of his brethren and
retainers, laid siege to the famous Citadel of
Acre, and Saladdin quickly hastened to its relief
A fierce and bloody conflict — the first of nine
pitched battles — took place, with various fortune,
near to Mount Carmel, and it is computed that
during the first year of the siege 100,000
Christians were slain. During its second year,

KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 143

the royal fleets of Richard Coeur de Lion of
England and Philip Augustus of France floated
in triumph in the noted bay of Acre. Six
weeks after the arrival of those fleets this great
stronghold was surrendered to the Christian
leaders. The English monarch now resolved to
re-take Jerusalem, when the march to Jafla
formed a continuous conflict of eleven days. '* On
the great plain round Jafla and Ramleh took
place one of the greatest battles of the age. On
all sides (writes an eye-witness) as far as the e^^^e
could reach from the sea-shore to the mountains
nought was to be seen but a forest of spears,
above which waved banners and standards
innumerable." The victory of the Christians was
mainly owing to the personal prowess of the
English lion-hearted King. By his valour and
exertions, too, Gaza, the ancient fortress of the
Templars, was recovered from the Saracens
and garrisoned by the soldiers of the Templars.
Richard now, acting upon the advice of the
Templars and Hospitallers, abandoned the march
on Jerusalem. Saladdin then laid siege to Jafla,
but the town was relieved after many valiant
exploits were performed. The ratification of a
treaty then took place, whereby the Christians

144 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

were to enjoy the privilege of visiting Jerusalem
as pilgrims, and Tyre, Acre, and Jaffa, with all
the sea-coast between them were yielded to the
Christians. King Richard now left Palestine,
and the Templars then commenced the erection
of various strong fortresses, the stupendous ruins
of many of which remain. '' To narrate all the
exploits of the Templars," writes Mr. Addison,
'^ would be to write the history of the Latin
Kingdom of Palestine, which was preserved and
maintained for the period of ninety-nine years
after the departure of Pichard Coeur de Lion
solely by the exertions of the Templars and
Hospitallers." Gibbon, on this subject, says,
" The firmest bulwark of Jerusalem was founded
on this strange association of monastic and
military life, which fanaticism might suggest, but
of which policy must approve. The flower of the
nobility of Europe aspired to wear the cross and
profess the vows of those respectable orders ; the
spirit and discipline were immortal, and the
speedy donations of 28,000 farms and manors
enabled them to support a regular force of cavalry
and infantry for the defence of Palestine."

By George Benson.

THE ruins of the once famed Benedictine
Abbey dedicated to the Virgin Mary are
situated on the north bank of the river Ouse, just
outside the walls of the picturesque city of York,
and are under the protection of the Yorkshire Philo-
sophical Society. When compared with the Abbey
of Fountains, Rievaulx, or Kirkstall, the remains
appear small, consisting mainly of the north aisle
of the nave (as seen in the illustration). They
form a part of the church erected in the thirteenth
century, and are a beautiful example of the
architecture of that period, and well repay careful
study. Their history may be said to commence
in 1074, when three monks, named Aldwine,
Elfwine, and Reinfrid came to the city of York,
leading an ass laden with manuscripts and vest-
ments, such as were necessary for divine service
and the sacraments. They came from the Abbey
of Evesham, with the intention of visiting the
old religious houses in Northumbria. The

146 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

monasteries and many of the churches had been
laid waste, owing to the incursions of the Vikings
and petty wars amongst the chiefs in the northern
province ; a few churches had been rebuilt, but
a monk was unknown to the inhabitants, as no
monasteries had been revived.

The monks entered the city and made their
way to the official residence of the Lord
Lieutenant, who received them, and acceded to
the request they made to be furnished with a
guide to Monkchester (Newcastle). Subsequently
they proceeded northwards, and obtained the
patronage of the Bishop of Durham, took up
their abode at Jarrow, the home of the Venerable
Bede, where, having gathered a congregation
after the Benedictine model, the monks separated
in order to extend their labours. Aldwin went
to Durham, Reinfrid to Streaneshalch (Whitby),
while Elfwine returned to York, and restored the
monastery originally founded by the conqueror of
Macbeth, the brave Siward, Earl of Northumbria,
of whom Shakespeare says : —

"An older and a better soldier, none that Christendom
gives out."

— Macbeth, Act iv., Sc. 3.

Twenty -four years before the visit of the

ST. MARY'S ABBEY. 147

monks to York, Earl Siward had founded a
church on the north bank of the river, outside
the city fortifications. The place was known as
Galmanhoe, for on it stood the gallows, where
criminals were executed. The church was
dedicated to St. Olaf of Norway, who, from a
sea-rover had become a Christian king. In 1055,
the valiant Siward died, his last request being
" put on my impenetrable coat of mail, gird on
my sword, put on my helmet, my shield in my
left hand, and my battle-axe in my right." His
injunction was obeyed. On the day appointed
for the funeral, the corpse, followed by his son
Waltheof as chief mourner, and a procession of
warriors, was taken to the church he had founded,
and there interred.

During the siege of York by the Normans, the
city was set on fire, and the monks fled from the
monastery of St. Olave, six of them taking
refuge in the Abbey of Crowland.

In 1087, Alan of Brittany, Earl of Richmond,
gave the monastery of St. Olave, with four acres
of land adjoining, to a pupil of Reinfrid of
Whitby, Stephen by name, who re-founded a
religious house at Lastingham, but giving offence,
was driven away by Earl Percy. At York,

148 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Stephen began to re-found the monastery of St.
Olave ; the Archbishop, however, disputed the
right of Earl Alan to give the site, claiming
the four acres as the property of the church.
The cause was carried before the king, and the
dispute arranged. The next Earl of Richmond
became a generous donor to the monastery, so
that they were enabled to prepare for the
necessary buildings.

William Rufus being on a visit to York, laid
the first stone of the Abbey Church, dedicating
it to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and enriching
it with many grants. The royal example w^as
followed by private benefactions, Stephen, the
first abbot, left the monastery in a flourishing
state when he died in 1112.

Some of the monks being displeased with the
laxity of discipline in the monastery in the year
1132, appealed to the abbot to check the growing
evil. This reached the ears of the offending
brethren, w^ho made matters very unpleasant for
the reformers ; they sought an interview with the
Archbishop, who resolved to visit the monastery
and hold an inquiry into the alleged misconduct.

The Archbishop on the day appointed rode to
the Abbey Gatehouse, attended by the Dean,

ST. MARY'S ABBEY.

149

Archdeacon, Treasurer, and other dignitaries of
the Cathedral, along with the Prior of Guis-
borough and the Master of the adjacent hospital
of St. Peter. Leaving their horses at the gate-
way, they walked towards the Chapter House,

.ST. MARYS ABBEY, YORK.

and were received by the Abbot, who, however,
protested against anyone entering but the
Archbishop and his clerks. The Archbishop
remonstrated, at which the crowd in the Chapter
House created an uproar, hooting, screaming, and

150 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

rushing towards the Archbishop, who then
placed the Abbey under an interdict. " Stop
it for a hundred years," one of the monks shouted,
and then arose the cry of "catch them" and the
would-be reformers were seized. After a
struggle, the Archbishop, with his attendants and
the thirteen reformers, left the Abbey.

The Archbishop befriended the outcasts, and
subsequently gave them a plot of ground near his
manor at Ripon, on which they founded the
abbey of Fountains, adopting the stricter rule of
the Cistercians, who had in 1131 planted a colony
at Rievaulx.

Simon de Warwick became Abbot of i\vQ
Monastery of St. Mary in 1259, and placed it in
greater security from attacks by the citizens,
between whom and the monks were frequent
quarrels owing to privileges claimed by the Abbey.
The brethren had also to fear incursions from the
Scots when making raids on the city, so in 1266
the Abbot built the walls and towers surrounding
the Abbey Close. In 1270, at the rear of the
Norman Church, he laid the foundations of a new
choir, which he lived to see completed at the end
of twenty-two years. The Norman Church was
taken down and re-built in the beautiful decorated

ST. MARY'S ABBEY. 151

style of Gothic architecture. In 1278, the
Archbishop granted an indulgence to those who
contributed to the building of the Tower, which is
supposed to have been surmounted by a spire of
wood covered with lead. The windows in the
north aisle of the nave are similar to those
in the north aisle of the choir of the
Benedictine Abbey at Selby. Abbot Thomas
of Mai ton, in 1334, by building a wall
along the river side, completely walled in the
abbey precincts.

The monastery was surrendered on November
29th 1540 to the King, without any opposition,
by William Dent, the last abbot, the clear yearly
income at that time being £1650 Os. 7|^d. There
were then fifty monks, including the Abbot,
Prior, and Sub-Prior, and only one novice, with
probably one hundred and fifty servants. The
monks received pensions from the king according
to their rank, the Abbot 400 marks, the Prior 20
marks, the Sub-Prior and one of the monks who
had the degree of a Doctor of Divinity received
£10 each, the remainder had sums varying from
£6 13s. 4d. to £5. The whole sum granted to
them amounted to £573.

The abbot enjoyed the dignity of a mitre, and

152 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

was summoned to parliament, and lived in a
corresponding state. Whenever he left the
monastery he was attended by a numerous
retinue ; he possessed country seats at Deighton
and Overton, and had a park at Beningborough
well stocked with game. He had a house in
London near St. Paul's Wharfe, where he
resided while in attendance to parliamentary
duties.

The abbey was retained by the crown, the
monastic buildings were partially destroyed to
make way for a royal palace. In 1701, the
monastery furnished stone for the county gaol,
again in 1705 for the repairs of St. Olave's Church,
w^hilst in 1717, the Corporation of Beverley were
permitted to carry away during the space of
three years what stone they required for the
repair of the Minster at that town. The
beautiful church was fast disappearing ; the nave
north aisle wall was found convenient as a rifle
butt during shooting practice ; at last a very
effective mode was found to remove all traces of
the abbey, by the erection of a lime kiln near the
remains of the church, into which the beautiful
sculptured stone was thrown, and converted
into lime. The abbey close afforded sites for

ST. MARY'S ABBEY. 153

shows, circuses, and was a general recreation
ground.

In 1822, the Yorkshire Philosophical Society
was founded ; they took means to acquire the
abbey close, which they eventually effected, and
then explored the site.

J6^lanb Hbbep : 3te Ibietorical Heeociatione.

By Edward Lamplough.

IT is the memorable year of the Battle of the
Standard. Stephen is engaged with his
barons, for the first note of civil war has been
sounded, and the Scots have poured over the
borders. Among those who fly before them are
twelve Cistercian monks, and Gerald, their
Abbot. Their hands are hardened by labour ;
doubtless the odour of blood and ashes clings to
their feet and raiment. A rude wasfofon, drawn
by oxen, contains all their little property of
priestly vestments and a few treasured books.
For four years they have laboured at Calder, a
colony from Furness Abbey ; but the rude Scots
have entered the land, shearing ofl" priestly heads
by scores, and Gerald has fled before the storm.
First he led the weary fathers to Furness Abbey,
but it closed its gates against them ; and now,
under providential guidance, they enter Thirsk,
for repose and refreshment, before they continue
their journey, for they have decided to lay their

BYLAND ABBEY. 155

case before the aged Archbishop Thurstan, and
soUcit the counsel and guidance of his wisdom.

In Thirsk they met the widowed mother of
Roger de Mowbray, who extended to them
kindly succour and patronage. But the times
were troublous, and young Roger was a minor.
First they were planted at Hood, near Kilburn ;
then pasturage at Cambe and other places was
provided for them. During this unsettled period
they were deprived of their Abbot by death,
A.D. 1143. He was succeeded by Roger, and
By land on the Moor, or Old By land, was
granted to the little brotherhood. Building was
not commenced at Old Byland, it being within
sound of the bells of Riveaux Abbey. Five
years the patient brethren waited, and then
migrated to the neighbourhood of Oldstead,
where they erected a stone church and cloister,
and received from Roger de Mowbray several
generous benefactions, including two carucates of
land and the patronage of the churches of Thirsk,
Hovingham, and Kirby-Moorside.

A.D. 1150, the Abbots of Furness and Calder
preferred a claim of jurisdiction over them, but
the Abbot of Riveaux, being appointed arbitrator,
gave his decision in favour of the monks.

156 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Their probation came to a conclusion in 1177,
when they were located in a valley beneath the
Hambleton Hills, near Coxwald, and commenced
the erection of the fair Abbey of Byland. To
its peaceful shelter in later years came baron
Roger, a time and war-worn man, to lay his
helm aside for ever, and sheathe his Crusader's
sword. But when the old warrior died, and they
buried him near his mother, their honoured
patroness, Gundras, they carved his good
weapon upon his tomb. In 1819, Marty n
Stapylton sought out his tomb from the debris of
the ruined abbey, and re-interred the Crusader's
dust at Myton.

The romantic history of Wymond the Saxon
is closely associated with Byland. He was an
obscure Saxon, one of the monks of Furness
Abbey, but attained to some fame as a tran-
scriber and illuminator of missals and MSS., his
labours being highly valued by the monasteries.
It was no weakling that bent to this student's
task, but a tall, well-knit, handsome man, whose
heart throbbed with human pride and ambition.
What dreams of achievement passed through his
active mind, as he laid on his pigments with deft
hand, may be guessed from his after-history.

BYLAND ABBEY. 157

Olave, King of Man, having bestowed a
portion of land upon Furness Abbey, Wymond
was despatched, with certain companions, to
advance the interests of rehgion in that locahty.
His abihty, eloquence, and fine person made so
profound an impression upon the Manxmen, that
they desired his appointment to the office of
bishop, and his name, Weymundus or Rey-
mundus, accordingly heads the list of Bishops of
Sodor and Man. Fired with an ambition
common to the age, but utterly inconsistent
with the Christian character, Wymond laid claim
to the crown of Scotland, allef^incr himself to
be son of Angus, Earl of Mora}^ slain in the
preceding year at the Battle of Strickathrow,
while prosecuting his claim to the Scottish
throne, in right of his heirship to Lulach, son
and successor of Macbeth.

Unfurling his banner in the name of Malcolm
Macbeth, Wymond was seconded by the Manx-
men, and supported by many valiant soldiers
of fortune. Embarking his forces in large boats,
he made many piratical descents upon the
Scottish Isles, and even harried the mainland
of Scotland with fire and sword. Somerled,
Lord of the Isles, bestowed upon him the hand

158 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

of his daughter, and the lady bore him several
children, the eldest of whom he named Donald
Macbeth.

King David sent valiant knights and men-at-
arms against the adventurer, but he eluded all
attempts to bring him to an engagement, and,
when the enemy retired, renewed his predatory
incursions. The northern bishops secured them-
selves by paying him a tribute, but on one
occasion one of the fighting bishops met him in
the field, felled him to the earth by stroke of
axe, and dispersed his army with great slaughter.
Wymond, however, escaped with the remnant of
his army, and soon reappeared with a fresh force
of Islesmen at his back, and was ultimately
bought off by the King, who granted him certain
lands and possessions.

At length he was seized, deprived of sight and
virility, and surrendered to King David, who
held the maimed and blind hero in Roxburofh
Castle for many years. Afterwards he was sent
to Byland Abbey to end his days, but he does
not appear to have repented of his fraud and
ambition, nor do the brethren appear to have
reofarded him as a o^reat sinner, for when loofs
blazed on the hearth, and winter winds howled

PVLAND ABEEY,

160 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

wildly outside, the monks were gratified by his
stories of wild adventure by sea and land, and
according to William of Newbridge, ^'He was
wont to boast merrily that he was never over-
come in battle, save by the faith of a silly
bishop." " Had they left me but the smallest
glimmering of light," he would conclude, ^' my
enemies should have small cause to boast of what
they did."

Years passed, and Somerled armed to prefer
the claims of his grandson, but was defeated by
Earl Angus and the Lord High Steward, and
slain. About the same time Donald Macbeth
was captured and imprisoned. Even more re-
markable than their career was the lenity
extended to the pretenders.

The Battle of By land Abbey was fought
A.D. 1322.

After the Earl of Lancaster's defeat at
Boroughbridge, and execution at Pontefract, the
Scots ravaged the border with merciless severity
to increase the difficulties of King Edward, who
was taxing his great resources to organise
another expedition against Scotland.

The English spread over a naked and deserted
land, with pomp of mailed thousands, gleaming

BYLAND ABBEY. 161

with horrent spears, and gay with banners,
pennons, and armorial bearings. Their march
was bloodless, one lame bull was the sole spoil
obtained between the English border and Edin-
burgh, and justified the blunt sarcasm of the
veteran Warenne, " By my faith, I never saw
dearer beef."

Threatened with famine, the army retired,
and the famished soldiers sickened by thousands
when their wants were supplied from the
magazines. In the course of a few days 16,000
men perished. The remainder were encamped
around Byland Abbey, a strong and healthy
position.

King Robert folio w^ed hard upon their tracks,

and on the 14th of October, while King Edward

was dining in the Abbey, surrounded by his

captains and nobles, a sudden din of battle

brought their repast to a termination. The

Scots were upon them, with Douglas and

Randolph in the van, attempting to storm the

chief pass and key of the English position. Sir

Thomas Ughtred and Sir Ralph Cobham took

the front, and made an heroic defence, while the

Earls of Pembroke and Richmond directed the

operations of the army with equal skill and spirit.

162 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

While the attention of the English army was
occupied by the attacking forces of Randolph
and Douglas, King Robert led a chosen band
of Highlanders against their rear and flank,
scaled the clifl" before he was perceived, and by
a furious charge routed the army. There was
some furious fighting and sanguinary slaughter
before the army broke away in wild flight.
Many English knights surrendered their swords,
chief of whom was the Earl of Richmond.
Edward, well mounted, spurred ofi* for York, with
Walter Stewart and 500 horse hard after him.
The King won the race, however, and was safely
housed in York, while Stewart and his bold
riders hovered about the walls, reluctant to
depart. A French knight, Sir Henry de Sully,
fell into King Robert's hands, and his influence
assisted in bringing about the conclusion of the
peace, or thirteen years' truce, ratified at
Berwick, on the 7th of June, 1323.

The old Abbey flourished until Henry VIII.
pensioned ofl* the twenty-four monks and their
abbot at the dissolution in 1540. The revenue
was £295 5s. 4d. ; and the bells, lead, and
furniture of the monks, with 516 ounces of plate,
were sold. The site was bestowed upon Sir

BYLAND ABBEY. 163

William Pickering, and afterwards passed to
the Stapyltons.

The Abbey is now a ruin ; its arches have fallen,
its pillars add their fragments to the heaps of
debris that thickly cover the graves of
the distinguished dead who received burial
within its walls. The archaeologist and anti-
quary may trace its ancient walls, and restore it
to their inner sight in all its ancient glory, but
to the careless it is only a mass of useless ruins,
scarcely more interesting than the cottages that
have been erected from its fragments. The
ruined walls that have not yet succumbed to
decay are suggestive of its old-time beauty, and
the accompanying engraving shows the west
front, with its somewhat low and narrow door-
ways, the central one terminating in a trefoil
arch, that on the north in a pointed arch, and
that on the south in a semi-circular arch. Over
the central doorway rise nine narrow, lance-
headed arches, three of which form windows.
They are surmounted by the remains of the
splendid circular window, capped by clinging ivy,
and strengthened by buttresses and octagonal shafts ;
that on the north side having resisted the ravages
of time, rising complete from base to pinnacle.

IRobin Iboob in l^orhabire.

By Charles A. Federer, l.c.p.

" I love a ballad in print, a'-life ; for then we are sure
they are true."

— Winter's Tale.

PERHAPS no personality, true or fictitious,
ever took such firm hold of the popular
imaofination of mediaeval Eno^land as that of
Robin Hood. As a redresser of the wronofs
of the people, and champion of the oppressed,
and endowed with that combination of craft
and animal courage which ever gains the
sympathy of the crowd, his name was an house-
hold word throughout the length and breadth of
our land.

Though current tradition points to Nottingham-
shire as the county of his birth, and though the
scene of the best known of his exploits has to
be laid in that county, yet a great part of his
adventurous life was spent within the borders
of Yorkshire. Sherwood Forest, the shire-tvood
in which the boundaries of three shires meet, was,

ROBIN HOOD IN YORKSHIRE. 165

by its immense extent, its intricacies, and its
remoteness from the centres of government, an
ideal retreat for all those who for one reason
or another shunned walled cities and beaten
highways. From its southern margin in
Nottinghamshire, Robin and his merry men
could roam unchecked through an uninterrupted
expanse of greneshaw, on the one side past
Wakefield and Ripon as far north as Wensleydale
and Teesdale, and on the other to the Hambleton
Hills and the Yorkshire sea-coast.

This is not the place to enter into a dissertation
on the much vexed question who Robin Hood
really was : whether a solar myth, as is seriously
contended by Canon Isaac Taylor ; or an Earl of
Fitzwaryn, whose well authenticated adventures
in the reign of King John certainly bear a
striking resemblance to the gestes of Robin Hood,
as is argued by Mr. Prideaux ; or a generic term
representing the remnants of the old British
people skulking in the woods, and watching
for opportunities of swooping in true Indian
fashion on Saxon and Norman wayfarers, as is
plausibly surmised by Mr. Wheater ; or really
Earl of Huntingdon, as all the ballads and
traditions unanimously affirm, and as has been

166 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

demonstrated with great circumstanciality and
much plausibiUty by Mr. Stredder in Notes and
Queries (7th s., vol. iii.) We simply take Robin
Hood on the faith of our ancient ballads, and
present him to our readers as he is presented
to ourselves by the popular traditions, and
referring more especially to his dedes and gestes
within the county of broad acres.

Robin Hood, or, as the name originally stood,
Rohin-a-Woodj i.e., Wild Robin, was of York-
shire descent, for

'' The father of Robin a forester was,
And he shot with a lusty strong bow,
Two north country miles and an inch at a shoot,
As the Pindar of Wakefield doth know,"

and his relationship to the prioress of Kirklees,
together with various incidents in his career,
point to the conclusion that his earliest years
were spent in the neighbourhood of Wakefield.
It was as a young man, too, that he, with two
other youths, fell upon the before named Jolly
Pindar, who administered such sound correction
to all the three of them. It is also probable that
the encounter with the lusty shepherd, in which
both he and little John were signally defeated,
took place in his earlier years on one of the

ROBIN HOOD IN YORKSHIRE. 167

lonely sheep walks of Craven, or North York-
shire, for we presently find him in Fountain Dale,
near Ripon : —

" And coming to fair Fountain Dale,
No farther would he ride ;
There was he aware of a curtal fryar.
Walking by the water side."

From the description of this redoubtable friar, he
must have been a lay brother, appointed to the
post of forest ranger on account of his great
strength and agility : —

" The fryar had a harness good,
And on his head a cap of steel,
Broad sword and buckler by his side,
And they became him well.

" The curtal fryar had kept Fountain Dale
Seven long years and more ;
There neither was knight, lord, or earl,
Could make him yield before."

Here again Robin is worsted in the single combat
which takes place after the amusing episode of
the friar's carrying him over the river Skell, and
being carried back in his turn astride of Robin,
whom, to finish up with, he soused in the river. It
is certainly a curious and significant circumstance
that in every fair stand up fight which Robin had
in Yorkshire he was invariably worsted, and

168 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

owed his escape only to the timely intervention

of his merry men, and we may fairly infer from it

that at the time of his residence in Yorkshire he

had not yet attained the maturity of strength

which lie subsequently displayed in the midland

counties.

We are not concerned to relate Robin Hood's

well-known exploits in Nottinghamshire, but pass

on to a later period of his life when circumstances

compelled him once more to repair to the scenes

of his early youth. A serious effort was at last

made by the king's government to put an end to

the intolerable anarchy which kept so large

a part of the kingdom without the pale of the law.

The king's forces converged upon Sherwood

Forest, and

" Then said little John, 'tis time to be gone,
And that to another* place ;
Then away they went from merry Sherwood,

And into Yorkshire they did hie ;
And the king did follow with a hoop and halloo.
But could not come him nigh."

At this critical period Robin and the remnant of
his men made for the moors of north-west York-
shire, where he was certainly safe from pursuit,
for the Hambleton Hills were then, as they have
been almost to our own days, as impenetrable and

ROBIN HOOD IN YORKSHIEE.

169

as unknown a country as the central regions of
Africa. From these moors, now bleak and bare,
but of yore covered with dense forests, the wide
expanse of the North Sea is everywhere in view ;
a succession of lovely bays soften the rugged out-
line of the iron-bound coast, and give precarious

THE PRIOKV LODGE, K1UKLEE.S PARK.

foothold to picturesque fishing villages. Upon
one of the largest of these bays, midway between
Scarborough and Whitby, converge a number of
dells, each with its own tiny streamlet, entirely
secluded from the inland part of the county, and
until recently accessible by sea only.

170 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Fylingdales is the collective name of this
romantic district in which Kobin Hood and his
followers took up their abode for a time, and
many are the legends which are still current
respecting their doings in these quarters. One
of the most interesting is the one which relates
how Robin turned fisherman and sea-rover : —

"Now, quoth Robin Hood, I'll to Scarborough go,
It seems to be a very fine day.
He took up his inn at a widow woman's house
Hard by the waters grey."

The ballad recounts how he proved but a lubberly
sailor and fisherman, unable to bait his lines, and
so sick that he exclaims : —

" woe is me,

The day that ever I came here ;
I wish I were in Plumpton Park
A-chasing of the fallow deer."

But when a French w^arship comes upon the

scene, Robin's fighting instincts make him rise

superior to his circumstances : —

" Master, tie me to the mast, he said.
That at the mark I may stand fair,
And give me my best bow in my hand,
And never a Frenchman will I spare."

He dispatches with his arrows one Frenchman
after another, and then boards the ship in which

ROBIN HOOD IN YORKSHIRE.

171

he finds " twelve thousand pounds of money
bright," with which he is reported to have
endowed a seaman's hospital at Scarborough.

Longing to return to the scenes of his former
exploits, Kobin attempted to establish himself
again in the West Riding, where he began again
to shoot the king's deer, despoil bishops and

ROBIN HOOD S GRAVJi,

lords, vex sheriffs, and to generally set the laws
at defiance. But not long with impunity ; for
the king sent " a trusty and worthy knight. Sir
William by name," who, with his archers, fought
a pitched battle with Robin Hood's men, and
although the ballad reports the issue as
undecided : —

172 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

" . . . , one party they went
For London with free good will ;
And Robin Hood he to the Green Wood Trees,
And there he was taken ill,"

yet it is easy to read between the lines that poor
Kobin was defeated and seriously wounded.

" He sent for a monk to let him blood.

Who took his life away ;
Now this being done, his archers they run.

It was not time to stay :
Some went on board and crossed the seas

To Flanders, France, and Spain,
And others to Rome, for fear of their doom."

According to tradition, the battle took place near
Wakefield, and Robin took refuge with a cousin,
who was prioress at Kirklees Nunnery, and who
is accused of having wilfully allowed him to bleed
to death. We give an engraving which represents
the remaining small portion of the nunnery
within which Robin is stated to have breathed
his last. At the distance of a ^' bow shot "
therefrom is Robin Hood's " grave," shown in
our second enofraving:. It is somewhat unfortunate
for the authenticity of this burial, that a careful
examination of the ground has revealed the
damaging fact that the pediment of the cross
(which undoubtedly did stand here) rests on the
solid natural rock, excluding all possibility of

ROBIN HOOD IN YORKSHIRE. 173

interment. The epitaph, ''said" to have been
here, reads as follows : —

" Here undernead dis laitl stean
laiz robert earl of huntingtun
near arcer ver az he sa geud
an pipl kauld him robin heud
sik outlawz az he and hiz men
vil england nivr si agen.

Obiit 24 kal. dekembris 1247."

The following epitaph is given in the ballads : —

*' Robert, Earl of Huntingdon,
Lies here, his labour being done ;
No archer like him was so good,
His wildness called him Robin Hood.
For thirteen years and somewhat more
These northern parts he vexed sore :
Such outlaws as he and his men
May England never know again."

^be pilgrimage of (Brace*

By W. H. Thompson.

NO monarch ever ascended the Enghsh
throne with a better replenished ex-
chequer than Henry the Eighth. Yet, owing to
luxurious livinof and extravaofance, he, during-
the first twenty-five years of his reign, managed
not only to squander all the wealth his thrifty,
penurious father had left him, but also other
vast sums of money which he had extorted
from his people in the shape of so-called
"benevolences" and forced loans. Further
revenue had thus still somehow to be raised.

About this period of financial difficulty arose
Henry's rupture with Rome, on the question of
his marriage with Anne Boleyn. The breach
became irreparable, the king declared himself
head of the English Church, and whilst remaining
on most essential points of faith a Roman
Catholic, still threw his political influence on the
Continent in with that of the Reformation party.
And now came a splendid opportunity to the

THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE. 175

unscrupulous monarch for making unprincipled
gain. The Church at this time in this country
was enormously rich. Not only were there
scattered all over the land, magnificent abbeys
and religious houses, but the property, landed
and otherwise, which these possessed, was most
extensive in every direction. The anti-Reforma-
tion attitude adopted by the ecclesiastics as a
body, now gave the avaricious Henry a most
plausible excuse for plundering them. They
denied his supremacy, and attacked his conduct ;
and everywhere opposed his schemes. Little
wonder the king" rao^ed •; but with his rao^e were
mingled a cupidity and greed, in which he was
seconded by the man who henceforward became
his especial instrument in the work of spoliation.
That man was Thomas Cromwell.

In March, 1536, a bill was hurriedly passed
through Parliament, granting to the king and his
heirs all monastic establishments, the clear value
of which did not exceed £200 per annum. By
this act, it has been calculated, no fewer than
about 380 religious houses were dissolved,
and £32,000 revenue was added to the annual
income of the crown. And as events proved,
this confiscation was only premonitory of the

176- BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

great final spoliation of the monasteries and
abbeys, which was to take place some three or
four years later. This latter abolition, however,
lies beyond the scope of our narrative.

The superiors of the suppressed communities
were promised small pensions, all monks under
twenty-four years of age were absolved from their
vows, and turned adrift into the world ; the rest,
if they wished it, w^ere distributed amongst the
larger houses still, in 1536, left standing ; whilst
the nuns were left to beg or starve, with
nothing given to them, save to each a common
gown.

Henrj^'s conduct in this matter, and his reform-
ing tendencies in general, gave the greatest possible
offence to a large section of the people, particularly
in the northern counties, where for a long period
after this, the old church retained its hold. The
discontent naturally was fomented by the crowds
of monks wandering over the country without
a home or means of subsistence, who found ready
listeners to the recital of their wrongs in the vast
population, which had been accustomed to draw
alms from the very ecclesiastics who themselves
were now beggars. Finding their former means
of lazy support withdrawn, the people became

THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE. 177

thoroughly disaffected, and it was not long before
insurrections arose.

The first rising was in Lincolnshire. It was
led by Dr. Mackril, the Prior of Barlings, and
by a man who called himself Captain Cobbler.
In a very short time the movement assumed
most alarming proportions. Twenty thousand
men quickly rose to arms, and so formidable was
their array that the Duke of Suffolk, whom the
king sent to suppress the insurrection, thought
it wiser to temporise with them rather than to
hazard an encounter. He demanded of the men
of Lincolnshire what their grievances were, and
it was in response to this request that they
presented a list of six articles of complaint to the
king. Foremost amongst these was the suppres-
sion of the monasteries, " Whereby," it was
stated, " the service of God is not only diminished,
but also the pooralty of your realm be unrelieved,
and many persons be put from their livings, and
left at large, which we think is a great hindrance
to the common weal."

By entertaining these proposals, and forwarding
the petitions to court, Suffolk, on the strength of
fair promises, was able to stem the first fury

of the insurgents. He not only managed to gain

178 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

time, but he also succeeded in spreading dissension
amongst the malcontents, so that when Henry
replied, he was able to adopt quite a high and
lofty tone, giving an absolute refusal to all their
demands. The haughty and threatening character
of the king's response appears to have stricken
the Lincolnshire rustics with fear, for by about
the end of October they had all dispersed, having
delivered up fifteen of their ringleaders to satisfy
the royal vengeance. These were afterwards
executed as traitors, with the barbarities customary
in that age.

Before, however, this insurrection had been
quelled, a far more important one broke out
north of the Humber. Not less than nearly
40,000 men, it was calculated, took to arms, and
in this case several powerful leaders soon came to
the front. First amongst these was Robert Aske,
a gentleman of ability and of good family birth.
The Askes were highly connected, being cousins
of the Earl of Cumberland, whose eldest son.
Lord Clifford, had recently married a daughter
of the Duke of Suffolk, and niece therefore of
the king. The manner in which Robert became
implicated in this rebellion was, if we may trust
his own account, somewhat peculiar. He had

THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE. 179

been spending a short time with young Sir
Ralph Ellerker, of Ellerker Hall, near Brant-
ingham, one of a hunting party then staying
there. Early in October he left the place with
the purpose of returning to London, to be ready
for business after the long vacation, for he was a
barrister in good practice at Westminster. His
route lay across the Humber, by the ancient
Roman ferry, from Brough to Whitton. In
Lincolnshire, somewhere near Appleby, he en-
countered a party of the rebels. They demanded
who he was, and on his replying, compelled him
to take the popular oath.

From this statement it would appear he first
joined the movement rather against his will, or
under compulsion. Anyhow, once having com-
mitted himself to the insurgents, he forthwith
commenced to take energetic measures. It was
not long before he perceived the hopelessness of
the Lincolnshire rising ; and now the rebellion
having begun to spread like wildfire in Yorkshire
and the counties north of the Humber, he turned
to organising in this direction. It was he who
gave a religious character to the northern rising
by styling it the " Pilgrimage of Grace." Priests
marched in the van, in the garb of their different

180 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

orders, carrying crosses and banners, on which
were emblazoned the figure of Christ on the
cross, the sacred chahce, and the five wounds
of the Saviour.

Amongst other leading spirits besides Robert
Aske, were Sir Kobert Constable, of Flamborough,
William Stapleton, of Beverley, John Hallam, of
Cawkell on the Wolds, and William Wode, Prior
of Bridlington.

The first great rendezvous in Yorkshire of
the insurgent host was Market Weighton
Common. Here Stapleton, at the head of
9,000 men, from the surrounding towns and
villages, and the district of Holderness, joined
Aske, who from this time w^as the acknowledged
commander-in-chief

One of the earliest steps taken was an attempt
to gain Hull for the cause. In this, however,
the rebels for some time were unsuccessful, and
whilst Stapleton was left to lay siege to the
town, the main body of malcontents crossed the
Derwent and marched on to York. There the
citizens almost to a man were in sympathy with
them, and Aske was allowed to take possession
without opposition.

Lord Darcy of Templehurst, subsequently

182 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

the acknowledged second great leader, up to this
period had held Pontefract Castle on behalf of the
king, but it was well known his sympathies were
with the rising. On the night that York
surrendered, therefore, he sent a messensrer to
Aske for a copy of the oath sworn by the
insurgents, and promising, if the articles thereof
pleased him, to join the confederacy. He
continued, however, to formally retain Pontefract
for the crown, and as it seemed he was halting
between the two sides, not committino- himself
thoroughly to either, Aske decided to march on
that town. He felt he was secure in the north,
having received news that the people of Durham
were in arms, and hastening to join him with
Lord Latimer, Lord Lumley, and the Earl of
Westmoreland. On the other hand, he had
tidings that Lord Shrewsbury was being sent
by the king to reinforce Pontefract, so he reaHsed
that if the place was to be gained, and Darcy
won thoroughly over to their side, prompt action
must be taken.

The same day as Shrewsbury was to
have arrived, Pontefract Castle passed into
the hands of the rebels, Darcy, the Arch-
bishop of York, and every man, high and

THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE. 183

low, within the walls taking the common
oath.

Hull, too, at length was gained, and there
similar proceedings took place as at York.
Stapleton and his army marched through the
streets of the town, and after a thanksgiving
service at Holy Trinity Church, the vacant
dormitories in the suppressed St. Michael's
Priory, and the Black and White Friaries were
again peopled with ejected ecclesiastics. After
seeing Hull strongly garrisoned with men of
his party, Stapleton left it in the hands of
Hallam. Then he departed, gathering forces
en route, and joined Aske at Pontefract.

At this latter place the army of insurgents
was re-organised, and divided into three bodies.
The first, some 5,000 men, was under the leader-
ship of Sir Thomas Percy, brother of the Earl of
Northumberland ; the second, a vast division of
20,000 men from Holderness and the East and
West Ridings, was under Aske himself and Lord
Darcy ; whilst the third was a splendid array of
12,000 knights, esquires, and yeomen, largely
from the county of Durham, well mounted, and
in complete armour.

It is no wonder that Shrewsbury did not

184 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

venture to fight with such a host. Remembering
the success of the king's proclamation in Lincohi-
shire, he decided now to try a similar experiment
by sending the Lancaster herald with a message
to be read at Pontefract Market Cross. But,
although the messenger w^as received, no repent-
ance followed the reading of his proclamation.
He only brought back glowing accounts of what
he had seen and heard of the enemy's strength.
They were, he said, " a marvellous great number,
the best harnessed and the best horsed in the
world, and kept the best order of battle ; that
10,000 of them had horses worth twenty angels
sterling apiece."

On the banks of the river Don the two armies
met, and there for two days lay watching each
other. At length, instead of engaging in
hostilities, commissioners from each host met on
Doncaster Bridge, midway between the two, and
it was then arranged that delegates from the
insurgents should proceed to London, accom-
panied by the Duke of Norfolk, who, though not
identified with the Pilgrimage of Grace, yet
agreed in heart with the rising. Until the
king's reply w^as received an armistice was
decided upon, it being understood that in the

THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE. 185

meantime the musters on both sides should be
disbanded.

The delegates who were to lay the grievances
before the throne were graciously received by the
kinof, but were eriven no immediate answer.
They were detained fourteen days, and mean-
while letters were sent to the different insurgent
nobles pointing out the dishonour they did them-
selves by serving under such an one as Aske. The
services also of a great number of additional
troops were secured for the crowm. When on
the 14th of November Henry dismissed the
people's representatives, it was only w4th '' general
instructions of comfort," it being stated that
Norfolk himself would at the end of the month
return to the north with the sovereign's final
reply.

In due course Norfolk returned to the north
with a number of commissioners to treat with
the rebel leaders. Between them there was
much debate and controversy ; but on the 2nd
of December an ao^reement was arrived at and
signed by all the parties to the conference, in
which the king's pardon was directly promised.
As to the objects of the rising, and the redress in
the several matters concerning which petition had

186 BYGONE YORKSHIRE,

been made, Norfolk appears to have entered into
vague, indirect engagements with the insurgent
chiefs, which led them to believe that their entire
requests had been, or would be, conceded.

On this understanding, then, they prepared to
disband. Aske knelt down, and desired to
relinquish thenceforth the name and office of
captain of the Pilgrimage, and he and his com-
panions pulled off their badges and said, '' We
will wear no badge nor figure henceforth but the
badge of our sovereign lord." The king's pardon
was publicly proclaimed in solemn form before
both hosts, the insurgents being now free to
depart, each to his own home. Thus came the
first act of the " Pilgrimage of Grace " to an end.

Although, however, affairs had apparently
terminated satisfactorily, it was not long before it
became evident that Henry was by no means
disposed, despite whatever Norfolk had promised,
to grant all that Aske or his followers desired.
This brave and popular leader even ventured to
proceed to London to have an interview with the
king, and though he was led to believe that all
the promises made, or supposed to be made, at
Doncaster would be fulfilled, still much of the
people's petition remained unrealised. Hence,

THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE. 187

notwithstanding Aske's assurances, there was a
growing discontent in the East Riding at the
results of the agreement, and it was not long
before a new movement arose.

A great part of the gentlemen engaged in the
first rising had been w^on back to their allegiance
to the crown, and a common impression current
was that the people had been deceived by them.
The new movement was to be more democratic in
its organization. It is true the leader who now
came to the front was a person of some social
standing — Sir Francis Bygot, of Settington.
Sir Francis, however, has been described as one
of those who on great questions stand aloof from
parties, holding some notion of their own which
they consider to be the true solution of the
difficulty, and which they will attempt when
others have failed. So it appears to have been
in this case.

Sir Francis Bygot, after consulting Hallam,
who was associated with Stapleton at Hull, a few
monks, and some other equally foolish persons,
decided on a fresh rebellion. Thus was begun the
second chapter in the " Pilgrimage of Grace."

In this new project two of the first steps
decided upon were the capture of Beverley and

188 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

of Hull. Bygot was to surprise the former, and
Hallam the latter. Bygot succeeded in getting
possession of Beverley, but Hallam was by no
means so successful. Accordinof to his statement
made subsequently, and now preserved amongst
the Rolls' House papers, he and twenty followers
entered Hull on market day, disguised in farmers'
dress, in couples, to avoid suspicion. Hallam had
depended upon the assistance of the crowd
gathered in the market, but he soon found that
his confidence was misplaced, and that unless he
could escape before his disguise was discovered
he would be taken prisoner. Hence he and two
or three friends rode out of the town until they
came to a certain windmill on the Beverley Road,
a short distance from the walls. Then, looking
back, they saw the gates were being closed ; so,
with the view of rescuing or standing by their
companions who might be in peril, they rode back
again. Arrived at the town gates, Hallam asked
that his neighbours who were within might be let
out, when a Mr. Knowles, stepping up to him,
enquired his name. He said ^' Hallam." Then
said Mr. Knowles " Thou art he that we seek
for," and with that he and a Mr. Elland set their
hands upon the rebel leader's bridle, and bade

THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE. 189

him turn. A struggle now took place, in wliich
his companions joined. However, they were
soon overpowered, taken prisoners, and lodged in
the town gaol.

The three great leaders of the first insurrection
lost no time in disclaiming and condemning
Bygot's insane rising. Nothing could be more
vexatious to Aske, Lord Darcy, or Sir Robert
Constable. It put them into a most unenviable
position. They did not know how to act or turn.
They wished, in the first place, to keep on
friendly terms with the crown, and yet, on the
other hand, unless they endeavoured to aid the
insurgents, who were now under a cloud, they
were aware they would have to forfeit a good
deal of their influence amongst the people.

Aske therefore came to Hull, and employed
mingled entreaty and menace to the royal
commissioners, with the view of saving Hallam.
But whilst he compromised himself, he did not
rescue the late rebel. It was, as Aske himself
said, '^ Bygot had gone about to destroy all the
effects of the petition."

Once more comparative quiet reigned in the
East Biding, but again a third rebelHon broke
out in the north, this time in the neighbourhood

190 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

of Kendal. The king, who had now an over-
powering force at his disposal, through the Duke
of Norfolk, proclaimed martial law, and so
thoroughly were his instructions carried out that
the north country was converted into quite a
shambles.

Despite the fact that since the first rising
Aske, Darcy, and Constable had in their
behaviour, so far as can be traced, been in no way
treasonable, but on the contrary the first and last
named had received the royal thanks for keeping
the people quiet during Bygot's movement, still
the three were suddenly arrested in April, 1537,
and thrown into the Tower. Aske was charged
with having interfered with the authorities in
Hull to prevent the execution of Hallam ; Darcy
with having failed, in the preceding January, to
furnish Pontefract with stores, although com-
manded to do so by the king ; Constable with
having told Bygot in a letter that he had chosen
the wrong time of the year for his rising, and
that he ought to have waited until the spring.
Such were some of the allegations ; probably,
however, the actual reason for their arrest
was that they were powerful leaders, and
dangerous therefore to the royal policy. Any-

THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE. 191

how, by the force of intimidation, or on the
strength of evidence, such as that just indicated,
they were all sentenced to death in May. Darcy
was executed in London, Aske in York, Con-
stable at Hull.

Having by these and some other deaths
satisfied his royal vengeance, and struck terror
into the hearts of the rebellious, Henry then
proclaimed a general pardon, to which he here-
after adhered. He also went so far as to comply
with one of the demands of the insurgents, that
of erecting a court of justice at York for
decidinof lawsuits in the northern counties.

Zbc Ibietor^, ZTraMtione, anb Curioue
Customs of IDorft flDinetcr.

By George Benson.

THE Cathedral Church at York owes its
origin to Eadwine, King of Northumbria,
who, in the year 625, married Ethelberga, sister
to the King of Kent. The Queen of Northumbria
being a Christian, brought her chaplain, Paulinus,
to York. One of the British churches on the
Bishop Hill, which had been desecrated by the
pagan English, was probably restored by
Ethelberga, who worshipped in it as she had
formerly done at the church of St. Martin, at
Canterbury. King Eadwine was not easily
converted to the Christian faith, so Pope
Boniface sent him a letter and presents.
Eventually the king summoned his council before
the great idol temple at Goodmanham, to discuss
the new doctrine, when Paulinus succeeded in
converting the king and council.

Eadwine, on his return to York, was prepared
for baptism by Paulinus, and gave orders for the

YORK MIXSTER. 193

construction of a church inside the Roman walls

and within easy distance of the palace. It

was desirable that the king should become a

member of the Church as soon as possible,

therefore the edifice was built of timber and

hurriedly completed, on the site of a Roman

temple. It was dedicated to St. Peter, and

on Easter Day, April 12th, 627, the king and

many of his courtiers w^ere baptised in it by

Paulinus. Soon after Eadwine began to erect

a larger church of stone which was to contain

the wooden one ; the foundations were laid,

but before the walls were completed, or the

pallium received by Paulinus, the king was

defeated by the pagans Penda and Cadwallon,

and slain in battle. The victors ravatred

Northumbria, and Paulinus fled with the queen

and her children to Kent, taking with them

the altar furniture, and in the time of Bede

the golden cross and chalice were still at

Canterbury.

Oswald, nephew of Eadwine, in 635, gained

a victory over the invaders, and firmly established

himself on the Northumbrian throne. He had

embraced Christianity from the Celtic Church

at lona, and sent there for missionaries to

194 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

re-convert the Northumbrians, who had fallen
into idolatry. Oswald completed the stone
church commenced by Eadwine ; portions of two
walls of this edifice, constructed ^' herring-bone-
wise," are to be seen in the present crypt.

Bishop Wilfrid, in 669, found the Minster in a
dilapidated condition, and restored it. He
provided the windows with glass ; previously light
was obtained by transparent linen, or by holes
pierced through boards.

Shortly before the Conquest, Ulphus, son of
Thorold, the lord of a great part of Eastern
Yorkshire, laid a horn made of an elephant's tusk
on the altar in the Minster, as a token that he
gave certain lands to the Cathedral. The tusk is
twenty-nine inches long, around the mouth is a
carved band with griffins, a tree, a unicorn, a lion
devouring a doe, and dogs wearing collars.

The Minster was burnt by the Normans in
1068, and re-built by Archbishop Thomas of
Bayeux. The choir and part of the crypts were
taken down by Archbishop Boger (1154-1181),
and re-built on a larger scale ; subsequently the
transepts of the Norman church were removed,
and the present ones erected. The nave was
then taken down, and the existing one erected.

YORK MINSTER. 195

with the Chapter House and Presbytery. The
Choir of Roger was taken down and rebuilt, and
the edifice was completed and re-consecrated on
the 3rd of July 1472.

The Cathedral of York was never occupied by
monks, although styled the Minster, but from
early times by a body of secular priests, who
formed a college in connection with it, thus York
Minster was both a Collegiate and a Cathedral
Church.

Prayers were said in the Minster at set hours
daily, as appointed by the canons or statutes
of the college, hence termed canonical hours,
these were seven in number, known in English
times as Uhtsang, Primesang, Undersang,
Middaysang, Noonsang, Even sang, and Night-
sang, which in the later Medieval times occur as
Matins, Land, Prime, Tierce, Sext, Nones, and
Vespers. To provide for the maintenance of
these services, each canon had an estate
appointed to him, termed Si prebend, generally a
rectory of some parochial church, thus a canon
was also a "prehendary, and was denominated by
the name of the place appropriated to him.

There are thirty prebendaries (formerly thirty-
six) in the Minster, each having a stall in the

19G BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Choir and Chapter House. The Canons form
the Chapter and when they meet to discuss an}^
question it is called a meeting of the chapter, and
the place of meeting is termed the Qiaptev
House. The Dean is elected by the chapter,
being invested with a gold ring and installed by
the precentor. The Precentor or Chanter
installs the Canons and superintends the Choir ;
the other officers in the chapter are the
Chancellor, Sub-Dean, Succentor, three arch-
deacons, four resident canons, these with the
twenty- four prebendaries or non-resident canons
form the ruling body of the Minster, and
are known as '' The Dean and Chapter of
York."

Each canon had formerly a Vicar Choral, in
priest's orders, to attend and officiate for him ; the
Vicars Choral had their College in Bedern.
Their number is now reduced to five, who form a
corporate body.

The parsons and chantry priests of the Minster
had a College, known as St. William's College,
(founded 1460) in Vicar's Lane.

In the year 1841 the Canons, with the
exception of the four residentiaries, were
deprived of their emoluments, and the patronage

WKrtX I'KONT, VOllK .M1N>-I i;i;.

198 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

of the livings belonging to them, but their other
privileges were left undisturbed.

Formerly at the installation of Canons in the
Chapter House, twelve dozen large currant buns,
made specially for the purpose, were scattered
amongst the spectators and scrambled for,
and a dozen port or sherry were opened and
drank to the health of the new Canon. This
custom continued until 1858. Each Canon
receives a copy of the Holy Scriptures and a roll
of bread.

The Archbishops at their installation into the
Chair of York formerly made their progress to
the Minster on foot from St. James' Chapel,
outside Micklegate Bar, a cloth being spread all
the way. The prelate preceded by torch, censor,
and cross bearers, was received in state at the
great western doors of the Minster by the Dean
and other dignitaries of the Church, in their
embroidered copes and rich vestments, and followed
in procession to the High Altar, amidst the
perfume of incense wafted in clouds by the
swinging to and fro of the censors. After being
invested with the pallium and a jewelled mitre he
was enthroned in the Chair of York.

After the ceremony, greetings were exchanged

YORK MINSTER. 199

with the Lord Mayor and Corporation, who
made costly presents of gold or silver cups, and
sometimes a butt of sack to the Archbishop.

Formerly a great feast followed the enthronis-
ation, and that of Archbishop Neville, which was
held at the palace of Cawood, surpassed all
others.

On high festivals the Dean had a large retinue
to escort him to the Minster. It is recorded that
Dean Higden, on Christmas Day, had fifty
gentlemen before him in tawny coats garded
with black velvet, and thirty yeomen behind in
similar coats garded with saffron.

Formerly on St. John the Evangelist's Day all
the city clergy attended the Minster.

On St. Nicholas' Day the boy bishop was elected,
on Holy Innocents' Day he attended the Minster
in State, habited in a cope of tissue, and wearing
a miniature mitre, and the nine children in his
train wore miniature copes. At Salisbury
Cathedral there is a monument to a boy bishop.

On the Feast of Purification the Dean blessed
the candles. On Shrove Tuesday the Minster
was open to all comers, who were allowed to ring
one of the bells, termed the Pancake Bell, a
privilege much exercised.

200 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

On Ash Wednesday the Dean sprinkled the
ashes and gave the Absolution. Palms were
blessed by the Dean on Palm Sunday.

On Maunday Thursday, the Dean and clergy
washed the feet of the poor, and distributed alms.
In 1639, King Charles I. kept the festival here,
when the Bishop of Ely washed the right feet of
thirty-nine poor aged men in warm water, and
dried them with a linen cloth — afterwards in the
south aisle the Bishop of Winchester re-washed
them in white wine, wiped, and kissed them.
On the following day (Good Friday), Charles I.
touched no less than two hundred people in the
Minster for the King's Evil. As he touched the
people there was read aloud, " they shall lay
their hands upon the sick and they shall recover."
The King put round each of their necks a white
ribbon, to which was attached an angel of gold.
From All Saints' Day to Candlemas the choir
was formerly illuminated by seven large branched
candle-holders, and a small wax candle was fixed at
every other stall ; on festival days the four
dignitaries used to have a branch of seven
candles placed before each of them on their
stalls.

Within the moulded arch of the w^estern central

YORK MINISTER. 201

dooi'way is sculptured the story of Adam and
Eve in the garden of Eden. The central portion
of the tracery in the large window above forms a
heart — the Heart of Yorkshire — for the Minster
is loved by all Yorkshire folk. %

In the Nave the great processions were
arranged, and previous to 1736 there were two
rows of circular stones (similar to Fountains and
Chichester) forty-four on each side, about two
feet diameter and that distance apart, whilst in
the centre there was a row of larger ones. These
were the allotted positions of the Dean and the
superiors, whilst the inferiors and singers were
arranofed on the sides.

A unique feature in the Nave is the bracket in
the Triforium forming a dragon's head, which
originally held in its mouth a cord, by which the
cover of the font was raised or lowered ;
opposite on the other side is the effigy of St.
George.

From this font, in 1418, Sir Richard le Scrope
and his associates were excommunicated for
havino^ entered the Minster armed durino^ service
in the Choir, and attacking with violence a
serving-man. They were denounced by the
Choir with ringing of bells, lighting of candles ;

202 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

after extinguishing them and throwing them on
the ground in rebuke, and then Hfting the
Cross, the offenders were publicly and solemnly
excommunicated.

Subsequently Sir Richard submitted, and did
penance for his rash act. Entering by the great
west door uncovered and without his belt, and
bearing aloft his dagger, he passed along the
nave to the High Altar, and there on bended
knees he said the Lord's Prayer three times, and
the angelical salutation, and then offered his
daofg-er on the altar.

At the back of the High Altar was a large
painted and guilded reredos, having a door at
each side which opened into the Sacristy.
Above the reredos was a Music Gallery.

In the Sacristy the portable shrine of St.
William of York was kept, on the north side was
a watching-gallery, having a small oriel window
commanding a view of the north aisle, opposite
to which was a loop in the wall looking into the
Sacristy, from this gallery hung offerings of rings,
girdles, slippers, and models of limbs.

The reredos was removed in 1726, and the
altar carried back one bay.

The gable of the south transept was formerly

YORK MINSTER. 203

crowned with '' The Fiddler of York " who outdid
Nero of old Rome by looking on whilst the
Minster was twice in flames, namely in 1829 and
1840. During the restoration of this transept he
was taken from his lofty position and put in the
crypt.

The north transept contains a five-light lancet,
known as ^' the five sisters," alluded to by Charles
Dickens in Nicholas Nickleby. The only
mediaeval brass remaining in the Minster is in this
transept : it is a fine one, representing Archbishop
Grenefield in his vestments.

The choir screen contains statues of the kings
of England from William I. to Henry VI.
inclusive. The organ stands upon it ; formerly it
stood on the north side of the choir.

The east window is the largest in the kingdom
retaining its original coloured glazing.

The octagonal Chapter House is similar to

that at Southwell, but nearly twice the size.

All who see it re-echo the Latin couplet painted

on the left side of the entrance signifying : —

" As the rose is the chief of flowers
So is this house of houses."

H Storv of tbc (5unpow&er plot.

By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, b.a.

LITTLE thought Edith Fawkes, of York,
widow, when she suffered herself to be led
to the altar for the second time by Dionis
Bay abridge, of the far-reaching consequences of
so common -place an act.

Her life had been hitherto as uneventful as
that of a well-to-do citizen's wdfe ordinarily is ;
her husband, Edward Fawkes, was an advocate of
the Consistory Court of the Archbishop, and as
such, doubtless a man of some mark in the city,
especially as his father had been Registrar of
the Exchequer Court at York, and his elder
brother Thomas was a merchant-stapler of
affluence in the city. Four children had blessed
the marriage, and all had been duly received into
the Holy Church by baptism at the church of St.
Michael-le-Belfry, for both husband and wife
were faithful members of the English Church, as
the lists of communicants in the said parish show.
One only of the children was a boy, who was

A STORY OF THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 205

christened on the 16th of April, 1570, by the
name of Guy, and in due time became a pupil
of Master John Puleyn at the free school in the
Horse Fair.

In January, 1579, however, the shadow of
death fell across the house, and Edith Fawkes
found herself a widow, with three little ones
dependent on her (for one had died in infancy) ;
Guy, the eldest, barely nine years old, Anne,
Uttle more than six, and Elizabeth not yet four.
The means for the family's support were pro-
bably not large, for all the father's real estate —
lands and houses in Gillygate, and in Clifton,
both near York — fell to the only son ; and this
may have made the widow more willing to form a
second alliance with one of larger fortune.

For how many years Mrs. Fawkes wore her
weeds we know not, but there is reason to think
that before the end of 1584 she had become Mrs.
Dionis Baynbridge. The busy northern capital
was left behind, and with it much that formed an
essential part of the old York life ; and the new
wife with her children settled down at Scotton, a
hamlet near Farnham, in the West Riding. The
little church of St. Michael-le-Belfry, and the
g.reat grey Minster, beneath whose shadow they

206 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

had so often passed, the free school under the
control and patronage of the Dean and Chapter,
to say nothing of Edward Fawkes' official status,
these had all combined to form an ecclesiastical
atmosphere for the family which was now to be
changed as completely as were their surroundings.
Dionis Baynbridge was a Roman Catholic, con-
nected by family ties with other leading families
professing that faith ; and it would seem that his
wife conformed to his religion, and allowed her
children to be brought up in it.

However one may regret their perversion, and
deplore its ultimate, though indirect, consequence,
it must be admitted that no self-seeking can have
been their motive, for the profession of Koman
Catholic opinions was not the road to honour or
to ease. Simply to be a priest of the Romish
Church was an offence visited with death, to
receive the ministrations of such was a felony,
and the mere act of petitioning the sovereign
against the persecution to which they w^ere
subjected was met in one instance by a summons
before the Star Chamber, imprisonment in the
Fleet Prison, two exposures in the pillory, and a
fine of one thousand pounds, and all this on the
person of an aged gentleman, whose whitened

locks barely availed to save him from losing his
ears to boot.

It was, in fact, a time of action and reaction
and reflex-reaction. The Roman Catholics felt
bound in concience to question Elizabeth's claim
to the throne, and did not disguise their
disappointment when her successor, James, failed
to adhere to the faith of his mother, Mary,
Queen of Scots ; the government in turn grew
suspicious, and treated them with harshness ; this
provoked mutterings of deeper discontent, which
led again to greater severity from the ruling
powers. Such a state of things could scarcely
terminate otherwise than it did ; on the one side
the political and religious issues were confused,
and a policy of justifiable precaution became a
persecution indiscriminate and intolerable ; on the
other, the bolder and more reckless spirits began
to think that any act which would relieve them
from the sufferings and privations they were
enduring would be allowable in their extremity.

When Mrs. Fawkes, now Mrs. Baynbridge,
removed to Scotton w^ith her little ones, this
tragic development was yet some twenty years
ahead, but signs of the coming storm were not
wanting, and amid the feelings which such a

208 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

condition of things must necessarily excite, young
Guy and his sisters grew up. Several Roman
Catholic families resided at Scotton, and doubtless
friends and relatives who shared their faith not
infrequently met there for consolation or counsel
in the troublous times on which they had fallen.
Thomas Percy was a neighbour of the
Baynbridges, and like Dionis took to himself a
wife from the members of the English Church,
Martha Wright by name, from Holderness ; but
so eager was he to advance his own form of faith,
that he drew not only her into agreement with
him, but also her brothers John and Christopher,
in accomplishing which, no doubt, he often had
them with him at Scotton. No further oiF than
Ripley lived Sir William Ingilby, another
co-religionist and relative to the leading Scotton
families, and there need be little hesitation in
supposing that at his house sometimes Guy
w^ould meet the knight's three nephews from
Worcestershire, Thomas, Robert, and John
Winter.

Thus w^e get an idea of the society into which
Guy Fawkes grew as he drew near to man's
estate, and we can imagine the burning ambition
to do some great thing in defence of their religion

,,iiii,iiiiiii;illiliii:iii!i:rt'!!'5!!^i' I ''■''''

// >z r-

210 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

to which this group of young enthusiasts would
encourage one another.

In the year 1591, Guy Fawkes came of age
and entered upon the possession of his small
patrimony. He was evidently a restless, eager
lad, needing wider scope for his energies than
England then allowed to one of his way of
thinking, and so we find that his lands are soon
disposed of, and he is oiF to the wars. In the
Spanish army, then serving in the Netherlands,
was abundant opportunity for action, as well as
companionship with men of his own faith ;
thitherward, therefore, he bent his steps to bear
pike or sword as a soldier of fortune.

Subsequently, as the tension of things at home
got more severe, he became a kind of ambassador
from the English Roman Catholics to the Court
of Spain, the leading Roman Catholic power
of Europe, in an endeavour to obtain some help
from that source. In these missions, full of
difficulty, and not devoid, it must be confessed, of
a treasonable aspect, two of his old Scotton
friends took part ; in 1601 he travelled to Madrid
with Thomas Winter, and in 1603 with
Christopher Wright. In 1604 he returned to
England, knowing that something was astir

A STORY OF THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 211

amonofst the Romanists at home, and on his
arrival first learns, from Catesby and his old
acquaintances John Wright and Thomas Winter,
the nature of that fearsome plot which has made
his name notorious, and into which presently all
those whom, we have seen, he had probably met
at Scotton as a lad, were gradually drawn,
toofether with others.

Further into the old story of the Gunpowder
Plot it is needless to go ; we have its origin in
Yorkshire, its development and discovery belong
to the general history of our country, and are too
well known to need repeating.

Have we touched too lightly and brightly the
character of Guy Fawkes ? We think not. For
the awful scheme which he helped to carry out
no words of horror can be too strong, yet Fawkes
was no fiend incarnate, but a man of high
courage and fanatic enthusiasm driven to bay ;
and what will not such an one dare ? One
characteristic at least is worthy of remembrance,
the unselfish courage which gives some gleam of
heroism to an atrocious deed. In all the dangers
of the plot Fawkes bore the brunt ; if his name,
rather than that of his companions, is always
coupled with the plot, it is not because he

212 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

originated it, but simply because he undertook
the part which carried the greatest risk, and led
to his arrest and execution ; and finally, no
torture could wring from him the names of any
accomplices.

The moral of it all is surely this, that if Gu}^
Fawkes and his comrades are to be eternally
reprobated, their hands cannot be quite clean
who drove them to the recklessness of despair.

Zbc Spinning:^v\)beeL

By I. "VV. Dickinson, b.a.

IT is no exaggeration, but plain sober fact, to
say that in every department of human
activity a greater stride forward has been made in
the last sixty years than in the sixty preceding
centuries. A generation is uprising to whom
such things as the sawpit with its " top sawyer "
and " bottom sawyer," the windmill and water-
wheel, the scythe and the sickle will be unknown.
Xo reading book nowadays informs us that it
takes nine men to make a pin ; the merry tinkle
of the nailmakers' anvil is a sound lost to our
planet ; nor is wool any longer combed by hand.
The art of spinning has fully shared in this
advance, and the spinning-wheel is very typical of
the great change that has swept over all methods
of industry.

The spindle and the distaff was the first
contrivance for converting wool as we see it upon
the sheep into the continuous thread known as
yarn for weaving into cloth. The distaff was a
stick or staff about eighteen inches long, round

214 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

which was bound a loose bundle of wool which
had been previously washed. The spindle was a
pin a few inches in length, with an eye at the
upper end to which the thread was attached. If
of wood, the spindle required to be weighted ;
sometimes it was made of lead. The spinster
stuck the distaff, with its burden of wool, into her
girdle, and tied sufficient fibres through the eye of
the spindle. With a swift dexterous twirl of her
thumb and forefinger a quick rotary motion was
imparted to the spindle, which at the same time
was thrown away from the spinster, and so was
produced the double movement essential to
spinning of drawing out the wool and twisting it
at one and the same time ; this movement was
effectively furthered by the continuous dragging
and twirling action of the spinster's thumb and
forefinger. When a convenient length of thread
had been thus produced, the spindle was hauled
in, the thread was wound round it, and the process
commenced de novo. Such as here described,
the distaff' and spindle was the symbol of
womankind from before the dawn of history. As
such it appears in the hieroglyphics of the earliest
Egyptian monuments ; it is mentioned by Homer
and Herodotus ; and the three Parcae or Fates

THE SPINNING-WHEEL. 215

spinning the triple thread of human Hfe, and with
their shears cutting its brief span, form a fine Greek
myth, the deep pathos of which has been well
caught in the touching picture by a famous artist.

When Solomon wishes to set forth the picture of
the model housewife, among her other accomplish-
ments we read, " She layeth her hand to the
spindle, and her hands hold the distaff." So
thoroughly characteristic of the occupation of
woman was it that the name spinster still survives
for every unmarried woman, and in the middle
ages the spear side and the distaff side were the
leofal terms for male and female children.

The crude spindle and distaff lasted many
centuries without alteration, but an obvious
improvement was to set the spindle in a frame
and make it revolve by means of a band set in
motion by a wheel turned either by hand or foot,
and so was evolved the spinning-wheel. From
a MS. in the British Museum, we learn that
early in the fourteenth century such a wheel was
in ordinary use : the spinster is represented as
standing at the wheel, which she turns with her
right hand, and with her left twirls the spindle.
In 1530 was brought out a form of spinning-
wheel at which the spinster could sit to her

216 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

work ; a further improvement was the addition of
a treadle to turn the wheel. When two spindles
were mounted in the frame, and two threads spun
one by each hand this constituted the ''two-
handed " spinning-wheel. Either a single-handed
or two-handed spinning-wheel was to be found in
every house, and at all odd times was brought
out to keep up the supply of yarn. We have the
authority of Mrs. Poyser for stating that in any
decently ordered household there never lacked
abundance of feathers and linen. '' It 'ud be a
poor tale if I hadna feathers and linen when I
never sell a fowl but what's plucked, and the
wheels agoing every day o' the week." On the
same indubitable authority "squinting Kitty"
was a rare 'un to spin ; and poor Molly shewed
her gallowsness by wanting to spin in the barn
with the whittaws, i.e., saddlers.

Just as the plough-boys had their Plough Mon-
day, so the maids had their St. Distaffs Day, or
Rock Day (rock being another name for the dis-
taff), the seventh of January, whereon the spinning,
interrupted by the Christmas and New Year
festivities, was resumed for another year. The
day was kept as a merry-making, the girls
pretending to want to spin, and the hinds teasing

THE SPINNING-WHEEL.

217

them bv burn in «• the tlax and hidin<i^ the distaffs,
the maids retahating by throwing buckets of
water over them.

When the loom, by the united labours of genera-

TIIR sriNNINO-WIlREr.,

tions of weavers, had been improved almost out of
recognition, the spinning-wheel, which at most
could only produce two threads, was quite unable
to keep up anything like an adequate supply of

218 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

yarn, and several inventors turned their attention
towards it. One of the best known is
Hargreaves, the inventor of the " spinning-
jenny," who hit upon his idea, it is said, by the
accidental upsetting of his wife's spinning-wheel
upon the cottage floor, 1764. The wheel con-
tinued to revolve, and he saw that a large number
of spindles could be arranged vertically side by
side in a frame and turned by one common wheel.
The success of the " spinning-jenny " was consider-
able, but it was superseded by a better idea, due
mainly to Arkwright, who patented his spinning-
frame in 1769, and upon which all machines
since have been founded. The last improvement
was the "mule," patented in 1779, which in
principle goes back to the spindle of the
Eygptian monuments. By the beginning of the
century the spinning-wheel was fast disappear-
ing, and now can only be seen in specimens pre-
served here and there as interesting relics of the
past.

As will be readily understood, the improve-
ment in spinning is affected by the speed at which
machines can be driven, and by the number
of threads that can be simultaneously produced.
Thus while with the spinning-wheel a skilled

THE SPINNING-WHEEL. 219

adult spinster could only produce two threads at
most, in the mills of Lancashire and Yorkshire
to-day a youth of eleven has no difficulty in
attending to a spinning frame with 164 threads,
producing each day a length of 604 miles of
thread. The old spinning-frame in very skilful
hands could produce as fine a yarn as the most
improved spinning-frames ; thus in 1745, a woman
of East Dereham spun a single pound of wool
into a thread eighty-four miles long, and a young
lady of Norwich spun a pound of wool into
168,000 yards of yarn, a pound of cotton into
203,000 ; these performances being slightly in
excess of what can be done on the latest type of
spinning-mule. Long after the difficulties of
spinning by machinery had been overcome, a
modified form of wheel was to be found in every
cottage in South Lancashire and West Yorkshire.
It was not a spinning-wheel, however, though it
had the appearance of one, inasmuch as it did not
spin, but merely wound the weft, which was
already machine spun, upon the reels used for
weaving. The monotonous whir whir of these
windincr wheels was a sound familiar enouofh in
those districts a dozen years ago ; now-a-days the
winding is all done by machinery.

220 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

The spinning-wheel Hngerecl on in England into
our own days. The farmers of forty years ago
were very proud of their knee-breeches and ribbed
stockings, and these stockings must be knitted of
none other than a very thick " home-spun "
worsted, and with the matter-of-fact veracity of
the times "homespun" meant "homespun;" so
every farmer had a spinning-wheel as a regular
part of his domestic arrangement, and a travelling
spinster went the rounds of the farm-houses
annually to spin the year's supply of worsted for
the good yeoman's hose.

The latest date to which we have been able to
trace this dying revolution of the spinning-wheel
is at Kildwick-in-Craven, about the year 1848.

In the remoter districts of the Highlands the
spinning-wheel may now and again be seen, while
in Norway and Sweden its reign is in full sway ;
a neatl}^ turned and polished wheel is to be seen
in every home, and the fair Scanduiavians spin
with a deftness and perseverance that would have
delighted the souls of our grandmothers.

IRipon anb its flDinetcr.

By George Parker.

TO the Venerable Bgeda (672-735) in his
*' Ecclesiastical History," the first mention
of Anglo-Saxon Hryppun is ascribed, and to
Christian Missionary enterprise Ripon and its
Minster owe their beino^.

The position of Ripon on the bank of a river
(ripa) obviously suggested its name, and the
etymon being a Latin word, indicates that it
originated either with the Romans or the Arch-
bishops of York.

It is stated that about the year 630 a.d.,
Wilfrid was born at Ripon, and it is somewhat
confirmatory of the tradition that no claim for
the honour of being his birthplace has been
advanced on behalf of any other locality.
It is also traditionally said that at the time of
Wilfrid's birth the house of his parents was so
brilliantly illumined with supernatural light that
it was thought to be on fire. This manifestation
was deemed a prophetic symbol of the splendid

222 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

and useful character of his hfe, which became
remarkably verified.

Tradition and history of a reliable character
concerning the subjects of this paper are admitted
to commence about the year 660 a.d., when Eata,
the Abbot, and other monks from Melrose and
Lindisfarne, among whom was the great St.
Cuthbert, having obtained a grant of land from
Alchfrith, then ruler of Deira, founded here a
College of priests known as the ''Scots' Monas-
tery," where abode some of the most eminent and
pious men of that age. It is recorded by the
Venerable Bseda and other historians that in this
monastery at Ripon St. Cuthbert the " hostillar,"
or host, received and entertained an angel-guest.

The institution of Eata's Monastery would
most probably correspond with those of Lindis-
farne and lona, founded by St. Columba. The
building would be principally of timber, but of
its architecture, extent, and composition there
are neither records nor vestiofes remaininof. The
site of the structure is a bow-shot distant north-
eastward of where the Cathedral now stands.

At that remote era as "in the living present,"
there were theological disputes and burning
problems to be solved, among which that of the

RIPON AND ITS MINSTER. 223

proper day for celebrating the festival of Easter
was of prime import, and Yorkshire was the
arena of this conflict. Shall the day or shall the
Sunday next following the first full moon after the
vernal equinox be Easter Day ? This was the con-
tention. A brief mention here of this controversy
seems imperative, as the verdict of the inquiry
determined the permanent association of Wilfrid
with Ripon and its Minster, and also with the
northern ecclesiastical province, thereby securing
for Ripon the kindly interest and munificence of
the Archbishops all through the ages, yes, to
this day.

With a view to obtain unanimity, by the
King's command a conference was held in the
convent of St. Hilda, at the place then called
Streoneshalch, better known now by its Danish
name — Whitby. At this important synod the
illustrious Wilfrid makes his appearance in
history, and at once rises into prominence and
fame. Being desired by the King, who presided at
the conference, to state his views on the points at
issue, Wilfrid addressed the assembly with much
eloquence, and so ably advocating the Romish
computation which he had adopted during his
travels in Italy, and dexterously employing the

224 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Scripture alluding to St. Peter and the kej^s,^
that the King, dreading being at variance with
the door-keeper of Heaven, decided the disputed
questions in Wilfrid's favour, consequently Eata
and his companions either voluntarily retired or
were dismissed, and their Monastery at Ripon
was conferred by King Oswy upon St. Wilfrid,
who thus became the second abbot. A few
years subsequently, Wilfrid was appointed Bishop
of Northumbria (Archbishop of York), and in 665
A.D. was consecrated at Compiegne, in France, by
Bishop Agilbert, assisted by twelve other foreign
prelates. At that distant bygone age, the
hamlet of Ripon consisted of thirty tenements
appertaining to the Monastery.

With superior knowledge and tastes acquired
during his residence in Italy and France, Wilfrid
quickly commenced the erection of a monaster}^ in
a much more extensive and ornate style than its
predecessor. It is believed that Wilfrid's

monastery was one of the finest examples of
architecture in England at that period. For its
erection Wilfrid brought over companies of
French and Italian specialists in the several

* '* Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church;
and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it, and I will give unto
thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven." — St. Matthew, xvi., 18-19.

RIPON AND ITS MINSTER. 225

branches of architecture, and used prepared and
enduring materials; divers columns, curious
arches, fine pavements, and porticos entered
into its arrangement, and it is said that the
church was one of the first in this country built
of stone.

To-day the only acknowledged representative
at Ripon of the work of Wilfrid is the Saxon
Crypt, or " Wilfrid's Needle," situate beneath the
intersection of the cross of the minster. Its
preservation must undoubtedly be attributed to
its subterranean situation. It is constructed of
large stones roughly hewn and plastered, and
entered by a trap-door near the south-east angle
of the nave.

Wilfrid dedicated his minster in honour
of St. Peter, and tenanted the conventual
buildings with a brotherhood of the Order
of St. Benedict, — the industrious, literary, and
" gentlemanly order of monks." In the absence
of evidence to the contrary it is thought that
the monastery continued until its demolition in
the possession of that Order.

On the occasion of the dedication service,
Wilfrid entertained Egfrid the King of North -
umbria, his brother Aelwin, and a large retinue

226 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

of courtiers, and displayed great shrewdness by
specifying the numerous benefactions to his mona-
stery, and having them confirmed by the king,
princes, and nobles.

The account of the dedication of Wilfrid's
Abbey Church is of especial interest, being
the earliest on record of the dedication of an
English church. Among the other precious gifts
presented by Wilfrid on this occasion was *' a
wonderful piece of workmanship unheard of
before his time ; this was a copy of the
four Gospels written with gilded letters on
parchment, adorned with purple and other
colours, the corner of which was inlaid with gold
and precious stones, the work of jewellers."

This exceedingly beautiful manuscript copy of
the four Gospels is still extant. Treasured for
centuries in the Archives of the Vatican, it is
said that Pope Leo X. gave this splendid
Evangelarium to King Henry VIII. on the
occasion of conferring upon him the title of '' Fidei
Defensor" (Defender of the Faith). It is further
stated that Cardinal Wolsey presented the MS.
to the See of York, of which he was then Arch-
bishop, and since that time the interesting and
most valuable volume has had several owners.

RIPON AND ITS MINSTER. 227

During the combined episcopate and abbotship
of Wilfrid, the employment of numerous artisans
and the erection at Ripon of large and beautiful
edifices, together with the great fame and
influence of the Archbishop would doubtless
attract many residents, and the town would
rapidly advance in extent and importance. It is
traditional that Wilfrid built four churches at
Ripon ; the necessity for these certainly implies
the presence of a considerable population, and
although the data are scanty, it is not improbable
that for many years previous to the advent of the
Danes, Ripon continued to flourish.

In hastily traversing a rich and beautiful
country, it is very probable that some of
its loveliest features may be passed unnoticed.
The days of Wilfrid can scarcely be left behind
without some allusion being made to the times
of adversity and persecution experienced by
this high-principled ecclesiastic ; these shadowed
periods of his life were those of his greatest
usefulness and spiritual culture, and tended to
enhance his reputation and permanent fame.

Unadvisedly interfering in a singular dis-
agreement between his King and Queen, Wilfrid
lost the favour and support of his sovereign, was

228 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

deposed and banished from the See of North-
umbria, and from his much-loved home at Ripon.
An exile in search of refuge, and being driven
from the adjoining kingdom of Mercia, also from
the kingdom of Wessex, he retired to Sussex ;
while there, in his zealous efforts to evangelize the
people, he is accredited with the performance of
many wonderful deeds, which at that time were
deemed to be quite miraculous. During a direful
famine, resulting from a prolonged drought,
Wilfrid taught the starving and despairing
multitudes the art of catching fish with nets and
with lines and hooks, and after the baptism of a
great number of converts, there immediately
coming a plentiful rain, it was attributed to the
influence and piety of the great missionary.
These and other similar events greatly promoted
the success of Wilfrid in the conversion of the
South Saxons, which tended to his restoration to
royal favour and his former dignity.

From time immemorial a representation of the
return of Wilfrid from exile has taken place
annually at Ripon. A personation of the great
prelate, mounted on horse-back, attired in grand
pontifical robes, and carrying a pastoral staff,
enters the city, accompanied by a band of music

230 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

and a crowd of admirers, and thus passes through
the principal streets. This custom is observed
on the Saturday immediately preceding the first
Monday in August.

Wilfrid's manifest disparagement of his brother
Bishops, and his frequent appeals to the Bishop
of Rome, produced estrangement and disfavour.
During one of his periodical visits to Italy, and
protracted absence from his diocese, the Church
at Ripon was constituted an Episcopal See.
The contemporaneous Archbishop of Canterbury
— Theodore, who, like St. Paul, was a native
of Tarsus, and also like his distinguished fellow-
townsman, endowed with energy and learning —
considering that the spiritual needs of the
people were being neglected, and encouraged
by the King of Northumbria, consecrated
Eadhead, or Eadrsedus, the primary Bishop of
Ripon. Eadhead, who had been King Ecgfrid's
chaplain, and subsequently the Bishop of
Sidnacester, or Lindsey, occupied the office a
few years, circa 680, and retired on the return
and reinstatement of Wilfrid. There is no
record of the appointment of an immediate
successor to Eadhead, and the Bishopric of
Ripon became re-united to the diocese of York,

RIPON AND ITS MINSTER. ' 231

and so continued until its re-erection in the
year 1836.

The death of Wilfrid took place in his
Monastery of St. Andrew, at Oundle, near
Northampton, in the year 709. He was in
the seventy-sixth year of his age ; and, in
compliance with his own desire, he was buried
at the north side of the altar in his favourite
Abbey Church of St. Peter, at Ripon. In the Life
of St. Wilfrid, written by Eddius, his chaplain,
the particulars of the last illness and somewhat
sudden death of his beloved bishop are minutely
and touchingly recorded. Wilfrid's earnest
piety and missionary zeal were recognised
by his canonization, and he may be considered
as holding the rank of tutelary Saint of Ripon.
In the Romish calendar, the 12th of October is
appointed for his festival.

In 735, the great contemporary of Wilfrid, the
Venerable Bseda, also *' rested from his labours,"
and either from the want of a kindred mind to
continue the chronicles, or subsequent records
having wholly disappeared for many succeeding
generations, the annals of Ripon and its Minster
are enshrouded in gloom. It is the more to
be deplored that this veiled period should have

232 . BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

occurred at an epoch when rehgion in this
land was, perhaps more than at any other time,
deemed of paramount importance ; and when
Ripon was one of the chief centres from which
emanated the Hght of the gospel, of education,
and civilization.

At one of the earliest destructive onslaughts
of the Danes, the town was destroyed by fire ;
there remained but heaps of ashes, testifying of
what once had been, and of sad spoliation. In this
desolate condition the locality remained for a
lengthened period.

" In ancient barbarous times
When disunited Britain ever bled,
Lost in eternal broil."

— Thomson.

In 867, it is stated that a orreat battle was
fought here between Ingvar, or Ivar, King of
the Danes, and Ella, King of Northumbria, in
which fierce conflict Ella and all his brave host
perished. At a short distance due east of the
Cathedral, in the private grounds of the Canons'
residence, there is a cone-shaped mound or
tumulus called Hillshaw, or Ailcy Hill ; this
pile consists of the mouldering bones of men and
horses, sand and gravel promiscuously inter-

RIPON AND ITS MINSTER. 233

mingled ; it is traditional that this structure
was thrown up by the Danes in disposing of
the slain after the above-named engagement.
The discovery here, in 1695, of Saxon and
Danish coins is confirmatory of the tradition.

The year 886 has been specially named as a
memorable and eventful one in the annals of
Ripon, whose historians unanimously assert that
in this year the town received from King Alfred
the Great its first royal charter of incorporation ;
but neither the original document nor a transcript
thereof are known to exist, and the text and
purport of the said charter are quite problematical.
The absence of such documents, as well as the
scantiness of Northumbrian literature, are
attributed to the destruction of the northern
monasteries by the Danes. It is, however,
generally believed that the first governors of the
town were styled Vigilarii, or Wakemen, from the
Saxon word ivacli — to watch and guard. The
office of the Wakeman, we are told, was originally
a life tenure, but subsequently the appointment
was made annually from the twelve Eldermen, so
named from their age when elected.

The probability is that both the office and name
originated with the archbishops of York, to whom

234 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Ripon wholly — " entirely belonged," and that for
many centuries the Vigilarius occupied the
position of reeve, or bailiff, or watchman, subject
in every respect to his lord the Archbishop of
York. In reference thereto it is thus stated in
the Domesday record — "Hoc manerium tenuit
Eldredy Arch, nunc Thomas, Arch.''

An offspring of this epoch still survives in the
performance of the ceremony of sounding a large
horn every night as the Cathedral clock chimes
nine. A civic officer called *^ The Horn-blower,"
in antique uniform, proceeds to the Market
Cross, and there gives three blasts, — " loud,
dismal, and long," — after which he hastens to
the principal door of the Mayor's residence and
repeats the toots. The original purport of this
custom was to denote the setting of the watch
or guard over the town, for the protection of
which the Wakeman, or governor, was held
responsible throughout the night, every house-
holder paying an annual fee of twopence for
each street or outer door of his dwelling to
indemnify the Wakeman.

In the year 924 King Athelstan, grandson of
Alfred the Great, in fulfilment of a vow, and as a
thank-offering for the success of his arms in

RIPON AND ITS MINSTER. 235

answer to prayer, preferred at Kipon Minster,
confirmed to the monastery all its former charters
and privileges, and granted several other
immunities which would considerably add to its
importance and fame. The several privileges
granted b}^ Athelstan are stated in two documents,
one of which is in Latin, and the other is a
peculiar rhyming composition, apparently a literary
production of the thirteenth century. Like
Hexham and Beverley, he endowed the minster
with a frithstool (Anglo-Saxon, frith or frid,
peace) and constituted it a sanctuary or refuge.
The privilege of sanctuary is thus conferred —

" Yair pees at Rijjon,
On ilke side ye kyrke a mile
For all ill deedes and ylke agyle.
And within yair kirk yate
At ye stan yat Grithstole hate,
Within ye kirke dore and ye square
Yair have pees for les and mare."

The limits of the mile radius from the church
were denoted by eight Aile-crosses placed on the
principal approaches to the town ; they were
known as Athelstan cross, Kangel (Archangel)
cross, etc. ; the one known as Sharow cross
alone remains a relic of the fifteenth century.

In these memorable charters were included

236 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

several other favours adapted to the wants of
those times : inter alia those of trial by ordeal,
either by fire or water, and that the '*ya" and
*'na" of an inhabitant should be unquestioned
" both amongst themselves and throughout the
habitable world." Athelstan's famous rhyming
charter is a curious and unique composition ;
Gent describes it as '' in old stranofe sort of
EngHsh."

Soon after the death of Athelstan, King Edred,
in his reprisals against the Northumbrians for
their disloyalty and treachery, devastated the
whole district, and the town and sacred buildings
of Ripon were utterly destroyed by fire about the
year 948. Spared, partially, if not unscathed
through all the direful years of the Danish
invasion, Wilfrid's splendid and famous Minster
fell at last before the unrelenting anger of the
king ; and along with the buildings, the chronicles,
the literature, and the treasures of the institution
must also have perished in the flames. ^' Pro
infidelitate^ rex Angloimm Edi-edus totam
Norihumhriam devastat. In qua devastatione
Mo7iasterium quod dicitur in Hrypon a sancto
Wilfrido episcopo quoyidam constructunif igne est
combustum."—(Di]Gj) ale's Monasticon.)

RIPON AND ITS MINSTER.

237

Following this sad disaster, influenced either by
intuitive consciousness or by intelligence, it is
said Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury (971-993),
visited the northern province, and finding Ripon
in the ruined state to which Edred had reduced
it, " He was struck to the heart with its
lamentable condition, and he forthwith causid a
newe work to be edified wher the present minstre
now is." It is also said that at this time Odo

ARMS OF THE CITY AND SEE OF RIPON,

had the bones of St. Wilfrid removed to his own
Cathedral. At the erection of this new minster
the name of St. Wilfrid was either substituted
for or coupled with that of St. Peter in its
dedication.

The re-building of the Church was completed
by St. Oswald and the succeeding Archbishops
of York, and a short time before the Norman
Conquest it was made collegiate by Archbishop
Aldred, but in what manner does not seem clear.

238 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

King Edward the Confessor confirmed to
Ripon and its Minster all their liberties and
privileges.

The relative size and importance of Ripon
during the Anglo-Saxon regime were probably
greater than at any other period of its history,
considering that during the reign of Alfred the
Great the population of England and Wales
is believed to have not exceeded one million.

Let us with mental vision glance at the restored
hamlet of ^r?/29|}itn as it appeared at the time of
the Norman invasion. See ! a jutting headland
pointing eastward, rising somewhat abruptly
from a morass or reedy marsh, caused by the
impatient converging waters of the Ure and
Scell ; and trending westward as far as the eye
can reach a long undulating acclivity springing
northward in gentle bounds. See ! crowning
this eminence at its eastern extremity the newly
erected collegiate Church, dedicated to the glory
of God and to the honour of the two intrepid
missionaries, SS. Peter and Wilfrid, and nestling
around the sacred edifice the unpretentious
dwellings of the clergy, brethren, students, and
artisans in connection therewith. Observe the
building next in importance to the Minster

RIPON AND ITS MINSTER. 239

standino^ a short distance to the north-westward
of it, — that is the palace of Archbishop Aldred.
And on all sides round see the numerous small
garden plots and the squat structures of timber —
the humble homes of the people standing alone
therein, studding the green and sunny slopes
that spring from the sedgy verge of the
brooklet Scell ''that babbles by." Alas! how
soon this peaceful Arcadian scene was to be
totally swept away.

IRipon Spurs*

By T. C. Heslington.

THE particular date on which the manu-
facture of spurs, and other hardware
necessary for an equestrian outfit, commenced in
Ripon is not stated in the town records. Leland,
journeying through Yorkshire in 1534, observed
that there had been '' hard on the further rype
of Skelle a great number of tenters for woollen
clothes wont to be made in the towne of Rippon,
but idlenesse is sore increasid in the towne, and
clothe making almost decayed." We may reason-
ably suppose no other manufacture was carried on
at that time, or he would have noticed it, and
therefore the period comprised between his visit
and the year 1604, the date on which the cor-
poration record commences, saw not only the
beginning of the spur manufacture, but its
attainment to great celebrity for excellent
material and workmanship.

Hand-wrought steel and iron work had arrived
at great perfection of artistic workmanship at

RIPON SPURS. 241

that time in Europe, and to be able to compete
successfully with such trained craftsmen as were
similarly employed elsewhere, reflects great credit
upon those ancient Ripon tradesmen. No doubt
their productions were in great demand when all
journeys were on foot or horseback, and the breed
of horses Avas as yet unimproved by the intro-
duction of the spirited and generous-tempered
Arabian. The heavy sluggish hacks of the
period needed constant urging with whip and
spur.

Amongst the many Ripon gilds, the hardware
craftsmen were all united in one, called the
Corporation and Company of Blacksmiths, Lock-
smiths, Lorimers, and Armourers.

The Ripon spurs had a great reputation all
over the country, and became the origin of a pro-
verbial saying, ''As true steel as Ripon rowels,"
and Ben Johnson, in his " Staple of Newes," has :

" Why, there's an angel if my spurs
Be not right Rippon,"

and Davenant, in his '' Wits," has :

"Whip me with wire beaded with rowels of
Sharp Rippon spurs."

When passing through Ripon in 1617, King
James the First was presented with a gilt bowl,

242 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

and a pair of Ripon spurs, " Which spurres were
such a contentment to his Majestic as his High-
nesse did weare the same the followynge day at
his departure forth of the said towne."

Plain steel spurs at one shilling, and wrought
spurs at seven shillings and sixpence the pair,
were most manufactured ; those made of precious
metals were generally for presentation purposes
— some of the wrought spurs have been collected
in the neighbourhood, and all have the same
peculiar conventional device in silver, inlaid in
the dark grey steel, with which the white silver
pattern has a charming contrast and effect. A
pair of these were presented to the Archbishop of
York when he visited his Liberty of Ripon, and
a pair of the plain ones to each of his retinue.

When Gent wrote his " History of Rippon "
in 1732, the trade was still flourishing, but soon
afterwards rapidly decayed. Alderman Terry,
during a long life of ninety years, was three times
Mayor of Ripon, and the last of the spurriers, the
trade becoming extinct with his business trans-
actions in the year 1798.

The Gild were over anxious to protect them-
selves, and with their fees, fines, and other
exactions, deterred others from commencing the

RIPON SPURS. 24:^

business, and drove them elsewhere, and the
trade finally left the town as the old firms died
out.

The Corporation Chronicle mentions the names
of some of the spurriers, but the majority of them
are unrecorded, the only memorials of their skill
being a '' Motto," and the " Crest" of the City.

Captain Coo^, tbe Circumnavigator.

By W. H. Burxett.

YORKSHIRE, as the premier English county,
should reckon for something in the national
history, even in the domain of prowess on the
high seas. And we are not surprised when we
find that it is so. The names of Frobisher, the
Scoresbys, and Hornby naturally arise in the
mind when we come to consider our naval annals.
The former was born in Doncaster town in the
far-away times of Elizabeth. We are told that
he was " bred early to the sea," and he sailed
from Deptford in 157fi, having obtained the
patronage of the Earl of Warwick, with three
small vessels in quest of a north-west passage to
India, then the darling dream of daring navigators.
He did not find the passage, but he returned
with some " black ore," which is said to have
contained gold, so he was sent out again by his
patrons for more " black ore," and more than one
additional voyage was made in this strange
auriferous quest, which in the end did not prove

CAPTAIN COOK, THE CIRCUMNAVIGATOB. 245

successful. Later on, in 1585, we find him serving
with Drake in the West Indies, and in 1588 he
had a prominent share in the defeat of the
Spanish Armada. The same year he was
knighted, but he did not wear his honours long,
for his death occurred in 1594, when he was killed
in an assault on a fort near Brest. Frobisher was a
great Yorkshireman in a time when men were
not pigmies. In the days of good Queen Bess
the foundations of our empire w^ere being laid
broad and deep, and our sea warriors were the
providential instruments of guarding them from
destruction at the hands of an hostile enemy,
whose fleets were a " long lane " in the English
Channel, almost covering it with ships.

The Scoresbys, father and son, were com-
paratively modern men. The elder was a mariner
of Whitby in the last century, when Whitby
was a famous port, and the great centre of the
English whale fishery. He was the son of a
small Yorkshire farmer, but became famous for
his prowess in the northern seas. He invented
the *' round top-gallant crow's nest," said to be
one of the greatest boons conferred on Arctic
navigators. His son, subsequently the Rev.
William Scoresby, followed in the same career, and

246 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

wrote a life of his father, in which he detailed his
many and singular adventures. His works on
the whale fishery are still highly valued, and are
standards of reference for all who desire to make
themselves acquainted with the marvels of the
Polar Seas.

Other famous Yorkshire sailors are Captain
Stonehouse, who was born at Yarm ; Captain
Wilson, of Great Ayton ; Captain Constantine
John Phipps, of Whitby ; and Captain Hornby,
of Stokesley. The exploits of these worthy
gentlemen are described in " Old Cleveland,"
and to these, as duly therein set forth, I must
refer the curious reader, remarking en passant
that Hornby's bravery in an action with a
French privateer, the Marquis de Brancas, is
one of the most stirring stories of British naval
heroism.

But Captain James Cook was the greatest
Briton of them all. He was born of very humble
parents, in the village of Marton-in-Cleveland, on
the 27th of October, 1728, and was one of the
nine children in the family quiver. These were
not days of School Boards, and Cook's education
was consequently of the most limited character,
a smattering from a villao^e dame, and then a

CAPTAIN COOK, THE CIRCUMNAVIGATOR. 247

superstructure added by the master of a small
seminary at the neighbouring village of Ayton-
in-Cleveland. His character in childhood is
described as having been obstinate and sturdy
rather than social and intelligent. At thirteen
years of age he had made such progress in his
studies that he was considered qualified to take
the position of an apprentice in the establishment
of Mr. William Sanderson, a shop-keeper at
Staithes, the most romantic of our Yorkshire
fishinof villaofes. Here he would inhale the
" odour of ocean," would become familiar with
many tales of the sea, and would have his ears
saluted daily with that strange wave music which
makes such an appeal to the intellectual and the
imaginative. At any rate he found haberdashery
a tame pursuit, and, before he had been with Mr.
Sanderson two years, he was released from his
indentures, and embarked on that calling by
which he was to earn his future renown. He
was bound apprentice on board the True
Love, '^ belonging," according to the narrative of
Sir Raylton Dixon, ''to two Quaker brothers of
the name of Walker, of Whitby, and who were
shippers engaged in the coal trade, which has
been the nursery and training school of so many

248 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

of our ablest seamen." Eventually Cook attained
the position of master of a collier brig. In 1755
the war broke out with France, and the press-
gang then in operation were seizing large
numbers of sailors for enforced service in His
Majesty's navy. Cook determined voluntarily
to serve his country, and engaged himself
on board the ship Eoigle, of sixty guns. Here,
so soon did his abilities manifest themselves,
that when Captain Hugh Palliser (soon to
be such a warm friend and benefactor) took
command of the vessel only a few months
later, he found Cook already distinguished by his
good character and superior abilities. Four
years afterwards the son of the Marton peasant
obtained a master's warrant to II, M.S. Mercury,
in which vessel he sailed to join the fleet engaged
in the reduction of Quebec. Here he surveyed
the river St. Lawrence, and replaced the buoys
which had been removed by our French enemies.
On his return, he was appointed master of the
Northumherla7id, under Lord Colville, who was
stationed at Halifax. Here he perfected his
studies in navigation, and prepared himself for
the great tasks of his after-life. In 1762, his
ship was ordered to Newfoundland to assist in

CAPTAIN COOK, THE CIRCUMNAVIGATOR. 249

the re-capture of that island, and once again he
employed his skill and talents in making nautical
surveys of the coast, ''' laying down bearings,
marking headlands, and soundings." In 1762, we
find him towards the close of the year in
England, where he married at Barking, in

CAPTAIN COOK.

Essex, Miss Elizabeth Batts, who is described
in his biographies as a truly amiable and
excellent woman. Having completed his survey
of Newfoundland, he entered upon the great
career of his life as a circumnavigator and
discoverer. In 17G9, he was promoted to the

250 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

command of a scientific expedition which was
sent out by George III., in conjunction with the
Royal Society, to observe a transit of the planet
Venus over the face of the sun, and which could
only be successfully seen somewhere in the Pacific
or the southern oceans. The Endeavour reached
Otaheite on the 11th of April in the following
year, where an observatory was erected, and on
the 3rd of June the transit was successfully
observed in a cloudless sky. They left the
beautiful island — an earthly paradise — on the 13th
of July, and on the way home Cook explored
New Zealand and made discoveries in New
South Wales, following the coast for a distance
of over 1,300 miles. After many voyagings,
and escaping many perils. Captain Cook brought
his expedition safe home to England, and
anchored in the Downs on the 11th of June,
1771. He was almost immediately promoted to
the rank of Commander, and became the lion
of the hour, and was everywhere received with
ovations, and much talked of and written about.
His second voyage of discovery was to test the
existence of the Terra Australis Incognito, a
geographical dream which had held possession
of the scientific mind of Europe for over two

CAPTAIN COOK, THE CIRCUMNAVIGATOR. 251

centuries. For this expedition he was furnished
with two ships, the Resolution and the old
Endeavour. The two vessels quitted Plymouth
on the 13th of July, 1772. On the 10th of
December they fell in with immense icebergs,
and on the 14th the ships were stopped by a
field of low ice. By the 17th of January, 1773,
they found they could proceed no further, and
after heading about until the 14th of May in
rough and dangerous seas, Captain Cook came to
the conclusion that the Southern continent was
a myth, and made tracks for New Zealand,
anchoring in Dusky Bay on the 26th of
March, after having been 117 days at sea, and
traversing 3,660 leagues without once seeing any
land. At New Zealand they landed that historic
boar and those two sows which have since filled the
islands, hitherto almost innocent of animal life,
with their numerous progeny. After leaving
New Zealand, the expedition made for Otaheite
for the second time, staying here until his
crew became troublesome, and made alliances
with the beautiful native women, which became
demoralising and hampering. Cook next went in
quest of the island of Juan Fernandez. He visited
in turn Easter Island, the Marquesas, St.

252 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Christina, and then came back again to Otaheite.
Here they rested awhile, and then set sail west-
ward to New Zealand, discovering many islands
on the way. From thence he sailed for the Straits
of Magellan, and thence to the Cape of Good
Hope on his homeward journey. The Resolution
ultimately entered Portsmouth on the 30th of
July, 1775, and Captain Cook landed after an
absence of three years and eighteen days, having
sailed 20,000 leagues in various climates, in the
two hemispheres, ^' from the extreme of heat to
the extreme of cold." On the 10th of February,
1776, Cook was again commissioned for another
voyage of discovery. He had offered his services
to explore the Northern Seas with a view of dis-
covering a north-west passage to India, and they
were gladly accepted. In the undertaking he
was but following in the footsteps of the famous
Yorkshiremen, Frobisher and Phipps, who had
preceded him. Cook was instructed to proceed
into the South Pacific, and thence to try the
passage by the way of Behring's Straits. He
left England on the 12th of July, 1776. On the
24th of January in the following year they came
in sight of Van Dieman's Land ; in February
they reached New Zealand. The Friendly Islands

CAPTAIN COOK, THE CIRCUMNAVIGATOR. 253

were next visited by the ships, and here they
remained three months. They next touched at
Otaheite. On the 2nd of January, 1778, the
Doyaijeurs went northward to pursue their grand
object in Behring's Straits. They continued
to traverse the icy seas, exploring the coasts
of America and Asia, but finding no passage
through the ice barrier which blocked their pro-
gress. They therefore started on their homeward
journey, discovering many new islands on the
Wciy. At length they reached Owhyhee (now
spelt Hawaii), which was to be the final goal of
the great captain's labours and discoveries. Here
he was killed in a quarrel with the natives, who
had seized the cutter of the Discovery as it lay at
anchor. The record of his death is very affect-
ing. This took place on the 14th February,
1779, in what a writer has described as "an
inglorious brawl with a set of savages." Cook
was one of the most illustrious of our Engflish
naviofators, and was the tjreatest discoverer of
them all. A medal was struck in his honour by
the Royal Society, and the Government gave a
handsome pension to his widow. Great empires
are now growing up in the lands which he visited
and discovered, and the steamship, the railway,

2M BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

and the telegraph have drawn the different parts
of the world so closely together that the mystery
of distant places which charmed the imagination
of the world in the last century no longer exists.
A modern novelist, Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson,
is actually " anchored " in Samoa, and writing
stories there for the home market, and missionaries
and traders swarm all over the beautiful islands
of the Polynesian Seas.

3farnlc^ IbalL

By J. A. Clapham.

OF all the rivers of England, the Wharfe
can claim to rank amongst the most
charminof and the most variable. Not con-
taminated like its sisters, the Aire and the
Calder, with the refuse and dyewares of large
towns, it flows on its course nearly as pure as
when the Roman cohorts settled at Ilkley and
the Saxons overran the country. Rising
amongst the moors, it flows in a south-easterl}^
direction until it falls into the Ouse at Cawood.
In its early life it rushes through narrow defiles
and by scenes vocal with legendary stories,
as it passes Barden Tower, Bolton Abbey, and
Beamsley Hall ; but in its later course it flows
calmly amidst well-cultivated meadows and a
beautifully wooded country. Ruskin has told us
in one of his wonderful sketches how finely
the Wharfe looks when the clouds, having settled
upon the mountains, and a few da3?'s' rain
ensued, the fresh has come down the valley,

256 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

and the river, full to the brim, has appeared
to the poet's eye Hke a Damascus blade. He
says that the Swiss rivers, swollen and angry
with the melting snows, are not to be compared
to the Wharfe in flexibility, solidity, directness,
and power. Those who were born upon its
banks, who have seen it in a hot and dry
summer, and also after a heavy storm, when
the valley has appeared like a lake, and the
people have had to flee for their lives, can
appreciate its variable mood and constant change.

Where the dale opens out and the hills begin
to recede, close to the market town of Otley,
is the seat of the Fawkes, called Farnley Hall.
Facing the south, upon a gentle slope which
runs down to the river, it may indeed be said
to be beautiful for situation.

Farnlev is a Saxon name, and the villaore is
called Fernelai in Domesday Book. The family
of Fawkes lived here for many centuries, and
the first mention of the name was in Easter
term, 1289, when, in the reign of Edward I.,
damaofes were ofranted in favour of Falkes, who
had been charged with others for cutting down
woods at Lyndeleye. Mr. Wh eater, in his
'' Historic Mansions of Yorkshire," says that

FARNLEY HALL. 257

in the time of the Plantagenets, Wharfedale
was a grand hunting-ground from Nun Appleton
to Barden, and no doubt the owners were strict
game preservers, who punished with death those
who were convicted of poaching. In 1300, a
Fawkes of Lindley did homage to the Arch-
bishop of York for his possessions. In 1441,
John Fawkes was a leader who raised a tumult
in opposition to the tolls demanded at the Ripon
and Otley markets. In 1626, Mr. Thomas
Fawkes, of Farnley Hall, was rated at £13 6s. 8d.
as a loan to Charles I., when that tyrant was
raising his illegal ship-money. In 1702, Ralph
Thorsby, the eminent antiquary, mentions
" Farnley Hall the pleasant seat of Thomas Fawkes,
Esq., my dearest father's best friend and mine."

At the commencement of the present century
the representative of the family took a most
active part in the great struggle for peace,
retrenchment, and reform. When the conflict
was rao^ino^ between the rival noble families of
Fitzwilliam and Lascelles, the Fawkes stood up
for the rights of the people, and spared neither
exertion nor money to further the cause of justice,
righteousness, and truth. To help the cause he
spent at least £1,000 a day.

258 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

Walter Fawkes, the honoured patron of
Turner, is one to whom the high privilege was
granted of having recognised the talent of
England's greatest landscape painter, when often
by the careless and thoughtless his productions
were laughed to scorn. In this picturesque old
Hall, partly Elizabethan, with gabled roofs and
transumed windows, and partly classical with
the straight lines and square windows of
Vanburgh, the celebrated architect of Castle
Howard, Turner was ever a welcome guest. It
is said the Hall contains £100,000 worth of
his paintings. When the great painter had
been on one of his travelling tours on the Rhine
or in Switzerland, he returned to rest himself
awhile by the side of the silver Wharfe, assured
of a warm welcome and a liberal price for
everything he chose to paint. The late Mr.
Fawkes told the writer that he and Turner
were one day watching from the terrace a storm
that was passing across the brow of jthe Chevin,
which rises so finely at the other side of the
river. With a master's hand he drew the scene
upon the back of an envelope, and to-day may be
observed in the National Gallery the lightning
flash, in "Hannibal crossing the Alps.'" The

PARNLEV HALL.

260 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

walls of Farnley are rich with the pictures
and sketches which came from his wonderful
mind and patient and industrious hand. " The
Confluence of the Wharfe and Washburn," '' The
Strid," '* Luncheon on the Moors," " Dort,"— a
very fine picture, valued at least at £5,000, —
" Waterfall seen from Bolton Abbey," and many
more, are the titles of lovely landscapes w^hich
show the vitality and fertility of the great genius.
After the death of Mr. Fawkes, Turner could
never be induced again to visit the scenes he
so much loved, and Ruskin tells us that in his
old age he could never mention without emotion
the rounded hills, the wooded heights, the clear
streams, and the ruined abbey and castles of
lovely Wharfedale. Besides the pictures of
Turner there are many fine specimens of ancient
and modern painters, Guido Reni, Corregio,
Guercino, Lucas Van Leyden, Ruysdail, Cuyp,
Rubens, Vandyke, Velasquez, Holbein, Carlo
Dolei, Greuze, Annibale Carvacci, Bakhuizen,
Hogarth, Romney, are all represented on the
walls. The late Mr. Fawkes was especially fond
of the Magdalen by Guido Reni, and used to
spend hours in his wheeled chair gazing with
rapture upon the picture.

FARNLEY HALL. 261

But not only is Farnley Hall rich with price-
less gems of some of our greatest English and
Continental masters, but many of the heroes
of the seventeenth century are represented
here in weapons of war and articles of
dress. The Fairfaxes, who lived at Denton,
Nun Appleton, Newton Kyme, and Bilbrough,
and who fought in many a fierce conflict in
Yorkshire and elsewhere, — Oliver Cromwell,
who gave peace to Ireland, and nobly defended
England against all her enemies, domestic and
foreign, — General Lambert, who, through the
intercession of Kichard Clapham, spared Skipton
Castle from destruction, are all remembered by
their swords, watches, candlesticks, chains, hats,
armour, and a seal of the Commonwealth.

The collection of old furniture is well worthy
of notice, and is far superior to the wretched
Georgian examples, which are well worthy of the
age of mediocrity, pretence, and falseness in
which they were fashioned. Covering marble
with plaster, and frescoes with white-wash,
harmonized with the times of the Stuarts and
the Georges.

The present possessor of Farnley Hall is Mr.
Ayscough Fawkes, who upon written application

262 BYGONE YORKSHIRE.

is always ready to show his treasures to the
historian and the antiquary. He does not make
it a show place for the tripper, who too often
leaves behind broken bottles, scraps of news-
papers, and other litter where his desecrating
footprints are seen. But to the intelligent, the
artist, the reader, the lover of natural scenery,
whether he be as poor as a dormouse or as rich
as Croesus, a cordial welcome is given, believing
that he will do his best to preserve that which is
worthy of all admiration.

In the exterior, the gateway leading into the
flower garden came from Menstone Hall, where
Cromwell was the guest of Colonel Charles Fair-
fax before the battle of Marston Moor. Farnley
Church, a plain building erected in the thirteenth
century, was restored by Mr. F. H. Fawkes in
1851. Whitaker thus describes it in his day:
" A.bout half a mile above (an unusual distance
from the Manor House) is the diminutive and
antique chapel, of which only the choir remains.
At the west end is the original arch of the choir,
with fillet mouldings of the twelfth century.
After the first nave was demolished, the choir
underwent an enlargement eastw^ards, but even
this has single and narrow windows not later than

FARNLEY HALL. 263

the time of Henry III. It is seldom that we
see such appearance of high antiquity, at least in
the North of England, attached to such humble
foundations. It is in the strict and canonical
sense of the word a chapel-of-ease to Otley ; for
here is no font and there are no interments."
Since this was written the restorer and his wife
have been laid at rest within the sacred enclosure.
Leathley Church, which has a tower which many
consider to be Saxon, is a living in the gift of the
Fawkes family.

Taking it as a whole, its charming situation, its
artistic associations, its picturesque appearance,
and its historical and legendary annals, few places
in the county, rich in antiquarian lore, can vie
with Farnley Hall.

3nbey.

Acre, Siege of, 142

Ash ^Yednesday, 200

Aske, Robert, 178-83, 185-7,

189-91
Athelstan, 235

Battle of By land Abbey, 160
Battle at Ripon, 232
Belemnites (thunder-bolts), 61
Bokyng, John, 117
Bolton Castle and the Scropes, 82 ;

building of, 87 ; surrender of,

92
Boy Bishop, York, 199
Brag, 59
British Forts, 82
Byland Abbey, 154; Early

History, 154-6; Ruin, the, 163
Bygot, Sir Francis, 187-190

Castile, Constance of, 68

Castles, Bolton, 82 ; Bowes, 72 ;
Cawood, 68 ; Conisborough,
65, 83, 120 ; Helmsley, 70 ;
Knaresborough, 68 ; Middle-
ham, 71 ; Mulgrave, 70 ;
Pontefract, 65, 182 ; Ravens-
worth, 71 ; Richmond, 71 ;
Sandal, 67 ; Scarborough, 70;
Sheriff Hutton, 69 ; Skipton,
69 ; Windsor, 85, 87 ; York,
69

Castles and Castle Builders, 82 ;

Castles in Stephen's time, 84-5

Castellorum Operatio, 85

Castle ward, 85

Chapel of Our Lady, Rotherham,
117

Charles I. at Rotherham, 116

Christmas Day, 199

Clifford, Lord, 69

Coinage, Saxon, 55

Constable, Sir Robert, 180, 189,
190-1

Cook, Captain, 244-254 ; birth,
246 ; marriage, 249 ; death,
253

Copsi slain, 84

Court at Y'ork, 191

Crannoges, 6

Crusades, 127, 135

Danes, their customs, etc., 56-63
Darcy, Lord, 180-3, 189-191
Dissolution of Monasteries, 175

Eadwine, King of Northumbria,

192
Eata's Monastery, 222
Edred in Northumbria, 237
Egir, The, 58
Elfwine, 145-6
Excommunication, 201

Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 70
Farnley Hall, 255 ; art treasures

and relics, 260-261 ; the

Church, 262
Fawkes, The, 256; Ayscough,

261; Guy, etc., 204-212;

Walter, 258
Fiddler of York, 203
Filey Brigg, legend, 60
Fitzhugh, Lord, 71
Fountains Abbey, 150
Freyja, 62
Frobisher, 244

Gospels, a rare MS. , 226
Grey, Lord, 66

Gunpowder Plot, A Story of the,
204

Hallam, John, 180, 183, 188
Hand, Handsel, 59
Henry 11. at Bridgenorth, 86
Henry VIIL, 174-8, 185, 190-1
Horn-blower, 234

266

INDEX.

Hryppun in 1066, 238
Hugh de Mortimer, 86

Ivanhoe Country, The, 115

James I., 242
Jerusalem captured, 142
Jews, Massacre of, 78-80

Kendal, Rising near, 190

Knights Hospitallers, 128 ; Tem-
plars, 124 ; Order founded,
130 ; Valour of, 138

Lake-dwellings of Yorkshire, 1 ;
Articles found in, 23, 28;
Dwellers, etc., 6-11 ; at Hull,
35 ; at Ulrome, 19-35
Lancaster, Earl of, 65
Lincolnshire, Rising in, 177

Mary Queen of Scots, 88, 116
Maunday Thursday, 200
Meldrum, Sir John, 70
Monolith, An ancient, 39 ; Tradi-
tion re, 40
Mowbray, Roger de, 155-6

Names, re Rivers, etc. , 48 ;

Personal, Scandinavian, 63
Norfolk, Duke of, 184-6, 190
Norman Castles, 84

Oswald, King, 193
Owhyhee, 253

Palliser, Hugh, 248

Palm Sunday, 200

Payens, Hugh de, 130

Penance, 202

Persecution of Roman Catholics,
206

Peter the Hermit, 127

Pigs at New Zealand, 251

Pilgrimage of Grace, The, 66,
174; Army, The, 183; Don-
caster Armistice, 184 ; Hull,
^ at, 183; Leaders, The, 180,
182 ; Pontefract surrendered,
182

Procession, re Wilfred, 228

Purification, Feast of the, 199

Ramparts, Walls, and Bars of
York, 93

I Relics and Remnants, 46 ; re
I Ulrome, 46 ; re High Bon-

wick, 47

Richard IL, 66

Ripon and its Minster, 221 ;
Burnt, 232, 236

Ripon Spurs, 240

Robin Hood in Yorkshire, 164 ;
his death, 172; his epitaph,
173

Rock Day, 216

Roman Works, 82

Romans at York, 49-54

Rotherham stormed, 116; Thomas
de, 117

Rudston, 43

Salladin, 139, 141

Sanctuary at Ripon, 235

Sanderson, Robert, 118

Saxons, The, 54-56

Saxon Works, 83

Scoresbys, The, 245

Scots Monastery, 222

Scropes, The, 87 ; Earl of Wilt-
shire, 88 ; Henry, of Masham,
91 ; High Chancellor, 87 ;
Richard, Archbishop of York,
90 ; The last Lord, 92

Sepulchre, The Holy, 125

Shrewsbury, Lord, 182-4

Shrove Tuesday, 199

Siward, 146

Spinning-jenny, The, 218

Spinning-wheel, The, 213

Stapleton, William, 180, 183,
187

St. Austin's Stone, 55

St. DistaflPs Day, 216

St. Mary's Abbey, York, 145 ;
Abbots : Stephen, 148; Simon
de Warwick, 150 ; Thomas of
Malton, 151 ; William Dent,
151; founded, 148; Monks,
violence of, 148 ; surrender
of, 151 ; vandalism, 152

St. Olave's Monastery, 147

Theological Disputes, 222-3
Thor, his Hammer, etc., 60-61
Tufa, Orb, or Globe, 49
Turks, Oppression of, 126
Turner, 258

Ulphus, Horn of, 194

INDEX.

267

Venus, Transit of, 250
Vow of Earl Albemarle, 126

VVakemen, or Vigilarii, 233
Wapentakes, 57
Washing of Feet, 200
Wharfe, The, 255
Whitby, Synod at, 222
Wilfred, Bishop, 194, 221-231
William Rufus, 148
Windows, Ancient, 194
Wymond the Saxon, 156-60

York, 93, 180; Walls, 96, 99-
100, 104; Bayle Hill, 102;
Bootham Bar, 108 ; British
Works, 102; Clifford's Mound,
103; Micklegate Bar, 112;
Monk Bar, 110 ; Multangular

Tower, 98 ; Roman Gates,
etc., 97-8; Walmgate Bar,

York Castle, 74 ; Athelstan at,
75 ; Destruction of, 81 ;
William I. at, 76-7

\'"ork, Richard Duke of, 67

York Minster, history, traditions,
etc., 192; Canons, 195;
Chapter House, 203 ; choir-
screen, 203 ; east window,
203 ; installation, 198 ;
Mediaeval brass, 203 ; nave,
201 ; prayers, 195 ; Shrine of
St. William, 202; watching
gallery, 202

Yorkshire Castles, 65 ; dismantled
73

Y'orkshire Sailors, 244-6

Demy 8vo., cloth, price iSs. Large paper, demy 4(0., j/s. 6d.
With II f Jill-page illustrations.

T\>go Tl)ousai)d ^ears
of ^ild Hife :

Or an outline of the History and Development of tiie Gild
System from early times, with special reference to its
application to Trade and Industry.

TOGETHER WITH A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE

GILDS AND TRADING COMPANIES

OF KINGSTON-UPON-HULL,
From the 14TH to the i8th Century.

By rev. J. MALET LAMBERT, m.a., ll.d.,

vicar OF NEWLAND, HULL.

CONTENTS.

Sociological Theories as to the Origin of Q-ilds— G-ilds in &re8k and Roman
Antiquity— Origin and Earliest Forms of the English G-ild— i&ilds
after the Conquest— Influence of the French Commune upon English
Towns— Appearance of Gilda Mercatoria— Religious and Social Q-ilds—
G-ilds of Kingston-upon-HuU — Q-ilds of Corpus Christi, Holy Trinity,
Minstrels for North of England— Hull Trading Companies— Merchants of
the Staple— Merchant Adventurers— Qild of St. Qeorge — Merchants
Company, Hull— Fraternities of the Crafts, the Weavers, the Qlovers, the
Brewers, the Tailors, the Joiners, the Carpenters, the Goldsmiths, the
Bricklayers, the Coopers, the Bakers, the Coblers, the Innholders, the
Shipwrights, the Barbers, Gilds of the Christian Church, etc.

Press Opinions.

"The learned writer has qualified himself for his task by a diligent
study of -what other labourers in the same field have written, and by a
comprehensive survey, conducted in the same spirit as theirs, of the still
extant records of the Gilds and Trading Companies of the ancient town
now generally called Hull, though more properly designated Kingston-
upon-HuU." — London Times.

"Dr. Lambert has rendered good service not merely to his town and
county, but to economic history in generaX.'''' —Yorkshire Post.

"This is a work of unusual interest for students of Early English
customs." — London Quarterly Bevieic.

" It would be difficult to speak too highly of the book, which we
ought not to forget to say is admirably printed, and contains several
illustrations. " — Reliquary.

Hull and York : A. Brown and Sons.
London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, and Co., Ltd.

Demy Sr'o., 4\ii net. Large paper, demy 410., gjg net. Also a It mi fed number
of the latter on ha^idmade paper ^ i^\6 each net.

Botes IRelative to tbe ^anot
of ^^ton.

By J. TRAVIS-COOK, F.R.H.S.,

Author of the " History oftJie Hull Charterhouse."

Illustrated with a facsimile from the Doomsday, and three maps.

CONTENTS.

Of Manors generally — Etymology of the name " My ton " — History of
Manor of Myton — Manor of Tupcoates, with Myton — The Change in
the course of the River Hull.

PRESS OPINIONS.

"From first to last these pages teem with solid information, and the
book must take its place as a standard Avork of reference on Myton and
the district around Hull. It is a work from which students of manorial
history in any part of the County may glean copiously. It takes the
palm as the Yorkshire topographical work of 1890." — Yoi'kshire County
Magazine.

" One of the most readable and interesting historical works ever pub-
lished in connection with Hull. It displays a vast amount of painstaking
research of authorities, and analytical comparative criticism. Considerable
interest is excited by what the book contains on the change in the course
of the River Hull in the 13th century, when the waters deserted their
ancient bed." — Hull Times.

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BecoIIections of ffull during )faIf-a-Denturi].

By the Late REV. JAMES SIBREE.

PRESS OPINION.

" This does not pretend to be a History, it is simply recollections of
Hull in the palmy days of the Greenland Fishery, in old coaching days,
in the days of unreformed corporations and chartism, in cholera times.
Mr. Sibree narrates his recollections of notable persons. Some of the
sketches are very romantic. Mr. Sibree's recollections are genial, gossipy,
and pleasant." — British Quarterly Revieir.

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of ifie (Kum6er :

\l\lith an Introductory chapter on the Roman Geography
of South-East Yorkshire.

By J. R. BOYLE, F.S.A.

Contents: — In Roman Times — In Saxon Times — Ravenser — Ravenser
Spurn — Sites of Ravenser — Tharlesthorpe — Frismerk — Sunthorpe —
Pemsthorpe — Orwythfleet, etc.

PRESS OPINIONS.
" The work fills a place hitherto vacant in Yorkshire Topography, and
will be sought after for ages.'' — Yorkshire Notes and Queries.

" This is a most useful compendium, but it is something more, several of

the documents in it have never been printed before." — Notes and Queries.

" The volume will take a place among standard works. . . Materials

have been drawn from unpublished MSS. in the Public Record Office and

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A GUIDE AND DESCRIPTION.
By J. R. BOYLE, F.S.A.

The need of a description and intelligent (^uide Book to the noble and
commanding Church of Holy Trinity, Hull, has been frequently expressed
by the numerous visitors to the town. Mr. Boyle, who is well known for
his keen and vigorous research into historical subjects that he takes under
hand, has now supplied this requirement, and produced a volume which
cannot fail to be of value. Architecturally the Church is of great interest,
and much important matter forms part of its history.

Contents : — The Chapel of Myton — Present Church — Early Brickwork — ■
Plan — Exterior — Tower — Interior — Transej)ts — Choir — Chantry Chapels —
Nave — Ancient Woodwork — Monuments — Font — Stained Glass Windows.

P-RESS y^OTICES.

*' A well written guide; architecturally the Church is of great interest."
— Yorkshire Post.

" A valuable account, historic, archaeological, and architectural, of the
principal Church in Hull." — York Herald.

Hull and York : A. Brown and Sons.
London : Si'mpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, and Co., Ltd.

In one pamphlet, price Sixpence, 8vo.

Being papers read before the British Association at their uisit to
Beuerley in 1890.
THE MINSTER, ST. MARY'S CHURCH :

By William Stephenson, M.R.c.s. By John Bilson, a.r.i.b.a.

Both papers are ably written, and make a valuahle addition to East Riding literature.
Demy 8ro., price 5s. net.

{pavie^ i^t^BtttB of (ROO0, (Vot 1.

Transcribed by the REV. CANON MACHELL.

This volume contains some curious entries of much interest to the antiquary.
Post 8vo., doth, price 2s. 6d. With 50 lUwt rations

^totm from Qtot^^umBm :

A collection of literary extracts on subjects connected with the six Northern Counties,
selected from the writings of Defoe, Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Wordsworth, Scott, Southey,
Mary Howitt, Mrs. Banks, Mrs. Gaskell, Charles Reade, Adam Sedgwick, and others.

PRESS OPINIONS.

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should be in every parish library." — Yorkshire Post.
" A most charming volume." — Brrvlford Observer.

PRICE SIXPENCE.

On the Church of England

in its relation to
I. THE CHURCH OF ROME. III. THE STATE.
II. THE SECTS. IV. CHURCH PARTIES.

By the Rev. JOHN WATSON, M.A., Vicar of Sculcoates, Hull.

Fcap 8vo., cloth, price Is. 6d.

TI(B Speech of jfolderness and East Yorkshire.

By W. -H. THOMPSOAI.

Of the many branches of the Science of Language, that of Dialects is one of the most
interesting. The present contribution deals entirely with a local field, and gives the Saxon
element, the Norse features, old English Words, Shakespearian Words, and Curious Dialect
Forms, etc., etc.

" It is carefully put together, and I hope you Avill continue your work." — Professor F, Max
Muller.

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Elegantly bound In cloth gilt, demy 8uo., 2 vols., Ta. 6d. eac^-

Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S.

Contents of Volume I. : — Historic Lincolnshire, by John Nicholson — The
Ancient Boat at Brigu;, by T Tindall Wildridge — Havelok, the Dane, by
Mabel Peacock — The Crowle Stone, by the Rev. Geo. S Tyack, b.a. —
A Roman Arch — ^A Curious Legend, by the Rev. W Henry Jones —
Quaint Land Tenures and Customs of the Manor, by T Broadbent
Trowsdale, f.r.h.s. — Swineshead : The Story of King John's Death, by
Edward Lamplough — Barton-on-Humber in the Olden Time, by C H
(Jrowder — Pirates in the Humber, by Edward Peacock, f.s.a. — The
Pilgrimage of (^race, by Frederick Ross, f.r.h.s. — Horncastle or Winsby
Fight, by Edward Lamplough — ^Somersby Manor and Cross, by J (j Hall
— Some Old Lincolnshire Gilds, by the Rev. J Malet Lambert, m.a., ll.u.
— Somerton Castle and its Royal Captive, by Theo Arthur — The
Champion, by William Andrews, f.r.h.s. — Haxey Hood — Bull-Running,
by John H Leggott, f.r.h.s. — Henry Welby, the Grub Street Hermit,
by Theo Arthur— The Plague in Alford, 1630, by the Rev. Geo S
Tyack, h.a. — Kirke White in Lincolnshire, by Alfred Lishman — Index.

Contents of V^oliime II. : — Lincoln Cathedral, by T Tindall Wildridge
— Lincoln Castle, by E Mansell Sympson, m.d. — Tattershall, its Lords,
its Castle, and its Church, by E Mansell Sympson, m.d. — Bolingbroke
C'astle, by Tom Robinson, \i. d. — Ancient Stained Glass at Barton-on-
Huniber, and the ^reat Earl Beaumont, by T Tindall Wildridge— On the
Population of Lincolnshire, by Tom Robinson, m.d. — Superstitious
Beliefs and Customs of Lincolnshire, by the Rev. Wm. Proctor Swaby, d.d,
— The Legend of Byard's Leap, by the Rev, J Conway Walter —
Thornton Abbey, by Frederick Ross, f.r.h.s. — The Witches of Belvoir,
by T Broadbent Trowsdale — The Battle of Lincoln, by Edward
Lamplough — Lincoln Fair, by Edward Lamplough — Alford Fight, by the
Rev. (Jeo S Tyack, is.a. — Robert de Brunne, by Frederick Ross, f.r.h.s.
— Dr. Dodd, tlie Forger, by John T Page — Sir Isaac Newton — Barton-
on-Humber Ferry, by C H Crowder— An Eighteenth Century Poet, by
the Rev. Alan Cheales, m.a. — Lincolnshire a Century Ago — Spalding
(Jentlemen's Society, by Dr. Perry — The Great Brass Welkyn of Boston,
by William Stevenson— The Great Hawthorn Tree of Fish toft — Index.

PRESS OPINION.

" Mr. Wm. Andrews collects together a series of papers, by various
competent hands, on the history, antitiuities, and folk-lore of the great
eastern county which has borne so conspicuous a part in the past history
of England, and produced so many men who have illustrated it. , . A
valuable contribution to local history." — The Time,s.

HULL AND YORK: A. BROWN & SONS.
London : Simp kin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd.

Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8uo., price 7s. 6d.
Only 750 copies printed, and each copy numbered.

Q^gjone (B00e;r :

Its History, Folk-Lore, and Memorable Men and

Women.

Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS, f.r.h.s.,

Author of "Old-Time Punishments," "Curiosities of
the Church," "Old Church Lore."

CONTENTS.

Historic Essex, by Thomas Frost — Epping Forest : Its History,
Customs, and Laws, by Jesse Quail — Greenstead Church, by Edward
Lamplough — The Burial of Harold at Waltham, by William
Winters, f.r.h.s. — St. Osyth's Priory, by John T Page — Colchester in
Olden Times, by Joseph W Spurgeon — ^The Siege of Colchester, by
Joseph W Spurgeon — Colchester : Its Historic Buildings and Famous
Men, by Joseph W" Spurgeon— Essex Tokens, by Thomas Forster —
Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury : A Glance at Armada Days, by Edward
Lamplough — The Lawless Court, by the Rev. Geo. S Tyack, b.a. — The
Dunmow Flitch — A Deserted Primitive Village, by ii Fredk. Beaumont
— William Hunter, the Young Martyr of Brentwood, by John W^ Odling
— Fairlop Fair by John W Odling— Thomas Tusser and his " Five
Hundred Points of Good Husbandry," by W H Thompson — John Ray,
Naturalist, by W H Thompson — Wanstead House, by John T Page —
Hopkins, the Witchfinder, by Frederick Ross, f.r.h.s. — An Essex Poet,
by the Rev. Geo. S Tyack, b.a. -Historic Harwich — Old Bow Bridge, by
John T Page — Index.

PRESS OPINIONS.

" Readable as well as instructive, and it has an interest for many more
than Essex people." — The Glohe.

'•Good paper, good type, and good illustrations all help to make
'Bygone Essex' an exceedingly pleasant and agreeable book." — Sala'>i
Journal.

* ' This work will be welcomed by all intelligent explorers of their own
country, who cannot fail to regard its ancient monuments and historic
localities with renewed interest after perusing it." — The Gentlewoman.

HULL AND YORK: A. BROWN & SONS.
London : Simp kin, Marsha//, Ham// ton, Kent, & Co., Ltd.

Only 750 copies printed, and each copy numbered.

Elegantly hoim.l in cloth gilt ^ demy 8vo., ys. 6d,

JS^gone Xancaebire.

Edited by ERNEST AXON.

Contents : — Historic Lancashire, by Ernest Axon — The Religious Life of
Lancashire during the Commonwealth, by W A Shaw, m.a., — Kersal
Moor, by Janet Armytage — A Lancaster Worthy (Thomas Covell), by
William Hewitson— Some Early Manchester Grammar School Boys, by
Ernest Axon — The Sworn Men of Amounderness, by Lieut. -Col. Henry
Fishwick, f. s. a. —Lancashire Sundials, by W^illiam E A Axon, m.r.s.l.
— The Plague in Liverpool, by J Cooper Morley — The Old Dated Bell at
Claughton, by Robert Langton, F.R.H.s.^The Children of Tim Bobbin, by
Ernest Axon — The " Black Art" at Bolton— An Infant Prodigy in 1679,
by Arthur W Croxton — Wife Desertion in the Olden Times — The Colquitt
Family of Liverpool — Some Old Lancashire Punishments — Bury Simnels —
Eccles Wakes, by H Cottam— Furness Abbey— Colonel Rosworm and the
Siege of Manchester, by George C Yates, f.s.a. — Poems of Lancashire
Places, by William E A Axon, m.r.s.l.— Father Arrowsmith's Hand, by
Rush worth Armytage — Index — Illustrated.

"A work of considerable historical and archaeological interest." —
Lirerpool Daily Post.

" The book is handsomely got up." — Manchester Guardian.

' ' In the collection of papers forming this highly interesting volume,
many antiquarian and historical matters connected with the County
Palatine are dealt with, and at least a dozen authors have contributed
essays rich in curious facts. . . All the articles are good, and should
make this volume a favourite among the historical students of the County
Palatine." — Liverpool Mercury.

" The book is excellently printed and bound." — Library Review.

' ' ' Bygone Lancashire ' is a welcome addition to the literature of the
County, and we echo the hope expressed by the editor that its appearance
' may encourage the local patriotism which is such a striking character-
istic of the Lancashire Lad.' It may be added that the work, which
contains a few illustrations, is well got up, and does credit to the
publishers. " — Manchester Courier.

" This is another of those clearly-printed, well-covered, readable,
accurate, and entertaining ' Bygone ' volumes that come forth with
pleasant frequency from the Andrews' press, Hull. . . The volume is
sure of a ready sale among the more intelligent of the ' Lancashire Lads.' "
— Antiquary.

HULL AND YORK : A. BROWN & SONS.
London : Simphin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd.

Eie^ant/y bound in cloth (^^ilt, demy Svo. , price ys. 6d.

Only 500 copies printed, and each copy numbered.

Wl^^i W0pAMpT01l^pIl(E,

Its History, Folk-Lore, and Memorable Men and Women
Edited by WILL/AM ANDREWS, f.r.h.s.,

Author of "Old-Time Punishments," "Curiosities of the Church,''
"Old Church Lore."

Content.^ : — Historic Northamptonshire, by Thomas Frost — The Eleanor
Crosses, by the Rev. Geo. STyack, b.a. — Fotheringhay : Past and Present,
by Mrs. Dempsey— The Battle of Naseby, by Edward Lamplougjh— The
Cottage Countess — The Charnel House at Roth well, by Edward Chamber-
lain — The Gunpowder Plot, by John T Page— Earls Barton Church, by
T Tindall Wildridge— Old Fairs, by William Sharman — Witches and
Witchcraft, by Eugene Teesdale — The City of Peterborough, by Frederick
Ross, F.R.H.S. — The English Founders of the Washington Family of
America, by Thomas Frost — Ann Brad street, the Earliest American
Poetess — Liber Custumarum, Villa? Northamptoniae, by Christopher A.
Markham, f.s. a. — Thomas Britton, the Musical Small-Coal Man, by E E
Cohen — Old Scarlett, the Peterborough Sexton — Accounts of Towcester
Constables, by John Nicholson — Miserere Shoemaker of Wellingborough,
by T Tindall Wildridge — Sir Thomas Tresham and his Buildings, by John
T Page— Northamptonshire Folk-Lore, by John Nicholson — Northampton-
shire Proverbs — An Ancient Hospital, by the Rev. I Wodhams, m.a. —
A carefully prepared Index — lUnMrafiom^.

PRESS OPINIONS.

"The volume is very interesting, and for those who dwell in the county,
or whose tastes lead them to explore its history, it will have especial
attraction. " — Pnhlishers' Circular.

"A welcome contribution to the literature of the county." — North-
ampton Herald.

" The book is published in a form that is well worthy of the high
standard that the Hull Press has achieved, and we can congratulate Mr.
Andrews on adding one more stone to the fabric of the bj^gone history of
the Midlands." — Hull Daily Xeivs.

' ' An interesting volume, as well as being got up in exceptionally good
style. The matter is well chosen and well rendered, so that the book is
not only a thing of beauty, but also a veritable treasure-house of reliable
and entertaining articles." — Beverley Independent.

" A welcome addition to the shelves of anyone interested in the
antiquities of Northamptonshire, while even those who are not, will be
able to pleasantly while away many odd half-hours by perusing its jmges."
— Kettering Leader.

HULL AND YORK : A BROWN & SONS.
London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd.

Eleg antly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8uo., price 7s. 6d .

SS^gone 2)erb^6bire:

Its Histopy, Romance, Folk-Lore, Curious
Customs, etc.

Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS, f.r.ii.s.

DERBYSHIRE is rich in historical associations of an out-of-the-way
character. In the pag^es of " Bygone Derbyshire " are presented
in a readable, and at the same time in a scholar-like style, papers, pro-
fusely illustrated, beai-ing on such subjects as the history of the county,
ancient castles, monumental brasses, gleanings from parochial records,
old church lore, family romance, traditions, curious customs, witchcraft
well-dressing, old-time sports, etc., etc.

ConfeMtx : — Historic Derbyshire — On an Early Christian Tomb at Wirks-
worth — Curious Derbyshire Lead-Mining Customs — The Place-Name
Derby — Duffield Castle — Haddon Hall — The Romance of Haddon Hall —
The Ordeal of Touch— The Monumental Brasses at Tides well — Bolsover
Castle — The Lamp of St. Helen — Peveril Castle — Samuel Slater, the
Father of the American Cotton Manufacture — The Bakewell Witches —
Mary Queen of Scots in Derbyshire — The Babington Conspiracy — Eyam
and its Sad Memories — Well-Dressing — Old-Time Football — After Thirty
Years ; An Incident of the Civil War — Derbyshire and the '4') — Bess of
Hardwick — Shadows of Romance — Index.

-^1- PRESS OPINIONS. -1^-

"' Bygone Derbyshire ' is a valuable and interesting contribution to
local history and archaeology." — The Times.

" The volume is pleasant reading of a most attractive county." — Daily
Telegraph.

"A very interesting and welcome addition to the literature of Derby-
shire. " — Derbyshire Courier.

"Mr. Andrews is to be warmly complimented on the all-round
excellence of his work, which forms a valuable addition to Derbyshire
literature." — Alfreton Journal.

" A valuable addition to any library." — Derbyshire Times.

HULL AND YORK : A. BROWN & SONS.
London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd,

Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8uo., price 7s. 6d.

By FREDERICK ROSS, F.R.H.S.,

Author of "Yorkshire Family Romance," "Legendary
Yorkshire," etc.

CONTENTS.

The Walls and Gates — Episodes in the Annals of Cheapside — Bishops-
gate Street Within and Without — Aldersgate Street and St. Martin's-le-
Grand— Old Broad Street — Chaucer and the Tabard — The Priory of the
Holy Trinity, Aldgate — Convent of the Sisters Minoresses of the Order
of St. Clare, Aldgate — The Abbey of Sr. Mary of Graces, or East Minster
— The Barons Fitzwalter of Baynard's Castle— Sir Nicholas Brember,
Knight, Lord Mayor of London — An Olden Time Bishop of London :
Robert de Braybrook — A Brave Old London Bishop : Fulco Basset — An
Old London Diarist — Index.

PRESS OPINIONS

"Mr. Ross deals with the chief episodes in the history of London
architecture, and with existing London antiquities in a garrulous, genial
spirit, which renders his book generally attractive." — The Times.

"Beyond all doubt a more interesting and withal informing volume
than ' Bygone London ' it has not been our good fortune to come across
for many a long day." — The City Pre>ift.

PRICE ONE SHILLING.

-^ In the Temple. ^

eOMTEA^TS.

In the Temple — The Knights Templars — The Devil's Own— Christmas in
the Temple — How to become a Templar — On Keeping Terms— Call Parties.

•' Amusing and interesting sketches." — Law Times.

" Pleasant gossip about the barristers' quarter." — Gentlewoman.

" A very pleasant little volume," — Globe.

" An entertaining little book." — Manchester Examiner.

HULL AND YORK : A. BROWN & SONS.
London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd.

Eiei^antly bound in cloth i^ill, demy 8vo., 6s.

Legendary -■■■- yorkshire,

By FREDERICK ROSS, F.R.H.S.

Confenf-s : — The Enchanted Cave —The Doomed City — The Worm of
Nunnington — The Devil's Arrows— The Giant Road Maker of Mulgrave —
The Virgin's Head of Halifax— The Dead Ann of St. Oswald the King—
The Translation of St. Hilda— A Miracle of St. John— The Beatified
Sisters — The Dragon of Wantley — The Miracles and Ghost of Watton —
The Murdered Hermit of Eskdale— The Calverley Ghost- The Bewitched
House of Wakefield.

PRESS OPINIONS.

Beverley Recorder says — " It is a work of lasting interest, and cannot
fail to delight the reader."

Driffield Observer says : — The history and the literature of our county
are now receiving marked attention, and Mr. Andrews merits the support
of the public for the production of this and the other interesting volumes
he has issued. We cannot speak too highly of this volume, the printing,
the paper, and the binding being faultless."

Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8vo. , 6s.

l^ovksbive jFamil^ IRomancc.

B\) FREDERICK ROSS, FR.H.S.

Contents : — The Synod of Streoneshalh — The Doomed Heir of Osmother-
ley — St. Eadwine, The Royal Martyr— The Viceroy Siward — Phases in the
Life of a Political Martyr— The Murderer's Bride— The Earldom of Wiltes
— Blackfaced ClifTord— The Shepherd Lord— The Felons of Ilkley— The
Ingilby Boar's Head— The Eland Tragedy — The Plumpton Marriage — The
Topclitfe Insurrection — Burning of Cottingham Castle— The Alum Workers
— The Maiden of Marblehead— Rise of the House of Phipps— The Traitor
Governor of Hull.

PRESS OPINIONS.

'* The grasp and thoroughness of the writer is evident in every page,
and the book forms a valuable addition to the literature of the North
Country." — Genfleicoman.

" Many will welcome this work." — Yortshire Pont.

HULL AND YORK : A. BROWN & SONS.
London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd.

Kle(ja)itly honnd in do'h (jilf, (hmy Sro., /trire 6'.s-.

yorkshire Battles.

By EDWARD LAMPLOUGH.

Contents: — Winwidfield, etc. — Battle of Stamford Bridt^e— After Stam-
ford Bridge— Battle of the Standard — After the Battle of the Standard-
Battle of Myton Meadows— Battle of Boroughbridge— Battle of Byland
Abbey— In the Days of Edward III. and Richard II.— Battle of Bramham
Moor— Battle of Sandal^Battle of Towton— lorkshire under the Tudors
—Battle of Tadcaster— Battle of Leeds— Battle of Waketield— Battle of
Adwalton Moor— Battle of Hull— Battle of Selby— Battle of Marston
Moor — Battle of Brunnanburgh— Fight off Flamborough Head— Index.
PRESS OPINIONS.

" A remarkably handsome volume, typographically equal to the best
productions of any European capital. "—A^'or^A British Daily Mail.

" An important work."' — Becerley Independent.

" Does great credit to the new firm of book publishers."' — Yorkshire
County Magazine.

" A beautifully printed volume.'' — Halifax Courier.

Cloth, 4,s.

Ljorkshire in Olden Times.

Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S.

Contents: — An Outline History of Yorkshire, by Thomas Frost — The
Cow-Devil : A Legend of Craven, by William Brockie — The First Anglo-
Saxon Poet, by John H Leggott, f.r.h.s — The Battle of Brunnanburgh,
by Frederick Ross, f.e,.h.s — Old Customs of York, by George Benson —
Elizabethan (Cleanings, by Aaron Watson— The Fight for the Hornsea
Fishery, by T Tindall Wildridge — Folk Assemblies, by John Nicholson
— Quaint Gleanings from the Parish Register-Chest of Kirkb}^ ^Vharfe,
by the Rev Richard Wilton, im.a.— ^The Waketield Mysteries, by William
Henry Hudson — A Biographical Romance, by William Andrews, f.r.h.s.
— Some Scraps andShredsof Yorkshire Superstitions, by W Sydney, f;k.s. l.
— The Salvation of Holderness, by Frederick Ross, f.r.h.s.— Yorkshire
Fairs and Festivals, by Thomas Frost — James Xayler, the Mad Quaker
who claimed to be the Messiah, by William Andrews, f.r.h.s — Duke
Richard's Doom : A Legend of Sandal Castle, by Edward Lamplough —
Obsolete Industries of the East Riding, by John Nicholson— Bolton
Abbey : Its History and Legends, by Alfred Chamberlain, r.a. — To
Bolton Abbey, by the Rev E (i Charleswortli.
PRESS OPINION.

"The work consists of a series of articles contributed by various
authors, and it thus has the merit of bringing together much special
knowledge fiom a great number of sources. It is an entertaining
volume, full of interest for the general reader, as well as for the learned
and curious." — Shields Daily Gazette.

HULL AND ^ORK : A. BROWN & SONS.
London : Simpkin, Marshall, Ha.milton, Kent, & Co., Ltd.

SECOND EDITION . Bound in clot h gilt, demy 8m>. 6s

Cutmitm of f pe C^uvc^ :

studies of Curious Customs, Services, and Records,
By WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S.,

Author of "Historic Romance," "Famous Frosts and
Frost Fairs," "Historic Yorkshire," etc.

OONTE.NTS

Early Religious Plays : being: the Story of the English Stage in
its Church Cradle Days— The Caistor Gad-Whip Manorial
Service— Strange Serpent Stories— Church Ales — Rush-Bearing
— Fish in Lent — Concerning Doles — Church Scrambling Chari-
ties — Briefs — Bells and Beacons for Travellers by Night — Hour
Glasses in Churches — Chained Books in Churches — Funeral
Effigies— Torchlight Burials— Simple Memorials of the Early
Dead— The Romance of Parish Registers— Dog Whippers and
Sluggard Wakers— Odd Items from Old Accounts— A carefully
compiled Index.

--® ILLUSTRATED. (^^

" a volume both entertaining and instructive, throwing much light on the manners
and customs of bygone generations of Churchmen, and will be read to-day with much
interest." — Newbery House Magazine.

"An extremely interesting volume." — North British Daily Mail.

"A work of lasting interest." — Hull Examiner.

" The reader will find much in this book to interest, instruct, and amuse." — Home
Chimes.

" We feel sure that many will feel grateful to Mr. Andrews for having produced such
xn interesting book." — The Antiquary.

" A volume of great research and striking interest." — The Bookbuyer (New York).
" A valuable book." — Literary World {Boston, U.S.A.).
" An admirable book." — Sheffield Independent.

" An interesting, handsomely got up volume. . . , Mr. Andrews is always chatty
and expert in making a paper on a dry subject exceedingly readable." — Newcastle Courant

" Mr. William Andrews' new book, 'Curiosities of the Church,' adds another to the
series by which he has done so much to popularise antiquarian studies. . . . The book,
it should be added, has some quaint illustrations, and its rich matter is made available for
reference by a full and ca.r«»fuUv comoiled index." — Scotsman.

Hull and York : A. Brown and Sons.
London : Simpkin, Marshall^ Hamilton, Kenty & Co., Ltd.

Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8uo., price 6s.

Ofb C^urcp Sore.

By WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S.,

Author of Curiosities of the Church,'' '' Old- Time Punishments,''
^^ Historic Romance y' etc.

conscTEiisrTs.

The Right of Sanctuary— The Romance of Trial— A Fight
between the Mayor of Hull and the Archbishop of
York— Chapels on Bridges— Charter Horns— The Old
English Sunday — The Easter Sepulchre — St. Paul's
Cross— Cheapside Cross— The Biddenden Maids Charity
—Plagues and Pestilences— A King Curing an Abbot
of Indigestion— The Services and Customs of Royal
Oak Day— Marrying in a White Sheet— Marrying under
the Gallows— Kissing the Bride— Hot Ale at Weddings
—Marrying Children — The Passing Bell — Concerning
Coffins— The Curfew Bell— Curious Symbols of the Saints
—Acrobats on Steeples— A carefully-prepared Index.

--•• PRESS O P I N I O N S. -'^

*' A worthy work on a deeply interesting subject. . • . Wo
commend this book strongly." — kuropean Mail.

*' An interesting volume." — The Scotsman.

•'Contains much that will interest and instruct." — Gla-<«jow
Herald.

" The author has produced a book which is at once entertaining
and valuable, and which is also entitled to unstinted praise on the
ground of its admirable printing and binding." — Shields Daily Gazelle.

"Mr. Andrews' book does not contain a dull page. . . .
Deserves to meet with a very warm welcome." — Yorkshire Post.

"Mr. Andrews, in 'Old Church Lore,' makes the musty
parchments and records he has consulted redolent with life and
actuality, and has added to his works a most interesting volume,
which, written in a light and easy narrative style, is anything but
of the ' dry-as-dust ' order. The book is handsomely got up, being
both bound and printed in an artistic fashion." — Northern J)ady

Hull and York : A. Brown and Sons.
London : Simphin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd.

Pcap 4to. Bevelled boards, gilt tops. Price 48.

famous jf ro8t8 anb jf rest ^alrs
in (3reat Britain.

Chronicled from the Earliest to the Present Time.
By WILLIAM ANDREWS, f.r.h.s.

This work furnishes a carefully prepared account of all the great Frosts
occurring in this country from a.d. 134 to 1887. The numerous Frost
Fairs on the Thames are fully described, and illustrated with quaint
woodcuts, and several old ballads relating to the subject are reproduced.
It is tastefully printed and elegantly bound.

PRESS OPINIONS.
" The work is thoroughly well written, it is careful in its facts, and may
be pronounced exhaustive on the subject. Illustrations are given of
several frost fairs on the Thames, and as a trustworthy record this volume
should be in every good library. The usefulness of the work is much
enhanced by a good index." — Public Opinion.

" A very interesting volume,"— Northern Daily Telegraph.

*' A great deal of curious and valuable information is contained in these
pages. ... A comely volume." — Literary World.

" The work from first to last is a most attractive one, and the arts alike
of printer and binder have been brought into one to give it a pleasing
form." — Wakefield Free Preas.

" An interesting and valuable work." — West Middlesex Times.

' ' Not likely to fail in interest. " — Manchester Guardian.

" The book is beautifully got up." — Barnsley Independent.

" This chronology has been a task demanding extensive research and
considerable labour and patience, and Mr. Andrews is to be heartily con-
gratulated on the result." — Derby Daily Gazette.

" A volume of much interest and great importance." — Rotherham
Advertiser.

One hundred copies only printed for sale, and each copy numbered.

^be Evolntion of Brama.

By SIDNEY W. CLARKE.

"A carefully written work. . . . It is a readable contribution to
dramatic history." — The Critic.

HULL AND YORK : A BROWN & SONS.
London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd.

Price 6s. Demy 8uo. Elegantly bound cloth gilt.

A Woman's Wanderings in Northern India.
By CHRISTINA S. BREMNER.

Contents : — The Ascent from the Plains to the Hills — Kasauli and its
Amusements — Theories on Heat — Simla, the Queen of the Hill Stations —
Starting Alone for the Interior — In Bussahir State — The Religious Festival
at Pangay — On Congress — On the Growing Poverty of India.

PRESS OPINIONS.

" The author of a ' Month in a Dandi ' has a facile pen, and is evidently
a shrewd observer. Her book differs from many belonging to the same
class by reason of its freshness, its spontaneity, and its abundance of
interesting detail. Moreover, the book is written with a purpose. ' If by
perusing these pages the reader obtains a clearer view of England's
attitude to her great dependency, if his prepossessions against ' black
men ' and the ' poor heathen ' should melt away in any degree, if the
assumption that what is good for England must necessarily be so for
India receives a slight shake, the writer will feel rewarded.' To these
conclusions one is almost certain to come when the experiences of Miss
Bremner's ' Month in a Dandi ' are recalled. There would be no end to
our quotations were we to reproduce all the passages we have marked as
being interesting. Miss Bremner is always in good spirits, and writes
with ease, and evidently con amove." — Birmingham Daily Gazette.

" Miss Bremner's book describes a woman's wanderings in Northern
India, and it is written from adequate knowledge, with shrewd discern-
ment, and a pleasing amount of vivacity." — Speaker.

" ' A Month in a Dandi ' is full of instruction. It shows a great deal of
ability and determination to express truths, even if they be unpalatable.
The chapters on the vexed questions of Baboo culture and Indian
Congress are well worth reading." — Manchester Guardian.

" Miss Bremner's style is chastened, for the most part humorous, faithful
to detail, and oftentimes polished to literary excellence. The earlier
chapters are full of raciness and agreeable personality. — Htdl Daily Mail.

" ' A Month in a Dandi ' describes the writer's wanderings in Northern
India, following upon a shrewdly observant account of the seamy side of
Anglo-Indian Society. The subject throughout is approached from a
political economist's point of view. The chapter on the growing poverty
of India sounds a warning note." — Gentlewoman.

" The author of a ' Month in a Dandi ' is evidently a keen observer of
men and things, and we know that her opinion is shared by many of our
countrymen who have had a much larger experience of India and Indian
affairs than herself. The book is full of the most exquisite word pictures,
pictures that are full of light, beauty, and grace, but, unfortunately, some
of them have more shade than we care to see ; but, doubtless. Miss
Bremner's treatment is correct and life-like." — Hull Daily News.

HULL AND YORK : A BROWN d SONS.
London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd.

THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE
STAMPED BELOW

AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS

WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN
THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY
WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH
DAY AND TO $t.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY
OVERDUE.

SEP 4 1944

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