"Igivethefe Books ,-/.,_.; f pi- the founding of a College in thst^ Colony^ S^EESi....-"" --unr/: '^::7^'^:~ jnz^r:- ~ :\ z 1925 ;¦ - " ¦¦ '¦'¦¦¦¦¦ ¦ "¦ — -' A Picturesque History of Yorkshire Volume One A Picturesque HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE , Being an Account of the History, Topography, and Antiquities of the Cities, Towns and Villages of the County of York, founded on Personal Observations made during many yourneys through the Three Ridings BY J. S. Fletcher In Three Volumes With Six Hundred Illustrations Volume One London: J. M. Dent &r Co. Aldine House, Bedford Street, Covent Garden 1899 CONTENTS Chapter I. — The Humber from Spurn Head to Hull The Mouth of the Hu.mber — The Humber in Old and New Times — Spurn Head — The Lost Towns of Holdf.rness and the Humber — A Quiet Land — Early Settlers of Holderness — Holderness Villages and People — Welwick — Patrington — Winestead : The Birthplace of Andrew Marvell — Sunk Island— Oitringham — Keyingham — The Humber Bank — Hedon: Its History and its Church — Paull — Hull from the Humber Chapter II. — Hull as a Historic Town Foundation of Hull — Edward I. and Hull — The Fortifications — The De La Pole Family — Early Charters and Privileges— The Water Riots — Hull and the Lancastrians — Suppression of the Religious Houses— Henry VIII. and Hull — Hull and the Civil War — The Whaling Trade — William Wilberforce — Introduction of the Railway Systems— The Cholera Epidemic in 1849— Progress of Hull during the Recent Century 25 Chapter III. — Aspects of Modern Hull The Humber Side— Church of the Hoi.y Trinity— St. Mary's Church— Some Ancient Streets and Houses— The "White Harte"— Some Ancient Inns The Trinity House and Guild— The Docks— The Town-Hall— The Principal Public Buildings— The Parks— Suburban Hull 43 Chapter IV. — The Humber and the Ouse from Hull to Howden Between the Wolds and the Humber — Humber-side Villages and Scenery— Hessle— Ferriby— Brough— Brantingham— South Cave— The Howdenshire Flat Country — Meeting of the Humber, Ouse, and Trent — Marshland — The Story of Goole— The Lower Ouse— Howden and its Church 59 78 vi CONTENTS Chapter V.— The Ouse from Drax Ferry to Bishopthorpe The Riverside Scenery between Howden and Selby— Drax— Hemingborough— Selby and its Abbey— Brayton and Hambi.eton— Monk-frystone and Sher- burn— Wistow— Cawood and its Castle— Riccall— Skipwith— Stillingfleet — Escrick Park— Naburn— Acaster Selby and Acaster Malbis— Bishop thorpe Chapter VI.— The Charm of York The Peculiar Beauties of York as an Ancient City— Her Historic Associations —A City of the Past and the Present— The Influence of the Minster, 105 Chapter VII. — Historic York Traditions as to the Early Foundations of York — The Brigantes — The Coming of the Romans— The Geographical Situation of York and its Importance to a Military Force— York under the Roman Emperors— Aspect of Roman York — York under the Angles and the Danes — The Norman Conquest — York in the Domesday Book — York during the Middle Ages— The Tudors and the Stuarts— The Civil War — Progress of York during the Eigh teenth Century — Modern Growth and Progress of the City Chapter VIII.— The Story of York Minster Early Days of Christianity in York — The Beginnings of the Minster — Its Architectural History — The Minster Described — Objects of Interest in the Minster — The Chapter: Its Constitution and Privileges— Historv of the Archbishops of York and their Benefactions 159 Chapter IX. — The Show-places of Modern York The Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary — The Parish Churches of York — The Walls and Bars — The Manor House — The Castle and Clifford's Tower — The Guildhall and its Traditions — The Streets of York iS Chapter X. — The Upper Ouse and the Forest of Galtres Along the Ouse— Clifton Ings — Poppleton Ferry — Marston Moor and its Battle — The Ouse-side Villages and Churches — Juncture of the Ure and Swale with the Ouse — Easingwold — Coxwoi.d — Newburgh Park — The Forest of Galtres and its Villages — The Foss — Strensall 210 Chapter XI. — The River Went and its Surroundings Character and Course of the River Don — Its first Tributary : the Went — Source of the Went— Ackworth and its School — Badsworth — Wentbridge and brockadale — darrington — campsall — burghwallis — askern spa — Fishlake— Thorne— The Villages of Hatfield Chase 237 Chapter XII. — Doncaster and its Neighbourhood Doncaster in History— Its Modern Aspect— St. George's Church— The Racecourse —Sporting Associations of Doncaster— Sprotborough — Conisborough Castle — Tickhii.l Castle— Sandheck— Roche Abbey— The Nottinghamshire Border 251 CONTENTS vii Chapter XIII. — The River Dearne and the Barnsley Coalfield PAGE Source of the Dearne — The Barnsley Coalfield — Silkstone — Darton — Woolley — The Town of Barnsley— Monk Bretton — Royston — Felkirk — Hemsworth— South Kirkby — Hooton Pagnell — Hickleton — Great Houghton — The Dearne Valley 268 Chapter XIV. — Sheffield and its Surroundings The Don from Mexborough to Rotherham — Thrybergh — Wentworth — The Northern Edge of Sheffield — Sheffield in History — Its Rise as a Com mercial Centre — First Charter of Incorporation — Aspects of Modern Sheffield 280 Chapter XV. — The Don between Sheffield and Penistone Ecclesfield — Wharncliffe — Wortley — Wentworth Castle — Penistone — The Hallamshire Moors — Bradfield — The Loxley and the Rivelin — The Derbyshire Border 3°9 Chapter XVI. — The Aire from Airmyn to Ferrybridge Character and Course of the River Aire— Rawcliffe — The Strange Story of Jimmy Hirst: A Yorkshire Oddity— Snaith — Carlton — Villages South and North of the Aire: Their History and Character — Ferrybridge : An old Coaching Town — Knottingley— Fryston Hall and Lord Houghton 317 Chapter XVII. — Pontefract and its Castle Pontefract : Its Origin and Name— Its Historical Record — The De Lacy Family — The Earls of Lancaster — Richard II. and Pontefract — The Three Sieges of Pontefract Castle — Modern Aspect of the Town — Its Antiquities 331 Chapter XVIII. — The Aire from Castleford to Leeds Glass Houghton — Castleford, the Ancient Legiolum — Ledstone and Ledsham — KlPPAX — METHLEY — OULTON — ROTHWELL — SWILLINGTON— TEMPLE NeWSAM — Whitkirk — The Outskirts of Leeds 338 Chapter XIX. — Leeds in History Early History of Leeds — Leeds under the Normans — Mediaeval Leeds — Leeds under the Stuarts — The First Charter — Leeds in Thoresby's Time — Progress of Leeds during the Eighteenth Century— The Staple Trade of Leeds — Education and Progress in Leeds — The Leeds Press — Some Leeds Worthies 351 viii CuN IhiNT1" Chapter XX. — Aspects of Modern Leeds PAGE Ecclesiastical Buildings in Leeds — The Parish Church — St. John's Church — The Unitarian Church — The Town Hall and Municipal Buildings — The Yorkshire College — The Museums and Institutes — Old Buildings and Historic Houses— The Suburbs of Leeds— Roundhay Park — Adei. and its Church 367 Chapter XXI. — The Aire from Leeds to Bingley The North-West Suburbs of Leeds — Armley — Bramley — Kirkstall and its Abbey — Horsfokth — Calverley — Esholt Park — Idle — Shipley and Saltaire — Baildon— Bingley— The Druid's Altar 385 Chapter XXII —Bradford : Old and New Natural Situation of Bradford — Early History of the City— Bradford in Mediaeval Times — Bradford and the Civil War — Development of the Staple Trade — Modern Bradford — Present Aspects of the City — Its Chief Buildings and Institutions — The Suburbs of Bradford — Characteristics of the Bradford People — Some Famous Bradford Men 400 Chapter XXIII. — Haworth and its Surroundings The Worth Valley — Characteristics of the Moorland Scenery — The Bronte Family — Their Birthplace at Thornton — Haworth: Its Church and Parsonage — Old and New Keighley 419 Chapter XXIV.— Upper Airedale Aireside Villages— Sieeton and Silsden— Kildwick— The Lancashire Border— Broughton Hall— The Town and Castle of Skipton— The Clifford Family The Wise Man of Skipton — Rilston Fell — Gargrave — Eshton — Kirkby malham— gordale scar— mai.ham cove— surroundings of the source of the Aire .,5 A PICTURESQUE^! HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE CHAPTER I The Humber from Spurn Head to Hull THE MOUTH OF THE HUMBER THE HUMBER IN OLD AND NEW TIMES — SPURN HEAD THE LOST TOWNS OF HOLDERNESS AND THE HUMBER A QUIET LAND — EARLY SETTLERS OF HOLDERNESS HOLDERNESS VILLAGES AND PEOPLE — WELWICK— PATRINGTON WINESTEAD : THE BIRTHPLACE OF ANDREW MARVELL — SUNK ISLAND OTTRINGHAM — KEYINGHAM THE HUMBER BANK — HEDON : ITS HISTORY AND ITS CHURCH PAULL HULL FROM THE HUMBER. I )HE traveller who approaches Yorkshire by way of the great estuary from whence all the important waterways of the county wind to their distant sources, finds himself i contemplating a prospect which gives little promise of the extraordinary variety of scenery that must needs compel his admiration before he has completed a tour of the three Ridings. He sees before him an almost uniformly low, long line of coast from which the land lies back in a somewhat monotonous expanse of soft-toned regular colour, relieved here and there by the tower of one church, the spire of another, the quaint gables of a Holderness farmstead, or the clustering cottages of a waterside village, with boats drawn up on a pebbly beach, and fishing-nets hung along the weather-bleached timber baulks behind. It may be that on a day of great clearness he will see the Wolds beyond Hull and Beverley A 2 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE rising in gentle undulations above the level landscape first presented to his notice, but even then he will form no adequate conception of the infinite variety of scenery, embracing lowland and highland, fell and mountain, moor and meadow, towards which he is journeying. Nothing will indi cate to him the fact that he is already on the threshold of a county vaster in point of geographical extent than any two English shires combined, whose population is counted by millions, here penned together in great industrial towns, there sparsely distributed in lonely districts where neither railways or telegraph wires are yet known. His first glimpse of Yorkshire will tell him nothing of the way in which Nature, in arranging the lie of the land, has performed a thousand bewitching vagaries ; how she has here expanded it into a wide and fertile plain, studded with market towns and villages, and there moulded it in hills and mountains of fantastic shape or awful solemnity ; nor will it warn him of the delights which the mighty mother has prepared for the lover of the picturesque at almost every step in some nooks and corners of the county. And yet all this pleasing variety is within his reach as he leaves the North Sea for the Humber, for thence, journeying by one tributary river or another, and turning off from their banks as fancy takes him, he may traverse Yorkshire throughout its length and breadth until he feels impelled to exclaim that he has seen not a county but a kingdom. Somewhat uninspiring as the mouth of the Humber may seem, however, it is impossible for the imaginative man, or the student of men and things, to look upon its broad expanse without a feeling of awe and veneration. If it does not possess the same historic value that attaches to the Thames, it has associations which it is impossible to forget, and a further interest in the shape of the definite contrast which its present surroundings offer to the old ones. It needs little imagination to picture the Humber as it was in the days when the North of England was a wild land, Holderness a dismal swamp, and the inhabitants of the surrounding shores were savages who were little removed from the brutes around them. Nor is it difficult to imagine those early folk of the marshes and the forests stealing down to the edge of the great river by which they dwelt, and looking out across its broad expanse to the greater and unknown waste of waters beyond its mouth. Even of more interest than the thought of their wonder at the vastness of the estuary and the ocean into which it flows, is the thought of the first man who first sailed boldly into it out of the North Sea. Who was he, and from whence ? That men came afterwards in plenty we know, but no man knows what men they were who first turned the Holderness coast and crept timidly along the mud banks to spy out the land. It would be something to turn back the course of time, and see that rude bark and its men, and hear what they had to say of the newly-discovered land. It must needs have been from across the North Sea that they came : from Denmark, and Sweden, and Norway their children came later on in thousands, sailing past Spurn Head and up the Humber in ships whose prows were of brass and sterns of gold, THE MOUTH OF THE HUMBER 3 with dragons and birds at the mast-heads, and men-at-arms lining the bul warks. One would like to have lived in the days when Sweyn came in such glory as this, and sailed up the Humber and into the Trent to Gainsborough, there to receive the submission of all England north of the Watling Street. But there were gorgeous and picturesque shows on the Humber for centuries after that, in the times when English ships were quaint of design and awkward of movement, or when Hull sent out its fleet in response to Elizabeth's demand for ships and men, or when the whaling-boats set out for the Arctic regions, to return sore mauled and battered by the ice, or when, scarce a hundred years ago, the great three-decker battleships lingered about Spurn lest the French should there descend on the North. Nowadays the aspect of the Humber is less picturesque. The guard-ship, lying off Hull, has nothing in common with the old line-of-battle ship, and the steamships outward or inward bound, for or from New York or China, or the Baltic, or the Mediterranean, are not so beautiful on the water as the old-fashioned merchantmen which used to roll away past Spurn Head to go blundering and tumbling into the wild North Sea beyond. The mouth of the Humber, reckoned in a straight line from Kilnsea in Holderness to Donna Nook in Lincolnshire, is about ten miles wide, but from the gradually sharpening coast-line near Kilnsea there projects a cause way formed of sand and rubble which connects the mainland with Spurn Head, and is nearly three miles in length. This causeway is built up by the contrary action of the sea against the downward wash of the Humber. It forms a rough road to the Head, but once arrived on that isolated and cheerless spot the traveller finds an extensive prospect of land and sea await ing him. East and north and south stretches the North Sea, usually as greeny-grey in colour as in the days when the Vikings sailed over it and made rhymes about its treatment of themselves and their quaint ships ; south and west lies Lincolnshire, with the busy wharves of Great Grimsby and the seaside resort of Cleethorpes immediately in front ; westward flows the Humber, narrowing as it reaches Sunk Island, and thence sweeping round by Paull and Marfleet to Hull ; northward is rolled out the panorama of south-east Holderness with its towns and villages indicated by towers and gables. Whether it was Spurn Head or its much more majestic neighbour of Flamborough that was named Ocellum Promontorium by the Romans, the former is certainly admirably adapted to the purposes to which it has long been devoted. Two lighthouses stand out prominently from its highest point. One, built by Smeaton in 1776, is 112 feet high ; the other 76 feet. The taller one stands 93 feet above high-water mark ; the shorter 44 feet. A revolving light is shown from Smeaton's lighthouse ; a fixed light from its neighbour. Here, at night, the watcher seems to be cut off from the mainland ; the " pyle-like " Head, as Drayton called it, assumes the aspect of an island ; the sea murmurs or roars about its base, and there is nothing companionable but the friendly lights of passing vessels. It must PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE :r:fr:'' .r r -"wwwasiai THE LIGHTHOUSES ON SPURN HEAD be singularly bleak and cold here in winter, for there is nothing to keep off the biting east winds which sweep over the North Sea from the snow-fields of Norway, and it requires no effort of imagination to believe those natives of the coast who tell you that icebergs have been known to drift round the Head and glide slowly along the Humber towards Hull. All around the coast of south-east Holderness and along the banks of the Humber between Hull and Spurn Head the North Sea has for many centuries been working its will with the land. The geological formation of the shore at this point is one which readily lends itself to the action of the sea, being composed of sand, gravel, clay, with lake and river sediment — a mixture easily operated upon by the continual wearing and fretting of the tides. Thus the student delving amongst old records and chronicles in search of archaeological and topographical information comes now and again upon ancient charts whereon towns and villages are indicated which now have no existence. Less ancient maps point out in laconic fashion the spots where those places stood. How far the sea has encroached it is impossible to say with certainty, but there is no doubt that numerous towns and villages have disappeared and that the coast-line is still being steadily en croached upon. There is a rude rhyme to the effect that when Hornsea church (now within a mile of the shore) was built, it occupied a position ten :- LOST TOWNS AND VILLAGES 5 miles from Bridlington, ten miles from Beverley, and ten miles from the sea. Whether that was strictly true or not it is certain that the tides now run over land where houses stood within the memory of middle-aged folk. As for the villages that have been swept away, they are but names re covered from the records of the past. Auburn, Hartburn, Hyde, Owthorne, along the coast ; Tharlesthorpe, Frismerk, Sunthorpe, Pemthorpe, Orwyth- fleet, on the banks of the Humber — against the name of each stands the record, " Washed away by the sea." Most important of all the small centres of population thus destroyed was Ravenspurn, which occupied a compara tively sheltered position within the bend of the coast between Spurn Head and Skeffling. Ravenspurn, Ravenser Spurn, Ravenseen, Ravensrode, or, as Shakespeare calls it, Ravenspurg, was of sufficient importance as a seaport town in the time of Edward I. to return a member of Parliament, but by the middle of the fourteenth century the sea had so encroached upon it that its citizens removed their goods and chattels to Hull, and their dead to the churchyard of Easington, a village sheltered by rising ground from the onslaught of the North Sea. A succession of high tides began at Ravenspurn in 1357, and within the next few years the town was practically submerged or washed away. Nevertheless its name comes up on two further occasions in the pages of history. Here in 1399 Henry of Lancaster landed to make good his claim to the throne. Seventy-two years later Edward IV. returned to England after a period of exile in Holland, and landed at Ravenspurn on his way to a great overthrowal of the Lancastrian dynasty at Barnet. After that the chronicles of Ravenspurn grow faint. Leland mentions it as being ten miles from Patrington, but several other itinerants who at various times went sight-seeing in this corner of Yorkshire give no account whatever of it. One memorial of Ravenspurn, however, is still to be seen at Hedon. There, near the town-head, stands a fine old cross, said to have been erected at the now vanished seaport in commemoration of Henry IV. landing there. This cross was probably erected at some spot in Ravenspurn well out of reach of the sea, which at that time had practi cally destroyed the town, but the encroachment of the waters soon necessi tated its removal to Kilnsea. In 1818 it was removed a second time, to be re-erected at Burton Constable. There it remained fourteen years, at the end of which period it was taken down, brought to Hedon, and set up in its present position, where it stands a solitary witness of the fact that where the Humber now sweeps round to Spurn Head there once flourished a seaport as important in its day as Hull is in ours. II From somewhere near where Ravenspurn once stood, possessing ships and merchants, various tracks and by-roads lead along the bank of the Humber, or through the level land beyond, to Patrington, from whicli 6 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE quiet market-borough a main-road passes through south-east Holderness to Hedon and Hull. Some of the ancient itinerants remark of this tract of country that it is flat and uninteresting, but the observant traveller who uses his ears as well as his eyes will find much in passing through its hamlets and villages to interest his mind and arouse his curiosity. He may wander for days together up one lane and down another, turning aside whenever his fancy prompts him, now letting himself follow some rough track that brings him to the sea or the estuary, or pursuing some little path that plunges him into woods and coppices. South-east Holderness, indeed, is a land which is full of a vague fascination. Its people speak a dialect which has little in common with that broad, harsh speech of the West Riding which is most familiar as the accepted type of Yorkshire usages of language. In its villages and hamlets there is a strange mixture of the agricultural and the nautical : there is a smell of barley on one hand and of fish on the other. The names of the villages and farmsteads bespeak the Norse, or Danish, or Scandinavian origin of the folk who inhabit them — Norse, or Danish, or Scandinavian, too, are many of the names in the little churchyards. The farmstead is generally a "thorp," or a "holme," or a " toft " ; something in its neat, snug, well-kept appearance reminds the travelled man of other "thorps" and "holmes" and "tofts" that he has seen over-seas. It stands embowered amidst orchards and trees of a quiet tint of green, and the ricks in the farmyard make spots of bright colour against the subdued tones of the landscape. Overhead the skies are usually of that blue-grey tone which seems peculiarly associated with the tint of the northern lands and seas, and on a summer afternoon, when the sun shines, or in autumn, when the first mellow tints are coming, there is no more peaceful corner of the county than this out-of-the-way bit of Holderness. It is never difficult to remember, however the traveller strays about the roads and lanes, that he is not far from the sea, for the soil is mixed with sand, and the smell of the salt waves comes with the wind across the bending hedgerows. Down to the edge of the sea itself, on the one hand, or to the banks of the broad Humber on the other, most of the roads lead, to terminate on some lonely strip of beach or in some little waterside hamlet or cluster of cottages where a solitary fisherman mends his nets by the side of his boat, drawn high up on the pebble-strewn beach. Who they were who first settled this corner of Yorkshire and founded the families which still cultivate the soil or follow the seaman's life there, clinging in many cases to the ancient names, is a question of deep interest even to the traveller who can do no more than pass through the land. The first inhabitants of the county of whom any accurate historical record may be had were the Brigantes, whose territories included the larger portion of the North of England. Whether they came down to the very edge of the sea or preferred the vicinity of the mountains, as their name would seem to imply, there is little to show, save in the fact that occasional traces of their EARLY SETTLERS OF HOLDERNESS presence in low-lying districts have been discovered along the river-sides and at the foot of hill-country, in the shape of lake-dwellings and excavated tumuli. At the time of the Roman invasion south-east Holderness was a marsh ; long invasion had quest it was still the nearest with civilisation Street, which coin, skirting the west side from Malton to yond York. little to say of land between and the Hum- period of time ; mans of Con- was with the shire a part of riensis, and had situate some- Hedon or Pat- whence a road Aldburgh, near THE EASTER SEPULCHRE, PATRINGTON CHURCH after the Roman become a con- a wild land, and highway or link was the Ermine ran from Lin- the Wolds on before it turned Aldborough be- History has the tongue of the North Sea ber for a long under the Ro- stantine's day it rest of York- Maxima Caesa- a Roman station where near rington, from led through the Holderness wards Bridling- coastline, to- ton. About 1810 certain copper and silver coins were turned up by a gardener at Swine in Holderness, one of which bore the head of Flavius on one side, and the figures of men in armour carrying bows, spears, and banners on the other. Camden has a print of a coin pre cisely similar to this in his " Britannia," and remarks of it that it was stamped in Constantinople by Flavius Constantinus Maximus Augustus. Whatever particular influence the Romans had, however, upon this part of Yorkshire, it is certain that with the coming of the Saxons, and later of the Danes and Norsemen, the banks of the Humber assumed a livelier aspect. Here in 1066 came the famous expedition under Harold Hardrada, who brought five hundred ships and thousands of men to help Tosti to fight for the kingdom against Harold Godwinsson, and to die with Tosti at Stamford Bridge. It may well be that refugees of Harold Hard rada's army, fleeing from Stamford Bridge after Harold Godwinsson's over whelming victory over them, found themselves cast away in that corner of Holderness which runs down to Spurn, and stayed there to reclaim the land and make fat holdings for their descendants out of what was once marsh and bog. Harold Hardrada's army had been principally composed of farmers 8 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE and ploughmen ; his ships were mainly fishing vessels. What more likely than that some at least of his Danes and Norsemen should settle down here, where the traveller of to-day comes across their names, and recognises in their descendants a likeness to those of their kinsfolk across the seas ? For here, as in other spots along the Yorkshire coast, there are to be found to this day such names as Hardrade and Thorstan, and Ulf and Rolf, and places bearing names that end in " thorpe " and " ton " and " by "—evidence sufficient, surely, as to whose blood it is that some or most of these coast-dwellers have in their veins. A brief study of the derivation of East Riding place-names, indeed, shows that the population of the Yorkshire coast is almost wholly sprung from Danish and Scandinavian stock. There is scarcely a town or village which bears a name drawn from other sources. One of the most interesting features of the study of place-names is the apt relation of the name to the chief characteristic, industry, or distinguishing feature of the place. Thus Epplewith, in the parish of Skidby in Holderness, derives its name from the Old Norse epli, an apple, and with, a wood — apples being found in the woods there in large quantities in the ancient days. To-day the parish is still celebrated for its fruit-growing qualities, and the ancient name is as applicable as ever. Fairholme, again, near Swine in Holderness, presents an admirable instance of the connection between place and name. The word is the Old Norse far, sheep, and holme, rising-ground, or mound. Until a century ago Fairholme was invariably flooded in the winter months, and could only be reached by boats. Therefore they grew no corn on it, but used it as a sheep pasture, calling it, as in actual fact it was for some thing like a thousand years, the Sheep-Refuge. There is, perhaps, no better time of the year for journeying through that portion of Holderness which lies between Hedon and Spurn Head than in the days when harvest is over and summer and autumn are at meeting-point. The warmth of the sun is then pleasant ; its natural mellow ness, tempered by the breezes which come from the sea, makes any form of outdoor exercise enjoyable. The pedestrian, in particular, finds this a de lightful time for wandering from one place to another ; pausing at sleepy villages or lingering in the quiet market-boroughs, and finding matter of interest and reflection in all. There is something peculiarly restful in the villages in this corner of Yorkshire, even though they cannot lay claim to the title of picturesque in such degree as those in better known localities. As the traveller journeys towards one he is struck by the characteristic features which it presents from a little distance. The church tower, the turrets or gables of the great house, the tiled roofs of the farmsteads, stand out prominently, and not infrequently there is a windmill whose sails make dark silhouettes against the sky beyond. Once within such a village he finds abundance of material for his note-book, or his sketching-block, or camera. He will notice, after some slight acquaintance with the district, that the village churches are in almost all cases ornamented by a tower M ... , a> ,v4 I f fet'S Mr ^ij$L" M KQB p8 • ' ;¦'- . ¦ ' !. ." v-;-Jja I'ATRINGTON CHURCH 10 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE (there are said to be but five church spires in this part of Holderness) and that some of the edifices are of rude construction, as though they had been built out of stones from the beach or the river bank. In the churchyards there are curious names, some of them quaint compounds of old and new, with epitaphs beneath them that suggest the efforts of a rural bard. Where the churchyard lies near the sea inscriptions are not wanting which tell how agriculture and seafaring are here mixed up — the church itself some times contains a tablet commemorating those who went out and were never heard of again. This continual suggestion of the sea presents itself in various ways about the farmsteads — the gateposts are often made out of whale bones ; the pathways in the farmhouse gardens are paved with shells and pebbles from the beach ; a bruised and battered figure-head stands in a prominent corner of a grotto fashioned out of rocks and stones from the same source ; old timbers, worn and frayed by much tossing on the waters, lie about the corners of the folds and rickyards. In the gardens of the hall, or manor, or parsonage, or farmstead, there are generally masts, rigged, and equipped with weathercocks, and about the houses near the shore there is usually to be discovered a boat of some description, with a mast and oars of heavy but business-like proportions. In the days between summer and autumn it is pleasant to wander about a land like this, with the voice of the earth appealing on the one side and the voice of the sea murmuring on the other. All things in the villages seem resting. Here and there a labourer is slowly thatching the corn-ricks in that thorough fashion which suggests the fierce winds and storms of the coming winter ; here and there folk are busy in the orchards, gathering the ripened fruit. But the land as a whole carries an atmosphere of peace that extends to the sleepy old market-boroughs in whose cobble-paved streets and squares there rarely seems to be any traffic, and about whose churches there hangs a silence that could only be born of an eloquent antiquity. Peaceful as this land seems, however, in the softened light of a Sep tember afternoon, there are times when the fury of the sea and the wind break upon its confines, and sweep over its level acres with a magnificent grandeur that must be seen and felt to be understood. Only those who have had actual experience of an east wind in winter on the very edge of the North Sea can speak of the extremes of cold and storm as they are to be known in an English climate. For days the wind may gather in force and intensity until at last it has roused itself and lashed the sea to a point of concentrated fury, or it may arise with a sudden irresistible force that seems to spring from pure whim or unpremeditated anger. The skies that canopy the North Sea at such times are of a peculiar tone of grey colour ; the clouds assume shapes that are alike threatening and terrifying ; the sea takes on the colour of the skies, and as the storm rises appears to gather itself for a determined onslaught on the land. Spume rises, and is driven hither and thither by the whirling of the wind ; the low-lying lands are WELWICK 1 1 submerged as the creeks and dykes rise with the rising of the sea ; all the spirits of the air seem to shriek and howl about the church towers and the gables of the farmsteads, and whosoever can keep his legs out o' doors has good excuse for believing that every maleficent element of nature has broken loose between earth and sky. Then is the time when light- j; house-men need to be zealous, when signal bells toll mourn fully and are scarce heard, and when watchers on shore keep an anxious look-out for vessels exposed to all the fury of the storm outside the Head. And so full of whims is Nature, that not infrequently such a day as this, succeeded, maybe, by a worse night, is followed by a clear morning on which men may look round them and reckon up the damage which the winds and waves have accomplished. , ¦i III % GARGOYLES AT PATRINGTON The various roads which lead from the extreme south east point of Holderness to wards Hull pass through certain villages and hamlets of little note save as regards the common features of quiet interest of which mention has been made. But at Welwick, three miles from Pat rington, the traveller finds worthy matter for a closer inspection in the shape of the church, which contains a curious tomb surmounted by a somewhat remarkable monument. There is a local tradition to the effect that this tomb is that of a member of the Albemarle family, and was brought here from Burstall Priory when that religious establish ment was destroyed by the encroachment of the sea. However that may be, the tomb and monument are exceedingly interesting, though it is evident that the present was not their original position, and that both have been much defaced. The monument is a semicircular arch, supported by angels, and surmounted by vine leaves, flowers, and fruit. The roof of the arch is ribbed, and each side is supported by a buttress terminating in a niche with a mutilated female figure. A crocketed pediment and finial surmounts each buttress. Within the arch 12 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE there is a stone coffin with the effigy of a female figure with clasped hands, vested in loose flowing robes resting monu- dated 1621, ing one William land, and his lived lovingly fifty years " in and love of ished a fair pil- joyful paradise. to be supposed, the two Plough- Ploughland and land — which lie north of Wel- As the travel- wards Patring- fail to observe ness of the land rowing point Humber and the North Sea In Welwick church there is also an inte- mental brass, commemorat-Wright,ofPlew-wife, who having together for the feare of God Men," thus fin- grimage to a "Plewland,"itis is identical with lands — Little Great Plough- somewhat to the wick. ler journeys to- ton he cannot the curious flat- PATRINGTON lying in the nar- between the It is so flat that the coppices and plantations have the appearance of tree-crowned islands — they seem to stand up out of water. The windmills with which this neighbourhood is somewhat liberally furnished look like lighthouses rising clear and distinct against the horizon. Prominent features of the scenery, indeed, present themselves plainly at every step taken along the level roads. The lighthouse at Withernsea, the spires of Keyingham and Ottringham, the square tower of Hedon appear from afar off, so absolutely flat is the general lie of the land. But coming from Welwick the traveller's eyes will see little but the spire of Patrington church, which rises in commanding fashion directlyin his path. It is a notable landmark, in addition to being a beautiful piece of architectural work, and is even more conspicuous than Hedon church tower. It rises high above the town at its feet, topping the trees outside the churchyard, and forms with the roofs and gables of the neighbouring houses a noticeable and charming picture. It needs little discernment on the part of the traveller to decide that Patrington is one of those places from whence anything in the way of active life has long since fled. It has now but one glory, its magnificent church, and yet it was a town of importance long before William the Conqueror ravaged the North of England and built the great white-walled Keep at York. Some authorities say that it was the Prcetoriuni of the Roman itinerary, but whether this was so or not it is certain that the Romans had some acquaint ance with the neighbourhood, since Roman coins and a Roman altar have at various times been discovered close by. In these days Patrington pre- PATRINGTON tj & sents to the eye the appearance of a remarkably sleepy, rather neat little town, where life would seem to flow onward in a placid and uneventful fashion. From of the church- wide, principal away through quiet little walks of which cobble - stones. the observant sight of grass streets — not in sive fashion, tain sense of which fits the is little move- streets, even on ings. In the inns the tra- soft Holderness ferent to the Riding dialect to another. The surely and re- them, as about there hangs a cient times — it had been care- with their old cobble - paved the red - tiled brought out, by the time- bition to folk of The history church is prac- ANGLE OF I.ADY CHAPEL, PATRINGTON the north side yard the long, street stretches an avenue of houses, the side- are paved with Here and there eye catches growing in the a bold, obtru- but with a cer- at - homeness picture. There ment in the Saturday even- old fashioned veller hears the speech, as dif- harsh West as one language people are lei- flective ; about the little town, flavour of an- is as if they fully put away church, the side-walks, and houses, to be now and again, spirit, for exhi- a busier age. of Patrington tically the his tory of Patrington itself. Various authorities give various derivations of the town's name, but there seems little doubt that the earliest ecclesiastical build ing there was dedicated to St. Patrick, and that the original name was Patrictone. St. Patrick was a saint of great influence in the northern districts of England, and it is almost certain that a Saxon church, dedi cated to him, was here previous to the Norman church which afterwards replaced it, and of which there are still some traces remaining. The Archbishops of York were lords of the manor of Patrington from the i4 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE time of Athelstan to that of Henry VIII., and it is probably to their bene volence that Patrington owes its present fine church. Walter de Grey, the great church-building Archbishop of York, was at Patrington in 1230 and again in 1231, probably to consecrate the new church ; Archbishop Green field, equally enthusiastic about church-building, was there in 1309 ; Arch bishop William de Melton, who completed the nave of York Minster, was there in 1328, settling a dispute as to the payment of tithes. Competent authorities assign the building of the church to the days of these three great churchmen ; nothing, at any rate, would appear to have been added to the fabric since the middle of the fourteenth century. The complete effect would suggest the design of one mind, and Dr. Raine has put forward the theory that Robert de Patrington, who was Master-Mason of York Minster from 1368 to 1370, was the responsible builder of the church, and gained his post at York by reason of his achievements in his own town. But at what ever date Patrington church was built the traveller cannot fail to find pleasure in it as a thing of exquisite beauty. Its architecture is principally of the decorated Gothic style combined with some fine perpendicular work, and the fabric consists of nave, north and south aisles, transepts, chancel, and a tower surmounted by an octagonal spire 180 feet in height. Arch deacon Wilberforce was wont to term it the model parish church of Eng land, a eulogium amply merited, as all who admire its design, proportion, and effect will admit. The inscriptions to be found on the tombstones of our ancient parish churches are not seldom as interesting as the church itself, and there are some in Patrington church which are worthy of notice. On a plain brass plate in the chancel is an inscription to the memory of Andrew Marvell's godfather, John Duncalfe : — " Here SLEEPETH IN PEACE THE BODY OF Mr. John Duncalfe, and Margaret his Wife and Uriah His Son. He left 2 sons John and Humphrey, and was interred in this chancel 22 October 1637. Whose Death the Poore Bemoane." No prouder testimony to a life well spent could any man have than Mr. John Duncalfe has in those last five words — though there is nothing set forth in ostentatious fashion as to his benefactions and bequests. Pat rington would seem to have been rather well off in possessing inhabitants of a charitable temper and disposition. In the porch on the south side there are two boards whereon are inscribed lists of certain doles and gifts to the poor of the parish, some of which date from long-dead days : — "a.d. 1593. John Thorget left 5s. yearly for ever charged on his house and garth at Patrington, surrendered to Thos. Tock, To be paid to the churchwardens and by them distributed amongst the poor on the 2nd day of November." On the second board is an entry which provokes certain feelings of amusement : — PATRINGTON CHURCH *5 "a.d. 1805. Mrs. Susannah Featherston left ^100, as is mentioned on her monu ment, but payment was refused by her executors, and it was never received." There are some exceedingly interesting entries in the parish registers of Patrington, which commence with the year 1570, and have been con tinued with more since. Here is mortalises an town who would unknown but for remarkable cou- "The topp of rington was new year of our Lord in the month of was putt on the lowing with g* cou- by John Burdas, I Town, of the age holes being not iron, said John forced to stand one foot upon the upon the top of a the craill to bring fection wh he did to and admiration.'' This entry is Pighills,whowas 1685 to 1725. his, Nicholas the register as ing to other ous observations and on agricul- noted on various a considerable eighteenth century ¦'Iti v I ¦ - , LADY CHAPEL, PATRINGTON or less care ever one which im- inhabitant of the have remained the display of rage and ability : the steeple of Pat- cemented in the 1715. It was done July, and the ffaine 14th of August fol- rage and dexterity Bricklayer of the of 26 years. The exactly fitted to the Burdas was en- some hours with Topstone, the other ladder raised from his work to Per- every one's wonder signed by Jo. Rector from A successor of Nicholl, used a means of leav- times some curi- on the weather tural matters, occasions during period of the Two of Mr. Nicholl's entries are of exceptional interest, remembering what corner of the land it was that he dwelt in. One of them relates to a strange cure for the distemper among horned cattle, which had raged in many parts of Europe from 1750 until six years afterwards : — " A safe and easy cure for it (the distemper) was discovered by hanging four or five onions about the neck of the distempered beast as soon as possible after it is taken ill, i6 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE PATRINGTON CHURCH and will not eat, and next day four more onions, and so on ; the onions, when they are removed, are to be buried in a deep hole when taken off the beast's neck, and will be much swelled, and will in a few days thus applied, make the beast run at the nose, which will carry off the distemper. It is proper also to hang some onions up in the stable where the beast is." The other entry records a flood which must have been exceptional in its depth and duration : — "Be it remembered that in the year 1762 there was so great a drought from Candlemas till harvest that there was a great scarcity of hay and fodder, so that several cows in many parts of England were sold at a guinea per head. Hay at £3. 3s. a load. In the next year, 1763, there were such almost continued rains that the corn was much swamped and damaged, and the hay, though plentiful, was very ordinary. The banks of the rivers broke, and great inundations ensued in almost all parts of Europe, especi ally in England, and particularly in Yorkshire and Holderness, where the whole land between Bilton and Hull was laid under water so deep that the turnpike houses were deserted, and there was no travelling from Bilton to Hull for months together, from 6th of January 1764, to the first day of April. But in a boat one man and horse, attempt ing to go through, were drowned." WINESTEAD CHURCH 17 IV About a mile from Patrington, the little church of Winestead, dedicated to St. Germain, nestles peacefully amongst the trees that surround it. Un like its neighbour it is of no architectural pretensions, for it consists only eg /} . jPi* - > :; ¦1 - «*rf ¦ t »f THE OLD MOAT, WINESTEAD of a chancel and a nave, but it is of eminent interest to the traveller and the student of history in the fact that its registers contain an entry of the baptism of Andrew Marvell, whose father was rector of the parish early in the seventeenth century. Andrew Marvell was born at Winestead, and the entry of his baptism — which is in his father's handwriting — bears date March 31st, 1 62 1. He was educated at Hull Grammar School, from whence he proceeded to Cambridge. After spending several years in continental travel, he was appointed assistant-secretary to John Milton, who was at that time Latin secretary to Oliver Cromwell, and about the same time he became member of Parliament for Hull, a position which he filled with conspicuous ability for twenty years. He was the last member of Parliament to receive payment for his services, and on his death, in 1678, the Corporation of Hull made a grant of .£50 to defray the expenses of his funeral. He was buried at St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, in London, and his statue stands in the Hull Town Hall. Naturally the chief interest of Winestead church lies in its relation to its most illustrious son, but there are monuments in it which are interesting in themselves, one of them an altar-tomb, to the memory of Sir 18 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Christopher Hildyard, Kt., who died in 1634 ; the other, a tomb without in scription, in memory of some unknown member of the same family. Wine stead church also contains a memorial stone, with monumental effigies in brass work, of Robin, Knight of Reidsdale, with his wife and their family of thirteen children. Across country from Patrington and Winestead, going southward towards the Humber, lies a curious tract of land called Sunk Island. Formed by the gradual deposit of sand and silt caused by the ebb and flow of the tides in the estuary, it was at first only perceivable from the mainland at low water. An itinerant who visited it in the early years of the present century describes it as being nine miles in circumference, and containing 2000 acres of land, enclosed by high banks. It had then some three or four houses, with a chapel, and it was sufficiently cut off from the mainland to deserve its insular name. Now, however, its cultivated area is about 6000 acres ; it was some time ago constituted a parish, with a church ; it has a certain population, and a harbour, known as Stone Creek. Sunk Island is a dead flat, level as the proverbial billiard table, and the traveller, in traversing its lanes or wandering along the banks of the dykes, will not improbably feel within him an uncomfortable wonder as to whether there is not some danger of the Humber suddenly rising, and covering its level expanse with floods. Between Patrington and Hedon, south-east Holderness is a land of smooth and monotonous expanse, suggesting nothing but a comfortable easiness of life, and a somewhat colourless existence. The fields produce wheat and barley and rye, and are separated one from the other by hedge rows and drains, not unlike the dykes of Lincolnshire. The villages are like the little towns, sleepy and old-world in appearance, and the folk met along the roadside never seem to be urgently busy. The traveller who drops in at some wayside tavern finds two or three labourers talking in slow fashion in the kitchen, and as many farmers chatting about prices and produce in the parlour. Everything seems to go on in a pleasant, un hurried fashion that is in perfect keeping with the blue-grey skies, and the monotonous tint of the surrounding country. Here and there comes a village to break the sameness of the high-road. At Ottringham, on the south side of the road from Spurn to Hull, and at Keyingham, a little dis tance westward, there are two of the three broach spires in Holderness, and the churches which they surmount are quaint and interesting. From Keyingham a wide drain leads down to the Humber bank, and passes in the opposite direction to Skeckling-cum-Burstwick, a long, straggling village. This part of the Holderness, which abuts on the north bank of the Humber, is not so interesting as the land about Patrington ; but as the tower of Hedon church, rising high above Hedon town, looms larger and larger, a new interest in the district is created. Few churches stand out so prominently from the surrounding landscape as Hedon, and the first impression of the * ' . tfj > '7'T" ¦ \'\l '!> ¦ i : ' ' i. Si: ;\ jlilf r" 1 Ktf 3 '¦¦>'. >r • ¦ ¦ ^ HEDON CHURCH 20 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE stranger who catches a sudden glimpse of its great tower from afar off must surely be that he has approached, all unawares, to the outskirts of a city. Hedon, however, has nothing of the importance of a city within its boundaries, always excepting its magnificent, and in some senses its unique, church. It is the quietest and sleepiest of market-towns, and over every thing in it an invisible hand seems to have drawn a large brush dipped heavily in grey colour. Its houses are principally built of red brick, and the roofs are of red tile, but the tone of the picture is soft grey. Out of a bower of trees rises the great church, with its mighty tower, its impressive gables, its high windows, its perpetual reminiscence and suggestion of the past. Everywhere there is a strange, almost awe-compelling sense of silence. The streets are nearly deserted ; in the little shops there seems to be no business going on ; the inns, quaint and picturesque places that they are, are well-nigh innocent of custom. And yet everything looks prosperous and comfortable ; the houses rejoice in fresh paint, there is nothing mean or squalid ; such folk as are visible seem less troubled with the cares of this world than most townspeople. It is a strangely wonderful little town this, so solemn, so full of peace, at ordinary times, so eternally dominated by the great tower that looks down on its roofs, and from them to the long, level land which wraps the town about as with a green mantle. Many a long year ago Leland, that most charming of itinerants, came journeying to Hedon and wrote about it in his own inimitable fashion : — " Hedden hath been a fair haven town ; it standeth a mile and more within the creeke that cometh out of Humbre into it. These crekes part ing about the said town, did insulate, and shippis lay about the town, but now men come to it by three bridges, when it is evident to se that some places where the shippis lay be overgrown with flagges and reades, and the haven is very sorely decayid. Ther were thre paroche chirches in the time of mind " (what a delightfully quaint expression !) " but now ther is but one of St. Augustine ; but that is very faire. And not far from this church garth appere tokens of a pile or castel, that was sumtyme ther for the defence of the town. The town hath yet grete privileges ; with a mair and bailies, but wher it had in Edward Illd.'s days many good ships, and rich mer chants, now there be but a few botes, and no merchants of any estimation. Swarving and choaking of the haven, and fires defacing much of the town, hath been the decay of it. Sum say that the staple of wool of the north parts was once here. Truth is that when Hull began to flourish Hedden decayed." In that last sentence, a true Lelandian sentence for its terse presenta tion of an undoubted fact, lies the whole sum of the matter. Hull came into active existence and Hedon went out of it. The harbour became choked as the merchants neglected it, and went on from bad to worse, until now it is a part of the land, and children play in the fields where once a fair haven made room for stately ships. HEDON 21 : THE MARKET-PLACE, HEDON .But while Hedon town has sunk into commercial obscurity, Hedon church, known to all the countryside as " The Pride of Holderness," has lost nothing of its ancient grandeur. It is without doubt one of the most magnificent churches in Yorkshire, or in England, and there are many cathedrals which cannot in any way compare with it for proportion or dignity. It is of three periods of architecture — Early English, Perpen dicular, and Decorated — and has a nave, aisle, chancel, and transepts, with a tower at the intersection. The tower is 130 feet high, the length from east to west 164 feet, and from north to south 103 feet. The windows of the aisles are pointed, with decorated tracery, but the west window is per pendicular, as is also the east window, each having five lights. The north and south sides of the chancel have each a triforium of six arches ; there are three sedilia on the north side, and a piscina and ambry on the south. The tower is supported by four massive piers, and the entire appearance of the interior is noble and impressive. Hugh de Hedon, a successor of Robert de Patrington as Master Mason of York Minster, was probably responsible for the beauty of this great church, now the only one surviving in his native town, but of his connection with it there is no record, and no monument to his memory within its walls, 22 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Until the passing of the Reform Act of 1832 Hedon was considered im portant enough to return two members to the House of Commons, but it was then disfranchised. It is still, however, a corporate town, governed by its own mayor and corporation, and in its town-hall there are preserved some interesting relics of the old days, in the shape of portraits of former members of Parliament, and two maces, one of which, fashioned of silver gilt, dates from the time of Henry VI., while the other, of silver, was made during the reign of Elizabeth. Strange to say, the church possesses no remarkable tombs or monuments, but in the churchyard which surrounds it there are some rather curious epitaphs, and also some names on the gravestones which strike the traveller as being somewhat uncommon. There is a Pemrose Everingham interred there ; a Cornwall Baron ; a Proom Story ; a John Droney of Thorn Gumbald ; a Nicolas Dring ; a Thustinaway Stringer — some of them buried quite recently. A strange variation of a well-known humorous epitaph is seen here on the tombstone of a boy who presumably died very suddenly : — JOHN GRIMOLDBY LICKISS : 10 yrs & 9 mos. A sudden change — he in a moment fell, He had not time to bid his friends farewell. The vagaries of the irresponsible monumental mason are admirably illus trated in the last line of the following epitaph : — ROBERT KEYME: 1864. Home at last, thy labour done, Safe and blest, thy victory won ; Jordan passed, from pain set free Angles (sic) now have welcomed thee. More vagaries, of either the mourning relatives or of some rustic sculptor innocent of prosody, are seen in the lines which ornament the tomb of ELIZABETH WARD 1838 All you that comes (sic) My grave to see Weep for yourselves And not for me, I in my bloom was snatched away Therefore Prepare Make no delay. The most interesting epitaph in Hedon churchyard, however, is one on a person named Carrick Watson, who must certainly have been one of the most noteworthy men of his time : — HEDON CHURCHYARD 23 CARRICK WATSON: 1805. He was a most affectionate Husband A kind Master And a sincere Friend, He was Frank to a Degree, But it was the Frankness of an Honest Heart, which having nothing in it to hide cared not who saw into its inmost Recesses. To say the Thing that was not, was in his Estimation, the most contemptible of all Vices, and to affect what he felt not, the most difficult of all Tasks. The churchyard of Hedon is an almost ideal place wherein to linger, so quiet and peaceful is it, and so suggestive of the long dead past. The buildings which shut it off from the market-place are quaint and vener able, and the only sounds which meet the ear are those of children playing without the walls, or the sudden chiming of the clock overhead. On the north side of the churchyard is a species of close which would seem at some period to have been part of the churchyard itself, and in its midst stand lofty trees, throwing a welcome shade towards the church as the afternoon wears towards even ing. This, of all bits of south-east Holderness, is emphatically the place wherein to attempt some realisation of the past life of these now half- deserted towns and villages. From Hedon the land stretches towards its one-time rival and now vastly superior sister-town of Hull — that is, so far as size and commercial importance are concerned — in an chantkv absolutely level expanse of field and AT HED0N marsh. Just outside Hedon lies the only modern thing which charac terises it a recently laid-out racecourse, with a grand stand, paddocks, and everything necessary to the conduct of a first-class race meeting complete. There is a special railway station at the racecourse, and the races are well attended by north-country sportsmen. From near the west end of the course a by-lane leads north and east to Preston, a somewhat interesting village 24 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE ¦i h ':.'¦. | v\b 1 -: * f which possesses a fine church. More interest, however, will be found in turn ing away from Hedon towards the banks of the Humber, either by the lane which leads to Paull, or by the side of Hedon Haven, where once upon a time the ships used to load and unload their merchandise. The haven is now a mere canal, running between high banks designed to keep out its waters from the surrounding fields and meadows. There is still some trade upon it, but neither along its banks or at Paull, where it runs into the Humber, is there anything to remind one of what is told of Hedon in the old days. At Paull, or Paghill, as it was once called, the traveller finds himself gazing once more on the broad expanse of the Humber. To his left is High Paull lighthouse ; immediately in front of him, at a distance of two miles, stretches the long grey line of Lincolnshire coast, rounding west one way and south the other from the bend known as Skitter Ness. To his right lies Hull. If the day be clear he will see the tower of its great church, the spires and pinnacles of other churches, the gables and roofs of high buildings, mingling with a forest of masts. If it be dull he will see a canopy of smoke, the sure signal of commerce and enterprise. Clear or dull, he will know that he is within sight of a principal port of the kingdom. Before him, on the somewhat sombre-coloured waters of the Humber, he will see ships of all sizes and conditions, from the ocean greyhound to the ocean tramp, going out or coming in; and as he draws nearer along the banks he will catch the clank and clang of hammers in the shipbuilding yards, telling of still other ships that will shortly be launched into the great estuary. Between the quiet peacefulness of south-east Holder ness and these first signs of a great industrial centre there is a strong con trast. The silence of Spurn Head, the grass-grown streets of Patrington and Hedon, the slow life of the fields and marshes, typify the old order of things that is disappearing but is not yet dead : the hurry and bustle of the great seaport close by are emblematic of the new age and the new spirit— and the Humber, more enduring than either, binds both together. CHAPTER II Hull as a Historic Town FOUNDATION OF HULL — EDWAKD I. AND HULL— THE FORTIFICATIONS— THE DE LA POLE FAMILY EARLY CHARTERS AND PRIVILEGES — THE WATER RIOTS — HULL AND THE LANCASTRIANS — SUPPRESSION OF THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES — HENRY VIII. AND HULL— HULL AND THE CIVIL WAR THE WHALING TRADE WILLIAM WILBERFORCE INTRO DUCTION OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEMS — THE CHOLERA EPIDEMIC IN 1849 — PROGRESS OF HULL DURING THE RECENT CENTURY. bBOUT twenty miles westward of Spurn Head the river Hull, after flowing through a considerable portion of Holderness, joins the estuary of the Humber, and at this exact point of meeting stands the old part of the ancient borough of Kingston-on-Hull, with the new parts stretch ing away north, east, and west. Seen from the Humber, Hull gives the traveller an impression of size and import ance. It has a frontage to the estuary of four miles ; its breadth, from the piers and wharves to its northern boundary, is between two and three miles ; its total area covers eight thousand acres of ground. Ancient as its history is, Hull is practically a modern town ; two hundred years ago it was a small borough confined within fortified walls on the north and west, and bounded by the Hull and the Humber on the east and south ; to-day it ranks as the third most important seaport in the kingdom, and contains over fifty thousand inhabited houses. Nevertheless, small as it was in the early days of its history, it presented a striking and notable appear ance to the inhabitants of the surrounding country, for it was strongly fortified by embattled walls and towers, the full length of which was nearly a mile and a half. Until the destruction of its fortifications and the filling up of its surrounding moats and ditches, Hull must have been one of the most impregnable boroughs in the North of England. The foundation of Hull is commonly ascribed to Edward I. about the 26 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE end of the thirteenth century. This is probably due to the fact that Edward I. showed a strong liking for the town. That it had an earlier important existence is proved from an ancient document still preserved in the muniment chamber of the corporation, wherein one Maud de Camin makes a grant of lands in Wyke to the Abbey of Meaux, a conventual establishment seven miles from Hull, founded during the reign of Stephen by William le Gros, Earl of Albemarle and Lord of Holderness. Wyke, or Wyke-upon-Hull, was the earliest name of the town, but in the rolls of Meaux Abbey it is spoken of as Hull alone as early as 1160. That it had attained considerable importance as a commercial centre at the beginning of the thirteenth century is shown by an entry in the accounts of the col lectors appointed to gather the tax or duty known as Quinzime. There Hull ranks as the sixth port in the kingdom, only London, Boston, Southampton, Lincoln, and Lynn being superior to it. This was in 1205 ; within eighty years Hull had become the third principal port in the king dom so far as regards the export of leather and wool was concerned — Boston being first and London second. What with the trade in wool and leather and wine, Hull at this time began to flourish exceedingly. It may have been that its fame reached the ears of Edward I., who was then king, and induced him to take the steps which made Hull a royal manor. Until then it had been in sole possession of the monks of Meaux: in 1287 Edward began his negotiations with the Abbot for the transfer of Hull to the Crown. Six years later the town of Wyke, or Hull, and the sur rounding manor of Myton, were formally handed over to Edward by a deed executed on the Feast of the Purification. The value given in ex change was comprised in certain lands in Lincolnshire, and in this case it would seem that the king got the better of the bargain. As soon as Hull became a royal possession, Edward I. changed its name from Wyke to Kingston-upon-Hull, and set to work on certain schemes for its better government. He made it an independent manor, and put it in charge of a Warden and Bailiffs. The first Warden of Kingston-upon- Hull was one Richard Oysel, a court favourite, who had previously enjoyed the honours and profits of the office of Bailiff of Holderness. In 1298 Edward came to spend Christmas at Lord Wake's house at Cottingham, close by his recently acquired manor, and thither repaired the inhabitants of Hull, headed, no doubt, by Warden Oysel, with a petition, wherein they prayed his Majesty to give them a charter. Edward heard their prayers graciously : the charter was granted. It is still treasured amongst the corporation documents, and is dated April 1st, 1299. Its provisions con stitute Kingston-upon-Hull a free borough, with the privileges of a royal burgh. Its people received power to elect a coroner, to be free from all tolls and customs, to enjoy all freedoms without scot or lot, to build a prison, and to hold markets weekly and a fair yearly. All this sudden access of great things being entered into, Hull began to bestir itself mightily. ANCIENT PLAN OF HULL 27 28 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE The harbour was improved, the merchants grew more enterprising, and not a little increase of population came from Hedon, there being certain fickle folk in that ancient and respectable borough who were sharp enough to see that Hull was going to be a place of mighty importance. Some time during the year 1300 his Majesty Edward I. came in person to see his new town. He did not stay there long, but his visit had a good effect in the sense that it made the burgesses pave their streets and improve the appearance of the town generally. The Warden was particularly zealous about these matters, and having settled them he turned his attention to the roads outside the town. To him is due the fashioning of the three high ways which connect Hull with Beverley, with the villages on the west side of the town, and with the Holderness towns and villages. This opening up of the country naturally led to still further increase of population, and by 1302 Hull was big enough and important enough to send two of its folk to represent it in Parliament. By the time that Edward I. died, in 1307, Hull had fully satisfied the desires he had formed respecting it, and had become one of the principal boroughs in Yorkshire. Fifteen years after the first Edward's death, the Hull folk seem to have come to the conclusion that they were not as securely guarded against possible enemies as they might be. They accordingly petitioned the second Edward for his royal leave to build certain walls, towers, and battlements about their town, and in other ways to make themselves safe from designing marauders. The King was pleased to consent, " so that that portione of his kingdome might be the better secured," and accordingly the walls of Hull began to rise. They ran from the mouth of the Hull to a point now occu pied by Humber Street, and from thence to the top of High Street, thus enclosing what is to this day the ancient portion of the town. Before the walls lay a moat, and where the moat was, there are now three docks, the Humber, the Prince's, and the Queen's. At the top of High Street was a gate, or bar, called North Gate ; where the street called Mytongate now runs from the dock-side towards the market-place there was another bar, called by the same name ; at the point where Whitefriargate leads away from Monument Bridge, there was a bar known as Beverley Gate. A trim, compact, well-arranged little town this — the river Hull on one side, the Humber on another, the walls on the third and fourth, and the three gates, castellated and very threatening in appearance, topping and piercing the walls. Afterwards there were other gates, with a postern and a sallyport, but the picture of Hull when its new walls were first finished, and its burgesses made snug within them, is the one which appeals most heartily to one's imagination. The connection between the folks of Hull and theEdwardscontinuedafter the second king of that name had followed thefirst into silence. In 1332 came Edward III. with a great train of nobles and attendants. He was on his way to the military operations in the north, but he must needs stop and see WILLIAM DE LA POLE 29 what the Hull burgesses had been doing about the walls and fortifica tions of this borough, in which his father and grandfather had taken so much inter- received with welcome, en- sumptuous William de made much In return, he new fortifi- ferred the knighthoodhost, and the old office made the first Mayor TheWil- Pole thus THE OLD BEVERLEY GATE AT HULL est. He was a right royal tertained in fashion by la Pole, and ofaltogether.praised the cations, con- honour of upon his abolishing of Warden, new knight of Hull. liam de la h o n our ed was a member of a family of whose fortunes it is impossible not to treat while dealing with the history of Hull. The story of the De la Poles is one of the most romantic and remarkable stories which can be found amongst the archives of ancient English families. They were originally merchants at Ravenspurn, and came, as did a good many other people, to Hull, when Ravenspurn began to decline in prosperity. In Hull the De la Poles flourished exceedingly. William de la Pole was evidently the principal man in the place in 1332, when Edward III. visited him and conferred honours upon him. Seven years later the King approached him in another role. He was prosecuting an expensive war with France, and he wanted money. William de la Pole became his banker, to use the delicate euphem ism of some writers. He lent the King vast sums — -£76,000 on one occa sion, -£46,000 on another. It is said that in order to raise these sums the family estates were mortgaged. However that may be, the De la Poles continued to flourish, even as Hull flourished, and they never forgot the town from whence their riches were drawn. Upon William de la Pole further honours were showered by Edward III., who finally made him a Baron of the Exchequer. Hi.s son, Michael de la Pole, continued to enjoy the royal favour under Richard II. He was made Admiral of the North, Lord Chancellor of England, and eventually Earl of Suffolk. Then came the not uncommon charge of high treason, and he was sent into exile, and his estates were confiscated. But in 1402 his son, Michael, was restored to the title and estates, and the De la Pole star was once more in the ascendant. The third Earl of Suffolk was slain at Agincourt, and his brother William, succeeding to the title, was made, first Marquis, and then Duke. In 1449 he, too, fell into disgrace, and was banished the kingdom. 3~6 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE As he crossed from Dover to France, his enemies caught him, brought him back to Dover beach, and there beheaded him ; in this way making sure that there would be no return to favour and power in his case. For nearly a century afterwards, the De la Poles had an increasingly eventful history. Attainted of high treason, their estates confiscated, and they them selves executed or banished, their ancient glories quickly departed, and in 1525 the last of them, Richard de la Pole, fell at Pavia, fighting for the French. Never, perhaps, has there been a more notable instance of the rise and fall of a family than in this of the De la Poles, whose name is so intimately connected with Hull. After the visit of Edward III. to William de la Pole, Hull's fortunes increased with surprising rapidity. It was to Holderness what a strong magnet is amongst a collection of attractable things — it drew everything towards it. Not only Hedon, but also Patrington, and Barton, across the Humber, found their more powerful rival withdrawing trade, and keeping it. It became strong enough and wealthy enough to do something for the defence of the kingdom, and furnished Edward III. with sixteen ships and five hundred men for his war against France, in addition to the money which went out of the De la Pole coffers for the same purpose. For Richard 11. again, the burgesses provided ships and men, though they were at the same time spending money on their own needs in the shape of strengthening the fortifications, and building a castle on the east bank of the Hull. Ere long the strength of the fortifications was put to a test. Henry of Lancaster landed at Ravenspurn in 1399, and having gathered together a number of the disaffected, marched up to Hull, and boldly demanded entrance of the Mayor, one John Tuttebury, who, seeing Henry's approach, had caused the bridges to be drawn up, the gates to be closed, and the walls to be manned — a very courageous and wise action indeed. Between John Tuttebury and Henry of Lancaster much speaking ensued. Henry sternly demanded admittance : John Tuttebury as sternly refused it. He had sworn, he said, to be true to his Majesty King Richard II. by keeping the town faithfully to his use, and he would open the gates to no enemy of the king. And Henry of Lancaster, perceiving what sort of resolute, honest gentleman it was who stood there on the very strong walls of Hull, said no more, but went off to Doncaster and got in there without much objection. One imagines Henry as having at this time conceived some warm admiration for bold John Tuttebury and his burgesses of Hull, for as soon as he came to the throne he renewed and confirmed all their charters. During the last years of the fourteenth and the early years of the fifteenth centuries, the folks of Hull were at sore loggerheads with their neighbours on a matter which is still potent to cause heart-burnings and bickerings in rural districts. The water supply of Hull was not good, and there were times when it was well-nigh impossible to get any fresh water at all. Probably the inhabitants drew no inconsiderable amount of what THE WATER RIOTS 3' water supply they rounding country, and Hull increased the people of the lages began to ob- mours of jealousies this point as far back years after that some west boundaries of selves together in a overgrown neigh- of this movement be- contres and broken the matter assumed country folk ad- THE ARMS OK THE TOWN OF KINGSTON-UPON-HULL had from the sur- and as time went on in size and appetite, neighbouring vil- ject. There are ru- and squabbles on as 1370, and six of the villages on the Hull banded them- crusade against their bours. Little came yond occasional ren- heads, but in 1392 serious aspects. The vanced upon Hull, diverted the course of the streams which brought water into the town, and threatened to pull down the walls and utterly destroy Hull itself. Hull was for some time in a state of siege and its inhabitants were reduced to sore straits, for the beleaguers had not only cut off the principal water supply, but were daily preventing food from being brought into the town. However, after a time they withdrew, and the principal result for them was that several of their leaders were tried, sentenced to death, and executed. Ten years later the trouble broke out afresh. The authorities got powers to cut a fresh water dyke from the Old Julian springs to Whitefriar Gate, and the country folk hearing of it were once more roused to violent opposition. For some time riots and fighting continued to take place around the excavations, but in the end good sense prevailed and harmony was restored. The principal ringleaders, however, were sentenced to do penance for their misdeeds, and the manner of their doing it is somewhat amusing to hear of. On the Friday in the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady each culprit was to walk, bare of head and bare of foot, naked of body " in serke and breke," bear ing a wax candle of three pounds' weight burning in his hand, in procession to the Church of the Holy Trinity, and was there to stand from the begin ning of the Mass until the offering, when he was to advance and offer his candle, to be burnt on holidays — as long as the " thre pond wax " lasted, one supposes. This terrible punishment seems to have kept the villagers quiet for a while, but within a few years the water riots were in evidence again and raging worse than ever. The country people displayed much malice, for they broke down banks and threw dead cats and dogs into the water. The Hull folk were now at their wits' end, and nobody knew what to do. Some person of genius hit upon a happy notion — why not appeal to the Pope ? To his Holiness the Mayor and townsfolk accordingly appealed, beseeching him to visit their exceeding naughty neighbours with all the pains and penalties of excommunications, minor and major, richly 32 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE deserved for their mis- XXII.) was no doubt this communication faithful Christendom. however, and possibly from some person hav- unruly Yorkshire folk, a reply which does him tian gentleman and a of all he reminded the posed of the Holderness was a day of reckoning would have to give an haviour during this life. decent people should water- courses, and bowels of charity — a Papal bulls and briefs— to the burgesses of Hull. THE SEAL OF ST. AUGUSTINE'S MONASTERY deeds. The Pope (John somewhat puzzled by from so distant a part of Having duly studied it, asked a few questions ing knowledge of the he sat down to prepare much credit as a Chris- skilful diplomatist. First naughty and evil-dis- village folk that there coming, whereon they account of their be- Then he pointed out that never interfere with urged them by the favourite expression in to do their best to secure a proper water supply Finally, being a judicious and far-seeing man, he offered an indulgence of one hundred days to whomsoever should assist in that good work. This letter, or rescript, was written at Rome in July 1413, and from that date there was no further trouble about the water supply. What the common law of England could not do a little diplomatic remonstrance from his Holiness at Rome effected very easily — all of which is vastly entertaining and uncommonly instructive. II Few cities or towns in the kingdom seem to have ranked as high in the favour of sovereigns at any time as this borough of Hull did in the days of the Edwards and the Henrys. In 1448 Henry VI., returning London- wards from the North, turned aside to Hull and abode there a brief space, during which time mutual compliments passed between the monarch and the burgesses. Henry granted several new charters to the town, each one conveying some privilege or concession. One of them elevated the borough to the rank and dignity of a corporate town, with all the machinery of a Mayor, Recorder, and twelve Aldermen, all of whom were also to rank as magistrates. Moreover, the king ordained that henceforth the Mayor and Aldermen should array themselves in scarlet gowns and hoods, lined with fur, and before them should be carried in solemn state a sword, a mace, and a cap of maintenance. The same charter made Hull and the surround ing country into a separate and distinct county, with a sheriff of its own. All this increase of glory naturally made the Hull people look on the House of Lancaster with very friendly eyes. Ere long came the inevitable test THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE 33 of friendship. The Wars of the Roses broke out, and every Englishman was required to make his choice between the rival houses of York and Lancaster. Hull was castrians, and in with the traditions loyalty with money died for the Lancas- at Wakefield— Rich- amongst them. As of the affair it be- the corporation that raise money by pull- the materials of their whereby one argues days were no light burgesses. is eventful in the tween the reigns of Henry VIII. Its perity increased, and English towns be- tant. A visitation 1472—1478 carried a* THE SWORDS OF STATE : HULL faithful to the Lan- strict accordance she backed up her and men. Hull men trians at Towton and ard Hanson, Mayor, to the financial part came so expensive to they were obliged to ing down and selling new market-cross, that wars in those matter to honest There is little that history of Hull be- Henry VI. and commercial pros- its position amongst came more impor- of the Plague from off over two thousand of the inhabitants, including Mayors Whitfield, Richards, and Alcock. That over, the town entered upon a period of quietude, which proved to be but the prelude to stormy and eventful times. Henry VIII. came to the throne in 1509, and English history entered upon a new phase. Rumours of new ideas and new movements were in the air, and men's minds began to be uneasy. When the order for the suppression of the religious houses was made known there was a feeling of strong discontent in various parts of England, but especially in Yorkshire. In 1536 forty thousand Yorkshire- men, binding themselves together under the title of the Pilgrimage of Grace, assembled at Market Weighton. A strong detachment marched on Hull, headed by one Captain Stapleton, and demanded the surrender of the town from its military commanders, Sir Ralph Ellerker and Sir John Conyers. Before the end of October Hull was in the hands of the insurgents, one of whom, John Hallam, was made Governor by Captain Stapleton. The king, however, shortly regained possession of the town and garrisoned it afresh, and with increased strength. Early in January 1537 John Hallam, accom panied by twenty accomplices, entered Hull disguised as country folk, and endeavoured to bribe the townspeople to complicity with the disaffected in a further attempt to retake the town. In this attempt he failed, and being taken by the authorities he and his men were tried and executed without delay. The hand of the king fell heavily on the principal leaders of the 34 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE rebellion. Gibbets stood before the gates of every city and town. Four Abbots — those of Whalley, Woburn, Sawley, and Barlings — hung before Lincoln. The Abbots of Fountaine and Jervaulx were hanged at Tyburn. Lady Bulmer was burned ; Lords Darcy and Hussey beheaded. Aske was hung at York. And outside "the highest gate of the towne " of Hull, " trimmed in cheynes," hung the body of Sir Robert Constable, as a warning to all and sundry not to rise against lawful authority. One wonders whether Sir Robert Constable's body was still hanging in its chains when Henry VIII. visited Hull some four years later. He arrived there in September 1537, bringing with him the fifth of his queens, Catherine Howard, and certain members of his Privy Council. Keeping up their old traditions, the Hull folk made much of the wife-murderer, being mercifully disposed to overlook his misdeeds, and not being in any wise able to forget that he was king. That they had their doubts and un comfortable suspicions about him, however, is proved from the fact that in 1537 they had a notion borne in upon them that Henry was going to lay hands on the corporation plate. Rather than suffer that they sold it at auction, and applied the proceeds to the carrying out of some useful public works — which proves that the Hull folk of that day were as business-like as their successors are. Nevertheless, though they had done his Majesty out of the plate, they acted very handsomely by him, treating him royally during his stay, and giving him a purse of ^100 when he set off for York. This he did on the 13th September, and on the 30th the townsfolk were greatly surprised — whether pleasantly or not the ancient chronicles say not — to hear that the king was once more at their gates, having come this time unan nounced. Upon this occasion he stayed five days, examining the fortifica tions, and giving directions for their further strengthening, after which he departed by way of Lincolnshire. Before he went, however, he presented his own sword to the Mayor, to be used as a sword of state, and carried erect in processions. This sword is still treasured by the corporation, and is borne before the Mayors of Hull in accordance with Henry's behests. One of the most picturesque passages in the history of Hull occurs about this time in the matter of her relations to the pirates. Hull was now a well-known seaport. Her ships went everywhere, and her fame was noised abroad in many a far-off seaboard town on the Continent. Her merchants were reputed to be of a great wealth, and her ships said to carry rich cargoes. Naturally the pirates began to look on Hull and her riches with covetous eyes. The high seas were at that time as thickly infested with these rogues and thieves as a sewer is by rats, and scarcely a merchant lived that had not at some time or other suffered from their depredations. Towards the end of the sixteenth century Hull, at the request of the naval authorities, fitted out two warships for the better protection of its shipping and the surveillance of the neighbouring coast-line. After the pirates these ships made diligent inquiry and search, and in due course brought several THE PLAGUE 3* of them back to Hull, to answer for their misdeeds. And so it came about that any one walking along the banks of the Humber in those days saw at various intervals chains swinging dis- winds, and warning persons that legiti- trading is not to be A town so loyal in readily with the all over England at came necessary for creed and condition the Spanish invasion. quest for money and by sending ^600 No feature in the and its people is per- THE SEAL OF ST. MICHAELS MONASTERY the bodies of men in mally before the all naughty-minded mate and honest interfered with. as Hull naturally fell enthusiasm displayed the time when it be- Englishmen of every to unite in repelling To Elizabeth's re- men Hull responded and 600 volunteers. history of the town haps more remark able than the generous fashion in which the latter invariably responded to the demands of the Crown. It may be that this sprang from some feeling on the part of the inhabitants that they owed a good deal to Edward I. and his successors for numerous privileges, but however that may be, it is certain that no monarch askedhelp of Hull in vain. Not even the demands of Charles I., resisted elsewhere with stout and bitter opposition, were objected to by the folk of Hull. They found three ships of war when that monarch proposed to join issue with France, and paid the hated Tonnage and Poundage tax cheerfully. But ere long the people of Hull were them selves in sore need of help. A fearful pestilence broke out during Charles I.'s reign, and raged so furiously that the town was soon brought to a terrible condition of things. Half the population is said to have perished, thousands of people were reduced to abject poverty, and the trade of the port fell away to nothing. It was now necessary to seek pecuniary aid, and it was only by the help of other towns of the county that the inhabitants were able to keep body and soul together. But as the plague died away trade began to revive, and within a few years Hull was prosperous once more. No sooner had it come back to its usual affluent state than Hull found itself face to face with the great problems of the Civil War. In 1639 Charles was already at loggerheads with the Scotch, and during the same year he came to Hull, where, as at other northern towns, he had been ac cumulating stores and ammunition. The Hull folk received him in the usual fashion, giving him a sumptuous entertainment, a hundred pieces of gold in a purse, and a ribbon to fasten in his hat ; moreover, they assured him through the mouth of their Recorder that they were his very loyal and faith ful servants always. The King in return presented the corporation with a second sword of state — still preserved — and praised the strength of the forti- 36 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE fications. He then went off to Beverley, on his way to York, well pleased, no doubt, with his entertainment, his purse of gold, and his ribbon. He, no doubt, remembered this reception of 1639 with somewhat bitter feelings when he next appeared before Hull and asked in vain for admittance. The Civil War broke out in formal fashion in 1642, and both King and Parliament showed a notable anxiety to secure the town of Hull. Charles sent Lord Newcastle to seize it. Newcastle went back disappointed : the Mayor had refused him admittance. Parliament sent down Sir John Hotham, a Holderness man of good family, who was a member of the House, and a person of parts and determination. For a while the Mayor and corporation debated the matter : finally they let Sir John Hotham into the town and acknowledged him as Governor. So the serious business began — Hull, for the first time in its history, had gone against the ruling monarch. Charles was at York. On the 22nd April he sent his son James, his nephew Rupert, and some noblemen of distinction, to Hull. They entered the town privily, but made themselves known to the authorities, and were invited to dine with Sir John Hotham next day. As the company were about to sit down to dinner, a messenger arrived, bringing news that the King was within a mile of the town, and that he intended to grace the feast. Sir John Hotham had other intentions. By his orders the drawbridges were raised, the gates closed, and Charles, coming up to the Beverley Gate, found himself shut out from one of the most loyal towns in his kingdom. He commanded Sir John Hotham to give him entrance : the Governor replied that he held the town by order of Parliament, and dare not disobey its orders, loyal subject though he was. From eleven o'clock until four Charles waited without the gate ; at four o'clock he gave Sir John Hotham an hour wherein to repent and consider ; at five, finding Hotham still obdurate, the King proclaimed him a traitor, and went off to Beverley. Thus began the siege of Hull, and at the same time the serious opera tions of the Civil War which was to set one half of England against the other half. Charles got together an army of 3000 foot and 1000 horse. Hotham strengthened his positions, flooded the surrounding country, and destroyed various buildings — amongst them the Charter House Hospital — which seemed to offer vantage ground for the attacking force. Presently Parliament sent him a reinforcement of 2000 men, which arrived by way of the sea and the Humber. The King built forts at Hessle and at Paull, and although Sir John Hotham had submerged the neighbourhood, he con trived to establish batteries within range of the walls, and began to make play with his cannon. Ere long, however, Charles's force was weakened by sallies from the garrison, and he retired to Beverley. At this point one comes on one of the stories of treachery and dishonour which disfigure so many pages of history. Sir John Hotham, full of chagrin, it is said, because the command of the Parliamentarian forces in Yorkshire had been given to Fairfax instead of to himself, entered, in company with his son, Captain THE SIEGE OF HULL 37 Hotham, into a con- Hull to the King. that this proceeding immense pleasure to the inhabitants, many sound loyalists that secured by the Parlia- siege. In 1643 Cap- to Bridlington, to see Lord Newcastle, and what particular re- were to have for their thing was, no doubt, them, but unfortun- their plans were al- body had whispered and Parliament des- AR.MS OF TRINITY HOUSE spiracy to deliver There can be no doubt would have given a large proportion of of whom were such they had had to be mentarians during the tain Hotham went off Queen Henrietta and ascertain from them ward he and his father treachery. Every- then settled between ately for the Hothams ready known. Some- something in London, patched one Salt- marsh, a relative of the Hotham family, to act as eavesdropper. Saltmarsh quickly found out the whole plot. In June both father and son were secured, sent off to London by sea, and confined in the Tower. Eighteen months afterwards their heads fell on Tower Hill. These traitorous persons being safely out of the way, Parliament en trusted the case of Hull first to a committee formed of the Mayor and ten burgesses, and afterwards to Lord Fairfax, who took up his duties as Gover nor of the town in July 1643. In September Lord Newcastle arrived in command of a large army, and the second siege of Hull began without delay. Newcastle erected batteries and a fort, and did considerable damage to the town. A week after Newcastle's arrival, a fierce fight took place at Anlaby, a village to the west of Hull. It resulted in the defeat of the Parliamen tarians, who were driven back to the town with considerable loss. A few days later they cut the river banks, submerging the outskirts of the town and forcing Newcastle's men out of their works and trenches. Cromwell was in Hull for a day or two about this time, but appears to have gone there for the simple purpose of consulting with Fairfax. During the rest of Sep tember the struggle continued with varying fortune, nothing in the way of a decisive event taking place until October 1 ith, when 1500 of the garrison sallied out and gave battle to the besiegers. At first the fortunes of the day went in favour of the besieged, but a reinforcement of the Royalists helped them to drive Fairfax and his men back to the town, where, however, they rallied, and made another sally, so desperate, that Lord Newcastle and his men were compelled to abandon their position, and were vanquished with great slaughter. That night the Royalist army was in full retreat towards York, devastating the country as it went. So ended the second siege, and now the burgesses had time to look 38 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE about them at their leisure, and to reckon up what all this game of war had cost them. They did not exactly know — at any rate there are no records extant — how many lives had been lost in the prosecution of the two sieges, but the great churchyard of Holy Trinity was full, and so was another place of interment, specially provided. As for money, they had spent that pretty much like water. In 1646 they petitioned Parliament for compensation, setting forth their grievances with a nice regard for particulars. Their trade had suffered to the extent of £30,000. The repairs of the walls, battered down and knocked about by Newcastle's artillery, had cost £11,000. They had carried on their old tradition of cheerfully finding money for kings and captains by advancing, on various occasions, no less a sum than £90,000 to Sir John Hotham, Sir John Meldrum, and Lord Fairfax: total, £131,000 of good money, all or some of which they would like returning to their pockets if it seemed good to the High Court of Parliament. Parliament, however, had either no money or no disposition to make good the losses of the Hull burgesses, and there was an end of it. Possibly Parliament's churlishness in this matter rankled in the popular mind of Hull until Charles II. came to his own. That they were tired of the Commonwealth and its upholders, the Hull folk showed by hanging its arms, together with the effigies of Crom well and Bradshaw, on a gallows, and then burning them "with much shew of joye and delighte." After that one is not surprised to learn that the Hull folk once more resumed very cordial relations with the throne, or that the pleasure-loving gentleman at Whitehall found time to spare from his amusements to grant Hull a fine new charter, bristling with pri vileges. It would almost naturally follow that Charles borrowed money from Hull after this, but there is no well-known record of his having done so. In 1666, however, the King's brother, James, Duke of York, visited Hull, and received practical proof of the town's loyalty in the shape of a purse containing fifty guineas. Ill For a hundred years after this the history of Hull is somewhat un important, but in 1773 an event took place which had much more relation to the real interests of the town than the visits of a dozen princes anxious to carry away " curious purses " filled with money. This was the founding of the Dock Company. Before that time Hull had possessed no docks. There were wharves and quays behind High Street, but many of the ships trading to and from the port were obliged to discharge their cargoes from the Humber by means of lighters, and there was great inconvenience in consequence. As a result of some promise by the Commissioners of Cus toms, the Dock Company was formed, and in 1774 it obtained its first Act of Parliament, which gave it power to construct a dock extending THE WHALING TRADE 39 from the river Hull to Beverley Gate — that is to say, from High Street to Monument Bridge. The Crown handed over the gates, walls, ramparts, ditches, and bridges pany, subject to a and Parliament voted expenses. The first was laid by Mayor 177 5 , and three years itself was ready for dock was known as then it has been Dock, in honour of reign's visit to Hull 1774 the dock ac- increased very Con or Queen's Dock, was Humber in 1809; ARMS OF THE DOCK COMPANY AT HULL to the Dock Corn- yearly rental of 5s., £15,000 towards the stone of the dock Outram in October afterwards the dock use. Until 1854 this the Old Dock ; since known as the Queen's the present sove- in that year. Since commodation has siderably. The Old, opened in 1778 ; the the Prince's in 1829; the Railway in 1846 ; the Victoria in 1850 ; the Albert in 1869 ; the William Wright in 1880; the St. Andrews in 1883; and the Alexandra in 1885. The cost of the Queen's was £83,355 ; that of the Alexandra £1,355,392. The Queen's covers 9I acres ; the Alexandra 46 acres. The total area of the Hull docks is 145 acres, but there are also three timber docks and four graving docks — a vast extension of the system which began so humbly little more than a century ago. The whaling trade was closely identified with the town and trade of Hull for nearly 200 years. The first ships which ever went to the Greenland fisheries probably set out from Hull, and Hull merchants were certainly engaged in the trade in the sixteenth century. The passing of the Bounty Act in 1749 gave a considerable impetus to the trade, which declined, how ever, after the reduction of the bounty in 1771. During the next eighty years nearly 200 vessels sailed from Hull to take part in the whale fishery, the average results producing £64,000 per year, and the average strength of the fleets being just over 1000 men. The trade steadily diminished from the beginning of the present reign. In 1820 sixty-two ships were sent out ; in 1837 only one sailed for the Arctic regions. The last of the Hull whaling vessels, the old Diana, which had been refitted in 1857 as a steam vessel, was lost off Donna Nook on the Lincolnshire coast in October 1869, and with her the Hull whaling trade came to an end. Sir John Ross, the famous Arctic explorer, was at one time commander of a Hull whaler, the Isabella, and it is a noteworthy fact that when he was lost during his second attempt to discover the north-west passage he was rescued by the crew of his old ship, and brought home in her to Hull, where he arrived in the October of 1833. The public life of Hull, as a rapidly growing centre of commerce, was largely identified between the years 1759 and 1833 with the public life of 4°the famous William Wil- moving for the He was Street in cated at PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE spirit aboli- born J7S9- the School, from age of seven- to St. John's bridge, where porary and in- William Pitt. C a m b r i d g e, embraced a and soon after birthday he was ber of Parlia- Four years member for the senting York- cessive Parlia- whole of his career was prosecutingthe ameliora- of the poor and especially tion of slavery. ceeded in passing through WILBERFORCE MONUMENT AND DOCK OFFICES philanthropist, berforce, the in the agitation tion of slavery. in the High and was edu- Grammar whence at the teen he passed College, Cam- he was cotem- timate with After leaving Wilberf orce public career, his twenty-first elected mem- ment for Hull. later he became county, repre- shire in six suc- ments. The parliamentary given up to measures for tion of the lot and struggling, for the aboli- Ini788hesuc- bill providing for the more for the abolition of the the Total Abolition Wilberforce Parliament a humane transport of negroes; in 1807 another slave trade. The second reading of the Bill for of Slavery took place a short time before his death in 1833. was an eloquent orator, and an indefatigable worker, and it is said that he dispensed vast sums in charity. He received the honours of a public funeral in Westminster Abbey, and the people of Hull testified their admiration by erecting a magnificent column, surmounted by a statue, to his memory. Seven years after the death of Wilberforce a new manifestation of the modern spirit came into the history of Hull in the shape of the railway. The first line to run into Hull was known then as the " Hull and Selby," now included amongst the lines worked by the North-Eastern Railway Com pany. It opened up communication with the great towns of West Yorkshire, and led to an impetus of trade. In 1846 railway communication was estab lished between Hull, Beverley, Great Driffield, and Bridlington, and between MODERN PROGRESS 41 that year and 1881, when the first sod of the Hull and Barnsley Railway was cut, the town was rapidly united to all parts of the country by the opening of various lines. A dark chapter in the history of Hull was entered upon in 1849, when a dreadful visitation of Asiatic cholera fell on the inhabitants, and swept away two thousand of their number within three months. The history of Hull since 1850, however, has been one of prosperity and increase in desirable things. In 1854 the Queen, accompanied by the Prince Consort and five of their children, visited the town, and was received with great enthusiasm. In 1869 the Prince and Princess of Wales came here to open the Albert Dock, and further visits by members of the royal family took place at frequent intervals. During the century the town has grown into one of the principal centres of population in the kingdom. Its population in 1801 was about 30,000; in 1891 it was 200,000. Naturally the commercial instincts of the town are pre-eminent. From Hull trade is car ried on with all parts of the world. It has dealings with China, India, and the United States, but its principal commercial relations are with European countries, and chiefly with the Baltic ports, Holland, Hamburg, Russia, Sweden, and Norway. It exports the cotton goods of Manchester, the woollen and linen goods of Yorkshire, and the laces and nets of Nottingham, and imports flax, wool, timber, tallow, grain, and other foreign commodities. It has a large shipbuilding industry, but its own principal manufactures are in cotton and linseed oil and cake, in which it does a larger trade than any town in England. Its general aspect is that of a singularly busy and suc cessful seaport, and its importance can only be rightly estimated after a due consideration of the various steps by which it has risen from its original obscurity to its present proud and worthy position. THE CAP OF MAINTENANCE : HULL ¦^f HULL FROM THE HUMBER CHAPTER III Aspects of Modern Hull THE HUMBER SIDE— CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY — ST. MARY'S CHURCH SOME ANCIENT STREETS AND HOUSES THE " WHITE HARTE " SOME ANCIENT INNS — THE TRINITY HOUSE AND GUILD THE DOCKS THE TOWN-HALL THE PRINCIPAL PUBLIC BUILDINGS — THE PARKS SUB URBAN HULL. ULL as it stands to-day divides itself in natural fashion into three distinct parts so far as the traveller is con cerned. The first comprises that ancient Hull which is still to be seen, lifting itself out of the past, amongst the new streets and houses of modern Hull. The second is the Hull of the docks, wharves, and quays — the Hull of sea-going life and of commerce. The third is the Hull of a later date — the modern borough wherein has sprung up new interests, new cares, and new enterprises. Round about these three separate and dis tinct Hulls the curious observer may wander with much profit to himself, finding between each a strongly-marked line of demarcation, and yet at the same time perceiving also how each possesses some link with the others. Modern Hull is, in short, a rare example of the way in which the old and new intermingle in the life of our historic towns : on the one hand there are evidences in abundance of the reign of the new spirit, on the other there are reminders that the old spirit inspired not less wonderful things. I At what is usually called the South End of Hull a pier of considerable size commands on one hand a fine view of the Humber and on the other a noteworthy view of the town. On each side of it stretch wharves and quays along the Humber side ; over the roofs of the neighbouring houses 44 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE rise the masts of the shipping ; all around it the scene is eminently typical and suggestive of the entrance to a great seaport. Looking towards the Humber, the spectator sees abundant proof of the bustling life of the river — large steamers are going in or coming out of dock, sailing-ships are hanging idly in mid-stream, or dropping slowly away before a light wind, the ferry-boats between Hull and the Lincolnshire coast are hurrying hither and thither with crowds of passengers on the after-deck, and a packed con signment of cattle and sheep on the fore-deck, while a short distance away from the junction of the Hull with the Humber lies the Southampton, an ancient man-of-war of the three-decker type, now a nautical training-school for boys, contrasting forcibly with the grim figure of the guard-ship close by. About this pier and its landing-stages, and all along the wharves and quays on either side, there is always a crowd of heterogeneous human elements. Here one sees almost every type of the European family, together with men from the far-off corners of the earth. A Lincolnshire shepherd rubs shoulders with a swarthy Lascar ; fair-haired Swedes lounge against the railings beyond which a party of emigrant Russian Jews, greasy and unkempt, are keeping strict watch over a few miserable belongings ; Danes, Germans, Spaniards, Italians chatter and gabble in their own tongues to the accompaniment of the louder voices of Yorkshire or Lincolnshire folk who have come into Hull to market. Along the streets leading from the Humber side towards the centre of the town a similarly mixed crowd is always moving. The mariner element is strongly to the fore — at every step one meets the men who go down to the sea in ships, blue-coated or blue-guernseyed, hands in pockets, rolling about the pavement like the masts of their vessels. At first the streets are narrow, dingy, and somewhat suggestive of fish-like smells. Evidences are abundant that they are the streets of a seaport. Shops of general dealers, money-changers' establishments, slop-shops, tobacconists' windows, where strange-looking tobaccos are exhibited, abound everywhere. But as Queen Street widens out into the market-place a different aspect of Hull meets the eye. The market-place is in reality a wide street, narrow at the ends and widening in the middle. The houses on either side are tall and gabled, and some of them are sufficiently picturesque to make the general effect note worthy. Immediately facing the streets which lead from the river-side stands a very fine equestrian statue of William III., executed by Schiemaker, and erected in 1734. On the right-hand side, and almost facing the statue, is a delightfully quaint old coaching hotel, the "Cross Keys," which was of con siderable repute in the days before steam had robbed English life of half its romance. Out of the market, at various points, run minor streets, some of them ancient and curious ; in the distance the tower and porch of St. Mary's Church, in Lowgate, closes the view. The traveller who finds himself standing in the market-place of Hull will probably give little attention to anything after his eyes have once fixed CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY 45 HOLY TRINITY CHURCH themselves on the magnificent Church of the Holy Trinity, which fills a considerable space of the frontage on the west side. This, the parish church of Hull, is said, on excellent authority, to be the largest parish church in England. It is cruciform in shape, possessing nave, aisles, chancel, and transepts, and covers a total area of nearly 26,000 square feet. Its length from east to west is 272 feet ; its breadth 96 feet, and the square tower rises to a height of 150 feet. The nave alone will accommodate a congregation of 2000 persons. The nave and tower are in the Perpendicular style of architecture ; the choir and transepts in the Decorated. The east window is especially remarkable, and there is some very fine tracery in the large window of the south transept. So perfectly appointed, indeed, is this church, that one might spend days in examining and studying its beauties. It was originally founded as a chapel in 1285, but of the earlier building no traces remain. Parts of the transepts date back to the first part of the fourteenth century, and before the Reformation the church was of a size large enough to accommodate twelve altars whereat masses were said for private intention, together with eight public ones. The church was put under interdict in 1522 ; the tongues were torn out of the bells, and the doors and windows 46 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE INTERIOR OF HOLY TRINITY CHURCH closed with boards. During the days of the Civil War it underwent very rough treatment at the hands of the extremists, and for some years it was divided between the Independents and the Presbyterians, who walled it off into two parts. Until the beginning of the present century it was in a very dilapidated state, and some repairs were effected in 1830 and 1834. In 1859 a complete scheme of restoration was put into practical effect under the supervision of Sir Gilbert Scott, and was carried out during succeeding years at a cost of £33,000. The church, as it now presents itself to the eye of the careful observer, bears numerous evidences of the munificence of those responsible for its restoration. The organ cost £2000, and was erected in 1875. The carved oak screens, the beautifully carved pulpit, and the fine brass lectern are all worthy of the edifice they ornament, while the great west window, unveiled in 1862, is worthy to rank with the best specimens of modern work in stained glass. Internally, the church is singularly light, graceful, and impressive ; externally, it presents a dignified and commanding appearance, such as is peculiarly suited to the principal church of a great town. ST. MARY'S CHURCH 47 Of the monuments in this church there are several possessing more than ordinary interest. That of Sir William de la Pole and his wife is parti cularly interesting in view of the relations between his family and the town of Hull. The knight is bareheaded ; his head rests on cushions ; he is habited as a merchant ; a dagger is suspended from his breast ; and a lion crouches at his feet. His wife wears a mitred head-dress, a gown, closely fashioned, with a petticoat and veil ; her hands hold a heart and her head is supported by angels ; at her feet rests a dog. There is a fine shrine in the north wall of the Broadley Chapel, and the transepts contain some well- executed monuments and memorials of notable townsfolk. A very inter esting memorial is that of the bust of Tnomas Whincop, who was Master of the Charter House and Lecturer in Holy Trinity Church in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Noteworthy, too, is the supposed tomb of John Rottenhaering, Rottenheryng, or Rottenherring, a merchant of Ravens purn, and step-father of Sir William de la Pole. John Rottenherring, who founded a chantry here, died in 1328. A reminder of the various plagues wdiich have afflicted Hull from time to time is found in the memorial-stone of Richard Bylt, merchant and alderman, who died during the visitation of 145 1. St. Mary's Church, in Lowgate, a little distance from Holy Trinity, is at first sight remarkable from the fact that its tower seems to have been built over the pavement. As a matter cut through the tower in order to in the somewhat narrow street. early part of teenth cen- was licensed bishop Mel- but nothing cient struc- mains. It in 1447 and 1558, but buildingform and largely to tion which in 1860-63 of Sir Gilbert now a very church of dicular and styles, and portant ec- itm LB ¦" -¦ ^A % 1 ins $¦: «4 W- ST. MARY'S, LOWGATE of fact a footway has been make room for a side-walk St. Mary's was built in the the four- tury, and by Arch- ton in 1333, of the an- t u r e re- was enlarged again in the present owes its appearance the restora- it underwent at the hands Scott. It is handsome the Perpen- Decorated the most im- clesiastical : 48 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE edifice in Hull, saving the parish church itself, which in some respects dims its glories. St. Mary's is particularly rich in memorial windows, and it contains some well-preserved brasses. Its monuments are not remark able, with the exception of that over the north door, which represents William Dobson, sometime Alderman, Sheriff, and Mayor during the seven teenth century. It is executed in alabaster, and represents the deceased in his aldermanic robes standing within a niche which is ornamented by emblematic devices. The eldest son of Thomas Scott, the famous com mentator, was for some time vicar of St. Mary's Church. His name was John Scott, and he was followed by another John Scott, who in his turn was succeeded by a third John Scott — a somewhat unique example of similarity of names. That part of Hull which stands on the site of the ancient town as it was in the days of walls and moats, abounds with quaint houses and streets to which much curious history attaches. No street in Hull is of quite the same historic value as High Street, which is certainly the oldest street in the town, and probably the site of the earliest dwellings of any description on the banks of the Hull. It was originally called Hull Street, and until a century ago was the principal street in the town, not merely as regards historic association but as a residential street. In earlier days the principal citizens of Hull lived in High Street. Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, had a house there in 1408, and the Archbishop of York in 1442. As late as 1795 a prince of the blood royal was entertained in High Street by Sir Samuel Standidge, Mayor of Hull. The street itself is so narrow that it is difficult for vehicles to pass each other, and foot passengers must suffer all the danger and discomfort involved by very narrow causeways. High Street is now entirely devoted to commercial matters, and many of its old houses have been pulled down, but it still possesses several which are of more than ordinary historic value. Chief amongst them is that known as Wilberforce House, fenced from the street by a high wall, pierced by a quaint gateway. It was in this house that Charles I. was lodged in 1639, that William Wilber force was born in 1759, and that William Penn, the Quaker, stayed for some time before he left this country for America. The rooms which have thus been made historic are now occupied as offices or chambers, the occu pants of which are constantly disturbed by hero-worshippers who come prowling about the quaint nooks and corners. Near this is the site of another historic mansion, that of the De la Poles, few traces of which remain. In other streets within the old town there are many curious examples of antiquity, and the names of the streets themselves are suggestive of other days. Mytongate, Blackfriargate, Whitefriargate, Bowlalley Lane, Blanket Row — these names carry their own meanings. But what stranger can suc cessfully interpret the meaning of the name of a quiet and ancient street turning out of Whitefriargate, the corner-sign of which bears the strange appellation, Land of Green Ginger ? ANCIENT INNS 49 Of ancient inns there are still several to be seen in Hull, and there are also many old houses which once were inns and are now but monuments of antiquity. In High Street stood the " King's Head Inn," where, it is said, several monarchs were lodged during their visits to the town. Taylor, the Water Poet, visited the " King's Head" in 1662 and speaks in his rhyming chronicle of the strength of its ale. The " Dog and Duck " and " George WILBERFORCE HOUSE : HIGH STREET and Dragon " were famous High Street hostelries in their day, especially the former, which still exhibits features of interest and antiquity. In Little Lane, a narrow passage connecting Humber Street and Blackfriarsgate, there is an inn once known as " Labour in Vain," which was a favourite rendez vous of the pressgangs at the time of the French wars a century ago. An example of what these ancient hostelries were like may be found in some degree in the " White Harte," a modern inn or restaurant situate in a passage leading out of Silver Street, the building and equipment of which is of undoubted antiquity. The stranger who enters this unique hostelry will probably find himself wondering if the world has not suddenly rolled back to the sixteenth century, so well restored has the place been, and so excel lently kept in thorough sympathy with its ancient traditions. The house D 2 50 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE mm i ^ sJ8fe -. :%^^^Mii * ^i^:- WEST FRONT OF HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, WITH THE OLD GRAMMAR SCHOOL was originally the palace of the military governor of Hull, and was probably built about 1550. Sir John Hotham resided here during the first siege. As it stands to-day, its arched fireplaces, panelled rooms, and wide staircase present a well-nigh perfect picture of a sixteenth-century house. The oak is black and bright with age, the chimney-corners are cosy and inviting, and it needs little imagination to fancy oneself back again in the old dead days, with all their romance and poetry, as one's foot falls on the polished floors in the " Plotting Chamber," or the noisier flags of the kitchens, which are now transformed into bars and dining-rooms. Round about the great church in the market-place there are several buildings which possess a certain relation to the historic life of Hull. In one corner of the open space beyond the west end is a building, now used as a mission room, which was once the ancient Grammar School of the town. The school was founded in i486 by Alcock, who was Bishop of Rochester, Worcester, and Ely, at various times, and Lord Chancellor of England in addition. In 1578 a subscription was opened for the purpose of providing a more suitable building than the one then in use, and William Gee, Mayor of Hull, headed it with £80 in money, and 20,000 bricks. The new build ing was completed in 1583, and remained in use until 1875. Amongst its more eminent alumni, the old Grammar School boasts Andrew Marvell ; Watson, Bishop of St. David's ; William Wilberforce ; Milnes, Dean of Carlisle ; Mason, the poet ; Archdeacon Wrangham ; and others. Even more interesting than the story of the Grammar School is the story of the Trinity House. Founded in 1369 as the Guild of the Holy THE TRINITY HOUSE 51 Trinity, it was combined nearly a century later with the Shipman's Guild, and incorporated by royal charter. Between the reigns of Henry VIII. and Charles II. several other royal charters were granted to the Trinity House, and in these there are set forth the duties and privileges of the society. It received power to levy primage for the support of poor mariners, their wives, and widows, the assistance of shipwrecked folk, the provision of buoys and beacons along the coast, and the licensing of pilots. Thomas Fraser, a sometime Warden, made many donations and benefactions in aid of the society. In 162 1 he bought and gave it the site of a supposed monastery, whereon four years later he built an almshouse, the costs of which he disbursed himself during the remainder of his life. The present adminis tration of the Trinity House dates from 1861, when an Act of Parliament granted compensation in lieu of the right to levy primage, then abolished by the same Act. The corporate body of the Trinity House consists of twelve Elder Brothers and an indefinite number of Younger Brethren. Two Wardens are chosen from the former, and six Assistants and two Stewards from the latter. The relief afforded by the Trinity House is on a consider able scale. It maintains large almshouses in various parts of the town, grants pensions, and trains boys for the mercantile marine service free of all charge. The House was originally built in 1457, and rebuilt in 1753, and is mainly in the Tuscan style of architecture. It possesses some fine portraits, paint ings, and antiquities, with interesting models of shipping, while its collection of plate is valuable and unique. One piece, a double wager cup, is known as " The Milkmaid." On the small cup is inscribed, " Tyburn to the Pretender and all his Adherents ; " on the back of the supporting female figure, " No Warming Pan." The large cup is inscribed : "To the Glorious, Pious and Immortall Memory of King William and his Queen, Mary. The gift of Sir Cecil Wray, Bart., to the Trinity House in Hull, Sept. ye 7th, 1726." In 1839 the Trinity House was further embellished by the erection of a very handsome chapel, and five years later it was made more suitable for modern business requirements by the addition of offices. II The traveller who desires to make himself acquainted with the Hull of the docks, wharves, and quays will find no difficulty in gratifying his desires. The docks are open to inspection by all and sundry, and it is not impossible to smoke a ruminative pipe in the shelter of the sheds alongside, in spite of the notices which proclaim such indulgence to be forbidden. The strict regulations which obtain at Liverpool are not apparent in Hull, possibly because the docks in Hull are somewhat differently situated. In Liverpool the docks form an outer edge to the city ; in Hull they are found in the very centre of the town. Standing on Monument Bridge, the observer finds himself surrounded by shipping of all descriptions. Masts and spars rise on 52 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE either hand, away into the Queen's Dock on one side, and down the long vista of the Prince's and the Humber Dock on the other. It is a busy and an interesting world which is thus brought so near to him. Under the long sheds which line the docks is gathered together such a store of merchandise as surprises the ordinary individual into silent amazement. The air is full of strange sounds — the creaking of machinery, the loud-voiced orders and directions of men in charge, vociferating in half-a-dozen different languages, the chatter of labourers, the screaming of steam whistles, the occasional hoot of a big steamer going out of dock. Not less curious than the sounds are the sights which the dock-sides present. If the wharves and quays along the side of the Humber are interesting, the dock-sides are even more so ; there is beneath their sheds, or on the narrow spaces between them and the ships lying at their moorings, an almost unique opportunity of seeing things that cannot be seen save in a great seaport. Perhaps no sight along the Hull dock-sides is more interesting to an ob server of human nature than one sees sometimes after the arrival of a vessel from a Baltic port. Such vessels bring to Hull parties of emigrants from Russia, or Poland, on their way to America. The lounger, strolling along the dock-sides in the quiet of the evening, will not infrequently find parties of these emigrants huddled together under the sheds, strangers indeed in a foreign land. They are for the most part singularly dirty, and particularly picturesque. Some of such groups chatter volubly; others preserve a stolid silence. Now and then the observer comes across what is evidently a family party — a group of three and sometimes four generations, represented by an ancient, white-haired, bowed and broken man at one end of the scale, and by a baby in arms at the other. There is abundant scope for reflection in watching these groups, and the mere sight of them is sufficient to spur the imagination to thoughts of far different scenes. One pictures the forsaking of the old home in the now far-off native land, from which they have been driven by hard laws, or have quitted from some hazy notion of the wealth to be gained in another country, the dreary passage in the steamer, the dis embarkation in a land where everything looks strange, the uncomfortable journey in closely packed carriages from Hull to Liverpool, the voyage across the Atlantic, and the arrival in a new world where there is nothing of the slow methods of that grey northern land which will then seem so far behind them. Watching groups like these huddled together in the dock-side sheds, their wretched bits of property clutched tightly to them as though they had come into a land of thieves, one cannot help wondering as to whether any of them will prosper in the land they are travelling to, or which of them will come back, and in what condition, to cross the North Sea again, and see the coasts they have left rising up once more through the grey sea-mists. Another interesting study to be made along the dock-sides is that of faces. Despite all that steam and electricity and modern improvements DOCK-SIDE CHARACTERS 53 have done, the seafaring man is still a sailor, and the Jack of to-day, loung ing about the wharves and quays, or lolling lazily at the doors of dock- side taverns, is not materially different to the Jack of a more picturesque age. The close observer sees a good many faces amongst sailors come ashore that the spice and romance and unchanging is a man who stepped out of some old vateers or man who wear a hand- round his pigtail de- f r o m his hair, and between his half-a-dozen belt. There whose eyes they had things — lands in where hu- scarcelypos- stretches of edge of the world which yet penetrated. And yonder is a man who instinctively reminds you of Long John Silver — so quietly evil is his air and appearance, so subtly guileful are his eyes. But of types of the men who spend their days on the sea there are a thousand to be seen along the dock-sides of a great seaport, and all of them are interesting. Most interesting of all, perhaps, are the ancient mariners whose active participation in seafaring matters is over, and who have now come to an anchor for the rest of their days. They cannot keep away from the wharves and dock-sides : the smell of the sea, the odour of the merchandise heaped up under the sheds, is as the breath of life to them. So they gather here and there in little knots and groups, sitting about the pier, or lounging round the posts on the wharves, and the passer-by, strolling slowly past them, hears snatches of wonderful yarns about the mysterious ocean from whose uncertain embrace they have retired with something more than regret. THE RIVER HULL : EBB TIDE suggest all flavour, the glitter of the sea. Here might have of the pages story of pri- pirates — a ought to kerchief tied head, with a pending dark, greasy carry a knife teeth, and pistols in his is another look as it seen strange lonely is- silent seas man life is sible, or great ice on that northern man has not 54 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE III In the very midst of the Ancient Hull, which was once bounded by walls and moats, stands a formidable example of the new spirit in the shape of the Town Hall, a fine building in the classical style of archi tecture, but rendered ineffective, so far as appearance goes, by its nearness to the houses on all sides. It was built in 1862-66, and cost £50,000. The architecture is of a very excellent order, and the domed tower, which rises to a height of 135 feet, would form a striking landmark were it not for its present cramped situation. Within the vestibule there are fine statues of Michael de La Pole and William Wilberforce. The great hall is a very imposing apartment, and equally notable is a large statue of Edward I. which stands on the first landing of the grand staircase. This statue, executed by Earle, one of Chantrey's pupils, and a native of Hull, was wrought out of a block of Carrara marble which originally weighed ten tons. At various points on the staircase there are other statues of local celebrities — Andrew Marvell, Sir William de la Pole, and others, and busts of lesser-known men, together with portraits of several of the Mayors of Hull. Most interesting to the traveller, however, are the ancient documents and the heirlooms of the corporation. The former, which are carefully preserved in a fireproof room, are composed of a collection of charters, letters, and registers, amongst which is a considerable corre spondence from Andrew Marvell. The plate and insignia of the cor poration contain some magnificent specimens of the goldsmith's art. The Mayoral Chain, in particular, is especially noteworthy as an example of fine work. Originally presented to the town by Sir William Knowles in 1554, it has been added to and enlarged by successive mayors until it now contains nearly 300 links of gold, with two shields of gold and blue enamel and two gold bosses. The two swords of state, presented respectively by Henry VIII. and Charles I., are very interesting, though there would appear to be some doubt as to which was Henry's and which Charles's sword. Other important insignia are found in the Sheriff's Chain, the Maces, and the quaint Cap of Maintenance. The plate of the corporation is very massive and costly, and contains a unique piece in the shape of a whistle- tankard, which originally belonged to Mayor Lambert in 1667. The last important addition to the corporation's very fine set of tankards, cups, flagons, tureens, and dishes, was a notable gilt snuff-box, presented by Sir Albert Rollit during his mayoralty in 1884, and bearing on its lid an en graving of the arms of the Admiral of the Humber. No better test of the general prosperity of a town, nor of the prevalent disposition of its inhabitants, can be had than that which comes by ob serving the fashion of its public buildings, and noting for what particular uses they have been erected. Where all the finest buildings in a town or THE ROYAL INFIRMARY 55 city are devoted to purposes of mere pleasure, the observant traveller is apt to leave the place with a somewhat limited notion of the intellectual capacity of the people who stands this test than any town public institu- lent, and though provision for a- entertainment, it to perceive that whole, are more tellectual plea- those of a lighter people of this short, of a rather they take delight than in plays, and course rather amusements.thing about them one of the old character ; they very sober, level- greatly devoted tices, and abun- with the true stinct of showing with regard to affairs. It is only that such a community should possess some admirable public institutions and support them with a commendable zeal. Of all the public institutions in Hull, the Royal Infirmary is probably the most important. It is a fine, handsome building of classic style, and makes a very imposing picture as viewed from Prospect Street. The in stitution originated in a house in George Street in 1782, and two years later the nucleus of the present infirmary was opened, the site up to that time having been in the midst of open fields. From that period onwards additions have constantly been made to the infirmary. Two new wings were added in 1838 ; a large block at the rear in 1858; further enlarge ments in 1868, and a fever hospital in 1873. When the centenary of the institution was celebrated, an appeal for funds for the entire reconstruction of the building was made, and £27,000 was raised as a result. This sum was devoted to remodelling the old infirmary, building a new wing, and erecting an out-patients' department. Everything in connection with this THE LAND OF GREEN GINGER live there. Hull better, perhaps, in Yorkshire. Its tions are excel- there is abundant musement and is not difficult Hull people, as a disposed to in sures than to order. The town are, in serious order ; in lectures rather in social inter- than in public There is some- which reminds Puritan type of are in the main a headed class, to religious prac- dantly furnished Yorkshire in- great diligence their business natural, then, 56 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE large and commodious institution is of the best. There is a full staff of medical and nursing attendants, a library for inmates, and a valuable re ference library for medical men, with full accommodation for all varieties of disease. The Royal Infirmary, however, is not the only institution of its sort which Hull possesses. In other parts of the town are to be found hospitals specially designed to meet special needs, all of them of excellent contrivance and under careful management. In institutions of a nature intended to improve the general mental tone of the town, Hull is well off. In Albion Street stands the Royal Institution, a noble building in the Roman style, with Corinthian columns in front. It was built in 1853—4, and gives a home to two of the principal institutions in Hull — the Literary and Philosophical Society, and the Subscription Library. In connection with the former there is a well equipped museum, and a lecture hall, which accommodates about 1000 people. A school of art and a chemical laboratory are close by. Almost facing the Royal Institution is the Church Institute, a building in the classic style, originally erected as a private residence. This society has upwards of 1400 members, it possesses a capital library, scientific classes, athletic, gymnastic, and swimming clubs, and its management provides a capital lecture-list during the winter. In Charlotte Street there is a Catholic Institute of a somewhat similar nature, and close by, a Young People's Christian and Literary Institute, where a non- sectarian basis of membership exists, and where evening instruction in science and art is shared in by a membership numbering close upon 3000. A very good Mechanics' Institute has a house in George Street, and provides ex cellent accommodation for its members. There are some rather noteworthy statues and pictures here, and also a patent library, which is open to the public. In common with most other Yorkshire towns, Hull is well provided with public parks and recreation grounds. Its people, serious-minded as they are on the whole, are not unobservant of the charms of amusement and of sport, and a liberal support is given to cricket, football, and athletic games generally. Pearson's Park, an enclosure of nearly thirty acres in extent, was presented to the people of Hull in i860 by Mr. Z. C. Pearson, who was in that year Mayor of the borough. It is an almost model park so far as its arrangements are concerned. The grounds are laid out in the best style of landscape gardening ; there is a serpentine river, a lake, and a pile of ruins, brought hither from the site of the great church in the market-place, and from York. There are several statues in the park, and amongst them two notable ones of the Queen and of the late Prince Consort. There are also a well-stocked aviary, a rockery, so contrived as to show the geological strata, a waterfall, an ornamental drinking fountain, and numerous other arrangements for public comfort and convenience. The entrance gates to this park are particularly well designed, and that to the eastward is really worthy of a careful inspection. Less pretentious parks ORPHAN ASYLUMS 57 are those known as the West and East Parks, which occupy sites on either side of the town. The West Park was opened in 1885 ; the East two years later, ..-. in comme moration of . ^mA- | the Jubilee of 1887. / The area of the West ' - j ¦ ¦_- Park is thirty- one -X £ acres, that of the East - ¦ fifty-two. Each has 1 spacious lawns, pro- 4'„ l m e n a d e s, a n d t e r- nvf-^^hW^ "T^f races, with band-stands — . +, IT* , ' j ;,'.". and pavi lions for re- . f£ ^-'i&'CS,X^m^\i ¦."•M^l-\ ' freshments, and in each ¦3*^^^. | - *¦ '/A' //.Vi jJEffffi-T i accommo dation has 1P?^L "iw- ¦ J • '¦' ¦••#8 i ¦ 1 -¦'¦ :4> Si - • ji b-4Hi HOWDEN CHURCH ,\" YV\''- 74 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE he filled during the rest of his master's reign. Prince Metternich, the famous Austrian statesman, said of Ward that he was a heaven-born mini ster, and Lord Palmerston declared him to be one of the most remarkable men he ever met. It is refreshing to know that the man who began life as stable-boy and ended it as Prime Minister and confidant of a monarch, was never ashamed of his humble origin nor forgetful of his old friends. He visited Howden every year, bringing presents for his family. On his father he settled an annuity. It must have been a rare sight to see this favourite of fortune, surrounded by his humble Yorkshire kith and kin, exhibiting his orders and decorations, and telling of his glories in far-off Vienna. One feature in his life-story is eminently characteristic. When he returned to Austria after one of his visits to Howden, he always carried back with him a number of Yorkshire hams. The traveller who is not afraid of a certain amount of discomfort, and who has no fear regarding the damage which dust and cobwebs may do to his garments, should not leave Howden until he has clambered to the top of the church tower. In almost any sort of weather he will find this exertion repay him to some extent. On a clear day he will be enrap tured at the wide and diverse view presented to him. It is not a long climb to the parapet of the tower, but it is a somewhat fatiguing one, for the stairway is narrow and very steep, and here and there the steps are deeply worn and hollowed. The way lies by a narrow doorway in the north transept, and thence by a series of winding steps to a turret at the corner of the transept roof. Here the adventurer goes out into the fresh air, crossing the leads to the intersection of the tower, which from this point seems somehow to loom about him even more formidably than it did from the ground level. Another steep climb brings him to the high vaulted chamber wherein the bell-ringers assemble to ring the bells. Opposite the narrow doorway at the head of the stairs is a framed copy of rules to be observed by all entering the chamber, some of which are remarkably quaint. The sides of this chamber are almost entirely filled by the tall, elegant windows which look so graceful from the churchyard below, and which, seen at close quarters, prove to be of high beauty. From this point the stairway seems to gain in difficulty and in dust ; and it is only by clutching the stay-rope firmly, and glancing through the tiny windows, set far apart in the prevalent darkness, that the traveller gains any satisfactory proof that he is not climbing some tower which tops the sky, so long and interminable does the ascent seem. But at last the bells themselves are passed, hanging grim and silent from their oaken beams, and a few steps more takes the climber out of the dust and darkness into the light and upon the leads, with the battlemented parapet all round him, and the four weather-vanes swinging and creaking about his ears. To stand upon the apex of the leaded roof of Howden church tower, and to cast a first wondering glance around, is to arouse an impression VIEW FROM HOWDEN CHURCH 75 that one is looking over half the county. This is due not so much to the height of the tower as to the generally flat character of the surrounding land. Howden itself stands on a level plain, which was some day, no doubt, a marsh or morass, and has since been redeemed to fertile uses by drainage. Northward and southward the land is level and monotonous ; it is level to the eastward, too, until it reaches the foot of the Wolds, and becomes first undulating and then hilly ; westward it is of a slightly undulating character, which verges upon something like boldness as it strikes the watersheds of the Aire. At the foot of the tower lies the little town, its red-tiled roofs looking like toy-houses, its streets narrowed to mere paths. The smoke from its chimneys comes floating up, grey and blue, against the sober green of the orchards and meadows. In the trees close by the rooks squabble and argue ; about the belfry windows a score of jackdaws chatter noisily. From the town the roads lead away into the open country, looking like narrow streaks of grey in a carpet of green. Here and there the eye catches sight of a light cart or a horseman travel ling along them : the figures move slowly, as if it were the earth that moved beneath them rather than they over the earth. Farther away still comes a railway train, moving between Hull and Selby at express speed, and yet scarcely seeming to move, so much difference does an increased altitude make in contemplating a landscape. But there are more interesting matters than trains or carts to observe. Here and there the picture is relieved by the shining of water as the eye catches a glimpse of the Ouse winding along from Selby to Goole ; or of the Aire commencing its tortuous course past Airmyn and Rawcliffe ; or of the Derwent threading its way through woods and parks, towards the picturesque villages of North Howdenshire. Far away to the eastward, between the high land of the Lincolnshire coast and the foot of the Wolds, lies a wide basin, from whence, as the sun catches it, gleams forth a broad sweep of the Humber. In the midst of all this wood and water are other features more suggestive of human life. The towers of churches lift themselves across the land scape ; the smoke and steam of Goole makes a great blot of grey and white colour against the darker background. Well-known landmarks — a clump of trees standing high on a distant ridge ; a hill looming promi nently forth in the level country ; a church spire ; a gaunt windmill ; a solitary farmstead — all these fill up the picture, giving it interest and variety. It is somewhat difficult to leave it, and to descend the winding, dust-stained stairways again to the foot of the tower, and to the contem plation of the smaller world which presents itself in the quaint Howden streets. 76 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE IV The land lying on either side of the Ouse, from its junction with the Trent onwards is, as the traveller would observe by such an inspection of it as might be had from Howden church tower, entirely devoted to agri cultural pursuits, save in rare instances. Goole, of course, is a manufac turing as well as a seaport town ; and here and there are small industries, such as the manufacture of bricks or burning of lime, in progress in close proximity to the river. But the land is agricultural land in the main, and all its villages are suggestive of rustic pursuits and surroundings. The villages of this corner of Yorkshire, too, are much alike in appearance. The farmsteads and their surrounding buildings are chiefly of red brick, roofed generally with tiles of the same colour, or with blue slate. Here and there one comes across an ancient house of stone, with a flagged roof ; and here and there upon a thatched cottage, left, like some old relic of the past, in the midst of the newer things of a village street. Picturesque in colour though these lower Ouse-side villages are, they are not invariably picturesque in outline. A landscape-painter working in oils or water- colour could find numerous opportunities in wandering about them for the profitable exercise of his art, especially in the weeks immediately following harvest, when the stackyards are well filled with wheat and barley and oats, and the first touches of brown and red are stealing over the dark green of the orchards. Such pictures are chiefly warm in colour, because of the red brick and the red tiles ; it is only on the river-sides that the grey effects are found. An ideal picture of this bit of Yorkshire would include a sweep of the osier-bordered Ouse, a broad meadow beyond filled with cattle, the gables and roofs of a village half-embowered amongst trees, and with a slender spire peeping from them in the distance ; and far away, but still conspicuously outlined against the sky, a row of poplar trees standing against the horizon like sentinels. The inhabitants of these riverside hamlets and villages are a quiet, sedate class of folk, taking life as it comes to them, not concerning themselves very much about the affairs of the outside world, but going about their own business with little care for that of others. There is nothing in them of that almost zealous enthusiasm for meddling with politics and social affairs which is so apparent as one gets further west in Yorkshire. They do not understand the reasons which prompt workmen in the great towns to talk of matters which in the rural districts are left to the dominant classes. Consequently the natives of the riverside parishes are somewhat reticent among themselves, and very cautious before strangers. A large quality of silence is their chief characteristic. That is, no doubt, because they are dwellers in a silent land. Only those who have explored these quiet lanes and by-lanes can speak as to the quiet lives which AN OUSE-SIDE VILLAGE 77 AN OUSE-SIDE VIEW the people of the village lead. The traveller going through an Ouse-side village will perceive its outward quiet readily. The long, winding village street is well-nigh deserted ; a solitary farmer's trap is standing at the open door of the inn, an old grand-dame is looking out of her cottage door way ; one or two very young children are playing by the roadside. There is a cheery gleam of the stick fires through the highly-polished windows, and the scent of burning wood makes the air sweet and fragrant. From the village school comes the hum of children's voices ; a musical clinking sounds from the smithy ; but all else in the village is quiet. Not until noontide or until evening is the quiet broken. Twice a day the street is alive with life and even gaiety — the children are running home from school, the men are returning from the fields ; at all other times, and especially at nightfall, the villages hereabouts are homes of peace. It would seem to the traveller who is not familiar with them that life is here stagnant, a degeneration into mere existence. But it is not stagnation : it is the quiet life of a quiet people. There is nothing more wonderful in exploring the various districts of Yorkshire than to notice the differences which exist between one neighbour hood and another. Every district seems to have some peculiar character istic of its own, not merely as regards its physical features but also in respect of its people. In going along the banks of the Ouse as they approach the Humber one recognises that the land has a peculiar charm of its own, and that the people are almost racially different to the people whom one will meet in the next wapentake. It needs but a slight difference in actual mileage 78 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE to bring about this distinction in both scenery and people. By crossing a river one meets different aspects and new ideas. Howden folk are not exactly as Selby folk are, and Goole folk resemble neither. That adds to the charm of the riverside country, where all things are so flat that some people, not knowing it save by a hasty glance from a railway carriage window, are incredulous of there being aught to interest or to study. Some day, perhaps, a man of leisure and of science will tell the world what the exact connection is which surely exists between character and natural environ ment, and we shall then be better able to judge of the quiet, grey lives which the folk live in these waterside villages, surrounded by fertile lands which their forefathers redeemed in the long past from marsh and fen, and maybe from the sea itself. CHAPTER V The Ouse from Drax Ferry to Bishopthorpe THE RIVERSIDE SCENERY BETWEEN HOWDEN AND SELBY DRAX • — HEMINGBOROUGH SELBY AND ITS ABBEY — BRAYTON AND HAMBLE- TON MONK-FRYSTONE AND SHERBURN WISTOW CAWOOD AND ITS CASTLE — ¦ RICCALL — SKIPWITH STILLINGFLEET ESCRICK PARK — - NABURN ACASTER SELBY AND ACASTER MALBIS — -BISHOPTHORPE. I )HE road from Howden to the village of Drax, on the opposite bank of the Ouse, passes, on leaving the ancient market-borough, through two villages, Knedlington and Asselby, each of them prettily situated, to the larger village of Barmby-on-the-Marsh, a long straggling place standing on the narrow tongue of land which separates the Ouse from the Derwent. A little to the southward of the junc tion of these rivers is another of the many ferries which are found along Ouse-side — that of Long Drax, which leads to the village of Drax, to Drax Priory, and to the flat country beyond. This ferry is not so important as those of Booth or of Hook, lower down the river, but it is somewhat picturesque, and the traveller obtains pleasant views of the banks as he crosses the stream, narrowed at that point to a breadth of less than a hundred yards. A few cottages and a small inn are situated near the west bank of the ferry, but there is nothing of interest in them save their isolation. A short distance away is the swing bridge which carries the Hull and Barnsley Railway across the Ouse, and near this a winding lane leads to Drax, a long, DRAX PRIORY 79 HEMINGBOROUGH irregularly built village, which gives one the impression that it has once been of more importance than it is now. Between it and the other villages of this district there is little difference or distinction ; it presents a view of red- tiled houses standing amongst orchards and rickyards, with a rather graceful spire surmounting a grey stone church, and a general air of rustic quiet surrounding all. Of greater interest is Drax Priory, now a farmstead, but once a somewhat famous ecclesiastical establishment, originally founded on an island opposite the mouth of the Derwent. Like many another religious house in these parts its ruins have been turned to account for secular pur poses, and the stones which echoed the plain-song of the monks are now used to shelter horses and cattle. The Priory was founded in the twelfth century by William Pagnell or Paynell for the use of Canons of the Order of St. Austin, and the church then built was most probably of the Norman type of architecture. Burton speaks of it as standing in the midst of marshy land almost opposite the point where the Derwent joins the Ouse, but even in his time there were no traces left of the original buildings. From the fields which lie between Drax Priory and the river the traveller obtains a prospect of the tall spire of Hemingborough Church, rising from the midst of a dead flat on the opposite bank of the Ouse. This spire is a conspicuous landmark for miles around — as conspicuous almost as that of Goole, or as the tower of Howden. A ferry, from a point near Drax Priory to a little waterside hamlet called Newhay, carries one back into the East Riding and to Hemingborough. Between Newhay and Hemingborough there is a fine view of the church. Its tapered spire 80 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE rises high into the air, and the graceful outlines of the nave, chancel, and transepts are well seen against the country beyond. For those interested in architecture this church possesses particular value. It is cruciform in design, with nave, chancel, and aisles, and a spire rising at the intersection of the transepts. Its architecture is of various periods — Norman, Early English, and Perpendicular predominating, and it has undergone extensive restoration during recent years. In the chancel are still preserved the choir stalls and misereres used in pre-Reformation days, when the church, like its more important sister of Howden, was collegiate. Hemingborough is undoubtedly one of the oldest places in the district, and may have had an existence long before the church was originally founded. It is spoken of as Hamiburg in Domesday Book ; and there is some evidence to show that its name is derived from one Hemming, a Dane, who built a castle here, probably on or near the site of the church. Between Hemingborough and Selby the riverside scenery is of an absolute monotony, which is fully shared in by that of the west bank. It is somewhat interesting to know that at one time the Ouse at this point took a wide sweep, running round by Hemingborough and the neighbour ing hamlet of Cliffe, instead of following the present channel, which leads by a straighter though still devious line to Selby. From either east or west bank Selby Abbey, with its square tower and long line of nave and chancel, is now in full view, a conspicuous and noble figure of the level landscape. But as the traveller draws nearer the town he perceives that he is once more in sight of a place where the antique and the modern are mingled together. Selby is old and timeworn, and here and there pic turesque ; but she is also new and sometimes bustling, and she has expressions which are ugly. The somewhat low tower of her Abbey Church looms into the sky with other hardly less conspicuous objects — a new church spire, a tall chimney sending out a volume of smoke, the signal masts at the bridges, the high roof of the railway station. Like many another Yorkshire town of note, Selby is a blending of new and old, a place where the echoes of the past sound in unison with the voices of the present. The traveller who wishes to see Selby at its picturesque best should enter the town from the west end of the market-place, and pause behind the ancient cross to take in the full effect of the magnificent west front of the Abbey Church. He will find himself at the head of a quaint market- square paved with cobble-stones, and flanked by well-built houses, with the great west front immediately facing him, and between it and himself a curious Gothic cross of great antiquity. If it be market-day, he will see the cobble-stones covered with stalls, whereon all manner of merchandise is exposed for sale, from sweet stuff to medicinal herbs, while the pavements will be thronged with Yorkshiremen from either side the river, selling or buying, bargaining or chaffering with keen zest and no little sly amuse ment. If it be a quiet day, he will find the market-place almost deserted, SELBY OLD CROSS IN SELBY MARKET-PLACE the inns silent, the ostlers idle in their yards, and the whole place given up to an easy sleepiness. Market day or quiet day, however, nothing can mar or enhance the beauty of the west front, which looks down on the public square. About all great churches there is a strange sense of domi nant power — it is as if each stood in the midst of its own particular town or city, like some guardian angel. Selby Abbey possesses this quality to the full ; wherever the traveller goes in Selby, whether along the narrow, quaintly built alleys and streets at the side of the church, or by the river side, where various craft are being loaded or unloaded, or even to the railway station, where there is all the bustle and commotion natural to so important a junction, he is dominated by the feeling that behind him lies the Abbey, the principal feature of all the ancient and modern influences which have combined to make the town. In comparison with some Yorkshire boroughs Selby is modern rather than ancient ; in contrast with its neighbour of Goole it is of a respectable antiquity. It has been claimed by some writers that it is of Roman origin, but there is no proof of their claim sufficiently strong to establish it. No records of the town of any date previous to the Norman Conquest are G 82 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE indeed extant, and it would appear from this that Selby, like many other places, grew up around its church. Of the origin of the church there would seem to be some confused notions prevalent amongst the archaeolo gists. It is said that one Benedict, a monk of Autun, ran away from France with a finger of St. Germanus, the patron saint of his monastery, and was found at Selby, cherishing the precious relic under a tree, by the Sheriff of Yorkshire, somewhere about the middle of the eleventh century. The Sheriff gave Benedict a hut wherein to shelter St. Germanus' finger, and in due time other huts were added, and a monastic community established. One turns from this tissue of legend to the fact that Selby Abbey was founded and endowed by William the Conqueror in 1069. That there must have been something dependable in the way of a town or lodging even then is evident from the fact that in 1070 William himself visited Selby in company with his Queen, who was there delivered of her youngest son, Henry I. William the Conqueror is said to have regarded Selby with peculiar favour, and it is certain that he bestowed many privileges upon the community, because his son was born in the town say some of the ancient chroniclers. But there may have been reasons which do not now appear why the reigning monarchs should show themselves well disposed to the Abbot and monks of Selby. The Abbot was one of the two mitred abbots north of the Trent — the other being he of St. Mary's at York — and there fore a person of distinction and influence. Moreover Selby itself was an important place — the principal port on the Ouse in those days, when Goole was doubtless a collection of mud huts or a dismal swamp — and William and his immediate successors knew the value of a place when they saw it. However all that may be, Selby Abbey had a very fine career until the days of the Dissolution. In 1256 Pope Alexander IV. conferred upon the Abbot and his successors, for ever, the right of wearing the abbatical ring, mitre, pastoral staff, dalmatic, gloves, and sandals ; of blessing the palls of the altar and other ecclesiastical ornaments used in the churches, and of conferring the first tonsures on candidates for holy orders. All this led to much splendour on the part of the community, whose income at the time of the Dissolution amounted to nearly £800. When the Dissolution came, the Abbey of Selby naturally shared the fate of the other great monastic establishments, and in 1542 its site was sold to Sir Ralph Sadler. It passed through the hands of many owners between that date and 1854, when it was sold by Lord Petre to its present holder, the Earl of Londesborough. After the Dissolution the Abbey Church was made the parish church of the town, and it is still pretty much as it appeared in its best days, always saving the fact that it was thoroughly restored and renovated by Sir Gilbert Scott, and that the present tower, which in the opinion of many is not of sufficient dignity to match with the rest of the edifice, was erected to re place the original one, which fell in 1 690 and did much damage to the south SELBY ABBEY 83 •TWA >K» SELBY ABBEY aisle and the end of the south transept. There seems to be good reason for supposing that the original plan of Selby Abbey included three towers — one in the middle and two at the west end, after the fashion of the three at York Minster. How much the church would have gained in dignity and beauty had these plans been carried out it is not difficult to perceive, on taking a casual glance at the Abbey from any point of vantage without the town. Perhaps the most effective point from which to judge of the propor tions of the Abbey is on nearing the town on the high-road from Riccall, to the north-east. There the magnificent lines of the nave, chancel, and transepts show themselves in bold prominence against the sky, and stand high above the gables of the town beneath ; but they are spoiled to a certain extent by the tower, which, though in keeping with the architecture of the church, is of dwarfed proportions, and compares most unfavourably with the undoubted beauties of nave and chancel. The great architectural features of this church are Norman. The beauti ful west front, sufficient in itself to charm the traveller into a long spell of 84 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE admiration and wonder, has a Norman doorway, and there is another on the north side. The walls of the nave and of the north transept are Norman ; the round pillars, circular arches, and clerestory windows of the nave are Norman, too, and so are the four great arches at the intersection of the transepts. But there is also a great deal of decorated work in the church, and notably in the choir, the walls of which are made still further interesting by the Early English arcades which run round them. The windows in the west front are pointed, and the front itself is battlemented, and has four pinnacles. Over the Norman door on the north side is a porch in the mixed style. There are some interesting sedilia and ancient oak stalls in the chancel, and various monuments there and in the transepts in memory of the abbots of Selby. From the parapet of the tower there is a fine prospect of the surrounding country — not so extensive, perhaps, as that of Howden, but well worth climbing the stairs for. Here again it is impossible to avoid a feeling of regret that the scheme of restoration under Sir Gilbert Scott did not provide for a tower in perfect keeping with the church, and of more prominence in a landscape of which the church is the finest ornament. Quiet as Selby seems on all other than market days, it is by no means a sleepy town so far as modern enterprise is concerned. Once the most important port on the Ouse, it still has a certain value in the shipping line, and its quays and wharves are always busy. A little to the northward of the bridge which carries the North-Eastern Railway over the river is the mouth of the canal which connects the Ouse with the Aire at Haddlesey, a few miles away. By its means a good deal of trade is done with the great towns of the West Riding. As to railway accommodation Selby is exception ally well off. It is on the main lines from London to York, Leeds to Hull, and from Lancashire and the west to the seaside resorts on the East Coast, and its station is therefore an important centre. Of late years it has seen the establishment of the first light railway in Yorkshire — the Selby, Wistow, and Cawood line — a venture designed for the aid of the agriculturists of that particular district. Now-a-days Selby is a peculiarly agricultural town. To visit it on market-day — Monday — is to see such an assemblage of farmer- folk as cannot probably be matched, either for numbers or interest, in the Riding. Their carts and traps, from the light dogcart of the smart young farmer to the lumbering conveyance of the old-fashioned one, seem to take up all the room in the inn-yards ; the inns themselves are filled, every room of them, with keen-eyed, hard-faced Yorkshiremen, doing business over pipe and glass. By whatever road Selby is approached on the afternoon of market-day, the veriest stranger on nearing it may tell that that has been the great day of the rural week. He will see all the sights and sounds of highway-life — the carrier's cart rumbling slowly along, full of gossiping women and numerous parcels ; the farmer and his wife, jogging gently homeward with placid faces ; the drover with his drove of sheep and cattle ; the noisy man, afoot or on horseback, who has been playing hail-fellow- t^kfhe Choir v ^lb/J/lbbey , JL 86 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE well-met with every acquaintance he greeted. It is an interesting phase of Yorkshire rural life to see all these things, and to watch the market-day settle down to quietude and the market-place itself to as grey a peace as that which hangs about the ancient church keeping guard above it. II On the west side of the Ouse above Selby the land lies level and un broken for many miles, but turning a little south and west of the town and going forward until he comes to the Great North Road, the traveller en counters a somewhat diversified country which may fairly claim to lie within the basin of the river whose banks he is traversing. If he follows the Selby and Doncaster highway to Brayton, and turns thence by way of Hambleton and Monk Frystone to the little market-town of Sherburn on the Great North Road, he will find himself in the midst of the Barkston Ash division or wapentake, which is largely bounded by the Ouse and its tribu taries, the Aire and the Wharfe. From Sherburn a long, straight by-way will take him back to the banks of the Ouse at Cawood. Such a deviation from a formal route will enable any one desirous of seeing all aspects of Yorkshire life and scenery to enclose a tract of land particularly rich in associations, and at the same time to form some conception of the com parative isolation in which numbers of the rural population live, despite the fact that the county is liberally supplied with the means of communication afforded by high-roads and railways. On leaving Selby by the south-west the traveller's attention is naturally called to two features of the landscape which in that particular district of Yorkshire cannot fail to attract notice — the twin hills of Brayton and Hambleton. Neither is of remarkable height, but their situation, in the midst of a vast plain which is almost uniformly level, gives them a distinc tion superior to that of many mountains ten times their height in that they are the most conspicuous objects of the landscape for miles around. They are much alike in appearance, rounded, wood-capped protuberances from the level land beneath, and at a distance of twelve miles to the south-west it is almost impossible to trace any distinct difference in their outlines. That of Brayton is known as Brayton Barf, Barugh, or Barrow ; that of Hambleton as Hambleton Haugh, Haigh, or Hay. From their summits, insignificant in height as they are, there is a remarkable prospect of the surrounding country, embracing wide areas of the neighbouring wapentakes of Barkston Ash and Osgoldcross, and overlooking villages, parks, woods, and meadows in a delightful richness and variety. At the foot of Brayton Barf lies Brayton village, which is chiefly interest ing because of its church, where, as at Selby, a mile away, there is an abundance of Norman work. Perhaps the most notable feature of this church is its steepled tower, which has three divisions — a square tower, BRAYTON AND HAMBLETON 87 battlemented, and of considerable height, with Norman arches of two lights each in each front ; an octagonal continuation, buttressed at each corner ; and an octagonal spire. The Norman doorway on the south side of the church, protected by a porch of more recent date, is, however, very curious and interest- three arches three circular first orna- series of zig- i n g s, the seventeen medallions, by thirty-five and birds. altar tomb in on which re- effigies of Darcie and isdatedi4i8.self is largely is a typical a roadside district. A from it into road run- GATEHOUSE STEETON HALL ing. It has rising from columns; the mented by a zag mould - second by sculpturedand the third heads of men There is an the chancel, pose the one George his wife. This Brayton it- modern, and specimen of village in this by-road leads the main- ning between Leeds and Selby, and from their intersection the traveller finds himself skirting the base of the twin hills until he comes to Hambleton, another roadside hamlet, but with little of note or interest in it. The street is long and straggling ; its cottages are somewhat unkempt and its gardens weedy, and although it is on a principal highway, something in its appearance and in that of its folk suggests a complete isolation from the outer world. It is a strange fact that villages enjoying apparently the same means of communication should differ materially in their aspect and in the evidences of their social life : that it is a fact is made evident by even a casual glance at the appear ance of a village street as the traveller passes through it. One village, for example, is a perfect model of what a village should be — the next is its direct contrast. Of the reasons for this variety the traveller learns nothing. A little way from the intersection of the Great North Road by the highway from Selby to Leeds, lies Monk Frystone, a village notable for the somewhat striking architecture of its various houses and buildings, which are mainly of stone, or of brick faced with rubble, and therefore in striking contrast to the red brick of the Ouse-side villages. Here the traveller is on the edge of the lime-burning district, and here also the land begins to lose its flatness, and to commence the series of undulations which PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE carry it south the banks of north and oftheWharfe. undulating the Great once one of portant of ways, but now into disuse the railways. meeting it at sees it in one characteristicgoes straight ing neither to keeping the from London which its first Romans, de- SHERBURN CHURCH and west to the Aire, and west to those Through this country runs North Road, the most im- English high- largely fallen because of The traveller, this point, of its most moods ; it ahead, turn- right or left, straight line to York, on makers, the signed it. Here it dips down through an avenue of trees, crosses the Leeds and Selby road, and goes forward, now up, now down, but always straight, by thorpe and croft, village and hamlet, towards Tadcaster and York. It is now largely bordered by broad sweeps of grass ; for since the coaches gave over running, and local traffic usurped their place, there has been no need for a roadway of more than ordinary width. A little to the right of the road, after turning towards Sherburn from Monk Frystone, lies Milford Junction, one of the most important and at the same time most uncomfortable railway stations in Yorkshire. South Milford, a pretty agricultural village, is on the left, and is worth some inspection, if only for the sake of the old farmstead at Steeton, on its outskirts, which was once a manorial hall, with four massive gateway-towers, one of which is still standing in a state of good repair. The entrance to Sherburn from the south presents the lover of the pic turesque with a very striking view of this ancient and interesting market- town. The road slopes a little from a height above the town, from whence there is a wide prospect of the flat land which the traveller has already tra versed, and above which loom the hills of Brayton and Hambleton, and suddenly descends into a long village street, flanked by quaint houses, pro jecting gables, and the swinging-signs of old-fashioned inns. It needs little imagination to conceive that this was a place of importance in the old days. If not of the importance of Tadcaster to the north, or of Ferrybridge to the south, it was still a busy centre for the district, and as heavily thronged with post-chaises, coaches, and private conveyances as its neighbour of SHERBURN 89 Milford is nowadays with railway trains. But in reality Sherburn was a place of importance long before the coaching days. Here Athelstane had a palace which he gave, with other possessions in the town, to the Arch bishops of ruins were in building choir of York The church, in its archi- the Saxon to dicular styles, noble in de- nave is a very of Norman are some ancient mon- church and yard, and the tains various interest. In street there is house, town- house, with bearings over door, and of great an- architecture is dispensed habitants of take of Bark- fall under the of the Sher- trates. Sherburn, indeed, is the capital town of its district, though it ranks in point of importance below the larger towns of Selby and Tadcaster. Close by is Barkston itself, a tiny hamlet which gives a name to a wapen take of nearly a hundred thousand acres in extent. All round Sherburn agriculture flourishes exceedingly ; the sub-soil of limestone and red sand stone being favourable to the particular system of farming in use there. The aspect of the little town is, indeed, naught but that of a large agri cultural village — the church, standing high on a rising bank beyond the houses ; the houses a collection of red and grey roofs, with corn-ricks hiding their lower windows, and orchards half obscuring the corn-ricks. In the sunlight the limestone walls shine almost white, and make dazzling patches of colour against the green of the woods beyond. H s-& ?1 nhode^ 98 ANCIENT CRUCIFIX : SHERBURN CHURCH York. Its largely used the present Minster. which varies tecture from the Perpen- is large and sign, and its fine example work. There curious and uments in the the church- town con- objects of the main an ancient hall or court- armorialits principal many traces tiquity in its Here justice to such in- the Wapen- ston Ash as jurisdiction burn magis- 9o PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE m r if e \ WISTOW From Sherburn to the level banks of the Ouse, the by-road leads over a plain distinguished for its absolute flatness. There is no village for several miles : but here and there the traveller finds an isolated farmstead, or group of cottages, lying on the edge of a coppice or plantation in the midst of fields drained by wide dykes. To the right stretches the long, dark mass of Bishop Wood, with Hambleton Haugh at its farthest southern extremity ; far away in front, beyond the Ouse and the Derwent, rise the Wolds. At the tiny hamlet of Biggin the land of red brick and tile is met again, and the tall signal masts at Cawood come into view above the high hedgerows. Here another by-road leads to Wistow, a quietly picturesque village on the west bank of the Ouse, approached by winding lanes bor dered by apple-orchards. From some little distance out of the village the tower of Wistow church forms a conspicuous landmark, not so much because of its size as by reason of its architecture. It is a square, battle mented tower of grey stone, topped by a curiously-shaped roof of red tiles ; and the colour of the latter, seen between the grey stones and the blue sky, shines out vividly beneath a strong sunlight. The church has nave, chancel, north and south aisles, and a porch, and stands in the middle of a species of village square, with a modern chapel immediately facing it, and two inns, SKIPWITH 91 much more picturesque in appearance, close by. Within the church there are two or three notable objects. In the north aisle, and immediately facing the door of the south porch, there is a curious remnant of what must at some period have been a very fine monument. It rests within an archway, sunk and consists of a hour-glass, with a neath, emblazoned, in colouring. The carved as to deceive pression that it is human being ; and of the coat-of-arms is equally well exe- unique monument, lettering or inscrip- # MURAL TABLET IN WISTOW CHURCH deeply into the wall, skull supporting an coat-of-arms be- and still fairly fresh skull is so well the eye into the im- the actual skull of a the ornamentation and the hour-glass cuted. Close by this on which there is no tion, stands the font, apparently hewn out of a solid block of stone, and resting on a curious, radiated pavement, somewhat mutilated, which again rests on a square slab. Facing this, on one of the piers which support the tower, is a frag ment of fresco work, in which all that is now traceable is a representation of a leg and foot. There is some good modern stained or painted glass in the chancel and south aisle of the church, and some interesting tombstones in the floor of the north aisle, at the east end of which is a piscina in a niche in the wall. This particular district of Yorkshire is rich in churches, and few of them are better worth examining than that of Skipwith, a village which lies across the Ouse from Wistow, at some little distance off the high-road between Selby and Market Weighton. There can be little doubt that this village was an early British foundation. Recent excavations have brought to light huts and other traces of early settlers, and on the common, close by, certain tumuli, arranged in a square in line with the points of the compass, have yielded bones, charred by fire. The church of Skipwith is mentioned in Domesday Book, and that it existed long before the Conquest is proved by the tower, which is of Saxon architecture, or well reputed to be so. About it the archaeologist and antiquarian will find abundance of food for reflection and thought. A little way from Skipwith, and still nearer the Ouse lies Riccall, one more of the villages of red-brick walls and red-tiled roofs, embowered in elms and ash -trees, which are so frequent along the river- banks. Here the church is large and handsome, and shows bravely against the sky as the traveller advances upon it. It has a high, square tower, a battlemented parapet round the nave, and a high arched roof over the chancel, with a Norman door, under a porch of later architecture, on the south side. There is some very curious carving over the arch of the door, closely re sembling that at Brayton. Inside the church there is little of interest beyond 92 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE the baptistery beneath the tower, which is screened from the nave by two elegantly designed arches, and a very fine mural tablet in the chancel in memory of one Robert Wormby, " Lord of the Manor " of Riccall, who was a relative of the famous Fairfax family of Denton, and died in 171 2. The coat-of-arms on this monument is highly coloured and ornamented — surely they of the old days had some curious desire to see themselves commemo rated in grand fashion ! Two matters in Riccall churchyard are deserving of notice — one, a mural tablet, exceedingly plain, to the memory of a school master of the parish ; the other a stone pillar or obelisk by the side of the path from the west gate, broken off near the head, but without any in scription to show what it may signify. From Riccall to Cawood — perhaps the most interesting place of all the town and villages along the Ouse between Howden and York— the road lies through the waterside hamlet of Kelfield, and thence over Cawood bridge into the very heart of Cawood itself. Here the traveller may truthfully say that he is on historic ground : there are few places in Yorkshire where names have a better claim to be interwoven with history than this sleepy little parish through which a stranger might easily pass without deducing any thing of its history from the quiet streets, the cobble-stone-paved market square, or even the remains of the castle, now incorporated in the buildings of a farmstead. From the opposite bank of the Ouse, Cawood presents a picture of red-tiled roofs and tall gables, rising amidst orchards and gardens, with a quaint little church on the very edge of the stream, a great bridge crossing the river, and near it a square, tower-like building of grey stone, rising in the middle of a long brick barn or granary. Once within the town, there is little to dispel the first impression of this picture. A small square, roughly paved, a few quaint-looking ruins, various ancient-looking houses in the quiet streets, the remains of the historic castle, the riverside church — that is Cawood. But as one lingers on the bridge watching the swirling of the Ouse below, or letting one's eyes wander across the level meadows that stretch eastward towards the woods of Escrick, one knows instinctively that here is the very odour and evidence of antiquity, that one stands as it were amidst a vast assemblage of ghosts. The chroniclers have said little of Cawood, rich in association and bound up with the history of York and its archbishops as it is. " Cawood," says Leland, " a very fair castle, longith to the Archbishop of York, and ther is a preati village." Camden has no more to say, and Cooke, an itinerant of the early part of this century, merely quotes Leland, and strings together a few historical facts in half-a-dozen lines. Originally the place was a Roman station, with a ford across the river, and it seems probable that it formed a prominent point on the Roman road between York and Castleford. The castle dates back to the tenth century, when it is said to have been given by Athelstane to the Archbishops of York as a palace convenient of access from the cathedral town ten miles away. During the CAWOOD CASTLE 93 next four or five centuries it was probably one of the strongest and largest castles in the north of England, and as such was frequently visited by the reigning sovereigns or members of their family. Henry III. and his : '-f'\:-;~=*£'V (salted (gfl't. J 1 \\. Queen stayed there on their way to s \i=:i the Scottish court of Alexander III.; ^ i } Marguerite of France, second wife of Edward I., made Cawood her abode while Edward was prosecuting his Scotch campaign; Edward II., his Queen and court, were there more than once, and it was from Cawood that Black Douglas and a body of Scottish light horsemen made an attempt to carry off Isabella. Within the walls of Cawood the Barons held their council after the battle of Boroughbridge. At Cawood Archbishop Neville, brother 94 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE of the king-maker, Warwick, gave a famous feast on his elevation to the see of York ; at Cawood Cardinal Wolsey, busily preparing for his en thronement in York Minster, which he had put off from time to time by reason of his many pressing affairs of state, was arrested by the Earl of Northumberland on a charge of high treason and carried away southward, to die a broken-down old man at the Abbey of Leicester. In Cawood lodged Wolsey's master, Henry VIII., at the time of his royal progress through Yorkshire, and it was here, if report be true, that the then Queen, Catherine Howard, was guilty of the faithlessness which ere long brought her to the scaffold. When the stirring times of the Civil War came on Cawood had its part in them. It was garrisoned by the Earl of Newcastle for the King, captured by the Parliamentarians, recaptured by the Royalists, and finally subdued by Fairfax for the popular cause in 1644. Two years later the House of Commons issued the order for its demolition. Much of the material then sacrificed was used in building Bishopthorpe, the Arch bishop's new residence nearer York. All that now remains of the Castle is the Gateway Tower, erected during the reign of Henry VI., by Arch bishops Bowet and Kempe. It is a square tower, buttressed at the angles, with a footway and carriage-way beneath, passing under a ribbed and vaulted roof. Over the east entrance is a broad filleting, ornamented by coats-of-arms, and over that a projecting window with three lights. An ancient red-brick building, with buttresses, adjoins the tower on the east side. This was probably used as a chapel in the later days of the Castle, but it is unquestionably of a much more recent date than the gateway. It is now used as a barn, and its high, narrow windows are filled up. A modern farmhouse abuts on the tower at the west side, and its fold, stackyard, and garden occupy the ground once made picturesque by the varied habits of monks and knights, serving-men and men-at-arms. It is almost impossible at this distance to comprehend the glitter and magnificence which centred about these ancient castles in mediaeval times, but occasional scraps of history throw curious sidelights on both, and serve better to give modern folk some notion of the stirring times of old than a whole volume of dry-as-dust records could. There has come down through four centuries an account of the feast which George Neville, Archbishop of York, gave at Cawood on his elevation to the see in 1464, and one may doubt whether any more significant note of the times could be un earthed. It is to be supposed that all and sundry were bidden to the Arch bishop's table ; certainly all the great folk of the North were there. For their entertainment the Archbishop had made such provision as surely no modern caterer could furnish. To begin with, his cooks turned 300 quarters of wheat into loaves and manchets of bread. There were 300 tuns of ale, and 100 tuns of wine, together with a pipe of hippocras for the drinking. As to fish, there were 600 pike and bream, and 12 porpoises and seals. Of flesh there was such a plentitude as must have made even the cooks stare. FEASTING AT CAWOOD 95 It comprised iooo sheep, ioo oxen, 6 wild bulls, 304 each of pork pigs and calves, 2000 ordinary pigs, 204 kids, 500 deer, 1500 venison pasties cold, and 4000 hot, and 4000 was the muni- bishop be- his provision of fered his guests amongst 4000 teals, 2000 geese, 1000 dozen of fowls, 4000 pigeons, 200 pheasants, 400 swans, shaws, 500 curlews, 400 peacocks, and quails. As to was not so but for that even luxurious strove to atone. 300 dishes of custards, 3000 4000 cold many sweet way of small the chronicler possible to in detail. 1000 cheners, and a cf.'?t«x)7i'A.^«t srjt **K& **¦$&*£$ * ACASTER MALBIS ing it. The present house is largely the work of Archbishop Drummond, who died in 1766. It is in the pointed style of architecture, and the canopy over the entrance and the turret above the gateway are highly ornamented. The Palace contains many fine apartments, from the windows of which some very excellent views of the river scenery may be had, and it possesses numerous important works of art, most of which are portraits of the Archbishops by famous painters. The domestic chapel is exceed ingly interesting ; its stained glass is of the highest order, and the pulpit is beautifully carved. Historically, Bishopthorpe is not without interest. Here, in the Great Hall, Archbishop Scrope was tried for his share in the rebellion of the North, in which the Mowbrays, Percys, and other north- country families were largely concerned. The King, Henry IV., was present at the trial, and so was Lord Chief-Justice Gascoigne. On the formal trial being concluded, Gascoigne refused to pass sentence on the Archbishop, pleading that the law gave him no jurisdiction over the life of a prelate. Sentence was therefore pronounced by the King's command by one Ful- thorpe, a lawyer present in court, and it was duly carried out by the be heading of the Archbishop on a hill near the village. For years afterwards his tomb in York Minster was much visited by the people, who considered his trial and sentence illegal, and gave him the honour of a saint. It is impossible, on leaving Bishopthorpe by the river-side for York, not to recognise that the presence of a great city is near. There is some thing in the air that seems to tell of it, and to induce the mind to strange imaginations centring round this most ancient of English cities. But when the eye, glancing across the broad sweep of the Ouse, falls on the grey masses rising majestically from the level plain on which York is built, and begins to distinguish towers and spires, gables and turrets, the mind is unconsciously charmed into a sense of pure enjoyment, which precludes any 104 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE other thought than that of passive admiration. The banks of the Ouse, from its junction with the Humber, are comparatively tame and monotonous in relation to those of most of the other Yorkshire rivers, but when York once bursts on the sight, with all its charm and interest written large over its y,;'"' <4t /#" y--Jmn.t» S. 7 >'\ -. "' ,'- m Ms 4*% "' I r -K^lt\^-/y c v. - - " ;. iiprcMiff " ~ "-***£- l_ w. grey walls, the traveller feels that his gradual progress through the quiet riverside towns and villages has been a fitting preparation for an approach to the ancient city. No way is so fitting, or so full of harmony with the spirit and the history of the old city, as that by which, long centuries ago, the men from over-seas came with snake-headed ships and plashing oar, moving slowly forward between the level Yorkshire plains, until they paused to wonder at the beauty of the white-walled town wherein the Romans set up the foundations of an empire. CHAPTER VI The Charm of York THE PECULIAR BEAUTIES OF YORK AS AN ANCIENT CITY HER HISTORIC ASSOCIATIONS A CITY OF THE PAST AND THE PRESENT THE IN FLUENCE OF THE MINSTER. }0 the lover of the picturesque and beautiful few cities in the world, and certainly none in England, present so much of real interest and value as the ancient city on the banks of the Ouse. At whatever period of the year the stranger enters its walls, York is found full of charm and of a fascinating variety which becomes more alluring and wonderful the longer its influence is experienced. It may be that it is most beautiful and most alluring to those who know and love it best. The man who travels across the land with a railway-guide in one pocket and a tourist hand-book in the other, and who has so carefully mapped out his journeyings as to know how many hours he may give to this place and how many minutes to that, may presumably see little in York that he has not already seen in some degree in other ancient towns and cities. Even he, however, will feel compelled to acknowledge the rare charm which a flying visit reveals. He will carry away with him a con fused impression of an old-world city, wherein new things are mingled not incongruously with the old, of a multitude of churches, ancient buildings, historic landmarks, curiously winding streets, and over all the mighty bulk of a magnificent cathedral church ; but that will not explain to his mind the fascination which even an hour's hurried exploration of York exercises upon all who are in the least degree susceptible to the influence of the picturesque and beautiful. That, to such a man, will remain a mystery, not to be solved by the reading of guide-books or itineraries. There is, indeed, but one way by which the charm of York can be explained to the mind which feels it. Just as one must live long years with some rare mind in order to know how rare it is, so one must give a whole-souled devotion to so rare a city as this, if one would really know what exquisite things in the realms of art and in that strange and mystic association which springs 105 K 106 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE from centuries of history it holds within the compass of its ancient walls. To the man of artistic temperament York, above all English cities, is the nearest realisation of that ideal mistress, who reveals every day some new charm, and binds her lover still more closely to her by the promise of beauty yet undreamt of. Whether any man knows all the charm of York one may well doubt. A first visit to her leaves the mind filled with a sense of strange beauty ; a hundredth finds it excited with the discovery of some hitherto unrevealed thing that compels admiration and delight. For whoever goes a-searching for the beautiful or the interesting in York, finds himself contemplating the monument, or rather the living presentment of a history of nearly two thousand years. It is not that he is merely observing the life and move ment of a nineteenth-century city wherein there are certain memorials and remnants of an antique age — rather it is that his eyes are fixed on the whole life of the place, and that York, the historic, the time-worn, the ever- fresh, presents itself to him in- one glorious image. It is not even as though the centuries and their dead folk, Roman and Dane, Saxon and Norman, king and warrior, priest and burgess, passed before him in review. Rather he stands, not a little abased in mind at his own puny insignificance, in the heart of a city wherein the life of the past is so mingled with the life of the present as to annihilate time and death. At first, in the presence of such a venerable greatness, a man has no mind to speak ; later, he will speak with the reverence which men show in temples ; always his ears will listen to the voice of ages murmuring in every nook and cranny. Such a feeling of awe it is impossible to repress in the presence of so ancient a city. Before its greatness the affairs of to-day seem small. What it is that there erects the memories and traditions of a place into a living presence that seems for ever to dominate the scenes over which it is set up, no man may say : but no man may deny that the presence is there. The Sphinx itself, gazing with steadfast eyes across the desert, is not a realer thing than the living spirit which broods over the towers and spires, the grey walls and narrow streets of the city which has witnessed the rise and fall of peoples and king doms, and the evolution of an empire of whose present grandeur its founders never dreamed. To the man upon whose imagination the first aspect of a great historic city exercises a natural fascination, it will be sufficient in the earlier moments of his delight to stand and worship at a distance, even as pilgrims linger at the outer walls of a shrine ere they dare to approach more closely to the holier things within. To the dull spirit there may be something ridiculous in the thought of a man standing at some one point on the walls of York for hour after hour, his eyes fixed on the prospect stretched out before him. But that, after all, is the first way to see York. When one becomes possessed of a thing of rare beauty one's first instinct is not to make close examination, or to criticise, but to give reins to admiration, and to enjoy all the pleasures AN IMPRESSION OF YORK BY MOONLIGHT By William Hyde 108 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE which silent contemplation can afford. And if Oxford, loveliest of southern cities, shows all her beauty and her dreaming spires from " Where the elm-tree crowns The hill behind whose ridge the sunset flames," so York, most imperial and majestic of all the cities of the north, is always lovely from the walls which once shut her out from the wide plains that stretch away from her feet on every side. The mere contemplation of her towers and spires is in itself a source of delight ; but the contemplation is not all. The feeling which impresses itself on the man who stands to gaze, and lingers that he may gaze again, is that he is beholding the visible symbols of long chapters of history. Ere he has gazed very long the past rehabilitates itself before his eyes. He sees the rudely-fortified riverside town of the Brigantes, with fen and marsh between it and the northern forest, and within its compass a race of folk, savage, and fearless, and primitive. He sees the first coming of the Romans, and the gradual driving out of the old race before the terrible discipline of the new power. He sees walls and towers, villas and temples, arise where once the mud huts stood, and in their midst a Roman Emperor keeping his state after the manner of imperial Rome itself. He sees the Ouse flashing with the arms and harness of the men from over seas — Saxons, Danes, Celts, Finns, wild men from Jomsburg and Esthonia, savages from the forests of Rugen and the shores of the Baltic — who at one time or another swarmed up the Humber, and laid the wide lands waste, and contributed in their way and after their fashion to the making of England. And he sees, too, the coming of a newer and more terrible force, guided and impelled by the great mind and far-seeing brain of the Norman, and out of the ashes and ruin and desolation which followed its coming he beholds rising the terrible Norman keep, emblem and symbol of the setting-up of the Norman rule and of the beginning of empire. Around that keep and about the walls of the great Minster church he sees a city arise as the generations come and go, increasing in size and power in spite of war and fire and pestilence, the scene of great events, the theatre of momentous dramas, the presentment of the spirit of human progress passing through the ages of violence to the days of peace. Not less full of appeal to the imagination are all these things when seen at closer view. It is impossible to traverse the quaint and curious streets of York without feeling that one is in company with a great crowd of ghosts. Not merely the unfamiliar gables of the houses, the narrowness of the streets and the pavements, contribute to this feeling — something in the very air of the place suggests that it is peopled by wraiths of dead men. It would never surprise the imaginative man to find himself surrounded by men and women in the picturesque garb of other days, or to see whatever there is of new things in the city disappear, and the past rebuild itself, even to the spiked heads of traitors on the various gates and bars. There are times THE CHARM OF YORK 109 in York when it seems impossible to realise that one is walking through the streets of a nineteenth-century town. With a soft moonlight falling upon a narrow, winding street, throwing the quaint gables and projections into strong relief, and indicating, rather than lighting, the great bulk of the Minster seen above an irregular line of crooked roofs, York presents a picture of perfect mediaevalism. There is nothing in common between to-day and the encircling walls and the gates that pierce them at various points. When night falls and honest citizens are asleep one expects the gates to be closed, the portcullis to be down, and the guard-house over it to be filled with men-at-arms. In the uncertain grey of twilight, or when the moon hangs over the city, the belated man glances hurriedly at the battlemented towers of these ancient gates, half persuaded that he will see between their frowning parapets and the sky the grisly heads of dead men. It is the greatest charm of this ancient city that she is for ever revealing herself in some new fashion to those who strive to know her better. With the apparent beauties of her character it is not difficult to make a speedy acquaintance, but she has a thousand other delights which must be searched for. Even the ardent devotee, seeking her out again and again throughout a lifetime, is always finding something fresh and new. Now it is an ancient house, hidden away in an unpromising alley or court ; now a rare bit of carving perched away in an almost inaccessible corner ; now a quaint gable which has been passed a hundred times ere the eye caught sight of it from some particular point of vantage. To those who love antiquity there is a strangely fascinating delight in this gradual revealing of the city's character and treasures. After each experience of the fashion in which she can suddenly lay bare some beauty hitherto unknown, the devotee's soul is fired with the thought that still more remains to be seen and may be un veiled at any moment. Herein lies the delight of many journeyings through the byways of an ancient city — that one may at such times as one wots not of be brought into the presence of something, the mere sight of which blots out all the intervening things between present and past, and conjures up such pictures of long dead days as no magician's wand could. Then, too, there is the joy of seeing an admired object from many points, of studying it under varying conditions of light and shade, of so making one's self ac quainted with every stone, and with the significance of every ornament, that one may dare to point out their beauties to others. Only in a city whose past runs back into the mists of ages can these delights be experienced. But who, spending long days of silent contemplation of its beauties, can ever hope to know the full charm and glory of the great Minster, whose three towers are lifted high above the city at their feet for the admira tion and wonder of all men, and for a sign to far-off towns and villages of the dominion of the mother church ? Other cathedrals and minsters there are in the land whose histories are parts and parcels of the history of the English folk, but none where the long-buried past is so firmly united I IO PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE ; ", k feWl . V If' ^1- Ii v, \ m I-.,' &W~ i -/ ' Old Yfe HISTORIC ASSOCIATIONS in to the living present as in this marvel in stone. If it be true that the voices of bygone things still murmur and echo about the scenes which they once knew, then these great vaults of space are filled with them. Here, while the voices of singing men and boys chant forth the ancient psalms in modern fashion, there seems to mingle with their melody the deeper tones of long-dead monks singing nones or matins, lauds or vespers, in the fashion of other days. To how many songs of thanksgiving and jubilation have these grey stones resounded — to how many wailing strains of sorrow and petition have these long aisles throbbed ! Here has passed the whole pomp and pride of the Church, from the simple baptism, in the little wooden oratory, of Eadwine, first Christian king of Northumbria, to the proud processions of mighty kings, and the enthronement of great archbishops. And if the streets of the city, and its encircling walls and battlemented gates, are thronged with ghosts, what of the mighty Minster wherein sleeps the dust of generations of princes and prelates, warriors and statesmen, with all the records of their virtues and victories emblazoned above them ? But the imagination pales at the thought of all that so vast and historic a church may suggest. It is easy to wander about its vast nave, to marvel at the beauty of its transepts, to inspect the treasures of its choir and crypt, but this conveys no impression of the true significance of the place. It is easy, too, to hear the glib tongue of a guide reel off the more remarkable points of the Minster's history : even then its story is all untold. For the history of such a church means the history of generations, the labour and loving care of thousands of men who are long dead and forgotten : the story of ages of suffering, of persecution, of faith, the revivification of things that lie asleep in the heaped-up dust of the past. Such a story as that which breathes itself amongst the aisles of York Minster can never be written. Just as there are thoughts which lie too deep for tears, so there is life which is beyond all language. In such sanctuaries as this man feels rather than thinks — dreams rather than speaks. Such is the great charm which the Minster shares with the city that lies at its feet, the charm of that wondrous beauty which is too deep for any mortal to fully compre hend. Nowhere in England is there another spot so full of that charm as York is full — York, old and time-worn when the Normans came across the neighbouring wapentakes to inaugurate the new era of eight hundred years ago ; old and time-worn to-day when modern thought and progress is at its door and in its very heart, but young still, and new with the new ness that clings to the beautiful. CHAPTER VII Historic York TRADITIONS AS TO THE EARLY FOUNDATIONS OF YORK THE BRIGANTES THE COMING OF THE ROMANS THE GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION OF YORK AND ITS IMPORTANCE TO A MILITARY FORCE YORK UNDER THE ROMAN EMPERORS ASPECT OF ROMAN YORK YORK UNDER THE ANGLES AND THE DANES THE NORMAN CONQUEST YORK IN THE DOMESDAY BOOK YORK DURING THE MIDDLE AGES THE TUDORS AND THE STUARTS THE CIVIL WAR PROGRESS OF YORK DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY MODERN GROWTH AND PROGRESS OF THE CITY. I j)N the days when the science of history wras all undreamt of, and the story of man and his doings on earth was almost entirely a matter of tradition, it was commonly related by the monks, in whose keeping whatever existent learning reposed, that York was originally founded by a descendant of ^Eneas, who flourished about the time when David was King of Israel. If this tradition has any truth in it, York can boast of an antiquity well-nigh as great as that of any city in the world, and certainly exceeding that of any city in Europe. That it was believed in, and other similar traditions with it, may be gathered from the fact that some of the old itinerants gravely state that the city was built by Ebraucus, son of Mempucius, and that he gave it its first name of Caer- Ebrauc. Other early writers on the history of York claim that the very difficulties attending a satisfactory solution of the etymology of its name are a proof that its antiquity is much greater than the absolutely certain facts of its history proclaim. Of those difficulties it is scarcely necessary to concern oneself with nowadays, any more than it is necessary to speculate about the truth of the monkish fables and legends. Whoever it was that first made a habitation on the particular spot where York now stands, it is absolutely certain that there was a town or settlement of some size and importance there long before the Romans came into England. Probably THE COMING OF THE ROMANS JI3 the Romans, when they came, found it occupied by the Brigantes, and it is equally probable that they found York the capital city of Cartismandua, their queen. How they came, and exactly when, and what happened when they arrived, is all lost in the mists of ages. There is ground for believing that in their advance northward they pressed forward from Danum (Don caster) to Legiolum (Castleford), and thence turned by way of Aberford and Tadcaster to York. Whether that took place at an early period of the Roman occupancy or later on, history cannot tell us, but there seems no reason to doubt that York was in the hands of the Romans about the and can there- definite and year 70 a.d., fore boast a authentic 1800 years. Ptolemy, the Alexandria, the second to Alcuin, a who lived in that one must first accounts Ptolemy, who o u s geo- world as it known, men- cum as a Ro- story of over It is to geographer of who lived in century, and native of York the seventh, turn for the of the city. wrote a curi- graphy of the was then tions Ebura- man station Alcuin, in an oft-quoted verse, would ROMAN ALTARS AT YORK and the headquarters of a legion seem to claim that the origin of the city lay with the Romans. " Hanc, Romana manus, muris et turribus altam, Fundavit primo — Ut fieret ducibus secura potentia regni Ut decus imperii, terrorque hostilibus armis." He speaks of it, too, as a second Rome, a mighty and magnificent city, the seat of dominion and principal centre of trade in the northern domains of Britain. There is no doubt that it was largely because of its geographical value as a military and trading centre that the Romans so quickly attached themselves to the old Brigantian town. The original Roman camp or forti fication was built in the corner of land formed by the junction of the Ouse with the Foss, and was thus almost impregnable in those days, when war was carried on almost entirely by hand-to-hand methods. It covered an area of about seventy acres, it was enclosed by walls of great strength, and its value as a strategic position was considerably increased by the fact that it was close to the water-ways which then served as important means of communication. The value of York as a riverside station, having easy and L n4 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE excellent access to the principal Yorkshire rivers, was, without doubt, one of the best reasons the Romans found for setting up a great city there. As a far-seeing commercial vantages of inland naviga tion, and an inspection of the surround- ing country doubtless showed them that the Ouse, flowing close by the site of York, was likely to ,*,. afford excel lent means of transit from one part of the district to another. Northward they found it joined to the Swale, the Ure, A saxon font at york the Nidd, and the Wiske, southward to the Wharfe, the Aire and its companion stream of the Calder, the Derwent, and the Don ; further on still they doubtless noted its junction with the Trent and the Humber. No other site in this particular district of the north country, or, indeed, in Britain itself, so far as regards river communication, was so likely to commend itself to the Romans for trading purposes as that of York. That the colony founded there soon increased in size and importance may be taken as a certainty. The land surrounding the new settlement was rich : there was fish, flesh, and fowl to be had for the taking ; copper, lead, wool, hides, cattle, and corn were all in close proximity ; fuel from the forests was easily got, and the land itself, flat as it is, was healthy and pleasant to live in. And so within a comparatively short space of time from their first coming, the Romans had initiated all the beginnings of a great city, traces of which, in the shape of towers and walls, altars and statues, urns and amphorae, ornaments and coins are still existent. It is commonly held that Agricola was in residence at York about 78 A.D., but whether that is so or not, there seems little reason to doubt that the Emperor Hadrian was there about 120. When he visited the Roman possessions in Britain, his legions were experiencing considerable trouble from the native tribes, and especially from the Brigantes. With a view of strengthening the Roman position and defences, Hadrian set about the construction of a series of fortresses, which were connected by the fine net work of military roads which are still the admiration of modern engineers. Many of the latter come to a meeting-point at York, where Hadrian is credibly reported to have had his quarters for a time. More serious insur rections, and notably the rising of the Caledonians beyond the wall which Hadrian had constructed across country between the Tyne and Solway YORK UNDER THE ROMAN EMPERORS 115 Firth, brought about the visit of the Emperor Septimius Severus in 208. Accompanied by his sons, Caracalla and Geta, he advanced to York, collected an army, and penetrated into Caledonia at the head of it. Having driven the enemy back to their mountains, Severus, imagining that he had success fully quelled the rising, retired southward to York, only to receive news that the Caledonians had once more left their fortresses and were surging over the northern districts again. It is said that Severus died from morti fication at hearing these tidings, but it is more probably correct to say that his death was due to disease accelerated by his arduous exertions during the campaign. He died at York in 211, and left a dying command to his sons that they should exterminate the Caledonians. Tradition has it that Severus was cremated on a funeral pile erected on a hill in the neighbour hood of the city, and that his ashes, collected in an urn, were conveyed to Rome. To Rome also proceeded Caracalla and Geta, and it was in conse quence of their jealousy of each other that the former planned and executed the murder of the latter, with the result that the proposed subjection of the Caledonians was not carried out. Nearly a century after the death of Severus, the Emperor Constantius Chlorus visited York, and died there in 306. It is said, on doubtful authority, that his son, the famous Constantius the Great, was born at York, but this would appear to be disproved by modern investigation, though it is certain that he was proclaimed Emperor there, and was in York at the time of his father's death. It was during the reign of Constantius that York was proclaimed capital of the province of Britain, then included in the praefecture of Gaul, and that Christian churches were first erected in the city. According to some authorities there was a Bishop of York present at the Council of Aries in 314. It was probably at this period that the Romans highest point It was garri- famous Sixth " legio sexta they remained until the final 450, after be- in the city for turies. Under and direction, ROMAN KEYS AT YORK York under was at its of prosperity. soned by the Legion, the victrix," and in occupancy withdrawal in ing quartered three cen- their sway York assumed all the features and architectural perfection of a Roman city, as the remains of temples, altars, and public buildings show to this day. One of the most interesting proofs of the Roman occupancy of York is that afforded by the coinage which has at various times been discovered in the city and its immediate neighbourhood. The following list presents a comprehensive view of the period over which the various coinage discovered n6 PICTURESQJJE YORKSHIRE was spread, and proves that Roman money must have had a considerable circulation in the district. Coins of Tempus. Coins of Tempus. Augustus B.C. 31-A.D. 14 Alexander Severus . a.d . 222-235 Tiberius . A.D. 14-37 Maximinus 235~238 Caligula . 37-41 Gordianus 238-244 Claudius. 41-54 Philippus 244-249 Nero . 54-68 Decius 249-252 Galba . 68-69 Gallus 251-253 Otho . 69 Valerianus 253-260 Vitellius . 69 Gallienus 260-268 Vespasian 70-79 Postumius 267 Titus 79-81 Tetricus . 267-274 Domitian 81-96 Diocletian 286-305 Nerva 96-98 Maximianus 286-305 Trajan . 98-117 Carausius (the Usurper) 288 Hadrian . H7-I34 Alectus (the Usurper) 3°4 Antoninus Pius 138-161 Constantius Chlorus 305-306 Marcus Aurelius 161-180 Constantine the Great 3°6-337 Commodus 180-192 Constans 337-35° Septimius Severus 193-211 Magnentius 353 Caracalla 2 1 1-2 1 7 Julian (the Apostate) 36l-363 Geta 212 Valentinianus . 364-365 Elagabalus 2 18-222 Gratianus 367-383 Honorius • 395-423 The aspect of York under the Romans, and the attempt to reconstruct some imaginary picture of the city as it then was from the antiquities yet remaining, has exercised the minds of archaeologists ever since some interest began to be taken in that fascinating science. A paper on the Roman remains in York was prepared for the Royal Society two hundred years ago by Dr. Lister, one of its first members, and since his time measurements and investigations, excavations and inspections, have helped to give the curious inquirer some notion of what Roman York really was. It would appear to have been a city of rectangular form, 650 yards by 550. A south-west wall, having a rampart within, and a fosse without, ran from a multangular tower near Bootham Bar to Jubbergate ; a similar wall facing south-east stretched from Jubbergate by way of Feasegate to Aldwark ; a third occupied a line between the multangular tower and a point north of the Deanery garden. The fourth wall probably extended from the east point to the termination of the south-east wall in Aldwark. Wellbeloved, a well-informed writer on the antiquities of the city, conjectures that about these four walls there were four gates, four principal angular towers, and from twenty-four to thirty minor towers or turrets at intervals. Within the space thus enclosed and defended, numerous important buildings, erected ASPECT OF ROMAN YORK 117 no doubt after the stately fashion of those in far-off Rome, rose up as time went on. The Praetorium is supposed to have stood near Bootham Bar, with the Praetorian Gate close by, and somewhere in the city was a temple to Bellona, the erection of which is by some chroniclers attributed to Septimius Severus, and by others to Hadrian. At various times there have been discovered altars to Jupiter, to the Goddess of Fortune, to Mythras, to . ' ^KS ^W*2 ~~ jfi_n Lr^* '¦- ;' _Ln"J=i '¦'^^J^d:^ ^T~-^WSr^&. exluliNi&ulor'ISwEr Serapis, to the Mother-Goddesses, and to the Genius of Britain. Near the banks of the Ouse, without the walls, were extensive baths, the tiles of which, discovered in modern times, bear the emblem or inscription of the Legio Sexta Victrix. Remains of tessellated pavement, personal ornaments, and large quantities of pottery have been freely found in and about York. From all these evidences of antiquity, it is not difficult to reconstruct Eboracum, the " Altera Roma " of its founders, or to imagine some picture of the days when the Roman legionaries and citizens moved about its streets and spaces, or kept watch and ward on the walls against the attack of the still savage folk in the level land without. Here as time went on, and especially during the most prosperous times of the Roman occupancy, there assembled the foremost of the Roman colony in Britain — and from its walls, no doubt, n8 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE many a Roman looked out across the level land over which ran the great causeway towards Londinium, and Gaul, and Rome, with thoughts of the mighty city by the Tiber, from whence he had come forth to share in the building of an empire that was destined to outshine the glories of his own. II After the final withdrawal of the Romans from Britain in the year 450, the history of York (whose Roman name, Eburacum, was now changed into the British Caer Ebrauc) becomes involved for a time in the mists of obscurity. After the Romans came the Engles — folk from that corner of Europe which is now called Hanover and Sleswick and Oldenburg, bringing with them their system of social government, with all its distinctions of eorl and ceor] and freeman, its moot or meeting, its curious identification of all interests with the paramount interest of tilling whatever land it was established upon. In 449 the ealdormen Hengest and Horsa landed on the beach at Ebbsfleet in the Isle of Thanet, and from that time onward Engles and Saxons and Danes and Britons contended with varying success for the mastery of the land which the Romans had been compelled to vacate. Of the progress of the Engles in the south, history tells us a good deal. They won battles at Aylesford, at Wippedsfleet, and at Lymne near Romney Marsh, but after seventy years of fighting they were masters of but a slice of Britain. Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, and Essex were in their power ; the rest of the land remained unconquered. Nothing in history tells us how Yorkshire was won — it is only by conjecture that we can follow a supposed invasion from the Humber, along the waterways of the Ouse, and Trent, and Don, into the northern districts. But by 557 the final victory of the Engles had become assured by their success at Deorham, and York, with its surroundings, was merged in the newly-established kingdom of Deira, of whom JEWa was first king. From some corner of Deira came the angel- faced slaves who attracted the notice of Gregory in the market-place of Rome. They were captives, no doubt, from one of the fights between ^Ella, King of Deira, and ^Ethelric, King of Bernicia, the district north of Deira. In 558 JElla, died, and Deira and Bernicia were united under ^Ethelric. Thirty-one years later Eadwine, son of ^Ella, was recognised by the Deirans, and proceeded to the conquest of Bernicia, and with his coronation at York in 617 as King of Northumbria, a new phase of the city's history begins. How York, now called Eoforwic, had fared during the interval between the going of the Romans and the final setting-up of Eadwine's kingdom there, must needs be left very largely to conjecture. It is probable that the aspect of the city was little altered, for the Romans built with solidity and strength. But in 627, ten years after Eadwine's coronation, there began in York a new work in the shape of the first beginnings of its famous YORK UNDER THE ANGLIAN KINGS 119 Minster. Gregory, now Pope, and not forgetful of the Deiran slaves in whose country he had prophesied the singing of Alleluias, sent Augustine into Britain to the court of ^Ethelberht, King of Kent, for the propagation and spread teaching. embraced ity, and with greater his court ^E t h e 1- daughter, ga, marry- wine, King thumbria, sent Paul- her to York Christianitythern folk ; A ROMAN COFFIN AT YORK of Christian /EthelberhtChristian- him the number of and people. b e r h t's ^thelbur-ing Ead- o f N o r- Augustineinus with to preach to the nor- and it was in consequence of his ministrations that Eadwine was baptized at York in a small, hurriedly constructed chapel or oratory fashioned of timber, which stood on the site of the present Minster, on Easter Day, 627. After this Augustine was made Archbishop of Canterbury, and Paulinus Arch bishop of Northumbria ; and it is to be supposed that it was at the latter's instigation that Eadwine began the erection of the first Minster church. The work had not proceeded to any considerable extent, however, before the peace of the newly established Christian kingdom was broken in upon by the Mercians, who, under their king, Penda, engaged Eadwine and his forces in battle at Hatfield, in 633. Eadwine was slain, his army routed ; the Mercians flocked into York and destroyed the new Minster ; and Paul inus, carrying with him the dead king's widow, was obliged to retreat southwards to iEthelberht at Canterbury. During the next few years the fortunes of war varied this way and that about the already historic city. In 635 Oswald drove out Penda and his Mercians, only to be soon after wards vanquished and slain by them in turn. His successor, Oswiu, carry ing on the work of the Christian kings, eventually subdued the pagan forces, and furthered the cause of Christianity by establishing churches in various parts of the kingdom. Under Eadwine, Oswald, and Oswiu the kings, and Paulinus, Wilfrith, and ^Elberht the archbishops, the Minster slowly assumed definite shape and proportion. According to Alcuin, who was not only a cotemporary but an assistant, and therefore an eye-witness of the work, Archbishop ^Elberht rebuilt the Minster in the highest style of Saxon architecture, during his occupancy of the see, 767-81, and it was at that time, according to the same authority, of sufficient size to afford space for thirty altars. But of the history of the Minster, or of York itself, little is 120 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE known during the later times of the reign of the Engles. What is known, perfectly or imperfectly, presents a story of internecine strife, discord, exiles, and petty wars. In 867 two rival kings of Northumbria, Osbrycht and ^Ella, united their forces at York in order to make common cause against the Danes, who, it is to be supposed, had entered the country by way of the Humber. In the battle which ensued, both kings were killed, and their army vanquished, and the conqueror assumed authority over the kingdom they had disputed between them. From the time of the Danish victory over the Engles until the end of the struggles which resulted in the final supremacy of the Norman dynasty, York, or Jorvic, as the Danes called it, was the scene of little else but fight ing and bloodshed, with rare, and therefore somewhat incongruous, scenes of peace. During the reign of Alfred the Great, the Danes continually carried their ravaging expeditions into the south of England, with the result that they and Alfred were always at war. Alfred's decisive victory over the forces at Edington led to the solemn ratification of the Peace of Wed- more, the provisions of which would seem at first sight to have been much more in favour of the vanquished than of the victors. They established a tract of country henceforth known as the Dane-law, or Danelagh, wherein the northmen were to exercise absolute control over the land, leaving Wessex unmolested. The Dane-law included Northumbria, East Anglia, and all the centre of England, bounded by a line which ran from the mouth of the Thames along the Lea to Bedford, thence by the Ouse to the Watling Street, and by the Watling Street to Chester — a goodly portion of the whole island. ^Elfred's paramount idea in the establishment of the Dane-law was that of keeping the northmen busy with their newly acquired possessions while he made ready a force sufficiently strong enough to engage them with a certainty of success ; and that his characteristic sagacity did not fail him here is proved by the fact that the land enjoyed some years of peace, and that his successors, ^Ethelstan and Eadmund, finally won back the land which the Peace of Wedmore had seemed to sacrifice. During the reign of Guthrum at York the city benefited by this peace ; but after his death and that of vElfred the old internecine feuds broke out, and although the Dane-law was recovered, it was soon impossible for any man to say with truth that he was King of all England. During the tenth century the Danes recovered possession of York and the northern lands, harrying and ravaging as they would. From 952 the kingdom of Northumbria was governed by the eorls, now Danish, now English, but the Danish influence was plainly in the ascendant ; and the coming of Swein in 994, and again in 1003, reduced the English power to its lowest ebb. The final return of Swein in 10 13 found the English almost as defenceless as lambs before wolves. There was no organisation, no cohesion, and no two shires in the country were banded together against the invasion. Swein rapidly overran the land, sacking and pillaging, burning and destroying. In 1014 he died HAROLD AND TOSTIG 121 at Gainsborough, and is said to have been buried at York. Once more the Danes withdrew, ©nly to return under Swein's son, Cnut, a few years later. Cnut established his rule with sureness, and reigned in justice for nearly twenty years; but at his death, in 1035, the old troubles broke out again. He had left his kingdoms of England and Denmark to his son Harthacnut ; but the latter's brother, Harold Harefoot, taking advantage of the legitimate successor's absence, usurped the throne, and took possession of all Eng land save the earldom of Wessex. Harold, however, died in 1040, and Harthacnut came to his own. In 1042 he died too, much to the relief of a nation which had observed with wonder that Cnut's sons were as brutal and dissolute as their father had been wise, far-seeing, and humane. England and its folk were now in close view of the most notable event in the country's history. After the death of Harthacnut, the Witan called back Eadward — Edward the Confessor, last of the old English kings — to rule over the land. He had spent years of exile in Normandy, he was practically a Frenchman in thought, and a clerk in his ideas, and in nowise fitted to govern a kingdom which stood in such peril as England did at that day. Around his throne gathered the great earls of the kingdom, plotting and counterplotting, and none of them more eager than Godwine, the powerful Earl of Wessex. When he died his work was carried on by his son Harold, and at the death of the king in 1066 it seemed but a natural thing that the nobles and bishops should elect him, as the strongest person ality in England, in place of the Confessor. This was the signal for the outbreak of the war which laid half the land in ruins. Harold Godwinsson found himself attacked on both sides. On the one hand stood his brother Tostig ; on the other William of Normandy, both claimants to the throne. The former had already enjoyed the sovereignty of Northumbria, and had so signalised his rule by cruelty and oppression, that a gem6t or parlia ment of Northumbrian thegns had deposed and outlawed him at York in 1065. After beating up help and recruits in Flanders and Scotland, Tostig eventually came over seas from Norway, accompanied by Harold Hardrada and a mighty host. A favourable wind brought them to the Yorkshire coast. According to the ancient chroniclers, they ravaged the land on the borders of Cleveland and about Scarborough ere they sailed up the Humber into the Ouse on their way to York. Towards the middle of September they landed at Riccall and advanced on the city. On the 20th of September they encountered the northern army under the Earls Morkere and ^Edwine at Fulford, a little way out of York, and gained a decisive victory. Tostig and Hardrada entered the city, occupied the castle, and commenced the readministration of law, calling a full Thing, or parliament, for the following Monday. But ere that could meet, Harold Godwinsson and his army were upon them. The rival forces met at Stam ford Bridge, on the banks of the Derwent. Tostig and Hardrada were killed, and Harold Godwinsson's victory was final. But while these thingswere going M 122 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE on in the neighbourhood of York, William of Normandy had landed at Pevensey in Sussex, and Harold, hastily travelling from the north to the south in order to give battle to the new rival, went to his death and to the beginning of the end, so far as the old English power and rule were concerned. It was not until 1 068 the full force of the were the immediate invasion. In that year peared in the Humber order to dispute the and he was immediately smarting under the im- The revolt broke out Danes burst upon the and slew the three thou- garrisoned it. A simul- place in the West of William received the York as he was hunting he swore his favourite Dex " to wreak a terrible ARMS OF THE SEE OF YORK that York experienced awful sufferings which result of the Norman Swein of Denmark ap- with a vast fleet, in crown with William, joined by all who were perious Norman yoke. all over England. The Ouse, stormed York, sand Normans who taneous rising took England and in Wales. tidings of the fall of in the New Forest, and oath, " Par le Splendeur vengeance on the North. Ere long he was in treaty with the Danes, had bought them off, and seen their fleets vanishing eastward along the Humber. He visited the Welsh border with heavy retribution, sent Fitz-Osbiorn to punish the insurgents in Devonshire and the West, and was at last free to turn his attention to Northumbria. Extensive floods along the valley of the Aire kept him back for awhile, but at last he rode into what was left of York, and began a vengeance which the north-country folk spoke of in whispers for genera tions to come. Between York and the Tees not a house was left standing — towns, villages, farmsteads, cots, all were destroyed, with cattle, crops, and farming implements, and from the western hills to the sea-coast there was not an acre of land spared to the husbandman. A hundred thousand people died of famine, and the land was an uninhabited waste for fifty years. From the nearer parts of that waste there might have been seen, had there been human eyes left to see it, the grim form of the Norman Keep, rising above the ashes and ruins of York, a significant emblem of the new and remorseless power which had fallen upon England. Of the aspect of York at the time of the Conquest, or at a period im mediately preceding the decease of Edward the Confessor, some notion may be gained from the pages of Domesday Book. The city would appear to have contained about sixteen hundred houses, and had a probable population of at least ten thousand. It was divided into six wards and an archbishop's ward, and in these none but burgesses were entitled to customs, save the judges, who held the king's writ for life, the canons of York, and one Mer- YORK IN DOMESDAY BOOK 123 leswein, the son of Earl Torkyll. A somewhat significant entry in Domes day Book records that one of the wards was razed in order to make room for the Norman fortifications, and that there were 540 houses so uninhabit able as to pay no rent, while 400 more were uninhabited, apparently from lack of population. There were at that time 145 French householders. The Earl of Morton had fourteen mansions, two stalls in the Shambles, and the Church of St. Crux. St. Cuthbert of Durham (which is to say his living representatives in the shape of deans and canons) had a house, the Church of All Saints, and certain lands. William de Percy had fourteen houses, and claimed others, and also the Church of St. Cuthbert. Robert Malet, son of William Malet, who was one of the Conqueror's stoutest captains at Senlac, and afterwards Chatelain of York, and subsequently High Sheriff of Yorkshire, had nine houses. Landric, the carpenter, had ten houses and a half. The value of the city to the king in Edward the Confessor's time was .£53 a year ( = ^800 modern money) ; in William's time it was ^100 ( = .£1500). Certain persons had sac, soc, toll, and theam in the time of the Confessor, and the ecclesiastical rights seem to have been jealously guarded from either king, earl, or citizen. The king had three ways by land and one by water, and a comprehensive list of penalties for whosoever broke his peace upon them. Also he had the right, if any man had been exiled according to law, of pardoning him, and the earls and sheriffs had a similar right of exile and of pardon within the limits of their jurisdiction. It would appear that William's drastic measures in 1068 largely cleared the city of its English and Danish population, and that as their places were filled by the incursion of Normans, York assumed a new aspect and entered upon another stage of its eventful history. Ill The story of York during the centuries which elapsed between the Nor man Conquest and the coming to power of the Tudors is largely wrapped up in the municipal and mercantile charters granted by successive monarchs, probably in confirmation of much earlier rights and privileges. The ancient charters of the city are now lost, that of John in 1199 being the first to which modern reference can be made. This charter, from the wording of its title, is plainly a confirmation of previous charters granted by the Norman kings. It confirms to the citizens of York, under date March 25th, 1199, all the liberties, laws, and customs, and more particularly those relating to their Guild Merchant and their Houses in England and Normandy, with freedom from tonnage on all coasts, which were first granted by Henry I., then by Henry II., and lastly by Richard I., all of whom it mentions by name. It further concedes and confirms to the York folk freedom from toll, lastage, wreck, portage, passage, and trespass and all customs, in England, Normandy, Aquitaine, Anjou, Pictou, their ports and coasts. Any one dis turbing the citizens of York in these matters was to forfeit a sum equal to 124 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE .£150 of modern money, even as Richard I. had ordained in his charter. One of the witnesses to this charter of John was the then Archbishop of York, Geoffrey Plantagenet. That the charter was granted on the principle of fair exchange is evidenced by the fact that the citizens agreed to pay the king in return for it the sum of £160 per annum— a sum equal to about .£2000 of our money. This payment was made for two centuries. Richard II., vious charters, ( = £150°) to rities for the re- bridges. A esting clause charter of Henry is granted that York shall no pelled to cut off or joint of the dogs. This bar- had formerly forced under the Forest Laws. ter gave the citi- arresting the debtors, of de- ARMS OF THE CITY OF YORK confirming pre- remitted £100 the civic autho- pair of their somewhat inter- occurs in the III., wherein it the citizens of longer be com- the front claw legs of their barous custom been rigidly en- provisions of the The same char- zens the right of bodies of their fending themselves on appeal to the oaths of thirty-six fellow-citizens, and of exemption from arrest by legal officers, other than those of their own city, within their own liberties. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries various other charters, mainly confirming the provisions of the earlier ones, were granted by successive kings, and their result was seen in the in creased prosperity of the city, which for a long time continued to be the principal centre of commerce in the north of England, and the most im portant port until the growth of Hull and the Humber ports drew away from it a share of the custom it had enjoyed. Although it more properly relates to the definite history of the Minster itself, it is scarcely possible to deal with the story of York without giving some slight account of the progress of the great church during the centuries immediately following the Norman Conquest. At the time of the northern revolt against William the Conqueror in 1068-69, the then Minster was burnt to the ground, together with its library and adjacent buildings. Under Archbishop Thomas, sometime monk of Bayeux, and afterwards chaplain and treasurer to the king, it was rebuilt, and probably consisted of nave, aisles, transepts, possibly terminating in apses, with a lofty central tower, and two towers at the west end. Under Archbishop Roger — 1154- 11 81 — a new choir was built. An era of vigorous work in relation to the fabric began with the accession of the famous Archbishop Walter de Gray YORK UNDER THE PLANTAGENETS 125 in 1 2 16. By 1240 the south transept was completed, and the north immediately begun. The rebuilding of the nave was commenced under John Romanus, Archbishop from 1286-97, anc^ the foundation stone was laid by him in 1291. Sixty years elapsed before the nave was supplied with its ceiling at the cost of Archbishop Thoresby, who also undertook the restoration and reconstruction of the choir. The chapter-house, one of the chief glories of the Minster, was built simultaneously with the nave, and was probably the special care of Francis Fitz-Urse, treasurer of the church, in 1337. The various occupants of the archiepiscopal see contri buted largely to the perfecting of their cathedral church, and their efforts were supported without murmur by the minor officials and the laity. The Minster, as we now know it, was practically completed by the end of the fifteenth century, and was consecrated in July 1472. Under the Plantagenets York played a foremost part as the centre of political and military operations. During the long-continued wars with the Scotch it was largely used as a meeting-place between the Scotch and English kings. Henry II. and Malcolm met there in 1160 to settle the terms of peace between them, and fourteen years later the English monarch received William of Scotland there as prisoner. The latter king had a further meeting with King John at York in 1200, whereat marriages were arranged between the English and Scotch royal families. A royal marriage between Alexander II. of Scotland and Joan, sister of Henry III. of England, was arranged at York in 1220, and celebrated there in June 122 1. More important events followed during the reign of the Edwards. In 1298 Edward I. called a Parliament together in the northern capital, whereat the commons were represented, Magna Charta and the Forest Charter con firmed, and a promise made by the king that taxes should not be levied without the consent of the people's representatives. The same monarch held another Parliament at York during the following year, and from that time until his death made the city his principal seat of government, so that he might the more easily carry on his military operations against the Scotch. Until 1306 the courts of King's Bench and the Exchequer sat at York. To York came Edward II. in full retreat after the battle of Bannockburn, and there summoned a Parliament to debate the question of national defence. The law courts were again removed from London to York in the same year, and the rolls were nearly captured by Randolph in his famous attempt to kidnap the Queen Isabella from the palace of Cawood hard by. The next few years saw plenty of bloodshed and violence in the neighbourhood of the capital. At the battle of Myton-on-Swale, in 13 19, commonly called the White Battle, because of the number of clergy actively engaged in it, Nicholas Fleming, Lord Mayor, and a large body of citizens were slain. The insurrection of Thomas, the great Earl of Lancaster, in 1321, led to numerous outpourings of blood, and to the execution of Lords Mowbray, Neville, and Clifford at York, and of the Earl at Pontefract. Next year a 126 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Scottish army surprised Edward II. at Byland Abbey, routed his forces, took the Earl of Richmond prisoner, and sent the king flying into York, which he only reached in safety through the unusual swiftness of his horse. About this time there was, indeed, so much danger to be feared from the Scotch, that Edward III., soon after his accession to the throne, issued an important rescript to the civic authorities of York, which is of some interest in fixing the date of the restoration and strengthening of the city walls. It is dated at Durham, July 15, 1327, and sets forth that since the Scots, " our enemies and rebels," have seen fit to make entry into the kingdom in hostile manner, and to burn, harry, and destroy therein, the king ordains, that the city of York, especially considering it as the abiding place of "Isabel, Queen of England, our most dear mother, and our brothers and sisters," should immediately be placed in such order that no danger of invasion may be feared, and to that end commands the lord mayor and bailiffs " to distrain and compel all and singular owners of houses and fees " to aid towards making good the walls, bulwarks, and towers of the city. That all these things were duly carried out, and that the young king felt a fitting sense of security in his newly strengthened city may be gathered from the fact that in the following year he was espoused in York Minster by Arch bishop William de Melton to Philippa of Hainault, on which occasion, say the old chroniclers, there was merry-making and feasting for the space of three weeks. The king was then fifteen years of age : his bride was a little younger. In 1347 Philippa was in York again, not as bride, but as the Amazon leader of armies. Edward was in France, and their son, the Black Prince, with him, and David, King of Scotland, seized the oppor tunity to sally out of his own lands into the northern shires as far as the Yorkshire borders. Philippa collected an army at York and despatched it to meet him. It has been said that the Queen personally led the army, which, however, was under the leadership of the Archbishop of York, William de la Zouche. At Neville's Cross in Durham the royal forces gained a great victory, and retired on York with the Scottish monarch captive in train. Philippa then gave orders for the re-strengthening of the city's defences, left Lords Neville and Percy in charge of it and the north, and conducted David to London to present him to her husband. It was inevitable that York should take sides with the Yorkists when the Wars of the Roses broke out. Their interests were largely bound up with those of the Nevilles, Percys, and Scropes, and the citizens naturally followed the leadership of these great houses when it became necessary to declare for either York or Lancaster. When the Red Rose triumphed, York shared in the fate of the vanquished. Henry IV., by an edict given at Pontefract Castle in June 1405, took away from the city its civic rights • — " all and singular liberties, franchises, and privileges " — until further orders. The wrath of the king was largely directed against the Scrope family. Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York, was tried in his own palace OLD PLAN OF YORK 127 A PLAN OF THE CITY OF YORK AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, From John Speed's " Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine,'' 16 11. 128 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE of Bishopthorpe, and executed on a hill close by ; Thomas, Lord Scrope, of Masham, was beheaded at Southampton, from whence his head was sent to York for public exhibition on the battlements of Micklegate ; and the family estates were seized and confiscated by rescript to the Lord Mayor. During this gates of frequently ted with sometimes Richard of feated by Anjou at was there ted, and decked with crown, set gate, with turned to- THE CAP OF MAINTENANCE, YORK century the York were ornamen-noble and royal heads. York, de- Margaret of Wakefield,decapita-his head, a paper on Mickle- i t s- face wards the city. There it remained but a few weeks, when it was taken down and replaced by the heads of the principal Lancastrian leaders, defeated by Edward IV. This king renewed all the rights and privileges of the city, and visited it in 1478 during his progress through the north. Further marks of the royal favour of the House of York were shown to the city by that strange figure of history, Richard III. Richard was at York when his brother died in 1483, and he appears to have begun his various schemes and plottings there. He caused a solemn mass to be performed in the Minster for the repose of his brother's soul ; he presented the dean and chapter with a precious cross, and made provision for a collegiate estab lishment to shelter a hundred clerics, and altogether propitiated the ecclesi astical authorities at York to some purpose. Probably the greatest service that he or any member of his house rendered to the city from whence their name was derived was the restoration of the privileges and rights taken away by Henry IV. From the evidence of contemporary documents, it would appear that, thanks chiefly to their liberties, the citizens of York during the fifteenth century enjoyed a remarkable state of prosperity. No other city in the north of England was so richly endowed with guilds and trading companies, or so well off in the possession of merchants who spent their wealth freely in furthering the common weal. IV The accession of the Tudors to power gave York no respite from the strifes and bickerings which seemed inseparable from its walls during the mediaeval ages. Heads of more or less famous folk continued to ornament ABOLITION OF RELIGIOUS HOUSES 129 SWORDS OF STATE : YORK the city gates. The rising in favour of the impostor, Lambert Simnel, sent several misguided folk to the gibbet at York, and their heads to the various bars, and more grisly trophies of the same sort were accumulated during the rising under Sir John Egremont, whose associates were hanged with him at York, and made examples of in the usual fashion. Two mag nificent pageants were seen in York in i486 and in 1503 : the first when Henry VII. visited his northern capital in great state ; the second when his daughter Mar garet rested there ^ awhile on her way northward to her marriage with James IV. of Scot land. Ere long James IV. himself came to York, a corpse from Flod- den Field, where his attempt to in vade England dur ing the absence of his brother-in-law, Henry VIII., in France, had been severely punished by the Earl of Surrey, poet, scholar, and soldier. Surrey brought the dead king's body to York, and exposed it to public view there, until Henry's return from France, when he took it southward for the king's inspection at his palace of Richmond. In certain respects the relation of the reign and influence of Henry VIII. to the city of York is of more interest than any other factor in its history. The action of that monarch in abolishing the religious houses and founda tions which had accumulated in a city so ancient and so bound up with the nation's rise and progress, naturally forms a dividing line between mediasvalism and modern life. It is interesting, then, to gain some conception of what York was like at the time when England was on the brink of the complex movement which altered her course from that of subjection to a foreign ecclesiastical power, and initiated her subsequent career of progress towards religious and political freedom. Whatever views may be held as to the righteousness or iniquity of the system which increased the number of monasteries and religious houses, history would seem to prove clearly that between them and the civic or municipal life flowing round about them there were bonds and associations not easy to break then, and still difficult to disentangle so far as the memories of both are concerned. In York, for example, the religious houses were closely identified with the civic life of the place : so closely, indeed, that ecclesiasticism and commerce seem inextricably mingled in the somewhat tangled threads of the past. To N 130 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE two authorities, Leland, the quaint and chatty itinerant who went out spying the land at the command of Henry VIII., and to Drake, most painstaking of writers on its history and archaeology, modernity owes whatever notion it may form of the aspect of York at the time of the Reformation. As Leland saw it, York was a strongly fortified city, surrounded by walls two miles and three-quarters in circumference, with four principal gates, or bars, and five posterns. The principal gates were Micklegate Bar, Bootham Bar, Monk Bar, and Walmgate Bar. There were five bridges — Ouse Bridge, Foss Bridge, Laythorpe Bridge, Monk Bridge, and Castle Bridge. On the east bank of the Ouse there was a great tower, with a chain of iron which could be drawn across the river in war time. In all respects the city had in creased in size and importance since the days of the Norman Conquest. According to Drake's account, given with some detail in his Eboracum, there were in York at the time of the Dissolution no less than one hundred and twenty-eight ecclesiastical establishments, classed as follows : — The Minster ; the Chantries in the Minster, numbering forty-four, each separately endowed ; forty-one parish churches ; seventeen chapels ; sixteen hospitals ; and nine religious houses. The following tables give particulars of the names, and in some cases of the endowments, of these various foundations: — Chantries in York Minster previous to the Reformation. [This list of chantries and altars was originally compiled by Dodsworth, the antiquary, whose collection of historical records of York was completed about 1644, and is now deposited in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.] Chantry of Annual Value. Chantry of Annual Value. The Holy Innocents . . . £$ 13 4 „ „ (2nd Foundation) 5 13 4 „ „ (3rd Foundation) 365 St. Saviour 16 16 10 St. Friswith St. Cuthbert .... All Hallows (Two Foundations St. Mary Magdalene . . St. Saviour and St. Ann St. John the Evangelist . SS. Agatha, Scolace, and Lucia SS. Ann and Anthony St. Lawrence . St. William, Ap. . St. Nicholas St. Thomas the Apostle St. Michael .... St. Christopher .... Our Lady (1st Foundation) „ (2nd Foundation) St. Andrew .... 1712 •)3<5 3 10 68 6 3 8 2 2 10 2 7 J3 o 13 I 9 13 4 13 2 8 19 5 8 4 13 o o 44o4 46 4o 4o oo 4 St. Wilfrid, Ap £6 Jesus and Our Lady .... 6 St. Stephen (Two Foundations) 13 Holy Cross „ St. Agatha Scolace „ St. Lawrence (2nd Foundation) St. James, Minor . . . . St. Paulinus and St. Cedda, Aps. ... ... St. Gregory (1st Foundation) St. Edmund, K. and M. . St. John the Evangelist . . St. John of Beverley, Ap. . Innocents (4th Foundation) St. Nicholas St. Blaise (1st Foundation) „ (2nd Foundation) Holy Trinity and St. Cross St. Gregory (2nd Foundation) St. Thomas a Becket . . . T3 13 6 13 S66 643 33 6 8 6 6 13 66 13 iS 6 '3 6 PARISH CHURCHES IN YORK I31 Parish Churches in York at the Time of Henry V., with their Annual Value. [In addition to the list here given there are two other churches, St. Stephen and St. Bridget, mentioned in Dugdale's Monasticon, while Drake adds another, St. Benedict in Patrick Pool, and Torre a fourth, St. Michael, without Walmgate.J Church of Annual Value. All Hallows, Pavement . . . £9 o o All Hallows, Fishergate. All Hallows, North Street All Hallows, Peaseholm St. Andrews .... St. Clement's, Fossgate . St. Cuthbert's, Peaseholm St. Crux Christ Church . .... St. Dyonis .... St. Helen's on the Wall . . St. Helen's, without Fishergate St. Helen's, Stonegate . . St. Edward St. Gregory . . . . 2 St. Giles St. George at Beanhills . 4 St. George, Fishergate . St. John del Pyke . 4 St. John, Hungate . . . . 1 St. John Evangelist, Ousebridge 8 ooo 6ooo Church of Annual Value. St. Lawrence £9 o o St Mary, Laythorpe. St. Mary, Bishop Hill St. Mary the Less, Bishop Hill St. Mary, Castle Gate . St. Margaret .... St. Martin, Micklegate . St. Martin, Coney Street St. Maurice St. Michael le Belfry . St. Michael, Spurriergate St. Nicholas, Micklegate St. Nicholas, Walmgate without .... St. Olave, Mary Gate . . . 24 o o St. Peter in the Willows ..100 St. Peter the Little . .700 St. Saviour ... . . 800 St. Sampson 800 St. Trinity, Goodramgate . . 4 13 4 St. Wilfred, Blake Street ..500 2 10 6 6 7 6 10 2 1210 6 o ooo oooo o oo Chapels of York previous to the Dissolution. [According to Drake fifteen of the following seventeen chantry chapels were reduced at the Reformation ; two of them, however, were still in use at the time he wrote his Eboracum, 1736. These two were St. Trinity in the Bedern, which belonged to the Vicars Choral of York Minster, and St. Trinity in Merchant's Hall, which belonged to that company.] St. Anne's, Foss Bridge. St. Anne's, Horse Fair. St. Trinity in the Bedern. St. Christopher. St. Christopher, Guildhall. St. Catherine, Haverlane. Bishop's Chapel, Clementhorpe. St. George 'twixt Ouse and Foss. St. William St. James, without Micklegate. St. Mary's in the Abbey. St. Mary's at Whitefriars. St. Mary's, St. Mary's Gate. St. Mary Magdalene, Burton-stone. St. Stephen in the Minster. St. Sepulchre near the Minster. St. Trinity in Merchants' Hall. on Ouse Bridge. 132 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Hospitals in York previous to the Reformation. Our Lady, Horse Fair. St. John and Our Lady, Fossgate. St. Leonard. St. Anthony, Peaseholm. St. Nicholas, without Walmgate. St. Thomas, without Micklegate. Merchants' Hall Hospital. St. Catherine, Micklegate. God's House, Walmgate Bar. God's House, Monk Bridge. God's House, Tailor's Bridge. St. Loy, Monkbridge. St. Catherine, Micklebridge Bar. Hospital in Fishergate. St. Anthony's Hostel, Peaseholm. St. Anthony, Gilligate. It should be remembered, with respect to the annual value of these various religious endowments, that at the time of Henry V. money was THE OLD OUSE BRIDGE worth fifteen times the value of to-day, and that it fell subsequently to ten, and later to five times that value. In Leland's Itinerary there is a quaint observation, to the effect that an honest and respectable man might dine-in Wakefield during the reign of Henry VIII. for twopence. As a matterjof fact the importation of silver from America reduced the value of currency considerably ; so that the value of the various livings of the churches in York and of the chantries in the Minster was much less at the time of the Reformation than in that of Henry V., when certain of these particulars were made. At this period of the history of York and its Minster there was preserved in the latter a collection of sacred relics which for interest and variety SACRED RELICS 133 THE WATER TOWER was probably unrivalled amongst English churches. Most of them would appear to have been given to the Minster by Roger de Pont l'Eveque, who in all probability brought them from Rome ; others were presented by St. William (William Fitzherbert), or by Archbishop Thurstan. A list of them is presented in the Fabric Rolls of York Minster. From this it appears that the Dean and Chapter at the time of the Reformation possessed amongst other relics the following : — A bone of St. Peter the Apostle. A finger-joint of St. John Baptist. A stone from Our Lord's sepulchre. A tooth of St. Stephen. A piece of the manna which fed the children of Israel in the desert. A stone from Our Lord's seat in the wilderness. An arm of St. Sebastian. Two teeth of St. Paulinus, first Arch bishop of York. A fragment of Our Lord's Cross. The vest of St. Mary the Virgin. A portion of the blood of St. Stephen. The angelic clothing of St. Agnes, Virgin. A finger of St. Dionisius. The cross on which St. Andrew was crucified. The bones of St. Lazarus, of Martha his sister, and of St. Matthew the Apostle. A bone of St. Paul the Apostle. The vestments of SS. Peter and Paul. A sandal of St. Peter. The rod of Aaron. Some of these relics were preserved in a great cross behind the pulpit, designed by Archbishop Roger; others in another cross behind the high altar, 134 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE close by which there were three pixes, white, green, and red, wherein other relics were enclosed ; others, again, were in a gold box or bier ; others in a similar receptacle near the high altar, fashioned in the form of a cross of pure gold. To which corner of the winds of heaven these relics were scattered at the time of the Dissolution, history does not say. But even as William Malet, Chatelain of York under the rule of William the Norman, fled out of the burning city when the English and the Danes under Asbiorn and Waltheof the Earl were at York gates, carrying with him, no doubt, such treasure as he could easily lay hands on, so doubtless the priests and monks, upon whom the arbitrary edicts of Henry VIII. fell like a thunderclap, escaped from York in charge of precious things, which in their keeping were taken to remote villages to be wondered at for a while and never heard of again. During the reign of Henry VIII., York, in company with some other Yorkshire towns, was visited in rather notable fashion by the King. The rising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace had then been subdued, and its principal leaders hanged — Aske from Clifford's Tower at York, Constable before the Beverley Gate at Hull, the Abbots of Fountaine, Jervaulx, and Rievaulx at Tyburn — and the county was quiet again. Henry came with pomp and circumstance, the folk along the wayside greeting him in the fashion of that day with presents of money enclosed in dainty purses. On the borders of Yorkshire he was met by a large body of representative people, including 200 gentlemen, 4000 yeomen, and a multitude of servants and retainers, and presented with a sum of ^900. Going forward to Barnsdale, which lies between Doncaster and Pontefract, he was met by Archbishop Edward Lee (Wolsey's successor) and 300 clergy of the arch diocese, who gave his Majesty another welcome, and a further present of .£600. Entering his city of York he was received by the Lord Mayor and civic authorities, who gave him ^100, and begged his forgiveness in most abject and submissive terms for such naughtinesses as they had recently displayed in conjunction with the recalcitrants who had engineered the insurrection. During his residence in York, Henry established the court known as the Council of the North, which had jurisdiction in all counties north of the Trent, and came to wield a power as great as that of Parliament itself. It was presided over by a nobleman of high standing in the northern districts, and in time became as much hated for its arbitrary and imperious judgments as the Star Chamber. It was finally abolished with other similar abuses at the time of the Civil War. Although the trade and commerce of York flourished under the rule of Elizabeth, there were not wanting abundant proofs and evidences that the age of blood and violence was not yet over. The prophecy which Shake speare puts into the mouth of Cranmer — " In her days every man shall eat in safety Under his own vine, what he plants ; and sing The merry songs of peace to all his neighbours," THE RISING OF THE NORTH J35 is much discounted by the unvarnished records of history. Acceptable as Elizabeth's rule was to some folk, it was anything but welcome to others, and to certain of the northern adherents of the ancient religion it was so much a thing of disfavour as to lead to open rebellion in the shape of the Rising of the North. This movement, originated and engineered like many another by those energetic and tireless folk, the Percys and the Nevilles, had for its object the deposing of Elizabeth and setting up of Mary Queen of Scots, and the consequent restoration of the old faith. From Barnard 3& NORMAN PORCH, ST. MARGARET'S, WALMGATE Castle the insurgents marched on York. There, securely entrenched, and at the head of an army of 5000 soldiers, lay the Earl of Sussex, keeping the city for the Queen. Before this force the rebellion broke up, Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and Neville, Earl of Westmorland, fleeing north ward into Scotland. Naturally, their lesser known followers paid the penalty first. Once more York became a shambles. Somewhere on the Knavesmire suffered certain gentlemen of good family, Digby of Askew, Fulthorpe of Iselbeck, Pennyman of Stokesby, and others. First they were hanged, then they were beheaded and quartered, and their dismembered limbs set up on the various gates of the city. Three years later Percy him self was brought into York, given up by Morton, the Scottish Regent, to 136 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Hunsdon, Governor of Berwick. For him they built a scaffold in Pavement, where they beheaded him. So ended the Rising of the North, put down, as Elizabeth put most things down, with a firm hand and implacable temper. V If there had been bloodshed and violence for the York folk under the Plantagenets and Tudors, Yorkists and Lancastrians, there was like to be more under the rule of the incompetent Stuarts. Nevertheless, under James I. things went on in peaceful fashion, and though Hull was filching some of its trade away from it, the old city continued to prosper and to grow rich. Camden, who visited it during the reign of Elizabeth, speaks of it as the second city in England, handsomely built, having a large population, rich folk for burgesses, and pleasant surroundings. According to Drake there were no less than forty-nine different trades and handicrafts practised in York at the time of James's accession, and the following list, extracted from a return given in his Eboracum, affords somewhat interesting matter for reflection, not so much for what it contains as for what it omits. Thus it would appear that there were no printers or booksellers at York in the early days of the seventeenth century, or, if they had any habitation there, that they were not numerous enough or of sufficient importance to be worthy of mention. But as a matter of fact it is certain that printing was a York trade early in the sixteenth century, and it is highly probable that there were presses in the city during the fifteenth, while, as to bookselling, there is record that in 161 6 one John Foster, whose shop was in the street called Booksellers' Alley, possessed a very handsome stock of books. When Charles I. came to the city at the outbreak of the Civil War the royal printing-press was set up in St. William's College, and poured forth a quantity of pamphlets and broadsheets. Many of the trades and crafts here mentioned were the direct outcome of the needs of the mediaeval life, and manners which were not then extinct. Trades Exercised in York in 1623. Armourers.Bakers. Barbers.Blacksmiths.Bladesmiths.Brasiers. Bricklayers.Butchers.Carpenters.Cobblers. Cooks.Coopers. Cordwainers. Corslet Weavers. Curriers. Drapers. Dyers. Embroiderers. Founders. Girdlers. Glaziers. Glovers. Goldsmiths.Haberdashers. Innkeepers. Labourers. Linen Weavers. Locksmiths.Mariners. Merchant and Mercers. Millers. Musicians. Pannier Men. Parchment Makers. Pinners. Pewterers. Painters. Porters. Ropers.Saddlers.Shearmen.Silk Weavers. Skinners.Spurriers.Tallow Chandlers. Tanners.Vintners.Wax Chandlers. 138 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Upon the peaceful avocations of these good folk the Civil War broke, if not like a whirlwind, at least with ominous threatenings of the trouble at hand. When Charles hoisted his flag in defiance of the Parliamentarians, York was naturally occupied by the Royalists as befitted a city in which kings had kept their state since the days of Hadrian the Roman. The Marquis of Newcastle assumed command there in the spring of 1644, having tinder him some 6000 or 7000 men. It is interesting to know that the Master of his Ordnance was Sir Thomas Davenant, the poet-laureate, who, it is to be presumed, relieved the monotony of his military duties by the com position of verse. Newcastle and his garrison soon found themselves in vested. A Scottish force under the Earl of Leven, numbering about 20,000 men, arrived from the North, and formed a beleaguering line from about Poppleton Ferry to Bishopthorpe, on the west bank of the Ouse. The army of the Associated Counties, under Manchester and Cromwell, occupied another line going round from the Ouse by Bootham Bar and Monk Bar to the Foss, while Fairfax and his Yorkshire troops filled a third, extending from the river to Red Tower by way of the Fishergate Postern and Walm gate Bar. Thus the city was closely invested, but its fortifications were so strong and so much increased in strength by recent improvements and res torations, that the besieged had little or no apprehension. Active operations began early in June, and on the 6th the besieged sallied into the suburbs and set fire to them, a proceeding which deprived the beleaguering army of useful cover, but brought sad loss, and in some cases ruin, to the folk living without the walls. A more serious injury to the city occurred on the 1 6th, when St. Mary's Tower was destroyed, and with it a vast collec tion of historical documents. Had it not been for the labours of the antiquarian, Roger Dodsworth, who at the instance of Lord Fairfax had occupied himself for years in transcribing many of these documents, and had completed his task a little time previous to the outbreak of hostilities, most of the history of York and of the north of England would have been lost for ever. Out of the ruins of St. Mary's Tower some precious docu ments were rescued, Dodsworth himself finding some, Charles Fairfax others, and a citizen named Thompson still more. Lord Fairfax was so anxious that the records and papers should be spared, that he offered munificent rewards to any soldier rescuing them from the flames. A fortnight later came news of Rupert, hot-headed and impetuous as ever, advancing across country at the head of 20,000 men. The Parlia mentarian leaders raised the siege, and retired to the level plain at Marston Moor, a few miles away. Rupert marched into York on July 1, and im mediately took command of everything, putting Newcastle on one side in his own high-handed way. What followed is, as regards one aspect of the case, well known to everybody, and as regards another no chronicler has aught to say. It is certain that Rupert decided to meet the enemy in open fight at Marston Moor, and that his overwhelming defeat there effectually MARSTON MOOR J39 ,yj,i ¦ PROSPECT OF YORK, ABOUT l6oo disposed of all chances of Royalist success in the north of England. Ac cording to some accounts he acted in defiance of express orders, and in direct opposition to the advice of Newcastle. However that may be, on the 2nd July 1644, the battle of Marston Moor was fought on the wide plain that lies betwixt Ouse and Nidd, and before nightfall the Royalist army, or what was left of it, was again in York defeated and demoralised. That night Rupert and Newcastle came to high words and bitter recriminations, and before morning the latter, with other noblemen, was making for Scar borough and the Continent, while the former returned hastily southward, leaving York at the mercy of the enemy. Sir Thomas Glemham, upon whom the Royalist command now devolved, was almost immediately in treaty with the Parliamentarians for the capitulation of the city, and on the 1 6th he and his garrison marched out with all the honours of war. Thanks to the watchful care of Sir Thomas Fairfax, who as a Yorkshireman was jealous for the well-being of the old city and its Minster, the latter came to no harm during the siege, and the citizens were not interfered with in any way when the Parliamentarians took possession. Through York, six years later, passed Cromwell, journeying to Scotland, and as a delicate compliment to him the civic authorities took down the royal arms from the bars through which it was necessary he should pass and hoisted those of the Commonwealth in their place. Yet a few more years and the folks of York were proclaiming Charles II. King. Fairfax and Monk had met at York and put their heads together. Monk was all for making the pro clamation there and then ; Fairfax counselled a little further delay. But i4o PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE on May nth, 1660, the thing was done. A great procession was formed, headed by Fairfax as regards one part, and by the Lord Mayor as regards the other. Aldermen and councillors in all their civic finery, country gentlemen with drawn swords, and citizens armed, chamberlains and common councilmen in gala dress, all marched together to the ringing of bells and firing of cannon. At night all York was lit up, and folk were delirious with joy because the King had come to his own again. Whether the citizens of York would have been so delighted at the restora tion of Charles II. had they foreseen the course of their relations with that monarch and his successor is doubtful. Ere long those relations became strained — the greed, cupidity, and imperious temper of the Stuarts was as patent in Charles II. as in his father and grandfather. In 1684 he de prived York of its charters. To York in that year came Jeffreys as judge of assize, flouting the authorities, and impudently informing them that henceforth his royal master meant to have the city at his own disposal. Charles had already placed a garrison in Clifford's Tower, and its presence there led to bickerings and dissatisfaction. Any prospect of an open rupture between the citizens and the Crown was prevented by the death of Charles II. in 1685, and the promise of his successor to restore the charters. Like the rest of the Stuarts, however, James II. was better at promise than at performance, and it was not until William of Orange was on his way to England that the king remembered his business with, the folk of York. It was then too late to curry favour with them : the dis affected of the county, under the influence of the Osbornes and Cavendishes, had arranged the seizure of the city for William, and the ousting of the garrison under Sir John Reresby was successfully and quietly accomplished. This was the last military operation in which York was concerned — hence forth its history is more concerned with the things of peace than with those of war. VI For an account of the aspect of York during the early years of the eighteenth century, there is nothing pleasanter than that given by Daniel Defoe in his "Tour of a Gentleman through Great Britain," which was published in 1727, when the Hanoverian dynasty had planted itself firmly on the throne of England. At that time York had entered upon the modern stage of its existence ; the age of violence was over, and its citizens were settling down to the peaceful pursuits of commerce and of the leisured life which many of them were able to enjoy. What seems to have struck Defoe most in his inspection of York was that it was emphatically the centre of social life in the county. Men who had made their fortunes elsewhere retired to York to enjoy the competency which their industry had secured. He speaks of the presence of much genteel society there, of an abundance of pleasant company, and of the cheapness of living. YORK IN 1727 141 Both he and Drake, whose Eboracum was published ten years after the appearance of Defoe's work, agree that York at that time was mainly dependent on the presence of the county families, who found it cheaper and more convenient to reside there than in London, or even at their country seats. From Drake's account of social life in York during the first years of the Georges, the ancient city must have been a very pleasant place to abide in. There was " great variety of provisions " in the market, " an elegant table " could be furnished at moderate cost, and the inn ALL SAINTS' CHURCH, PAVEMENT ordinaries were so lavishly served that Drake supports Fuller's saying that a Yorkshire ordinary would make a London feast. The city was well provided for as regards educational facilities ; and those responsible for such matters seem to have spared no pains in making provision for amusements and diversions. A weekly Assembly, after the fashion of those in favour at Bath and Tunbridge, was established, first at the Manor, then at Lord Irwin's house in the Minster Yard, and afterwards at the rooms specially erected for its use from designs by the Earl of Burlington. It was held every Monday night, and afforded facilities for dancing, cards, and " other innocent diversions." A music assembly was held on Friday nights, and " a set of choice hands and voices " were procured to divert the company. Nor was the drama forgotten : a dramatic troupe, " allowed to be the best 142 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE strollers in the kingdom," played by subscription on two nights a week. Needless to say the York season was in the winter. The most fashionable time of the year, however, was August, when the nobility and gentry of the north of England assembled at the ancient capital for a week of horse- racing, balls, routs, and other agreeable entertainment. Defoe in his inspection of York was particularly impressed by the plea sant aspect of the city and the size of its houses, which he characterises as handsome and commodious. He describes the fortifications as being largely destroyed, though the ancient walls were left mainly untouched, and makes special mention of the Ouse Bridge, a handsome arch 70 feet in diameter. ' Of the trade of York he observes that there was little which did not depend on the custom of the gentlefolk. There was importation of wines from Portugal and from France, and of timber from Norway ; and sea- coal, oddly enough, was brought, one presumes by water, from Newcastle and Sunderland, instead of from the west and south-west Yorkshire coal fields, though there was good communication with the latter by means of the various canals and water-ways. It is to be noted that in spite of the fact that trade and commerce were gradually being diverted from York to other towns — Leeds, Bradford, Hull — the means of communication be tween it and other parts of the county were materially improved during the eighteenth century. The Ouse, and its tributary the Ure, were rendered navigable for vessels of light tonnage as far as Ripon. The river Foss, a small stream rising at the foot of the Howardian Hills and uniting with the Ouse at York, was also made available for purposes of navigation. Attributed by some authorities to the Romans, there would seem to have been an in tention in very early days of making the stream a drain for the purpose of relieving the marshy land on the outskirts of the Forest of Galtres, but in the course of time it became warped up, and remained so until an Act of Parliament gave powers to the authorities to transform it into a navigable canal. With all parts of south and south-east Yorkshire York possessed excellent communication by water. It is possible that had a certain scheme mentioned by Drake in his Eboracum, and originated by the eccentric Duke of Bolton early in the eighteenth century, been carried out, York, in stead of losing trade as it did, might have become an important inland port. The Duke's idea, feasible enough at first sight, was to cut a new course for the Ouse, or rather to construct a channel into which the waters of the Ouse should be diverted, extending from a point somewhere about Blacktoft in a straight line to York. This work would have reduced the distance be tween York and the Humber by about one-half, and would have made it possible for vessels of considerable size to go up to the cathedral city. At that time Goole was probably a collection of mud huts, or little better, and could make no opposition, and there is no record of Selby folk objecting to the engineering nobleman's proposal ; but the scheme came to naught, save that the ancient course of the Ouse was bettered by some small improve- THE FIRST YORK NEWSPAPER H3 ments in the way of locks. It is scarcely possible to avoid wondering what would have happened had the Duke's first idea been improved upon and a wide ship-canal been constructed from the Humber to the capital town of the county. There are few cities in the kingdom so conveniently situated as York, and it is more than possible that had it possessed the means of communication with the sea which a great ship-canal would have afforded, ¦ —-'"¦- IN THE CRYPT, YORK MINSTER it might now have been an overgrown hive of industry rather than a pleasant blend of ancient and modern life. Although printers were not important enough to be mentioned in the list of trades and handicrafts of 1623, the printing-press was clanking busily in York early in the eighteenth century, and was ere long in use for the pro duction of that very modern affair, the newspaper. On Monday, February 23, 171 8, one Mrs. Grace White, widow and successor in business of Mr. John White, printer, published the first number of the first York newspaper, under the comprehensive title of " The York Mercury ; or, A General View of the Affairs of Europe, but more particularly of Great Britain, with Useful Observations on Trade." It was a small quarto sheet of twelve pages, and was sold for three-halfpence. York, indeed, during the first half of the last century showed a commendable spirit of enterprise, especially considering that its trade was diminishing. In 1725 it built the Mansion House, from 144 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE the designs of the Earl of Burlington, on a site originally occupied by the Chapel of St. Christopher's Guild. The noble architect's liking for palatial apartments was evidenced in his provision for the Lord Mayor's entertain ing room, a spacious chamber nearly 50 feet in length and 28 in breadth, which was adorned during the eighteenth century by numerous portraits, amongst them one of the Marquis of Rockingham by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Lord Burlington was employed about this time in designing the rooms in tended for the Assembly. These were erected from his plans in Blake Street, in 1731, at a cost of ^5000, and the principal apartment is still the admiration of all who see it. It is 112 feet long, 40 broad, and 40 high, and was ornamented after its architect's plans in a very dignified and elaborate fashion. Here, in the days when there was more colour and variety in male attire than there is in this prosaic age, the fine gentlemen of the county led out the powdered and hooped beauties to the dance under the glitter of the magnificent lustres of crown glass, in each of which burned eighteen candles, and of the centre chandelier, very magnificent and of curious carving, which Lord Burlington himself presented for the better adornment of his handiwork. It was no doubt the provision made in this way for their amusements that induced the nobility and gentry to still further frequent York as a fashionable gathering-place, and to make it during the whole of the eighteenth century the principal centre of social life in the north of England. It is not difficult in walking about some of its quiet streets to perceive that the solidly built, comfortable-looking houses are identified with those days which are indissolubly associated with the quaint flavour of Georgian times, the days of sedan chairs and cocked hats, when Mr. Pope was the fashionable poet, and the weekly essays of Mr. Steele or Mr. Addison the closest approach to the modern newspaper. VII The life of York during the eighteenth century was mainly social ; with the advent of the nineteenth began a new phase of the city's existence. In 1801 York possessed a population numbering close upon 30,000 persons ; in 1 85 1 this had increased to 57,000 ; and this again, by the time of the last taking of the census, 1891, to 67,000. The beginning of the century, indeed, inaugurated an era of new life for the ancient city. It probably seemed impossible to the citizens of ninety years ago that any changes or increase of prosperity should be in store for a place so old and so closely identified with things that were already slipping away into the obscure mists of the past. But, as events have proved, York during the nineteenth century was destined to wonderful changes. She was to see her population increase in leaps and bounds, her ancient walls pierced for the ingress and egress of the railway engine, her river spanned by new bridges, and her streets and market-places made busy by a vast increase BRADFORD PONTEFRACT RICHMOND 7 %k<%%*m SHEFFIELD YORK HALI FA X ? ? * HULL <\ LEEDS DONCASTER HUDDERSFIELD CONTRAST BETWEEN PAST AND PRESENT 145 of trade and commerce. The history of York, in short, during the present century is the history of industrial enterprise and of the modern spirit. It may serve to emphasise the present aspect of York if a momentary contrast is set up between the city as it now is, and the city as it was at the beginning of the century. At that time the bulk of its population was ;j V THE OUSE BRIDGE found within the walls. The walls themselves, and the ancient gates or bars, together with such fortifications as were left, were dilapidated and tumble-down. The streets were narrow, and the houses of a quaint and antique aspect. What commerce it had was firmly established rather than extensive, and the trade owed its value to the fact that the tradesmen suf fered nothing from competition. It was governed by a Corporation re solved into two chambers. The Lord Mayor, the Sheriffs, the Recorder, the two City Counsellors, and twelve Aldermen formed an upper house ; seventy-two Common Councilmen, chosen in eighteens from each of the four wards of the city, formed the lower house. The elections of the Lord Mayors, Sheriffs, and Aldermen were signalised by great feasting and merry making. Those times, indeed, were picturesque. On his election the P 146 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Lord Mayor went through the city in procession, with bells ringing and music playing. Before him walked the Sword-bearer, carrying the swords of state, and wearing the Cap of Maintenance ; the Mace-bearer, carrying the mace ; and the Porter, bearing the silver staff ; and the City Waits — musicians, who not only figured in these processions and made music at balls and dances, but also acted as watchmen during the winter months, going about the streets with their music, and calling out the time and state of the night. Under this ancient Corporation there were many offices, now extinct — Officers of Mace, Keepers of the Walls, of the New Walk, of the River Banks, and of the Bridges, Surveyors, Inspectors, Collectors, and so on, all of whom wore the civic livery. The police numbered an officer and two assistants, and were remarkable at the beginning of the century for their expert work in catching thieves. Things seemed to work well in those days, but as the century grew changes came about. Under the new Municipal Act of 1836 the Corporation was reorganised, and many of the old offices were abolished. Architectural changes came over the city also. The narrow streets largely disappeared ; the ancient houses, with their overhanging gables and lath-and-plaster fronts, were pulled down, save in rare instances, and space and light were made where neither had existed before. And even as a new life had come to the little town of the Brigantes nearly 2000 years before with the advent of the Romans, so a new life was at hand with the setting up in the ancient city into which that town had developed of the new means of travel. Ere many years had passed York was to be one of the principal railway centres in England. From the time of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825 onwards, the chief topic of conversation amongst most English folk, but especially amongst speculators and commercial circles, was the spread of the railway system. It was recognised that a new order of things was to be inaugurated, and men were anxious that their own particular neighbourhood should benefit as quickly as possible. One of the first of the many proposals made for new railways was that of Messrs. Rennie for a line from London to York, by way of Cambridge and Lincoln. This was in 1827. Six years later another scheme was afoot for a line from London to York by way of Cambridge, Lincoln, and Selby, with branches to the larger towns on either side of the line. During 1832, however, a railway committee of the York corporation had been holding continual meetings and conferences on the question of constructing a line from the city, and had received a deputation from Doncaster which urged them to favour a line between that town and York. Presently there were two schemes before them — one for a York and Doncaster line, the other for a York and West Riding line. Some excitement became manifest in York when it was known that one George Hudson, a linen-draper of the city, and still a young man, had subscribed for the greater part of the shares of the latter in preference to those of the former. Ere long, however, the OPENING OF RAILWAYS 147 railway committee abandoned both schemes, and with Hudson at their head began to consider the advisability of joining one of two other schemes floated in 1834 and 1835. One of these— known as the " Eastern Counties Railway " — was to run from London to York by way of Norwich ; the other — known as the " Great Northern Railway " — was to run between the two cities by way of Cambridge, Sleaford, and Lincoln. Before the committee came to any decision the chairman visited George Stephenson at Whitby, and discussed the matter with him. Stephenson told him of the proposed lines from Birmingham to Derby, and Derby to Leeds, and Hudson on his return to York advised the committee to call in Stephenson as adviser before definitely closing with either Eastern Counties or Great Northern schemes. Eventually the York committee decided to join the more practicable project. There was a line from London to Birmingham ; this was to be supplemented by a line from Birmingham to Derby, and by another from Derby to Leeds. The committee decided to construct a line joining the last-named link at Normanton. This was called the York and North Midland, and a bill for it was put before Parliament in 1836, and was passed, chiefly through the influence of Stephenson, who believed that the route through the Midlands would amply suffice for the wants of York and the North. In 1838 the line from London to Birmingham was opened. Next year saw the opening of the Birmingham and Derby and York and North Midland, while in 1840 the completion of the North Mid land made it possible for travellers to proceed from York to London all the way by train. The first through passengers went out of York station on the 1st of July 1840, travelling by way of Normanton, Derby, and Rugby, a total distance of 219 miles, in the course of which it was necessary to change trains three times. It is interesting to note that George Hudson was at this time Lord Mayor of York for the second time. In those days the railway accommodation of the ancient city was ele mentary and almost ludicrous in its inefficiency. The first station possessed by the railway company was a structure of wood, which stood at the bottom of Queen Street, turning out of Blossom Street, outside Micklegate Bar, and therefore without the walls. It consisted of two rooms, one occupied by the secretary to the Company, the other by a booking-clerk. Between the duties of the booking-clerk of that day and those of his successors of these times there was a marvellous difference. The solitary booking-clerk of York in 1840 issued tickets to intending passengers in a fashion eminently characteristic of the times. First he wrote down on the ticket the date and the time of the train's departure, then he added the name of the place to which the traveller was bound, and the amount of the Company's charges. This done, he wrote the passenger's name on the counterfoil. He then picked up his scissors and cut counterfoil and ticket apart, after which the passenger was free to seek the train. That, when he arrived at its side, was not too attractive in appearance. Folks of high degree had a roof over 148 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE their heads, third-class passengers rolled along in open trucks. The train was lengthened out by cattle vans and goods waggons. The guard sat on the roof of a carriage ; the engine had a driver and stoker, and on the platform there was one porter. Few matters of modern history are more interesting than those relating to the estab- railways, and amusing to our grand- early forties notion that then con- in course of were amply all the needs and future Railway ac tion, how- increasing. Great North Railway be- and Croft opened, and of communi- lished be- and south. table pub- i, 1841, it that the open- line enabled reach New- London in hours, the ing by train •-•ii ••¦ W-- > ¦'- , i MICKLEGATE BAR lishment of it is very know that fathers of the cherished the the few lines structed, or construction,sufficient for of their own generations.comraoda-ever, went on In 1 84 1 the of England tween York Bridge was a new means cation estab- tween north From atime- lishedonjuly would appear ing of this travellers to castle from seventeen journey be- from the me- Darlington, Some of the figures given tropolis to and thence by coach to the end of their journey in this time-table compare curiously with those of the modern railway-guide. An inhabitant of Newcastle desiring to go to London left the former place by coach at a quarter-past five in the morning. At half-past nine he left Darlington by train, and at a quarter to twelve he arrived in York, where, as at the present time, he was allowed to refresh himself before proceeding. He passed Normanton at half-past one, and Derby at a quarter-past four, but it was not until well after eleven o'clock in the evening that he found himself, very stiff and tired, no doubt, on the platform at Euston. Seventeen "THE RAILWAY NAPOLEON" 149 hours from London to Newcastle ! — and in an open carriage. One wonders which part of the journey the passenger liked best — the coach drive from Newcastle to Darlington, or the railway ride, with the smoke and cinders of the engine blowing freely into the uncovered third-class carriages. In certain states of the weather there could surely have been little to choose between them. But however preferable the coaching part of the journey may have been, it was soon to pass away, Hudson and his fellow railway magnates forming a Darlington and Newcastle Junction Railway Company in 1842. With Hudson and his fortunes the early railway history of York, and, indeed, of the whole country, is largely identified. Originally a small linen-draper in York, he showed himself so shrewd and far-seeing in his management of the earlier railway schemes of the country, that within a few years he was a man of substance, Lord Mayor of the city, and principal director of several companies. His name was in every one's mouth, either as " King Hudson," or " The Railway Napoleon," and it goes without say ing that he was as much hated as he was admired. It would appear that Hudson, however misguided he may have been eventually, was always anxious and careful for the advancement and welfare of York, and that certain of his lines of action were adopted in the belief that they were best fitted to serve her and her citizens. In 1843 there began a movement likely to interfere with the monopoly which Hudson and his confreres enjoyed as regarded communication with London and the North. There seemed to be not merely room, but necessity for a new trunk line between London and York, and various projects were put forward respecting the construction of one. One of them eventually took shape as the Great Northern Railway, and henceforth there was war to the knife between its promoters and the supporters of Hudson. The various Midland railways had been amalgamated as the Midland Railway Company, with Hudson as the first Chairman, and the construction of a line between Darlington and Gateshead, and the prospect of another thence to Edinburgh, seemed to give all the accommodation necessary. Hudson, however, recognised that a route was looked for on the east coast, and he hastened to form an alliance with the Eastern Counties Company against the proposals of the Great Northern. He became Chairman of the Eastern Counties Company in 1845, and both before and after that date did his utmost to prevent the projects of the "London and York" railway scheme from coming into operation. But in June 1846, the Bill for the establishment of the latter received the Royal assent, and direct communication between the metropolis and the northern capital was secured. Ere long the tremendous power which George Hudson had exercised over the fortunes of English railways had vanished. A somewhat curious incident is related of him about the time when his reign came to an end. The Great Northern line was opened for passenger traffic on the 8th August 1850, and on the 17th George Hudson, its most formidable opponent, was a first-class passenger from the then i5o PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE terminus in London — Maiden Lane— to Leeds. He left the station at Leeds with words of praise for the excellent arrangements of the company which he had so bitterly opposed, and from that time he had no further dealings with the history of the railway movement. No man had been more thoroughly mixed up with that movement, and none more admired by some folk or more hated by others. He found some of his bitterest foes in York, but there are still those who believe that his vast undertakings were chiefly responsible for the increase of prosperity which has been so marked in York during the present half-century. The history of the railway movement in York is chiefly remarkable for the great results which have accrued from the concord of feeling between three great systems — the North-Eastern, the Great Northern, and the North British Railways. From the time of Hudson's opposition to the Great Northern there was always much strife in railway circles as to the exact East Coast route ; but an agreement between the three companies named, made in i860, which provided for a common stock of carriages, was prac tically a settlement of the question. Trains eventually began to run right through from London to Aberdeen, until at last the race to Scotland lay between the London and North-Western, or West Coast route, and the Great Northern and its kindred companies, then formally recognised as the East Coast route. All this was, of course, a question of time. In the early days the .Great Northern approached York by a devious route. WTien in 1 85 1 the Queen and Prince Consort travelled by it to Scotland, they came round by Boston and Lincoln, the line between Peterborough and Retford not being open at that time. Trains travelled from Doncaster to York until 1 87 1 by way of Knottingley and Burton Salmon ; but the construction of the line from York to Doncaster by way of Selby improved the com munication vastly. How rapidly the speed accelerated may be judged by a comparison of times. In 1845 the best time between London and York was 7 hours 40 minutes ; fifty years later the scheduled time was 3 hours 28 minutes, and on one occasion, during the famous railway races of 1895, the 8 P.M. from King's Cross ran into York at 11.1, having covered 188 miles in 179 minutes of actual running time. As the railway accommodation of York increased, the original elemen tary station at the corner of Queen Street became ludicrously inadequate. Indeed it had scarcely come to exist before it gave place to what is now known as the Old Station, situate within the walls of the city. This was provided for by the removal of various ancient buildings in the neighbour hood of Toft Green. Where the goods traffic department of the Old Station stands, stood the House of Correction, built for the accommodation of prisoners from the city and the Ainsty in 1814. Lady Hewley's Hospital stood close by, in line with several good houses, and between these and the city walls was a large garden. About here in times past Roman suburban villas had stood, and somewhere close at hand was the Monastery THE NEW STATION 151 of the Friars' Preachers, founded in the reign and by the favour of Henry III. The first railway line had stopped outside the walls ; it now entered within them by two arches, each 70 feet wide. Even the new arrangements began to be primitive and inconvenient, great difference though there was between the Tanner Row Station of 1841 and the wooden shanty of Queen Street and 1840. The newly-constructed station served its purpose for a little over thirty years, and was then superseded by the New Station without the walls, which was opened for traffic in 1877. This building, said to be the largest railway station in the world, was erected on the site of a Roman cemetery, on the west side of the road leading from Eburacum to Calcaria, and the necessary excavations for its foundations brought to light a vast number of Roman remains. Once completed, the New Station presented a forcible contrast to the ancient city, on whose outer edge it stands. It is 800 feet in length, and 234 feet in breadth, and its roof consists of four semicircular spans, the north centre one of which, covering four lines of metals, is 8 1 feet wide. Through this vast product of modern enterprise passes a body of traffic such as Roman and Normans never knew or dreamt of. The East Coast line of communication between north and south follows almost exactly the route which the Romans followed on their marches from London to Scotland. All the way through the western edge of the fens, running side by side at Newark and Grantham and Doncaster, the railroad of to-day and the old Roman highway of eighteen hundred years ago, march in parallel lines across Yorkshire. But while the high way is well-nigh deserted, the new road is crowded with swift trains, going north or south, carrying loads of men and goods after a very different fashion to that of the ancient convoys. Nothing indeed is more interesting in York than to stand on some point of the city walls between Lendal Bridge and Micklegate Bar, and contrast the difference suggested by the great line of railway on one hand, and the old highway on the other — the one typical of the fierce rush and hurry of modern life, the other quietly reminiscent of a past which not even fancy can revive. As York became one of the most important of English railway centres, becoming to the North-Eastern Railway Company what Derby is to the Midland, and Crewe to the London and North-Western, so its population and its trade increased. The establishment of railway communication with all parts of the country brought a tremendous impetus in its wake, and the traveller who visits the city for the first time may be surprised as he passes through its suburbs to perceive that its ancient boundaries are literally obscured by colonies of new houses in formal streets and rows. Nor is the modern spirit entirely confined to the suburbs of York. During the present reign extensive alterations have been made all over the city. Streets have been pulled down and utterly removed, or rebuilt in a more convenient fashion, and many of the old buildings and institutions have disappeared for ever. Round about the Minster extensive alterations have 152 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE been made with the object of removing old buildings which encroached too much upon the great church. While a great deal has been removed, however, a great deal has been supplied. The Cattle Market, built in 1829, was remodelled in 1856 at a cost of over .£10,000, and the swamps of Foss Island were converted into a good road giving access to it. In the provision of markets, the folk of York have been lavish. Originally held in the streets or squares known as Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate, Pavement, High and Low Ousegate, St. Sampson Square and Micklegate, they were removed in 1836 to a newly-built market-hall which cost .£30,000. Nor have the authorities responsible for the good government of the city been behindhand in providing public buildings and institutions. Hospitals, workhouses, schools, bonding-warehouses, technical schools, and free libraries have been provided, and the administration of the city's affairs is now carried on in new offices of much dignity at the Guildhall, while justice is administered at new courts built near the castle. And yet, de spite all the modern innovations and improvements and the vast altera tions which have been carried out, York still preserves her ancient appear ance, so cunningly has whatever is very new been kept in the background, or made to harmonise with the venerable aspect of the city. In such a city as York, lying on the banks of a navigable river, and having an extensive water trade, the care of the river is a paramount con sideration, and the Corporation have borne this in mind during the present century. They have built locks, weirs, and wharves, and generally improved the navigation of the Ouse and the Foss. Until 1853 the Foss belonged to a company, but in that year the Corporation of York purchased it for -£4000, in order to intercept the flowing of sewage into it, and after this they closed the navigation for some time, and built a new weir and wharf, and recon structed the old lock at Castle Mills. In 1887-88 they built the great lock on the Ouse at Naburn, which was opened by the late Prince Albert Victor. Ample provision has been made during the past forty years for bridges affording communication between opposite shores of the Ouse. Until 1863 York possessed but one bridge over the Ouse — Ouse Bridge, con necting Micklegate with the main part of the city. Ferry-boats plied between the river banks at Lendal and Skeldergate ; but it was felt that better accommodation was needed, and in i860 an Act of Parliament was obtained for the erection of a lattice girder bridge at Lendal. This collapsed while it was being built, and gave place to the present bridge of one span, which cost ^35,000, and was opened in 1863. For twenty-one years tolls were collected on this bridge from all manner of passengers, pedestrians paying a halfpenny for the privilege of crossing it. The bridge had paid for itself by 1884, but the tolls were kept on for ten years longer in order to assist in defraying the cost of Skeldergate Bridge, which crosses the Ouse between Bishopgate Street and the Castle. This bridge was built under the provisions of the York Improvement Act of 1875, and REVIVAL OF TRADE 153 was opened in 1881. Skeldergate Bridge cost ^57,000, and is still a toll bridge in spite of the fact that it enjoyed the receipt of half the tolls collected at its sister bridge of Lendal for a period of ten years. Here provision is made for the passage of vessels at definite hours of the day. From the bridge itself there is to be had one of the best views of York, and the approach from Bishopgate Street gives the eye an impression of the city which is singularly effective and appealing. The revival of trade in York consequent upon the introduction of rail ways has necessarily somewhat altered its aspect, and transformed it from the quiet and peaceful condition in which it rested at the beginning of the century to one of comparative energy and activity. The stranger in York will probably find himself most struck by three features of such of its life as he can see — the grandeur and vastness of its historical associations, the evidences of its life as a county town patronised by county families, and the strange mixture of old things and new within its walls. Few cities in England arouse so many reflections as these three characteristics of York do. Whoever enters its bounds is impressed by the bustling life which he beholds at the great railway station, by the grey quiet which hangs about the Minster and the churches and the old places, by the people whom he meets in the streets, and by the way in which modern life has, as it were, been dovetailed into the stout fabric of the old. Not even London itself presents more striking epitomes or compendiums of life than may be seen in York at any time. Its streets exhibit a continually changing picture of rank, fashion, learning, all intermingled with the work-a-day matters of a city in which commercial life is still a principal factor. York is necessarily a show-place, and its streets are never without their groups of sightseers and loungers, but show-place as it is, it is still more interesting as one of the very oldest centres of population — a spot of earth wherein a body of men was slowly gathered together in the course of centuries to build up a community. To the student of men and manners, the story of York as a community is hardly less interesting than its history as a great English city. It is not possible now to trace all the history of its people, the predecessors and progenitors of its present citizens, but no sketch of the history of York would be complete without some account of the way in which its own folk, the backbone of its population, came to be what they are. According to Dr. Raine, the common folk of the city gathered at first about the walls of the Minster, living in narrow streets, and keeping as close to the great church and to each other as they could. There were few stone houses — most of the dwellings were of wood, of post and pan work, even as they appear in some of the more ancient streets of the city to this day. Two notable objects stood before each house — one a dunghill, only removed at intervals; the other a stump of wood, whereon the master of the house sat to gossip with his neighbours on purely local and personal topics. They spoke a dialect which no southerner could understand. Their trading was Q 4 ' i ¦ '¦ fl 'fa# y% ^ »i si' » >, V. = $• t U- " M^[hilfi TRADE GUILDS 155 strictly supervised by the civic authorities ; their only amusements were in the care and decoration of their numerous parish churches. Various districts were apportioned to, or had come to be frequented by, various trades. The butchers lived in the Shambles, as many of them do to-day ; the fishers in the Water-lanes ; spurriers gave their name to Spurriergate, girdlers to Girdlesgate, coppersmiths to Coppergate ; the founders and bell-makers were located about the Church of St. Helen, the potters in Walmgate and on the west bank of the Foss. Of the old trade guilds, the Gilda Mercatoria, founded during the reign of Henry I., was the most important, and became eventually amalgamated with the Corporation of the city. At the time of Edward III. there were no less than 180 different trades in operation in York. Many of the trade guilds possessed property and almshouses for their poorer members, and in some cases a chapel. There are now but three left — the Merchant Adventurers, descendants of the ancient Gilda Mercatoria, the Merchant Tailors, and the Butchers. Little, if anything, of the old pomp and circumstance which used to attend on the trade guilds is now existent, but not even the stranger can visit York and share its com mercial life without recognising that there still hangs about it a quaint flavour of the past, though most of the picturesqueness of the old master and 'prentice days is over, and modern methods have largely superseded the ancient usages. It is only natural that the citizens of York should be somewhat proud of their connection with great events, and of the ties and associations which exist between their ancient city and the throne of England. York, as sometime capital, seat of government, throne of emperors and kings, and occasionally their refuge in times of distress, has a vast claim to the admira tion of her people. Not the least of her proud boasts is that she has given the title of Duke to twelve princes of the blood royal, and that the last of the line is the present heir-presumptive to the throne. The first Duke of York was Edmund de Langley, uncle of Edward III., by whom he was created in 1385. He married Isabella, daughter of the King of Castile, and occupied himself largely in statecraft. He allied his services with those of other nobles in the Lancastrian cause, and after Henry IV. had ascended the throne he retired to Langley, where he died in 1402. The second Duke, his son Edward Plantagenet, took some part in the conspiracies and movements which circled about the throne in the first years of Henry's reign, and was looked upon with much ill-favour by the English nobles. He had the reputation of being a valiant soldier, however, and was slain at Agincourt in 141 5, and buried subsequently at Fotheringay. Richard Plantagenet, the third Duke of York, was nephew of the second, and best known to history as the figure around which gathered the supporters of the White Rose of York in its fierce contest with the Red Rose of Lancaster. How he fought at St. Albans, at Northampton, and finally at Wakefield, where he was slain in December 1460, and how Margaret of Anjou ordered 156 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE his head to be cut off and set on Micklegate Bar, are matters of history. His son Edward, the fourth Duke of York, was ere long transformed from a Duke into a King by the successes at Mortimer's Cross and at Towton. He was crowned a second time in York Minster in 1464, after the final victory over the Lancastrians at Hexham. Ten years later he created his second son Richard, Duke of York. This prince and his brother were murdered in the Tower of London by order of their uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The sixth Duke of York was Henry VIII., the title being conferred upon him as an infant by his father. The seventh was Charles I., who was created Duke of York, Duke of Albany, Marquis of Ormond, Earl of Ross, and Baron Ardmanoch at the age of four years. The eighth Duke was his second son, James, afterwards King under the title of James II. He appears to have had some considerable liking for the city from which he took his first title, and visited it on several occasions, and notably in 1646, when his father, then almost in sight of the scaffold, made him a Knight of the Garter in the chapter-house of the Minster, and in 1665 in company with his Duchess. Between James and the citizens of York no little coolness eventually sprang up, and the relations between them were strained until the King's deposition. After he had disappeared from the field of English history and politics, there was no Duke of York until George I. conferred the title on his brother Ernest Augustus in 1716. This Duke died young and unmarried. The tenth Duke was Edward Augustus, second son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and brother of George III., and the title was conferred upon him, with the Dukedom of Albany and Earldom of Ulster, in 1760. He, too, died young and unmarried in 1767, but not before he had visited York and been enrolled as an honorary freeman of the city. The next Duke of York was Frederick Augustus, second son of George III., who was born in 1763, and received the same titles as the tenth Duke in his eleventh year. He visited York in 1789 in company with the Prince of Wales, upon whom the freedom of the city was conferred. The account furnished in the local contemporary journals of this royal visit is somewhat entertaining. The two princes came to York by road, and when they reached the Knavesmire they left their carriage and rode round the racecourse on horseback, so that the people assembled at the races might feast their eyes upon them. At the grand stand they dismounted, and held a reception of the leading folk of the city and county, after which they watched the races for a time before proceeding in Lord Fitzwilliam's carriage to that nobleman's temporary quarters in the Old Deanery in Minster Yard, where they dined at eight o'clock and retired, presumably much fatigued. Next day they received the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, and Aldermen, and during eight days more they held levees, and attended various social functions. They gave clothes to female prisoners sentenced to transportation, and money for the release of various occupants of the debtors' prison, and these benefactions aroused the enthusiasm of VISIT OF DUKE AND DUCHESS OF YORK 157 the York people to a high pitch. It would appear, however, that the Prince of Wales was the chief cause of it, for the Corporation showed no particular honour to the Duke of York. From 1827 until 1892 the title was once more in abeyance, but in the «fo f f! Ill f j Iwlar' 4 1 ' ' 1 (v .,y J CYor£ \ latter year it was conferred upon Prince George of Wales, much to the delight of the citizens, who had hoped that one of the Queen's sons would have been made Duke of York long before. In 1893 the Duke and Duchess of York visited the city in order to open the Public Library. On the 5th October they drove into York from Fairfield, where they were staying as the guests of Captain Vyner, to the Guildhall, where the freedom of the i58 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE city was conferred upon the Duke, and various addresses presented. After wards, in the state-room of the Mansion House, the wedding present of the city of York was presented to the Duke and Duchess. A banquet followed in the Guildhall, and that over, a procession was formed to the Public Library, which the Duke formally opened. After another procession through various streets of the city the Duke and Duchess and their party went to Evensong at the Minster, where special arrangements had been made for their reception. Thence, through another vast concourse of people, they passed to St. Peter's School, where a Latin address was delivered by the head boy. Next day they left the city, much gratified by the reception given them by its people. In July 1896 the Duke and Duchess visited York again, during the holding of the Yorkshire Agricultural Show, and were again hailed with much loyalty by the citizens. With rare exceptions York has always been loyal to its rulers and their representatives. Few other English cities have seen so much of kings and princes, now in all the pomp and pride of victory and security, now reduced to condi tions of absolute helplessness, and none have suffered more for the causes with which monarchs are mainly identified. But York never forgets that she herself is the cradle of kings, and that when other English cities and towns which now go before her in point of size and commercial importance were wastes and marshes, she was the seat of Roman Emperors, and already the fairest town in England. CHAPTER VIII The Story of York Minster EARLY DAYS OF CHRISTIANITY IN YORK THE BEGINNINGS OF THE MINSTER ITS ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY THE MINSTER DESCRIBED — OBIECTS OF INTEREST IN THE MINSTER THE CHAPTER : ITS CONSTITUTION AND PRIVILEGES — HISTORY OF THE ARCHBISHOPS OF YORK AND THEIR BENEFACTIONS. I j\OST travellers reaching York on a journey of inspec tion, turn towards the famous Minster with a species of instinctive feeling. One of the chief reasons for this is, that by whatever road York is approached the towers of the great Cathedral Church of St. Peter loom high above the roofs and gables of the city. All round York the land lies level, not ugly and monotonous, as some have called it, but filled with a singular pastoral beauty of its own, and from any point of it within a circuit of several miles the grey towers of the Minster rise high and impressive against the sky. York, indeed, is domi nated by its Minster — the vast fabric draws and attracts the senses with an irresistible fascination. All around it are almost countless things of old, churches scarcely less ancient than itself, remains of Roman times and of Norman, hospitals, abbeys, historic houses, but the Minster outweighs them all in the claims which it makes upon the attention of the archaeolo gist and the admiration of the art-worshipper. Of its beauty the lover of such things never tires : it attracts when seen for the hundredth time as much as it impressed at the first visit, and it may well be said of it that it is one of the few monuments of man's work of which no single mind can ever form an adequate conception. Not even though a man spent a life time in studying it would he ever know all that is to be known of the wonderful detail which makes up the perfect presentment in stone before which most men can only wonder and admire. The definite history of the Cathedral Church of St. Peter at York begins with the conversion and baptism of Eadwine, King of Northumbria, in 627, but there is no doubt that Christianity was introduced into the city at very 160 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE early times, and probably soon after the final settlement of the Romans there. The bishops of Eburacum were known to the rest of the Christian world, and were present at some of the earlier Councils, and notably at those of Aries and Nicsea. With the disappearance of the Roman power in Britain, Christianity also disappeared, and there are no authentic traces in York of the existence of any Christian church there prior to Eadwine's time, with the exception of one or two small objects in the museum on which appear marks closely resembling symbols in use amongst the early Christians. Naturally Paulinus, the missionary sent into Northumbria by Augustine from the court of ^Ethelberht, is credited with the introduction of Christianity into York shire ; in reality Augustine and Paulinus merely re-introduced Christianity after it had been driven out by the wild tribes from over seas who flocked into the land after the Roman evacuation. Paulinus spent two years in converting Eadwine, and finally baptized him on Easter Day, 627, together with his family and courtiers. The ceremony was performed in an oratory or chapel of wood, around which the King caused a more durable building of stone to be erected soon afterwards. Eadwine was slain in battle before this was finished, but his successors went on with the work, and the first cathedral was probably finished by the end of the seventh century, and further improved by St. Wilfrith, who repaired and ornamented it on enter ing upon his occupancy of the archiepiscopal see in 670. About 741 this church was either destroyed altogether, or so greatly damaged by fire that it became necessary to rebuild it. The work was carried out by Archbishop Aelberht between 767 and 782, and the new church consecrated by him ten days before his death. Aelberht's church has been proved by modern exca vations to have been of considerable size. Portions of its walls are still to be seen in the crypt and beneath the nave and the south transept, and various portions of masonry in the base of the piers of the large tower are ascribed by many authorities to the same period. It is highly probable that Aelberht's church suffered considerably during the wars of the ninth and tenth centuries, but there are no records of this portion of its history. At the time of the Norman Conquest, however, the cathedral was burnt to the ground together with the greater part of the city, and Archbishop Thomas, who was appointed to the see in 1070, was obliged to abandon his first intention of repairing it, and to build a new church instead. This assumed the shape of a new choir, cruciform in design, portions of which are to be seen in plenty in the crypt. In 1 137 the new cathedral shared the fate of its pre decessors, being much damaged by a fire which broke out in that year. Archbishop Roger built a new choir on coming to the see in 11 54, and portions of these are beneath the present one. So far the cathedral's history had been one of accident and drawback, but with the accession of Walter de Gray, Archbishop of York from 12 15 to 1255, a happier state of things was inaugurated, and the Minster as we know it began to rise from the ashes of the past. TOMB OF WALTER DE GREY 161 In the eastern aisle of the South Transept the tomb of Walter de Grey is still one of the principal objects of the Minster ; and it is fitting that he should lie there, since it was he who caused the South Transept, now the most ancient part of the building, to be erected. According to the data of the Fabric Rolls of York Minster, which were so ably edited for the Surtees So ciety by the late Dr. Raine, Chancellor of York, and a Canon of the Cathedral, Walter de Grey's work was completed about 1240, and the erection of the North Transept was commenced soon afterwards at the in stance of John Romanus, then Treasurer of the Min ster. His son, John the Roman, Archbishop of York fromi286toi297, imitated the example of his father, and commenced the re building of the Nave, of which he laid the founda tion-stone in 1 2 9 1 . Extra ordinary efforts were made by the cathedral authorities in order to provide funds for the improvements to which they were now com mitted. It is said that John the Roman gave largely ^tffi-* during his archiepiscopate. -* The chapter imposed one tax of two-sevenths upon the prebends and dignitaries in 1296, and two years later sent Roger de Mar, the sub- chanter, to obtain papal permission for laying another of a tenth and a third upon non-resident members of the chapter. Archbishop Greenfield gave 500 marks ( = ^5000) to the church, and Archbishop Melton a similar amount. By 1338 the windows were glazed, and the great west window filled with glass at the expense of Archbishop Melton. Seven years later the stone-work of the Nave was finished, but the chapter had no funds wherewith to complete the roof. Here again the munificence which distinguished the Archbishops of that age served the Minster in good stead. Archbishop Thoresby — 135 2-1373 — supplied the ceiling of ib y^chbijiit'p^vcijieL '.Cp?' i6a PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE wood in 1355, and in 1361 he initiated the restoration and reconstruction of the choir. He made over to the chapter the income from his manor of Sherburn, and contributed largely in various other ways. About this time Francis Fitz-Urse, Treasurer of the Minster, is supposed, on good authority, to have had a considerable share in the building of the Chapter House. But to mention all the benefactors of York Minster by name, and to specify all their pious deeds, would necessitate the making of a lengthy list. Archbishops, and deans, and canons, and clergy, and laity conspired to beautify and improve the great church, which was rightly felt to be the chief pride of the county. After the munificence of Thoresby came that of his successors, Archbishops Scrope and Bowet. Bishop Skirlaw, of Durham, contributed largely to the restoration of the great tower ; the library was due to the generosity of Haxey ; Dean Andrew provided the battlements of the Choir. As to the great Yorkshire families their generosity was unbounded. Chief amongst their number was that of the Scropes, who laid the chapter under many great obligations. The generosity of the Vavasours and the Percys is commemorated in the west front of the Minster, where a Vavasour stands holding an unworked stone, and a Percy holding a moulded one — these effigies being intended to form a perpetual reminder of the fact that the Vavasour family granted free passage through its land for the conveyance of stone for the fabric, and that the Percys granted stone and timber, with right of road for its transit. The Minster as it stands at present was practically completed by the end of the fifteenth century, and it was reconsecrated on the 3rd July 1472, during the archiepiscopate of George Neville, the prelate who gave such a magnificent banquet to the county at Cawood on his accession to the see. But it is almost impossible to say that so wonderful a building was definitely completed at any particular date. Every succeeding century has seen something attempted and done in connection with York Minster, and nothing in its history is more gratifying than the fact that the spirit of generosity evinced by the folk of mediaeval days has been shown just as genuinely by their successors. Twice within the present century it has been necessary to appeal to the public for help in restoring the Minster. On 2nd February 1829 a man named Jonathan Martin, suffering from acute mania, concealed himself during afternoon service behind the tomb of Archbishop Greenfield, and waiting until all was quiet, set fire to the Choir. The discovery was not made until the following morning, and it was then too late to save the east end of the Minster. The tabernacle work of carved oak, the stalls, pulpit, organ, and roof were all destroyed, and the damage was estimated at .£65,000. About a month later a great meeting was held in the Concert Room in York, in order to consider the question of restoration, and it was then decided that everything should be restored to its original form, and a public subscription begun. By 1831 every thing was finished, the authorities' appeal for funds having been willingly HISTORY AND DIMENSIONS 163 responded to. The incendiary Martin was found not guilty at his trial, and was eventually committed to a lunatic asylum. In 1840 another serious fire broke out, originating in the south-west tower, which it reduced to a shell, and thence spreading to the roof of the Nave, which was also destroyed. This fire did damage to the amount of .£25,000, and again public generosity was prompt in providing means for the restoration of the injured parts. During the past half-century much has been done to improve and renovate the Minster. In 1843 the late Stephen Beckwith, M.D., left ^3000 for the beautifying of the Chapter House, and about ten years previously the then Earl of Scarborough gave a similar sum towards the cost of a new organ. The South Transept was restored under the superintendence of Mr. Street in 1874. That minor improvements, renovations, and alterations are con tinually going on, even if it be to the extent of merely replacing a pinnacle, is evidenced by a visit to the Minster, and especially to the Minster-mason's yard at the north-west corner of the close. It may not be improper at this point to give some formal details respecting the Minster, from whence at a glance some conception may be formed of its history and dimensions. (A). Principal Historical Dates of the Minster. A.D. 627. Wooden Oratory of Eadwine built for the King's Baptism. 670. Accession of Wilfrith, repairer of the first stone edifice. 782. Consecration of second stone church by Archbishop Aelberht, its builder. 1069. Destruction of the Cathedral by fire during the siege. 1080. Rebuilding by Archbishop Thomas. 1 137. Partial destruction by fire. 1 171. Archbishop Roger rebuilt the Choir. 1227. Archbishop Walter de Grey built the South Transept. 1260. John Romanus, Treasurer, built the North Transept. 1 29 1. Foundation of the Nave laid by Archbishop John the Roman. 1345. Completion of Nave and West Front. 1350. Building of the Chapter House. 1361. First stone of present Choir laid by Archbishop Thoresby. 1405. Central Tower restored, in harmony with other parts of the Minster. 1432. South-west Tower commenced. 1470. North-west Tower commenced. 1472. The Cathedral reconsecrated. (B). Principal Dimensions of the Minster. External. Ft. In. Length of the Minster from base to base of buttresses . . . 524^ o Length of the Transept . 250 o Height of Central Tower . -213 o Ft. In. Breadth of Central Tower . . 65 o Height of Western Towers . . 202 o Breadth ,, ,, . . 32 o 164 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Internal. Ft. In. Length of Interior . . . . 486 O Breadth .... • • 223 6 Choir — Length . . ¦ • 223 6 Breadth . . • • 99 6 Height . . . . 102 0 Nave — Length . . . 264 0 „ Breadth . . . 104 6 „ Height . . • ¦ 99 6 South Transept — Length . 104 6 ,, „ Breadth . 90 0 North Transept — Length . . 96 6 Brea dth • • 94 6 Organ Screen — Height . . Length . . Central Tower— Height . . .188 East Window — Height ... 76 „ „ Breadth . . 32 West Window — Height ... 54 Breadth ... 30 Five Sisters Window — Height . 54 „ „ Breadth of each compartment ... 5 Chapter House— Height ... 67 ,, „ Diameter . . 63 Ft. In. 25 o 5° ooo o oo o 3oo II To describe the architectural features of York Minster with anything like absolute accuracy as regards every minor detail in their composition, would probably exceed the powers of even a master in that wonderful art ; to a layman it is only possible to give some approximate idea of their chief beauties as they meet the eye. The plan of the church is that of a plain cross — the west part, or nave, the eastern part, or choir, and the transverse part, or transepts, having each two wings, and being built on practically the same level. Over the intersection of the nave and transepts is a great lantern tower ; two smaller towers rise from the west ends of the aisles of the nave. Behind the Choir proper is a retro-choir. The Consistory Court, Vestry, and Record Room abut on the south aisle of the choir ; the Chapter House is attached to the north-east corner of the North Transept by a vestibule. The general appearance of the church whether seen from with out or within is magnificent and inspiring. It is somewhat difficult for the appreciative traveller to decide on which particular point is best for taking a comprehensive view of the exterior, but it is probable that a position before the West Front commends itself to most of the people who come to inspect the Minster. Those who wish, however, to gain some conception of the gradual progress of the fabric, should begin their inspection at the South Transept, which is undoubtedly the oldest portion of the building. The pointed arches and slender pillars are a distinguishing feature of the South Transept, and the ornamental work about the windows is peculiar to that portion of the cathedral. The marigold window and the triangular window in the gable are both very beautiful, but the entire effect of the transept as seen from below is somewhat spoiled by the turrets and the pinnacle. Going from this point towards the West Front, six tall pinnacles are seen, with niches containing representations of the Saviour, the Evangelists, and St. THE WEST FRONT 165 William of York. Formerly these pinnacles upheld the flying buttresses of the clerestory of the Nave. Once in a position to get the full effect of the West Front the spectator will probably own to himself that its beauty and magnificence can scarcely be overrated. About 140 feet in breadth and 200 feet in , height, it presents to the eye a veritable poem in grey stone, worn and injured in places, but still beautiful. There are two distinct styles of architecture evident. The portion to the top of the battlement above the cornice was com pleted about the middle of the fourteenth cen tury. The large win dow is a fine specimen of the flowing style, and contains some elegant tracery. Amongst the ornaments of the prin cipal entrance are a series of representations of events in the lives of Adam and Eve. Over the entrance, in a niche, is a figure generally supposed to be that of Archbishop William de Melton, with a statue of a Vavasour on one hand, and that of a Percy on the other. The niche of the north buttress contains a representation of the Flight of the Holy Family, that of the south buttress is ornamented by the Entry into Jerusalem, but both are injured. The towers of the West Front are very fine specimens of the Perpendicular style, and are all the more impressive because of the fact that they exactly corre spond as regards size and dimensions. The aspect of the Minster seen from the north side is not less interesting than when seen from the south, though the character of the architecture is much plainer. From the corner of the close the eye is impressed by the 166 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE prospect of the Nave, the North Transept with its copper roof, the great Central Tower, and the roof of the Chapter House. The north side of the Nave is plain ; there are no flying buttresses or decorated pinnacles as on the south side. The most conspicuous and striking point of the picture, however, is undoubtedly the Lantern or Great Tower, with its angle buttresses and lofty windows, which are nearly 50 feet in height. The windows of the tower are dwarfed by the five lancet-headed windows of the North Transept, usually known as "The Five Sisters," which are each about 54 feet in height and about 5 feet in width. There is very little ornament about the exterior of the North Transept, but a few steps farther on there is plenty to be found in the exterior of the Chapter House and its vestibule. The Chapter House is octangular in form, and is supported by great buttresses at the angles, which are highly ornamented and adorned with elaborate crockets and finials. Each side of the Chapter House contains a deeply-recessed window, 46 feet in height and about 18 feet in width. A representation of ivy leaves decorates the cornice, and the parapet is adorned with grotesque figures of animals, and especially of bears — which is probably in allusion to Fitz-Urse, during whose treasurer- ship of the cathedral, 1335-1352, the Chapter House was built. Of the East End of the Minster it is not possible to get so fine a view as of the West, but such a view as may be had by craning the neck at various un comfortable angles will yield feelings of delight and wonder almost as great as those caused by a first sight of the West Front. The great central window is nearly 76 feet in height and 32 in width. Above it is a statue, commonly held to be that of Archbishop Thoresby, who occupied the see at the time the east end of the Minster was built. Beneath the window is a series of busts, boldly carved. The one in the centre represents the Saviour, those on either side the Apostles, with the head of Edward III. at the south end, and that of Archbishop Thoresby at the north. The ornamentation of the East End is very rich and dignified, and its entire aspect gives a sense of vastness which is perhaps greater than that induced by an inspection of the West Front. Nothing perhaps is more difficult for the ordinary visitor in inspect ing York Minster than the task of examining the interior in anything like systematic fashion. On entering the church by the south porch the eye and mind are alike awed into silent admiration of the vastness and beauty of the place. There seems to be so much to look at that an impression of inability to see everything is quickly induced, and the sightseer contents himself with an aimless wandering to and fro amongst the profound silences of the long nave and lofty transepts. To those who desire an orderly in spection of the Minster's glories no better plan can be recommended than that of beginning their examination at the South Transept. As regards the architecture they will observe that the clerestory wall is divided into three storeys, and that the sharply-pointed arch prevails in the first, the semi circular in the second, the sharply-pointed again in the third, with a free THE EAST FRONT 167 4 *. . m - - -¦; ff ¦ . r}}% ® 5 / "I ':7"^% ^4 168 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE use of the Herba Benedicta as ornament, and of mouldings of laurel as deco ration. Here one sees the marigold window from within. Twenty-three feet in diameter, it is formed of two concentric circles and trefoiled small arches. The glass is modern, and shows the united roses of the rival houses of York and Lancaster. The windows in the east wall are very interesting. The centre window contains two lights, in one of which St. Paul is repre sented, and in the other St. Peter. In the compartment between is the figure of a King, supposed to symbolise the Almighty. The next window contains a representation of St. Wilfrith. The four windows of the lower storey represent Abraham, Moses, Solomon, and Peter, and are interesting as being the work of a native of York— Peckitt — who executed them about 1790. Perhaps the most notable object in the South Transept, however, is the shrine of its builder, Archbishop Walter de Grey. It stands in the eastern aisle, in what was the Archbishop's chantry chapel of St. Michael the Archangel, which he founded in 1241. The shrine is of stone and marble, and was formerly highly decorated and embellished with precious stones. It rests upon a tomb table composed of bases, nine tall slender marble pillars, foliated capitals, trefoiled arches, foliated spandrils and bold table moulding. Walter de Grey lies in a stone coffin, and above him lies his effigy vested in mitre, cope, tunic, dalmatic, alb and sandals, gloves and ring. He is represented in the act of giving his blessing ; a serpent writhes beneath his feet, pierced by his pastoral staff, and about his head are angels offering incense. Archbishop Markham placed the present iron guard round the shrine in gratitude to Walter de Grey's memory. Close by the shrine are windows representing St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. William, the Blessed Virgin and Child, and St. John Baptist. A little north of it is a table tomb, supported by arches and pillars, and topped by an ornamented cross. It is supposed to be that of Archbishop Sewall, 1258, by some authorities ; of Archbishop Ludham, 1264, by others. The North Transept, which comes next in the order of architecture, cor responds largely with the South Transept, but is much more richly adorned. " The Five Sisters " window naturally attracts attention first in examining this transept. It consists of five lights of equal size, the designs of which are wonderfully beautiful and intricate. The fronts of the piers between the lights are ornamented by vertical mouldings and marble columns ; the capitals display a bold form of the Herba Benedicta. The gable end of the transept is divided into seven pointed compartments, five of which contain windows. As in the case of the South Transept, the clerestory wall is divided into three storeys. The first has been altered in character — originally it was distinguished by obtuse-headed arches ornamented by mouldings and laureated pyramids. Semicircular arches distinguish the second storey, with ornaments of laurel ; the third is divided into five divisions, with bases, piers, capitals, and arches, and here again considerable use is made of the Herba Benedicta. At first neither transept was vaulted, each had an open THE NORTH TRANSEPT 169 timber roof. In the North Transept there are several tombs and monuments of interest. In the east aisle is the tomb of Archbishop Greenfield, 13 14, which possesses an additional interest in the fact that it served as hiding- place for the lunatic incendiary, Jonathan Martin, when he set fire to the church in 1829. The tomb is decorated by an arch, buttresses, tracery, and pinnacles, and has the remains of a brass representation of the Arch bishop fully vested. The windows close by represent St. Stephen and St. Nicholas, and were placed there in 1434. At the north end of the aisle and near the entrance to the Chapter House vestibule is the monument to Dr. Beckwith, who was so great a benefactor to the city and the Minster. It presents a full-length figure, recumbent, with an inscription running round the plinth. In the west aisle are monuments to Archbishops Harcourt and Musgrave, and a curious table cenotaph of black marble, under which lies a representation of a corpse in a winding-sheet. This commemorates Thomas de Haxey, Treasurer of the Cathedral, who died early in the fifteenth century. The four windows of the west wall of this aisle were presented in 1866 by the officers of the 51st and 94th Regiments in memory of comrades who died of cholera in India during the epidemic of 1861. From the North Transept to the west end of the Nave the traveller should proceed by way of the north aisle of the latter. As he approaches the west end he will perceive in the wall a renovated shrine, which is said by some authorities to contain the body of Archbishop Roger, who died in 1 1 81, at least a hundred years before this part of the Minster was built. The remains here enshrined were discovered in 1862, in a box nearly 7 feet in length, 8 inches wide at the head, and 8 inches deep. It further contained the remains of vestments of fine silk, with pieces of gold lace resting on a foundation of cork. Certain signs on the key-arch of the tomb would appear to indicate that the remains are those of Archbishop Thoresby, and one authority, who entertains strong doubts about the Arch bishop Roger theory, argues the matter out in almost convincing fashion. Thus, he points out that the eagle is undoubtedly meant for John, and that the cone in the eagle's beak is a cone of the Abor Thurifere (gen. Thuis) = Thuris-by, which would seem to give at least a colourable notion of the name Thoresby. The same authority says that the Archbishop was probably entombed in the once adjoining chapel of the Blessed Virgin and All Angels, and was translated thence on the destruction of the chapels and chantries in 1545 to a site near the entrance. Whether the shrine is that of Roger or of Thoresby, however, it is exceptionally interesting and worth a careful examination. But the great feature of the Nave is the magni ficent vista presented from the west door — a vista of nearly 500 feet in length, embracing columns, arches, and sculpture, with the wonderful Rood- Screen in the middle distance, and the glorious colour of the east window closing in the view beyond the choir. Between the architecture of the s I I7o PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE transepts and the Nave there is a considerab ;le ^^^^ is of a later style. The bases of the pdla ™ » ^^^ so§rts, which the capitals are extensively ornamented with foliage o ^ ^^ ^ ^ seen in the transepts and Chapter House. Here the crocket formed from either oak or thorn leaf is first seen, and instead of the detached marble pillars of the transepts, the piers have three- quarter attached mould ings or pillars, supporting the vault of the central aisle. The clerestory walls are divided into two storeys. The lower one contains eight com partments, in each of which is a sharply- pointed arch ornamented by a succession of fine mouldings and highly ornamented capitals. The second contains a window in each com partment, some 42 feet in length, divided into five lights, with an open screen to the side roofs, which is ornamented with trefoiled heads, crocketed pediments, and an elaborate cornice. From the floor to the apex of the centre vault the height is about 94 feet. The vault is of wood and plaster, and in its present form was executed from drawings made by Mr. John Browne after the fire of 1840. The window of the west end, beautiful enough from the exterior, is not less striking when seen from within the Minster. About 54 feet in length and 25 in breadth, it is divided into eight lights. Its surrounding tracery is especially graceful, and its principal distinction, the design of a flaming heart, is apparent from both interior and exterior. In the lower part THE ROOD-SCREEN 171 of the window there are representations of eight Archbishops who are nameless ; above them are a similar number of saints, amongst whom are SS. Peter, Paul, James, and Catherine ; above these are representations of the Saviour's Resurrection, the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin, and various other scriptural subjects. This window, which is one of the chief glories of the Minster, was glazed by Archbishop Melton about the middle of the fourteenth century. Four hundred years later Mr. Peckitt, already mentioned in connection with the windows near Archbishop de Grey's tomb in the South Transept, was employed to make new heads for the Archbishops and the Saints, their original ones having suffered somewhat during their four centuries of existence. In full view of the spectator as he proceeds up the Nave is the Rood- Screen, which forms the most modern portion of the Minster. It is in the style of the architecture most in favour about the fifteenth century, but it was not completed until the beginning of the sixteenth. It is nearly 60 feet long and 24 feet high, and is divided into fifteen compartments, eight of which are on the north side of the doorway giving access to the choir, and seven on the south side. In each compartment is a niche, and in each niche is a king in his robes of state. The fifteen kings range from William the Conqueror to Henry VI. in the following order : — North Side. William I. William II. Henry I. Stephen. Richard I. John. Henry II. Henry III. South Side. Edward I. Edward II. Edward III. Richard II. Henry IV. Henry V. Henry VI. The carving of the screen was largely the work of five men, whose names have been preserved — Jacob Dam, William Madis, William Bushell, John Huntley, and John Fothergill. William Hyndeley was Master-Mason of the cathedral at the time, and his name and Fothergill's are typified after the fashion of the age by symbols in the carving, Hyndeley's by the figure of a hind lying behind the foliage of the capitals, and Fothergill's by a sculptured boss at the entrance to the Choir. The prices paid for the work are in teresting. The crockets cost a penny each, or sixteenpence a score ; the gargoyles a shilling each — the regular wages of a carver were sixpence per day. About eighty years ago the screen was repaired by one Bernasconi, who renovated some of the decayed parts with cement, and placed small statues of the same material in the higher niches, not altogether to the im provement of the screen's appearance. In the vaulted ceiling of the entrance to the Choir is a very fine repre sentation of the Assumption, and beneath it are the iron gates presented to the Minster by Mrs. Mary Wandesford about the beginning of the last century, when they replaced the ancient doors of wood. Once within the Choir the visitor cannot fail to be singularly impressed by the richness and beauty of i72 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE the scene. On either side the aisle, stretching to a distance of quite 70 feet, are ranged the canopied stalls of the great Church dignitaries, each with its style and title duly affixed. There are sixty-four stalls in all, six on either side of the entrance and twenty-six on each side of the chancel. The Dean's stall is the first on the right hand on entering ; the Precentor occupies the corresponding stall on the left hand. The Archbishop's throne is at the east end of the south stalls ; the pulpit faces it from the opposite side. The high altar is approached by a fine flight of steps, and presents a very noble and striking appearance. Behind it in the Retro-choir is another altar, surrounded by several monuments of considerable interest. Over this towers the magnificent East Window, 77 feet high and 32 broad. Its per pendicular tracery surrounds representations of kings, saints, and prophets, and it and the glass are very chaste and beautiful. It is interesting to know that the glazing of this fine window was executed by one man, John Thornton, of Coventry, whose name deserves to be handed down still further, though it is now nearly 500 years since he finished his work. The con ditions of his labour in connection with this window sound amusing to modern ears. He agreed, in 1405, to design and paint the various subjects, and to perform the whole of the work within the space of three years. His payment was to be 4s. per week, and at the end of every year a further sum of .£5, with an additional solatium of .£10 when the work was finished. All this was faithfully carried through, and the work completed in 1408 at a total cost of something like .£60 of the then currency. The two windows in the transepts of the choir are dwarfed by the glories of the East Window, but are very fine in themselves, each measuring about 70 feet in height and 1 7 in breadth. That on the north side is known as St. William's window, that on the south as St. Cuthbert's ; and both contain represen tations of events in the lives of those famous saints. The length of the choir from the east wall to the east piers of the Lantern Tower is about 225 feet, and the breadth from base to base of the walls about 100 feet. It was built at three different periods, but it is not easy to perceive the difference in the various styles, save in the case of the windows. Divided in length into nine compartments, the four eastern, ones belong to the first portion erected ; the next four to the second ; and the last, including the encasement of the piers of the Lantern Tower, to the third. The clerestory walls have two storeys — the first is distinguished by lancet niches, rising to a height of nearly 50 feet; the clerestory itself is chiefly filled by a window some 46 feet in length in each compartment, divided into five lights, a portion of which forms an open screen to the side roofs, and are highly ornamented with canopies, crockets, and finials. In the ornamented work of this part of the Minster considerable use is made of the thorn leaf, and the general sculpture is much more minute and diversified than in the nave or transepts. From the north aisle of the choir a flight of steps leads down to the i f I ?x Tteljyiy.^pet ^:\>vvw° i74 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Crypt, which is, in more senses than one, the most interesting part of the cathedral. It is divided by pillars into three aisles running north and south, and into four running east and west. At the east end of the south aisle once stood the altar of the three Saints — Agatha, Lucy, and Scholastica; at the east end of the north aisle was the altar of St. Cecily. The two middle aisles were formerly known as the Lady Chapel, and mass was said there daily by a priest, attended by six choristers and an organist. A statue of the Blessed Virgin close by was vested in silk garments, and wore a silver crown studded with jewels. The foliated capitals of this portion of the crypt are very fine. The pavement is of glazed tiles, which were probably yellow and purple in colour. There is a piscina in the south wall, and a well and lavatory on the west side. The Norman work in the west por tion of the crypt is extremely interesting. It consists principally of the pillars which originally supported the clerestory walls of the choir, and of fragments of Norman doorways. These remains were unearthed in 1829 from an envelopment of rubbish, and they have since been vaulted over. Even more interesting than the Norman work is the specimen of Saxon herring-bone masonry, which is supposed by competent authorities to be a part of the church built by Archbishop Aelberht towards the end of the eighth century. It consists of a section of right-angled mouldings and coarse-grained ashlar stones coated in white plaster, and marked with divisions imitative of regular courses. The sightseer is invariably expected to give evidence of his wonder and admiration when he enters the Chapter House. The legend inscribed on the north side of the entrance — " Ut Rosa Phlos Phlorum Sic Est Domus ista Domorum '' — • implies that those responsible for its erection were vastly pleased with their own work. The vestibule leading to it is full of very fine specimens of the Geometrical style, and contains several richly stained windows, placed there about the middle of the fourteenth century. The Chapter House itself is an octagon of 62 feet in diameter. On each of sevtn of its sides is a window, 46 feet in length, nearly 18 in breadth, with a lancet head and geometrical tracery. The stained glass is ornamented by representa tions of sacred subjects. Beneath the windows are forty-two semi-octagonal stalls, with canopies supported by marble columns and very finely sculptured capitals, about which there is great elaboration and fancy. The height of the boss in the centre, which is ornamented by a lamb bearing a banner, is nearly 65 feet. In a panelled compartment over the entrance on the interior are brackets for thirteen images of the Blessed Virgin and the Twelve Apostles, which were probably of stone gilt and painted. The stone-work of the Chapter House is profusely ornamented, and the visitor will perceive that the Herba Benedicta and the thorn are as largely used in THE CENTRAL TOWER 175 the crocketed work as in other parts of the Minster. During the present century the Chapter House has been extensively restored and decorated. In 1843 Dr. Beckwith left ^3000 to be laid out on its repair, and in the following year the workmen who carried out the scheme of restoration unfortunately obliterated all that remained of the original painting and gilding. Willement, of London, decorated the vault in 1845, but not in accordance with the ancient style, and in the same year the floor was tesselated with Minton's tiles. Beautiful as the Chapter House now is, it is by no means the most interesting part of the Minster, and to many minds the beauty of its own vestibule eclipses it. To the ordinary sight seer, however, its grandeur appeals strongly, and almost warrants the bold claim of the legend inscribed on its door. Nothing in the Minster induces a more profound feeling of vastness and magnificence than an inspection of the great Lantern or Central Tower. The four piers which support it were originally Norman ; but about the beginning of the fifteenth century they were changed in character by having additional masonry built round them. Their height to the capi tals is about 62 feet, and the superficial measure is about 83 feet. In the spandrels of the arches are angels bearing shields. A gallery runs round the interior, and immediately above it on two sides of the tower are windows 47 feet in height and 12 in width, which light the intersection. The tower was roofed in 1470, and the vaulted ceiling, the key-block of which is 60 yards from the floor, was executed two years later. By a doorway in the south-west angle of the south transept access may be had to the top of the tower, a long and wearying climb of nearly three hundred steps across parapets and along narrow passages, with much tortuous climbing up well- worn stairways. Once arrived on the top, however, the necessary exer tion is amply compensated. York lies at the foot, her streets and squares dwarfed to diminutive proportions ; and round her stretches the wide vale that takes its name from her, a wonderful prospect of woods, meadows, and streams, with here and there the blue haze hanging over some small market-town, or the tower or spire of an isolated church standing out against the dark green of its surroundings. Perhaps from no other church tower in England can such a view be obtained ; but it must be borne in mind by those who decide on climbing the long succession of steps that the land round about York is level almost to monotony, and that it is more in the interest of the scene and its associations that their reward will be found than in a prospect of such diversified beauty as would be seen in a country of a bolder and more romantic nature. The visitor who puts himself in charge of one or other of the attendants at the gates of the choir will be duly conducted round the show-places of the Minster, which, as in other similar edifices, are principally in the east end of the church. In the vestry he will see the famous Horn of Ulf, the son of Thorald — the charter-horn whereby the Minster holds many great I?6 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE possessions. According to Dugdale : " Ulphus, the son of Thorald, who ruled in the west of Deira, by reason of the difference which was likely to rise between his sons about the sharing of his lands and lordships after his death, resolved to make them all alike ; and thereupon, coming to York, with that horn wherewith he used to drink, filled it with wine, and before the altar of God, and St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, kneeling, devotedly drank the wine, and by the ceremony enfeoffed this church with all his lands and revenues." The horn is of ivory, and was originally ornamented with a gold chain and mountings. It was probably lost to the Minster at the time of the suppression of religious houses, and eventually came into the possession of Lord Fairfax, who bequeathed it, then stripped of its gold work, to his son Henry, who restored it to the Dean and Chapter. In 1675 it was re-ornamented in silver gilt, and now presents four foliated fillets of carving, whereon are portrayed, in supposed allusion to Ulf's good qualities, the Griffin (honour), the Unicorn (chastity), the Lion (courage), the Doe (affection), and the Dog (vigilance). In the same vestry is the curious Cup of Pardon, a bowl given to the Guild of Corpus Christi by Dame Agnes Wyman, wife of Henry Wyman, Lord Mayor of York, about 1406. From the inscription on the rim of the bowl it would appear that Archbishop Scrope granted an indulgence of forty days to whosoever should drink of it, and Bishop Gubsonn added a similar favour : — " "Kecfjartie &rcfjs Bescljope Scrop* grantts on to allis tfjo that fcrtnfets of tfjts cope ilt0 fcagta to partiann. JSobart ffitttfigonn, Itecfjops, musm rrcantis in same form aforesafo ilt0 rjagfs to parUonn. 3Sobart Strensallta." There are also the rings of some Archbishops preserved in company with the superior relics, with some chalices and patens, all of which were taken from various tombs. A very interesting relic is the silver crozier, six feet in length, and ornamented with figures of the Blessed Virgin and Child, which was taken from Dr. Smith, Roman Catholic Bishop of Calli- polis, in partibus infidelium, by the Earl of Danby, as the bishop carried it in procession through the York streets in 1688. There is also a chained Bible, an old oak chest finely carved, two wooden images, an ancient chair said to have been the throne of kings and archbishops, and some minor relics of the past. But as has been remarked by more than one writer on the antiquities of York, it is not so much the things that are now seen in the treasure-house that impress the visitor as the thought of the things which used to be there. The wealth and grandeur of the treasury in the old days must have been amazing. We hear of twelve mitres, flushing with gems and jewels, one of which, given by Archbishop Rotherham, cost no less than 700 marks. We hear of two copies of the Gospels, originally belonging to St. Wilfrith, written in uncial letters on purple vellum, and bound in jewelled covers. Then we are told of the chalice and paten of Archbishop Walter de Grey, fashioned of pure gold and studded with great RELICS IN THE TREASURY 177 gems, and of a thurible of pure gold which weighed seven pounds, and a reli quary of the same metal filled with the precious relics of dead saints. In a shrine between the two choir-screens lay in gold and jewels the holy head of St. William, patron- saint of the church, which was brought out and ex hibited to the faithful at due times and seasons. At the time of the Reformation this important relic was taken charge of by Richard Layton, Dean of York, and so drops away into the mists of history with vestments and crosses, chalices and reliquaries, and a hundred other picturesque accessories of an age made more pic turesque by distance. But it is not difficult, standing amongst the time - worn stones of York Minster, to imagine oneself back in the past, when every chantry and chapel in nave and transepts and choir had its priest and servers, and the mighty church was filled with such colour as this age knows nothing of. Around the walls of the retro-choir and the aisles on either side the chancel there are numerous monuments which possess considerable interest. A long day might easily be spent in examining them in detail, noting their various styles of architecture or design, and reflecting on the morals which their inscriptions, plain or elaborate, point. Naturally the monuments are chiefly those of great folk — heads of great county families, divines, soldiers, sailors, statesmen, and so on. At the west end of the north aisle, the first object worthy of special notice is a monument in memory of William de Hatfield, second son of t bullion Nvindt^v" |uEhe (fappel 'tassfr' i78 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Edward III., a boy of eight years at the time of his death. His sculptured figure, wrought in alabaster, lies beneath a finely-executed canopy, a coronet on the head, a lion at the feet, itself vested in an embroidered cloak, but it is now much damaged. The tomb of Archbishop Savage, close by, is also much damaged, but is generally regarded as a fine specimen of the archi tecture in favour at the time of his death, 1507. The effigy lies under an arch, and the tomb is of the altar-shape so largely used in the Minster. A characteristic monument of the type largely in evidence in ancient churches is that of Sir Henry Belasis and his family. It is a large canopy, supported by columns, between which are the effigies of the good knight and his lady in the costume of the period, with the figures of their children underneath. Most interesting of all the monuments in the north aisle, perhaps, is the next important one passing from west to east — that in memory of Sir William Ingram and his wife — more in respect of the epitaph upon it than of the architecture, though that is a fine specimen of the antique style. The figures of Sir William and his lady are clothed in the costume of the early Stuart period. The epitaph runs as follows : — " Here the judge of testators lies dead in Christ, the judge and testator of the new- covenant. He has given these legacies — himself to the Lord, his joys to heaven, his deeds to the world, his gains to his friends, his body to the earth. The hearts of his friends contain a better picture of his character ; but would you know his whole conduct you must follow him to heaven." The next noteworthy monument is that erected by Lady Mary Fenwicke in memory of her husband, Sir John Fenwicke, executed for high treason in 1696, and of her father, Charles Howard, Earl of Carlisle, who died in 1684. It is further interesting as containing the name of Lady Mary herself. This monument is composed of two pilasters and a rounded pediment ornamented with figures of cherubs, armorial bearings, cenotaphs, and a bust of the Earl. There is a good deal of ornamentation of a different character in the monument of Vice-Admiral Medley, which is adorned with arms, figures of naval instruments, and the subject's bust. The monument to the Honourable Dorothy Langley has a fine canopy, supported by pinnacles, but the work is largely modern. Of considerable interest is the monument in memory of Sir George Saville, who died in 1784, after representing the county of Yorkshire in five successive Parliaments. It was erected and placed in the Minster at the cost of Sir George's con stituents, and represents him leaning on a pillar. Close to the east end of the north aisle is a monument to Archbishop Sterne, grandfather of Laurence Sterne, the author of "Tristram Shandy." His figure, wearing its mitre, reclines on a pedestal, the head resting on the hand. Above it is an architrave, frieze, and cornice, draped and festooned. In the south aisle there are monuments to three other Archbishops of York. That of Arch bishop Hutton, 1605, shows the prelate kneeling between two columns, MONUMENTS IN THE MINSTER 179 surmounted by coats-of-arms, with his children kneeling in compartments below. The monument to Archbishop Lamplugh, 1691, is modern, and represents him, mitre on head and crozier in hand, standing on a pedestal. A more interesting monument is that of Archbishop Dolben, 1686, between whom and the present Archbishop of York, Dr. Maclagan, a parallel may be drawn in the fact that both followed the profession of arms in their youth. Archbishop Dolben carried the royal standard in the fateful fight at Marston Moor, and was wounded in the Royal service during the siege of York. He is here represented in a recumbent position, wearing his mitre, with cherubs grouped above him amidst further carved orna mentation. In the south aisle, too, there are several monuments connected with the army, in the shape of a monumental brass in memory of soldiers whose lives were lost during the operations in the Crimea ; a marble monument to officers and soldiers lost in the Burmese Expedition ; and a white marble one, set in black marble, to men of the 33 rd Regiment lost in the Crimean War. A monument of the family order is that of Sir William Gee, Secretary to James I., and a Member of the Privy Council, which presents the kneeling figures of the knight, his first and second wife, and five children, in the quaint costume of the period. The monument to William Burgh, D.C.L., a native of York, who wrote a work on the Holy Trinity, and died in 1808, is a fine specimen of Westmacott's art. It is in white marble, ornamented with a full-length emblematic figure of Religion, and it bears an epitaph in verse which was composed by Mr. Morritt of Rokeby, who was the friend of Sir Walter Scott. Not far away are two noteworthy monuments to members of famous families. One of veined marble, with Corinthian columns, is in memory of William Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, and son of the famous and ill-fated Earl who preceded Charles I. to the block. It presents the effigies of himself and his wife. The other is in memory of the Honourable Thomas Wentworth, third son of Edward, Lord Rockingham, which shows a full-length statue vested in a Roman habit, leaning upon an urn, and is embellished with a finely-executed female figure in a sitting posture. There are other monuments in the north and south aisles, and near the altar in the retro-choir, which are interesting, or quaint, or amusing. The visitor who means to see them all, or who is filled with determination to examine the various beauties of wall and window, buttress and ornament, which crowd upon his vision on all sides, must needs visit the Minster again and again if he would satisfy his desires in these respects. Of these various beauties the casual visitor gets but a confused notion. Entering at the south transept he is probably still under the influence of the feeling of wonder and amazement induced by the first glimpse of nave and transept and lantern, when he is hurried off by an enthusiastic friend or not too judicious guide into the side aisles of the choir. Thence he passes, conducted, with a party of equally wondering visitors, by an official cicerone, who, however 180 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE glib of tongue he may be, and however well-primed with superficial history and obvious fact, is no more competent to explain the things which he acts as guide to, than the guide of the Alps is to analyse the poetic beauties of the magnificent awfulnesses through which he can show a safe way. The consequence is, that hurried from transept to vestry, from vestry to retro- choir, from side aisles to crypt, from crypt to chapter house, always wondering, always amazed, with the active faculties of the brain half dulled to sleep by the monotonous and parrot-like repetitions of the cicerone, the casual visitor leaves the Minster gasping and filled with a profound astonish ment. He has seen and not understood, and been influenced without knowing why, and all that he carries away with him to the distant town or village is a confused memory of a great and mighty church with lofty vaulted roofs and strange silences, wherein the light falls through richly coloured windows to make dazzling patterns on the vast floor, and where a man might stray as in a forest. And there, indeed, lies half the truth. Not in one visit, nor in twelve, perhaps not in a hundred, will any man ever know all the beauties and glories of the great Cathedral Church of York. There are so many ways in which a man may, as it were, pay court to its loveliness. Some men will sit down by the hour together and simply gaze in silent admiration of the noble proportions, lost in thoughts and fancyings of the ages which possessed men strong in the sense of great and enduring art which are evidenced on every side ; other men again, with the patience of the antiquary and the archaeologist, will examine detail by detail until a different yet not less worthy conception of the great church is built up in their minds. Others again there are upon whom the Minster exercises an influence which has nothing to do with antiquity, or archaeology, or archi tecture. Sanctuaries that the churches were in the days of old when law was little more than lawless insistence of the power of might over right, such churches as this are not less sanctuaries in another sense in the days when life to most men means bitter strivings against other foes than those our forefathers strove against. Amidst the grey shadows of these vast walls a man may for a brief space forget his own world and perchance himself. The exclamation of the Psalmist : " I was glad when they said unto me we will go into the house of the Lord," possesses for men in this age a new and perhaps a deeper feeling when the noise of the world outside is exchanged for the peace of a great and ancient church. For after all is said and done, it is only in the things of the past that the mind of the present can look for rest. CHAPTER IX The Show-places of Modern York THE BENEDICTINE ABBEY OF ST. MARY THE PARISH CHURCHES OF YORK — THE WALLS AND BARS — THE MANOR HOUSE THE CASTLE AND CLIFFORD'S TOWER — THE GUILDHALL AND ITS TRADITIONS — THE STREETS OF YORK. I ^LTHOUGH one might spend a lifetime in exhausting the glories of York Minster, most folk visiting the ancient city naturally feel that there are other places and things in its midst which should be seen ere a too brief visit draws to its conclusion. Here again the traveller is confronted by the same difficulty which he feels in beginning an inspec tion of the Minster. Just as there is so much to see within and without the great church, so there are many things of extreme interest within and without the boundary of the city walls. It is not difficult, perhaps, to hurry through them in a day, or even in a morning, if the mere sight of them satisfies ; to examine them carefully and intelli gently means the spending of more spare time than most folk are nowa days blessed with. In York there is so much to see that requires time wherein to see it. A man might spend hours in looking around the remains of St. Mary's Abbey, and days in going from one to another of the curious old churches which crop up in all sorts of nooks and corners in the streets and squares. The walls which still fence the greater part of York about are deserving of long days of inspection, and a man might spend a whole week in considering the points of interest in the bars or gates, and still feel that he had not by any means exhausted his subject. The Manor House, now transformed into a school for the blind, is one of those rarely quaint and ancient mansions which possess such fascination for the lover of antiquity, and no one who sees it will feel that its wonders and charms can be examined within the brief space of an ordinary visit. So it is with the Castle and with the Guildhall — the perfunctory visit of casual inspection, too often made under the unsatisfying guidance of the official cicerone, is as a mere taste of good things : it is really necessary to spend days in and 182 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE about these places if one means to gain an adequate idea of them. Day after day, too, might easily be spent in wandering about the gabled streets of York, in turning up old courts and alleys, always in the hope, rarely disappointed, of finding some curious or interesting relic or suggestion of the past and of its life and colour. Most people who have given such time to the Minster as they can will naturally BenedictineMary's, a ruin the garden of Philosophical this Society all quity owe a of gratitude. grounds and gathered to- carefully pre- benefit of the future genera- the most im- markable Ro- and Norman relics in the better way these and the had than by grounds of the viewing each mediately on after passing Lendal Bridge of St. Leo- pital, a reli- afford to spare, turn to the Abbey of St. standing in the Yorkshire Society. To lovers of anti- profound debt Within its museums are gether and served for the present and tions some of portantandre-man, Saxon, works and country. No of examining Abbey can be entering the Society and in turn. Im- the right hand the gates near are the ruins nard's Hos- gious foundation ascribed to the Anglo-Saxon King ^Ethelstane in 836, as a thanksgiving for his success in an expedition against the Scots, his provision for it being one thrave of corn out of every carucate of land in the arch bishopric of York. Still further privileges and endowments were conferred upon it by succeeding kings, and notably by William II. and Henry I., and it eventually became one of the wealthiest and most important of the religious houses in the North. Drake says that the number of persons maintained by this hospital was ninety, including a master, thirteen brethren, eight sisters, four secular priests, thirty choristers, two school-masters, twenty- six bedes men, and six servitors. When it was surrendered at the Dissolution in 1539, its rental was stated to be over ^360, equalling nearly .£2000 of present ST. MARY'S ABBEY 183 currency. The present remains, though meagre, are very interesting, and consist of an entrance, the ambulatory, and the chapel, in which is some fine Early English work. But much more interesting to the antiquarian and the archaeologist is the famous Multangular Tower close by — without doubt a genuine portion of the fortifications of the Roman station of Eburacum. It was probably erected about the middle of the third century, and is still in excellent preservation. The masonry of the exterior consists of regular courses of small ashlar stones, with a string of Roman tiles, five deep, in serted between the nineteenth and twentieth courses. The interior masonry is wonderfully fresh, and has probably retained its unimpaired appearance through having been protected for so long by an accumulation of soil. Traces of the floors, of guard-rooms, and of windows are very clear. The Multangular Tower formed an angle tower in the original Roman wall, one portion of which still adheres to it on the north-east side. Of all the Roman remains in York none are more interesting than this pile of masonry, which has resisted wind and weather, with wars and beleaguerings, for sixteen hundred years. From the Multangular Tower the traveller passes into the precincts of St. Mary's Abbey by crossing a depression which was once the moat of the city wall. Of the history of the Abbey it is not possible at this time to give more than a mere sketch. It appears to have been originally founded about ten years after the Norman Conquest by Alan of Brittany, Earl of Richmond, who conferred certain lands and a church, built on this spot by Siward, Earl of Northumberland, in 1050, upon some persecuted monks whom Earl Percy had driven from Whitby. About 1090 William II. enlarged Alan's grant and founded a larger church, dedicating it, in company with the monastery, to the Blessed Virgin. Somewhere between 1259 and 1299 Abbot Simon de Warwick laid the foundation of a new choir, and saw it finished ere he died. Between his time and the period of the Dissolution, the Abbey enjoyed great wealth and prosperity. Its Mitred Abbot sat in Parliament, and its revenues were considerable. When it was surrendered by William Dent, its last Abbot, in 1540, there were fifty monks in residence, with a staff of probably three times their number, and the clear annual rental amounted to over .£1600. The Abbey was retained by the Crown at the Dissolution, and for some time served as a quarry. Thus, the in teresting house known as the King's Manor, or Manor House, now the Blind School, was built out of materials from it soon after the Dissolution, and in 1701 materials were taken from the ruins to repair York Castle, and again in 1705 to aid in the restoration of one of the York churches. Later on, stone was sent from it to Beverley for the repair of the Minster. In 1827 the acquisition by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society of three acres of ground within the precincts secured some valuable remains from further vandalism and despoliation, and afforded antiquarians the chance of acquiring much valuable information. Of the appearance of the Abbey 184 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE as it was in its days of prosperity it is scarcely possible for the unlearned to form much idea. According to expert authorities it was of considerable extent, and of much beauty and dignity as regards its architecture. The church consisted of nave and choir, each with two side aisles, and of transepts with an eastern aisle, and was about 370 feet long and 60 broad. There was a vestry or side chapel opening out of the south aisle of the choir. On the south side of the nave was the great quadrangle, with a pent-house cloister running round it. Between it and the Chapter House was a vestibule, said to have been of great beauty, its roof supported by two rows of pillars forming three aisles. The Chapter House was vast and magnificent, but practically nothing of it is left. Traces of a library, or Scriptorium, and of an infirmary, all of imposing size, have been discovered. The Refectory was over 80 feet long and nearly 40 wide. Close by it were the great kitchen and the cellarer's office. Other monastic buildings are apparent, or have been evolved from diligent examination of ruins and traces. From the ruins of the Abbey church still existent, it requires little knowledge or perception to feel that the building in its perfect state must have been of great beauty. The ornaments are singularly chaste and grace ful, especially about the doorway of the west front, and the lights and tracery of the north wall of the nave are of much loveliness in their variations. No visitor should leave the grounds of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, even at the expense of shortening his inspection of the Abbey, until he has made some examination of the antiquities duly set out and arranged there. In the Hospitium, a singular looking building supposed to have been erected for the accommodation of guests not admitted to the regular guest-chambers of the Abbey, and in the Museum, a structure of classic appearance erected by the Society in 1827, he will find many notable and interesting matters whereat to marvel. In the lower apartment of the Hospitium he will probably be first attracted to a fine specimen of Roman tessellated pavement, which was discovered near Micklegate Bar in 1853, and presented to the Society by the Corporation of York. It is about 14 feet square, and contains representations of various things, but notably of the Seasons. Other remains found with this pavement prove that it was not laid down prior to 270 A.D. Here, too, are several Roman altars, — one found near Holgate Lane in excavating for the railway line, without inscription, but supposed to be dedicated to the " Dea; Matres," another dug up on the site of the old railway station with an inscription " Deae Fortunae Sosia Iuncina Q. Antonii Isaurici Leg. Aug.," which would fix its age as dating from about 250 A.D., when the Augustan Legion was quartered in the North with Hadrian and Antonius Pius. Close by are altars found at Doncaster and under the floor of St. Dionis in Walmgate, both with inscriptions. A sculptured stone, which represents a smith holding in his right hand a hammer, and in his left a piece of iron in a pair of tongs, is on the wall, and was found on the road between York and Tadcaster, the :&» i ) : • ' ;.-V /'; I 1 , ; > • :•. ¦' ¦ i • //'TJfli; | " ijj" !•. ' I ' a i i i - ,'»¦ m fm . ¦¦' 111 ' n ¦«. THE NORTH AISLE OF ST. MARY'S ABBEY 186 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE ancient Calcaria. It is regarded as the memorial of an armourer of one of the Roman legions. There are several votive and dedicatory tablets in this room, all of much interest, together with fragments of sculptures, inscribed coffins, and other Roman remains. To many the most interesting thing amongst them will probably be the coffin bearing the following inscrip tion, " D. M. Simpliciae, Florentine Anime Innocentissime Que Vixit Menses Decern Felicius Simplex. Pater. Fecit L.E.G. VI. V." (To the Gods, the Manes. To Simplicia Florentina, a most innocent being, who lived ten months, Felicius Simplex, her father, of the Victorious Sixth Legion, dedi cated this.) So this touching memorial of a ten months' old baby comes down to us through 1600 years ! There are several Saxon, Norman, and Mediaeval antiquities in this room. The Saxon remains are chiefly lids of coffins, usually so much worn as to defy tracing, and the Anglo-Norman ones are for the most part fragments of the architecture of St. Mary's Abbey, pier stones, mouldings, and capitals. Amongst the Mediaeval curiosities is one which is certainly worth inspection, if only because of the curious history attaching to it. It is a cast from a crucifix which was discovered many years ago in the ruins of a side chapel at Sherburn church. One side shows the figures of the Saviour, the Blessed Virgin, and St. John, with medallions at the ends of the transverse limbs, depicting the sword, lantern, and purse, while a shield at the end of the upright beam represents the seamless coat and dice. The three figures are also on the other side, and the corresponding medallion and shield represent the reed and sponge, hammer, nails, and pincers, the heart, hands, feet, and ear. When this remark able crucifix was discovered, contention arose at Sherburn as to its owner ship, and the then churchwarden removed it to his residence. This being much resented by the parishioners, it was finally agreed to cut the crucifix in half, and it was therefore sawn vertically into two portions, one of which the churchwarden retained while the other was placed in the church. There are also in this room some very fine specimens of elaborate carving and ornament from St. Mary's Abbey, with various effigies and sculptures, and many examples of architecture during the Pointed, Decorated, and Perpen dicular periods. In the upper room of the Hospitium there is a considerable collection of miscellaneous antiquities, ranging from Egyptian to Etruscan, and amongst its varied matters are some British and Anglo-Saxon remains, brought hither from burrows and tumuli in the East Riding. These chiefly consist of British cinerary urns, cups, bowls, and jars, the colours of which vary from a bluish-black to a light-coloured clay. Two or three of the vessels thus found contained a number of Roman silver coins. One of them, of some what rude construction, was found at Boston Spa, on the banks of the river Wharfe, in 1848, and contained 200 silver coins, some of which, greatly worn, belonged to the Consular or Family series, others to the series of Imperial denarii, with some of the latest coins of Hadrian, in whose reign THE HOSPITIUM 187 theof to the vessel was probably concealed. Another, found in excavating for the railway in 1840, contained a like number of coins. Five were of the Consular or Family series ; eighteen denarii of some of the early Emperors ; the rest ranged from the time of Septimus Severus to that of M. Julius Philippus. But has a genuine love must, if he wishes tastes, visit the council -room of he will find a man denarii, con- perial ; Roman aurei, English copper, and a few Greek coins ; an bition of ancient coins, and a large thumbrian stycas. things, indeed, in the grounds the ancient Abbey, will scarcely avoid notion of the his view of the the monks of St. and meditated, PILLAR IN ST. MARYS ABBEY visitor who numismatics gratify his coins in the the Society, where collection of Ro- sular and im- brass, Roman coins in silver and in gold ; a few interesting exhi- British and Saxon collection of Nor- Of interesting there is no lack which surround and the visitor contrasting his ancient days with present. Where Benedict walked and bells called to matins or vespers, nones or compline, merry-faced youths and maidens play tennis, and older folk talk peacefully. Now and then a military band plays music where once there were no musical sounds but those of the monkish voices droning out their psalms and canticles, and where learned doctors of theology speculated on the latest points in casuistry, dry-as-dust archaeologists and snuffy antiquarians half-quarrel over the age of a tile or the meaning of an obscure inscription. Thus does the present build itself on the ruins of the past, but so curiously are the two blended together that on a summer afternoon, when the sun is shining on the grey walls of the Abbey and the green sward about its ruined piers, it would not even seem surprising if the groups of townsfolk, old and young, were suddenly re placed by a train of monks moving in holiday procession towards their ancient cloisters. II Approached from any direction, York, like Rome, would seem to be a city of churches. Towers and spires rise everywhere, with the three towers of the Minster dominating the smaller ones at their feet. The rustic 188 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE traveller, seeing York for the first time, and awe-stricken by the glories of its cathedral church, wonders why there should be so many other churches of lesser degree in the city, seeing that all its inhabitants could easily be accommodated within the mighty nave and transepts of the Minster. But in reality parochial church life in York in the nineteenth century is but a shadow of its former self. As far back as the time of Henry V. there were forty-one parish churches in York, and between each parish and the next there was a rivalry which was as keen as it was friendly. Each parish desired its own church to rise superior in power and in ornamentation to all other churches, and thus the parishioners were lavish in their offerings and generous towards the parochial clergy. The fixed stipends of the clergy were small : most of them were almost entirely dependent upon voluntary offerings. Two or three curates were attached to each parish church, in addition to the rector or vicar, and besides the regular clergy there were numbers of other ecclesiastics who were associated with the numerous chapels and chantries throughout the city. Dr. Raine estimates the number of clergy in York in mediaeval times at not less than five hundred. York, indeed, was then a truly religious city in the sense that it was given up to religious rites and ceremonies, and that religion was mixed up with all its life and business. Dr. Raine speaks of seeing bills and letters of that age beginning with the Sacred Name, and of the devotional offices which pre faced business meetings and the transactions of the trade guilds. Naturally, too, much of the trade of the city was bound up with its ecclesiastical life. The churches and their services gave employment to illuminators and em broiderers, text-writers, wax-chandlers, organ-makers, bell-getters, glasen- wrights, and others. The Church and its influence, then, was everywhere in evidence and everywhere paramount. Needless to say York was in those days even more picturesque than in its present state of grey loveliness. Its citizens must continually have had the sound of bells in their ears, the singing of psalms and antiphons can scarcely have ceased, every day their eyes would witness some solemn rite or ceremony, and on great feasts the city would be one blaze of gorgeous colour as the Corpus Christi or Yule-Tide procession passed along the narrow streets to the sound of voices solemnly chanting beneath the clash and clang of the bells in the towers and steeples above. Out of the forty-one churches that flourished in York at the time of Henry V. about half the number still survive. During the sixteenth century eighteen old churches were taken down and their parishes united to others. Of the numerous chapels which existed most were destroyed at the time of the Reformation. With the exodus of many of the inhabi tants from the heart of the city to more open neighbourhoods without the walls, new churches have necessarily been built, and there are now in York twenty-five parish churches as against the forty-one of Henry V. It is naturally to the old churches that the traveller will turn for things of interest. Many of these have suffered much during the times of trouble, PARISH CHURCHES OF YORK 189 and some of them have been altered in such a fashion that their original builders would scarcely know them. In spite of these drawbacks there is probably no other city or town in England where the ancient churches are so fine and so interesting as they are in York. Taken in a body they are chiefly of the Decorated or Perpendicular styles, but here and there are traces of pre-Norman work, notably at the churches of St. Mary the Elder and St. Mary the Younger on Bishop Hill. At St. Dennis, in Walmgate, there is a fine Norman doorway ; St. Helen's, in the square of that name, possesses a curious Norman font ; and St. Margaret's, in Walm gate, has a Norman porch, comprising four united circular arches, sculp tured with hieroglyphic figures. The Norman door at St. Lawrence is remarkable as being still marked with the ancient dedication cross. All Saints, Pavement, is a modern building erected on the site of the old church. Its singularly beautiful lantern tower served at one time the purposes of a beacon, a light being suspended within it every night to guide travellers who were approaching the city by way of the surrounding forests. This church, and those of St. Crux and St. Saviour, all largely re-built and modernised, were originally the most commodious churches in the city. St. Mary, in Castlegate, an ancient building restored by the late Dean Duncombe, boasts the possession of the highest spire, 154 feet, of the York churches. In St. Michael, Spurriergate, the curfew is still tolled every night at eight o'clock. St. Martin-cum-Gregory, Micklegate, has its tower at the east end. The largest church in the city is St. Michael-le- Belfry, in the south-west corner of the Minster yard, but its fine proportions — in the late Perpendicular style — are dwarfed, though not rendered in significant, by the great mass of the cathedral looming above it. It was founded at the time of the Conquest, and re-built in 1535, and within its walls is interred Thomas Gent, a York printer, who wrote numerous works on Yorkshire history and topography. Etty, the famous artist, is buried in St. Olave's churchyard, and Henry, Earl of Northumberland, slain at Towton, lies in the choir of St. Dennis, in Walmgate. In all, or nearly all, of the York churches there is excellent stained glass, but it is not difficult to perceive that the wanton spoliation and vandalism of the Puritan fanatics wrought havoc with their interior decoration even as with the shrines and crosses without. During the time of the Commonwealth York was governed by a committee of Puritan aldermen, and at their door must be laid the charge of destroying numerous monuments of art and antiquity that would in these days have afforded pleasure and instruction to thousands of visitors to the old city. Ill No visitor to York should leave the city until he has made the circuit of the walls which encompass it. Like most other memorials of long- dead days in York, the walls and the bars, or gates, are deserving of lengthy 190 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE examination, but to walk round them is in itself an exercise which makes considerable demand upon whatever spare time the traveller may possess. Vp (: iheOuferY&jf if "ll-V^e ¦ _)B1AT If not so suggestive of the feudal and mediaeval days as those which en close the romantic little town of Conway, or so picturesque as the warm- tinted walls of Chester, the fortifications of York possess an interest second to none in the kingdom. Beginning with the rude defences of the Bri gantes, they have gradually assumed their present proportions, and though they are now mere show-places in the eyes of the utilitarian, it is not difficult to perceive that were occasion to arise they could easily be made available against such powers of attack as they were intended to resist. The original Roman defence began at their first camp on the north bank of the Ouse and gradually extended. When the Romans withdrew the inhabitants probably strove to improve their defences. Outside the FORTIFICATIONS OF YORK 191 Roman wall, which stretched in rectangular fashion from the Multangular Tower to a point in Coney Street, and thence to Aldwark, there were numerous settlements which it was necessary to protect. Round these gradually rose the first beginnings of the present walls. At first they were probably long, high mounds of earth, topped by a stockade or palisade of stout wood, and strengthened on the outer side by a ditch or moat filled with water. Something of this sort formed the fortifications of York for nearly a thousand years. Dr. Raine considers that the present walls did not replace the old palisades until the thirteenth century at the earliest ; and while the exact date of their foundation is unknown, there is strong evidence in favour of the assertion that they were built during the . s , i '! ' S* > S reigns of the first three Edwards. During the age of mediaevalism they suffered considerably, and the havoc wrought upon them during the i92 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE stormy times of the Civil War necessitated their repair some few years after the accession of Charles II. With the gradual decay of internecine strife and the improbability of foreign invasion all incentive to keep them in good repair seems to have disappeared from the minds of the citizens, and by the beginning of the present century they had fallen into a sad state of ruin. In 1831, however, public spirit roused itself to the extent of providing funds for the restoration of the ancient city's trusty defences, with the fortunate result that the work was begun at once and carried on to a particularly successful ending. It is now possible to walk nearly all round York by way of the walls, and from their broad surface some of the most picturesque and notable views of the city are obtainable. As a promenade the surface of the walls can scarcely be equalled. Here one comes to an archway through which the railway was originally admitted to the city, here to one of the commanding bars or gates, here to a prospect of roofs and spires rising from the very edge of the Ouse, here again to a contem plation of the Minster and the peaceful garden behind the Deanery. Everywhere there are memorials and suggestions of the past — turrets and arrow slits, winding stairways and frowning battlements, and beneath them the long banks of green, the original mounds whereon the first rude stockades were raised some fifteen centuries ago. With* a tour round the walls of York it is only natural to combine an examination of the bars, or gates. Along that portion of the wall which lies on the west bank of the Ouse is perhaps the most interesting of these doorways to the city, Micklegate Bar, a gateway of such antiquity that competent authorities like Drake and Lord Burlington were in clined to consider it of Roman origin. It is now held to be Norman, and though its barbican has been destroyed, it still presents a magnifi cently imposing appearance. It consists of a square tower surmounting a circular arch, with embattled turrets at each angle. Each turret is sur mounted by a stone figure in a threatening attitude. Over the gateway are displayed the arms of Sir John Lister Kaye, Lord Mayor of York in 1737, with a further inscription stating that the bar was repaired in that year. Above, the royal arms appear between those of the city, and over each shield is a Gothic canopy. How many heads of princes and noblemen, and persons of high degree, have been exposed to the winds and rains above this frowning gateway, no chronicler has ever told with any pretence to accuracy. Here was placed the head of Richard Plantagenet in 1460, in company with those of his fellow-leaders of the Yorkist party, and here within twelve months they were succeeded by the heads of the Earls of Devonshire and Wiltshire, and other champions of the Lancas trian cause. The last heads exposed on Micklegate Bar were those of the Jacobite leaders condemned for high treason after the rising of 1745. Grim and formidable as it still looks, Micklegate Bar must have seemed much more so when its barbican was in situ. Some notion of its BOOTHAM BAR r93 | 1 W . r- = .a •u^;^. i94 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE appearance in those days may be gained from Walmgate Bar, which is the only gateway in York still retaining its barbican. This bar, too, is square, with embattled turrets, and the old door, the wicket gates, and the portcullis still remain as they were. Over the gateway are the arms of Henry V. Monk Bar, which takes its name from the general who took so considerable a part in the restoration of Charles II., is the most imposing in point of height of all the bars of York. It contains within its tower two storeys of vaulted chambers, which were formerly used as prisons for freemen of the city. Here, too, the portcullis is still existent, and the turrets contain some curiously sculptured figures in the attitude of casting missiles upon the passers-by below. The portcullis still remains in its place at Bootham Bar, near the Minster, the barbican of which, said to have been the finest in York, was taken down in 1831. It is exceedingly interesting to walk through the vaulted rooms of these bars, to reflect on the exciting life which their warders and keepers must have spent in times of war, and to note the strength of their defences. One can almost imagine, lingering here as night falls, how anxious watch and ward must have been kept from these turrets and battlements while the faint lights of the city below gradually died away into darkness. Here, too, where now nothing more startling than the roll of a carriage, or rumble of a farm- waggon breaks the silence, the vaulted roofs must often have rung with the clash of steel as contending parties strove for mastery in the narrow gateways below. And here, too, fixed in ignominy upon a pike and set up for all men to see, and, if it suited them, to scoff at, has stood, half-way 'twixt city and sky, a paper crown surmounting its dappled locks, the head of more than one man whose princely state availed him nothing in the days of which these frowning battlements are our last remaining symbols. IV Always excepting the Minster, there is scarcely any show-place in York so interesting, and none more picturesque, than the ancient building known to some folk as the Manor House, or King's Manor, and to everybody as the Blind School. This charming old place, situate near Bootham Bar, in the most delightful surroundings, was originally the palace of the mitred Abbot of the adjacent Abbey of St. Mary, and is now the home of the Yorkshire School for the Blind, a deserving and valuable institution, founded by the county in 1833 in memory of William Wilberforce. It has, therefore, two claims to the interest of the traveller — first, in its his torical associations, which are particularly rich, and second, in its value as the scene of one of the most useful charities in the county, and no visitor to York should leave the city without spending as much time under its roof or in its gardens as he can possibly afford. The quaint and spacious rooms and halls once trodden by abbots and priors, monks and THE BLIND SCHOOL 195 k ^ ,- ¦--. -.-•.. j . . le "%3 m ; m, * lifef •.J" $ clergy, and later by princes and kings, statesmen and great captains, are now filled by blind folk ; here, where a king once gave his commands, sits a blind man, whose skilful fingers weave basket or mat ; there, where it may be my Lord Abbot took his ease, a group of children knit or chatter, their sightless eyes, moving hither and thither aimlessly, forming a strong contrast to their quick fingers and lively tongues. Not any where in York is there a place where such conflicting emo tions spring to the ; mind as here, where the things of the pre sent form so wonder ful a contrast to the stories of the past. Immediately after the dissolution of the religious houses, in 1538, Henry VIII., wanting a residence for the President of his newly-established Council of the North, is seized upon this, till then the Abbot's Palace, and gave it the name of the King's Manor. Its first occupant in the new regime was Robert Holgate, then Bishop of Llandaff, and after wards Archbishop of York, who took up his residence in it as Lord President. A little later, 1541, Henry himself, accompanied by Queen Catherine Howard, came to York, and took up his quarters in a temporary building erected out of stone quarried from the Abbey, and lying between the Manor House and the river. When Archbishop Holgate fell into disgrace, the office of Lord President was filled by Francis Talbot, fifth Earl of Shrewsbury, who resided here until 1560. He was succeeded by the Earl of Rutland in the following year, and he in his turn was replaced by Archbishop Young, who ".'*"" / 196 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE held office until 1568. His successor, Thomas Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex, found the Manor House in need of repair, and spent ^600 upon its reno vation, which would either argue that the repairs were much needed and very costly, or that some additions were made to the structure. The next Lord President, Henry Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, was in office twenty- three years ; and during his occupancy of the Manor House he built that part of the present structure which stands on the north-west side, and which is full of interesting specimens of Tudor architecture and ornament. He was succeeded by Archbishop Hutton, and he by Thomas Cecil, Lord Burleigh, who entertained James I. at the Manor on his way from Scotland to London. The next Lord President, Lord Sheffield, set about making further additions and improvements in the house ; and in 1616 he obtained a grant of .£1000 from the Treasury towards its repair, spending, however, presumably out of his own pocket, at least .£2000 more, before it was com pleted to his liking or to that of the king, who had expressed a wish to see it transformed into a royal palace. Sheffield was succeeded by Lord Scrope, from 1619 to 1628. On the 15th December in that year a Royal Commission appointed Thomas Wentworth, afterwards Earl of Strafford, to be Lord President. As events proved, Wentworth was the last of the Presidents of the Great Council of the North. During his occu pancy of the Manor various notable events transpired. The buildings now forming the south-west and west front were erected, probably on the exact site of whatever was then remaining of the old abbatial palace. In October 1638 violent winds blew down seven chimney-stalks through the roof of a chamber, killing a boy, the son of Sir Edward Osborne, the Vice-President, who sat there at study. In 1639 Charles I., journeying towards the north, stayed at the Manor for some weeks ; and in the following year he was the Earl of Strafford's guest there for three months. Next year, 1641, saw the end of Strafford's greatness. Early in May the Great Council of the North, hated by the new party for its irregular jurisdictions and persistent opposition to liberty, was abolished ; and on the 12th, Strafford, its most famous and capable Lord President, was executed on Tower Hill, deserted even of the king he had served with conspicuous ability and faithfulness. The King's Manor now underwent another change in its eventful history. It was handed over to the charge of an official, who was ceremoniously styled " Keeper of the House within the site of the late Monastery of the Blessed Mary, near the Walls of the city of York, otherwise called the Pallas, or Manor House, or the Manor Place." The first keeper was Christopher Stevenson, and the second John Stainforth, gentleman, who, appointed on the 6th October 1643, was remunerated at the rate of .£6. 13s. 4d. per annum. This seems poor reward for the troubles which Keeper Stainforth was soon called upon to endure. When the siege began, in 1644, the Manor was garrisoned by the Royalist party, and besieged by the Parliamentarians, who blew up St. Mary's Tower, and thereby made a THE BLIND SCHOOL 197 breach in the walls. They, however, in their turn were severely routed by the Royalists, and many dead bodies lay strewn about the grounds without. Stainforth was removed from the keepership after Marston Moor, and Colonel Lilburne, afterwards one of Charles I.'s judges at Westminster, was ap pointed to the office. When Charles II. came to power Lilburne was arrested and sent to prison. He was succeeded a few years later by Lord John Freschville, whom Charles had made Governor of York, with the Manor as a 1682 Sir John ceeded him. reign of Manor was Father Law- the Lawsons and during pancy a large fitted up as used for di- according to olic practice. later the granted a entire pre- bert Waller thirty-one annual rent of Waller was at-law, an the . city, and ParliamentUnder him ARMS OF THE EARL OF STRAFFORD BLIND SCHOOL residence. In Reresby suc- During the James II. the granted to son, one of of Brough, his occu- room was a church and vine service Roman Cath- Ten years Treasury lease of the mises to Ro of York, for years, at an ten shillings. an attorney- alderman of a Member of for York. part of the Manor was turned into dwelling-houses, workshops, and warehouses. A mint for coining silver money was set up there for a few years at the end of the seventeenth century, and early in the beginning of the next some portion of the buildings was used for a ladies' school. The large hall was made into an assembly-room for the fashionable folk who came to the races. Ultimately the lease came into the hands of the Robinson family, through Sir Tancred Robinson, Baronet, Alderman of York, and ancestor of the present Marquis of Ripon, and in the year of the Queen's accession the Manor was leased to the trustees of the Yorkshire School for the Blind. The modern aspects of this interesting old house are naturally much different in character to those which must have distinguished it during the times when it was the seat of the despotic power wielded by the Great Council of the North. Its picturesque situation, close to the walls and in immediate i98 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE proximity to the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey, the soft tones of its colouring and the refreshing green of the foliage clinging about its time-worn masonry, make it delightful to the eye of the lover of art. The present use to which its spacious rooms and quaint corners are put add to it a pathetic interest. Immediately within the principal entrance is a marble bust of William Wilberforce, the pedestal of which bears the following inscription : — In Memory of WILBERFORCE, the Christian Philanthropist, A Native of Yorkshire, And its Representative in Parliament For XXX Years, Who, Devoting His Eloquence To the Service of Humanity, Led Public Opinion To Abolish the Slave Trade. The County of York Founded This School for the Blind a.d. mdcccxxxiii. The school, as at present constituted, comprises somewhat comprehen sive arrangements for the care and education of blind persons. In the school proper, male and female pupils between the ages of ten and twenty are received and educated after a sound elementary fashion, and in music where signs of ability are shown. Various handicrafts are taught, such as brushmaking and the manufacture of articles from straw and wicker. In 1 86 1 an outmates' department was instituted, with the object of pro viding employment to pupils after passing through the school, and in this fourteen blind men are regularly employed, the Committee paying their wages, finding the work, and disposing of it when finished. For these outmates there is a benefit club, and there is also a fund for their further assistance, founded by Mrs. Spencer Markham in 1866. The school js open in all its departments every afternoon, and in the workshops every morning, and on one afternoon a week the inmates give a concert, to which the public are admitted on payment of a small fee. In the sale-room there is a considerable exhibition of the various articles manufactured by the inmates, all of which are on sale to visitors for the benefit of the institu tion. No charity in Yorkshire is more deserving of support than this, and none are more interesting to the traveller. It is scarcely possible to leave the Manor House without reflecting that it has never at any period of its career sheltered such a worthy cause as that which now finds a home within its time-worn walls. CLIFFORD'S TOWER 199 V All that the visitor, going about the streets and squares of York, or lingering on Skeldergate Bridge to look at one of its finest prospects, can see of York Castle, once a considerable stronghold, is Clifford's Tower, a ruinous pile, which towers above the high walls and modern buildings of the present fortress, now used as a gaol. Of the early history of the Castle little is known. There is said to have been a fortress of the Britons at the confluence of the Ouse and the Foss, on which spot there can be little doubt the Romans erected their original fortifications. Hereabouts, too, it is almost certain, stood the Saxon castles which formed the scene of so much strife and bloodshed at the time of the Norman Conquest. All these have so completely vanished that their exact situation cannot be defined. Of the original foundation of Clifford's Tower there is very little evidence. Drake considers it to have been built, a solo, on a Roman foundation, by William the Conqueror, and made exceptionally strong in order to keep the citizens and the north-country folk in awe. He speaks of it as having remained in the hands of the sovereigns for a long time, and used as the residence of the High Sheriffs during their shrievality. It was probably surrounded by water ; a moat, which is still traceable, communicating with the Foss, being cut about its land side. It was repaired in the reign of Richard III., and partly rebuilt about the same time. Leland, visiting it in the course of his travels through England, speaks of it in his "Itinerary," as being very ruinous in condition and of no great quantity in area, though it contained five ruinous towers. Clifford's Tower is built upon an artificial mound, similar to that known as Baile Hill on the opposite bank of the river — a circumstance which would seem to favour the theory that it was of Norman work. According to Britton, however, it is of no earlier date than the time of Edward III. Its name is derived from the family of Clifford, who in ancient days were styled its castaleyns, wardens, or keepers. When the Civil War broke out under Charles I., the Earl of Cumberland, then Governor of York, repaired the tower and strengthened its defences with a drawbridge, a deep moat, and palisades. Cannons were mounted on the battlements, and it was fully garrisoned under Sir Thomas Cobb and a staff of officers. When York surrendered to the Parliament, Clifford's Tower was alone allowed to retain its garrison, of which Lord Mayor Dickenson was appointed governor. Sir John Reresby was made governor in 1683, but in the following year Clifford's Tower was blown up, prob ably intentionally by the citizens, who resented the presence of its garrison. It was at that time known in York by the nickname of "The Minced Pie," and the citizens not seldom used to drink toasts to its demolition under that name. After this occurrence it fell into ruins, and in 1825, when it and the immediately surrounding property was bought for the purpose of enlarging the accommodation of the county gaol, it was pro- 200 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE posed to raze it to the ground. Those in authority, however, were for tunately sensible enough to know the archaeological value of such an interesting relic of the feudal ages, and measures were taken which have resulted in its protection and preservation. The plan of Clifford's Tower includes four segments of circles, joined together. Its largest diameter is 64 feet ; its smallest, 45 feet. The walls are nearly 10 feet in thickness. Remains of a winding staircase, of a ruined archway, and of the grooves wherein the portcullis worked, are still plainly seen near the entrance, over which are displayed the arms of the Clifford family. In the centre of the tower grows a great walnut tree, which is said to have been planted by George Fox, the Quaker, who was once imprisoned in York Castle. From the top of what remains of the tower there is an excellent and pleasantly diversified view of York and of its surroundings. Most folk, however, will find more interest in gazing on the prison establishment at the foot of the tower. When the castle garrison was disbanded, the buildings which it had occupied were con verted to the uses, of a county gaol, and are still so used, though other prisons of more considerable accommodation have since sprung up near various large towns and cities of the three Ridings. The original buildings were pulled down in 1708, and the pile now known as the Old Buildings erected in their place shortly afterwards. The fine building on the west side was known as the Basilica, and was opened for the trial of cases at the summer assizes of 1777. Its architecture is of the Ionic order, with Corinthian columns supporting the domes, which are 40 feet high, the full length of the building being 150 feet, and the full breadth 45 feet. The entrance is by a loggia of six handsome columns, each 30 feet high, above which is erected a statue of Justice, with the royal arms, and various em blematic sculptures. In 1826 further additions were made to the prisons, and since then many other improvements and enlargements have been made at various times. The prison as seen from Clifford's Tower forms a con siderable mass of buildings on the radiating system. Its boundary wall, battlemented and towered, is 32 feet in height, and the total area it encloses is about four acres. Like all the places of the same nature York Castle — a term which to all Yorkshiremen simply signifies York Gaol — is brimful of gruesome asso ciations and traditions. Here in 1802 was first erected the "New Drop" for the execution of criminals, and within the next twenty-five years seventy- four persons met their deaths on it. Visitors to the prison may be in terested in a collection of casts of the heads of noted malefactors, and of the various weapons with which their deeds of blood were committed. Revolting as these things are, there is a certain amount of interest attached to them, and in some cases no little romance. Perhaps the most interesting of all the memories connected with York as a prison is that attaching to the famous case of Walter Calverley, on the events of which " The Yorkshire YORK CASTLE 201 Tragedy," a play at one time attributed to Shakespeare, was founded. Calverley was the head, early in the seventeenth century, of an ancient York shire family which had had its seat at Calverley Hall, near Leeds, for several hundred years. Himself a spendthrift, he married a young lady of good position, and then conceived an affection for the niece of his guardian, in London, who had a considerable fortune of her own. This led to ill- treatment of his wife, who, according to the chroniclers, seems to have treated him with unvarying kindness, and finally to her attempted murder, and to the murder of one of his little children. Arrested on this charge and carried to York, Calverley refused to plead at his trial, thereby exposing himself to the ancient punishment of the peine forte et dure. Some writers say that he did this in order to expiate his crimes ; others, that he might preserve his estates to his family, which would have lost them under the then laws had he been executed as a convicted criminal. He was accordingly pressed to death by heavy weights in the Castle in August 1604. Four years later Mary Pannell, of Ledstone, was executed for witchcraft, the principal charge against her being that her sorceries had caused the death of one William Witham in 1593. The executioner was very busy in 1648, when Jeffreys came to York on circuit. In 1655 Henry Jenkins, said to be the oldest Englishman that ever lived, appeared in court at York, to give evidence of what he knew about certain events that had happened 120 years before. In 1746 the trials of the Jacobites brought fresh food to the scaffold and new heads to the city gates. Fifteen years later that strange person, Eugene Aram, the hero of romance and of poetry nearly a century later, was arraigned at York on the charge of murdering Daniel Houseman at Knaresborough fourteen years previously. Here he made his famous defence to the judges in language which proved him to be possessed of extraordi nary talents, and here he duly suffered the penalty of his crime. In 1787 the prison was visited by John Howard, and it is satisfactory to know that he declared it to be the best managed gaol he had yet seen. A testimony to the same effect is recorded by Tobias Smollett in his novel " Humphrey Clinker." Towards the end of the last century James Montgomery, the poet, was confined here for writing libels on the government of the day, and amused himself while thus incarcerated by composing verses and other literary exercises. Such are the memories which cling round the Castle of York — a corner of the earth fair enough in itself, but associated, by one of those curious vagaries of fortune which are so hard to understand, with little else but crime and violence and the things that result from them. Since the time when the Brigantes built their first rude fortifications on this tongue of land between the Ouse and the Foss, human frailty would seem to have focussed itself upon it from the surrounding country, and to have typified its long story of sin and wrong-doing in the frowning walls which still keep it sternly shut out from the rest of the world. 202 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE VI More interesting than the Castle, since less associated than it with matters of dark association, is the ancient Guildhall, which lies behind the Mansion House at the north end of Coney Street. To the casual sightseer the Guildhall would never present itself ; from Lendal Bridge it shows out bravely over the _ waters gliding past from Coney only be ing through way which Mansion affords ac- small court- Guildhall during the Henry VI. IV., by the Common- Master, Bre- Sisters of St. Christo- their joint the Guild of topher was at the time mation, the into posses- civic author- from time to enlarged, re- of the Ouse its base ; but Street it can seen bypass- a n arch- pierces the House, and cess to a yard. The was built reigns of and Edward Mayor and alty, and the thren, and the Guild of pher, for use. When St. Chris- suppressedof the Refor- hall came sion of the ities, who time have paired, and beautified it. THE GUILDHALL The hall itself is without doubt one of the most delightful of York's many show-places. It is high and wide, with a timbered roof, supported by mighty beams of oak, each made, if local tra dition is to be credited, out of a single oak tree. The windows are gay with modern stained glass, presented during the last half-century by various civic dignitaries ; and about the walls are displayed an arsenal of muskets and guns more picturesque than likely to be effective. It is dignified with the title of " The City Musquetry," and is of proper proportions to equip four companies of seventy men each. On the west wall hangs a great bell, captured at Rangoon in 1851. In the Guildhall public meetings and entertainments have often been held, and the preliminary stages of the business of the assizes transacted. The Lord President of the Council of THE MANSION HOUSE 203 the North held his court there, probably not in the hall itself, but in one of the panelled and vaulted chambers at the rear. In these chambers, until a comparatively recent date, the Magistrates held their meetings and the City Council its assembly. The original Council Chamber was in St. William's Chapel on Ouse Bridge, but that being pulled down in 18 10, the place of meeting was transferred to the Guildhall. Since then it has been re-transferred to modern apartments in the adjoining Municipal Buildings. The old magistrates' room at the rear of the Guildhall is inte resting in respect of the fact that it was the scene of the payment to the Scottish forces of the sum (.£200,000) for which they had agreed to assist the Parliamentary army against Charles I. In these old rooms, with their heavy panelling, their concealed stairways, their quaintly ornamented roofs, and old-world furniture, one gets a charming look back into the past, which is not even dissipated when one glances through the windows, still in their diamond-shaped leaden frames, at the evidences of modern life across the river. The Mansion House, which hides the Guildhall from the sight of the crowds in Coney Street, if not so large and important as its sister of Lon don, is well worth more than a cursory inspection. It was built in 1725—6 from plans furnished by the Earl of Burlington, and has since formed the official residence of the Lord Mayor of York. Apart from its magnificent State Room, which is nearly 50 feet long and 28 feet broad, its apartments are not remarkable for elegance or convenience, but it contains numerous historical matters of great interest and value. Here is preserved the Cap of Maintenance, and here the Sword of State, the first presented to the city by Richard II., the second by the Emperor Sigismund. Dr. Raine makes some interesting remarks as to the significance of these things, and as to the high state which once characterised the chief civic dignitaries of the city. The Lord Mayor had always since Richard II.'s time a great dignity. Once he wore a robe of scarlet and a mantle of crimson ; wherever he still goes in public his insignia is borne before him. The Lady Mayoress had a chain of office, of pure gold, presented to the city by Marmaduke Rawdon, the merchant. She was expected to set the fashions, and there is a record of her having been censured in 1556 for the serious offence of not wearing a French bonnet. When an alderman went without his own parish he was obliged to wear his scarlet tippet, and have a man go before him. The Lord Mayor was expected to exercise great hospitality, enter- tertaining noble guests with gifts and high feasting, and keeping open house for strangers. From everybody within the city his state exacted the most extreme respect. One Sir Miles Stapleton, of Wighill, coming into the Mansion House drunk one day during the seventeenth century, so far forgot his manners as to strike my Lord Mayor with his cane, and was promptly mulcted in a fine of ^500, and compelled to make abject sub mission. Nevertheless, in early days the Lord Mayor was not the greatest PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE • tv \. 204 man in in his own he was "the tenant wlin but outside Minster one hand, Abbot of St. the other, vested with importance; ever it came of bound- civic power great as the cal. With times all ters have but the Cap tenance, the State, and Sword pre- the Lord York by the of London when there two Lord Mayors in all the land, still exist in the Mansion House, to remind one of the times when there was more colour and magnificence in civic life than there is now. Here, too, on festive occasions the invited guest may feast his eyes on the city plate, spread out at the banquets given in the great State Room, and turn from it to inspect the numerous por traits on the walls, wherein are depicted the features of various worthy gentlemen who at one time or another have occupied the position of Lord Mayor of York. VII To some people there is nothing more fatiguing and nothing less edifying than to wander up one street and down another of a strange city, however ancient and interesting it may be : to others nothing is more pro ductive of pleasure than a voyage of discovery in such a city, undertaken without strict regard to route or direction. Just as the antiquarian loves to potter amongst the odds and ends of a curiosity shop, or the bookworm to rummage about the twopenny boxes at the second-hand stall, so the lover of ancient cities likes to turn up this street and down that blind alley JACK OF CONEY STREET York. With- boundaries kynge's lieu- this citie ; " these the clergy on and the Mary's on were in- an equal and when- to a question aries the was not so ecclesiasti-modern these mat ch a n g"e d ; of Main- Sword of the smaller sented to Mayor of Lord Mayor in the days were only CONEY STREET 205 always looking for something of interest. And that is surely the best way in which to explore the streets of York, for of all their varied quaintness and rare sights, it is well-nigh impossible for any man to tell the whole story. The traveller setting out to explore these streets almost inevitably finds himself in Coney Street ere he has gone far on his wanderings. Coney Street is the Oxford Street of York, and the Bond Street and the Piccadilly, too. In it one sees everything. Whatever of rank and fashion York has to show at the moment may be found in this street, which, un pretentious in appearance as it is in comparison with the leading thorough fares of other provincial cities, possesses a wealth of historical association which it is difficult to find a parallel to in most towns. Originally a paved Roman street, leading from the Decuman Gate of the Roman city to the river, Coney, or Conyng, or King Street, has always been the principal thoroughfare of York since York assumed its modern proportions. Scarcely one of the houses which line it is without a history, if it were only possible to discover all the details concerning it. A little way along the street, past the church of St. Martin, whose large clock hangs above the pavement, is a mercer's shop, smart enough in outward appearance for Paris or London, on the site of which once stood a historic mansion, occupied in the time of Henry II. by a Jew money-lender. The same mansion, or one built on its site, was existing in the time of Elizabeth, and gave lodging to Rokeby, then Secretary to the Council of the North. Afterwards it became a tavern, and in its banqueting-room was a magnificent window of stained glass. Stage-coaches used to make stay there, and the name of the " George " in York became known far and wide. Early in the last century the Jacobean work in front of the house was carried off and never traced, and as time went on the entire character of the place was changed, until at last it was swept away, and modernity established in its room. As with this, so it is with many other houses in Coney Street, which is still as narrow as when the Romans used to march out of their camp and follow it towards the river. Another quaint street in York, like Coney Street of Roman formation, is Stonegate, leading from St. Helen's Square towards the Minster. Look ing along it one is irresistibly put in mind of the scenes associated with medievalism. It is a street in which there is little traffic, and the foot- passengers who move along its pavements under the quaint gables and projecting windows do so at a slow and meditative pace, as if impressed by the memories of the past. A great part of Stonegate is given up to the shops of vendors of curious things — old armour, ancient church furniture, odds and ends of the last few centuries — and this gives it a distinct char acter of its own. Towering high above its western gable-ends rises the magnificent facade of the South Transept of the Minster, thus closing in as with a great grey screen of lovely tracery one of the most impressive street scenes of York. Yet there is another scarcely less impressive in the it' w l» 3.1 !! If ;,', .,»T^ '-¦*»¦¦*•¦'¦•< -W T>Mk -n. • i&M V '<¦',¦ I • I '. ST. WILLIAM'S COLLEGE 207 Shambles, where the high-gabled houses seem to be literally tottering to meet each other. Here the old tradition about the town streets of mediaeval England — that they were so narrow that folk could shake hands across them — may be put to literal test. Here, too, the colour and the general effect of the scene is entirely mediaeval. Most of the shops in the Shambles, as the name of the street implies, are given up to butchers, who purvey their goods from open stalls exactly as in the old days. Perhaps no better effect can be got out of this quaint thoroughfare than at night, when a few dimly-burning lamps throw the curiously shaped gables and heavy projec tions into strong relief against the narrow strip of sky above. But of these ancient houses York has good store — the traveller comes across them at all points, and often when he expects nothing but modernity. Yet for each one that he sees let him be certain that there is another hidden away somewhere out of immediate sight. Many a fine old mansion, rich in carving and decoration, lies obscured in some courtyard now blocked up by meaner modern dwellings, some of them, indeed, in the hearts of such slums as York possesses, and the visitor must have the scent of an archaeologist and the persistent patience of an explorer to come at them. One building there is in York of more than ordinary interest which the casual visitor rarely finds his way to, and over which the lover of antiquity can scarcely avoid shedding tears when he sees to what low estate it has fallen. In a narrow street at the east end of the Minster the traveller finds an ancient doorway, the form and moulding of which seems to promise something unusual. It is probably blocked up by a troop of more or less dirty children and slatternly women, but these will quickly constitute them selves into guides and cicerones if a foot is put across their threshold. Within the doorway, capacious almost as the barbican of one of the bars, the traveller finds himself within a courtyard, paved with cobble-stones, amongst which grass grows freely, and surrounded by high walls, pierced with quaint windows and topped by sloping roofs and red tiles, over which, on the south side, towers the high pinnacles of the east end of the Minster. This curious place is St. William's College, founded by letters patent of Henry VI., as a place of residence for members of the ecclesiastical body of the Cathedral, and further confirmed to their use by Edward IV. In time it was set apart for the accommodation of one body of the vicars-choral and parsons of the Minster, numbering thirty-six persons — a similar body occupying the Bedern. According to Dr. Raine, the abuses, social and moral, which were largely responsible for the dissolution of religious bodies under Henry VIII., were exemplified to considerable extent in these ecclesi astics. He speaks of them as half-educated men, with low pleasures and manners, whose living together would do more harm than good, and hints that examples of their depravity are to be found in the Correction Books of the Minster. St. William's College, however, has other and pleasanter memories than these. When Charles I. came to York in March 1641, 208 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE .V' 5, •i".*3SK < ,.' | X- W\ 3 ¦ '' an • ¦¦^%:Jl \ ¦ - / w: ?!P • j y--: ' - -~ . ~ '';<^1 ^..; M - ¦ " . THE MERCHANTS' HALL 209 he brought with him a goodly following, and amongst them Robert Barker, master of the royal press. In St. William's College, Barker set up his type- cases and his presses, and that he and his men were immediately active is shown by the numerous pamphlets and broadsheets which were soon in circulation. With the fall of the Royalist cause in York all this passed away, and the ancient house entered upon its downward course. It is now broken up into small tenements of somewhat squalid appearance, and the great staircase, robbed, no doubt, of much of its original ornament, sounds hollow and cold to the traveller's footstep. Another memorial of the past, having strong affinity to the present, may be found in the Merchants' Hall in Fossgate. In the old days the number of trade guilds in York was considerable — there are now but three left, the Merchant Adventurers', the Merchant Tailors', and the Butchers'. The first is largely identical with the old Mercers' Company, and is practically the trade descendant of the Gilda Mercatoria. This Hall is built on the site of an ancient hospital, founded by John de Raucliffe in 1377, the seal of which is still in possession of the Merchants' Company. Over the gateway, entering from Fossgate, are the arms of the company in stone, bearing the legend " Dieu Nous Donne Bonne Aventure." A courtyard surrounds the Hall, which is entered from it by a flight of steps. Formerly the Hall formed one large apartment, 65 feet in length and 50 in breadth, but it is now divided into two rooms, the inner one of which contains numerous portraits of former Governors. Beneath the floor of the first hall there is a chapel, repaired by the Company in 1667, and also a hospital which provides residence and endowment for ten poor persons. Mingled with the evidences of ancient life which the traveller will see in York, he will find abundant proofs of its new life. The old Castle with its garrison is a thing of the past, but within a short distance of where its military life flourished, he will meet the new militarism in the shape of the magnificent barracks on Fulford Road. The Cavalry Barracks were erected in 1726, and enlarged in 1861, and were for four years the quarters of the late Prince Albert Victor, who served here with his regiment, the 10th Hussars, frorn 1887 to 1891. They accommodate 1000 men, and nearly as many horses. The Infantry Barracks, close by, were opened in 1874, and accommodate about 11 00 officers and men and their families. York is now the headquarters of the North-Eastern Military District, and the offices of the officials are somewhat nearer the city on the same road. A military hospital, which is also the headquarters of the Army Medical Depart ment, faces the Cavalry Barracks,, and affords another illustration of the difference between the old-world customs and the new. Further illustrations are afforded of that difference in the presence of the asylums, hospitals, and infirmaries with which York is liberally provided. The ancient methods are dead in every way, and now where the relief of the sick was once con fined to the charity of piously disposed persons, it is carried out on the lines z 210 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE of a regular system. Nothing could be more widely different than York the ancient and York the modern. The picturesqueness of the Middle Ages is gone, and with it no little of the poetry and romance of English life, but in its stead has sprung up a cleaner age and an infinitely more peaceable condition of life for all men. And yet the traditions of the past so cling about all that is old and time-honoured in the city, that it requires little stretch of imagination to forget the present and to rebuild the York of other days out of the grey stones which are set everywhere about her. CHAPTER X The Upper Ouse and the Forest of Galtres ALONG THE OUSE CLIFTON INGS — POPPLETON FERRY MARSTON MOOR AND ITS BATTLE THE OUSE-SIDE VILLAGES AND CHURCHES — JUNCTURE OF THE URE AND SWALE WITH THE OUSE EASINGWOLD — COXWOLD— NEWBURGH PARK THE FOREST OF GALTRES AND ITS VILLAGES THE FOSS — STRENSALL. I >HE traveller who desires to make himself acquainted with the remaining stretches of land lying on either side of the river Ouse beyond York will find all the elements of an interesting and a picturesque ramble by following that river from Clifton to Swale Nab, a tongue of land which separates the Ure and the Swale in their confluence with the Ouse, and by then turning eastward to the little town of Easingwold and to that district known as the Forest of Galtres, which lies on the level plain between the Ouse and the Foss. Such a journey must naturally include many divergences from a straight path, but since it is all within a definite circuit and amongst scenes and places closely akin to each other, it presents a certain distinctness of character which the systematic explorer will not fail to appreciate. From Bootham Bar, near the Minster, two highroads run, in almost straight lines, one to Easingwold and the North, the other to Sutton-in-the-Forest and Helmsley, either of which are interesting paths to the Forest of Galtres. It is better, however, to turn aside from both outside Bootham and to follow the course of the Ouse along a promenade which is much favoured of the citizens of York during fine summer evenings. Near the end of Clifton Lane this promenade terminates, but a path along the river side leads into a broad stretch of CLIFTON INGS 211 POPPLETON FERRY meadow-ground known as Clifton Ings. This was at one period of the city's history its racecourse. Horse-racing is recorded in Yorkshire in 1633, and there was racing on Clifton Ings as late as 1730, in which year the Ouse overflowed and flooded the course. After that the races were transferred to the Knavesmire on the south side of the city, where the ground was further removed from the river. Of late years Clifton Ings has been used as a training-ground for racehorses by the famous trainer, Mr. Vyner, of Fairfield, and here, at one time or another, have been in residence, either at the stud farm or in training, some of the most celebrated winners of the various classic races, chief amongst them being the well-known Blair Athol, for whom a special stable was erected by his trainer. As it leaves York in the distance, the Ouse, winding onwards past the long stretch of Clifton Ings, becomes much narrower, but it is still of considerable breadth at Poppleton Ferry, to which the path along its east bank leads. Here the scene is one of much charm. Nether Poppleton, a waterside village of irregular fashion, stands high on the opposite bank, nestling amongst beech and chestnut trees and fringed by willows drooping to the water. It is a short journey across the river by the ferry-boat, but the voyage is of interest, for it was here that Prince Rupert crossed during the eventful days of Marston Moor and its immediate consequences. Once on the opposite bank the traveller will find Nether Poppleton to be of the prevailing type of Ouse-side hamlets — a collection of red-tiled houses, with 212 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE NETHER POPPLETON gardens and orchards surrounding them, and with little evidence of life in the sleepy street. A little distance away, and approached by either the winding road or a path across the fields, is Upper Poppleton, a scattering of red houses around a triangular village-green, wherein life seems even less, in evidence than in its sister near the Ferry. In the old days Upper and Nether Poppleton belonged to St. Mary's Abbey in York by the gift of Osbern de Arches. . It is said that a Lord Mayor of York was killed here in a fight between monks and citizens in the reign of Richard II. The church is old, but of little interest, and the chief value of the place in the traveller's eyes is in the picturesqueness of the ferry, and in the fact that Rupert crossed there on his ill-fated march from Lancashire to York. From Upper Poppleton to the actual scene of the famous battle of .Marston Moor the distance is trifling. The way leads through the hamlet of; Hessay across a characteristically flat piece of land. Long Marston, the village from which the fight took its name, is a somewhat straggling place of the prevalent type of red-tiled houses embowered in trees. Its ancient church possesses an interesting Norman doorway and window set in deep splays, and some of the houses about it are picturesque. The LONG MARSTON 213 LONG MARiTON interest of the traveller, however, is naturally most deeply centred in the battlefield,- which extended along the low ground known as Syke-dyke jtowards the village of Tockwith on the west, and thence round bySkewkirk to; a point near Marston station. The graves of those who fell, in the fight, are still traceable, and within recent years many trophies of it have been turned up by the plough. Towards the west of the level plain stretching from Long Marston to Tockwith the ground rises a little to a low range- of hills, between which and the moor itself there is a wide trench or fosse. Here, on the afternoon of July 2nd, 1644, the Parliamentary army posted itself, thus early -gaining whatever advantage was to be derived from the character of the ground. The Royalist army occupied the level plain below, between which and the rising ground there was communication of two or three roads described by •the chroniclers as in good condition. As regards the relative strength of the opposing forces there was little to choose — so far at any rate as numbers are concerned. Rupert, strengthened on his march from Cheshire and Lancashire by the remnant of the Irish Protestant forces which had escaped Sir Thomas Fairfax at Nantwich, had marched into York by. way of Poppleton with something like 10,000. men: Lord Newcastle's army, mainly composed of Yorkshire and north-country Royalists, added 13,000 more. The two divisions of the Royalist army then amounted to about 23,00.0 214 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE men, of whom 7000 were cavalry. The Parliamentary army amounted to nearly 20,000 foot and 7000 horse — there was therefore no appreciable difference between the two. But whereas the Parliamentarians were at one, acting with perfect unanimity under their leaders, the Royalist force was split into two camps. Until the eve of Marston Moor the Marquis of Newcastle had had supreme command of the king's forces in the north — the arrival of Prince Rupert with the king's commission as commander-in- chief led to dissension, and, as it proved, to ruin and disaster. The actual formation of the assembled armies at the battle of Marston Moor was in this wise : Along the rising ground between Long Marston and Tockwith were massed the Parliamentarians ; in the level plain beneath them the Royalist army marshalled its forces. Close to the cottages at the west end of Long Marston were Parliamentarian regiments under Colonel Lambert and Sir Thomas Fairfax ; stretching westward along the ditch were other regiments under Sir William Fairfax, Generals Baillie, Crawford, Oliver Cromwell, Leslie, and Frizell. On the slope of the hill, and behind the road leading from Long Marston to Tockwith, were the massed forces under Lord Fairfax, Lord Leven, and the Earl of Manchester ; behind these, between Bilton Bream and the highest point of Marston Hill, were posted the forces under the command of Sir A. Hamilton. On the Royalist side the regiments under Urry and Lucas opposed those under Fairfax and Lambert from a position near Fox Covert ; O'Neill and Porter's brigades confronted Crawford, Baillie, and Fairfax across the ditch ; Crane, Grandison, and Byron (first of his name) opposed Cromwell and Leslie from the east field. Rupert's main body occupied the ground between Wilstrop Moor and the ditch ; Newcastle and Eythin had their forces disposed between White Syke Close and the brick-ponds ; Goring was in force on either side of Atterwith Lane. Nothing could have been more advantageous than the position of the Parliamentarian army ; nothing more fatal than that of the Royalists. The battle began, somewhat late in the afternoon, by a collision between the Royal cavalry under Lord Byron and the Parliamentary horse under Cromwell arid Leslie, wherein the former were ignominiously driven across the ditch, which they had crossed in their impetuous haste to begin the fight, and put to rout on the open moor behind. Meanwhile, the main body of the Parliamentarian army under Lord Fairfax, Sir Thomas, his son, and General Lambert, had advanced boldly down the hill, only to be received with such a deadly fire from the Royalists under the personal com mand of Lord Newcastle that the bulk retreated in confusion. Similar success attended the Royalist forces on that side of the field nearest to Long Marston. Under General Goring and Sir John Urry, they attacked the Parliamentarians under the Earl of Leven and drove them from their position. But here Goring and Urry committed a fatal error in tactics. Instead of rejoining the main body of their forces they followed up the BATTLE OF MARSTON MOOR 215 MARSTON MOOR retreating troops. At that moment Cromwell, Leslie, Lambert, and Fairfax, uniting their forces, made a combined attack upon the Royalists under Newcastle and Rupert, and in spite of more than one repulse, succeeded in utterly routing them. As night fell the Royalists were in full retreat on York, and Charles's last chance in the North was gone. Nowhere during the progress of hostilities had the fighting been so desperate as at Marston Moor, and the spirit which actuated the victors may be judged of from the remark of a dying trooper to Cromwell himself — that he had but one thing lying on his spirit, and that was that God had not suffered him to be any longer the executioner of his enemies. Of the events immediately following the battle of Marston Moor it is not necessary to say anything in this place. Within a few days the Royalist army, or rather what was left of it, was dispersed to the four winds of heaven — Newcastle, smarting bitterly under a sense of injury, fled to Scarborough, and thence over-seas, to wait for better days ; the citizens of York, helpless and possibly not unwilling, surrendered to the Parliamentary forces ; Rupert, almost alone, and no doubt thinking of Charles's saying that York lay nearer his heart than any city in the kingdom, fled southward to carry his story of defeat to the king at Oxford. Only the signs of the battle's aftermath remained at Marston Moor. In White Syke Close, lying 216 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE between Sugar Hill Gate and the Ditch, those who fell in the fight were buried, and to this day, traces of their graves remind all who see them of one of the most eventful battles of the Civil War. Turning from Marston Moor back to the banks of the Ouse the traveller soon comes across another spot associated with the memory of Charles I. At the head of the lane which leads from Marston station to the river is a quaint building, now used as a farmstead, but once the seat of a family powerful enough to exercise some influence, and to play a considerable part in the struggle between King and Parliament. This is Red House, the old-time seat of the Slingsby family. It was built by Sir Henry Slingsby, who, as head of his family, took sides with the king, and was one of Charles's most active supporters in Yorkshire. Here Charles himself once had his quarters, and his room and the bed in which he slept are still to be seen. In the garden there is a carving of a racehorse, in memory of one owned by Sir Henry Slingsby, which won a race on Acomb Moor in 1633, at which meeting the king was present in person. Sir Henry Slingsby paid for his devotion to the Stuarts with his life. He was beheaded by Cromwell's orders on Tower Hill, and his body is interred in Knaresborough church. The ancient village of Moor Monkton, close by Red House, has been in possession of the Slingsby family for several centuries, having passed to them from the Ughtreds, a family famous in the military annals of the centuries immediately succeeding the Norman Conquest. One Joan Slingsby was Prioress of Nun Monkton about 1500 — a religious foundation around which more than one curious tradition centres. Nun Monkton and Moor Monkton are twin villages on Ouse-side, separated from each other by the first stretches of the Nidd, which here joins the larger river, and in the former is the Priory Church, a fine specimen of Early English architecture. Originally founded as a Benedictine convent by William de Arches and Ivetta, his wife, during the reign of Stephen, the Priory of Nun Monkton was ere long embroiled in something very like a scandal. During Richard II.'s time its Prioress was Margaret Fairfax, who, with the fifteen nuns under her rule, would appear to have had somewhat lax ideas as to conventual life. It is set forth in the Harleian MSS. that Thomas de Dalby, Archdeacon of Richmond, making his visitation of this Priory in the year 1397, found sad occasion to accuse the Prioress of wearing and permitting to be worn in the convent divers precious furs, garments of silk, valuable rings, tunics fastened with brooches, and so on, after the worldly fashion of lay women, and also of attending the offices of the Church attired in these fripperies, rather than in the proper garb of professed nuns. Nor was this all, for according to an injunction dated 8th July 1397, it appears that Margaret Fairfax and her sisterhood had brought much scandal and grief to their worthy superiors in the Church by over much friendships with certain clerics, and other gentlemen of the neighbourhood, wherefore the injunction strictly commands them to admit no more men to the house Iff M k §wm THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY 217 save for good reasons" fo be duly specified — and above everything to receive no more presents of gew-gaws and the like from male admirers, and to eschew the further'wearing of secular robes and of jewellery, those glittering snares whereby the Evil One sets traps for thoughtless souls. All of which is very interesting, and not a little'amusing, as showing that the MOOR. MON kto:j nuns of that time were not so much different to their sex of to-day, where the prides and vanities of this life are concerned. The church of St. Mary at Nun Monkton, which is all that is now left of the Priory where the good sisters of Margaret Fairfax's time were not quite dead to the world, is one of the most notable churches of the district and worthy of careful examination. Its style is Early English, and the west front, though of moderate dimensions, is exceedingly imposing. It has a late Norman porch, with a flat pediment, moulded, surmounted by a trefoil- headed niche. Round-headed niches are on either side the doorway, but only one retains its effigy. Above are three exceedingly graceful lancet windows, chamfered and adorned with Early English tooth ornament. In the tower are three ancient bells with inscriptions. The interior of the church has no aisles or chancel arch ; the nave is separated from the chancel, which is largely modern, by a low stone screen. There are six deeply splayed, single-light windows on either side the nave, with a passage way resembling a triforium running all round the bases. The chancel contains a sedilia of three seats, with a piscina close by, and the remains 2 A 218 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE of an aumbry are in the south wall. In this church there are some exceed ingly interesting tombstones and monuments, with some raised-iron slabs. In the floor of the chancel is a solid stone-altar table, bearing the orthodox five crosses. The church further contains some fine modern stained glass. In the vestry there is a large tomb of the Georgian style in memory of the last of the Paylers, former lords of the manor of Nun Monkton, with an epitaph which is worth quoting : — Near this Place Lie interred the Remains of NATHANIEL PAYLER, Esq., The last Heir-Male of an ancient family in this county, Who with a mind truly contented And superior to Ambition Adorned a private station with all the Qualifications That attract Love and Esteem. He died the 19th March 1748, in the 72nd year of his age. His Nephew WILLIAM, Third son of Samuel Tuffnell of Langleys, in the county of Essex, Esq., by Elizabeth his wife, niece to the said Nathaniel Payler, Out of sincere Affection and Gratitude Erected this Monument to his Memory. The village school at Nun Monkton bears a rather curious tablet on its wall explaining its origin and setting forth the duties of the school master. It was built in 1776 by Thomas and Leonard Wilson, gentlemen, of Fossbridge End in York, who settled the sum of .£5 per annum with the rents of a house and land at Nun Monkton to the schoolmaster, who is strictly commanded in return therefor " to teach the Children English, Latin, and Greek, and also writing and Casting up Accounts, and teach them their duty to God Almighty and Good Manners." II The east banks of the Ouse advancing from Poppleton Ferry towards Beningborough gradually change in character, becoming deeper and of a different appearance to the banks south of York. The osiers, which are characteristic of the river below York, disappear, and are replaced by high sandbanks, the homes and haunts of innumerable martins. Here and there the stream is shaded by overhanging willows. Beyond Linton the banks are shallow once more, but at Aldwark they deepen again, and continue to rise until the junction of the Ure, the Swale, and the Ouse is reached at Swale Nab. On both sides of the Ouse throughout these, its last stretches, the scenery is somewhat monotonous in the sense that OVERTON AND BENINGBOROUGH 219 the lie of the land is generally level even to plainness. The meadow- land is rich and thickly stocked with cattle, and the villages are well- wooded and picturesque in the fashion so characteristic of this part of Yorkshire, but there is a total absence in the landscape of the wild or the romantic, and the prevailing notion obtained from an inspection of the landscape is one of calm pastoral ease. It is not the scenery which wakes enthusiasm or inspires emotion ; it is rather that truly English scenery which is at its best on a peaceful September afternoon when the land seems to sleep after the toils of harvest are over. If the villages which lie on this side of the Ouse, in close proximity to its banks, or a little removed from amongst the trees and woods, seem to the traveller at first sight somewhat commonplace and uninteresting, he should remember that there is scarcely one, if any, of them that has not some considerable interest attached to it. Almost opposite the ferry at Nether Poppleton is a little hamlet of the prevalent red-brick and tile, perched on a gentle elevation above the river. There is absolutely nothing in its appearance to tell one that it has a story of any importance, and yet its history goes back for nearly 2000 years. Originally a Roman clan-station, Overton, in the Norse days, was a hall or hunting-seat of Earl Morkere, used probably when he went a-hunting in the neighbouring forest of Galtres. Alan de Wilton founded a priory of Gilbertine Canons there during the reign of King John. Then it passed, as an estate, into the hands of the Abbot of St. Mary's in York, who in 1204 had leave given to enclose his wood there up to the banks of the Ouse, and to make a park out of the enclosure. So also with Beningborough, the next place beyond Overton. This, a typical English demesne, the seat of a member of the Dawnay family, lying amongst luxuriant woods, has a history full of points of rare interest. Like Overton, it was at one time a possession of the Abbots of St. Mary's in York, and on the site of Beningborough Hall they had a country house. Between the Dissolution and the present century it passed through the hands of three noble families, the Bouchiers, the Earles, and the Downes. The old deer park stretching before it to the banks of the river encloses 300 acres of land, and no doubt afforded many a fine buck for the Lord Abbot's table in the old days. At the foot of the park there is a ferry, which was originally granted by Henry VIII. to Lord Latimer in 1538. Again, Shipton, lying at the rear of the woods of Beningborough, would seem to the railway traveller who flies through it to be a village of very commonplace aspect, but it, too, has its historical value, for it was the home of the De Camera family, bearers of the proud title of Gaolers of the Forest. There is record of a gift of a toft and a bovate of land given by William le Gaoler to the Abbey of St. Mary's in 1270. A much prettier village, but one with little history attached to it, is Newton-on-Ouse, north of Beningborough Park. It presents a typical view of the modern English village adjoining a well-ordered estate — pretty church, pretty cottages, 22o PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE pretty gardens, but there is nothing old about it save a portion of its church tower, which is Norman, and certain ancient brasses within the church. Westward from Newton-on-Ouse the river sweeps boldly round the village of Linton, which is somewhat picturesque, but of no interest save for its lock, through which vessels of 7 feet draught can pass towards Borough- bridge on the Ure. Long and level pastures on the east bank lead the traveller to Aldwark and its curious church, fashioned at first sight out of any rubbish that the builders could lay hands on, and in reality constructed of cobbles, rubbles, and bricks. Here the Ouse, almost in sight of its two tributaries, the Ure and the Swale, becomes sluggish and inert, and the banks at its side, as if to share in its dulness, become flat, and present no features likely to stir the traveller's feelings. Across the river is the ancient village of Great Ouseburn, and near it Kirkby Hall, a fine antiquated mansion with a history going back for several hundred years. Approaching it by either side the end of the journey along the Ouse is soon reached at Myton- upon-Swale, where the Ure and the Swale flow into it at Swale Nab., Myton itself is a place of some historic interest ; its church was an ancient rectory previous to the beginning of the fourteenth century, when it was given to the Abbot of St. M,ary's, and the village was the home of the. Manil family. It was here that the famous encounter between Scots and English, known ever after as the " White Battle," because of the number of ecclesiastics who took part in it under William de Melton, Archbishop of York, was fought in 13 19. At Swale Nab the Ouse loses its particular identity. Correctly speaking, it is at Swale Nab that it begins. Thence it flows nearly 60 miles to join the estuary of the Humber at Faxfleet. The area of its basin is about 4200 square miles from the junction of the Swale and the Ure to its own mingling with the Humber. Its general course is slow and often sluggish, and lies throughout its entire length in the midst of exceedingly fertile plains. It is navigable throughput the whole of its own course, and one of its prin cipal tributaries, the Ure, is navigable as far as Ripon. Its surrouqdings are perhaps the least varied of all the Yorkshire rivers, but they are eminently characteristic of it, and possess a charm of their own strictly in keeping with that of the Ouse itself. 1 III., Turning away from Swale Nab towards the Forest of Galtres, the traveller ere long finds himself at Alne, one of the most ancient and in teresting places in the district. Some topographers see in its name, a certain amount of evidence that the Druids were once in force here, and that their place of worship was afterwards converted into a Christian temple. However that may be, Alne was in existence long before the Nornran Con-, quest. The record of it in Domesday Book speaks of the village and; land as having been in pqssessjon of York ,Minster, "and.as bjdng \yaste at (thetinie/ ALNE CHURCH 221 of the survey. The oldest thing in the village is the church, of which there are historical records going back to the twelfth century. In January 113.1, Alne was constituted a vicarage, and Robert de Myton was made first vicar. The fabric is very old and contains a good deal of Norman work, but the restorations and alterations made when the church underwent renovation towards the end of the last century have spoiled its general appearance. It consists of nave, north aisle, chancel, north chapel, and tower. On the south side of the nave there still remains, fortunately preserved from the good offices of the restorer, one of the finest Norman doorways in the county, the carving of which is singularly rich and curious. Between the space under the tower and the entrance to the nave there is a high Norman arch, evidently of somewhat later date than the south doorway, and pre sumably at one time the entrance to the church. Perhaps the most antique thing in the church is the Norman font, which has a large rounded stone shaft and bowl, curiously ornamented with carved devices. In the east end of the north aisle the remains of an aumbry and a piscina bear witness that a chantry chapel must have stood there at some time. Under the north wall of this chapel lies the recumbent effigy of a lady, sculptured in alabaster, and vested in a dress of the fourteenth century, with a hound lying at her feet. This chantry was founded by the Ellerkers of Youlton ; the lady therefore is presumably an Ellerker of the fourteenth century. In the chancel there is a rather striking decorated window of three lights, filled with modern stained glass. Between Alne and Easingwold the traveller crosses four miles of land eminently characteristic of the district. To the east and the south-east lies the Forest of Galtres, not so wooded as it used to be in the days when they hung lanthorns in the towers and steeples of York, so that be lated travellers might have a beacon-light, but still a forest in the true sense of the word. North and north-east rise the gentle summits of the Howardian Hills, gradually rising into the bolder heights of Hambleton. All between, the land lies level, flat, almost plain-like in its monotonous uniformity of line, but there are few scenes in Yorkshire more alluring to the lover of pastoral scenery. The hills in the distance are absolutely blue on an autumn afternoon when the sun is shining on them, save where its beams slant on some expanse of limestone jutting out from their sides or on a patch of brown earth in their midst. Beneath, the land lies in billowy waves of green and red ; the meadows in the foreground are richly stocked with sheep and cattle ; here and there the gable of a farm stead or the tower of a church lifts itself above the hedgerows andi orchards. Nothing but clear skies and bright sunshine is needed to make the scene always beautiful. Almost at the foot of the Howardian Hills, a slight range of high ground gradually merging into the loftier eminences of Hambleton, lies Easingwold, one of the most interesting of smaller Yorkshire rnarket-towns. .Itsimme-, 222 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE diate surroundings are purely agricultural, and the town itself, which is much cleaner and more pleasing to the eye than most other boroughs of its size, is surrounded by woods and meadows, or by arable land under EASINGWOLD high cultivation. The principal trade of the town is naturally in agricul tural produce, though it has long been famous for the production of steels, and was at one time a centre of the weaving trade. Easingwold, there is good reason to believe, is one of the oldest places in the county, though it is somewhat difficult to say at what period of history it had a beginning. The discovery close by of numerous bronzes, formed in the shape of chisels, led Thomas Hearne, the antiquarian, who described them under the name of celts in his appendix to Leland's " Itinerary," an edition of which he published in 1709, to formulate the opinion that Easingwold was a clan-station at the time of the Roman occupation, and his theory was supported a hundred and fifty years later by Mr. Wright in his work on " Celt, Roman, and Saxon." It is probable that there was a British settle ment at Easingwold previous to the Roman occupation. There are prac tically no traces of the Roman age left about the town except in a section of the old Roman road from Aldby, on the Derwent, to Catterick, on the Swale. Whatever may have been the position of the town under the Roman occupation, it had evidently grown to be a place of some import ance during Anglo-Saxon times, for one finds it set down in Domesday Book as having a church and a priest. Originally belonging to the Crown, the borough of Easingwold subsequently passed into the possession of the monastery of Durham. Later, the church belonged to the Archdeaconry of Richmond. There are certain records in existence which link the name of King John with that of Easingwold. It would appear that the king was fond of staying here at a hospice, the master of which evidently grew weary of his sovereign's company, or of the great cost of entertaining him, for in 1 20 1 there is record of his having bribed John with two palfreys to EASINGWOLD 223 stay somewhere else. Henry III. had a manor-house at Easingwold in 1220, and more than one monarch, no doubt, tarried there on his way north or south in order to enjoy a little sport in the neighbouring Forest of Galtres. Easingwold, which is built in somewhat picturesque and irregular fashion, is full of interest to the lover of old things. In its midst there is a large market-place, forming a square of two acres in extent, where on market days the stranger may make acquaintance with the characteristics of the neighbouring rural populations. Somewhat above the town stands the church, dedicated to St. John. From the slight eminence on which it is built there is a magnificent view of the land lying between Easingwold and York, with delightful prospects over the Forest of Galtres and the villages which surround it. In the distance the great towers of York Minster stand clearly outlined against the horizon. The church, of mixed architecture, consists of nave, aisles, chancel, and western tower. The north doorway has the appearance of Early English architecture, and seems to have been removed to its present position from some other part of the building. The greater part of the church is fourteenth-century work ; the square-headed windows are of a later date, and the tower of a still later period. There is little of interest within the church save two ancient tomb stones, with sculptured crosses, much defaced, and a large oak coffin which is said to have been used at one time as a public bier. Considering that the town is of such considerable antiquity, it possesses few monuments of the past. At one time it was rich in timbered and plaster-fronted houses, with gables of the type still seen so frequently in York and Chester, but there are now scarcely any of them left. Also in the market-square there stood at one time a stocks and a whipping-post, with a market-cross. Of the original cross there is now nothing left but the base and the steps leading to it ; the whipping-post and the stocks have entirely disappeared. In the local records there is mention made of a ducking-stool set up in bygone days for the correction of the froward and naughty of the weaker sex, but that also disappeared from knowledge a long time ago. Another ancient memorial of the past, the manor-house of the Archdeacon of Richmond, has also entirely disappeared, or, rather, has been converted into a modern farmstead, wherein some of the fine timber of which it was largely built is still to be seen. Around the place in its present condition there still remain some traces of the moat which once surrounded it. Beautiful as the view is which the traveller commands from Easing wold church, it is as nothing when compared to that which meets his eye from the eminence of Crayke, three miles away. This place, which is merely a hamlet clustering around a castle set high on a hill, is one of the most romantically situated spots in the county, and affords some of the most interesting and delightful views. Westward, at a distance of nine or ten miles, rise the Hambleton Hills, forming the background to the wide 224 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE .,, - ¦"WW «aa ^ . ... -•«*>•. ¦mmmwmmmmm y CRAYKE CASTLE stretch of champaign country, amidst whose woods and meadows lie Cox- wold and Newburgh and many other delightful villages and hamlets. Eastward the Howardian Hills slope towards the Derwent, beyond which winding river the York Wolds rise behind the undulating land of north Harthill. Southward the Vale of York grows wider and wider until it expands into a magnificent plain covered over with rich wood and pasture, beyond which the Minster rises, grey and shadowy against the sky. The entire effect is charming and delightful, especially to the traveller who has followed the flat levels which surround the Ouse on either side between Howden and Swale Nab. But in addition to its beauty of situation, Crayke is full of interest to the visitor as a place of historic importance. Its name is derived from its isolated position (cerrag, the rock), and there can be no doubt that its military value as a fortification was well known to the Romans, and even to the Brigantes before them. Of its known history there is a good deal that is curious and remarkable. Although it lies almost in the centre of Yorkshire, Crayke was for some centuries accounted part of Durham in consequence of its being a parish of the diocese of that name. In 685 it was given to St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Durham, by Egfrith, King of Northumbria, and a monastery was founded, probably on the summit of the rock. This monastery is supposed to have been destroyed by the Danish marauders towards the end of the ninth century. About CRAYKE CASTLE 225 that time the monks of Lindisfarne fled for protection to Crayke, bringing with them St. Cuthbert's relics. The place must have been of some im portance at the time of the Domesday survey, for the entry speaks of its containing a tract of land two miles long by two broad, with six carucates to be taxed, eight ploughs, a church and a priest, and some good pasture. Here Hugh Pudsey, the lordly Bishop of Durham, was taken ill after eat ing his supper one night in the spring of 1194, and died a few days later at Howden, also a manor of the see of Durham. Here, too, several of the kings, and notably Edward II., who was at Crayke for two weeks in 1 3 16, kept their state at various times. Of Crayke Castle there are many interesting particulars in the ancient chronicles. It is probable that Hugh Pudsey himself was largely responsible for building the original castle ; but by the time of Henry VIII. there were few traces of it. Leland, in his " Itinerary," remarks : " There remaineth at this time small show of any old castle that hath been here. Ther is a Haul with other offices, and a great stable, vaulted with stone of a meetly ancient building. The great square tower that is thereby, as on the toppe of the hill, and supplement of loggings is very fair, and was erected totally by Neville, bishop of Dur- dome. Ther is a park, and the circuit of the lordship is seven miles, the value being a .£40 by the year." As the castle was ordered to be de molished by the Parliament in 1646, it is probable that little of it as it now stands is ancient ; at present it consists of the great square tower, em battled, with other buildings beneath and about it, all of which are in use as a dwelling. The village of Crayke, lying on the slope beneath it, is full of quaint, and picturesque houses. Near the castle is the church, dedicated to St. Cuthbert, and consisting of nave, chancel, and tower, battlemented and pinnacled. It dates back to the time of Henry VII., but there is little of interest within it beyond the chancel screen of carved oak. A much more interesting church is that of Raskelf, about four miles from Easingwold on the north-west side, where the traveller will find some curious architecture and monuments. Raskelf church consists of chancel, nave, north aisle, and tower, and is of the Transitional order of architecture, though there is a Norman window in the east wall of the aisle. The arches and pillars which divide the east part of the aisle from the chancel are of wood. The various windows of the church contain the arms of several well-known north-country families — the Nevilles, the Percies, the Scropes, and the Dacres. The tower is of wood, and local authority attributes it to the same era as one of the three bells hanging within it, which is dated 1653. Of all the villages which lie between York and the Hambleton Hills, none are more inviting, either for picturesque situation or for varied asso ciation, than Coxwold, which lies five miles from Easingwold across a fine stretch of pastoral country. Here the traveller to whom literary associa tions are of more than ordinary interest may feast his eyes on Shandy 2 B 226 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE fci4*S " -*4t„. ^*i! ,3* • t-.l «3«tf COXWOLD Hall, a charmingly picturesque old house a short distance beyond the church, for seven years the residence of Laurence Sterne. The garden outside contains some variegated holly-trees, which were probably there in Sterne's time ; within is the parlour in which he wrote at least two of his immortal works. A memorial inscription placed on the exterior of the house by Sir George Wombwell reads as follows : " Shandy Hall. Here dwelt Laurence Sterne, many years Incumbent of Coxwold. Here he wrote ' Tristram Shandy ' and ' The Sentimental Journey.' Died in Lon don in 1768, aged 55 years." Of Sterne's residence in Coxwold some record remains in the twofold shape of local tradition, and in letters written to a friend. He is said to have preached very curious sermons, to have been fond of playing the fiddle, and of going out with a gun, and to have generally distinguished himself as an eccentric individual. Two of his letters represent him in two moods — the first in a cheery and optimistic state of mind, the second in rather a dull humour. In one letter, bearing date June 1767, he writes : — " I am as happy as a prince at Coxwould, and I wish you could see in how princely a manner I live — 'tis a land of plenty. I sit down alone to venison, fish, and wild fowl, or a couple of fowls or ducks, with curds and strawberries and cream, and all the plenty which a rich valley (under Hamilton Hills) can produce — with a clean cloth on my table, and a SHANDY HALL 227 :fe .^rt^^i ¦ttfe. ¦ ¦lite*' SHANDY HALL bottle of wine on my right hand, and I drink your health. I have a hundred hens and chickens about my yard, and not a parishioner catches a hare, or a rabbit, or a trout, but he brings it as an offering to me. . . . I am in high spirits ; care never enters this cottage. I take the air every day in my post-chaise, with two long-tailed post-horses, they turn out good ones ; and as to myself, I think I am better upon the whole." Ere long, however — indeed, within two months of the date of this letter — we find him writing in quite another strain : — " I sit here alone, as solitary and sad as a tom-cat, which, by-the-bye, is all the company I keep ; he follows me from the parlour to the kitchen, into my garden, and every place." With his literary occupations, his clerical duty, his plentiful larder and well-stocked cellar, Sterne should certainly not have felt dull at CoxWold, especially in summer, when the picturesque village is at its best. Its long main street rises between old-fashioned cottages and stately trees towards the church, past a magnificent elm tree of great age. The church is ex ceptionally interesting. It is in the Perpendicular style, probably of the fifteenth century, with nave, chancel, and tower. There is a parapet in trefoil about the walls, ornamented by crocketed pinnacles and grotesque gargoyles. The chancel was rebuilt in 1777 by Lord Fauconberg. In its north wall there is no break in the stone ; the south wall is only pierced 228 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE H ¦t HgG$ »'t*4 - COXWOLD GRAMMAR SCHOOL by a plain doorway. The east window has five lights ; the north side of the nave has five windows of three lights each ; the south side four windows and a porch. The tower is octagonal and very beautiful in design and effect. The interior of the church is of more than ordinary interest because of its monuments and memorials. In the chancel there are four fine monuments placed there in memory of members of the family of Belasyse. Against the north wall are the recumbent figures of Sir William Belasyse and his lady, bearing date 1603. The knight is in armour, his head rests upon his helmet, his hands are folded : his lady reclines at his side in a similar attitude. At the lady's feet reposes a lion ; at the knight's, a stag. The different compartments of the tomb afford space for effigies of the four sons and one daughter of Sir William and his lady. All the figures are coloured, and the general effect of the monument is somewhat im pressive and quaint. Close by an imposing piece of white marble statuary presents the effigies of Thomas, Earl Fauconberg, and Henry, his son. The bas relief behind represents angels holding a crown of glory. At the south side of the chancel is another monument to a Fauconberg, Thomas, Viscount of that name, whose wife Barbara kneels at his side. Below is an inscription in Latin verse, composed by the viscount on the occasion of his wife's death. A handsome Gothic canopy over an altar tomb cele- NEWBURGH PRIORY 229 brates the memory of Henry, Earl of Fauconberg, and his wife, by whom the church was restored more than a hundred years ago. Turning southward again from Coxwold and its associations the traveller soon comes to Newburgh Park, one of the finest and best known country houses in Yorkshire. Here Laurence Sterne often came for company and recreation during his incumbency at Coxwold, and one shrewdly suspects that much of the luxurious fare on which he was wont to dine was supplied from the Newburgh preserves. But Newburgh has a history dating from a period long antecedent to that of the witty author of "Tristram Shandy." Here in 1145 was founded a Priory of Augustinian Canons by Roger de Mowbray, son of that Gundreda de Albini, chatelaine of Thirsk, who founded Byland Abbey for the benefit of certain monks of Furness against whom their own monastery had closed its gates. The earlier history of Newburgh Priory was somewhat distinguished. Its second Prior, Bernard, was nominated to the Archbishopric of York, though not elected. William of Newburgh, famous as a historian and philosopher, was a canon of the house during the first fifty years of its existence, and wrote the greater part of his works there. The present magnificent park of Newburgh owes its foundation to one of the priors, who in 1382 gained permission to impark the woods surrounding the priory. At the time of the Dissolution, Newburgh, declared at a value of ^457 per annum, was granted to Anthony Bellasis, chaplain to Henry VIII., to Margaret Simpson, and to others. Anthony Bellasis was the first resi dent under the new order of things ; the second was his nephew, Sir William Belasyse, whose ultimate successor and grandson was created "^— 3±ZE¥T*T NEWBURGH PRIORY Lord Fauconberg. The second Lord Fauconberg married Oliver Cromwell's third daughter, Mary, in 1657, and there is an old and presumably entirely fabricated legend that the Lord Protector made it a condition of the marriage that all the oaks in Newburgh Park should have their heads cut off. In the long gallery at Newburgh there is a portrait of Cromwell's daughter in a gown of dark green. Not many houses in Yorkshire are so 230 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE interesting as this, so far as regards the objects of interest to be seen in the various rooms and chambers. Quaint furniture and panelling, elaborate ornamentation, and antique examples of art are visible on every hand. The library is particularly rich in old books and pictures, amongst them a large number of volumes which originally belonged to the Belasyse family, and a portrait of Colonel Cholmondeley who defended Scarborough Castle against the Parliamentarians during a protracted siege. The most notable curiosities of the house are the sword, saddle, bridle, holsters, pistols, and watch of Oliver Cromwell, and it is said — and believed by some people — • that his body lies in the strong room there, whither it was conveyed privily at the time of the Restoration, in order to prevent the desecration which is commonly supposed to have been visited upon it. But Newburgh does not depend on either legend or association for its principal charm. That lies in its romantic situation, in its magnificently wooded park, about whose glades the red deer wander at will, and in its picturesque sur roundings, which in their particular fashion are as lovely as any scenery in the county. Going south and east from Newburgh Park towards the eastern edge of the wide stretch of country known as the Forest of Galtres, the traveller soon enters upon a tract of land in which fierce fighting between the various contending parties who strove for supremacy in the centuries following the Roman evacuation has left many traces in the shape of tumuli. Between Malton and Crayke there is a long ridge of high ground, on either side of which tumuli are found in considerable numbers. Along the southern slope of this, the traveller passes on his way from Newburgh to the east side of the Foss. At Brandsby and Dalby the tumuli are in noticeable evidence, and in larger numbers than in any other part of the district. Brandsby and Dalby are plainly Norse by their names ; Terrington, a village close by, was an Angle clan-station. All through this district ran a Roman vicinary way from Malton, while the Roman road from York to the mouth of the Tees intersected the woods at a point near Newburgh Park. Everywhere there are traces and suggestions of the long-dead age wherein England was gradually struggling through violence and bloodshed to a settled government and days of peace. IV The Forest of Galtres, still so called on the maps and charts, and known by that name in official documents for many centuries, is, properly speaking, a wide stretch of land, almost absolutely level, lying between York and the high ground which begins near Crayke. In shape it is not unlike a triangle, with York at the apex, the Ouse on one — the west — side, the Foss on the other — the east side — and a long line stretching from Ouse to Foss, through Easingwold, as its northern termination. It is FOREST OF GALTRES 231 now not so much a forest as a finely-wooded piece of land given up to agriculture. In the old days, however, its name of forest had no empty meaning. Folks going northward from York were glad to secure the services of guides at Bootham Bar, lest they should wander in the wood land, and fall victims to wild beasts or robbers. Folk coming through the forest to York looked eagerly as night came on for the friendly gleam of the signal-lantern burning in the tower of All Saints in Pavement, for their special benefit and guidance. At that time the Forest of Galtres was a waste of wood, moor, and marsh, with here and there a little clearing in which the forest-folk found it difficult to produce anything in the shape of crops. From a very early period, it seems to have been a favourite hunting ground, and consequently a rare place for hatching charges against the unhappy folk who dared to lay hands on any live thing within its boundaries. The kings had supreme rule over the forest, of which many great lords were at various times wardens or foresters. The Abbots of St. Mary in York had certain rights there too, and were vigorous in exacting them to the last extreme. In 1204, Robert, Abbot of St. Mary's, was permitted to enclose his wood of Overton, up to the Ouse banks, for a park. In 1222, Brian de Insula, warden of the forest, was commanded to suffer the villagers of Easingwold and Hoby to enjoy the right of pasturage in the forest, according to previous custom and without annoyance, and in the following year licence was given to Robert de Ros, to take three bucks from the forest wherewith to replenish his stock. In 1320, Laurence de Elmeham, who seems to have been hairdresser to Edward II., was made seneschal of the forest. One Thomas Gra, or Gray, of York, obtained permission from the king in 1340 to enclose his land in the forest with a foss and a hedge, with leave for himself and his heirs to hunt hares and kill foxes and other vermin at their pleasure. One of the Fairfaxes — a Thomas — was forester about the end of the fourteenth century. The forest-folk are said to have been a somewhat unruly and independent people, and there are traditions in plenty of the strife between them and the Abbots of St. Mary, who, like all mediaeval churchmen, were something more than keen in exacting their just tithe of whatever eatable thing was taken in the forest preserves. A short distance along the York and Helmsley highroad, southward from Brandsby, where the tumuli lie thick, is Marton-in-the-Forest, with the sites of two ancient ecclesiastical houses, Marton Abbey and Moxby, or Molesby, Priory, lying on either side of the village, close to the road. Marton Priory, of which there are now no remains save the stones used to build a farmhouse, which stands on the site, and a moat which is traceable around it, was founded by Sir Bertram de Bulmer, as a house and convent of monks and nuns of the order of St. Austin. Henry de Neville, grandson of the founder, confirmed the charter of the establish ment with a grant of the village of Marton, its church, and income. 232 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Soon after this the women members of the community were removed to Moxby, where the site of their house is still to be seen near the edge of Stillington Park. At the Dissolution, the monks of Marton appeared willing to surrender their possessions to the Crown, and the signatures of the prior and five monks were appended to the necessary documents. There were at that time a prioress and nine sisters in the convent of Moxby, the church and buildings of which had been conferred upon them by Henry II. about the middle of the twelfth century. Not far across country from Marton-in-the-Forest, is the hamlet of Stitenham or Sittenham, which is interesting as being the native place of the Gower family, of whom John, the author of the " Confessio Amantis," was the most famous member. He is said to have been born here in 1320. Here in the early days of the Tikdors the Gowers had a manor-house, and it was probably for the service1 Of their private chapel that the Archbishop of York in 1289 ordered1 the vicar of the neighbouring parish of Sheriff Hutton to provide at " Stetenum " a chaplain and a clerk, with candles and a lamp to burn in the chancel. Of all the villages lying in or about the Forest none are more interest ing than Sheriff Hutton, where there are still to be seen the remains of its ancient castle, once one of the most important strongholds in the district. Originally known as Hutton, it derived its present name from Sir Bertram, or Bertrand, de Bulmer, who was Sheriff of Yorkshire for many years, and also lord' of the manor and builder of the castle. Sheriff Hutton is pleasantly situated on rising ground which commands fine views of the forest on one side, of Ryedale on another, and of the hills and wolds on a third. The village itself is not particularly noticeable, save for the ruins of the castle, and for the church, which is of considerable antiquity and interesting architecture. When the Domesday survey was made, Hutton, as it was then called, belonged to William Malet, one of the Conqueror's chief men in the north. Malet held seven carucates, which he had pur chased from one Sprot for ten marks of silver ; Sprot held a similar quantity of land in his own interest, and Nigel Fossard held three more, which he surrendered to the Crown. When Bertram de Bulmer built his castle here, the name of the village was changed to Sheriff Hutton, in compliment of the fact that Bertram had filled the shrievalty during the whole reign of Stephen and for several years during that of his successor, Henry II. Alan, Earl of Richmond, seized the newly-built castle for the •king, during the civil war between Stephen and Matilda. In course of time the manor and castle passed from the De Bulmers to the Nevilles by the marriage of Emma, only daughter of Sir Bertram de Bulmer, to Geoffrey de Neville, or, as some chroniclers say, Henry de Neville. Their descendant, Ralph de Neville, was mainly responsible for the rebuilding and fortifying of the castle. He, as first Earl of Westmorland, is cele brated for his desertion of Richard II. and his betrayal of Archbishop SHERIFF HUTTON 233 Scrope at the neighbouring village of Shipton-in-the-Forest. Sheriff Hutton remained in possession of the Neville family until the death of the King maker, Richard, Earl of Warwick, at Barnet in 1471, when it and all the other Neville lands and properties were confiscated to the Crown. Edward SHERIFF HUTTON IV. gave it to his famous brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Richard, on his succession to the throne, lost no time in using it as a gaol for the safe-keeping of his numerous victims. Here he sent Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, until it was convenient to behead him at Pontefract; Here for some time Edward Plantagenet, his nephew, and Elizabeth, his niece, were confined, only to be released by Richard's own death at Bos- worth Field. Very different fates awaited these two : while the prince was still kept prisoner and ultimately conducted to the scaffold, the princess was fetched in state to London, under escort of Sir Robert Willoughby, there to marry the new king, Henry VII., and to ascend the throne as queen. After these events the castle remained in keeping of the Crown until the king granted it to the Duke of Norfolk, on whose demise it went back to the supreme authority. The Duke of Norfolk is said to have lived here about eleven years,from 1489 to 1500, and Leland says that that is the reason why he found the place so well maintained. Leland's account of Sheriff Hutton — "Shirhuton" in his "Itinerary" — is somewhat curious. " The Castell itself in front is not ditched, but it standeth in loco utcunque edito. I marked in the front part of the first area of the castell three great and high Towres, of the which the Gatehouse was the middle. In the second area be five or six towres, and the statlie stair up to the Haul is very magnificent, and so is the Haul itself, and all the residue of the House ; insomuch that I saw no house in all the north so like a princely lodging." . . Within, another hundred years, however, the principal 2 c 234 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE glories of Sheriff Hutton had departed, for when James I. granted the castle to the Ingram family, for ever, its walls were in a ruinous condition, and a considerable portion of them were taken down for the better pro tection of those who came near them. The castle as it now stands is a picturesque pile set over against the village, and consists principally of the remnants of four large corner towers, and of the warden tower. There are four shields above the gateway, displaying the arms of the Nevilles, and on the south side of the site there is a double foss. Here, where some of the noblest and bravest of the Middle Ages once kept their state or languished in captivity, nothing but the peaceful scenes of rural life are to be seen. The castle of the Nevilles is now ,a farmstead. Hardly less interesting than the castle of Sheriff Hutton, the church possesses many features worthy of attention. It is dedicated to St. Helen, and dates, probably, from the thirteenth century. It has a nave, aisles, chancel, and tower. In the north aisle there are two very interest ing altar-tombs, one of which possesses features not often met with. This is a tomb bearing the recumbent figure of a young man, with a coronet on his head, and therefore, presumably, of high rank. He is clad in a loose fur robe, much worn and defaced, like all the rest of the monument, which has no inscription. On the face of the tomb is a centre sculpture repre senting the Deity, throned and crowned. Before Him is a figure of the cross, with the Saviour suspended from it ; to the right kneels a knight in armour, praying. The other monument is that of a recumbent knight, also in armour, with crossed legs, and a lion at his feet. It is supposed to be in memory of Thomas Wytham, and Agnes, his wife, who were bene factors to the church. Amongst the notable folk interred in the church are members of the families of Gower of Stitenham, Hagets of Queenby, and the Thwenges of Cornsburgh. In wandering from Sheriff Hutton towards Sutton in-the-Forest the traveller crosses the Foss, which, useful stream that it may be, is never at any part of its course a particularly attractive one. According to some of the old chroniclers, the Foss was originally an artificial work made by Roman hands ; and it is still artificial, inasmuch as it has more than once been adapted from whatever natural formation it has to better provision as a means of transit. Along its banks, from Stillington to its junction with the Ouse near York Castle, there is little of the picturesque, though, like all running waters, it is not without a certain charm. The traveller will find more to interest him at Sutton-in-the-Forest, where he is once again in touch with the author of "Tristram Shandy." Sutton-in-the- Forest, indeed, has much more connection with the life of Laurence Sterne than Coxwold can claim ; for whereas he was in occupancy at the latter place for only seven years, he resided at Sutton for twenty. His life there seems to have been pretty much what it was at Coxwold, a blend of duty, divided between Sutton-in-the Forest and the neighbouring village of SUTTON-IN-THE-FOREST 235 Stillington, of which he was also incumbent, as well as of Coxwold — sport, music, and literary amusements, and one may presume that he was not dissatisfied with his lot ; for it was not until he was burnt out of his par sonage-house at Sutton that he removed himself to Shandy Hall. Sutton- in-the-Forest is to-day a picturesque village embowered in trees, and gay in spring and summer with countless flowers and blossoms. Its fine SUTTON-IN-THE-FOREST church of All Hallows was originally an appurtenance of the Priory of Marton-in-the-Forest, but it passed into the hands of the Archbishops of York at the time of the Dissolution. There is some fine tracery and the remains of some notable stained glass in the east window. The hall at Sutton is a modern building ; but there was another, or manor-house, here in the twelfth century, which was for some time the home of Henry, or Geoffrey, de Neville and his wife Emma, the daughter and heiress of Sir Bertram de Bulmer. A little distance from Sutton-in-the-Forest is the ancient village of Huby, called Hoby in the forest charters, where the traveller will find the ruins of Huby Hall, the former seat of the Wakefield family, and the old fish-ponds, walls, and trees which surrounded it. Be tween Sutton-in-the-Forest and the edge of the forest itself on the York side, there were several clan-stations, now transformed into modern villages. A little distance to the east of the road leading from York to Easingwold there is an ancient house, now a farmstead, with quaint roofs and gables, which is said to have been a hunting-lodge for the use of James I. There is a fine oak staircase within, and the legend relating to James's occupancy of the place is supported by Stuart devices and emblems in the ceilings of the upper rooms. From this point, going eastward, the land stretches away over the monotonous plain of Strensall, once a vast marsh, but now the great military encampment of the north. Here, during summer, in numerable white tents stand out against the level horizon, and all day long marchings and counter-marchings remind the spectator in some fashion that York is still the centre of military operations. 236 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Of the clan-stations nearer York, Huntington is, so far as modern im portance goes, the most interesting. Its church, dedicated to All Hallows, was in existence at the time of the Domesday Survey, and belonged first to the Abbots of Evesham and then to those of Whitby. There is a curious record in the will of William1 Appleton, vicar of Huntington about the beginning of the sixteenth century, in which he expresses his wish to be interred before the altar of Our Lady in the church, and leaves the churchwardens two of his best beehives wherewith to keep burning the lamp which hung before it. At Wigginton, another clan-station, a little further away, there is little of interest. Everything has changed since the days when Angle and Celt, Dane and Roman, disputed to the death for mastery of these level lands, and for the city that was even then prominent across their flat expanse. Here for hundreds of years the land was dyed with the blood of high and low, native and invader, and the clash and clang of battle was for ever in the air. Now, nothing could be more peaceful than the prospect which meets the eye on every side. Woods, fields, and meadows, broken only by the glint of a church spire or the gable of some lonely farmstead, are suggestive of a deep peace which not even the presence of the white tents in the camp at Strensall can destroy. Where the Roman cohorts marched, the great railway expresses go swiftly forward on their way northward ; where Danes and Angles fought and fell, to be heaped together in the tumuli of the slope that runs from the .Derwent towards the Hambledon Hills, there are no more warlike engage- , ments than the sham fights and reviews of the soldiers in training. Along the roads leading to York the traveller meets quaint, old-world convey ances, carriers' carts from the villages in the forest — even their antique appearance cannot remind him of the other days when equestrian and pedestrian had perforce to be accompanied through the forest by armed guides. All is changed indeed ; the Forest of Galtres is drained, re claimed, made fruitful, and the great folk no longer lord it over the little in respect of the game and the vermin. And as if in token of the change there no longer swings in the lantern-tower of All Saints the light which pious hands set there in the long-dead past as a beacon for the wanderer. CHAPTER XI The River Went and its Surroundings CHARACTER AND COURSE OF THE RIVER DON ITS FIRST TRIBUTARY : THE WENT — SOURCE OF THE WENT — ACKWORTH AND ITS SCHOOL — BADSWORTH WENTBRIDGE AND BROCKADALE DARRINGTON — CAMPSALL BURGHWALLIS — ASKERN SPA — FISHLAKE THORNE THE VILLAGES OF HATFIELD CHASE. 5)HE river Don, in some respects one of the most re markable of the great rivers flowing into the Ouse, serves with its several tributaries, the Went, the Dearne, the Rother, the Sheaf, the Ewden, and the Little Don, as a capital guide to the traveller who wishes to make himself acquainted with the south-east corners of York shire. The Don itself is about sixty-eight miles in length ; the Little Don twelve miles, the Ewden, twelve, the Sheaf, fifteen, the Rother, twenty, the Dearne, twenty-six, and the Went, nineteen. Each of the tributary streams runs through districts and scenery peculiar to itself, and the traveller is thus continually presented with a variety which serves to atone for the unpleasing features of those parts of the Don which are given up to manufacturing pursuits. Like some other rivers of the county the Don has its source in a number of springs, all situate on the extreme edge of the South-west Riding, amongst the wild hills and moors which separate Yorkshire from Derbyshire. Flowing eastward past Dunford Bridge the Don is soon joined by the Little Don, which also has its source amongst the hills, and is further swollen a little distance away by the Ewden, coming from the direction of Featherbed Moss. The Loxley and the Rivelin, two minor streams, join it ere it reaches Sheffield, where its volume is considerably augmented by the Sheaf, and by small streams flowing from the' hills. Hereabouts, the immediate surroundings of the Don are spoilt as regards picturesque effect by the busy manu facturing life which makes itself evident on all sides. At some time, however, they must have been picturesque enough, for the course of the river between Sheffield and Rotherham is naturally striking and even 238 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE romantic. The hills rise boldly on each side of the stream, and the valley through which it runs is rich and fertile, and pleasing to the eye, save where agriculture has yielded place to coal-mining. At Rotherham, the Don is further increased in size by the Rother, a stream which rises in Derbyshire, but runs for a considerable distance through south York shire, and from this point its surroundings gradually assume a definite pastoral character. Before reaching Conisborough, where one of the most picturesque castles in Yorkshire overhangs its banks, it is joined by the Dearne, a stream which flows through the Barnsley coal-fields. Thence by way of various pleasant villages the river winds on to Doncaster, and from there with many twistings and turnings to Thorne, and to the artificial Dutch River, and so to the Ouse. Just before it sweeps round into the Dutch River, cut by Vermuyden, the Dutch engineer, more than two centuries ago, in order to drain the surrounding district, the Don is joined by the Went, a stream which flows from the west through Lower Osgold- cross, one of the principal agricultural districts of the county. By means of the river and its principal tributaries, then, the traveller may explore various tracts of country, in each of which the scenery varies and the pursuits of the people are different. In one neighbourhood the land is given up to agriculture, in another to coal-mining ; in one to the manu facture of steel, in another to the lonely life of the hills and moors. In one district the traveller meets the toiler of the fields, slow of action and of speech ; in another, the toiler of the mine, grimy and somewhat grim of manner, with an insatiable love of sport ; in a third the worker of the great towns, whose pale face and lack-lustre eyes tell of years of labour under skies that are always obscured by the drifting smoke of the steel and iron works. The river Went, first of the tributaries emptying themselves into the Don, as the traveller follows the course of the river from its junction with Cornelius Vermuyden's canal to its sources amongst the hills near Dunford Bridge, is one of the least known and also one of the most interesting of the minor Yorkshire rivers. One of the most painstaking and exact of the numerous writers on Yorkshire topography knew so little of it that he described it as having its source in the neighbourhood of Wentworth — a place which at the nearest point is at least fourteen miles from its banks. In strict geographical truth its main source is found in a spring situated in unromantic surroundings at Featherstone, a considerable and im portant mining village near Pontefract. It thence winds through a pleasant pastoral country, past Ackworth, into the Vale of Went, which gradually narrows into a romantic defile known as Brockadale, and thence through the flat expanse of Dykeland and Marshland to its junction with the Don at a point a little south of the Dutch River. Once escaped from the actual surroundings of its source the Went meanders in its own quiet fashion through a purely rural district, so far uncontaminated by any- ACKWORTH 239 *.. In ii I » f-J-J ACKWORTH thing in the shape of mines or manufactories. Its most notable features are embraced within a small circuit — in the picturesque valley of Brocka- dale — but on either side of the river, close at hand in most cases, and always within easy distance, there are some of the most delightful villages in the West Riding, full of features of historical and archaeological interest. On either side, too, the land is well, and in places luxuriantly, wooded, and generally in a high state of cultivation. The Vale of Went, in short, is a happy oasis between the coal-fields of Middle and South Yorkshire, and only suffers from their near presence in respect of subdued tones of colour and a soft greyness of atmosphere. Winding at the foot of gently-sloping meadows from its source the Went soon leaves the edge of the coal-fields behind and glides into the large village of Ackworth. This place, one of the most considerable of Yorkshire villages, is in reality a collection of villages or hamlets united under one name. There is High Ackworth and Low Ackworth, Ackworth Moor Top and Brackenhill, and the entire parish is of considerable extent. All around the village are great stone quarries, and the traveller who has grown weary of the red-brick and red-tiled hamlets and farmsteads of the Ouse may here rest his eyes on stone houses and grey tiles, not unfre- quently obscured by ivy or jessamine and climbing rose-trees. The church, which stands on a gentle eminence in High Ackworth, is not particularly 240 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE interesting as regards architecture, but the open space which lies without the lych-gate is notable for the huge trunk of an elm-tree, which stands appa rently impregnable in its midst. Near it are the base and steps of an ancient cross. All around the various parts of Ackworth are numerous houses of considerable size, each situated in well-kept gardens. At Ackworth Park, a large mansion now deserted of tenants for many years, the famous John Gully, pugilist and parliamentarian, lived for some time, after he had ex changed the duties of the prize-ring for those of the House of Commons, where he had a seat in the pre-reform days as member for the neighbour ing borough of Pontefract. A near neighbour of the ex-pugilist's was Luke Howard, a well-known member of the Society of Friends, and a brilliant scientist, who during his residence at Ackworth wrote several valuable works on astronomy and kindred subjects. During the present century Ackworth has been celebrated throughout the kingdom as the headquarters of one of the principal educational institutions of the Quakers— the Friends' School at Low Ackworth, a large and extensive building with a consider able fame not only as an educational establishment but as a splendid nursery of athletics. At this school the late John Bright was educated, and there is probably no part of the world to which the teachings of Penn and Fox have spread where its name is not known. Hardly less famous, in quite another way, is the village of Badsworth, which lies at a short distance from the Quaker village, at the south-west corner of the wide Vale of Went. It is from Badsworth that the famous pack of fox-hounds which hunts this district derives its name, though, oddly enough, the kennels which give it accommodation are situate some distance from the village. During the present century many famous sportsmen have been associated with the active conduct of the Badsworth hounds. The celebrated Earl of Darlington was master at one time ; Lord Hawke, of Womersley, at another. When Lord Darlington hunted the pack he resided at Badsworth Hall, which has certain historic associa tions as the original seat of the Bright family. In the middle of the seventeenth century, Badsworth belonged to one Robert Dolman, who, having committed treason against the Parliament, was ordered by the authorities to deliver up possession of his house and land. These being sold in 1652, were purchased by Colonel Bright of Carbrook, a well-known Parliamentarian officer, who had, however, left the army two years previ ously. Settling down at Badsworth, he was High-Sheriff of Yorkshire in the years 1654—55. His Parliamentarianism would appear to have been of an easy quality, for there is evidence of his having been a moving force in the restoration of Charles II., and it was probably in reward for his services at that time that he was made a baronet in 1660. There is mention of Badsworth in the local chronicles of the Civil War, in respect of a skirmish which took place there on March 15, 1645, during the second siege of Pontefract Castle. One account says that a party of the BADSWORTH 241 king's horse, sallying out from the castle, fell upon Colonel Brandling's quarters at Badsworth, and took sixty-seven prisoners, one hundred and thirty horses, and .£1000 in money ; another estimates the capture at one major, one lieutenant, a hundred horse, and the contents of the enemy's storehouse. There are various interesting references to Bads worth in the more ancient historical chronicles and manuscripts. It is grouped in the Domesday Book with Upton and Rogerthorpe, and seems to have then been in possession of two brothers whose names are not given. There was then a church here and a taxable area of over nine carucates, accommodating six ploughs. In the time of Richard II., the Poll Tax of Badsworth was charged on thirty-one persons, the highest amount being debited to a tailor, who paid fourpence. Badsworth Church possesses some interesting ecclesiastical associations. One of its rectors was James Harrington, Dean of York Minster, and predecessor in that office of Cardinal Wolsey. Another was Thomas Stanley, Bishop of Sodor and Man in the sixteenth century, who spent his leisure in writing a rhyming history of his own house. The church, which consists of a tower, nave, north and south aisles, and chancel, is very charmingly situated at the head of a village street noted in Yorkshire for the brightness, neatness, and pros perous appearance of its cottages and their inhabitants. From the foot of the meadows which slope downwards from Badsworth 2 D 242 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE to the Went, the traveller may journey by the riverside along the Vale of Went until he reaches Wentbridge on the Great North Road. At Standing Flat Bridge, near the kennels of the Badsworth Hounds, he will pass the old Roman road which led from Danum to Legiolum (Doncaster and Castleford), and which is still the highway from the former town to Pontefract, Castleford, and Leeds. Over the crest of the rising ground to the left lies the ancient hamlet of East Hardwick, where there are several old houses of picturesque appearance. At the further side of the Vale rises the long low ridge known as Went Hill, which, though only 250 feet above sea-level, is the highest ground between Osgoldcross and the Lincoln shire hills beyond the Trent. At the northern point of Went Hill stands Darrington Mill, tall, gaunt, and spectral against the sky, and interesting because it is mentioned in Domesday Book. At the southern extremity, in a picturesque hollow formed by a sudden narrowing of the valley, lies Wentbridge, by far the most interesting and charming of the villages and hamlets along the river from whence it takes its name. Here, if it happens to be spring or summer, the lover of the beautiful will pause unconsciously, minded to stay near the old bridge until he has satisfied his eyes. Few villages in Yorkshire are so picturesquely situated as Went bridge. From its southern point the Great North Road — redolent with memories of the good old days when highwaymen and post-chaises, run away lovers and mail-coaches, were as thick as blackberries — drops suddenly down through the woods and coppices, past the famous Blue Bell Inn to the bridge spanning the Went, only to rise again on the shoulder of Went Hill on the other side to the undulating land stretching towards Ferrybridge. Looking eastward from the bridge, the Went winds in delightful curves along an ever-narrowing valley until it is lost to sight amidst the woods of Brockadale. Nothing could be more picturesque than the picture thus offered — a picture of quaint houses and cottages, with trim gardens and smooth green lawns, and quiet stretches of meadow-land on either side the river. Nowadays Wentbridge is a peaceful and a sleepy place, but it was busy enough in the days when the Great North Road was the main highway from London to York. There were at that time four inns in the place, and of these, one, the Blue Bell, is worth climbing the hill from the bridge to see. It is said to be the oldest licensed house on the Great North Road, and it is certain that its license was taken away three hundred years ago because the then landlord had been harbouring footpads and other ne'er-do-weels. In 1633 tne license was restored, and the sign then erected — a stout oak board, ornamented by a bell— still hangs inside the house, and will apparently defy decay for another century. The ivy- covered house close to the bridge was until some twenty-five years ago the Bay Horse Inn, and was used as a justice-room by the magistrates of Upper Osgoldcross. Brockadale, the narrow and richly-wooded valley through which the BROCKADALE 243 Went runs after passing Wentbridge, is little known to lovers of the beautiful, and quite unknown to English landscape painters. Its charac teristics are somewhat reminiscent of Swiss scenery. In extent it is so small as to suggest the idea of a miniature valley rather than of an important dale. From Wentbridge it passes through a narrowing defile, bordered at one point by frowning crags of magnesian limestone, to Kirk Smeaton — a distance of two miles only. Within those two miles, however, all that is lovely in the way of river and woodland scenery is comprised. On the north bank rise the woods of Stapleton ; on the south coppices and planta tions are thickly strewn on the sloping ground which rises to the level plateau between Wentbridge and Barnsdale ; in the green valley beneath the Went winds in and out between osier and willow-fringed banks in a hundred fantastic curves. In the woods and crags of Brockadale the badger, the fox, and the hedgehog found congenial homes, and at one time there were many otters along the banks of the stream. These woods, however, spurs or outshoots of the great forests which once stretched northward from the Forest of Sherwood itself, have been the abode of forest-folk who were far more interesting than the " brocks " from which the dale takes its name. Here, centuries ago, Robin Hood and his merry men made many a long stay when other parts of the land had grown too hot to hold them. Through the woodlands from Barnsdale highwaymen like Nevison and Turpin often rode, and somewhere amongst their fastnesses Mary Pannel, the witch, burnt at York in 1607 for sorcery, had one of her residences. A tribe of gipsies used to haunt these woods in the early part of the present century, usually during the hunting season. Local tradition tells of them following the Badsworth Hounds, mounted on well- bred horses, the women in brown hats and habits, the men in brown velvet jackets, knee-breeches, blue stockings and silver-buckled shoes. They were skilful musicians, and in much request at rustic feasts and merry makings. A curious instance of the wealth of these wanderers is told in local annals : — One of their tribe having stolen a horse, his companions went to the justices sitting at the Bay Horse Inn in Wentbridge and offered them a bag containing ^5000 in gold if they would not commit the prisoner to the Assizes at York. The justices, however, were very properly incorruptible, and the gipsy, being sent for trial, was sentenced to transporta tion for several years. About two miles along the Great North Road from Wentbridge, going northward, lies the village of Darrington, originally a clan-station in Angle times, and still interesting in more ways than one. At the time of the Domesday Survey, Baret and Alsi had six carucates of taxable land here accommodating eight ploughs, and Ilbert later on had three carucates, with sixteen villanes and six bordars having twelve ploughs. There was a church here, and a priest to serve it, and a mill, and the annual value in Edward the Confessor's time was eight pounds, and at Domesday time one hundred 244 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE shillings. It was then the largest manor in the district, and the richest. Soon after the Conquest it appears to have been in the hands of Gerald, son of Robert de Reineville, but the early history of its lords is obscure. In 1 5 14 it was in possession of William Fitz- William, a descendant of the De Lascies, and about a hundred years later it passed into the keeping of the Savile family, and remained there until Sarah Savile, sole heiress and last of her race, married William Sotheron in 1751. The manor is now the property of the Sotheron-Estcourt family, and there are two interesting facts in connection with it which should not be overlooked — first, that during five hundred years it has been in possession of only four families, the the Fitz- the Saviles, theronsjandthe Hall has been used dence by the ing for cen- sublet to the Lans- there is a Hall, which to prove that nally built and mod- hundredThe church, St. Luke and one of the resting in a^ EFFIGY OF WARREN DE SCARGILL De Lascies, Williams, and the So- second, that only once as a resi- owner, hav- turies been tenants. In downe MSS. sketch of the would seem it was origi- about 1550, ernised two years later. dedicated to All Saints, is most inte- Osgoldcross. It contains a tower, nave, north and south aisles, north transept with a smaller tower, and chancel, and has been restored within the last twenty years in a fashion which has brought to light rather than effaced its beauty. Originally Saxon, there are many traces of Norman work in the church, which contains some quaint mural tablets and much handsome modern stained glass. The rood-loft at the east end of the north aisle is very old and curious, and so, too, are the effigies of Warren de Scargill and Clara de Stapleton, which rest respectively in the chancel and the south aisle. The monuments of the Holgate family, of Mr. Alexander Blair (of Aberdeen, Citizen and Merchant Taylor, and Merchant Factor in France and Scotland, who died at Darrington of apoplexy in 1671), of Mr. Solomon Dupeer, who is shrewdly suspected of having assisted in betraying Gibraltar to the English under Rooke in 1704, and of others, are interesting, and in some cases amusing. One of the former vicars of Darrington, Dr. Robert Burrow, SMEATON 245 was Chaplain to the Lord Mayor of London in 1723. He wrote various pamphlets and sermons during his incumbency, the most important of which, " Meletemata Darringtoniana : an Essay upon Divine Providence," was published by Richard Hett at the Bible and Crown in the Poultry, during the year of its author's chaplaincy. On the south side of the Went, within a short circuit of the village of Kirk Smeaton, at which point the traveller emerges from Brockadale into a wider and less picturesque stretch of valley, there are several villages and churches of much interest. Smeaton itself, divided into two parts, known respectively as Kirk Smeaton and Little Smeaton, is a village of considerable antiquity. It had a church, a priest, and a mill at the Domesday Survey; and in 1378, 57 of its inhabitants (44 in Kirk Smeaton, and 13 in Little Smeaton) were in a position to pay poll-tax ; the principal taxpayer being Sir William de Scargill, who was assessed at twenty shillings. Campsall, two miles away to the south-east, must at the time of the poll-tax of 1378 have been a much more important place, relatively, at any rate, than it is now. Seventy-five of its inhabitants were then taxable ; amongst them being a chapman, a spicer, souters, websters, smiths, a fisher, and three tailors, in addition to a frankeleyn and an armiger. Campsall is now a quiet and picturesque village of one long, quaint street, at the head of which, on slightly rising ground, stands the church, a magnificent example of what careful restoration can do towards preserving noble architecture. Here there are some most interesting remains of Saxon architecture, fine Norman doorways, and other notable 246 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE matters, over the inspection of which the lover of archaeology will linger. The church is exceptionally large for a village church, and consists of tower, nave, north and south aisles, and chancel. A much smaller church, but an equally interesting one, is that of Burghwallis, a little distance away across the fields and woods, where there is some excellent specimen work of the herring-bone pattern in the walls of the tower, and a quaint sun-dial in the churchyard. Half hiM; a mile further on, Owston church lies hidden amongst the trees. This church, like that of Burghwallis, is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey, but both were in existence in 1 1 60. Owston is now a mere handful of houses and cottages ; but at the time of the poll-tax of 1378 it must have been a consider able place, for it then contained seventy-six ratepayers. The church, which has recently been admirably restored, possesses two very interest ing marble monuments by Chantry. One of the Archbishops of Dublin, John de St. Paul, who occupied that see from 1349 to 1362, founded a chantry in Owston church for the benefit of the souls of his relatives. About a mile northward from Owston, returningtowards the Went, lies the curious little watering-place of Askern, whose sulphur waters were famous more than a century ago. Unlike Harrogate, which has gradually developed into as fashionable a resort as Bath used to be, Askern has retained its primitive simplicity, though large numbers of people go there in the summer months to drink the waters and to bathe in them. In the middle of the village there is a considerable sheet of water known as the Pool, and near it are various baths, lodging-houses, and hotels. The greater part of the place is built on the side of a shelving eminence facing eastward, from which there is an extensive prospect of the flat country stretching towards Hatfield Chase. On a fine evening in summer it is interesting to stroll about this quaint little village, and to observe the various types of invalids and sufferers who resort to it in search of relief. A stranger knowing nothing of the place would imagine that he had suddenly come amongst a population of lame folk, so many are the invalids who perambulate the street, or loiter under the trees round the fringe of CAMPSALL ASKERN 247 r " "> *—JZ -10 ^ (uui * L BURGHWALLIS CHURCH the Pool with crutches and stout staffs. It is said that the virtues of the Askern sulphur water were first discovered by the local farmers, who made use of them for the cure of cattle diseases. Historically or archasologically Askern has little importance. There is a tradition that a Saxon force under Hengist was defeated by the Britons on the plain outside the village, and an entry in the chronicles shows that it was pawned to the Jew money lenders at York during the reign of King John, but there is no mention of it in the Domesday Book or in the poll-tax of 1378. The land lying along the south bank of the Went between Askern and the Don is absolutely flat, with nothing but farmsteads and coppices to break the level. There is little that is interesting between this point and Thorne, which lies some miles to the eastward. At Fenwick, on the road between Askern and the Don, there was once a moated hall, the seat of the feudal family of Hastings, which is now a farmstead. Matters of more interest will be found by turning southward through the hawthorn-bordered lanes towards Thorne, the church tower of which forms a prominent land mark across the level country. On the west side of the Don, almost facing it, is the village of Fishlake, whose church, with its battlemented tower and Norman porch, is interesting and picturesque. Here the traveller crosses 248 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE ON THE DON NEAR THORNE the Don, into which the Went has poured itself a few miles further north, and which is here a broad and rather sluggish river, running between high, treeless banks. The district which stretches along the east bank of the Don from its junction with the Dutch River to Doncaster is usually described under two terms — Thorne Waste and Hatfield Chase — but it is to all outward appear ance one vast monotonous plain, level as a table, intersected by dykes or morasses, with nothing rising above it but the roofs of Thorne and Hatfield, the towers of village churches, and such wood as the district possesses. All over this expanse, now admirably drained and very fertile, Roman coins, skeletons of animals, and giant oaks have been unearthed at various periods. Ere the drainage operations were carried out, all hereabouts was fen and mere, wherein there was such fishing as modern anglers know nothing of. Between Thorne and Tudworth there was a mere with twenty fisheries, each of which paid tribute of a thousand fish to the Lords of Conisborough. When Leland was in this district he was obliged to go about his business of itinerant in a boat ; Camden speaks of it as being a collection of river islands floating on wide stretches of water. Thorne is now drained and dry, and elevated to the position of a market-town. Its streets and HATFIELD 249 HATFIELD market-square are quaint and picturesque, and its fine old church can be seen for miles across the level country. Much more interesting than Thorne, full of interest as it is because of its very situation, is Hatfield, one of the oldest places in this corner of Yorkshire. It lies, a picturesque and stately village, on the road between Thorne and Doncaster, about a mile and a half from the east bank of the river. Here in 633 Penda, the Pagan king of Mercia, overcame and killed Eadwine, first Christian king of Northumbria. After the Conquest the entire district was trans formed into a magnificent hunting-ground by the Earls of Surrey, who frequently entertained the Plantagenets there. Hatfield was the birthplace of William, second son of Edward III., and the haunt of the hermit, William of Lindeholme, who wisely built his cell around a spring of clear water. This cell, situate in the midst of the Chase, was existing about the middle of the last century, and contained an altar of hewn stone. The most im portant and picturesque figure in connection with the history of Hatfield is that of Thomas Hatfield, the Prince-Bishop of Durham, who at the battle of Calais was followed into the field by fifty knights, a hundred and sixty gentlemen-at-arms, and eighty archers. He held the see of Durham for thirty-six years, and died at his palace in the Strand in 1379. Leland 2 E 250 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE describes the manor-house of the Hatfields as being somewhat meanly built of timber, and naively adds that although wood was scarce in those parts there was an abundance of red deer in the fens and moors close by. Edward Baliol, the deposed King of Scotland, is said to have died in this house in 1363, having lived there in strict retirement for many years. Nowadays the chief charm of Hatfield is its church, an edifice of singular grace and beauty. In shape it is cruciform, with nave, north and south aisles, and transepts, with a lofty tower rising from the intersection, and a chancel with spacious side chapels. The architecture is of various periods. Of the original church there are traces in the massive piers of a central tower which was built on the same foundation and lines as the present one. The west doorway and south porch are twelfth century ; the arcades of the nave of the Transitional period ; the north aisle is fourteenth- century work, and the nave, roof, and clerestory, fifteenth. Between Hatfield and Doncaster there are several other churches which possess features of interest. That of Kirk Sandal, close by, at a little distance from the Don, possesses a remarkable monument to the memory of John Rokeby, sometime Archbishop of Dublin, whose heart and bowels are interred at Halifax, and his body here in the place of his birth. The village and church of Armthorpe, nearer Doncaster, originally belonged to the Abbey of Roche, on the south-east border of the county, and the surrounding country was strictly preserved by the Abbots as a hunting-ground. All these villages are thickly enclosed at the present time by woods and cop pices, which hem the road and the river on both sides as they approach the town of Doncaster, whose high church tower looms up impressively above the roofs and gables of the town. CHAPTER XII Doncaster and its Neighbourhood DONCASTER IN HISTORY — ITS MODERN ASPECT— ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH THE RACECOURSE- — SPORTING ASSOCIATIONS OF DONCASTER SPROTBOROUGH CONISBOROUGH CASTLE— TICKHILL CASTLE — SAND- BECK ROCHE ABBEY — THE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE BORDER. I )N spite of the fact that it has for many years been chiefly valuable in the economy of modern life as a great rail way centre, there is scarcely any town in Yorkshire which is so thoroughly suggestive of what we commonly call the good old days as Doncaster. Round about its railway station everything betokens the busy life of commerce, but once within its wide streets and squares the traveller finds little to remind him that the old order of things has entirely changed. The High Street itself is powerfully reminiscent of the past, and so are the ancient inns with their bow windows, their spacious halls and rooms, and their great stable-yards, where there always seems to be room for multitudes of horses. A good deal of this old-world air is doubtless preserved to Doncaster by the fact that it is first and last a sporting town, and the centre of the most characteristic agricultural district in Yorkshire. Nothing that the railway folk have done has altered Doncaster's traditional attitude as the chief rallying-place of north-country sportsmen and the favourite market-borough of its surrounding villages. It only needs a continual coming and going of coaches and post-chaises, with some return towards a more picturesque style of dress on the part of loungers along its broad pavements, to transform the High Street into the gay thoroughfare it must have been in the days of the Georges. In the early Roman Itineraries Doncaster is mentioned under the names of Dano and Danum, and it is probable that it was the first station of any importance in the district called Maxima Caesariensis. The Celts called it Caer-Daun, the Saxons, Dona-cercen or Dona-ceaster ; the first charter of Richard I. denominates it as Danecastre. The name is evidently 252 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE derived from the river Don. The only Roman remain of any importance ever found here was discovered in a cellar in St. Sepulchre's Gate in 1781, and proved to be an altar, finely sculptured, and dedicated to the Deae Matres. In the time of the Saxons, Doncaster was frequently used as a THE HIGH STREET, DONCASTER place of residence by the Kings of Northumbria, who had a palace here. Bede speaks of a Christian church being built here by Paulinus about 630. The town suffered severely during the marauding expeditions of the Danes, and was almost entirely destroyed by them in 794. In Domesday Book it is mentioned as being a part of the Manor of Hexthorp, and was apparently but a small place, but being given by William the Conqueror to his half-brother Robert, Earl of Mortaigne and Cornwall, it began to increase in size and prosperity. Its new possessor, having more English manors than he well knew how to manage, dealt them out amongst his favourite retainers, and Doncaster fell to the share of Nigel de Fossard, whose family was eventually elevated to noble rank by union with the Barons de Maulay. There appears to have been considerable trade done in the town between the time of the Conquest and the beginning of the thirteenth century, when it was totally destroyed by fire. A speedy re building must have taken place, however, for in 12 15, eleven years after the fire, King John issued a command to the bailiffs of Peter de Maulay to enclose Doncaster with a stockade, and to build a bastion upon the bridge THE DONCASTER FAIRS 253 for the better defence of the town. Doncaster began sending members to Parliament in 1295, its first charter having been granted about a century earlier by Richard I. During the Aske rebellion in the reign of Henry VIII., thirty thousand malcontents were encamped at Scawby Leys, near Don caster, and the conference between the king's representatives and the insurgent leaders took place in the town. Being on the main road between London and the north, Doncaster was constantly visited by the ruling sovereigns. In 1644 Charles 1. dined with Lady Carlingford at her house in Doncaster, and afterwards went to church. The Earl of Manchester made his headquarters in the town after the battle of Marston Moor, but there does not appear to have been any stirring incident of the Civil War at Doncaster, and its subsequent history is entirely uneventful, so far as battles and similar matters are concerned. As a modern market-town Doncaster is famous throughout the whole county. Its various charters and grants paved the way for excellent regulations, and for due provision in the way of fairs. At the beginning of the present century some quaint rules as to the conduct of fairs and markets were in force. Twice a year, at the April and August fairs, the corporation used to examine the cloth and ale measures. The corn-market was announced by the ringing of a bell at eleven o'clock, and was closed promptly as the clock struck one. Two persons were told off to ascertain the price of corn, and to make a return thereof to the mayor, or town- clerk. Statute laws peculiar to the borough and soke of Doncaster made strict provision for the diameter and depth of measures — a bushel was to measure 18^ inches in diameter and 8 inches in depth ; a quartern 7^ by 3^. By an assize of bread set for the borough in March 1804, it was provided that the various priced loaves should have definite weights — the halfpenny loaf was to weigh 3 oz. 4 dr. ; the sixpenny loaf 4 lbs. 8 oz. 6 dr. What happened if the baker gave short weight does not appear, but if any one sold a roll of butter weighing less than 1 8 oz. it was confiscated and given to the poor. Certain bye-laws made in the previous year show that the corporation were worthily minded to keep their town in good condition. Townsfolk were bidden, on pain of a penalty of five shillings, to scrape, cleanse, and sweep the pavement in front of their houses at least three times a week, and not to allow their pigs to run in the street or to feed them with offal, carrion, blubber, or blood therein on pain of ten shillings fine. All of which, no doubt, has helped Doncaster to its present cleanly appearance. Modern Doncaster is a busy and thriving place. Since the establish ment of the Great Northern Railway the town has increased in area and population to a very considerable extent. At the beginning of the present century it contained 1246 houses, 1260 families, 2447 males, and 3220 females — a total population of 5697. In 1891 the number of inhabited houses had increased to 5391, and the population to 25,936. The fact 254 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE that Doncaster is a principal depot of the Great Northern Railway, and that an extensive plant employing vast numbers of workmen has been set up there within the last half-century, is mainly responsible for this. This Company, indeed, has spent large revenues in the town since it first con- THE MARKET-PLACE, DONCASTER nected Doncaster with the south and north. Its line to Doncaster was opened immediately before the beginning of the September race-meeting of 1849, and within a few years the Great Northern establishment here had grown so considerable that the Company built large schools for the children of their employees, while a little later some of the shareholders subscribed amongst themselves for the cost of a new church. Of the 4000 new houses which have been built during the present century a large number are used by railway servants and mechanics, and certain districts of the town are accordingly quite modern. The centre of Don caster, however, is practically unchanged. Some of the principal buildings are of handsome and even distinguished appearance. The Mansion House contains some excellent portraits of George III., the Marquis of Rockingham, Earl Fitzwilliam, and various local celebrities, and the Guildhall possesses a striking portico. There is a large Market Hall, set in an extensive square, a Wool Market, a Corn Exchange, a Corn Market, and a Cattle Market, and a Town Hall, which was enlarged about twenty years ago. The principal street, High Street, which is really part of the Great North Road, and runs through the town from the Racecourse to Frenchgate, is an ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH 255 exceptionally striking thoroughfare, and is said to be the finest street between Edinburgh and London. Utter strangers to Doncaster, who have had no opportunity of learning anything of the town's history, are invariably surprised to hear that the magnificent church of St. George, whose massive proportions have gained for it the title of the finest parish church in England, is not an ancient but quite a modern edifice. Even at close quarters it has an ancient appear ance. It was built on the exact site and on the architectural lines of the old church, destroyed by fire in 1853. Dr. Miller, a learned Doncaster topographer, considered that the eastern part of the old church was built during the reign of William the Conqueror, probably in 1071, and from his general description of it the architecture seems to have been of a mixed nature. In dimensions the old church approximated somewhat to the new one, as a comparison of the following figures will show : — Old Church. Length 154 feet Breadth 68 „ Height 78 „ Height of Tower .... 141 „ New Church. Length . Breadth . Height . . . Height of Tower 168 feet 92 .. 75 » 172 „ The old church contained some fine stained glass and a great deal of handsome oak work, and its chapels and chantries were full of quaint and curious monuments. Dr. Miller mentions a remarkable altar tomb, known as that of Robin of Doncaster, which stood immediately behind the reading- desk, and bore the following inscription : — Howe, Howe, who is heare ? I, Robin of Doncastere and Margaret my feare. That I spent, that I had, That I gave, that I have, That I left, that I lost. a.d. 1579. Quoth Robertus Byrkes, who in this world did reign Threescore years and seven, and yet liv'd not one. When the old church was burnt in 1853 national sympathy was quickly aroused, and -£40,000 were subscribed for the building of the new church within a very short period of an appeal being issued. The new church, built from the designs of the late Sir Gilbert Scott, was consecrated in October 1858. It is in the Early Decorated style of architecture, and consists of nave, north and south aisles, transepts, chancel with chapels, and a tower at the intersection. Its interior is splendidly decorated, especially in the Forman chapel, where the ornamentation is very rich and elaborate. The entire cost of the new church was ^43,000, exclusive of that of the great organ, erected four years after the consecration. The most striking .feature of the church, perhaps, is the east window, which 256 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE contains eight lights, and measures 47 feet 6 inches by 22 feet 6 inches. In the centre is a circle 15 feet in diameter, with a border of twelve smaller circles with radiating compartments. The effect of this window, as seen from the interior of the church, is particularly rich and beautiful, and is further heightened by the magnificence of the reredos, which is chiefly composed of red Spanish marble. To most Englishmen Doncaster is chiefly associated with horse-racing and butterscotch — two matters which have no apparent connection, but which are inextricably bound up together with the name of the town. There are few natives of the north who cannot attach an instant and a definite significance to the words Doncaster and St. Leger, and fewer still who have not at some time or other purchased a packet of the famous sweetstuff. As to the races, they, as it were, are the very breath of life to the old sporting town. While they are being held, Doncaster wakes up to a quicker and livelier existence. The inns are full, the stables are crowded out, and the High Street is busier than the Strand at mid-day. How long race-meetings have been held at Doncaster it is scarcely possible to ascertain with any pretence to exactitude, but there are entries in the town records which show that there was a stand on the course about the beginning of the seventeenth century. The famous St. Leger, as popular in the north country as the Derby is in the south, was founded by General St. Leger in 1776, and the grand stand was built in the following year. Oddly enough, Dr. Miller, in writing about Don'caster ninety-four years ago, makes no mention of the St. Leger, though he gives particulars of some other races and of the recently-built stand. In his time the September meeting was evidently regarded as the great social event of the year in the north of England, and he gives it as the common opinion that more families met each other at Doncaster races than at any other place in the kingdom. The race- week was then a whirl of amusement and gaiety. In the morn ing there was hunting, in the afternoon the races, in the evening a play at the theatre, and after that a ball at the Mansion House. A great deal of this is now changed by the new conditions of travelling. It is still the fashion with some regular habitues to lodge themselves within the town for the race-week, but most of the patrons of the meeting are to be found at the country seats outside, and the social diversions which were common a hundred years ago are now almost entirely discontinued so far as Don caster itself is concerned. There is no annual event in Yorkshire so typical of the county, or so well worth attending by those who wish to see York- shiremen en masse as the St. Leger Day, and there are few sights in England so eminently characteristic of the Englishman's love of sport as the High Street is on a bright September morning, when folk of all sorts and condi tions pour along it in vast numbers to see the racing on the Town Moor. *1 From a Photograph by Messrs. Valentine &• Son DONCASTER PARISH CHURCH 258 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE II The stretch of country lying between Doncaster and the south-eastern border of the county is particularly rich in interesting villages and places, and a man of leisure might easily spend weeks in wandering about it with absolute certainty of being amply rewarded by what he observed. Every village and hamlet has some point of interest in its history, and something worth seeing in its church or hall or manor-house, and those in the ¦¦;. . . • _. .^. .*fcw 9Sre---- ¦¦¦"¦' shire which can show such a record of association with their lands as the Stapletons, and few estates of which it can be said that they have never changed hands by sale for eight hundred years. It was probably during the days of the first Stapletons that the original hall or manor-house of Carlton was built. The present house, Carlton Towers, was recently rebuilt by one of the Lords Beaumont, of whose family it may further be remarked that it is one of the few in England which has maintained the ancient faith unbroken. Ill On either side of the Aire between Snaith and Ferrybridge there are several villages, almost entirely absorbed in agricultural pursuits, which present features of some interest. As regards their picturesque aspect they are all much alike — little colonies of farmsteads and cottages, with here and there a church and a hall, and with certain modern features which contrast sharply with the ancient ones. Their appearance varies with the seasons : on a wet dark day in winter it is oddly repulsive and chilling ; in summer, under a blazing sun, the red roofs glitter with a fierce heat, and HECK AND HENSALL 325 the glare of it on the bleached straw-ricks half blinds the eye. Like many other rural districts in Yorkshire this is at its best just after harvest, when the hardest working-time of the year is over, and man and nature alike have made up their minds for a period of rest. At that time a wandering excur sion from one village to another is not only enjoyable but full of charm. Of the villages on the south bank of the Aire at this point there is a good deal of historical fact to record. Pollington, a few miles from Snaith, and like it originally an Angle clan-station, is a place of considerable anti quity. It is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey, but it was assessed under the poll-tax of 1378 at -£r, 17s. 8d., which was contributed by one hundred and eight persons. It had then a sworn constable, Hatkyn Benste, and two town officers, Sawader Monggs and John Saunderson. One Thomas de Metham, son of Sir John de Metham, imparked Pollington during the reign of Edward II. That he was possessed of large estates in the county is shown by the report of an inquisition held at Howden in 1472, whereby the jurors declared that he was "seised in demeasne as of fee of the mannre of Metham, Pollington, Eggburgh, Vernall, Hyrst," and some other fourteen or fifteen estates in Yorkshire. From the Methams Pollington passed to the Saviles of Methley (Earls of Mexborough), who take from it the titles of Baron (1753), and Viscount (1766). Two villages or hamlets not far from Pollington — Heck and Hensall — are much men tioned in the Harleian MSS., though neither of them is referred to in Domesday. There is mention of an action in 1225, in which Agnes, late wife of Hylard de Hecke, was complainant and John Hecke defendant. In 1269 Alan de Keythorp made plea before the King against Robert de Crepings for " 8 markis, 4s. 8d., od," as rent for certain lands in Heck and other places, of which Hermeshalle — -Hensall — was one. Neither Heck nor Hensall were very important places at the poll-tax of 1378 — Hensall paid 12s. 2d., and Heck a shilling less. One of the contribu- tories at Heck is described as a " carnifex " ; another as a " marchand de bestes." There is more of historical interest at Kellington, another agricultural village, a short distance from the south bank of the Aire, which is somewhat picturesque in its aspect, and possesses a fine church and a churchyard wherein there are one or two interesting tombstones. In Domesday Book this place is referred to as Chelincton or Chellingtone, and as having prior to the Conquest been in possession of Baret, the Saxon, who was one of the most considerable owners of land hereabouts. At the poll-tax of 1378 Kellington paid .£1, os. 4d., shared in by fifty-nine persons, of whom two smiths, a cooper, and a webster seem to have been the most considerable folk in the place. The most remarkable object of curiosity at Kellington is a stone in the churchyard which is now so worn by time that it is only just possible to make out some traces of its sculpture. Dodsworth thus describes it as it appeared in 1651 : — " There is an ancient Monument whereon is a long -f-, on the one side 326 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE the pourtraicture of a man with a dog at his feete, on the other side the likenesse of a flying serpent, which serpent was slaine by one. Birde a Shepheard in a place called the South wood . . . nere by a close called Hermit Rode . . . which Shepheard was likewise killed by the serpent, and this monument erected to his memory. There were of this name remaining at Egburgh within this 4 years, which were vsually buried there vnder the said stone and their predecessors likewise." Local inquiry into the legend of this curious monument seems to prove that Dodsworth' s account of its origin is practically correct. An attempt has been made to connect it with serpent worship, and local tradi tion has mixed up witchcraft and the black art with it, but there seems to be little doubt that it is the tomb of a shepherd who lost his life in conflict with a serpent which had made depredations upon his flock, and that his dog perished in the same encounter. The villages on the north bank of the Aire between Snaith and Ferrybridge are more numerous than those on the south, and not behind them in historic interest. In picturesqueness they surpass them. Few excursions in this corner of the county are so charming as one which may be made from Snaith to Ferrybridge by way of Carlton, Temple Hurst, the Haddleseys, and Birkin. The road is carried across the Aire by a bridge at the southern extremity of Carlton, and turns away ere the village is fairly reached into a lane which is not so good for a cyclist as for a pedestrian, though its surroundings are welcome enough to both. The land hereabouts is rich and fertile, and though somewhat flat is relieved from monotony by its woods and coppices, which are thick and numerous. At Temple Hurst the traveller finds himself once more in touch with historical association. There now stands here, close to the river, a some what remarkable-looking farmstead with an octagonal tower, and other architectural features not usually associated with farm buildings. This place was largely erected from the remains of a house of the order of Knights Templars, which was built on the same site about the middle of the twelfth century. After the Dissolution it fell into the hands of the Darcy family, one of whose members, Thomas, Lord Darcy, was beheaded on Tower Hill for his share in the insurrection known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. More historical association meets the traveller at the next village he comes to in his wanderings by the Aire, which hereabouts winds and BIRKIN CHURCH BIRKIN— HADDLESEY 327 twists in extravagant fashion. Haddlesey, a scattered place which divides itself into three parts, East Haddlesey, Chapel Haddlesey, and West Haddlesey, was another of the hunting-grounds wherein the kings loved to disport themselves. There is record of Edward III. ordering seven tuns of wine to be stored at his hunting-lodge at Haddlesey in 1340, and that he must have been there a good deal during the next two years may be deduced from the fact that the order was repeated in 1342. Of hunting-lodge or lordly pleasure-house there are now no signs anywhere in the Haddleseys — they are quiet, wayside villages which see little of life save in the traffic which rolls past on the highway from Selby to Doncaster. From Haddlesey to Birkin the traveller may pass along a pleasant winding lane surrounded by fertile country under high cultivation. At Birkin he will meet with the most interesting village of the district. The village itself is small — a mere collection of picturesque old houses shadowed by ancient trees — but it is important, as possessing one of the most re markable churches in Yorkshire. It stands on the edge of the village in the midst of rich meadows, and in summer forms a picture of rare charm. Its architecture is almost purely Norman, and the fabric comprises a nave, south aisle, chancel with semicircular apse, a tower, and a porch. It is supposed that the most ancient part of the building — the nave, chancel, apse, and lower portion of the tower — was erected by the Knights Templars of Temple Hurst about the same time they founded their own house (1 150), and that the other parts of the church were added during the reign of Edward II. The south doorway is a magnificent example of Norman work. It consists of an arch of four series rising from four columns ornamented with sculptured capitals. In the decorations of the arches are to be seen the beak-head, zig-zag, and pellet carvings so characteristic of Norman art. Within the church there is some fine carving in the arch of the chancel, and in the north wall of the nave an effigy, recumbent and cross-legged, which is supposed to have some reference to the Knights Templars, though it is much more probable that it was placed there in memory of either a De Birkin or an Everingham — -two families which had their residence here for a long period, and sent various members to the Crusades at one time or another. 4*Q^ N. # i ; V 'L-C3P f; i 1 - •¦'" yy C A - — .. ¦ '. '''Si ., r . -1 * M € N / ^ % ' ; hi h t ' ;i 0 ft V " ¦ .1 r 1' L >"5°- ^V)/ NOAH'S ARK TOMBSTONE IN BIRKIN CHURCHYARD 328 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE IV There are few excursions at any point of the lower Aire more pleasant than the walk from Birkin to Ferrybridge along the southern edge of Byram Park. The river lies in the valley at some little distance ; Knottingley, the most important place so far reached, may be indicated by a mass of dun- coloured smoke in the near distance ; Ferrybridge, most interesting of old coaching centres, is concealed by the woods which cover the north bank of the Aire at this point. The land on either side the winding lane which leads westward from Birkin is given up to agriculture until the edge of Byram Park is reached. This domain, the seat of Sir John Ramsden, Baronet, is one of the finest in the county, and has belonged to the Ramsden family since the sixteenth century. The park is extensive and thickly wooded, and the house, which is of modern architecture, contains some fine pictures. Close to the western extremity of Byram Park the village of Brotherton is perched in picturesque confusion on the side of a gentle hill largely pierced by lime-quarries. At first sight it seems squalid and mean, and here and there its houses and cottages appear to be fast falling into ruins. Round about its church there are several ancient houses which are suggestive of other days. Here in days gone by the Archbishops of York had a manor-house ; and here, in a house close by the church, Queen Margaret, the second wife of Edward I., was delivered of the prince known afterwards as Thomas of Brotherton. From Brotherton to Ferrybridge the path leads along the Great North Road over a flat stretch of land known as Brotherton Marsh, which at flood-times is often submerged. Ere long the traveller reaches the great stone bridge over the Aire, and stands on ground as classic and historic as anything in the neighbourhood. To his left, looking southward, lies Knottingley, once a Celtic settlement, and the headquarters of Oliver Cromwell during the siege of Pontefract Castle, and now one of the busiest and dirtiest of minor industrial towns ; to his right a long, low ridge of rising ground hides Pontefract and its castle from his sight. Few people seeing modern Knottingley for the first time would imagine that it has a history dating back to Saxon times. Originally an Angle clan-station, it was held in the time of Edward the Confessor by Baret, holder of much other land in the neighbourhood. From his hands it passed into those of Ranulph, surnamed Grammaticus, who here had a plough and a half in demesne, six villanes and two bordars having similar holdings. At the poll-tax of 1378 it was assessed to the value of 18s. 6d., shared in by seventy-three persons. The most considerable tax-payer was one Betissa Broune, who kept a handmaid and a man-servant, and was amerced in the considerable sum of 6d. In the manor-house here Queen Elizabeth once spent a night, and her sleeping-chamber is shown to this day. The present aspect of the place is curious and significant. There FERRYBRIDGE 329 '¦¦:,$&& FERRYBRIDGE are few signs of antiquity, but abundance, in the lower part of the town, of dirt and of sordid life. Of the two churches one is modern ; the other, dedicated to St. Botolph, is chiefly remarkable for the non descript character of its architecture. Within the town everything seems to be disfigured by the potteries, chemical works, and glass works which make it a busy trading centre ; and yet — so curious are the vagaries of nature — a glimpse of it from some distance off along the northern bank of the Aire is not only effective, but absolutely picturesque. The traveller's attention, however, will be most closely directed to Ferrybridge, which, once one of the busiest of coaching centres, is now a place of vast silences. Here it was that William the Conqueror made his first ford over the Aire. Here Leland found a well-built bridge of seven arches and a town well builded. Here in one of the great roomy hotels, which are now divided into dwelling-houses or given up to decay, Sir Walter Scott stayed more than once, and here various of his heroes and heroines took their ease as they journeyed north or south. How many folk of distinction have passed through this place and over the bridge up or down the Great North Road it is impossible to imagine. It is said that at least thirty stage-coaches passed through the village every day, in addition to numberless private vehicles. That it had all the importance in the old days of the road which a great station possesses now in the days of the rail is evident from the size of the stables lying behind the old inns. Until a few years ago one of the last of the post-boys was living in Ferrybridge, and to the time of 2 P 330 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE his death was able to recall memories and stories of the days when the highroads were as thick with coaches and post-chaises as the railroads are to-day with expresses. At a little distance from the bridge, looking westward, stands Fryston ¦ fl i) -,-¦ .„ '- Hall, a house made famous through its association with the memory of Richard Monckton Milnes, first Baron Houghton. It stands in the midst of a thickly-wooded park which lies on the south bank of the Aire, with the little church of Ferry Fryston at its south-east corner. Few English country houses have such memories of social and literary life as Fryston Hall. Here Lord Houghton was wont to assemble the most remarkable groups of celebrities — wits, poets, painters, statesmen. It would be diffi cult to think of any name of note amongst the catalogue of celebrities of the middle of this century which is omitted from the visitors' list in this interesting house, which, with its enormous library and fine collection of English pictures, is an ideal resort for men of literary tastes. Naturally the memory of Lord Houghton still clings to everything about Fryston, where, in spite of his busy life in the outside world, he spent a great deal of time. At his death in 1885, his funeral was attended by one of the most remarkable gatherings ever seen in a country churchyard — men eminent in the worlds of art and letters, science and politics, stood side by side with rustic folk who had heard wonderingly of the dead man as a poet, but who knew him best as a Yorkshireman like themselves, and regretted him as a true friend and a good neighbour. CHAPTER XVII Pontefract and its Castle PONTEFRACT : ITS ORIGIN AND NAME ITS HISTORICAL RECORD THE DE LACY FAMILY— THE EARLS OF LANCASTER RICHARD II. AND PON TEFRACT THE THREE SIEGES OF PONTEFRACT CASTLE MODERN ASPECT OF THE TOWN — ITS ANTIQUITIES. ^T a short distance south-west of the Aire at Ferrybridge the land rises somewhat abruptly until it assumes the form of various ridges or low hills, the bases of which must at some period of the world's history have been washed by the sea extending inland along the line now followed by the Humber. On one of these eminences stands Pontefract, one of the most interesting and remark able market-towns in the county. From the north its position is sharply defined ; from the east its castle, now largely fallen into ruins, is seen to be set high above the church and houses clustering at its foot. Few castles of the north were so strongly placed as this, and few towns occupy a finer natural position. Few towns, again, have a lengthier or more interesting record in history. Probably, in prehistoric days, the site of a Brigantian settlement, there is no doubt that in the time of the Roman occupation it was a station of some little importance, though its then name has long since been forgotten. As to the origin of its present name there has been much fierce controversy amongst the learned in such matters. One authority declares, with some show of contempt for all who differ from him, that the real name of the place is Pomfret — a name by which the town is almost universally spoken of throughout the district. There appears to be no doubt, however, that the proper name of this ancient borough is Pontefract, and that its usual designation of Pomfret is a colloquialism, though certainly one of great antiquity. Mr. Richard Holmes, a native of the town, and one of the most learned and pains taking of Yorkshire antiquaries, gives in one of his works a list of thirty- nine various spellings of the name, four in Latin and thirty-five in English, each with its proper authority and derivation, and sums up the whole matter by affirming that the only name recognised by the civil and ecclesiastical records of the town is Pontefract. 332 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Of Pontefract, as of many another Yorkshire borough of its size, enough might be written to- fill a folio as mighty as those in which the knight of La Mancha was wont to take such interest. Its first historical record has close connection with yEthelburga, wife of Eadwine, the first Christian King of Northumbria. yEthelburga received the manor now known as Pontefract as part of her dowry, and it was called, after a modi- PONTEFRACT fication of the second syllable of her name — Tada — Taddenescylf or Tateshale. At Taddenescylf in 946 Eadred was acknowledged King of Northumbria by the Northern Witan. At the time of the Domesday Survey the place was known as Tateshall, and it had then for some time been the urban centre of the Wapentake of Oswald's Cross, or, as it is now called, Osgoldcross. The Domesday Survey reports it as the principal place in the district. The lord had four ploughs in his own demesne, and the sixteen villanes and eight bordars had eighteen ploughs amongst them. There were sixty burgesses and sixteen cottars in the place, with a church, a priest, a fishery, and three mills. By the time of the poll-tax of 1378 the town had increased in importance and in wealth. Its total assess ment amounted to ^14, 8s. iod., which was contributed by 608 persons, the majority of whom were called upon for 4d. each. There were at that time over a hundred artisans in the town, and that it also possessed some THE DE LACY FAMILY 333 wealthy folks is evidenced by the fact that four persons paid 6s. 8d. each. There was then a great variety of trades in the place, and amongst the rest that of selling papal indulgences, which was followed by two pardoners. The population at that time included sixty-four single women or widows as householders, and thirty-eight bachelors or widowers. Amongst the curious names preserved in the poll-tax list is that of Alice Mustard- maker — the other names are very similar to those which obtain in Ponte fract at the present day. After the Norman Conquest the manor of Tateshall passed into the hands of Ilbert de Lacy, upon whom William conferred vast tracts of land in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Nottinghamshire. Little is known of Ilbert, and there are no records of his rule over his extensive dominions, nor of his death. Nor is much known of his successor Robert, save that he founded the Cluniac Monastery of St. John in Pontefract somewhere about the end of the eleventh century, and that tradition says he estab lished the Augustinian Priory at Nostell a few miles away. No very clear records of the De Lacies, indeed, are obtainable until the time of Stephen, when one Henry de Lacy, who secured various rights and privileges for the borough and made himself famous by founding Kirkstall Abbey, was in possession of the manor. Of his son, Robert, even less is known. With him the male line of the De Lacy family became extinct. Although so little is known of this family it is abundantly evident that it was one of the most powerful of its time, and that it exercised a vast influence in the neighbourhood of Pontefract, and left many memorials of its power and piety thereabouts in the shape of the Norman churches which are found on all sides. From the male line of the original De Lacy family the estates passed to the female. The heiress, Albreda, daughter of Albreda de Lacy (daughter of the first Robert) and Robert de Lissours, had been married twice, first to Richard Fitz-Eustace and afterwards to William Fitz- Godric. When Robert de Lacy, last male of his line, died in 1 193, Albreda handed over the family estates to her grandson, Roger Fitz-Eustace, who immediately assumed the name of De Lacy. Thus a second De Lacy family came into existence. Roger de Lacy appears to have been a man of power and influence, and a great benefactor to the Church. Pontefract remained in the hands of his successors until the beginning of the four teenth century, when another failure in the male line left it in the hands of Alice, daughter of Henry de Lacy, and wife of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster. Within the next few years Pontefract Castle, which had steadily grown into one of the most formidable strongholds of the North since its foundation by Ilbert de Lacy in 1080, was the scene of various important episodes in history. The Earl of Lancaster, who was one of the chief opponents of the influence exercised by Gaveston upon Edward II., and who was accordingly much disliked by that monarch, fell 334 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE into Edward's power at Boroughbridge in 1322, and was brought to his own castle of Pontefract and there arraigned before the King and a small court of peers. He was condemned to death, and immediately executed on the eminence now called — in his memory — St. Thomas's Hill, his body being afterwards interred by the monks of St. John's Priory on the right hand of the high altar of their church. The estates were naturally sequestrated to the Crown, but on the fall of Edward II. they passed back into the hands of Earl Thomas's brother, Henry, through whom they eventually passed to his son, another Henry, who in 1350 was created Duke of Lancaster. He dying without male heir left his estates to his daughters, one of whom, Blanche, married John of Gaunt. The other daughter, Maud, after being twice married, died childless, and thus the entire duchy and possessions, extending over eighteen counties, came into the hands of John of Gaunt through his marriage with Blanche. In 1362 the title of Duke was formally conferred upon him. More honours, however, were in store for "time-honoured Lancaster." His first wife dying in 1369, he married three years later Constance, Queen of Castille and Leon, and assumed the title of King. There is evidence that he and his second wife spent much time at Pontefract, and that in 1385 they fortified and defended the castle against the barons who were in opposition to John's policy. Another King, and this a King of England, was ere long to make acquaintance with the castle of Pontefract. After his deposition from power by Henry of Bolingbroke, Richard II. was removed from one strong hold to another until at last he was brought to Pontefract. That he died here is certain : of the exact manner of his death no one can speak with any real authority. Not even the Parliament knew where he was, nor whether he was alive. Froissart says in his " Chronicles " that he saw Richard's litter covered with black, and having black horses and trappings, and that he had died in the Tower of London. That, of course, is erroneous ; the King died at Pontefract, after suffering imprisonment at the Tower, at Leeds, Pickering, and Knaresborough, to each of which places he was conducted in turn. But whether he died from violence, or starvation, or from suicide, no historian can say with any certainty. A hundred years ago they used to show a chamber in Pontefract Castle wherein were the marks left by the axes of Sir Piers of Exton and his associates. This was in the Round Tower ; the chamber now pointed out as that in which Richard met his death is in the Treasurer's Tower. After Richard II. several kings came to Pontefract on one errand or another. Henry of Bolingbroke was here on various occasions. James I. of Scotland was brought here, a prisoner, in 1405, and remained here in captivity until 1424, amusing himself during his enforced seclusion by writing his poems entitled " The King's Quhair " and " Christ's Kirk on the Green." Charles, Duke of Orleans, was brought here from Agincourt and kept a prisoner in the castle from 141 7 to 1430, and it was here that he PONTEFRACT CASTLE 335 composed his book of " Ballads and Sonnets," a copy of which is in the British Museum. Edward IV. lay here on the eve of the battle of Towton, where the Yorkists finally overthrew the Lancastrians. Here Earl Rivers, Lord Richard Gray, Sir Thomas Vaughan, and Sir Richard Hawte were executed by order of Richard III. without trial. Henry VIII. was here in 1540 ; James I. in 1603, and again in 1616 ; and Charles I. in 1625, little thinking, no doubt, that in twenty years from then Ponte fract Castle would be making a bold stand against the Parliamentarians on his behalf. The castle of Pontefract has at various times undergone fierce beleaguer ing, and it says much for its strength as a fortress that after the final siege in 1649 it was still a formidable pile which might easily have been made stronger than ever. At the time of the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, it was defended by the Archbishop of York and Lord Darcy against Robert Aske and his fellow insurgents. This siege, however, was somewhat of a farce, for the Archbishop and Darcy were in sympathy with their besiegers, and soon surrendered the castle to them. A siege of real importance began in August 1644, when the principal Royalists of the neighbour hood, under the leadership of Sir Richard Lowther, garrisoned the castle against the Parliamentarians. The latter were at first under the command of Colonel Sands, but Sir Thomas Fairfax superseded him ere the end of the year, and began a close investment of the place on Christmas Day. Active hostilities went on until the 19th January 1645, when the falling of the Pyx Tower made a breach in the walls. Great loss was occasioned to the besieging forces on the same date by the explosion of a magazine. Mining and counter mining was carried out freely by both sides, and the defenders are said to have sunk over one hundred pits outside the walls, from which their mines were worked. The resistance to Fairfax and his forces was determined. Even when reduced to starvation they refused to surrender. On the 1st March Sir Marmaduke Langdale appeared at the head of a Royalist army of 2000 men, whom he had marched rapidly from Oxford, and gave battle to the besiegers under Lambert and Forbes. He drove them towards Ferrybridge, and thence to Sherburn and Tadcaster, and CURIOUS TOMBSTONE : PONTEFRACT 336 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE gC m una rtr. ARMS OF THE NEVILES, PONTEFRACT OLD HALL having thus raised the siege he retired to Don caster and then to the south. Not unnaturally, the Parliamentarian forces rallied on his departure, and the second siege be gan on the 21st March. Four months later the Royalists were starved out and surrendered to Sir Thomas Fairfax. Fairfax left Colonel Cotterel in possession of the castle, with a garrison of only I oo men. For three years things were quiet, but in June 1648 the Royalists effected a clever capture of the castle by strategy, and occupied it with a garrison of their own of over 500 strong, Sir John Digby being made governor. In October the Parliamentarians reinvested it, and for some time Oliver Cromwell personally conducted the siege. When he retired southwards Lambert took his place. This siege lasted until March 1649, by which time Charles I. was dead and the Common wealth established. At last the garrison, reduced by starvation and sickness to a fifth of their original number, capitulated, and within two months the castle was demolished. Of the modern aspect of Pontefract it is difficult to say all that ought to be said. It is at once an ancient and a modern town, and the evidences of its modernity and antiquity are mixed up together in the usual fashion — something hideous in the shape of new brick and mortar often obscuring a picturesque and interesting object. Naturally, the chief show-place of the town is the castle, which is very carefully looked after by the municipal authorities, who put the ruins in order some years ago, and laid out the grounds in tasteful fashion. There is little to show that the castle was once one of the strongest fortresses in England. When Leland visited the town about the middle of the sixteenth century he speaks of the castle as containing eight towers. Of these practically nothing is left but a fragment of the keep, a massive pile of masonry wherein are some dungeons, a well, and various winding stairways. From the mound at the top of the keep there is a magnificent view of the surrounding country. Since the exca vations of the castle were carried out the kitchens and various other offices and apartments have been laid bare. In the great square or courtyard there is a stairway of stone leading to an underground apartment which is commonly called the Magazine, but which was probably the cellar. In the PONTEFRACT OLD HALL 337 east corner of the square are the remains of a chapel, but these and all other remains are mere fragments of what the castle once was. Lying at the foot of the castle is the church of All Saints, once one of the largest and most beautiful of Yorkshire churches, but now a pic turesque ruin, save for the tower and transepts, which were restored sixty years ago. It suffered much spoliation at the time of the siege, but its roofless nave is still magnificent in its proportions, and there is some very interesting twelfth century work traceable. The other church of the town, - PONTEFRACT OLD HALL St. Giles's, in the Market-place, is chiefly modern in its architecture, though it dates back to Norman times. Of the monastic houses with which Ponte fract was once well supplied — houses of friars, black, white, and grey — there are now no traces, but there are few towns in the kingdom which is so well equipped with almshouses and hospitals for old people, founded by pious benefactors at various times. There is a strange remnant of anti quity in Southgate, in the Hermitage of Adam de Laythorp, a recluse of the fourteenth century, which takes the form of a cave cut out of the rock, wherefrom a descent of seventy-two steps leads to a well. At the east end of the town stands a fine old Tudor house known as the Old Hall, which is said to have been built out of the ruins of St. John's Priory. In the town itself there are some quaint old houses, and one or two ancient streets, but they are largely hidden by modern buildings. Its outskirts are pleasant and picturesque, but it has grown so largely of late years 2 Q 338 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE that its suburbs wear an eminently modern appearance. One feature of its surroundings will at once strike the observant traveller — the ex traordinary fertility of its soil, and the high cultivation to which it is subjected. All around the town there are extensive market-gardens which are often highly rented, and evidences of great productive power are seen everywhere. A considerable portion of the land thus used is given up to the growing of the liquorice plant, which takes three years to develop to maturity. Until a few years ago the staple trade of Pontefract was in malt ; but malting, though still carried on by certain old-established firms, has given place to the manufacture of the lozenge known as the Pontefract cake, which is made from liquorice and sent out in large quantities to all parts of the world. It is commonly said that the liquorice from which the cake is manufactured comes from Spain, and that the raw material grown in Pontefract never enters a local manufactory. That, however, is much in keeping with the characteristics of the town. Ponte fract, in many respects, is a paradox. One of the most Puritan of places, it is also as keen a sporting town as Doncaster itself, and keeps up three good race meetings every year. It has some fine, wide streets, and some disgraceful slums. And finally, it was the last place in England to hold out for the Crown, and the first borough in which an election under the Ballot Act ever took place. CHAPTER XVIII The Aire from Castleford to Leeds GLASS HOUGHTON— CASTLEFORD, THE ANCIENT LEGIOLUM — LEDSTONE AND LEDSHAM KIPPAX — METHLEY OULTON ROTHWELL SWILLINGTON TEMPLE NEWSAM WHITKIRK THE OUTSKIRTS OF LEEDS. I jHE highway leading from Pontefract to Leeds by way of Castleford and Methley runs for some distance after leaving the first-named town along the boundary of Pontefract Park, a wide expanse of open ground whereon the race meetings are held. The traveller perceiving how straight the course of the highway is at this point, will not be surprised to know that he is on one of the most famous Roman roads — that which ran from Danum (Doncaster) to Legiolum (Castleford), and thence across the Aire to Isurium (Aldborough), whence it passed through Durham and Northumberland to the Scottish borders. CASTLEFORD 339 At that time most of the country hereabouts, stretching from where Ponte fract now stands as far as Leeds, was thickly covered with deep woods, grouped under the title of the Forest of Elmet. Traces of these woods occur on both sides of the Aire, but especially along the ridge which runs on the north bank of the river from Ledstone to Temple Newsam. Round about Castleford, however, there is little wood and few evidences of anti quity. Hereabouts, indeed, some curious wave of modernity seems to have swept all the old traces of the past away. The half-way village between Pontefract and Castleford, Glass Houghton, has a history which goes back to Saxon times, and yet it bears little more than the appearance of a modern village whose picturesqueness is being spoiled by the necessary results of coal-mining. At the time of the Domesday Survey, Glass Houghton, then called Houghton, would appear to have been of more importance than its more ancient neighbour of Castleford, for the latter is not mentioned. Houghton, owned by one Lewin, had a taxable area of six carucates, whereon were employed four ploughs, and it paid .£5 to the king. It would also appear to have exceeded Castleford in size when the poll-tax of 1378 was levied, for its contribution amounted to 17s. iod., while its neigh bour only paid 15s. iod. Since those days, however, things have changed, and Glass Houghton is now a wayside village, largely given up to the miners who work at the neighbouring collieries. The first aspect of Castleford from the highroad near Glass Houghton is not calculated to strike the traveller as being either attractive or interest ing. There is too much red brick of the new and glaring order, too many chimneys pouring forth smoke, too many glass-kilns looming up against the sky, to make a pleasing prospect for the lover of the beautiful. And yet the setting of the town is picturesque enough. To the north rise the woods of Ledstone and Kippax ; east and west the valley of the Aire opens away with wide prospects ; southward the land mounts to a hillside crowned with wood. But not even these surroundings can make Castle ford beautiful. It is first and last an industrial town — a place where glass bottles are turned out by the million, where earthenware is produced by the hundred thousand, where coal is torn from the bowels of the earth without ceasing, where everything seen and heard suggests labour. Through its midst winds the Aire, dirty and dismal, to be joined to the west of the town by the even dirtier Calder. Not even in the precincts of the church — built within the boundaries of the Roman camp — nor at the bridge over the Aire — successor to that which Leland describes in his " Itinerary " as having seven arches — can the traveller persuade himself into believing that Castleford is either beautiful or antique. And yet the place is ancient enough. In the early days of the Roman occupation it was a place of considerable importance, and that the Romans were much here is proved by the fact that large quantities of Roman remains have been found in the town and its immediate vicinity at various 34° PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE times. Dr. Whitaker, remarking upon the fact that the sites of the Roman stations seem to have been literally sown with coins of the period, adds that at Castleford he found considerable gleanings of the harvest which had already been gathered in — amongst them a pretty intaglia on a cornelian, and a scarce denarius of Caracalla, with a lion on the reverse. Urns and specimens of paving have been dug up here freely, and at Altofts, close by, there was unearthed, some years ago, an altar dedicated to the Goddess of Victory. The camp is supposed to have been garrisoned by a detachment of the famous Sixth Legion. After the departure of the Romans, the name of the place was changed from Legiolum to the Saxon Chesterford (the ford of the camp). There is little record of it in the ancient chronicles, but it is somewhat significant that Roger de Hoveden calls it a city. That it was not a very important place in the fourteenth century is evident from the fact that only forty-two of its inhabitants were assessed under the poll-tax, and that the most considerable contributory was a spicer, who paid i2d. It seems to have remained a village of comparative insignificance until the present century, when the development of the glass-bottle manufacture changed it from an unknown place to one of the busiest industrial centres in the county. Sordid and labour-stained as the immediate surroundings of Castleford are, it takes little time to escape from them into some of the most pic turesque and charming scenery along the banks of the Aire. From the village of Brotherton to Temple Newsam, within sight of Leeds, the land on the north bank of the river rises from the valley to a gentle height, and for most of the dis tance between the places named it is covered with wood, amidst which are half-hidden more than one fine old country house, and several old- fashioned villages. On the south side of the river the scenery is not quite so attractive, but round the villages of Methley, Oulton, and Woodlesford there are some charming vistas of thoroughly characteristic landscape, and some notable houses and mansions. This ..-.v.. **Wi--WV,<, . ..... LED-STOAIE LEDSTONE AND LEDSHAM 34i :':1 » — -- "¦'<"" ; 3yp^^iDnrTNL>w*'^ik ^S^^ml m ¦y-'m ;rTr,i: .:;j...', : ¦ .. '« *r« t«. ^_'. ¦¦''"'*•; 1 1'1 ! :; j- -¦ ••< sSTSi , <•;.*-; 3f; . 'J forgetting that the earth close by is honeycombed with coal-pits, and that the roads and paths are grey with coal-dust. Methley, a considerable village lying on the highroad betwixt Leeds and Pontefract, is one of the most interesting places in the neighbourhood. It -. 344 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE possesses a peculiarly notable church, and its great house, Methley Park, the country seat of the Earl of Mexborough, is placed amidst sur roundings of great sylvan beauty. The manor of Methley was of some importance at the time of the Domesday Survey. After the Norman Con quest it passed into the hands of the De Lacys, one of whom, Henry, last of his line, procured from the king a charter granting to Robert Woodhouse, Warden of St. Nicholas' Hospital in Pontefract, and to his successors in that office, free warren on the De Lacy lands in Methley, Houghton, Castleford, and Hardwick. Early in the fifteenth century the Methley domains passed to the Watertons, one of whom, Sir Robert, brought the Duke of Orleans prisoner from Agincourt, and kept him at Methley in safe cus tody. The present house was built by the Saviles about the end of the sixteenth century, but it has been much restored and added to. The arms of the Saviles appear on the front, with the date 1588 beneath them, and in the great dining-hall are various family portraits, amongst them that of Sir Henry Savile, one of the most famous of learned Etonians. More memorials of the Savile family are to be seen in the church, which is more interesting than the hall. It is dedicated to St. Oswald, whose effigy, somewhat mutilated, stands in an arch over the south porch, and consists of nave, south aisle, chancel, and tower, topped by a graceful spire. There are now no traces of the original Norman church : the present fabric is principally of the Decorated and partly of the Tudor styles of architecture. Its interior is well worth a long examination. In the Waterton chapel at the end of the south aisle there are several fine monu ments to the family of that name. The most notable is the altar tomb of Sir Robert Waterton, who died in 1424, which pre sents the effigies of himself and methley church Cecily, his wife, in alabaster. ,., &n Ilfl,. V, ¦ ' rf OULTON 345 the Another monument, close by, commemorates Lionel, Lord Wells, who was slain at the battle of Towton. In the same chapel, which was very carefully restored by the Earl of Mexborough some years ago, there are several monuments, with effigies of the Savile family. Between the chapel chancel fine screen, p e ndicu- wh e r eon played the the Saviles, gills, the and the wells. Here in the win- church are of ancient still rich colour to howbeauti-fabric must its best TOMBS IN METHLEY CHURCH in andthere is a in the Per- lar style, are dis arms of the Scar- Watertons, W o m b- and there dows of the fragmentsglass work, enough in suggest ful the have been days. The surroundings of Methley church are charming and pleasant, and the old houses near it are reminiscent of less prosaic times than the present. The highway from Methley to Leeds passes along the edge of parks and woods in an almost continuous line until Oulton, another picturesque village which possesses some quaint old-fashioned houses, is reached. A lane winds pleasantly away round the north-east corner of Oulton Park to Rothwell, a somewhat out-of-the-way place which is now given up to industrialism in the shape of coal-mining and stone-quarrying, but which was once a favourite resort of sport-loving kings. The Plantagenets had a hunting-lodge here, of which some slight trace still remains. The church is ancient and interesting, and that it may have had an Anglo-Saxon origin is suggested by the fact that two stones bearing unmistakable carved work of that age were found in it some years ago. But beyond the church and the few stones which mark the site of the kings' hunting-lodge, there is little in Rothwell to give evidence of its antiquity. The village to the west of Oulton, Woodlesford, is one of those places of which it is difficult to predicate anything from its outward appearance, save that it is now entirely given up to industrial life. Here and there in villages like this the traveller comes across some old house or wayside cross or curious rem nant of a bygone age, but for any authentic account of their history he searches in vain. Close by Woodlesford, however, and only separated from it by the Aire, crossed at that point by a handsome stone bridge, lies a place around which many historical associations centre. From the 2 R 346 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE railway line near Woodlesford station the traveller, looking northward, sees a stately house rising in the midst of a well-wooded park which slopes gently down to the river. This is Swillington House, one of the largest COTTAGES AT OULTON country seats in Yorkshire. The original Swillmgtons were seneschals of Pontefract Castle, and one of them, Sir Robert Swillington, built or com pleted the tower which still remains there, though in a ruinous condition, about the end of the fourteenth century. After they passed away as a family they were succeeded first by the Hoptons, then by the Darcys — of which family Lord Darcy, a moving spirit in the Pilgrimage of Grace, was a member — and finally by the Lowthers, in whose hands Swillington has been for a long time. The house is of considerable size, and though it has been modernised and bears few signs of antiquity, it is eminently suggestive of the territorial power of a great landlord. But Swillington had its history long before the feudal times when the lords who gave their names to it were mighty men in the land. Somewhere across its acres passed one of the minor roadways of the Romans ; somewhere about the position of the present bridge Penda and his army were defeated by Oswiu and the Northumbrians in 655. When the rival armies met Oswiu sought to bribe Penda by the offer of costly presents. Penda refused these things with scorn, and Oswiu remarking that since the pagan would not accept them he would offer them to God, vowed that if the battle went in his favour he would build twelve monasteries in his kingdom and dedicate his SWILLINGTON 347 daughter to the religious life. Whether this vow nerved his followers on to the attack which they had striven by bribes to avert does not appear, but victory rested entirely with Oswiu, and Penda was slain in the fight. According to the ancient chronicles, the Aire was at that time swollen with heavy rains, and in a state of flood, and the remnants of Penda's defeated army were swept away, by it to destruction. More memorials of the past, though of a much later date, are preserved in Swillington church, which stands on high ground at the top of the hill rising from the bridge, and is built chiefly in the Early English style. Here are memorial chapels sacred to the Lowthers of Swillington, and to the Greens, formerly of Leventhorpe, close by. Dodsworth speaks of visiting Swillington church in 1620, and finding there a remarkable display of heraldic devices emblazoned in the windows, but he gives no inscriptions, nor does he particularise as to the monuments of the Swillingtons, which he also noticed — a lament able oversight, considering that these relics of the past have now entirely disappeared. It is only a short distance from Swillington along the brow of the hill to one of the most notable of Yorkshire show-places — Temple Newsam— where traces and traditions of the past are as plentiful as the trees by which it is surrounded. An itinerant who visited Temple Newsam early in the present century remarks of it that it is one of the most 348 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE magnificent brick houses ever built in England. Its magnificence, however, does not altogether depend upon the exact material used in its erection. It enjoys a fine situation on the height of a long and gradual slope from the valley intersected by the Aire, and though it is in close proximity to such a great industrial city as Leeds, and in the very midst of a coal mining district, there is nothing within its bounds to suggest anything but rural peace and all the luxurious ease which is connected with a great house. Originally founded as a preceptory of Knights Templars by Henry de Lacy about the middle of the twelfth century, Temple Newsam only remained a religious establishment until 131 1, when it was surrendered by the preceptor, Godfrey de Arches, the order being dissolved at the same time. About twenty years later it passed into the hands of the Darcys, having in the meantime been held for brief periods by the Crown, by Sir Robert Holland, and by the Countess of Pembroke. The Darcys held it until the reign of Henry VIII., when the participation of Lord Darcy in the Pilgrimage of Grace and his subsequent execution on Tower Hill led to its sequestration by the Crown. Henry gave it to Matthew Stuart, fourth Earl of Lennox, who had married the King's niece, Margaret Douglas, daughter of Archibald, Earl of Angus, and Margaret Tudor, Queen-Dowager of Scotland, and daughter of Henry VII. The Earl and Countess of Lennox resided at Temple Newsam for some time, and it was here that their son Henry, Lord Darnley, afterwards husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, and father of James I., was born in 1545. Temple Newsam in this way eventually came once more into possession of the reigning sovereign. It passed from James I. to Esme Stuart, who seems to have soon disposed of it to Sir Arthur Ingram, a farmer of customs in the city of London. In 1629 Ingram was engaged in pulling down the old house and building the present mansion of red brick. As it now stands Temple Newsam is a place of very considerable size, built around three sides of a quadrangle in the midst of splendid gardens which are enclosed by the park and woods. Over the windows in the quadrangle is a series of armorial bearings appertaining to the lords of the manor from the De Lacys to the Ingrams. On the roof above is a balustrade or battlement of stone formed by the letters of the following inscription : — "all glory and praise be given to god the father, the son, and the Holy Ghost on high. Peace upon earth. Good will towards men. honour and true allegiance to our gracious king. Loving affection among his subjects. Health and prosperity within this house.'' The interior of Temple Newsam, which is now the residence of the Hon. Mrs. Meynell Ingram, is in keeping with the magnificence of the exterior. The picture-gallery, 120 feet in length, contains one of the finest collections of paintings in the county, including a series of family TEMPLE NEWSAM 349 • , J *" f! ! Ml' r? ^"¦rl; ' H ¦C.'-.'i ip,: .,.-. :--V.V^.'- «W'-. ;»jy^S ^u. . '-i.~ ,!'•'¦ "• A ¦¦« linpkyNtvfM • '"» ¦' ¦ 1- . , -J r . , 350 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE portraits from Sir Arthur Ingram's time to the present day, and some notable examples of the Dutch, Spanish, and Italian schools. Some further memorials of the various holders of Temple Newsam may be seen WHITK1RK CHURCH in Whitkirk church, a fine old edifice of the Tudor period, which stands a little distance across the park to the northward, and which further contains a mural tablet in memory of Smeaton, the builder of the Eddystone Lighthouse, and an elaborate altar-tomb bearing the effigies of Robert de Scargill and his wife. From the high ground on either bank of the Aire as it nears Leeds the traveller may obtain views of the principal industrial city of the county which will vary in effect exactly as the weather happens to be good or bad. The most picturesque approach into Leeds from the lower stretches of the Aire, is undoubtedly along the ridge which rises beyond the north bank of the river, by way of Whitkirk, Halton, and the suburb of Knowsthorpe. But from the top of the hill known as John o' Gaunt's, on the south of the Aire, there is a prospect of Leeds which should not be missed by any one who has an artistic perception of the bizarre and the impressionist. John o' Gaunt's is a stiff rise in the highway leading from Oulton to Leeds, with a sudden drop on the other side into Leeds itself. From the highest point Leeds may be seen rolled out like a map — a vast, curious expanse of grey and dusky shades, melting here and there into lighter tints and LEEDS 351 tones, deepening at other points into sombre masses of darkness. It is not so interesting on a clear day, when towers, spires, chimneys, and furnaces are defined against the sky, as on some October afternoon, when the autumn moisture keeps down the smoke and steam, and the whole city lies under a canopy of sombre colours. Seen under such conditions it forms a picture eminently suggestive of its true significance, the picture of a great human hive wherein human bees are for ever toiling amidst conditions and surroundings in sharp contrast with the less arduous existence of those who live their lives amongst the woods and fields outside. CHAPTER XIX Leeds in History EARLY HISTORY OF LEEDS LEEDS UNDER THE NORMANS MEDIAEVAL LEEDS — LEEDS UNDER THE STUARTS — THE FIRST CHARTER LEEDS IN THORESBY'S TIME PROGRESS OF LEEDS DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY THE STAPLE TRADE OF LEEDS EDUCATION AND PRO GRESS IN LEEDS — THE LEEDS PRESS — SOME LEEDS WORTHIES. I )0 the traveller who enters the city of Leeds utterly ignorant of either its history or its importance as one of the greatest manufacturing centres in England, nothing will at first sight suggest to him that he is in the heart of one of the most ancient towns in the northern shires. The highways and railroads by which men gain access to Leeds run past suburbs which are devoted to patently modern dwellings, or through districts wherein everything gives evidence of toil and industry. If the working districts of Leeds are not quite so forbidding as those of the northern edge of Sheffield, they are still suffi ciently unlovely to give the observer a feeling of something like depression. The long rows of small houses, wherein people seem to herd rather than to live ; the vast, grimy mass of some iron foundry or engineering plant ; the roaring furnaces and tall chimneys vomiting flame and smoke to a dun-coloured sky — all these first evidences of Leeds conspire to give the new-comer a sense of greyness in more ways than one. Nor is the interior of the city remarkable for striking effect or for beauty of architecture. Like every other great industrial centre of the county it has plenty of evidences of wealth and resource in its public buildings. It is impossible 352 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE to go through its heart without perceiving that millions of money have at one time or another been laid out on halls and galleries, churches and museums, streets and squares. But, as in the case of all similar growths, Leeds possesses no one street which compels the admiration of the be holder, no square wherein one would care to linger for the mere joy of looking around, no building magnificent or striking enough to rouse a feel ing of awe or delight. It is simply a great industrial city wherein the wheels of the world's work are for ever running. Of the beginnings of Leeds no historian or topographer has so far been able to say many things. It is an ancient centre of population, but there are few remains of antiquity to be found in it. It was a Roman station, but there is next to nothing left which shows the enquirer that its story goes so far back. About the origin and derivation of its name, the learned in such matters have held more than one discussion. Thoresby, most important of Leeds topographers, considered the origin of town and name to be found in Loid, or Caer Loid Coit, a Roman or Brigantian town standing in the midst of a deep forest, where, according to Nennius, an early British writer, the Romans had built one of their numerous strongholds. Bede mentions it — " Regio quce vocatur Loidis " — but it seems most probable that the Loidis he refers to was not the Leeds we know, but the district surrounding it. Of the exact position of the place in its very early days, nothing is positively known, but many antiquarians have put forward various surmises as to the situation of the rude houses, and perchance the fortress, which formed its beginnings. In all proba bility — and especially if its origin were Roman — the first Leeds stood some where about the point where the bridge at the foot of Briggate now spans the Aire, thus having on one side of it the main stream itself, and on another one of its tributaries, the Sheepscar Beck, running thither from the north. But all this, and whatever might be written of Leeds during the centuries previous to the Norman Conquest, is almost entirely matter of conjecture or deduction. To the learned in such matters, much may be inferred from the names of streets, and there are streets in Leeds bearing names which would seem to prove a considerable antiquity. And yet so various are the explanations of the erudite in these excursions into the mists of the past, and so vast the controversies which an examination of their conclusions might open up, that it is not wise for any journey-maker through the land to pause in order to speculate on the chances of deciding whether Boar Lane was really the old Borough Lane, or whether a trace of the Roman occupation is found in the fact that another thoroughfare is still known as the Calls. More dependable facts in connection wtth the history of Leeds are placed within one's reach by the records of the Domesday Survey, that priceless setting-out of the land which enables modern folk to gain some idea of what the kingdom was like in the days of the Conqueror. One THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 3S3 LEEDS FROM JOHN O'GAUNT'S HILL learns from that that in King Edward the Confessor's time the land in Leeds was held by seven thanes for seven manors. There were twenty- seven villeines (farmers), and four sokemen (tenants under the lord's juris diction), with the same number of bordars (cottagers), and these people had between them fourteen ploughs. There was a priest there, and a church, and a mill of the value of 4s., and there were ten acres of meadow land. In Edward's time the value had been £6 ; at the time of the Survey it was .£7 — a sum equal to about ^100 of the present currency. Places which are now part of Leeds, such as Armley, Bramley, Beeston, Headingley, Hunslet, and Chapel-Allerton, are also mentioned in the records of the Survey, and most of them seem to have been in the possession of the De Lacys. Ligulf had Armley of Ilbert de Lacy ; Ilbert himself held Chapel- Allerton, Bramley, and Beeston, all of which, say the ancient chroniclers of these doings, were waste ground. Naturally, the population of the district was sparse : Whitaker estimates that that of Leeds itself was about 270. All the land round about belonged to the De Lacy family, by grant of William the Conqueror, and was no doubt administered from the castle which Ilbert was then engaged in building at Pontefract. Ere long Ilbert de Lacy subinfeuded his lands in Leeds to Ralph Paganel, Paynel, or 2 s 354 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Pagnal, whose name still survives in those of Pannal, near Harrogate, Hooton Pagnell near Doncaster, and Newport Pagnall in Buckingham shire. The Paganels held Leeds for a lengthy period, and their name is closely connected with the earliest records of the city. In 1089 Ralph Paganel gave the advowson of the church of Leeds and of the chapel of Holbeck to the Priory of the Holy Trinity at York, of which he was the pious founder. Of the life which was lived in Leeds under the rule of these Norman lords there are few records. The charter granted by William Paganel to Drax about the beginning of the twelfth century indi cates that there were mills in the town at that time, and other records seem to show that the cloth trade, long the staple industry of the district, had already begun there, but of the social life and customs of the Leeds folk of those days history says nothing. One of the most interesting of the earlier documents relating to Leeds is the charter granted by Maurice de Gaunt, into whose hands the Paganel lands had passed, to his burgesses of the town in 1207. It provided that the burgesses should be free ; that each should have his burgage and half an acre of land about it, in consideration of a rental of sixteenpence, pay able at the feasts of Pentecost and St. Martin ; that a burgess should have the right of sale to another, buyer and vendor each paying a penny fine to the lord ; that a chief officer, known as prastor, should collect all rents and tolls ; and that there should be a court of justice wherein " twelve lawful men " should sit in judgment on their fellows' offences. A charter like this, rude and elementary as it was, would naturally lead to the development of the town and to the widening of the liberties and privileges of its inhabitants, but there are few records of its history during the next century which tell how it improved and prospered. In 1217 it passed from the possession of Maurice de Gaunt into that of Ranulph, Earl of Chester, who made the charter-giver prisoner at the battle of Lincoln in the spring of that year. By the middle of the century the lands of Leeds were back again in the hands of the De Lacys, in whose keeping they remained until the marriage of Alice de Lacy with Thomas, the famous Earl of Lancaster, united the De Lacy estates with those of the Duchy of Lancaster. Even at that period Leeds was a place of very small dimensions and importance. A few years after the execution of Earl Thomas at Pontefract, then probably the chief town in the district, the bridge over the Aire, originally a Norman structure, was rebuilt, and the chantry of Our Lady was erected at its corner. This was in 1327 — ten years later the crown gave permission to the Leeds folk to pave their streets and make better provision for keeping them in order. This would seem to argue that Leeds was becoming a place of some note, but there is abundant evidence to show that fifty years later it was still one of the most insignificant centres of population in Yorkshire. The poll-tax of 1378, which shows very plainly the relative commercial importance of towns and villages, proves that Leeds in the fourteenth century was quite a DEVELOPMENT OF THE CLOTH TRADE 355 small place. Instead of being — in point of population and importance — the foremost town in the Riding, it occupied a place far down on the list of towns round about. At that date Pontefract was the most important town, and paid the largest gross amount, and had the most considerable population, while Doncaster, Sheffield, Selby, Tickhill, Rotherham, Wakefield, Snaith, and Ripon followed it in relative order. Then came Leeds, paying only .£3, os. 4d., having fifty families and some single persons to make up its population. Tadcaster, Knaresborough, Bawtry were less important ; Bradford, Huddersfield, and Halifax had scarcely any importance at all. In Pontefract there were fifteen merchants of wealth, standing, and emin ence ; Leeds possessed but one, and he only paid the miserable sum of 1 2d Nor does there seem to have been any great improvement in the status of the town during the next hundred years after the poll-tax of 1378, for in a document relating to a chantry erected in 1470 the town is described as being near Rothwell. The history of Leeds during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is of an exceedingly meagre nature. One hears nothing of it during the days when men were taking sides with either the Red Rose or the White. There were battles and skirmishes all round about its neighbourhood, but there is little to show that its people concerned themselves very greatly with the fortunes of either Yorkists or Lancastrians. It may be that they, with that commercial acumen which is not wholly eradicated from their modern de scendants, were giving all their attention to the development of their trade. That the staple industry of Leeds — the manufacture of woollen cloths — did develop during these centuries is certain. Leland, coming to Leeds about 1536, and finding little to remark of it save that it possessed " a reasonably- well builded " parish church, and was not so " quick " (enterprising) as Bradford, had still learned enough of its history to enable him to add that it was mostly dependent upon the cloth trade. Camden, whose account of the country was written some seventy years later, goes further than Leland, and remarks of Leeds that it had been "rendered wealthy by the woollen manufacture." About that time the population of Leeds must have increased considerably from its proportions at the time of the poll-tax of 1378, for in 1574, according to the registers of the parish church, there were 133 baptisms, 32 marriages, and 78 burials solemnised in the parish. As regards the value of the town about that time the only document which seems to indicate it is the official return of the value of the tithes of the parish at the time of the Dissolution. These amounted to ^48, 2s. od., which may be supposed to represent an approximate value of ^480. It would appear, therefore, that though history has very little to say of Leeds in mediaeval times, the town had steadily grown to be one of importance, and had outstripped some of its neighbours by the middle of the sixteenth century. 356 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE II Leeds, as men now know it, may be said to have had its modern beginnings under the Stuarts. Certainly the first of them, James, whom Wardell, a local historian, speaks of as an improvident king, sold the royal mills at Leeds Ferrers and his Philips, and ap- vexed the towns- But the first royal Leeds enjoyed from Charles I. after the king's elevation to the cipal borough from that year. the charter is esting. It sets tomary legal the town of THE ARMS OF LEEDS to one Edward partner, Francis pears to have folk by doing so. charter which came to its people in 1626, the year accession, and its dignityof a muni- therefore dates The wording of somewhat inter- forth in the cus- phraseology that Leedes in the county of York is an ancient and populous town, and that its inhabitants have for many years past skilfully exercised the art and mystery (curious and felicitous phrase !) of making and working woollen cloths, commonly called in English " northern dozens," to their perpetual praise and the great benefit of the crown's revenue, and that of late divers other clothiers of the same town have begun to make deceptive cloths to everybody's harm and prejudice, and that therefore in future the town shall be governed by an alderman, nine burgesses, and twenty assistant-burgesses, with power to act foi" life or during good behaviour, and to fill up vacancies as they arise. It may be of interest to give the names of the first alderman and burgesses, who were appointed by the king : — Alderman. Sir John Savile, of Howley Hall, Knt. Ralph Hopton. John Hodgson. Robert Benson. Burgesses. Seth Skelton. Samuel Carson. Thomas Metcalf. Common Council Men. John Harrison. Richard Sykes. Joseph Hillery. Benjamin Wade. Ralph Cooke. John Cooper. Robert Peace. William Stable. William Burfield. Edward Killingbecke. Henry Watkinson. George Dixon. John Jackson. George Killingbecke. Francis Jackson. Abraham Jenkinson. Ralph Crofte. Christopher Preston. William Marshall. Walter Haycocke. James Sykes. Peter Jackson. John Hargrave. LEEDS DURING THE CIVIL WAR 357 One provision of the charter thus granted by Charles I. will at once strike the reader as being in strict keeping with the tenets of the Stuarts as to government. The entire management of the borough was placed in the hands of the crown's nominees for life, with power to fill up whatever vacancies occurred, and thus the townsfolk had no voice in the management of their own affairs. It is a curious thing that the Leeds people of that day should have accepted this charter with anything like thankfulness, for most of the great cities and towns in the country had long enjoyed freedom of election and the other privileges given to important corporations. In 1643 the principal manufacturers of cloth in the woollen district, of which Leeds was now one of the most important towns, sent a memorial to Charles I. at York, begging him to make his peace with the Parliament — or, rather, since such language would have been deemed impudent, to be reconciled to his rebellious subjects. Of this very good counsel Charles took no heed, and ere very long Leeds was garrisoned for the king. Some little time later a Parliamentary force of considerable strength was led against the Leeds garrison by Sir Thomas Fairfax. It advanced from the neighbourhood of Bradford, crossed the Aire at Apperley Bridge, and marched to Woodhouse Moor, whence Sir Thomas despatched a messenger to Sir William Savile, the Royalist commander, bidding him surrender without more ado. Sir William, being fairly well off for men and arms, flatly refused, whereupon the two belligerent forces commenced hostilities. Some hard fighting took place near the newly-erected church of St. John, at the top of Brig'gate, and around the entrenchments and works which had been thrown up near the parish church. Near Leeds Bridge the fortunes of the day were decided : the Parliamentarians carried all before them, and Sir Thomas Fairfax was presently able to send a despatch to the Speaker announcing the capture of Leeds. For a time the town was garrisoned for the Parliament, but it was recovered for the king later on, and held by the Royalists until the battle of Marston Moor, when Charles's chances in Yorkshire were irretrievably lost. Whitaker, in his " History of Leeds," gives extracts from the registers of the parish church respecting the mortality caused in the town by the various engagements during the Civil War, from which it would appear that the number of deaths were com paratively few. A much more prolific cause of mortality arose in 1644—45 in the shape of an epidemic or plague which carried the people off by hundreds. At first nobody seemed to know what it was that was occasion ing so many sudden deaths. In August 1644, 131 persons were buried, but the doctors of the town did not attach any great importance to the fact. Within a few months no less than 1325 deaths had taken place, and by the time the disease had been stamped out there were few families which had not suffered severe loss. One of the first acts of Charles II. after his restoration was to give the townsfolk of Leeds a new charter, which was an improvement on that 358 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE THE MOOT HALL, LEEDS granted by his father. It provided for a mayor, twelve aldermen, twenty- four common council men, a recorder, and a town clerk. It established quarter-sessions ; a gaol ; a market on Tuesdays and Saturdays ; and gave authority to the corporation to impose taxes, appoint constables, and to virtually fix the price of food and drink. The mayor was to be elected every year by members of the council, but the previous charter's provision as to life-government of aldermen and council men was upheld. The first Mayor of Leeds was Thomas Danby ; the first Recorder, Frances White ; the first Town Clerk, George Banister. It is to be supposed that between the granting of this charter and the end of the seventeenth century Leeds continued to increase in size and importance. Some idea of what manner of place it was at the beginning of the eighteenth century may be gained from the accounts which Thoresby gives of it in his Ducatus Leodiensis, a work of intense interest, but not entirely dependable upon in some matters, as, for instance, in his references to a castle in Leeds, where no castle ever existed. In his account he speaks of a manor-house, standing near Mill Hill, and surrounded by a park, wherein he imagined "a famous castle" to have stood in the Norman days. Near the manor-house there was a THORESBY'S DESCRIPTION OF LEEDS 359 hospital or almshouse accommodating sixteen poor people, and close by a chapel, built by the Leeds Nonconformists in 1672 on the site now oc cupied by the present Unitarian Church. He speaks of Boar Lane as being a sort of suburban approach from the town to the park, and as con taining a good many gentlemen's houses, to wit, those of Sir William Lowther and other persons of position and substance. Of Briggate he observes that it was ancient and spacious, and contained several of the old burgage houses, as well as affording space for the holding of the cloth market. In Briggate, too, stood the Moot Hall, with a pillory and stocks not far away, and near it was a market-cross, erected by John Harrison, more memorials of whom were to be seen at the north end of Briggate in the shape of St. John's Church, its parsonage house, and almshouses. Of the parish church he remarks, somewhat quaintly, that it pretended to little style or elegance, but was an emblem of the church militant, black but comely. He speaks, too, of the mills which existed near the river, of divers pleasant mansions and retreats of cloth merchants outside the town, and of hamlets which have long since been swallowed up into the mighty Leeds of the nineteenth century. Perhaps no better notion of the Leeds of a hundred and eighty years ago can be gained than by a contempla tion of the fact that Thoresby's house in Kirkgate, described as a wide and spacious street, opened at the rear into pleasant meadows which stretched away into the country. Ill Just as the history of Sheffield is practically identical with the history of cutlery, so the history of Leeds is chiefly bound up in the history of the manufacture of cloth. It may seem at first thought that there is nothing of the romantic or historic about the making of knives or cloths, but a little reflection will show that the story of how a great trade sprang up may be just as interesting — or, indeed, much more so — than a catalogue of wars and battles. If it had not been for its trade in cloth Leeds would never have risen from its humble position of a tenth-rate town to be what it now is — the richest and most important commercial city of the county. What the earlier history of the cloth trade may have been has never been revealed. Here and there we hear of events in connection with it — of ulnager's accounts, showing how many cloths paid subsidy and ulnage to the crown in bygone centuries, of naughty merchants being fined for making and presumably trying to sell cloth not of the right breadth, of markets held in the open air, and of long journeys for the purpose of buying and sell ing those commodities for the manufacture of which the Leeds folk had, as Charles I. was pleased to say, made themselves justly famous. But it is not until the beginning of the eighteenth century that a definite chronicle of the cloth trade in Leeds begins to shape itself. Somewhere about that 360 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE time the clothiers who came to the Leeds market began to be weary of the exposure to the weather which was necessitated by standing about on the bridge, or at the foot of Briggate, and one easily imagines that there began to be murmurs of dissatisfaction amongst them because no better accommo dation was provided by the authorities. About 1710 the Wakefield people, apparently more enterprising until then than their Leeds neighbours, erected a cloth hall wherein to hold market. This roused Leeds to a sense of danger, and divers of its more prominent citizens determined that due pro vision should be made for the comfort of buyers and sellers. Thoresby notes in his diary — April 22, 171 1 — that he went that day to witness the opening of the new White Cloth Market, in Kirkgate. Here, then, was one step towards the development of the staple trade of the town. The next came in the improvement of means of transit. At that time the York shire roads were capable of much improvement, and everything remained to be done in the way of opening up the county by means of its natural water-ways and the construction of canals. At the end of the seventeenth century goods were transported from one part of the country to another by means of pack-horses, or in waggons under convoy, and the roads were in most cases so badly laid that travelling was slow and difficult. It must have been obvious to the merchants of Leeds and its surrounding neigh bourhood that the river Aire offered chances of transit if only it could be made navigable, and one supposes that it was owing to their moving in the matter that assent was given in 1698 to an Act which provided for the making and keeping navigable of that river and its chief tributary, the Calder. When this work was accomplished, Leeds was placed in direct communication with the east coast, and thence with the continental ports, and its trade began to increase rapidly. A hundred years after the Aire and Calder had been made navigable, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal opened up new fields of trade. Meanwhile, the roads and highways of the county were much improved. Various Acts of Parliament were passed for the making, or widening, or repairing of the highroads between Leeds and York, Leeds and Selby, Leeds and Halifax, Leeds and Huddersfield, Leeds and the Craven district, Leeds and Doncaster, and so to London and the south. The country became connected by a network of good roadways, and as a consequence the trade of Leeds increased. It was while the road- making movement was in full swing that another cloth hall was built in Leeds — the Coloured or Mixed Cloth Hall, a building familiar enough to Yorkshiremen until a few years ago, when it was pulled down to make room for modern requirements. It seems difficult to realise that when the Coloured Cloth Hall was built in 1758, the land on its west side was all open fields, and that it itself stood in the town park, with the old Mill Hill Chapel as its only neighbour in the way of buildings. With the erection of this hall the old custom of marketing in the streets died out, the clothiers now having plenty of accommodation for themselves and their goods under cover. CIVIC IMPROVEMENTS 361 About this time many other of the innovations and improvements which during the last hundred years have made Leeds the most important commercial centre in Yorkshire began to take shape. In 1755 an Act of Parliament was passed which made provision for the better lighting of the streets and lanes, and for the proper paving of the thoroughfares of Leeds, and certain commissioners were appointed to see that its various clauses were duly carried out. This led to the much better keeping of the streets, and to the improved aspect of the town, which one imagines to have been somewhat dingy heretofore. Five years later the bridge over the Aire was improved and widened for the second time during the century, part of the cost being contributed by the West Riding, by order of the magistrates assembled at quarter-sessions, and part by special taxes levied on the Leeds folk. Some notion of what the streets and lanes of Leeds, and of what its bridge had been, until these improvements were effected, may be gathered from the accounts furnished by the chroniclers of those days. The streets themselves were badly paved ; the causeways were separated from them by posts, along the line of which ran a gutter, wherein refuse was freely collected. At each end of the bridge, buildings of one sort or another had been allowed to be erected, with the result that the approaches were narrow and dangerous, and decidedly obstructive of traffic. The widening of the bridge naturally helped forward the trade of the town by giving better access to the carriers and packmen. Further help came by the opening of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, and by the passing of various Acts of Parliament, which provided for the better supply of coal to the town, and by the end of the century its trade and status as a commercial centre had undergone a wonderful increase. This change, however, was as nothing when compared with that which was to come during the present century. In 1796 there were a few steam-engines in use in the woollen mills, and the great factor of modern commercial life had got a footing where hand labour had formerly had all its own way. Machinery was already in con siderable evidence, chiefly in the processes of scribbling and spinning. But at the beginning of the century Leeds, marvellously as it had grown since the days when it ranked low down amongst the Yorkshire towns, was a pigmy compared to its present self. At the census of 1801 it con tained a population of 53,162 inhabitants; at that of 1891 this had increased to 395,546, and it seems probable that the next numbering of the people will find the city well within sight of a population of half a million souls. The causes of this vast increase within a comparatively recent period are almost entirely of a commercial nature. The invention of steam, the improvements in machinery, the opening out of trade with far-off countries, the introduction of railway traffic and the better means of communication, the increase in the output of coal and iron — all these things have helped to make modern Leeds. Her history is not a history of kings and battles, magnificent pageants and stirring episodes, but rather 2 T 362 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE of inventions and improvements, and of a ceaseless care of her own interests as a great trading town. Early in the century the enterprising folk of Leeds were working their tramways from the Middleton collieries to the town by means of steam-engines. For purposes of communication with the great towns they had a perfectly organised system of coaches and post waggons. Until the introduction of the modern railway system a series of goods waggons used to make the journey between Leeds and London in thirty-six hours, passing through the principal Midland towns en route. These waggons went daily ; the passenger coaches passed over the same route in twenty hours, and there were eight of them each way per diem. A similarly good service was in use between Leeds and all other principal towns. When the railways began to be talked of, those interested in maintaining the old-fashioned methods of transit bestirred themselves to even further enterprise, and the various journeys were accomplished in marvellously quick times. But nothing could stop the coming innovation, and long before the century was half over Leeds was the centre of a SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY INSTITUTIONS 363 network of railways, and is to-day linked to all the rest of the kingdom by the lines of the Midland, the Great Northern, the North-Eastern, the London and North-Western, the Lancashire and Yorkshire, and other famous companies. While the folk of Leeds were busily engaged in laying the foundations of their great city in the architectural and commercial senses, they were not oblivious of the fact that the life of an important centre of population should have its mental side as well as its business aspect. Something of a disposition to cultivate literature in Leeds was evinced in the founding of the Leeds Library about 1770. This institution, which contains one of the most magnificent collections of ancient and modern literature in the county, owes its origin chiefly to Priestley, the famous scientist, who at the time of its foundation was minister of Mill Hill Chapel. In 181 8, at a meeting of certain influential townsmen, it was resolved to found the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, and Mr. Chantrell, a local architect, was commissioned to build the hall which has been its home since 1821. In this building, one of the finest of its kind in England, almost every celebrated man of the day has lectured to Leeds folk on the arts and sciences, and in its museum there has always been a collection of scientific objects of the greatest interest. Few institutions have had such a brilliant career as this, and few provincial societies can boast such an array of dis tinguished members. Nor were the working-classes forgotten at the time when provision was made for men of more leisure and education. In 1824 the Mechanics' Institute was founded, and speedily began to flourish and to produce excellent results. Beginning in a somewhat humble fashion, it speedily grew into a sturdy and influential society, and ere long possessed an extensive library, while its schools and classes were in great favour with those anxious to improve themselves, and its lectures well attended by members and their friends. In 1865 this institution had grown so considerably that it was found necessary to set about the erection of the present handsome and spacious Institute in Cookridge Street. Of what has been carried on there in the way of educational work since its opening in 1868 it is here impossible to write. Thousands of Leeds folk of both sexes must have benefited by the advantages offered them by the Institute, and by the Schools of Art and Science which are allied with it. But of educational facilities Leeds has never lacked a sufficiency in modern days. Its Grammar School, founded in the reign of Edward VI., has always enjoyed a great reputation, and is one of the wealthiest foundations in the county. A vast increase of facility for the education of the working-classes naturally arose with the passing of the Elementary Education Act of 1870. The first School Board elected made due and exhaustive inquiry into the educational requirements of the borough, and immediately set to work to supply whatever deficiency had arisen through the increase of population, and during the thirty years 364 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE which have since passed, schools of all grades have sprung up in every district of Leeds. The last thirty years, too, have witnessed the inception and wonderful progress of the Yorkshire College, which from its birth has had a career of more than ordinary success. There are, indeed, few cities or towns of the north of England wherein so many educational advantages are to be found as are always ready to hand in Leeds. The working man who is fond of reading has one of the best equipped free libraries in the kingdom at his service, and the lover of art may gratify his tastes in the halls of the Municipal Art Gallery. All these advantages must needs exercise a considerable influence on the life of the city. It is scarcely possible to form an estimate of the position of Leeds as a great centre of population without taking into account the fact that for a long period of years it has had the advantage of possessing a singularly able local press. It was one of the first towns in England to avail itself of the liberty of the press, and no town or city in the country has more just cause to be proud of the records of its various newspapers. In 1718 Mr. James Lister founded the first local journal under the title of the Leeds Mercury. It ceased publication after a time, but was revived in 1767 by Mr. Bowling, who sold it to Messrs. Binns & Brown in 1794. They in their turn sold it to Mr. Edward Baines in 1800. Its imprint still bears the Baines name, but the paper itself has grown out of all knowledge since its early beginnings. Its great rival, the Yorkshire Post, began its career in 1754 under the title of the Leeds Intelligencer. It was originally founded by Mr. Griffith Wright, and was in the hands of his descendants until 18 18. To the Yorkshireman the names of the Yorkshire Post and the Leeds Mercury are as household words, and there are few families within the borders of the county upon whose breakfast-tables one or other sheet does not make a welcome appearance. Widely differing in their views on most questions, there is one similarity between these two rival organs of public opinion which it is extremely pleasant to note. Both are far removed from the ordinary newspaper in the fact that a distinct literary flavour invariably characterises their editorial columns, and that the term news is held to have a much wider application than most provincial newspaper proprietors attach to it. Of literary associations, indeed, the Leeds press can boast a goodly show. The first Edward Baines was the author of more than one valuable work dealing with the history and topography of Lancashire, of which county he was a native, and his literary abilities were largely inherited by his descendants. Alaric Watts, a poet whose work is now almost for gotten, but whose powers were somewhat highly rated in his own day by some critical minds, was for some time editor of the Leeds Intelligencer ere that journal was united with the Yorkshire Post. Robert Nicoll, another poet of promise, whose writings were a good deal talked of in literary circles sixty years ago, was connected with the Leeds Times, which was edited latef 011 by Samuel Smiles, the author of various works on self-culture. Sir EMINENT MEN 365 T. Wemyss Reid was for some years editor of the Leeds Mercury, and it was during his connection with the paper that its Weekly Supplement, a large sheet with all the features of a popular magazine, was founded. Of evening newspapers Leeds possesses a plenitude in the Daily News, the Express, and the Yorkshire Evening Post, all of which have their chief raison d'etre in the fact that the Yorkshireman is beyond everything a lover of brevity and of sport. Of men who have done something in the worlds of art and science Leeds possesses a list which would not compare unfavourably with her list of those who have triumphed in the world of trade. It is only possible to mention some of their names here, but even so slight a notice is sufficient to suggest much to the minds of those whose eyes fall upon them. Sir William Sheafield was a famous classical scholar, and founder of the Grammar School in 1552. Ralph Baynes, Bishop of Lichfield, 1554, was one of the few Hebraists of his time. Robert Cooke, Vicar of Leeds, 1590, and his brother, Alexander Cooke, who succeeded him in the same office in 161 4, were eminent as controversialists and authorities on patristic literature. Christopher Saxton was geographer to Queen Elizabeth. John Thoresby was the founder of a museum of coins and of objects of natural history, which in his time must have been remarkable. His son, Ralph, is famous as the topographer of his native town, as an antiquarian, a scholar, and a Fellow of the Royal Society, who cultivated art and letters, and all the finer things of life with a real devotion. Of him it may without exaggeration be affirmed that he gave up his whole life to culture and learning, and spared no pains to induce other men to do likewise. Joseph Milner, one of the most learned of authorities on ecclesiastical history, was born in Leeds in 1 744 ; his brother Isaac, whose bent was for natural philosophy, and who ultimately became Dean of Carlisle, was a Leeds weaver in his early days. John Smeaton, the builder of Eddystone light house, was born on the outskirts of the town ; William Hay, a Fellow of the Royal Society and a man of rare knowledge, was a surgeon here ; John Bergenhout, an authority on natural history, and the author of several works, was a Leeds physician. Benjamin Wilson, the artist, and William Lodge, the engraver, were Leeds men. Joseph Priestley, born close by Leeds, was sufficiently identified with its life to be reckoned a Leeds man. It was here, during his ministry at the Unitarian Chapel in Mill Hill, that he carried out the experiments in science and philosophy which have made his name famous. Born near Birstall in 1733, Priestley was educated at Batley Grammar School, and made such progress with his studies that he was able at an early age to read Hebrew fluently, and to boast an acquaintance with six other languages. He came to Leeds in 1767 as minister of Mill Hill Chapel, and took an active part in the literary and philosophic life of the town. He resigned his charge in 1772, and removed to the Midlands, whence he subsequently emigrated to the United States, where he died in 1804. His statue, by Drury, has recently been 366 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE placed in the city square at Leeds, as the gift of Alderman Harding, Lord Mayor of the city in 1898-9. Of inventors Leeds has a goodly list to show. Matthew Murray, not a native of the town, but long a resident there, invented machines for the better manufacture of flax, a steam locomotive, and various other labour-saving contrivances. The introduction of steam for railways was largely helped forward by the efforts of Mr. Brandling, Mr. Blenkinsop, and Mr. Gray eighty years ago. During the present century the names of Fairbairn, Kitson, and Fowler, all representing Leeds families, have been prominent amongst the records of improvement in the engineering trade. Of prominent citizens whose names would appear to have been identified with every movement in Leeds which made for its good, it is impossible to give even the bare names. From the days when John Harrison founded various good works, Leeds has never been without benefactors. If it cannot boast of a history full of life and colour, it can point with pride to the fact that between the days of its humility in 1378, and its elevation to the dignity of a city in 1897, it possessed at all times a body of townsfolk who were minded to make its future great. CHAPTER XX Aspects of Modern Leeds ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS IN LEEDS — THE PARISH CHURCH ST. JOHN'S CHURCH THE UNITARIAN CHURCH THE TOWN HALL AND MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS THE YORKSHIRE COLLEGE THE MUSEUMS AND INSTITUTES OLD BUILDINGS AND HISTORIC HOUSES — -THE SUBURBS OF LEEDS ROUNDHAY PARK — ADEL AND ITS CHURCH. I >HE first thought which occurs to the lover of form on beginning an inspection of one of our great industrial centres is — How much more pleasant to the eye this place would have been had its people been able to build it all at once, on a definite and symmetrical plan, and with a due regard to its appearance in the years to come ! In the case of cities like York and Chester, such a thought never strikes one — they, it is plain to see, must needs be the result of the slow growth of centuries, and their picturesqueness has its birth and essence in that growth. Industrial and commercial cities and towns, however, have rarely any features which a lively imagination can call picturesque. An old building of interesting appearance may be found here and there, hidden by a woollen mill or a worsted manufactory ; an ancient church may be discovered lurking behind the glaring front of a modern gin-palace ; a bit of old Norman architecture may be lighted upon, all unexpectedly, in some corner ostensibly given up to the refuse and rubbish of modern town-life — but of antiquity as a whole the trading centre has little to re mind the observer. And since the antique and the picturesque are so closely akin, it follows that such cities and towns as Leeds and Sheffield, Batley and Huddersfield, have little in their streets and squares to attract the notice of the lover of art, and that their chief beauties lie in their natural situation, or in such things as modern enterprise has been able to build into them. It is natural in examining the highways and byways of a great city like Leeds to turn first to the churches as being most likely to yield fruit 367 368 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE I i in the shape of the picturesque and the antique. But here the lover of these things must submit to a certain sense of disappointment. Leeds is eminently a city of churches, with great ecclesiastical traditions, memories, and honours, and whoever looks upon her Vicar may be sure that he beholds a future Bishop. Few cities or towns in England have done so much for the Church of England as Leeds has since the days when the famous Dr. Hook became its Vicar and ini tiated the vast movement of church extension which has been going on ever since. Of the parish church of St. Peter, however, it must be said in all truth that useful as it undoubtedly is, it cannot be said to be striking or beautiful. It stands amidst dingy and even squalid surroundings ; its outer walls would make one believe that all the smoke and grime of the city and of its innumerable chimneys and fur naces had congregated upon them, and its situation — in a hollow falling to wards the banks of the river — does not add to its dignity or give it any thing of advantage as a landmark. Neither is it old, for the edifice which the traveller now sees was built so recently as 1838, on the site of the ancient church founded there in Edward III.'s time. It was designed by Chantrell, and consists of a nave, aisles, transepts, chancel, and ante-chapels, with a massive square tower at the end of the north transept. It is about 180 feet long and 86 feet wide, and its tower, which contains one of the finest peals of bells in the Riding, rises to a height of about 140 feet. The interior of the church, though not appreciably more beautiful than the exterior, gives one an impression of considerable size. It is plainly noticeable that the chief end of its architect was to provide plenty of accommodation for worshippers. There are three thousand seats in the church, a majority of them free, and the aisles and corridors could accom modate a great many more. Naturally, this crowding of the edifice with seats detracts from whatever beauty it possesses. That it is eminently fitted for its duties — the provision of accommodation for vast and over- - -T^-V^r^r^^.^ ¦ ¦¦¦ X 1 ' 1 1 r 1 ? a & H"" -IIP "' ' *: , fc*J> /,* j-VI -¦^31 - wm¥\ * KxS ; '¦: m& i I I! Kite jSBH ge3^ - * :*s»,-. Kirk/k % , ft •- i' ,/k '_ ST. JOHN'S CHURCH 3^9 flowing congregations — -is not to be denied, but this has been secured by sacrificing those solemn emptinesses, those vast spaces, which one looks for in the nave and transepts of a great church. But the church is not with out its beauties. Within the porch beneath the tower there is an ancient statue of St. Peter, its patron saint ; in the south transept a very finely carved oak screen hides the organ from the nave ; the pulpit contains some excellent carving ; and there is some good stained glass in the chancel. The chancel, indeed, redeems the interior of the church from the merely commonplace. It is well raised from the nave, the altar stands high and in full view, and the colouring of the east window is rich and effective. Behind the altar is a painting of the Agony in the Garden, set in a stone frame. There is a specimen of Flax- man's work in the ante-chapel of the north aisle, and the west window is worthy of notice be cause of its presentation of various local armorial bearings. The most interesting church in Leeds is that of St. John, at the head of Briggate. It is not merely the most ancient church in the city — so far as fabrics are concerned — but the most pic turesque, and its history contains some notable features. It was founded in the seventeenth cen tury by one of the most famous of Leeds worthies, John Harri son, with whose name it will always be connected. Harrison was born in Leeds in 1579, and spent his early youth at the ad jacent hamlet of Chapel-Allerton. Succeeding to his father's con siderable wealth, he made exten sive purchases of land in his native town, and having no children, he devoted his rentals to public charity in the most generous manner. He re-built the Grammar School, set up a cross in the market place, laid out a new street, and built St. John's Church, its vicarage, and 2 u . . f'f( uxl ;! 370 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE the adjoining almshouses, endowing all with annual revenues. He, with seven other townsfolk, combined to buy the manor of Leeds from the Crown during the first Charles's time. At the end of the Civil War his estates were sequestrated by the Parliamentary Commissioners, and his last days were spent in trouble and sickness. He died in 1656, and was interred in his own orchard, which stood where the present Kirkgate Market now stands, but in 1662 his body was removed to the church which he had founded, and there it lies under a monument of black marble, the epitaph on which was written by Dr. Lake, Bishop of Chichester, who at that time was Vicar of Leeds. But Harrison's best and most fitting monument is the church itself. At the period of its erection the pseudo-Gothic style of architecture which came into favour after the Reformation was much in vogue, and St. John's is a notable example of it. It was very skilfully restored some years ago, and is probably one of the few churches left to us which contain their original oak fittings. Its history embraces some points of curious interest. Consecrated in 1634 by Archbishop Neale, its opening services were marked by dissension. The consecration sermon was preached by Cosen, afterwards Bishop of Durham. Later in the day another sermon was delivered by Robert Todd, first incumbent of the church. Cosen was a High Churchman ; Todd a zealous member of the Low Church party. Cosen's sermon had inculcated the doctrines of his particular school of thought ; Todd took the opportunity of criticising them. For this piece of outspokenness he was suspended from his office for a year, and his final retirement was later on brought about by the Act of Uniformity. Of the remaining ecclesiastical edifices in Leeds it need only be said that while there are none which possess the importance of the Parish Church or the interest of St. John's, there are several which are worth in spection, and many which have interesting histories attached to them. The finest piece of ecclesiastical architecture in the city is the Unitarian Church, commonly known as Mill Hill Chapel, which was built from designs by Pugin in 1848. It is in the Perpendicular style of the fifteenth century, and is highly ornamented as regards both exterior and interior. On its present site stood a former chapel, built in 1673, wherein, a century later, Priestley, the famous scientist, officiated as minister. In Little Holbeck, amidst anything but lovely surroundings, there is a fine specimen of the Early English style in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, which was built and endowed half a century ago by the firm of Marshall, whose flax manufactories are closely adjacent. St. Saviour's, in East Street, is a good replica of the churches of the Decorated period, but its chief interest lies in its history. It was consecrated in 1845, and is said to have been built by Dr. Pusey. Ritual and doctrinal controversies raged around it for some years, and several of its first incumbents left it and the Church of England for the Church of Rome. Holy Trinity Church, which forms so prominent a feature in the vista of Boar Lane, is a good specimen of ST. JOHN'S CHURCH 371 is i s - :• ; *v 372 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE the city church, commodious and comfortable within, smoke blackened and not particularly distinguished without. It possesses a fine oak roof, and there is some elaborate ornamentation in the chancel, and its tower is a prominent object in any panoramic view of Leeds. Of the other ecclesi- i i Ml * i A • -.;¦¦•'¦ r-^; Y-^£j3 ferPSSSj^S^SIfe^^? >' r< ^- %, v*~' " UrulwiMv, (^eipel Leed/. ^- astical edifices within the city little need be said. The Church of the Im maculate Conception on Richmond Hill is one of the most imposing edifices in Leeds, and much more impressive than the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Ann, at the top of Park Row, a building which lacks either beauty or dignity. There are several chapels of considerable size used by various dissenting churches, but none are remarkable for their architecture. Of late years several new churches of some architectural pretension have been THE TOWN HALL 373 built, but it is scarcely possible to say that even with their help Leeds is noticeable for the beauty of its churches. Active as it is in all matters relating to the advancement of church work, it would appear as though those responsible for the building of its temples had seen more of the attractive in the useful than in the beautiful, and had borne in mind that seating accommodation is much more to the point than a correct style or a fine effect. II The public buildings of Leeds are somewhat numerous, and in their architectural effect much more attractive than the churches and chapels of the city. The most important of them, still familiarly known to Leeds folk as the Town Hall, in spite of the fact that it is the centre point of a city, stands in an open space which used to be known as Victoria Square, and has recently been re-christened City Square. Town Hall or City Hall, the edifice is one which must necessarily attract considerable atten tion from the traveller. Its architecture is of the Roman-Corinthian style, and the designs were the work of Mr. Cuthbert Broderick of Leeds. It forms a parallelogram, 250 feet by 200 feet, rising to a height of 65 feet from an elevated platform, from which rise Corinthian columns and pilasters which support an entablature and attic of much dignity. Over the south portico is a tower which rises to a height of 225 feet. The principal apartment of the interior is the Victoria Hall, which is 162 feet in length by 72 in width and 75 in height. It has accommodation for 8000 persons, and in it are held the triennial Musical Festivals for which Leeds is so famous. There is a magnificent organ in this hall, whereon music is made for the Leeds folk at regular intervals by the official organist. In other parts of the building there are Law Courts, rooms for the Lord Mayor and the members of the Council, and various offices for the use of corporation officials and the police. There is a good deal of statuary of local worthies about the hall, and the great square outside is now being orna mented by further specimens of the sculptor's art, representing such bygone men of note as Harrison, Priestley, Watt, and others. The Mayoral rooms contain some excellent oil paintings and portraits, amongst which is one of John Harrison, brought thither from its original position in the vestry of St. John's Church. Close to the Town, or City Hall, are the Municipal Offices and Free Library and Art Gallery, an extensive pile of buildings in the Palladian style, wherein municipal and School Board work, the collecting of accounts, lending out of books, and inspection of works of art, are all in progress at the same time. The Free Library is of considerable dimen sions, and well equipped, and the reading-rooms afford accommodation for a large number of persons. There is a permanent collection of pictures in the Art Gallery, presented to the city by various local patrons of the arts, and amongst it are several paintings of note. Exhibitions of con- ,-fM 11 ¦BS^f'SfV - ,',f '.STQS '--'- , £T5ij '*^s '/•¦" '¦ .'/«S -*V&. •- k'<5 •'" i ¦<$*• .... <£- v- *>• s* ¦' ^k>f': ; •-A- »*<3 i • " ; — ' I. U -V 4 THE YORKSHIRE COLLEGE 375 temporary art are held here from time to time, and have proved eminently successful as aids to the extension of a love of art amongst the people. In the erection of these public buildings the people of Leeds have spent their wealth generously. The Municipal Offices are said to have cost over .£100,000. When it was first decided to build the Town Hall in 185 1, nobody seems to have known what it was going to cost. A first grant of .£22,000 was made in September of that year, but the estimate was for over double that amount, and by the time the hall was opened by the Queen in 1858 it had cost ^133,000. Since these original amounts were spent the authorities have laid out others, correspondingly great, in the maintenance and improvement of their public buildings. But Leeds, like most other Yorkshire towns, has never lacked townsfolk whose charity began at home, and most of the improvement of the city which meets the eye is due almost as much to private benevolence as to public provision. Of the educational institutes in Leeds perhaps the Yorkshire College is the most important so far as regards its situation and architecture. Affiliated to the Victoria University, this institution is wholly, or almost wholly, supported by benefactions, and it says much for the love of edu cation that since its first inception it has done a vast work. Its educa tional work began in temporary premises in Cookridge Street, but in 1877 a convenient and even charming site was found in the Beech Grove estate near Woodhouse Lane, which was purchased at a cost of .£13,000. Build ing operations began shortly afterwards, and were continued for some years, the College being added to at various times until 1885, when it was visited and formally opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales. Although it is an entirely new building, the charm of its surroundings gives it something of the air of quiet ease and antiquity observable about the colleges of the old university towns, and its considerable pile of Gothic architecture forms a pleasing picture when seen through the trees which were very wisely allowed to remain standing about it. Of the public institutes, museums, and halls of Leeds, the Infirmary has the first claim to notice. A vast pile of Gothic architecture in red brick, costing .£120,000, and built from the designs of Sir Gilbert Scott, R.A., it was opened by the Prince of Wales in 1868, and has since then done such a work in the alleviation of human suffering as few people have any con ception of. It has from time to time been enlarged and otherwise im proved, and hundreds of thousands of patients have passed through its wards, which are arranged on what is known as the Pavilion principle. Leeds Infirmary is justly celebrated as being one of the best and most completely equipped institutions of its kind in Europe, and the Medical School of the city, which is associated with it and the Yorkshire College, has a reputation which is famous all over the world of medical science. Equally famous in another way are the Philosophical Hall, a severely classical building in Park Row, where there is stored the finest museum of 376 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE From a Photograph by THE POST OFFICE, LEEDS scientific objects in the provinces ; the Mechanics' Institute, a vast building in the Italian style, which forms the most imposing feature of Cookridge Street ; and the Royal Exchange at the corner of Boar Lane and Park Row, beneath whose Gothic roof great commercial transactions are carried out, and opposite which the new Post Office, a building of imposing dimensions, forms a side of one of the city's principal open spaces. Here abouts, indeed, Leeds is somewhat impressive as regards its street scenes. From the point where the old Cloth Hall of 1758 used to stand, the traveller may glance along Boar Lane towards Briggate, or gaze up Park Row between a vista of stately buildings to the rather inadequate spire and facade of St. Ann's Cathedral. Around him are various matters of interest — the Unitarian Church with its delicate architecture, the newness of the Post Office, the bustle and hurry of the great railway stations close by, and the recently laid-out square, which until a short time ago was an unsightly waste, and is now a worthy breathing-space in the midst of a great city. THE RED HALL 377 III Like all other towns which have a connection with the past, Leeds is not without several monuments of antiquity in the shape of old houses with some historic associations attached to them. It is somewhat unfortu nate that they have diligently to be sought for : it is only here and there that they help to make up a street scene, or redeem the modern aspect of everything with a touch of quaint and venerable charm. It is very pro bable that in the nooks and corners of the crofts and alleys which Leeds possesses in considerable numbers there are many interesting things which even local relic-hunters have hitherto left undiscovered. Of late years many interesting old houses, which formed a relief to the monotony of the newer streets, have been taken down to make room for modern buildings. Of those ancient mansions which have so far escaped, that known as the Red Hall, in Upperhead Row, is certainly the most interesting, not merely because of its value as a good type of the brick mansion of the early seventeenth century, but as the scene of two or three amusing stories of Charles I. Here, in 1646, the most unfortunate of the Stuart kings was lodged on his way from Oxford to New castle, and of his stay in the house there are certain legends narrated which are interesting enough to be re peated, even if they rest, as the local chroniclers seem to argue, on very slender foundations. One is a story of his Majesty and John Harrison. The latter, gene rous to his king as to his native town, craved permis sion to present Charles with a tankard of the best ale, and coming into the monarch's presence in Red Hall, did so present him in prospect of such court as Charles then kept. On opening the lid of the tankard, however, the king found its contents to be not ale, but closely piled gold pieces — " which," says the chronicler, " he immediately contrived with great dexterity to hide about his person." 2 X THE MD HALL 378 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Another story of Red Hall has for its dramatis personce the two Charleses, father and son, and a certain maid-servant. When Charles I. was at Red ~'\ i h i \ ¦ - ¦ - ¦ > BMOG AT E 'f^ /. = ';/: if I /| /-' -yyi Hall, a damsel employed there, perceiving that her sovereign was being held in bondage, was so filled with womanly compassion that she offered to array him in a suit of her own garments, conduct him from the house by a secret way, and bestow him safely with friends in the town. Charles, however, felt himself unable to accept her offer, but in token of his grati tude for her kindliness he gave her, say the chroniclers, his garter, bidding her, if ever occasion served, to show it to his son, and claim her reward. When Charles II. came to the throne the woman presented herself to him, showed his father's garter, and told her story. On the king inquiring into her affairs, she informed him that her husband was an under-bailiff in OLD HOSTELRIES 379 Leeds, to which Charles right royally replied that henceforth he should be high-bailiff of Yorkshire. Whether these stories are true or not, they are at least interesting. Just as interesting are the stories which might be told, in number sufficient to fill many a goodly volume, of the old inns and houses which the ruthless march of modernity has swept away. Where Thornton's Arcade now stands in Briggate, stood the Talbot Inn, lordliest of all the Leeds taverns of the seventeenth century. Its neighbours, the Rose and Crown, the Lyon and Malt Shovel, great inns of the last century, have gone too, and so have the picturesque old hostelries about the Shambles. Gone long since is the Moot Hall, where the fathers of the town sat in state, and in front of which stood stocks and pillory and whipping post. Gone, at some period or another, are all the ancient houses which stood about Kirkgate and Briggate, and in the narrow streets of ancient Leeds. It were well, one is tempted to think, if those respon sible for the demolition of all these ancient places were perforce obliged to remove them carefully to some other corner of their town or city, and there set them up again, so that we of the present might instruct and amuse ourselves by beholding what manner of dwelling it was that our forefathers occupied in the past. The Briggate of to-day, with its electric tram-service, its wide thoroughfare, its bustle and confusion, must be a very different Briggate to that of a hundred years ago, when the Middle Row with its gaol, its shops, its inns, and crowded inconvenience, stood in the midst of it, and tradesmen still hung out signs — the " Golden Beaver,'' the " Crown and Bible," and so on — above the doors of their shops. IV Of the districts which serve to form suburban Leeds almost as much might be written as about Leeds itself. On all sides of the city they stretch away — lying so far out in some directions without a break in the continuous lines of houses or groups of villa residences that one imagines Leeds another London. Like the London suburbs those of Leeds are pleasantly diversified as regards scenery and situation. One of the most pleasant outlying districts of the place is that which comprises Woodhouse and Headingley — suburbs lying to the north-west. They are approached by a long road called Woodhouse Lane, which leads at the distance of about a mile from the centre of the city to a wide open space known as Woodhouse Moor, the name of which is as familiar to the ears of the Leeds folk as that of Leeds itself. A hundred years ago Woodhouse Moor was a vast stretch of waste ground, from which anybody so minded might steal as much turf as he wished to take. Probably the playground of in creasing Leeds during the first half of the century, it was purchased by the corporation in 1855 for the sum of .£3000, and since then it has been transformed by gradual stages into a public park, worthy the great city to 38o PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE which it acts as a lung. Some portions of it are laid out in ornamental fashion ; others are left as wild and free as of yore. It has band-stands and gymnasiums, cricket-grounds and fountains, and from its highest point there are some exceptionally fine views of the surroundings of Leeds, that of G L.E d h ow the western hills being very bold and charming. Of the buildings near Woodhouse Moor it is only necessary to mention the Grammar School, built from designs by Barry, in 1858, in the shape of a Latin cross. The Grammar School is a prominent feature of the landscape from most of the approaches to Leeds, and stands out very boldly against the ridge of the Moor. At Hyde Park corner, some little distance away, there is a fine church, dedicated to St. Augustine, and further along Headingley Lane another handsome specimen of ecclesiastical architecture presents itself in the shape of the Congregational Church. But there is much more of attrac tion in the heart of Headingley itself, at the point where the traveller finds his eyes resting on the last remains of the old oak tree from whence the sur rounding wapentake derives its name — Skyrack — with an ancient hostelry, the Oak Inn, on one hand, and one of the newest and handsomest of the Leeds churches, St. Michael's, on the other. This church, which wTas erected at a cost of over -£20,000, is a fine specimen of the Early English style, and its tower and spire are seen at far distances peeping above the trees with which Headingley is liberally ornamented. A still more striking church from the point of view of a landscape painter, is that of St. Chad, at Far Headingley, which was designed by the present Lord Grimthorpe, and endowed by his father, Mr. Edward Denison, in 1868. Its spire, surmount ing an elegant example of the Decorated style, rises to a height of 186 feet, and beneath it, stretching down the falling land towards Kirkstall, the country is covered with wood, amidst which some of the pleasantest suburban residences of Leeds lie half-hidden from the world. SHEEPSCAR AND CHAPELTOWN 381 If not quite so picturesque or umbrageous as the district of Headingley, the suburbs of Sheepscar and Chapeltown are not without an interest, and, here and there, a charm of their own. All the way from Leeds to Sheepscar the highway is now surrounded by the evidences of manufacturing life, but a century ago it was rural enough to allow a good lady who kept a girls' school in its vicinity to describe it as a flowery path. Of Sheepscar itself as it was in the old days there are now scarcely any traces. There is supposed to have been a green at the point where Chapeltown and Roundhay roads meet, and the police station close by is built on the site of the old toll- bar. The highway at this point was made by that marvellous builder of roads, Metcalfe, of Knaresborough, known all over the county by his sobriquet of " Blind Jack." In his time it was lined by trees, but all trace of these have long since disappeared before the flood of brick and mortar. Much more interesting than Sheepscar is its neighbour of Chapeltown, which stands on a considerable eminence, from whence excellent views may be had of the surrounding country. In the old days Chapeltown was a rural village of the quaint and romantic type. It possessed an ancient inn named the Bowling Green, whereat many merrymakings went on, and it is said, probably with a good deal of truth, to have been a favourite resort of highwaymen. Its church is ancient, and contains some curiosities. All about Chapeltown, as about Headingley, the land is richly wooded and very picturesque, and from its most important house, Allerton Hall, there are fine prospects of the district. There is a curious story told of this house in connection with its former tenants, the Kitchingmans, who resided in it during several centuries. It was their custom when any member of the family died to carry the body in solemn procession to St. Peter's Church, where it was laid in the choir. The procession was made by torchlight, and it was only on these occasions that the great chandelier of the house, which contained thirty-six branches, was lighted. The approach to the suburbs of Buslingthorpe and Meanwood, two other principal suburbs of Leeds, is of no more attractiveness than that to Sheepscar, save to the man whose mind is well stored with the history of the past, and who can find some pleasure while contemplating a squalid street or smoke-blackened factory in remembering that some ancient build ing stood there in the days of long ago. Where Meanwood Street now is General Wade's army once encamped, not too much to the comfort of the folk who lived thereabouts ; and on the high ground above, says Thoresby, there used to be a great many hawks. Nowadays all hereabouts is a vision of streets filled with small dwelling-houses and cottages, tan-works, and similar evidences of commerce and industrial life. Nevertheless, there is much natural beauty left at Meanwood, whence from an eminence known as the Ridge there are some exceptionally interesting and com manding views. Here the land is well wooded, undulating, and romantic to a degree, and there are nooks and corners in it wherein one might easily 382 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE •THE LOWER. LAKE ROUNDHAY imagine oneself to be a thousand miles away from the busy life which is going on close at hand. To the citizens of Leeds their most cherished possession in the way of parks and open spaces is the domain of Roundhay. This vast park, which contains about 800 acres of water, wood, and undulating landscape, was bought by the corporation about thirty years ago at a cost of -£140,000, and was presented to the people in perpetuity. It was opened by the Duke of Connaught in 1872, and has ever since been extensively used by the teeming populations who live on its borders. Although it is four miles from the centre of the city it is quickly reached by means of a capital service of electric cars. Once within its gates the pleasure-seeker or the holiday-maker may quickly persuade himself that Leeds is far away. There are, of course, many indications of the use of artificial means in order to make the park attractive, but its natural scenery is of such a character that all artificiality is quickly lost sight of. Modern as its uses now are, Roundhay's history goes far back into the recesses of the past. At some period of the Roman occupation they had a station here, or close by, and Roman remains have been found at Elmete and Chapeltown, in close proximity to the boundaries of Roundhay. Afterwards it was a mighty hunting-ground of the Angle kings, and King John held royal sport here in 1212 in company with several ADEL 3»3 of the great nobles of the north. It came into the possession of John o' Gaunt through his marriage with Blanche, daughter of Henry, Duke of Lancaster, and there are evidences that he was accustomed to hunt in its woods and glades. Until its purchase by the Leeds authorities Roundhay had been for some time the country seat of the Nicholson family. The house stands 400 feet above sea-level and commands excellent views, and the park itself, with its lakes, undulations, and woodland scenery is an ideal haunt for the man who has spent his week amidst the whirr of machinery or in the stifling atmosphere of the workshops. V Although Adel is, strictly speaking, outside the boundaries of the city of Leeds, it and its famous church are so closely associated with Leeds that it is scarcely possible to treat of one without dealing at the same time with the other. Adel itself is one of the smallest and quietest of villages, but its church has made its name known wherever art is loved, and there are few ecclesiastical edifices in England which have been pictured with more f&*l' ' '_' i!-^ ¦•iti • ? "^f" fJWri ' ¦ "* -1 " -f " "#y-. •.,•.« Mr; frequency. Originally a Roman station under the name of Burgodunum, Adel's present name is of Anglian derivation, the exact details of which it is impossible to trace. With these matters, however, the traveller will concern himself but little. The great fact is, that at Adel there stands one of the most perfect specimens — if not an absolutely unique specimen — of Norman archi tecture which the country can boast. It is a very small church, but like 384 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE many other small things in the realms of art it is full of the most beautiful detail. Consisting of nave and choir only, the sole modern work in the church is the bell turret above the west gable, but this, through the skill of the late Mr. G. E. Street, R.A., who restored the entire fabric some years ago, is in keeping with the rest of the architecture. The great feature of the church is the famous doorway on the south side. This has a series of four arches. The first, springing from a square base, is ornamented with beak heads ; the second, also springing from a similar base, is decorated by zig zags, ornamented in the inner angles by round balls ; the third is a plain double arch, springing from a plain column ; and the fourth an elaborate zig-zag arch which springs from a plain circular column. The capitals of the columns are highly ornamented with sculptures of animals and by various quaint devices. Under an Agnus Dei in the pediment above the doorway there are five compartments which contain respectively a throned figure, a winged man, a winged ox, an eagle, and a winged lion. There is another doorway, but of much less interest, in the south wall of the chancel. The north wall of the nave is pierced by four narrow, round-headed windows : the south wall by one of the same dimensions and two square-headed windows with three round lights each. In the north chancel wall there are two slits with round heads, and the south wall has the same, with a larger window containing two lights. The east window has three lights. Along the upper walls of both nave and chancel there is a zig-zag line of corbels with grotesque heads, some of which are doubled at the points. The interior of the church is no less striking than the exterior. Between nave and chancel rises a very fine Norman arch, which springs from three columns handsomely ornamented. There is some fine old glass in the windows, a noticeable monument to one Henry Arthington, 1681, in the chancel, and an ancient chest in the vestry. No church in the neighbourhood of Leeds is one half so interesting as this, or so well worthy a prolonged visit of inspection. CHAPTER XXI The Aire from Leeds to Bingley THE NORTH-WEST SUBURBS OF LEEDS — ARMLEY BRAMLEY KIRKSTALL AND ITS ABBEY — -HORSFORTH — CALVERLEY — -ESHOLT PARK IDLE — SHIPLEY AND SALTAIRE — BAILDON — BINGLEY THE DRUID'S ALTAR. I <)0 the traveller who sets out for further exploration of the Aire by way of the suburbs and outskirts of Leeds on the north-west side of the city, there seems little promise of anything very charming or even interesting. The road to Kirkstall, after leaving the heart of Leeds, runs for a considerable distance between masses of uninviting buildings — warehouses, factories, workshops, broken here and there by the huge bulk of a modern hotel, the approach to a railway station, and the spire or tower of a church scarcely more attractive in outward appearance than the utilitarian structural surround ings. This is essentially a commercial and trading quarter of the city — everything that one sees is suggestive of manufactures and industries, and the air rings with the clink and clang of machinery, and hangs heavy with the smoke of the towering chimneys and ugly furnaces. The road itself is crowded with traffic — heavy drays, great waggons, tram-cars — and all is indicative of the bustle and hurry of commercial life. In some previous age the land lying between Leeds and Kirkstall must have been pleasant to look upon, for on either side the Aire it rises in gentle undulations, but it is scarcely possible to form any accurate conception of its original appearance now, so crowded is it with workshops and the long, formal rows of workmen's dwellings which naturally spring up around all modern hives of industry. The suburbs of Leeds which lie in this fringe of the city are not without certain historical associations, but almost all trace of them has been effaced by the march of modern progress. At Armley, where the most conspicuous object is the particularly ugly and forbidding gaol in which numerous malefactors have met their death on the scaffold, 385 2 Y 386 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE there was a Norse camp, and at Wortley, a little to the southward, there were fortifications in early times. Armley, from its position on a hillside, must once have been attractive, and the Aire flowing at its feet may then have been as pellucid as it is now foul and repellent. Bramley, further away from Leeds and on higher ground than Armley, still retains some pleasant features in the shape of ancient houses, and its commanding position gives it wide and extensive views over the surrounding country. But here, as elsewhere in the immediate environs of Leeds, it is impossible to forget that one is in the midst of a corner of the earth where every thing has given way to industry and manufacture ; the great mills and workshops are the first things which strike the eye, and they are too powerful to allow aught else to claim other attention from it. The Aire as it approaches Kirkstall has nothing about either situation or appearance to tempt the traveller to wander along its banks. Once clear of the forests of houses and chimneys, and yet never out of sight of them, it winds along, between bare and cheerless banks, through a stretch of country which was once pleasant meadow-land, and is now being rapidly invaded by the modern builder of small dwellings. On one side the land rises somewhat abruptly to Bramley ; on the other it slopes less sharply towards the wooded heights of Headingley. This bank of the river has at this stage of the latter's course a certain amount of attrac tiveness. In the distance, rising from the flat stretch of land which its original founders no doubt selected with infinite care and deliberation, rises the grey mass of the Abbey, and in the foreground Kirkstall Bridge makes something of a picture as it carries the Leeds and Bradford high road across the Aire. But between the traveller who takes an observation from this point, and the Abbey itself, lies still additional evidence of modernity in the shape of the surroundings of Kirkstall Abbey. Yet there is something that forms a distinct relief from the last mind-pictures of smoky Leeds in a glance at the heart of Kirkstall from the bridge. There is an inn at the corner of the Leeds road which has sufficient gables and corners to make it picturesque, and on the slope of the bank rising towards Headingley the trees in spring and early summer make a brave show of green. And it requires no stretch of imagination while standing on the bridge, in spite of the befouled river running beneath, and the evidences of commercialism on every side, to realise that in other days and under far different conditions, this stretch of the Aire must have been singularly beautiful— an ideal spot wherein to build a home of religion. It is not improbable that the traveller who visits Kirkstall Abbey for the first time will feel somewhat disappointed at sight of it. Few English abbeys are perhaps so familiar to the public at large, for the main line of the Midland Railway Company passes its ruins at close quarters, and passengers can scarcely fail to obtain an excellent view of them. Until a few years ago the Abbey was certainly one of the most picturesque objects KIRKSTALL ABBEY 387 to be seen during the journey between London and Scotland, and most people looked out for a first glimpse of it with eagerness as soon as the smoke of Leeds had been left behind. In those days, however, it was covered with ivy — now its walls are stripped and bare, and it has a certain - ¦ » Et >; « HllP i-ii3L , ».. .jSi - s, "^ J- .if- 1 '. . v' -'. '. " gaunt and cold appearance which largely detracts from its beauty. More over, since it passed into the possession of the corporation of Leeds (to whom it was presented ten years ago by the late Colonel North, who had just purchased it from the Earl of Cardigan for .£10,000), the grounds surrounding it have been laid out as a species of pleasure-park, and this, however necessary and desirable a proceeding, has tended to establish an air of incongruity which has done much to take away the original charm of the place. It may indeed be said with absolute truth that the very things which have been done with the notion of preserving Kirkstall Abbey 388 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE to future generations, and in providing in its grounds another pleasure- resort for Leeds people, the surest means have been taken for destroying the picturesqueness which it possessed in no ordinary degree until a few years ago. That the measures adopted and the laying out of the grounds were necessary no one will doubt. Whether the result is satisfactory is a question which most people of taste will speedily answer in the negative. According to Grainge, a leading authority on the Yorkshire religious houses, whose conclusions, though not entirely agreed in by other writers, are seldom far away from real fact, the Abbey of Kirkstall had its origin in the mind of Henry de Lacy, the great Baron of Pontefract, who built churches and endowed religious foundations in every part of his vast domains. Somewhere about the middle of the twelfth century Henry lay dangerously ill at Pontefract Castle, and after the fashion of his times he repented him of his sins, and vowed that if God spared him he would build a house for the Cistercian Order in some corner of his lands. Recovering, he sent for the Abbot of Fountains, and told him of his vow, afterwards granting to him and his Order, by charter, the village of Barnoldswick, in Craven, a place of somewhat poor situation and advantages. Here the lay brothers of Fountains Abbey erected suitable dwellings for the reception of a colony, and it is said, though the matter would seem in some respects to be highly legendary, that Henry himself handed over the new establishment to its occupants, who changed the name of the place from Barnoldswick to Mount St. Mary. Here there quickly settled down an abbot, twelve monks, and ten lay brothers, but their residence in the new house was unpleasant from the very first, for they had continual bickerings with their neighbours, and were harassed by the Scots at the same time. It being evident that they must change their residence, the abbot, Alexander, formerly Prior of Fountains, set out to explore the land, and in the course of his wanderings he chanced to pass through Airedale. Here, where Kirkstall now stands, he discovered, say the chroniclers, a delightful retreat embowered in woods, wherein some hermits had their cells. The combination of wood, meadow, and stream so pleased Alexander, that he proceeded to Henry, and begged him to arrange for the removal of the house which he had founded from Barnoldswick to Kirkstall. Henry agreed readily : he obtained a grant of the place from William of Poictou at an annual payment of five marks, and he further assisted the monks with gifts of money, corn, and material. Alexander bought some of the hermits out, others he induced to join the Cistercian Order, and thus Kirkstall passed into the hands of its new occupants. It is said that Henry de Lacy laid the foundation-stone of the present Abbey, and that he and Alexander were personally responsible for the superintendence of its erection, and that both, dying about the same time, were interred within its walls with much ceremony, as founder and builder of one of the most considerable religious houses of the North. KIRKSTALL ABBEY 389 x J^SSL, , After the deaths of Henry de Lacy and Alexander, the monks of Kirkstall experienced somewhat troublous times. During the rule of Ralph Hageth, Abbot in the time of Henry II., there were various matters which gave much anxiety to the community, and it became necessary, in view of their increasing poverty, to disperse some of the brethren amongst other monas teries. In spite of this, however, the community still felt the pinch of poverty, and when Hugh Grimstone became Abbot in 1284, it owed over .£4000 :f in money, and a good deal in kind. However, in 130 1 it had reduced this, chiefly by Grimstone's exertions, to ;£i6o, and so entered upon a more cheerful existence. When the Abbey was sur rendered by John Ripley, or Brown, last of its abbots, in 1540, its gross annual value was estimated at .£512, 13s. 4d. The roof was then taken off the church, the tower de spoiled of its bells, and the lead and timber sold for the benefit of the Crown. Originally conferred by Henry VIII. upon Arch bishop Cranmer and his heirs, the site and demesnes of Kirkstall passed through various hands until they finally came into possession of the Earls of Cardigan, and so, through the munificence of Colonel North, into that of the citizens of Leeds. Probably no religious foundation in England had a less eventful history than that of Kirkstall, and its story serves to show that whatever good purpose some of the conventual establishments served, there were others which appear to have had no real reason for existence. Nevertheless, the presence of the ancient buildings erected by Henry de Lacy and his protege monks, serves a good purpose nowadays in providing a cool retreat and a quiet shade for the folk of Leeds. Although robbed of the ivy which made them so picturesque, the ruins of Kirkstall are full of ^vt :¦ ¦ dafier Swik, f 390 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE grandeur and magnificence. The church, which is in the form of a cross, is remarkable for the chaste simplicity of its architecture, which is largely of the Transitional order. Its body consists of a nave and side aisles, divided by massive columns, over which are windows with rounded arches. Viewed from the west end, the church is full of beauty, though, like all churches built by the Cistercian order, its arrangement and ornamentation are exceedingly severe. In length it is 224 feet 6 inches, 118 feet 3 inches across the transepts, and 62 feet 6 inches across the nave and side aisles. The tower was almost entirely destroyed about a century ago. There is a great deal of Norman work in the cloister court, a quadrangle of consider able size. The Chapter House, a very fine apartment measuring 64 feet 9 inches by 35 feet 6 inches, and the Refectory, at one time a hall of noble dimensions, are noticeable parts of the ruins. In the Abbot's residence there is a chimney with some herring-bone masonry at its base, and in the Hos pitium there are four fireplaceswhich still possess their original stone fenders. The student of architecture and the lover of art will find matters to his taste at Kirkstall which will keep him busily engaged there for as many days as he can give to his subject. Whether these relics of the past are properly appreciated by the vast masses of people who wander about them at holiday-making times is a question which no one perhaps can answer. It is certain, however, that despite the loss of most of its picturesqueness, Kirkstall Abbey is nowadays serving a much more useful purpose than it did under the regime of the monks. It was not, as so many monasteries of the Middle Ages were, famous for its charities or benefactions, and whatever historical records of it are extant fail to show that its establish ment served any useful purpose. But no well-meant action fails of ultimate good effect, and the pious deed of the old Norman baron has in these later days given the Leeds mechanic a new opportunity of breathing fresh air amidst pleasant and inspiring surroundings. II Between Kirkstall Abbey and Bingley the valley of the Aire assumes more picturesque aspects than it possesses in any of its stretches nearer the sea. The land begins to rise to greater heights on either side of the stream, and if it were not for the comparative density of the population which lines each bank, the scenery at this point would bear comparison with that of almost any valley in Yorkshire. As things are, there is no point of the Aire between Leeds and Bingley which does not bear evidence of popula tion and of manufactures. The towns and villages on each side of the stream form an almost continuous line, and the mill chimney is rarely out of any picture which the traveller's eye rests on. Once upon a time this stretch of country must have been surpassingly beautiful, and as it is, there are few bits of the West Riding, overcrowded as it is in its southern portions, CALVERLEY 391 which have more of the picturesque than it has. If the Aire still gives evidence of its pollution, it in some way atones for it by its vagaries, and if the high ground on either side of its banks is thickly strewn with human habitations, its boldness and richness of wood and rock do much to put houses and manufactories out of mind. Eminently typical of the suburb, somewhat removed from the outskirts of a great city, is Newlay, a collection of houses and villas nestling amongst trees on the right bank of the river, a little distance from Kirkstall Abbey. It is not difficult to imagine that the folk who live there are chiefly Leeds people who prefer to reside outside the smoke of their own city rather than under its dun-coloured canopy. Newlay is a place of modern aspect. Horsforth, perched high on the hill above it, bears a certain aspect of anti quity which is not dispelled by the presence of its fine modern church. From this point the right bank of the Aire, which has assumed a consider able altitude from Headingley onwards, runs on towards Upper Airedale in bold and commanding fashion. About Rawdon the land is liberally wooded and somewhat craggy, and amongst the woods at the top of the ridge there are several houses of considerable size, used chiefly as colleges or public institutions, which make a fine show from the valley beneath. There is an ancient house here, now used as a farmstead, which was once the residence of the Earls of Moira. A much more interesting place is Calverley, on the opposite side of the river, one of the glimpses of which, got from the valley, forms a scene of peculiar charm. The eye rests on a sloping foreground of green meadow, flanked by deep woods narrowing to a point at the head of the hillside, crowned by the tower and gables of Cal verley Church and the roofs of the picturesque houses which cluster at its foot. Calverley is one of the most interesting villages in this part of Airedale, and though it is now, like all its neighbours, given up to manufactures and industries, it still retains a good deal of its primitive charm. Its church of St. Wilfrid is ancient and architecturally notable, and there are several houses in the place which are well worth examination. Calverley takes its name from the Calverley family, whose most famous member gained his notoriety from the fact that he suffered death by the punishment of "peine forte et dure" at York in 1605, for 392 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE the murder of his infant children. A more worthy member of this family was Sir Walter Calverley, the friend of Addison, who is said to have drawn his famous character of Sir Roger de Coverley from him. His monument is still in the church, and his name frequently occurs in the books of the township, and there is a legend that he invariably gave a guinea at the church collections, and interested himself in all good works of the parish, and in everybody's affairs. The direct line of the Calverley family is now extinct, and the only remembrances of it are those to be found in the ancient monuments of the village, and in the legends which centre around the crime of Walter Calverley, who was commonly supposed by the village folk to haunt the neighbourhood for a considerable period after his miserable end at York. Some of the ancient documents of Calverley are of great interest, and there is one item in the constable's accounts, dated 1728, which shows that certain vigorous forms of punishment were in use there at the beginning of the last century : — Paid Jeremy Booth for powl for ducking-stool Felling and lending such powl . Paid Joseph Wade for whipping Edward Priestley d. o64 One of the most charming bits of this part of Airedale lies all around Apperley Bridge and Esholt, lower down in the valley than Cal verley, from whence they may be overlooked to advantage. At Ap perley Bridge, although the factories on the outskirts of Bradford have encroached upon it from the direction of Eccleshill and Green- gates, there is a good deal of picturesque river scenery, and the old inn at the bridge foot is re miniscent of old days. It is pleasant to walk from Apperley Bridge through Esholt Park, one of the few spaces of considerable size here abouts wherein there is Jear /\pperley ESHOLT PARK 393 nothing to take the eye away from stream and wood and meadow. Esholt Hall, one of the most romantically situated houses in the neighbourhood, stands at the head of a magnificent avenue of trees, and its surroundings are ¦\ *T ¦ "^*W«^!!^- ¦¦•'¦ \ %«&JeA ESHOLT PARK ' eminently picturesque and sylvan. Originally the site of a religious house under the rule of the Cistercian order, the present mansion was built about two centuries ago by one of the Calverleys, whose last successor sold the estate in 1755 to its present owners, the Crompton-Stansfield family. It contains some fine oak carving and some interesting tapestry and pictures, and in the north-east corner of the house there is a portion of the old priory wall. Standing amidst the greenness of Esholt Park the traveller will perceive that the land to the south-west rises very abruptly until it assumes the character of hilly country and shuts in the prospect from the valley beneath. It is worth while to cross the Aire at this point, and to climb by a somewhat fatiguing path, by way of Simpson Green, to the village of Idle, and thence go forward to Idle Hill, a considerable eminence from whence a magnificent prospect of the surrounding country may be obtained. Idle itself is a quaint and interesting village, celebrated in Yorkshire for its stone quarries and the sturdy character of its inhabitants, the majority of whom are Nonconformists of the old-fashioned Puritan stamp. Something in the very aspect of the place seems to give a key to the character of its people. It is perched high on a steep hillside ; its four-square houses are built of stone that looks as if nothing could ever wear it away ; its numerous chapels are imposing and spacious ; the folk who move about its streets bear themselves with the fearless 2 z 394 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE courage of the true dalesman. Idle is a place of considerable antiquity, and was probably the site of a Roman camp. In the Middle Ages it was held by the Plumpton family, and was a place of some importance. Oliver Heywood, one of the most noted of the ejected ministers affected by the repressive acts passed after the Restoration, was a frequent visitor at Idle, and often conducted worship at the house of one Thomas Ledgard, a staunch dissenter of those days. Although Idle has now a population closely approaching twenty thousand, it retains much of the appearance and character of an old-world village, possibly because it is in a certain sense isolated from the world by its elevated position. Its church is not particularly remarkable, but the open space in the centre of the village is reminiscent of olden times, when a fine elm-tree stood there, beneath whose shade the wiseacres of Idle used to sit of an evening and hold animated discussions, so learned in character and forcible in argument that their fame was noised all over the district and is still held sacred in the chatter of old inhabitants. There are few parts of Yorkshire in which such interesting studies of men and women might be made as in this district, where the people have a deeply rooted, passionate attachment to their own corner of the earth, and where old-fashioned customs and notions still linger in spite of modern education and progress. Nor are there many districts wherein human existence stretches to such considerable periods as it does here. It is said that in Idle and some of its surrounding townships octogenarians are as common as black berries, and it is certain that the bracing air of these breezy uplands is enough in itself to ensure long life to those who breathe it. It was probably because most people had a considerable share of life in this district that the old custom of holding funeral feasts was very strongly upheld hereabouts, and has not yet entirely died out. What these feasts used to be like in the old days may be gathered from the following extract, taken from an old account-book of the Dawson family, of Wrose Hall, near Idle : — " The accounts of Martin Dawson ffuneral, who departed this life April 23, 1748: — Payd for winding, 8s. 6d. ; do. for spices, 12s. 5d. ; do. for mutton, 5s. 8d. ; do. more, 4s. ; do. a pigg, 2s. 6d. ; do. pidgeons, is. 6d. ; do. mutton, 5s. ; a ham of bacon, 9s. 8d. ; 7 henns, 4s. 4|d. ; butter, 10 ft>, 5s.; 10^ gals, of ale, 10s. 6d. ; sallett, 6d. ; pipes and tobacco, 6d. ; saman, 5 pound, 3s. 4d. ; turbut, 7 pound, 3s. 4d. ; oranges, barm, and bread, is. iod.; for veal to John Hodgson, 9s.; paid for 5 dozen plates, is. 5id. ; for the cook, 3s.; for his coffin, 10s. 6d. ; vicar dues for burial; total, £5, 4S. 7d." There seems to be some slight confusion here as to whether it was the cook's coffin or Martin Dawson's, for which half a guinea was paid, and the entrant has either omitted to state the vicar's dues, or the latter has generously remitted them, but it is abundantly clear that bereavement in those days did not necessarily mean loss of appetite to the bereaved. SHIPLEY 395 III From the summit of Idle Hill, an eminence rising to a height of about 750 feet, the traveller may enjoy some of the finest prospects to be obtained in Airedale. On every hand the country stretches away in the most diversified fashion, mountain, moor, wood, stream, and meadow alternating with the still present evidences of industry and manufacture. Upper Airedale, wilder and more majestic in character than Lower Airedale, opens out beyond the smoke of Shipley and Saltaire until it is lost amongst the sharply defined hills about Skipton. The moorlands lying between the heights of Baildon and Rombalds Moor suggest a strange loneliness in utter contrast to the crowded population of Bradford, lying almost at the foot of the eminences of which Idle Hill is the highest point. Ere the days when men began to settle and increase in this valley and its adjacent nooks and corners, the views from any of its highest points must have been magnificent, but that from Idle Hill was probably unequalled amongst them, for it not only commands views of Upper and Lower Airedale but of the watersheds of the Wharfe, and of the great heather-clad moorlands which stretch away at a considerable altitude between Beamsley Beacon and Forest Moor, where the land drops suddenly to the banks of the Nidd. At the foot of the high bank topped by Idle Hill, and usually seen from that eminence under faint wreaths and clouds of smoke, lie two places which, widely differing in history and character, have by mere force of modern circumstances become practically merged in one town of con siderable size. These are Shipley, a township with sufficient pretensions to antiquity to be able to boast of its connection with Ilbert de Lacy, and Saltaire, a purely modern creation which owes its existence to the business instincts of a famous manufacturer. Fifty years ago Saltaire had no existence ; thirty years before that Shipley consisted of a few cottages, some farmsteads, two or three ancient manor-houses or halls, some of which still exist and provide it with certain elements of picturesqueness, and of a vast stretch of moorland. To-day, Shipley and Saltaire combined form a place of considerable size, and naturally there is little that is attractive about either of them, seeing that almost everything within their boundaries is very new. Where bilberries were gathered and sheep ran wild over the moors at the beginning of this century, there are now miles upon miles of streets, and amongst them are great manufactories and warehouses, with the inevitable chimneys rising like sentinels or signal- posts in their midst. The one sense which is suggested by an expedition from the Bradford boundary of Shipley to the extreme edge of Saltaire is the sense of business, commerce, trade, bustling and unremitting ardour in the manufacture of marketable things. The people in the streets, hard- 396 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE faced, keen of eye, speaking a dialect of their own, seem to have imbibed something of the spirit of the machinery which is always whirring about their ears, and it may be remarked of them, as being indicative of their character, that they live in good and solid houses of stone, and have a genuine appreciation of the comforts of life which is perhaps keener than that of any other colony of Yorkshiremen. Though Shipley was in existence at the time of the Conquest, there is little of general interest in its history save to those local topographers who revel in small details. In 1688 the value of its forty-four oxgangs of land was estimated at .£3, 9s. ; what the value of a corresponding amount of the earth's surface in its midst must be nowadays, one can hardly say. All, or well-nigh all, the old evidences of its ancient state have almost entirely disappeared. Stocks Hill, the higher part of the market-place, where stood the stocks in old days, and where at election times there were many brave doings, is now modernised, and there are no more roastings of oxen or gathering of the clans there. Some of the old houses remain, and form a pleasant contrast to the villa in which the merchant or manu facturer keeps his state, and to the long row of cottages wherein the mill- *- **!%' vj*«;s* <> OLD HOUSES AT SHIPLEY hand or warehouseman lives in accordance with modern sanitation. Shipley is a place of new things, and has been so ever since the old cloth trade gave place to the worsted trade, some seventy years ago. And yet, in contrast with Saltaire, it has a certain refreshing antiquity. Of Saltaire is is difficult BAILDON 397 BAILDON MOOR to speak with any particular enthusiasm or appreciation, save from a purely utilitarian point of view. It is regarded by some people as the most wonderful place in Airedale, and possibly in the world ; and it is certainly worth a careful inspection, if only for the sake of proving how very unin teresting and featureless a model village may be made. Saltaire is simply a huge mill, which covers over twelve acres of ground, surrounded by model dwellings, model almshouses, model grounds, and model institutions. As a model of what the great capitalists' idea of an English industrial village should be, it is excellent ; the lover of the picturesque will probably turn away from it with a feeling of thankfulness that the Utopian age is still far away from us. It is extremely pleasant, after visiting the model streets of Saltaire and gazing in astonishment at its huge mill, to cross the river and turn aside towards Baildon, which has the local distinction of being considered one of the last places ever made, but which is certainly one of the most interesting villages in this corner of the Riding. It is perched high on the hillside above the Aire ; it possesses a curiously situated village green, from whence more than one famous cricketer has gone forth to do battle on the classic cricket-grounds ; its ancient houses are quaint and interesting, and beyond them stretches a magnificent expanse of undulating and occasionally wild moorland, which rolls away through miles of silence and clear air to the valley of the Wharfe. High over the village rises Baildon Hill, where on there are the remains of numerous earthworks, cairns, and barrows, 398 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE and from which the traveller may obtain wide and extensive views over a vast space of country. From this point the east bank of the Aire is full of beauty and picturesque variety. From Baildon Hill stretches the wide expanse of Rombalds Moor, a tract of high, heather-clad land, about 1300 feet above sea-level, which separates the Aire from the Wharfe. On this moor, and on those of Baildon and Hawkesworth, many traces and evidences of the Primitive Ages have been found, and there seems no doubt that the Druids held their religious ceremonies on the highest points. Where the moorlands slope down to the Aire there is much fine scenery in the glens and valleys, all of which are used as holiday resorts by the crowded popu lations of the adjacent manufacturing towns and villages. As the Aire approaches the ancient market-town of Bingley, the roofs and gables of which are seen from some distance down the valley, it becomes possessed of newcharms, and its immediate surroundings grow more picturesque. Bingley itself, though now a much modernised town, disfigured as regards purely picturesque appearance by factories and workshops, lies amidst the most charming and delightful country, and the lover of nature will find within a few miles' circuit of it some places which will compel his hearty admira tion. Few excursions could be more delightful than that which may be made by following the stream which passes through the beautiful valley of St. Ives from Cot- tingley Bridge, and thence turning across country to the little hamlet of Harden, from whence the highroad runs between deep woods and along shelving banks, with romantic meadows lying at their base, to Bingley. The views and prospects hereabouts, indeed, are in their way unrivalled, and go far to justify the boast which John Nicholson, the Airedale poet, made on behalf of the scenery he most loved — "All Yorkshire scenes to Bingley Vale must bow." •M& BINGLEY 399 THE DRUIDS' ALTAR When the Domesday survey was made Bingley belonged to one Ernegis de Burun, and it was all waste. It had a certain amount of existence during the Middle Ages, and the manor was at various times in the hands of the Paganels, Maurice de Gaunt, the Astleys (of Pateshall, in Staffordshire), and the Walkers, who sold it to one Hugh Currer, grandfather of the first Lord Bingley, from whomit eventually passed, in the female line, to the Lane- Foxes of Bramham. It could scarcely have had much of an existence in 1 634, for it was then assessed to pay one month's sustenance of the poor in com pany with other townships of its parish, and its own share was considerably less than any of the others. Morton paid us. 2d.; Micklethwaite, 13s.; Harden, 13s. 2d. ; Bingley, 6s. 2d. In the whole parish there were then 167 ratepayers, of whom only twelve resided in Bingley proper. But during the present century Bingley has widened its borders and increased its popula tion out of all knowledge. Previously devoted to hand-combing and weaving, its inhabitants about 1801 made acquaintance with the powers of steam, and the trade of the town developed. Yet in spite of its modern aspects and asso ciations, there is much in Bingley which gives one an impression of antiquity. Its parish church, originally a Norman structure, with its ancient font, which bears what is commonly believed to be a Runic inscription, is of great interest, and it and its churchyard contain various interesting monuments of local celebrities. 400 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE To the lover of extensive prospects, one of the most attractive views in the neighbourhood of Bingley is that from the Druids' Altar, an im posing group of rocks which looks down upon the windings of the Aire in its valley below from a considerable eminence. It is reached from the heart of the town by a steep path, which will prove wearying to any but the experienced and the enthusiastic ; but the views from the top of the great stones whereon the Druids are said to have sacrificed their victims are wide and attractive enough to repay the exertion of climbing to them. To most travellers the mere fact that these rocks are supposed to have been the scenes of druidical ceremonies will not appeal so much as the more pertinent fact that they form a vantage ground from which the surrounding hills and valleys may be viewed with great delight and benefit to the beholder. CHAPTER XXII Bradford: Old and New NATURAL SITUATION OF BRADFORD EARLY HISTORY OF THE CITY BRADFORD IN MEDIEVAL TIMES BRADFORD AND THE CIVIL WAR — DEVELOPMENT OF THE STAPLE TRADE — MODERN BRADFORD — PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE CITY — ITS CHIEF BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS — THE SUBURBS OF BRADFORD — CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BRADFORD PEOPLE — SOME FAMOUS BRADFORD MEN. I \F all the great manufacturing and industrial cities and towns in Yorkshire there are none which can in any way compare with Bradford for advantages of situation, or for aspects which are alike pleasing to the eye and indicative of the prosperity of the people. From most great centres of population one desires to escape as soon as may be — in and around Bradford the most fastidious of travellers might spend days without feeling that he was in the midst of one of the busiest industrial hives in the land. For all this the natural situation of Bradford is chiefly responsible. Although, strictly speaking, not in Airedale itself, the valley in which it lies is really a branch of it, and has many characteristics of the more famous dale in its upper reaches. Indeed, ere it became practically built up, Bradford Dale, from the point where the Beck of that name runs into the Aire at Shipley, until the moorland round about Thornton is reached, must have been a singularly BRADFORD 401 impressive bit of country, and thickly populated though it now is, it still retains enough of charm and variety to render Bradford the most pleasantly situated industrial city in England. To those who are accus tomed to level lands, a first acquaintance with Bradford is somewhat trying and surprising. The great mass of the city lies at the foot of high hills, and whoever would escape from its heart to its outskirts must needs climb by steep and sometimes tortuous ways. Needless to say, the newer parts of Bradford, the strictly residential quarters, are perched high on the hillsides, some of them at altitudes of several hundred feet above sea-level, and the air breathed by the fortunate inhabitants of these parts, coming as it does across the great heather-clad moorlands which surround the city, is singularly pure, sweet, and bracing. Few cities, again, afford their in habitants such chances of wide and extensive views as those which the natural situation of Bradford gives to its citizens. From outlying portions of the city like Heaton, Undercliffe, Horton, and Wibsey some of the most extensive views in the county are obtainable, and each gives some new and delightful aspect of the mountainous country which closes this modern centre of manufacture in on every side. Although the Bradford of to-day bears all the evidences of modernity which a city that has practically been built or rebuilt during the past half- century must needs possess, it has a considerable antiquity, and was pro bably a Brigantian settlement ere ever the Romans came. There are scarcely any evidences of its existence during Roman or Saxon times, and though there is a tradition that one of the Roman roads or streets ran through Bradford, there is nothing to prove that the place was at all known to the Romans. At the time of the Domesday Survey, Bradford was of small consequence. In it and its six berewicks Gamel had fifteen carucates of land, affording labour for eight ploughs. The manor belonged to Ilbert de Lacy, and was waste. There was a wood pasture here half a mile square, but there is no mention of church, or priest, or mill, and the whole place seems to have had no more importance than lies in the fact that it was a part of the De Lacy possessions. That it had become of more consequence by the middle of the thirteenth century, appears from a charter granted by the Crown to Edmund de Lacy, April 21st, 1251, establishing a weekly market " at his manor of Brafford in the county of York," to be held on Thursdays, unless damage should be done thereby to neighbour ing markets. But of the state of the town in those ages little is positively known, and it is more from conjecture and surmise than from absolute knowledge that one pictures it rising under the De Lacys from its cheer less state at the time of the Domesday Survey to a position of comparative importance amongst the mediaeval Yorkshire manufacturing towns. That it had extended its borders and come into possession of certain things which go to make a town by 1342 is evident, however, from the extent or in ventory of the manor of Bradford made on behalf of its Lord, Henry, 3 A 402 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Duke of Lancaster, in that year. It had by that time a church, and the advowson is returned at the value of fjioo a year, and the then Vicar was one Geoffrey Langton. There was a fulling-mill, open to every house, and a water-mill, and there was a three days' fair at the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, and the toll of it was valued at -£5, 13s. 4d. It would appear also from this Extent, that the ancient custom which enabled the lord to claim the privilege of lying with a tenant's bride on the first night of their marriage had been in force here, for there are particulars of the value of the compoundings which had been made in abrogation of it under the name of Merchet. From the hands of the De Lacys the manor of Bradford passed to those of John of Gaunt, and from him to his son John de Beaufort, Marquis of Dorset, who, however, was speedily despoiled of it by Richard II. The rise to power of Henry of Bolingbroke brought it back into possession of the House of Lancaster once more, and it was made part of the Duchy of Lancaster. Of its history at this period there are few records. It was probably leased by the Crown to the highest bidder from this time forward during the reign of several monarchs. Of its status and population in mediaeval times we only hear stray rumours and faint whispers, until Leland comes along with his quaint sidelights on things as he saw them. He speaks of " Bradeforde, a praty quik market toune, dimidio aut eo amplius, minus Wackefelda. It hath one paroche chirche and a chapel of Saint Sitha. It standith much by clothing, and is distant vi miles from Halifax, and four miles from Christeal (Kirkstall) Abbey." Further, in dealing with Leeds he remarks of it that it was " as large as Bradforde, but not so quik," from which one infers that the sharp business charac teristics of the modern Bradford man were not missing in his forebear of Henry VIII.'s time. The population of Bradford about the beginning of the seventeenth century was probably about 2500. It was still in possession of the Crown, and in 161 2 James I. instituted an Inquisition there, Sir William Ingleby, Kt., Henry Mynors, and Robert Wall acting as the King's Commissioners, for the purpose of ascertaining how his Majesty's affairs stood in the place. From the report of the jurors it appeared that they declared the king sole lord of the Manor of Bradford, Manningham, and Stanbury, with the rents and services of his freeholders in certain towns and hamlets appertaining to the Manor — to wit, Horton, Clayton, Thornton, Allerton, Wilsden, Oxenhope, and Haworth. In this report there are several interesting particulars given as to the ancient tenure of land in Bradford, amongst them being the fact that John Lister of Little Horton paid yearly for his land with a pair of white spurs. After this Inquisition the Manor of Bradford, together with the Honour of Pontefract, was settled by James I. upon his queen, but at the king's death it and most of the Crown lands were sold by Charles I. to the City of London, in repayment of monies BRADFORD 4°3 advanced to his father, the Crown retaining certain fee-farm rents upon them. The trustees to whom the Manor of Bradford was conveyed, in charge for the corporation of the City of London, were Edward Ditchfield, John Highlord, Humphrey Clarke, and Francis Moss, and the grant, which is dated 9th September, in the fourth year of Charles I., reserved a rent- charge to Sir John Savile, who had been Steward of the Manor, as some compensation for removal from his office. When the Civil War broke out in 1642, Bradford, in company with Leeds and Halifax, lost little time in showing its sympathy with the Par liamentary cause. The townsfolk fortified their town as they best could, and prepared to defend Royalists with vigour Clarendon hints that pathy for the Parlia- prejudice. " Leeds, ford," he says in his Rebellion, "three very (which, depending too much maligned th e at their (the Parlia- It is somewhat diffi- manufacturers of malign the gentry — the northern towns Parliament was that tice and liberty was When hostilities corn- December 1642, the a valiant show against encamped at Under- THE ARMS OF BRADFORD themselves against the and determination. much of their sym- ment arose from class Halifax, and Brad- History of the Great popular andrich towns wholly upon clothing, gentry) were wholly ment's) disposition." cult to see why the clothing should the real reason why rose in defence of the in them the love of jus- particularly strong. menced hereabouts in Bradford folk made the Royalists, who had cliffe. "They were about seven or eight hundred men, we about three hundred," says an old Parliamentary chronicler who was actively engaged ; " they had several pieces of cannon, we had none . . . but our men defended those passes so well by which they were to descend, that they got no ground of us." Even tually the Royalists fled in the direction of Leeds, and the Parliamentarians set about strengthening their defences. In a few days Sir William Saville appeared with a large force behind him, and commenced the first siege of the town. The contemporary accounts of what happened after the investment began are at once interesting and amusing. On Sunday the 1 8th December, the Royalists approached the eastern side of the town in considerable force, with dragoons, artillery, pioneers, two drakes (cannon of curious shape) and a vast number of footmen. " I should now show," says one of the chroniclers, "how our men were marshalled. We had the night before got a captain from Halifax, a man of military skill. We had near 4o4 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE upon forty muskets and culivers in the town ; about thirty fowling, birding, and smaller pieces ; and well-nigh as many more club-men. These our captain disposed in several parts of the town : ten or twelve of our best marksmen upon the steeple, and some in the church." These unequally matched forces now set to work. The Royalists erected a battery in Barkerend, at quite a short distance from the church, and began to play upon its steeple, which, says one of the contemporary writers, quaintly enough, they never hit. The " firemen " (what were they ?) club-men, and scythe-men gave the Royalists a warm reception when it came to hand-to-hand fighting, and after the latter had enjoyed an eight hours' day of it, they retreated in much confusion, and left many dead behind them. One Roundhead particularly distinguished himself in this fight. Finding himself surrounded by three of the enemy, he shot one, knocked down the horse of a second, drove the sword of the third back into the latter's throat, and so put them all to ignominious rout. After the defeat of the Parliamenterians at Adwalton, in June 1643, a second siege of Bradford began, Sir Thomas Fairfax and some 800 men defending the town against the Earl of Newcastle and a considerable force. In this siege the popular cause had hardly any prospect of successful re sistance of the enemy. Fairfax had only twenty-five barrels of powder. He made the church tower his principal fortress, and hung it about with woolpacks, against which the shot of the besiegers constantly struck with a dull and threatening thud. Fairfax saw that he had no chance of holding out, and presently, finding that he had but one barrel of powder and no matches left, he called his officers together, and determined upon a retreat to Leeds. The footmen went off under cover of the night ; Fairfax and his horsemen, trying to break through the Royalist lines at daybreak, were some of them slain and some taken prisoners, amongst the latter being Lady Fairfax, who rode behind one Hill, an officer, and who was subsequently sent on to Leeds in Lord Newcastle's own coach. The un fortunate Bradford folk, being thus deprived of all protection, were in great fear and trembling as to what would ensue when the Royalists entered the town. It was rumoured that Newcastle had bidden his men to give no quarter, and there is a legend that he was only constrained to with draw this order by the appearance of a ghost at his quarters, Bowling Hall, which begged him to " Pity poor Bradford ! " Newcastle, affected by this entreaty, gave orders for quarter, but said nothing about pillage, wherefore the townsfolk soon found themselves robbed and plundered, and in such evil case that they probably wished themselves heartily rid of all disturbing politics and the like. It is said that Bradford suffered more severely from the results of the Civil War than any town in the West Riding, and that its population and trade were decreased by it to such an extent that it was the work of a century to repair the consequent damage. MANOR OF BRADFORD 405 II From 1629 the Manor of Bradford has been in the possession of private persons. In that year the four trustees previously mentioned as holding it for the City of London conveyed it to John Okell, Vicar of Brad ford, William Lister of Manningham, Robert Clarke, and Joshua Cooke of Bradford, subject to certain payments. During the next half-century it OLD HOUSES, HIGH STREET, BRADFORD passed through various hands, until in 1671 it became the property of Henry Marsden of Gisburn. From his descendants it passed in 1795 to one Benjamin Rawson of Bolton-in-the-Moors, who paid £2100 for it. In the present representative of his family the Manor still remains vested. Of the history of Bradford during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there is little to be said. The town had suffered so con siderably during the Civil War, and its trade had experienced such severe reverses at that time, that it took a long time to bring back prosperity to the inhabitants. Towards the end of the last century, however, there were evidences of a revival of trade in the facts that turn pike roads, placing the town in easier communication with other parts of the county, were made, and that a Piece Hall was erected in 1773, and the Bradford Canal opened a year later. But it was not until the beginning of the present century that Bradford really entered upon its 406 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE modern career of enterprise and prosperity. In 1803 an Act of Parlia ment was obtained which empowered fifty-eight commissioners to administer the government of the town, and to provide for the lighting and cleaning of the streets. At this time the latter were illuminated by oil-lamps, and it was not until 1822 that gas was provided by a private company. These improvements arose from the fact that the town was now rapidly increasing in size, and that its trade was fast developing. In 1811, in 181 8, and again in 1825 festivals were held at Bradford in honour of Bishop Blaize, the patron saint of the wool-combers, that of the last-named year being of exceptional magnificence, probably because wool-combing was just then making great progress in the town and district. In the procession, which made its way about the principal streets of the town for several hours, there were many notable features which are worthy of record. There were twenty-four Wool-staplers on horseback, each horse being caparisoned with a fleece. These were followed by thirty-eight Worsted Spinners, wearing white stuff waistcoats, with a sliver of wool over the shoulder and a white stuff sash, all mounted on horses whose necks were covered with nets of thick yarn. There were also fifty-six Apprentices and Masters' Sons on horseback, each wearing ornamented caps, coloured coats, white stuff waistcoats, and blue pantaloons. After Bishop Blaize himself, who was surrounded by guards, chaplains, shepherds and swains, rode one hundred and sixty Wool-sorters, wearing ornamented caps and slivers of wool of various colours. These were followed by thirty Comb-makers, a company of Charcoal Burners, a great body of four hundred and seventy Wool- combers, wearing wool wigs, and finally by forty Dyers, who wore red cockades, blue aprons, and crossed slivers of red and blue. It is somewhat remarkable that in this very year — 1825 — although the festival of the chief patron saint of the industry of the town was celebrated with so much pomp, Bradford experienced a serious check in its march to prosperity, first by a dispute between capital and labour, which resulted in a strike of 20,000 men, and again by the failure of a local bank in which great confidence had been placed. In many respects the history of Bradford is the history of its manu factures. From very early times the making of woollen goods was in exis tence in the town, and until 1750 it was the chief industry of the Bradford people. Leland's remark — " It standith much by clothing " — proves that the town had a considerable trade in the time of Henry VIII. It was probably at the height of its prosperity at a period somewhat antecedent to the Civil War, but from that time onward its woollen trade diminished, and it was only when the manufacture of worsted goods began to show signs of flourishing that the town assumed a more hopeful position. After the erection of the Piece Hall in 1773 the worsted trade increased so rapidly that the spinners of the town could not produce enough yarn to supply the looms, and quantities of wool tops were sent out into the INDUSTRIES OF BRADFORD 407 surrounding valleys to be spun at the firesides of the farmsteads by the domestic spinning-wheel. When machinery in the way of spinning machines was first introduced into the town it was naturally looked upon with great suspicion and dislike by those who favoured the old methods, and the first attempt to erect a steam-engine met with so much opposition as to be entirely frustrated. But by 1798 steam was at work in the Bradford mills in the shape of a small engine of 1 5 horse-power — the feeble yet important precursor of the thousands of gigantic and wonderful machines whose wheels are for ever whirring all over the city. It is impossible to deal with the history of the Bradford trade in cir cumscribed limits, but it may be of some interest to point out certain facts in connection with it which will give the curious some notion of its magni tude and importance. While the ancient industry of Bradford — the manu facture of woollen goods — has disappeared, the city is still the chief centre of the wool trade, and is visited by merchants from all parts of the district for the purchase of raw wool. Its modern industry — the manufacture of worsteds — has developed in surprising fashion into the additional manu factures of mohair, alpaca, velvets, and silks, and the number of its staple articles has increased from five in 1837 *° over n^Y a* tne present time. The old-fashioned methods have entirely dropped out, and the traveller who makes a round of the mills and factories will find himself astounded by the wonders of mechanical ingenuity which have been called into being by com mercial necessity. When the present century began there were only three mills in Bradford — the mills and factories of to-day are reckoned by hundreds. In 1801 some 1200 persons were employed in the town in its trade or manufactures, to-day there are numbers of mills which have as many people working in their sheds. In 1831 the population of Bradford was numbered at 43,527 ; in 1891 it was 216,361 ; and it is probable that the next census will find it to be close upon 300,000. The increase of trade and population has naturally resulted in increase of honours to Brad ford. At the beginning of the century its people had no representative in Parliament. The passing of the Reform Act in 1832 gave them two members, and the Redistribution Act of 1885 increased this number to three. A Charter of Incorporation was granted to the town in 1847, and just half a century later Bradford was made a city. All these things have sprung from the Bradford trade, and it is therefore not surprising that wherever one goes in Bradford the common talk of the day is largely mixed up with technical discourse concerning "tops," "noils," "longs," " shorts," and similar matters. Nor is it less surprising that in almost every quarter of the modern city one is confronted on all sides by evidences of the staple trades in the shape of huge mills and lofty warehouses, crowds of workfolk in their aprons and clogs, and in the sound of the machines whose whirring never seems to cease. 4o8 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE III The traveller who has borne in mind the sombreness of Sheffield and the dinginess of Leeds will find himself pleasantly surprised on his arrival in Bradford — that is if he has expected to find as much dirt and dulness i > i — / - 1 •^L. . .. , ' j'.\'<-S as exists in the two larger cities. Bradford, taking it altogether, is a singularly clean and attractive city, with good streets, fine buildings, and an air of brightness and prosperity which goes far to make new-comers fall in love with it at once. It may be that much of this is due to the fact that the greater part of the Bradford which immediately meets the eye on entering it from either of the principal railway stations is quite modern, and has much of the spick and spanness of the new about it. It is not at all necessary to be more than middle-aged to remember old Bradford — the Bradford of to-day has been almost entirely built since BRADFORD 409 1870. In the heart of the city, with the exception of one or two streets and courts which have resisted the moderniser and the property agent, almost every building is modern. Built of good stone, with wide, well- paved, well-lighted streets, commercial Bradford is a pleasant place wherein to stroll, and much to be preferred to any of its neighbouring centres of population. It is, in short, a rare example of the modern industrial town wherein the evidences of trade never obtrude themselves in disagreeable or unpleasant fashion, and where commercialism, though keen and persistent, is carried on under conditions much more pleasing to the eye than in most manufacturing towns and cities. The lover of the antique will naturally turn at an early stage of his exploration of Bradford to the parish church of St. Peter, which occupies an elevated position overlooking the open space known of late as Forster Square. It is not a particularly imposing structure at first sight, but closer examination proves it to be very noteworthy and interesting. Like many another important church in Yorkshire it owes its parochial origin to the De Lacys. The early records of it are few and fragmentary, but it seems clear that it was originally a chapel-of-ease in the extensive Saxon parish of Dewsbury, and was made independent by one of the De Lacys, who endowed it with ninety-six acres of land. One of the earliest records of its existence after the Conquest occurs in the register of Archbishop Wickwayne in the year 1281, from which it appears that in that year one Robert Tonnington was presented to the rectory of Bradford by Alice, widow of Edmund de Lacy. Twelve years afterwards, the rector, with his patroness' consent, preferred a vicar to the living, and there have been vicars of Bradford ever since. By that time the living had become of considerable value. In Pope Nicholas's Valuation of 1292 (a return of the value of English ecclesiastical benefices), the value of the church of Brad ford is set down at ^53, 6s. 8d., and of the vicarage at ^13, 6s. 8d. In 1 41 6 the church was given by Henry V. to the College of the Blessed Mary at Leicester, in whose possession it remained until the College was dissolved. Queen Mary gave it to the Archbishops of York, from whom it returned to the Crown and thence to the Duchy of Lancaster. In 1638 it was acquired by Sir John Maynard, Kt., of Surrey, who made an ex haustive survey of the rectorial tithes, which were then set down as of the value of ^590. From an entry in the Parliamentary Survey made in 1650 it appears that the Civil War had reduced the value of the " viccaridge " which had been " seaventye pounds p. ann." to " fortye pounds p. ann. or thereabouts," and that it was then vacant. One Jonas Waterhouse, afterwards ejected for nonconformity, was vicar during the Protectorate, and at that time acquired the rectory and advowson from Sir John Maynard. After this they passed through the hands of various private persons until they came into the possession of the Rev. Charles Simeon, the famous Evangelical leader, in the hands of whose trustees they still remain. 3 B 410 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE There is strong evidence for believing that the Norman church which undoubtedly existed in Bradford occupied the site on which the present church now stands, but there are no traces of it left. The present edifice, which consists of nave, chancel, aisles, transepts, and tower at the west end, and which is chiefly in the Perpendicular style of architecture, was principally erected during the reign of Henry VI., and appears to have been built in very slow fashion, probably for lack of means. It is built of the freestone of the district, and has been restored on several occasions. In the long list of its vicars there have been several men of note, many of whom are interred in the chancel. Several of them sprang from families in the neighbour hood. Abm. Brooksbank (i 667-1 677) was one of the Brooksbanks of Horton ; Bradgate Ferrand (1706-17 10) was a Ferrand of Harden ; John Sykes (1752-1784) was presented to the living by his father and mother, the then heads of the ancient family of Sykes of Leeds. One of the best known vicars of Bradford during the last hundred years was the Rev. John Crosse, a native of London, who held the living for thirty-two years, and was buried in the north-west side of the churchyard. It was during his ministry that the galleries of the church were put in, the reason for this disfigurement being that his preaching attracted enormous crowds. Bradford during the present century has been singularly fortunate in its vicars, amongst whom Dr. Scoresby and the late Archdeacon Bardsley were conspicuous for their zeal and devotion. Of the value of the living as it was in the earlier years of the century there are some interesting details given in a return made during the vicariate of the Rev. H. Heap in 1825, by order of the Archbishop of York, from which it appears that it was then worth about ^500 a year. In this document there are some singular details as to the dues of the Parish Clerk. Every family which kept a separate fire was bound to pay him 2d. ; any one who kept a plough was responsible to him for 4d. ; every proclamation which he made in church or churchyard brought him in 2d. ; for a funeral in the churchyard he got 6d., for one in the church 5s., for one in the chancel, 7s. Much more interesting, however, than this modern return is a more ancient document which sets forth particulars of the smaller tithes of the vicarage of Bradford. From this it appears that the vicar derived certain emoluments from calves, milk, pigs, geese, turkeys, fowls, bees, eggs, Easter dues, and other matters. Eight groats were paid for a calf if a person had six or more calved in one year, and the vicar allowed out of the eight groats i|d. a-piece for so many calves as the person wanted of ten, and if any person had five calves in a year there was a modus of 1 6d. due for half a calf. Similar provisions existed in relation to milk and pigs, but "geese are gathered in kind where the vicar pleaseth " — where they were not so gathered the vicar could claim id. for every goose hatched and brought up in the year ; i|d. was paid for every foal ; bees were taken in kind if the vicar thought fit, or compounded for ; every person who kept hens paid id. for them at Easter, instead VICARS' DUES 411 of following the ancient custom, which was, that at Shrovetide, the vicar gathered his dues in kind, one egg for every hen and two for every cock. As to the Easter offerings they were paid by every person in the parish who had attained the age of sixteen years, every such person contributing 2d. Every householder paid id. for his house ; id. "for his reek or smoke " ; or id. for his garden. There are some curious m HORTON OLD HALL items in the same return respecting the surplice fees of the vicars of Bradford. For publishing the banns of marriage, or " spurrings " as they were called at that time in this district, 6d. was to be paid. If a man or woman of the parish went outside its boundaries to be married they were obliged to pay their own vicar's dues all the same. Five groats were paid for a burial in the church; iod. for every corpse "born underhand " ; and for a child, " usually carried upon the head of a woman," 5d. Of the churches which have sprung up in Bradford since its modern career was entered upon it only remains to say that all of them have been built during the present century, and are therefore chiefly typical of nineteenth-century architecture. In Leland's time there was in Bradford a chapel or chantry dedicated to St. Sitha, which is supposed to have occupied a site in Westgate, one of the oldest parts of the town, but all trace of it has long been lost. Of the modern churches the most notable and striking one is that of All Saints at Little Horton, which was built about thirty years ago by Sir F. S. Powell, Bart., whose picturesque i ¦ m . {if* : V -r'_ ' ¥ W ' '' ; ;; ^•¦'¦- tl:^X-r^r^ry^^y;^yPh if- $fe^V •"' .;,¦;¦¦ ? xttm** ¦;..-'¦ . - . ¦ S3 t rf 4$3 : iff* 4f i ... V. ¦ - - Jowri ritil CHIEF BUILDINGS 4i3 residence, Horton Old Hall, is closely adjacent. Of churches, chapels, and meeting-houses Bradford now possesses a plenitude as remarkable as the paucity which distinguished it a century ago. There are few sects or denominations which are not represented in the city, and the principal persuasions all rejoice in the possession of several well- built and spacious edifices. Those who remember the Bradford of half a cen tury ago speak of it as being at that time a much more quaintly picturesque place than it is in its modern state. It then possessed numerous antique features in the shape of old houses, inns, and shops, almost all of which have been swept away. It is a matter of much satis faction that the buildings which have replaced them are of an imposing and handsome order of archi tecture. The Town Hall, which was built in 1873 at a cost of .£140,000, is a building of considerable size, and covers an area of 2000 square yards. Its principal front is 275 feet in length, and its tower, which is a replica of the campanile of the Palazzo Vecchio at Florence, rises to a height of 2 2 o feet. Though somewhat dwarfed by its posi tion, which is in the heart of the city and at its lowest level, it is a building worthy of such an important centre of industry. Close at hand is St. George's Hall, a building raised by private enterprise, at a cost of _£i 3,000, in 1853. Here, in the great hall, which affords accommodation for 3000 persons, political meetings, banquets, concerts, and public entertainments are held, and there are few contemporary statesmen of note who have not spoken from its platform to vast audiences. Another building of considerable size and dis tinction is the Technical College, opened in 1882 by the Prince and Princess of Wales. One of the most notable features of Market Street, the principal thoroughfare of the city, is the Exchange, built in 1863 at a cost of .£30,000. Few cities of the north, indeed, possess so many imposing public buildings as Bradford. The Post-Office (1887) in Forster Square, the Mechanics' THE EXCHANGE 4H PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE From a Photograph By Messrs. F. Frith Gr Co. THE POST-OFFICE, FORSTER SQUARE Institute (1871) in Market Street, the Art Gallery and Museum (1879) in Darley Street, the vast covered markets (1878) in Kirkgate, and the new buildings of the Grammar School in Manningham Lane, are all worthy of inspection. But what will probably strike the traveller with most admiration in Bradford is the size, height, and generally handsome appear ance of the buildings devoted to commerce. The vast warehouses which literally tower high above the earth in the centre of the city, and which in some cases are of a style of architecture that would do justice to a palace, are no less surprising than the great mills on the edges of the place, some of which are gigantic in their extent. Of these mills none are more striking or conspicuous than those at Manningham, wherein are carried on the great industries in silks, velvets, and plushes which were introduced by the present Lord Masham. Naturally, since commercialism is so handsomely housed, its necessary offshoots are handsomely housed too. The shops, banks, hotels, and offices of Bradford are all of an imposing nature. The group of shops and chambers known as the Swan Arcade cost ^140,000 ; the principal banking firms possess magnificent buildings, and the two modern hotels, the Midland and the Victoria, are simply palaces of luxury and magnifi cence. Of late years the two principal railway stations have been rebuilt, and there are thus few links in the way of buildings between the Bradford of yester day and the Bradford of to-day. The old inhabitant who remembers the THE SUBURBS OF BRADFORD 415 quaint aspect of old Bradford when the Beck ran through the middle of the town, then declared by a government inspector to be the filthiest town he had ever visited, and compares it with its present imposing vistas of great buildings, must needs feel that it takes but little time to entirely change the outward look of a great city. He must also surely recognise that if there are many features missing which became endeared to folk of the good old days which are gone, there are new features in Bradford which are all for the good and benefit of the community. In the old days there was no such institution as the present Workhouse at Little Horton, or as the Infirmary in Westgate, or as the Fever Hospital in Leeds Road, or as the Children's Hospital in Manningham, or as the various charitable societies with which modern Bradford is liberally supplied. Nor were there such facilities for the people of the old days as there are now in the shape of education, free libraries and picture-galleries, easy and cheap transit to all parts of the city, and of opportunity to breathe the invigorating air which sweeps over Bradford from the surrounding moorlands and hills. Few cities or towns in England are so well provided as Bradford is for parks and open spaces. Peel Park, opened in 1863, is 56 acres in size, and has natural scenery and situation which make it almost unequalled as a recrea tion ground ; Lister Park (purchased from Lord Masham, then Mr. S. C. Lister, in 1870), across the valley, is somewhat smaller but scarcely less picturesque; Bowling Park, situate in one of the principal industrial suburbs of the city, contains 53 acres; and Horton Park, overlooking the city, has 39 acres, while there are other parks of smaller size. In these parks during the summer months there is always music to be heard, and in the two first named the surroundings are so eminently rural that it is not at all difficult to imagine that one is out in the country instead of within touch of a great manufacturing town. From all the suburbs of Bradford it is possible to gain speedy access to some of the most charming scenery in the Riding, and in most of them the suburban resident finds himself living amidst much more pleasant sur roundings than usually characterise the outskirts of a large city. Heaton on one side of the valley, and Undercliffe on the other, are suburbs perched high above the city, and from both there are wide and extensive views of hill and moor to be had. The rapid growth of Bradford in the direction of Shipley has almost entirely changed the rural surroundings of Manningham and Frizinghall, but there are still left sufficient green fields and coppices to give these popular suburbs an air of semi-rusticity. The suburbs of Bradford, too, have somewhat more evidences of antiquity than the city itself. One of their most attractive features is the presence here and there of some ancient stone mansion whose low gables, wide porches, and mullioned windows form a striking contrast to the modern villas and mansions by which it is surrounded. These old houses, once isolated in the midst of fields and moors, are almost the only things of 416 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE antiquity remaining in the district, and their sturdy, comfortable appearance is eminently suggestive of the days when Bradford was something very different from the great bustling city which it is now. IV The people of Bradford resemble their city in the fact that they are essentially modern. The quickness which Leland remarked in their ancestors of three centuries ago is present in the folk of to-day, probably in even greater degree. They are shrewd, hard-headed folk, full of energy and perseverance, with a keen sense of the value of money, and of the necessity of making and keeping it. They also know the advantages of education and of culture, and there are few cities in England in which educational facilities are so eagerly taken advantage of as in Bradford. Of the Bradford man in general, whether he be capitalist or labourer, business or profes sional man, it may truly be said that he is a great reader, a great thinker, and a great talker. He is fond of argument and of debate, and finds plenty of time every day to gratify his tastes in both directions. Also he is fond of hearing new theories expounded, and will give patient if somewhat cynical attention to any faddist who is anxious to air his views, always reserving to himself the right of subsequently pulling those views into small pieces. Naturally he is a keen politician, and fights for whatever party he belongs to with a fierceness and vigour which is surprising to less enthusiastic folk. And, like the majority of Yorkshiremen, he is a good sportsman, and crowds around the cricket or football fields, or disports himself on the golf links, with as much zeal for the pleasure of the moment as he puts into the more serious business of life. Of celebrated natives of Bradford one of the earliest was Richard Richardson, a famous physician and scientist of the seventeenth century. He was born at Bierley Hall, the family seat, in 1633, and educated at Bradford Grammar School, from whence he proceeded to University College, Oxford, where he took his degree of Bachelor of Physic. He went from Oxford to the University of Leyden, where he remained three years, residing in the house of Paul Herman, the botanist. Here he made the acquaintance of numerous savants and scientists, and was the particular friend of Boer- haave. On returning to England Richardson took his doctor's degree at Oxford, after which he settled down at Bierley Hall, and gave himself up to scientific pursuits. Being possessed of a considerable fortune he never practised physic professionally, but his services were always at the com mand of the poor, to whom they were given without fee. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 17 12, and thereafter cultivated an intimate friendship with some of its most distinguished members. It is somewhat curious that although Richardson was looked upon by his fellow-scientists as one of the most learned and best-informed botanists of the time, he 3 c 418 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE never wrote any important work on his favourite pursuit. He con tributed occasional papers to various Transactions, but the results of his long and careful investigations seem chiefly to have been communi cated to his fellow-workers. He died in 1741. John Sharp, one of the most famous Archbishops of York, was born at Bradford in 1644, of Nonconformist parents. After spending several years at the Grammar School he proceeded to Christ College, Cambridge, where he took his bachelor's and master's degrees. He shortly afterwards entered the service of Sir Heneage Finch, then Solicitor-General, as chaplain and tutor, and took holy orders. In his twenty-eighth year he was preferred to the Archdeaconry of Berkshire through Finch's influence. On the latter reaching the woolsack a little later, honours and rewards fell thickly on Sharp, who was made successively a prebend of Norwich, vicar of St. Bartholomew's, and rector of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields. Here he re mained for sixteen years, and is said to have been one of the most popular preachers in the metropolis. He was created D.D. by his own university in 1679, and Dean of Norwich in 1681, this being the last preferment obtained for him by his patron, Lord Chancellor Finch. Sharp had several passages-at-arms with James II., whose leanings towards Popery he had publicly spoken against in his own pulpit, but when William and Mary came to the throne further honours were accorded to him in the shape of the Deanery of Canterbury and the offer of a bishopric. This he declined, but shortly afterwards he was appointed Archbishop of York. He was at that time in his forty-seventh year, and he reigned over the northern province for twenty-three years longer, dying at Bath in 171 3. Another Sharp, Abraham, the mathematician, was born at Little Horton in 1651, and, like the Archbishop, was educated at the Grammar School. He was engaged for some time in trade, but having attracted the notice of Flamstead, the astronomer, the latter procured for him a post at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Here he remained for some little time, but on coming into the family estates at Little Horton he retired thither, and for the rest of his life gave himself up to his favourite pursuits. He built an observatory, and lived the life of one entirely wrapped up in science and observation. Although he kept up a considerable corre spondence with contemporary scientists such as Newton, Halley, Moor, and others, he scarcely ever held conversation with any one, and there is a legend to the effect that if any one wished to see him they were in structed to rub a stone against a certain wall of his house, on hearing the sound of which he would either admit them or leave them un answered, as he felt inclined at the moment. Sharp lived to the advanced age of ninety-one, having spent almost the whole of his life in prosecuting the study of the most abstruse mathematics, some of his accomplishments in which, such as his quadrature of the circle, and his carrying out of logarithms to sixty-one places of decimals, seem wonderful to the un- THE WORTH VALLEY 419 learned in such matters. He was naturally regarded by his fellow-towns folk with considerable awe and respect, and was followed to his grave by a vast concourse in 1742. Of other prominent natives and inhabitants of Bradford it would be possible to say much. John Fawcett, a scholar of some note at the end of the last century, was born here in 1739, and Joseph Hulme, a well-known physician and alumnus of the University of Leyden, in 17 14. But the men who have chiefly made Bradford what she is, have been the great organisers and captains of industry, and to fully describe the city's rise to its present proud position it would be necessary to write the histories of some of the great industrial concerns represented by the names of Lister, Holden, Salt, Ripley, Illingworth, and to particularise the wonderful way in which in vention and enterprise has changed the obscure town of a century ago into the important city of to-day. CHAPTER XXIII Haworth and its Surroundings THE WORTH VALLEY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MOORLAND SCENERY THE BRONTE FAMILY — THEIR BIRTHPLACE AT THORNTON — HAWORTH : ITS CHURCH AND PARSONAGE OLD AND NEW KEIGHLEY. I jHE river Aire, after passing Bingley, winds through a pleasant valley flanked by high ground, rising on both sides of the stream to considerable heights, until it approaches Keighley, where, at a little distance from the town, it meets its tributary, the Worth, a narrow river which descends to Airedale from the wild moorlands lying on the Lancashire border. The first prospect of the valley through which the Worth runs during the final stages of its course is neither encouraging nor pleasing, save to those who have a certain love of the stern and the gloomy. The town of Keighley, which lies in the immediate foreground, though possessed of considerable anti quity, has nowadays all the characteristics of a busy industrial town, and lifts up to whatever sky may canopy it a goodly number of chimneys, furnaces, and the roofs of workshops and factories. The frowning hills and moorlands which overtop it and the little river below are at first sight repellent rather than attractive, so stern and rugged are their outlines. As 420 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Keighley is left behind and the traveller advances further along the Worth valley, the sternness and ruggedness increases rather than otherwise. The river winds along in tortuous fashion, and its vagaries are imitated by the highroad and the railway, both of which describe many marvellous curves ere the head of the valley is reached. All along the windings of the valley there are abundant evidences of population and of industry, and the houses and cottages of grim, grey stone seem to give some indication of the sturdy character of the folk who inhabit them. Like most other inhabitants of Yorkshire dales and valleys the people of the Worth valley possess certain peculiarities of temperament which are all their own, and in most radical and essential respects they are little different to-day from what they were when Charlotte Bronte and her sisters lived amongst them. They have a certain roughness of manner and of speech which springs from a fearless and independent spirit, and if their ideas have been sufficiently widened of late to allow them to suffer a stranger to pass through their villages un molested, they still retain that jealousy of the foreigner which is one of the sure marks of a people who from time immemorial have dwelt in the midst of wild scenery, amidst the fastnesses of which it was often necessary to seek a sure shelter from marauding invaders. To those lovers of the work of the three wonderful sisters of Haworth who explore the Worth valley and its surroundings for the first time, there must needs be a great intellectual treat in store in the fact that every step they take will give them a clearer understanding of the value and greatness of that work. Just as no one can fully appreciate the beauty and simplicity of Wordsworth's poetry until they have formed at least some acquaintance with the lakes and mountains amidst which it was written, so no one can realise adequately the rare genius of the Bronte sisters until the land in which they spent the greater portion of their lives has been visited. They, more perhaps than any other writers of English fiction, caught the spirit of the place — between their genius and the genius of the moors and hills there was an absolute unanimity of feeling which is not yet entirely compre hended. Some comprehension of it comes, though only faintly, when one climbs from the Worth valley, through one or other of the grim-featured villages, to the vast stretches of moorland which form the western borders of Yorkshire. It is impossible to describe in words the strange silences and solitudes of these moors. Rising to considerable altitudes above sea- level, they sweep away from whatever point of vantage the traveller may occupy, in what seems to be an endless succession of heath-clad undula tions, some of strange weird shape, some of long regular outlines, until they melt in the sky beyond. Their solitude is wonderful — it seems as though a man might wander for days about them, seeing no human face, hearing no human voice. With every changing of the sky they change — when the sun shines they smile ; in the gloom of winter they are dark, frowning, terrifying to the imagination. But they, more than anything in the neigh- THE BRONTE FAMILY 421 bourhood, more than the harsh-voiced, rough-and-ready folk, more than the bleak villages and grim houses, are the true note of the genius of Charlotte Bronte and her sisters, and the secrets of that genius are hidden in their solitudes to-day. II The traveller who desires to see the birthplace of the Brontes, ere he visits the place in which their most productive years were spent, must turn from the Worth valley across the high ground on its east bank until he comes to Thornton, a manufacturing village of considerable size. There is nothing in the aspect of this place to suggest that it is the birthplace of genius ; here, as in the neighbouring villages of Clayton, Queensbury, Denholme, and Allerton, there are all the evidences of manufacture and industry which one expects from the character of the district. Yet Thornton has a considerable antiquity, and was a manor in Norman times. At the poll-tax of 1378 it had twenty-one persons residing in it who were assessed at 4d. each, and one franklin, William Leventhorp, who paid 3s. 4d. Until 1770, when an Act of Parliament was obtained, granting permission to enclose certain of the surrounding moors and wastes, Thornton was a very small place, but by 1 801 it had a population of over 2000, which in creased within the next half - century to 8000. At the present time it is a great bustling village, of much larger dimen sions than many a small city or market-town, and its streets and houses are for the most part new, though there are a few ancient buildings still in existence which give the traveller some notion of what a quaint place it must have been in the past. It was in 1815 that Patrick Bronte came here from his previous incumbency of Hartshead, and it was in April of the following year that Charlotte was born at the vicarage in Market Street, long since forsaken by the vicars of Thornton in favour of a more convenient residence. Here, too, within the next few THE BIRTHPLACE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE 422 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE years, were born her equally famous sisters, Emily and Anne, and her brother Branwell. From their immediate surroundings at Thornton the Bronte children could scarcely receive any impressions, for their father was preferred to the vicarage of Haworth in 1820, and removed there, with his wife and family, in the February of that year. It is in Haworth, then, and amongst its surroundings that one must search for the first promptings which impelled these remarkable children to put their thoughts and ideas on paper. The Haworth of that day was a strange place — a place wherein nothing but strength — strength of will as also of body — could possibly make headway against the rigour of the climate and the semi-savage nature of the people. Mrs. Bronte, having brought her husband six children, left him wifeless and them motherless in 1821, when she died of consumption, and from that date he and they lived a life the records of which are full of a strange pathos. Patrick Bronte himself must have been a remarkable man — a man of quiet strength, tenacious, resolved, and determined. He was a Tory and a strict Churchman ; his parishioners were for the most part staunch Radicals and zealous Dissenters ; yet he gained their hearing, respect, and in some sort their affection. He had many troubles in his life and more than one serious affliction, yet he never suffered anything to prevent the discharge of his duty. There is something in the life-story of this old man, who saw all his children die before him, and who died himself very full of years and sorrows, which seems to find an echo in his children's work — a note of pro found sadness allied with a rare determination to be strong. But a similar note runs through the life-story of each member of this strange family, though, in the case of the unfortunate Branwell, the strength vanished in weakness. Singularly endowed with genius and talent, each conscious, with an almost superhuman intuition, that an early death was in store, there was in each a desire that amounted to stern resolve to do something that should last ere life was over. A strong family this ! — however fragile the bodies in which its rare souls were encased. The Haworth of to-day is naturally the shrine of the Brontes. Here the more actively zealous admirers of the gifted sisters have founded a museum, within the walls of which they have gathered together many relics and memorials of the family. Those who are anxious to gaze upon a shoe which once belonged to Charlotte, or a thimble once used by Emily, or on a sampler worked by Anne, may do so. It is a comparatively innocent gratification of the unduly inquisitive spirit which is so rife amongst us at this time, and it is no doubt a much more worthy occupation to gather together the odds and ends which belonged to a genius than to make a collection of tobacco-pipes or horse-shoes. But the less zealous, though not less real, admirer of the three sisters will not search for thoughts of them in the museum associated with their name, but rather amongst what is left of the environment in which they lived. Of that there is little remaining, HAWORTH 423 • . HAWORTH CHURCH AND PARSONAGE (As they ap]. eared before rebuilding) always excepting the great moorlands lying beyond the head of the village. Haworth, though still retaining many of its ancient characteristics, is changed. The old church, said to have been one of the oldest in the district, disap peared so far as its outward appearance was concerned in 1880, when it was rebuilt, not without much adverse comment and criticism from those who desired that matters should remain as in times past. Within, there are several memorials to the family, every member of which is interred here, with the exception of Anne, who died and was buried at Scarborough. Changed, too, is the parsonage — that quiet house wherein the father, patient almost to stoicism, the girls, burning with the first fires of genius and poetry, and the old, devoted servant all wrought in their different ways. Only the great moors remain unchanged, and standing on their edge one calls to mind the fact that at last Charlotte came there alone and found them changed to her : — " When I go out there alone everything reminds me of the times when others were with me, and then the moors seem a wilderness, featureless, solitary, saddening. My sister Emily had a particular love for them, and there is not a knoll of heather, not a branch of fern, not a young bilberry leaf, not a fluttering lark or linnet, but reminds me of her. The distant prospects were Anne's delight, and, when I look round, she is in the blue tints, the pale mists, the waves and shadows of the horizon. In the hill- 424 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE country silence their poetry comes by lines and stanzas into my mind ; once I loved it, now I dare not read it ; and am driven often to wish I could taste one draught of oblivion, and forget much that, while mind remains, I never shall forget." Ill It is no disrespect to Keighley or to its enterprising inhabitants to say that its particular interest to the traveller lies in the fact that it is closely associated with the Bronte family. It was opened railway station lotte and Anne set out expedition to London their publishers and to astounding fact that Acton Bell were in Brontes of Haworth in Keighley, too, that the ing, and the sisters manuscript paper, until that worthy tradesman they did with so much often walked ten miles Halifax to procure new appoint them. The the highway between may therefore flatter ing a path along which often walked, discuss- THE ARMS OF KEIGHLEY literary history of the from the recently at Keighley that Char on that memorable which disclosed to a few other folk the Currer, Ellis, and reality the three Miss Yorkshire. It was at family did its market- bought their supply of there came to Haworth who wondered what stationery, and who across the hills to stock rather than dis- traveller who tramps Haworth and Keighley himself that he is tread- the sisters must have ing their hopes and fears and exchanging their thoughts. But the Keighley of their time must have been a very different place to the Keighley of to-day, with its consider able population, great workshops and factories, and busy station, through which the Midland Railway's expresses between London and Scotland are constantly passing. Different, too, must be the villages on the way from Haworth to Keighley, through which the Brontes would pass. Oakworth, perched on the shelving ground above the Worth, Damems, quaint of name and curious in situation, and Ingrow, now almost in touch with the borders of Keighley, form a continuous succession of thickly populated places. They are all old, even as Keighley is, and like Keighley they have changed in most things but the fact that their people still preserve the strong sturdy characteristics of their forefathers, and that the boldness of their hills remains unaltered. Although possessed of considerable antiquity, and said by some writers to have distinct connection with the time of the Roman occupation, there KEIGHLEY 425 KEIGHLEY is little in the history of Keighley which calls for attention. Its church was originally founded during the reign of Henry I., but it has undergone a good deal of restoration, notably in the early years of the present century, when it was practically rebuilt. It is a spacious and handsome edifice, and contains various matters well worth examination. The fine carving of the canopy over the font is modern, and so is the glass of the great window at the east end, which represents the Crucifixion. The most remarkable objects in the church are two gravestones, in the north aisle. There is a cross sculptured on each, and one of them bears also a sword and two escutcheons. One of the latter is almost effaced, but on the lower one appears a cross, fleury, and the inscription : — ffiilbettus Itgflljlas De WiSm zt fHarsarta WLxot --••¦ s> ?' y '¦ ^M,tfi ito^-^Wi ^^^ ,- v. - • TtJrJ~&&, - ' S^wyi,^'^yc^y.. KILDWICK regards its design and execution, is an exact counterpart of that of Sir Adam de Middleton at Ilkley, and both are wrought in the stone of the Hazle- wood quarries, from which much of the material for the building of York Minster was obtained. Another interesting evidence of antiquity at Kild wick is found in the bridge, which was originally built by the monks of Bolton Priory in the time of Edward II. All along the west bank of the Aire as it winds about from Keighley to Skipton the land rises in more or less bold fashion to the Lancashire border, which at this point is situate only a few miles from the river. Once arrived on the heights rising from the windings of the stream the eye gazes over a wild, sparsely populated district, chiefly given up to moorland and heather. Two highroads only cross these wilds, one from Keighley to Colne, the other from Cross Hills to the same place. That from Keighley passes by way of Oakworth and along the north bank of the river Worth to the foot of Keighley Moor, at the western extremity of SKIPTON 429 which it crosses the Lancashire border between Crow Hill, 1500 feet high, and Combe Hill, 11 20 feet; that from Cross Hills skirts the northern edges of the same moor and passes into Lancashire by way of the villages of Glusburn and Ickornshaw. High up amidst the heath-clad moors which stretch for miles between these roads lies a sheet of water known as Cowloughton Dam. Numerous streams and becks find their sources hereabouts, and wind in delightfully irregular fashion through the heaths and mosses to the Aire. All along the borders of the two counties the scenery is wild and solitary. The villages and hamlets are few and small, and in the severer weeks of winter must be almost shut off from com munication with the valley beneath. But as the traveller, after making his way across the moorlands as he best may, descends by the road from Shaw- head, near the border, towards Skipton, he comes once more in sight of a pastoral country, with the villages of Elslack, Broughton, and Carleton lying in front of him, and Skipton itself rising on the higher ground across the Aire. The scenery about Broughton and Carleton is particularly charming — a prospect of wide meadow-lands, extensive groves of oak, elm, and ash, and of winding streams seeking the Aire. Where Broughton Hall now stands, there once stood an ancient house known as Gilliot's Place, of which there are still left some remains, half hidden by the modern house. This, the residence of the Tempest family, contains a fine collection of pictures, amongst them a Salvator Rosa. One of the numerous tributaries of the Aire runs through the grounds of the Hall after descending from the high ground on the Lancashire border ; two others seek the same river between Broughton and Carleton. From either of these two places Skipton appears on slightly rising ground, with the dark masses of the heather-clad hills and moors behind it, forming an appropriate background to the picture which it and its castle combine to make. II It is no exaggeration of the truth to say that Skipton, so far as charm of situation goes, is the most interesting of all the towns situate on the Aire or in close proximity to it. Far inferior to Leeds or Bradford in its commercial importance, and not so noticeable as a manufacturing centre as its nearest neighbour, Keighley, it has a picturesque value which none of the three can lay claim to, and a historical record scarcely less in teresting than that of Pontefract. The vale to which it gives its name (and which is really an integral part of Airedale, in spite of its being locally known as the Vale of Skipton) is the richest piece of pasture land in the county, and the immediate surroundings of the town are alike picturesque and romantic. The hills which separate Airedale from Wharfedale rise behind Skipton to a considerable height, and here and there assume bold and even fantastic shapes, while the moorlands which hem it in from the 430 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE northward are in their turn topped by the high ground of the Ingle- borough group of mountains rising beyond the sources of the Aire. Consisting chiefly of modern buildings, there is something about Skipton which is strongly suggestive of antiquity, even apart from the obvious age of its castle and of the old church. Its streets are wide and clean, and though the spinning and weaving of cotton is. carried on in its midst to a considerable extent, it is difficult, nothwithstanding the size of its mills, to think of it as nothing but a manufacturing town. In point of fact, though spinning and weaving is the staple industry, there is also a large trade in agriculture carried on at Skipton, and its cattle markets are famous throughout the North. At the time of the Conquest, Skipton, which had probably been a Saxon stronghold from the mere fact of its advantageous natural position, passed into the possession of one of the Conqueror's favourite followers, Robert de Romelle, who built, or originated, the castle. By the marriage of his granddaughter, Cicely, to William de Gros, Earl of Albemarle, Skipton came into the hands of that peer and his successors, and assumed the rights and privileges of a town, having a fair of three days' duration at the feast of the Holy Trinity granted to it by King John in 1203. During the next seventy years the manor and castle seem to have been chiefly in the hands of the Crown, but in 1269 they were granted to Robert de Clifford, to gether with a certain amount of land which had belonged to the Earls of Albemarle. The historical documents do not appear to be very clear at this point, for they record that in 1281 Edward I. made a grant of Skipton castle and manor to his mother for life — the Cliffords apparently being put on one side. However, in 1311 the grant of 1269 was fully confirmed to the Cliffords, Robert, their head, being soon afterwards slain at Bannock- burn. For their share in the Yorkshire rising of 13 17 the Cliffords were dispossessed of castle and manor, but two years later the castle was returned. to Roger de Clifford in order that he might keep watch over the marauding Scots, and ere long the family were put in full possession of it once more. In 1367 the castle was enlarged, and from that time forward its history and that of its lords is chiefly concerned with wars and beleaguerings. It was a famous stronghold against the Scots, and was always well garrisoned. In the Wars of the Roses the Cliffords played a conspicuous part. The slaying of the Lord Clifford who fell at St. Albans in 1454, caused his son to swear a vow of implacable vengeance against the House of York, and led him to murder the young Duke of Rutland after the battle of Wakefield in 1460. When the Lancastrians were finally defeated at Towton in the following year, the Cliffords were despoiled of Skipton, which passed through the hands of Sir William Stanley to those of Richard of Gloucester. From him they reverted to the Crown again, and were finally restored to Henry de Clifford, who, with his mother, had been obliged to seek shelter in humble places during the troublous times of the Civil Wars. THE CLIFFORD FAMILY 43 1 According to the legend which Wordsworth has woven into his " Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle," the mother and child had found refuge with a shepherd, to whose craft the boy was trained, and which he followed '4." Sfl^&j&fc «5S ml -r* ' until the turn of events brought him in sight of less peaceful avocations. Wordsworth represents the Shepherd Lord as being pre-eminently a man of peace, but history records that he raised the men of Craven for active service in the Scottish wars and led them on at Flodden. During the insurrection known as the "Pilgrimage of Grace" in 1536, Skipton was besieged by Aske and his followers, and defended successfully by its garrison, and it was probably in recognition of this service to the Crown that Henry, 432 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE son of the Shepherd Lord, was created Earl of Cumberland by Henry VIII. His son George, Earl of Cumberland, was one of Elizabeth's favourite admirals, and distinguished himself at Skipton by the grandeur of his hospitality. On his death the castle and manor passed to his daughter Anne, Countess of Dorset, Pem broke, and Montgomery, who, having been born at Skipton, had a great affection for the place. During the Civil War Skipton Castle held out strenu ously for the king, Sir John Mallorie having command of the garrison, but it was surren dered in 1645, and soon after wards dismantled. In 1657, however, the countess pro ceeded to repair it, and it has since been in constant use as a dwelling. By the marriage of Margaret Sackville, the daughter and co-heiress of the Countess of Pembroke, to John Tufton, Earl of Thanet, in 1629, the castle and manor passed on the countess's death in 1675 into the hands of the Tufton family, in whose possession they still remain. The castle stands in a com manding position at the head of the market-place of Skipton, a fine open space flanked by houses which show some signs of antiquity, and are more picturesque than the newer buildings of the town. Of the original portions of the castle there is little left. The oldest parts are undoubtedly the seven round towers in the sides and angles of the buildings, and the semicircular arch, rising from square piers, which forms the west door of the inner castle. The entrance from the town is through an arch in a square tower flanked by a round tower on either side. Over the square tower the motto of the Cliffords, Des OR Mais, cut in large letters of stone, forms a balustrade or battlement. The eastern side of the castle, a building 180 feet in length, containing a very fine interior, was built by Henry, first Earl of Cumberland, and though sad havoc was wrought amongst its furniture at the time of the Civil War, there are still remaining within its panelled rooms several objects of much ARMS OF THE CLIFFORDS. SKIPTON CASTLE THE CLIFFORD FAMILY 433 interest. As the castle now stands it is an exceedingly pleasant and interesting place. The views from its great entrance are wide and diversi fied, and it contains one striking specimen of arboreal antiquity in the magnificent yew-tree standing in its courtyard, which is said to be more than five hundred years old. Of equal age with the castle, and not less identified than it with the Cliffords and their fortunes, is the church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, which stands at a little distance from the entrance tower. Of Norman origin there is now little left of the original church, save a sedilia with pointed arches and cylindrical columns in the south wall of the nave. The greater portion of the older parts of the church are of the style of the fifteenth century, and much of the architecture is plainly traceable to the Tudor period. The most interesting objects in the church are without doubt the tombs or monuments of the Cliffords, whose family vault is beneath the altar. A magnificent altar-tomb in black marble commemo rates George Clifford, third Earl of Cumberland, and was erected by his daughter, the Countess of Pembroke. Another of similar style in grey marble is in memory of Henry, first Earl of Cumberland, and his countess, and would appear to have been despoiled of their effigies and of the brasses which ornamented it. The vault of the Cliffords and its contents was examined by Dr. Whitaker in 1803, after having been closed for several years. His account of what he then saw is particularly interesting : — " . . . . first, and immediately under his tomb, lay Henry, the first earl, whose lead coffin was much corroded, and exhibited the skeleton of a short and very stout man, with a long head of flaxen hair, gathered in a knot behind his skull. The coffin had been closely fitted to the body, and proved him to have been very corpulent, as well as muscular. Next lay the remains of Margaret Percy, his second coun tess, whose coffin was still entire. She must have been a slender and diminutive woman. The third was the Lady Ellinor's grave, whose coffin was much decayed, and exhibited the skeleton (as might be expected in a daughter of THE tombs of the Cliffords, skipton church 3 E ;ff A 434 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE Charles Brandon and the sister of Henry VIII.) of a tall and large-limbed female. At her right hand was Henry, the second earl, a very tall and rather slender man, whose thin envelope of lead really resembled a winding-sheet, and folded, like coarse drapery, over the limbs. The head was beaten to the left side ; something of the shape of the face might be distinguished, and a long prominent nose was very conspicuous. Next lay Francis, Lord Clifford, a boy. At his right hand was his father George, the third earl, whose lead coffin precisely resembled the outer case of an Egyptian mummy, with a rude face, and something like female mammae cast upon it ; as were also the figures and letters of G. C. 1605. The body was close wrapped in ten folds of coarse cere cloth, which, being removed, exhibited the face so entire (only turned to copper colour) as plainly to resemble his portraits. The coffin of Earl Francis, who lay next his brother, was of the modern shape, and alone had an outer shell of wood, which was covered with leather, the soldering had decayed, and nothing appeared but the ordinary skeleton of a tall man." The tombs of the Cliffords are liberally adorned with shields, that of George, third Earl of Cumberland, having no less than seventeen, whereon are depicted the quarterings and bearings of numerous great families, allied at some time with the Cliffords. This tomb indeed is the most noticeable thing in the church, though there was another matter of interest in 181 2, noted by an itinerant of that date, which one would like to have seen. This was a library, founded for the use of the parish, by one Silvester Petys, principal of Barnard's Inn, who was a native of Craven. It then consisted of ancient books, but the itinerant remarks that they were in bad condition, and hints that the real reason why they were so was that the librarian's annual salary of -£5 was not duly paid to him. The romantic surroundings of Skipton are no doubt largely responsible for the fact that until comparatively recent times its folk were great believers in witchcraft and magic, and favoured the presence in their midst of various professors of those questionable arts. There is a field in the neighbourhood still known as "The Witches' Hill" wherein, it is supposed, unholy revels were nightly held by the ladies of the broomstick. That the cultivation of these mysteries was not entirely confined to the lower classes appears from the fact that about the middle of the sixteenth century one Thomas Horrocks, rector of Broughton, was put upon trial at York for exercising the art of witchcraft. The most famous of the numerous wise men of Skipton, however, was Timothy Crowther, clerk of the parish church about two hundred years ago. Crowther's boasted powers seem to have been very considerable. He restored stolen goods to their owners, cast nativities, and foretold events in the life of any client who was anxious to look into the future. He was frequently consulted by the farming folk round about for help and advice on difficult points of husbandry, and the woman who could not get butter, or the farmer whose hay-rick threatened THE WISE MAN OF SKIPTON 435 to fire, went to him with absolute faith for a charm that should put all their troubles to an end. Timothy Crowther's local reputation was very great, and for at least a century after his death it was customary to say of any particularly acute person that he was " as cunning as Crowther " ; but all his learning did not avail him in trans mitting good manners to his son Joseph, who succeeded him as parish clerk of Skipton, and who was so fond of the wine cup that he not infrequently appeared in church — according to the records — "very in toxicated with liquor, to the great dishonour of God, the church, and all good people." Although the romance of the old days has passed away, driven out by steam and electricity, and all the changed conditions of modern life, Skipton possesses much of its ancient charm in the fact that its situa tion remains unchanged, and that it is surrounded by some of the most delightful scenery in England. No more convenient centre for reach ing the upper stretches of Wharfedale and Airedale can be had, nor one better equipped with facilities for travelling to out-of-the-way spots to which in all probability no railway will ever penetrate. Itself situate in Airedale, it is, to speak in metaphor, but a stone's throw from Wharfedale, and few pedes trian excursions could be more charming than those which may be made in the direction of Bolton Priory or Barden Tower, and thence ' into the upper valley of the Wharfe. For Upper Airedale, again, Skipton is a convenient point from which to set out, and pre sents the traveller with a choice of means of transit. He may travel to all the show-places of the district by rail — at any rate for the greater part of the distance — or he may go by coach, but whether he favours rail or road, wheels or his own legs, he will pass through scenery which cannot fail to charm and to delight. ' N£WCON|BE: GARGRAVE 436 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE III One of the most interesting corners of Upper Airedale is the tract of country which lies, in the shape of a triangle, between Skipton, Gargrave, and Rilston, an imaginary line between the two first-named places forming RILSTON FELL the base and Rilston Fell the apex. The road which leads from Skipton through the midst of this tract of land is charming in the extreme — the keen mountain air, the luxuriant vegetation, and the ever-changing pros pects of moor and fell all combine to give the traveller a feeling of happiness and pleasure. On the right hand the heather-clad contours of Embsay Moor melt away into the sterner outlines of Rilston Fell ; on the left Crag Side hides the valley down which Eshton Beck tumbles along past Eshton and its hall to Gargrave. Amongst the high grounds of this corner, or in the nooks of the miniature dales between them, are various villages and hamlets wherein one might well linger for the space of a summer's afternoon — Flasby (once a seat of the Abbots of Furness) Winterburn, Hetton, and Rilston itself, are all typical daleside places, with old-fashioned houses of grey stone, surrounded by picturesque gardens and backed by the hills and moors which rise behind them. But to every traveller who comes this way the most interesting object of the neigh- RILSTON FELL 437 bourhood is the ruin of Norton Tower, standing high on Rilston Fell. Here, during his visit to Bolton Priory in 1807, Wordsworth conceived his well-known romantic poem, " The White Doe of Rylstone," in which he has embodied the legend of the ill-fated Norton family. His own description of the prospect from this point of Rilston Fell is still literally exact : — " High on a point of rugged ground Among the wastes of Rylstone Fell Above the loftiest ridge or mound Where foresters or shepherds dwell, An edifice of warlike frame Stands single — Norton Tower its name — It fronts all quarters and looks round O'er path and road, and plain and dell, Dark moor and gleam of pool and stream, Upon a prospect without bound. " The Nortons were an ancient family who had long resided at Rilston, and the Tower which bears their name was probably a stronghold used in case of some sudden emergency during the maraudings which frequently > .. - - m f. ESHTON HALL 438 PICTURESQUE YORKSHIRE MALHAM went on in this neighbourhood. The family took a prominent part in the Rising of the North, and its head, Richard Norton, was attainted and his estates forfeited to the Crown. Wordsworth interwove the story of their fate with the legend of the White Doe — a legend firmly believed in by the people of the district — which was to the effect that soon after the Dissolu tion of the Religious Houses, a white doe used to make a weekly pilgrimage from Rilston across the fells to Bolton Priory, where she was always found in the Priory churchyard during divine service, at the close of which she returned to Rilston. The traveller who has journeyed from Skipton to Rilston and is desirous of reaching the sources of the Aire by way of Gargrave, one of the most picturesque and pleasantly situated places in the district, will find an inviting road thither by way of Hetton and Flasby and past the park and woods of Eshton, amidst which, in a fine commanding position, stands the Hall, the seat of Sir Mathew Wharton Wilson, Bart., which is greatly renowned as being the finest country seat in Craven. From almost any point of this road, and especially from the neighbourhood of Eshton, there are excellent views of Airedale and charming vistas of wood and stream. Gargrave itself, lying in the broadest part of the valley, is a delightfully GARGRAVE 439 picturesque place, with many signs of antiquity. The Aire runs through its midst, and is hereabouts more full of vagaries than at almost any other point in its tortuous course ; and that it is here well-nigh as pure as when it pours from Malham Cove is proved by the fact that it abounds with fish. Camden noticed the vagaries of the Aire at this point when he was making his Itinerary. He remarks that it has here "such a winding course . . . and sports so in meanders from its very source as if it were undetermined almost whether to run to the sea, or back to its source ; for I was forced to cross it, in my direct road, no less than seven times in half-an-hour." Gargrave is a place of great antiquity, and possesses some interesting Roman remains in the shape of traces of a villa, with fragments of tesselated pave ment. These were discovered about the middle of the last century at a place then called Kirk Sink, from a local tradi tion that at that point some great church had subsided. Whitaker made some excavations there, but with little success, most of the masonry hav ing in previous ages been carried away to build the church, which is a very old building in several styles of architecture. In the old days the ecclesi astical parish of Gargrave was of great extent, and was reputed as the warmest and most fertile in the valley. In one of its offshoots, Coniston Cold, or Cold Coniston, there are one or two matters of interest. On the high knoll called . ' : / Steeling, or Stuling Hill, . . , -, ' x from whence the traveller £ may obtain a magnificent prospect of the surround ing country, there is an elliptical encampment, 522 feet in circumfer ence, which is supposed kirkby malham GORDALE SCAR GORDALE SCAR 441 to be of Danish origin. At a place called Steel Gap, a little distance away, it is said there was once a great fight between the people of Gargrave and a band of Scottish marauders, the former being exterminated to a man. The same legend gravely narrates that at that time Gargrave had seven churches, which the marauders immediately proceeded to destroy. But having reduced six of them to ashes, they discovered that the seventh was dedicated to their own patron saint, St. Andrew, for which reason they spared it, and went forward, presumably to practice their arts of war in other quarters. At Coniston Cold the traveller is in close touch with the valley of the Ribble — Airedale turns away, following the course of the now narrowing Aire towards Malham. On the high ground between the hamlets of Bell Busk and Otterburn there are several barrows or tumuli. Hereabouts the land begins to assume a wilder and more solitary aspect, and the hills in front loom up in considerable altitudes. The sister villages or hamlets of Kirkby Malham and Malham come into view, lying at the foot of Rye Loaf Hill (1794 feet), and Kirkby Fall (181 5 feet), and at the latter village the highroad comes to an end, and is continued by various minor roads which skirt Malham Cove and proceed to Malham Tarn. Once at Malham the traveller finds himself in the immediate neighbourhood of some truly remarkable scenery. He is close to Gordale Scar, to Malham Cove, and to Malham Tarn, and to the great hills, High Mark, Parson's Pulpit, and Fountains Fell, which overlook these far-famed scenes. It seems scarcely possible that the river which has its sources amidst these magnificent love linesses should in time pass through the smoke and gloom of Leeds and sweep to the embrace of the sea by way of the flat meadows of Marshland. From Kirkby Malham a picturesque stream called Gordale Beck winds away from the infant Aire at the base of a steep hill, passing Gordale Scar on its way to its source in the sides of High Mark. Along it there is a miniature waterfall known as Janet's Foss, with a cavern or fissure close by called Janet's Cave. Close at hand, and not far from the point where Gordale Bridge carries a road from Malham to Kilnsey in Wharfedale, across the Beck, is the famous Scar, one of the most striking and awe- compelling scenes to be found in England. Whitaker notes with some satisfaction that Bishop Pocock, who had seen all that was great and striking in the rocks of Arabia and Judea, declared that he had never seen anything comparable to this place. Gordale Scar is a vast bay of limestone rocks, rising to a height of some 300 feet, and overhanging their base to an extent of 60 feet, in the midst of which is a ravine, always gloomy and im pressive, wherein is a natural arch through which pours a tremendous body of water. The original cataract poured itself over the head of the precipice, but about 1730 a vast body of water being collected behind the rock in consequence of a violent thunderstorm, a great fissure was burst through, and the Scar assumed its present aspect. The torrent which rushes from 3 F >c u a<2 MALHAM COVE 443 the centre of the gorge has a fall of 60 feet, and produces a most in spiring effect, which is heightened by the fact that the whole place is wrapped in a gloom that never lifts, even on the brightest day in summer. Malham Cove, which is in close proximity to the village, is justly cele brated as being one of the finest rock scenes in the world. It is a vast segment of a circle of limestone rock, 285 feet in height, stretching across the valley "in a manner at once so august and tremendous," says Whitaker, " that the imagination can scarcely figure any form or scale of rock within the bounds of probability that shall go beyond it." From the head of the Cove there are magnificent views of the surrounding hills and moors, but the most imposing scene of its grandeur is obtained from the foot. To the geologist Malham Cove is particularly interesting as being part of the long limestone cliff known as the Craven Fault, which commences near Kirkby Londsdale in Westmorland, and extends to Threshfield in Wharfedale. At the foot of the Cove the traveller will find a stream rushing forth from under the limestone crag, to go winding away towards Malham. This is the Aire. It springs up from its subterranean source with vigour and determination, to gradually drop from an elevation of nearly 700 feet to something like sea-level at Airmyn. A more mysterious springing up of a river could scarcely be found. Once upon a time the stream, coming from the high hills beyond Malham Tarn, ran over the head of the Cove ; now, at some slight distance from the Tarn, it disappears into the ground, to reappear once more at the foot of the great limestone crags. The moor land under which it thus runs in darkness, gathering who shall say what fresh accession of strength from subterranean sources, is wild and lonely, and Malham Tarn, a lake three miles in circumference, lies solitary at the foot of the hills beyond. There is scarcely a human habitation in sight, and a man might wander for days through the heather and across the fells and hear no sound of human voice. Nowhere in its course does the river Aire possess such weird and impressive surroundings as here, where its birth is swathed in Nature's mysteries. END OF VOLUME I. Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson &• Co. Edinburgh &* London YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 03067 4080