A month in Yorkshire ... Fourth edition

Front matter

A MONTH IN YOEKSHIRE. A MONTH IN YORKSHIRE. EI WALTER WHITE, author op " a Londoner's walk to the land's end," " all round the wrekin," and other books op travel. "Know most of the rooms of thy native country, before thou goest over the threshold thereof; especially, seeing England presents thee with so many observables."— Fuller. Jira:rf{j ©iritiow. LONDON : CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1861. [ The right of Translation is reserved."] §jr i\t um %v,i\m. A Londoner's Walk to the Land's End; and a Trii> to the Scillt Isles. Second Edition. On Foot through Tyrol. A July Holiday in Saxony, Bohemia and Silesia. Northumberland and the Border Second Edition. All Round the Wrekin. Second Edition. FOREWORD TO THE FOURTH EDITION. The first two editions of this work had not long been published when I was pelted with animadversions for the "scandalous misrepresentation " conveyed in my report of a conversation held with a villager at Burnsall ; which conversation may be read in the twenty-second chapter.

My reply was, that I had set down less than was spoken — that I had brought no accusation, not having even mentioned the "innocent-looking country town" as situate in any one of the three Hidings — that what I had seen, however, in some of the large towns, led me to infer that the imputation (if such it were) would hardly fail to apply; and, moreover, if the Yorkshire conscience felt uneasy, was I to be held responsible ? My explanation that the town in question was not in Yorkshire, was treated as of none effect, and my censors rejoined in legal phrase, that I had no case. So I went about for awhile under a kind of suspicion, or as ap unintentional martyr, until one day there met me two gentlemen from Leeds, one of whom declared that he and others, jealous of their county's reputation, and doubt ing not to convict me of error, had made diligent inquiry and found to their discomfiture, that the assemblages implied in the villager's remark, did actually take place within Yorkshire itself.

The discovery is not one to be proud of; but, having been made, let the county strive to free itself from at least that reproach. Another censurable matter was my word of warning against certain inns which had given me demonstration that their enter tainment, regulated by a sliding scale, went up on the arrival of FOREWORD. VI a stranger. Yorkshire wrote a flat denial of the implication to my publishers, and inclosed a copy of what he called " his tariff," by way of proof, which would have been an effectual justification had my grievance been an invention; but, as it happened, the tariff presented testimony in my favour, by the difference between its prices and those which I had been required to pay. I only notice this incident because of the general question, in which all who travel are more or less interested.

Chapter II

Estuary of the Humber — Sunk Island — Land versos Water — Hutch Phenomena — Cleathorpes — Grimsby — Paul — River Freaks — Mud — Stukeley and Drayton — i'luvial Parliament — Hull — The Thieves' Litany — Docks and Drainage— More Dutch Phenomena — The High Church — Thousands of Piles — The Citadel — The Cemetery — A Countryman's Yoyage to China — An Aid to Macadam 5

Chapter III

A Railway Trip — More Land Reclamation— Hedon— Historical Recollections— Burstwick — The Earls ot Albemarle— Keyingham — The Duke of York — Wincstead — Andrew Maxveli's Birthplace — A Glimpse of the Patriot — Patrington — A Church to be proud of — The Hildyard Arms — Feminine Paper-hangers — Walk to Spurn— Talk with a Painter — Welwick — Yellow Ochre and Cleanliness — Skefuing' — Humber Bank —Miles of Mud — Kilnsea— Burstall Garth — The Greedy Sea — The Sandbank — A Lost Town, Kavenser Odd — A Reminiscence from Shakspeare— The Spurn Lighthouse — Withernsea — Owthorne — Sister Churches — The Ghastly Churchyard — A Retort for a Fool — A "Word for Philologists , ... 14 CHAPTER IY. Northern Manners — Cottingham — The Romance of Baynard Castle — Beverley — Yorkshire Dialect — The Farmers' Breakfast — Glimpses of the Town — Antiquities and Constables — The Minster — Yellow Ochre — The Percy Shrine— The Murdered Earl— The Costly Funeral— The Sisters' Tomb— Rhyming Legend— Tho Fridstool— The Belfry . . X CONTENTS.

Chapter V

r-AoE. A Scotchman's Observations— The Prospect— The Anatomy of Beverley — Historical Associations— The Brigantes— The Druids— Austin's Stone — The Saxons— Coin and Paulinus — Down with Paganism— A Great Baptism — St. John of Beverley— Athelstan and Brunanburgh— The Sanctuary — The Conqueror — Archbishop Thurstan's Privileges— The Sacrilegious Mayor— Battle of the Standard— St. John's Miracles — Brigand Burgesses— Annual Football — Surrounding Sites — Watton and Meaui — Etymologies — King Athelstan's Charter . . . .33 CHAPTER YI. The Great Drain— The Carrs— Submerged Forest— River Hull — Tickton — Routh — Tippling Rustics — A Cooler for Combatants — The Blind Fiddler — The Improvised Song — The Donkey Races — Specimens of Yorkshiremen— Good Wages — A Peep at Cottage Life— Ways and Means — A Paragraph for Bachelors — Hornsea Mere — The Abbots' Duel— Hornsea Church— The Marine Hotel 40

Chapter VII

Coast Scenery — A waning Mere, and wasting Cliffs — The Rain and the Sea— Encroachment prevented— Economy of the Hotel — A Start on the Sands — -Pleasure of Walking — Cure for a bad Conscience — Phenomena of the Shore — Curious Forms in the Cliffs — Fossil Remains — Strange Boulders — A Villager's Etymology — Reminiscences of "Bonypart" and Paul Jones — The last House — Chalk and Clay — Bridlington — One of the Gipseys — Paul Jones again — The Sea-Fight — A Reminiscence of Montgomery 48 CHAPTER Vin. What the Boarding-Honse thought — Landslips — Yarborongh House — The Dane's Dike— Higher Cliffs— The South Landing— The Flamborough Fleet — Ida, the Flamebearer — A Storm — A talk in a Limekiln — Flamborough Fishermen — Coffee before Rum — No Drunkards — A Landlord'3 Experiences — Old-fashioned Honesty 56

Chapter IX

Men's and Women's Wages — The Signal Tower — The passing Fleet — The Lighthouse — The Inland View— CliffScenery — Outstretching Reefs — Selwiek's Bay — Down to the Beach — Aspect of the Cliffs — The Matron — Lesson's in Pools — Caverns — The King and Queen— Arched Promontories — The North Landing — The Herring-Fishers — Pleasure Parties — Robin Lyth's Hole — Kirk Hole — View across little Denmark — Speeton— End of the Chalk— Walk to Filey CONTENTS. xi

Chapter X

r-AOE. Old and New Filey— The Ravine— Filey Brig— Breaking Waves— Rugged Cliffs — Prochronic Gravel— Gristhorp Bay— Insulated Column — Lofty Cliffs— Fossil Tlants— Red Cliff— Cayton Bay— Up to the Road— Bare Prospect— Cromwell Hotel and Oliver's Mount — Scarborough— The Esplanade — Watering-Place Phenomena — The Cliff Bridge — The Museum— The Spa— The Old Town— The Harbour— The Castle Rock — The Ancient Keep — The Prospect— Reminiscences: of Harold Hardrada; of Pembroke's Siege ; of the Papists' Surprise ; of George Pox; of Robin Hood — The One Artilleryman — Scarborough Newspapers — Cloughton — The Village Inn, and its Guests— Tudds and Pooads 66

Chapter XI

From Cloughton to Haiburn Wykc — The embowered Path — Approach to the Sea— Rock, Water, and Foliage — Heavy Walking — Stamtondale Cliffs— The Undercliff— The Peak— Raven Hall— Robin Hood's Bay— A Trespass — Alum Works — Waterfalls — Bay Town— Manners and Customs of the Natives — Coal Trade- — The Churchyard— Epitaphs — Black-a-moor — Hawsker — Vale of Pickering — Robin Hood and Little John's Archery — Whitby Abbey — Beautiful Ruin— St. Hilda, Wilfrid, and Cœdmon — Legends — A Fallen Tower — St. Mary's Church — Whitby —The Vale of Esk— Specimens of Popular Hymns . . . .78

Chapter XII

Whitby's Attractions — The Pier — The River-Mouth — The Museum— Saurians and Ammonites — An enthusiastic Botanist — Jet in the Cliffs, and in the Workshop — Jet Carvers and Polishers — Jet Ornaments — The Quakers' Meeting — A Mechanics' Institute — Memorable Names — A Mooky Miner — Trip to Grosmont — The Basaltic Dike — Quarries and Ironstone — Thrifty Cottagers- — Abbeys and Hovels — A Stingy Landlord— Egton Bridge — Eskdale Woods^— The Beggar's Bridge . 89

Chapter XIII

To TTpgang— Enter Cleveland — East Row — The first Alnm-Maker — Sandsend — Alum-Works — The huge Gap — Hewing the Alum Shale — Limestone Nodules- Mulgrave Cement— Swarms of Fossils — Burning the Shale — Volcanic Phenomena — From Fire to Water — The Cisterns — Soaking and Pumping — The evaporating Pans — The Crystallizing Process — The Rochrng Casks— Brilliant Crystals — A Chemical Triumph — Rough Epsoms CONTENTS. XII CHAPTER XIY. PAGE. Mulgrave Park— Giant Wade— TTbba's Landing-place— The Boggle-boggarts— The Fairy's Chase— Superstitions— The Knight of the Evil Lake — Lythe— St. Oswald's Church— Goldsborough— Kettleness— Rugged Cliffs and Beach— Runswick Bay— Hob-Hole— Cure for Whooping-cough— Jet Diggers — Runswick — Hmderwell— Horticultural Ravine — Staithes— A curious Fishing-town — The Black Minstrels— A close-neaved Crowd — The Cod and Lobster — Houses washed away — Queer back Promises — The Termagants' Duel — Fisherman's Talk — Cobles and Yawls — Dutch and French Poachers— Tap-room Talk— Reminiscences of Captain Cook 104

Chapter XV

Last Day by the Sea — Boulby — Magnificent Cliffs — Lofthouse and Zachary Moore— The Snake-killer — The Wyvern — Eh! Packman— Skinningrave — Smugglers and Privateers— The Bruce's Privileges — What the old Chronicler says — Story about a Sea-Man — The Groaning Creek — Huntcliff Nab— Rosebury Topping— Saltburn— Cormorant Shooters — Cunning Seals — Miles of Sands — Marske — A memorable Grave — Redcar— The Estmry of Tees — Asylum Harbour — Recreations for Visitors — William Hutton's Description — Farewell to the Sea . 115

Chapter XVI

Leave Redcar— A Cricket-Mateh— Coatham— Kirkleatham— The Old Hospital — The Library — Sir William Turner's Tomb— Cook, Omai, and Banks — The Hero of Dettingcn— Yearby Bank — Upleatham — Guisborough — Past and Present — Tomb of Robert Bruce — Priory Ruins — Hemingford, Pursglove, and Sir Thomas Chaloner — Pretty Scenery — The Spa — More Money, Less Morals — What George Fox's Proselytes did — John Wesley's Preaching — Hutton Lowcross — Rustics of Taste — Rosebury Topping — Lazy Enjoyment — The Prospect : from Black-a-moor to Northumberland— Cook's Monument — Canny Yatton — The Quakers' School — A Legend — Skelton— Sterne and Eugenius— Visitors from Middlesbro' — A Fatal Town — Newton— Digger's Talk — Marton, Cook's Birthplace — Stockton— Darlington .... 123

Chapter XVII

Locomotive, Number One — Barnard Castle — Buying a Calf on Sunday — Baliol's Tower— From Canute to the Duke of Cleveland — Historic Scenery— A surprised Northumbrian — The bearded Hermit — Beauty of Teesdale— Egliston Abbey— The Artist and his Wife — Dotheboys Hall — Rokeby — Greta Bridge — Mortham Tower— lirignall Banks — A Pilfrimage to Wycliffe— Fate of the Inns — The Felon Sow — A Journey y Omnibus — Lartington— Cotherstone — Scandinavian Traces — Romaldkirk— Middleton-in-Teesdale— Wild Scenery — High Force Inn— The voice of the Fall . . . CONTENTS. XIII

Chapter XVIII. Page

Early Morn— High Force— Rock and Water— A Talk with the Waitress — Hills and Cottages — Cronkley Scar — The Weel — Caldron Snout — Soothing Sound — Scrap from an Album — View into Birkdale — A Quest for Dinner— A Westmoreland Farm — Household Matters— High Cope Nick— Mickle Fell— The Boys' Talk— The Hill-top— Glorious Prospect — A Descent — Solitude and Silence — A Moss — Stainmore — Brough — The Castle Ruin— Reminiscences 146

Chapter XIX

Return into Yorkshire— The Old Pedlar— Oh ! for the Olden Time— " The Bible, indeed ! " — An Emissary — Wild Boar Fell — Shunuor Fell— Mallerstang— The Eden— A Mountain Walk— Tan Hill— Brown Landscape — A School wanted — Swaledale— From Ling to Grass — A Talk with Lead Miners — Stonesdale — Work for a Missionary — Thwaite — A Jolly Landlord — A Ruined Town — The School at Muker — A Nickname — Buttertubs Pass — View into Wensleydale — Lord Wharncliffe's Lodge— Simonstone — Hardraw Scar — Geological Phenomenon — A Frozen Cone — Hawes 157

Chapter XX

Bainbridge — "If you had wanted a wife" — A Ramble — Millgill Force — Whitfell Force— A Lovely Dell — The Roman Camp — The Forest Horn, and the old Hornblower— Haymaking — A Cockney Raker — Wensleydale Scythemen — A Friend indeed — Addleborough — Curlews and Grouse — The First Teapot— Na6ty Greens— The Prospect— Askrigg— Bolton Castle — Penhill— Middleham— Miles Coverdale's Birthplace — Jervaux Abbey — Moses's Principia — Nappa Hall— The Metcalfes — The Knight and the King — The Springs— Spoliation of the Druids — The great Cromlech — Legend — An ancient Village— Simmer Water — An advice • for Anglers — More Legends — Counterside — Money-Grubbers— Widdale — Newby Head 165

Chapter XXI

About Gimmer HogB — Gearstones — Source of the Ribble — Weathercote Cave — An Underground Waterfall — A Gem of a Cave — Jingle Pot — The Silly Ducks — Hurtle Pool— The Boggart— A Reminiscence of the Doctor— Chapel-le-Dale — Remarkable Scenery — Ingleborough— Ingletou — Craven — Young Daniel Dove, and Long Miles— Clapham — Ingleborough Cave — Stalactite and Stalagmite — Marvellous Spectacle — Pillar Hall — Weird Music— Treacherous Pools— The Abyss — How Stalactite forms— The Jockey Cap— Cross Arches— The Long Gallery — The Giant's Hall— Mysterious Waterfall— A Trouty Beck— The Bar- Parlour-r-A Bradford Spinner CONTENTS. XIV

CHAPTER XXIX PAGE.

By Rail to Skipton— A Stony Town— Church and Castle— The Cliffords — Wharfedale — Bolton Abbey — Picturesque Ruins — A Foot-Bath — Scraps from Wordsworth — Bolton Park — The Strid — Barden Tower — The Wharf e — The Shepherd Lord— Reading to Grandfather— A Cup of Tea — Cheerful Hospitality — Trout Fishing— Gale Beck— Symon Seat — A Real Entertainer— Burnsall— A Drink of Forter— Immoralities — Threshfield— Kilnsey— The Crag— Kettlewell— A Primitive Village- Great Whernside— Starbottom — Buckden— Last View of Wharfedale— Cray— Bishopdale— A Pleasant Lane — Bolton Castle— Penhill— Aysgarth— Dead Pastimes— Decrease of Quakers— Failure of a Mission — Why and Wherefore— Aysgarth Force— Drunken Barnaby— Inroad of Fashion 191

Chapter XXIII

A Walk— Carperby — Despotic Hay-time — Bolton Castle — The Village — Queen Mary's Prison — Redmire — Searthe Nick— Pleasing Landscape — Halfpenny House — Hart-Leap Well — View into Swaledale — Richmond — The Castle — Historic Names — The Keep — St. Martin's Cell — Easby Abbey— Beautiful Ruins — King Arthur and Sleeping Warriors — Ripon — View from the Minster Tower — Archbishop Wilfrid — The Crypt — The Nightly Horn— To Studley — Surprising Trick — Robin Hood's Well — Fountains Abbey — Pop goes the Weasel — The Ruins —Robin Hood and the Curtail Friar — To Thirsk— The Ancient Elm — Epitaphs . i 206

Chapter XXIV

Sutton : a pretty Village— The Hambleton Hills— Gormire Lake— Zigzags — A Table-Land— Boy and Bull Pup— Skawton— Ryedale— RievauLx Abbey— Walter L'Espec — A Charming Ruin — The Terrace — The Pavilion — Helmsley — V Boos — Kirkby Moorside — Helmsley Castle — A River swallowed — Howardian Hills — Oswaldkirk — Gilling — Fairfax Hall — Coxwold— Sterne's Residence — York— The Minster Tower — Yorke, Yorke, for my monie— The Four Bars— The City Walls— The Ouse Legend — Yorkshire Philosophical Society — Ruins and Antiquities — St. Mary's Lodge 217

Chapter XXV

By Rail to Leeds— Kirkstall Abbey— Valley of the Aire— Flight to Settle — Giggleswick— Drunken Barnabv again — Nymph and Satyr — The astonished Bagman — What do they Addle ? — View from Castleber — George Fox's Vision on Pendle Hill— Walk to Maum— Companions — Horse versus Scenery— Talk by the Way— Little Wit, muckle Work — Malham Tain — Ale for Recompense— Malham — Hospitality — Gordale Scar — Scenery versus Horse — Trap for Trout— A Brookside Musing — Malham Grove— Source of the Aire— To Keighley .... CONTENTS. XV

Chapter XXVI. Page

Keighley — Men in Pinafores — Walk to Haworth — Charlotte Bronte's Birthplace^The Church— The Pew— The Tombstone— The Marriage Register — Shipley — Saltaire— A Model Town — Household Arrangements — I isn't the Gaffer — A Model Factory — Acres of Floors — Miles of Shafting — Weaving Shed— Thirty Thousand Yards a Day — Cunning machinery — First Fleeces — Shipley Feast— Scraps of Dialect— To Bradford — Rival Towns — Yorkshire Sleuth-hounds — Die like a Britoner . 235

Chapter XXVII

Bradford's Fame — Visit to Warehouses — A Smoky Prospect — Ways and Means of Trade — What John Bull likes— What Brother Jonathan likes —Vulcan's Head-quarters — Cleckheaton — Heckmondwike — Busy Traffic — Mirfield — Robin Hood's Grave— Batley the Shoddyopolis — All the World's Tatters — Aspects of Batley — A Boy capt— The Devil's Den — Grinding Rags— Mixing, and Oiling — Shoddy and Shoddy — Tricks with Bags— The Scribbling Machine — Short Flocks, Long Threads — Spinners and Weavers — Dyeing, Dressing, and Pressing — A Moral in Shoddy — A surprise of Real Cloth — Hon, Lead, and Coal — To Wakefield— A Disappointment— The Old Chapel— The Battle-held— To Barnsley— Bairnsla Dialect— Sheffield . 245

Chapter XXVIII

Clouds of Blacks — What Sheffield was and is — A detestable Town- Razors and Knives — Perfect Work, Imperfect Workmen — Foul Talk — How Files are made — Good Iron, Good Steel — Breaking-up and Melting — Making the Crucibles — Casting — Ingots — File Forgers — Machinery Baffled — Cutting the Teeth — Hardening — Cleaning and Testing— Elliott's Statue — A Ramble to the Corn-Law Rhymer's Haunt — Rivelin — Bilberry gatherers— Ribbledin — The Poet's Words — A Desecration— To Manchester — A few Words on the Exhibition . 256

Chapter I

A SHORT CHAPTER TO BEGIN WITH. I had cheerful recollections of Yorkshire. My first lessons in self-reliance and long walks were learned in that county. I could not forget how, fresh from the south, I had been as much astonished at the tall, stalwart forms of the men, their strange rustic dialect and rough manners, as by their hearty hospitality. Nor could I fail to remember the contrast between the bleak outside of certain farm-houses and the rude homely comfort inside, where a ruddy turf fire glowed on the hearth, and mutton hams, and oaten bread, and store of victual burdened the racks of the kitchen ceiling. Nor the generous entertainment of more than one old hostess in little roadside public-houses, who, when I arrived at night fall, weary with travel, would have me sit at the end of the high-backed settle nearest the fire, or in the 'neukin' under the great chimney, and bustle about with motherly kindness to get tea ready ; who, before I had eaten the first pile of cakes would bring a second, with earnest assurance that a "growing lad" could never eat too much; who talked so Bvmpathisingly during the evening— I being at times the only g"uest wondering much that I should be so far away from home: had I no friends? where was I going ? and the like; who charged me only eighteenpence for tea, bed, and break fast, and once Blily thrust into my pocket, at parting, a couple of cakes, which I did not discover till half way across a snow drifted moor, where no house was in sight, for many miles.

All this, and much more which one does not willingly forget, haunted my memory. The wild scenery of the fells, the tame agricultural region, and the smoky wapentakes, where commerce erects more steeples than religion, were traversed during my rambles. "While wandering in the neighbourhood of Keighley, I had seen Charlotte Bronte's birthplace, long before any one dreamed that she would one day flash as a meteor upon the gaze of the "reading public." Rosebury Topping had become familiar to me in the landscapes of Cleveland, and now a desire possessed me to get on the top of that magnificent cone. In the villages round about its base I had shared the pepper-cake of Christmas-tide; and falling in with the ancient custom prevalent along the eastern coast from Humber to Tyne, had eaten fried peas on Carlin Sunday — Mid- Lent of the calendar— ere the discovery of that mineral wealth, now known to exist in such astonishing abundance, that whether the British coal-fields will last long enough or not to smelt all the ironstone of Cleveland, is no longer a question with a chief of geologists.

I had mused in the ruin where Richard tho Second was cruelly murdered, at Pontefract; had looked with proper surprise at the Dropping Well, at Knareeborough, and into St. Robert's Cave, the depository of Eugene Aram's terrible secret; had walked into Wakefield, having scarcely outlived the fond belief that there the Vicar once dwelt with his family ; and when the guard pointed out the summits as the coach rolled past on the way from Skipton to Kirkby Lonsdale, had no misgivings as to the truth of the saying : " Penigent, Whernside, and Ingleborough, Are the three highest Mils all England thorough." Unawares, in some instances, I had walked across battle fields, memorable alike in the history of the county, and of the kingdom ; where marauding Scots, dissolute Hainaulters, Plantagenets and Tudors, Cavalier and Roundhead had rushed to the onslaught.

Marston Moor awoke the proudest emo tions, notwithstanding my schoolboy recollections of what David Hume had written thereupon ; while Towton was some thing to wonder at, as imagination flew back to the time when "Palm Sunday chimes were chiming All gladsome thro' the air, And village churls and maidens Knelt in the church at pray'r ; RIPON ROWELS— HUMMING ALE. 3 When the Red Rose and the White Rose In furious battle reel'd ; And yeomen fought like barons, And barons died ere yield. When mingling with the snow-storm, The storm of arrows flew ; And York against proud Lancaster His ranks of spearmen threw. When thunder-like the uproar Outshook from either side. As hand to band they battled From morn to eventide. When the river ran all gory, And in hillocks lay the dead, And seven and thirty thousand Fell for the White and Red. * • • • When o'er the Bar of Micklegate They changed each ghastly head, Set Lancaster upon the spikes Where York had bleached and bled. • * • * There still wsld roses growing — Frail tokens of the fray — And the hedgerow green bear witness Of Towton field that day."

Did the decrepit old shambles, roofed with paving-flags, still encumber the spacious market-place at Thirsk ? Did the sexton at Ripon Minster still deliver his anatomical lecture in the grim bonehouse, and did the morality of that sedate town still accord with the venerable adage, "as true steel as Ripon rowels? " Was York still famous for muffins, or Northaller ton for quoits, cricket, and spell-and-nurr ? and was its beer as good as when Bacchus held a court somewhere within sight of the three Ridings, and asked one of his attendants where that new drink, " strong and mellow," was to be found r and " The boon good feUow answered, ' I can tell North-AUerton, in Yorkshire, doth excel All England, nay, aU Europe, for strong ale ; If thither we adjourn we shall not fail To taste such humming stuff, as I dare say Your Highness never tasted to this day.' Hence, when the summer sun revived my migratory instinct, I inclined to ramble once more in Yorkshire.

There would be no lack of the freshness of new scenes, for my for mer wanderings had not led me to the coast, nor to the finest of the old abbeys — those ruins of wondrous beauty, nor to the remote dales where crowding hills abound with the pieturb esque. Here was novelty enough, to say nothing of the people and their ways, and the manifold appliances and results of industry which so eminently distinguish the county, and the grand historical associations of the metropolitan city, once the "other Rome," of which the old rhymester says — " Let London stiU the just precedence claim, York ever shaU be proud to be the next in fame." I was curious, moreover, to observe whether the peculiar dialect or the old habits were dying out quite so rapidly as some social and political economists would have us believe.

Quaint old Fuller, among the many nuggets imbedded in his pages, has one which implies that Yorkshire being the biggest is therefore the best county in England. You may take six from the other thirty-nine counties, and put them together, and not make a territory so large as Yorkshire. The population of the county numbers nearly two millions. When within it you find the distances great from one ex tremity to the other, and become aware of the importance involved in mere dimensions. In no county have Briton, Roman, and Dane left more evident traces, or history more interesting waymarks. Speed says of it: "She is much bound to the singular love and motherly care of Nature, in placing her under so temperate a clime, that in every measure she is indifferently fruitful. If one part of her be stone, and a sandy barren ground, another is fertile and richly adorned with corn-fields.

If you here find it naked and des titute of woods, you shall see it there shadowed with forests full of trees, that have very thick bodies, sending forth many fruitful and profitable branches. If one place of it be moor ish, miry, and unpleasant, another makes a free tender of delight, and presents itself to the eye full of beauty and con ten tive variety." Considering, furthermore, that for two years in succession I had seen the peasantry in parts of the north and south of Europe, and had come to the conclusion (under correction, for my travel is brief) that the English labourer, with his weekly wages, his cottage and garden, is better off than the peasant proprietor of Germany and Tyrol, — considering this, I wished to prove my conclusion, and therefore started hopefully for Yorkshire. And again, does not Emerson say, " a wise traveller will naturally choose to visit the best of actual nations." ESTUARY OF THE HUMBER. 5

Chapter II

Estuary of the Humber — Sunk Island — Land versus Water — Dutch Phenomena — Cleathorpes — Grimsby— Paul — River Freaks — M ud — Stukeley and Drayton — Fluvial Parliament — HuU — The Thieves' Litany — Docks and Drainage — More Dutch Phenomena — The High Church — Thousands of Piles — The Citadel — The Cemetery — A Countryman's Voyage to China — An Aid to Macadam. As the Vivid steamed past the Spurn lighthouse, I looked curiously at the low sandy spit on which the. tall red tower stands, scarcely as it seems above the level of the water, thinking that my first walk would perhaps lead thither. At sight of the Pharos, and of the broad estuary alive with vessels standing in, the Yorkshiremen on board felt their patriotism revive, and one might have fancied there was a richer twang in their speech than had been perceptible in the latitude of London.

A few who rubbed their hands and tried to look hearty, vowed that their future travels should not be on the sea. The Vivid is not a very sprightly boat, but enjoys or not, as the case may be, a reputation for safety, and for sleeping-cabins narrower and more stifling than any I ever crept into. But one must not expect too much when the charge for a voyage of twenty-six hours is only six and sixpence in the chief cabin. Not without reason does old Camden remark of the Humber, "it is a common rendezvous for the greatest part of the rivers hereabouts," for it is a noble estuary, notwithstanding that water and shore are alike muddy. It is nearly forty miles long, with a width of more than two miles down to about three leagues from the lighthouse, where it widens to six or seven miles, offering a capacious entrance to the sea.

The water has somewhat of an unctuous appearance,' as if overcharged with contributions of the very fattest alluvium from all parts of Yorkshire. The results may be seen on the right, as we ascend. There spreads the broad level of Sunk Island, a noteworthy example of dry land produced by the co-operation of natural causes and human industry. The date of its first appearance above the water is not accurately known; but in the reign of Charles II. it was described as three thousand five hundred acres of "drowned ground," of which seven acres were enclosed by embankments; and was let at five pounds a year. A hundred years later fifteen hundred acres were under cultivation, producing a yearly rental of seven hundred pounds to the lessee; but he, it is said, made but little profit, because of the waste and loss occasioned by failure of the banks and irruptions of the tides.

In 1802 the island reverted to the Crown, and was re-let on condition that all the salt marsh — nearly three thousand acres — which was "ripe for embankment," should be taken in, and that a church and proper houses should be built, to replace the little chapel and five cottages which ministered as little to the edification as to the comfort of the occupants. In 1833 the lease once more fell in, and the Woods and Forests, wisely ignoring the middlemen, let the lands directly to the ' Sunk farmers,' as they are called in the neighbourhood, and took upon themselves the construction and maintenance of the banks. A good road was made, and bridges were built to connect the Island with the main, and as the accumulations of alluvium still went on, another ' intake ' became possible in 1851, and now there are nearly 7000 acres, comprising twenty-three farms, besides a few small holdings, worth more than 12,0OOZ. of annual rent.