| Volume 4, pages 612-633 Samuel M. Lewis, London, 1831 |
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The ancient British inhabitants of this territory were the Brigantes, the most numerous and powerful of all the tribes that shared in the possession of Britain before its Conquest by the Romans. The latter succeeded in subjugating them, about the year 71, after defeating them in several sanguinary battles, and ravaging the whole of their country. The Romans then fixed their principal station in the north at Eboracum, now York, which held the rank of a municipium, or free city, and from which central point their cohorts, dispersed in every direction, retained the surrounding country in obedience, though the territory at present included within the limits of this county suffered repeatedly during this period from the incursions of the northern barbarians. The Caledonians having overrun a great part of the country to the north of the Humber, the Emperor Adrian arrived in Britain, in the year 120, to oppose them in person, and fixed his residence at Eboracum: on his approach the invaders retired, and the emperor, having made provisions for the future security of the province, soon returned to Rome. But no sooner had he departed than the Caledonians renewed their predatory inroads, which became more frequent and extensive, until, in the reign of Antoninus Pius, the Brigantes having at the same time attempted to throw off the Roman yoke, that emperor sent Lollius Urbicus with strong reinforcements to suppress these commotions: this commander having first reduced the revolted Brigantes, drove the Caledonians northward into the highlands of Scotland, and thus restored tranquillity. This people, however, having renewed their irruptions, in the year 207, the Emperor Severus came over with a numerous army, and immediately advanced to York, whence, having rejected all overtures for peace, he marched northward and expelled them, leaving to his son Caracalla the command of the army, and the care of repairing Adrian's rampart. Severus, labouring under indisposition, retired, in the year 211, to York, where he expired, and his obsequies and apotheosis were solemnized with great magnificence. Constantius Chlorus, Emperor of the West, resided for a long time at York, where he also died, in 307: he was succeeded by his son Constantius, who was saluted emperor by the Roman soldiery in that city, and who soon after collected a powerful army, composed chiefly of native Britons, and departed for the continent. The barbarians of the north again renewed their incursions, about the year 364, but were at length repelled by the Roman General Theodosius, in 368. In the later period of the Roman empire in Britain, the territory at present contained in Yorkshire was included in the division called Maxima Cæsariensis. After the accession of Honorius, one of the sons of Theodosius, to the empire of the West, in 393, the invasions of the Picts and Scots became incessant, and their progress was every where marked with desolation; and when the Romans, about the year 410, abandoned Britain, in order to defend their continental dominions, the Romanized Britons fell into a state of anarchy, amidst which it is only known of Yorkshire, that it formed the greater part of a British kingdom, named Deifyr, or Deira, the conquest of which by the Saxon chieftains was not achieved until after a lapse of one hundred and eleven years from the first arrival of Hengist in Kent. Bernicia, situated to the north of the Roman wall, having been subjugated by Ida, about the year 547, Ella, another Saxon leader, about the year 560, penetrated southward from that territory, and effected the conquest of Deira: these two kingdoms, afterwards united into one sovereignty by Ethelfrith of Bernicia, derived, from their situation to the north of the Humber, the name of Northumberland, or Northumbria. It was in the year 628, during the reign of Edwin, the next Northumbrian monarch, who had married a Christian Princess, named Ethelburga, sister of Ethelbald, King of Kent, that Christianity was first introduced into this part of Britain. In 633, Penda, King of Mercia, having entered into a league with Cadwallo, King of North Wales, against Edwin of Northumbria, the united forces of these confederate princes invaded the dominions of the latter, who opposed them at Hatfield, in the West riding, about seven miles to the east of Doncaster, where a desperate battle ensued, in which the Northumbrian monarch, together with one of his sons and the greater part of his army, perished: the victors then ravaged Northumbria with merciless cruelty, and this powerful kingdom became once more divided into two separate sovereignties; Osric, nephew of Edwin, succeeding to the precarious throne of Deira, and restoring paganism in his dominions, while Eanfrid, son of Ethelfrith, ascended that of Bernicia. Osric, having besieged Cadwallo in York, was killed and his army totally routed, in attempting to repulse the Welch prince, who had made a vigorous sortie; and, during the space of a year, Cadwallo remained master of York, desolating the whole country of Deira: he also put to death Eanfrid, King of Bernicia, but, in 634, was defeated and slain, with the flower of his army, by Oswald, brother of Eanfrid, who thereupon succeeding without opposition to the throne of Northumbria, fixed his residence at York, restored Christianity, and completed the building of the church, which Edwin had left unfinished.
Penda, King of Mercia, preparing to invade Northumbria, Oswald hastily entered his dominions; but was defeated and slain in Shropshire, in 642, and Penda ravaged his territory: the Bernicians placed Oswy, the brother of Oswald, on the throne of their kingdom; and in the following year Oswin, the grandson of Edwin, was elected and crowned king of Deira. Oswy soon asserted his claim to the throne of York; and Oswin, being of a religious and unsuspecting, rather than of a martial, disposition, was betrayed into the hands of Oswy, who inhumanly put him to death. The people of Deira immediately elected Adelwald, nephew of Oswin, for their king; and this monarch, having been induced to enter into a league with the kings of Mercia and East Anglia, against the sovereign of Bernicia, the confederated forces encountered those of Oswy, on the northern bank of the Aire, near Leeds, in 655. But Adelwald, seeing that the victory of either party would be equally dangerous to him, took no part in the action which ensued; and though the Mercian king Penda attacked the Bernicians with great impetuosity, not doubting of success, yet his soldiers, as soon as they perceived Adelwald withdrawing his forces, suspecting treachery, began to give way; and though the kings of Mercia and East Anglia made great efforts to rally their troops, both of them were slain, and their army was routed with terrible slaughter. On the peaceful death of Adelwald, Oswy succeeded to the entire dominion of Northumbria, but his affection for his natural son Alfred induced him to make him king of Deira; and on the death of Oswy, in 670, his son Egfrid succeeded him in the kingdom of Bernicia; the Deirians, however, revolted against Alfred, and put themselves under the dominion of Egfrid, on whose death, after an active reign of fifteen years, Alfred was recalled to assume the sway over Northumbria, the dominion of which was never again divided. A few of the succeeding reigns, though short, were marked by no act of peculiar violence; but the instances of ferocity, treason, and rebellion, which disfigure the annals of this northern kingdom, from the close of the reign of Eadbert to the commencement of the ninth century, present one of the most disgusting pictures to be found in the history of any age or country: within the short space of fifty years eight kings were successively hurled from this blood-stained throne by expulsion or assassination. A region of civil discord was ill prepared to resist the victorious arms of King Egbert, who, from the conquest of Mercia, advanced to that of Northumbria: the reigning prince, Eanred, submitted without an appeal to arms, and accepted the same terms that had been granted to East Anglia and Mercia, according to which Northumbria was to remain a distinct, but tributary, kingdom.
About the middle of the ninth century, Ragnar Lodbrog, a celebrated Danish pirate, was wrecked, with two vessels of a size unusually large at that period, on the coast of Northumbria, in which country fresh disputes for the throne had arisen; and having succeeded in landing, he moved forward to plunder and ravage, regardless of his fate; but was soon opposed by Ella, one of the rival kings, with the whole of his forces, and a fierce, though unequal, conflict ensued, in which, after seeing most of his followers fall around him, Ragnar was at last overpowered and made prisoner, and soon after cruelly put to death. A more powerful force than had ever before sailed from Denmark soon after approached the English coasts, under command of Inguar and Ubba, two sons of Ragnar, and, in 867, after having wintered on the coast of East Anglia, entered the Humber and ravaged Holderness, slaughtering such of the inhabitants as were unable to save themselves by flight. Advancing with insatiable avidity and ruthless vengeance, they destroyed with fire and sword all the country near the northern shores of the Humber, and near York defeated Osbert, the rival of Ella in the sovereignty of Northumbria, who was slain in the action, together with great numbers of his men. The Danes then entered York, to which city Ella was advancing in aid of his rival, and near which he was met by the North-men, who slew him, and routed his army with great slaughter. Northumbria now, from an Anglo-Saxon, became a Danish, kingdom, of which this county formed by far the largest and most important part. Inguar established his throne at York, which city was colonized by his followers, and extended his sway over the whole country from the Humber to the Tyne. The Danes, no longer fighting only for plunder, but for dominion, in 868, moved southward into Mercia, and returned the following year with a rich booty. In the spring of 870, several large bodies of their army again marched into the more southern provinces; and the storm which had been gathering at York, and in its vicinity, extended its direful effects over the whole of them. In the year 878, the Northumbrian Danes acknowledged the paramount sovereignty of the Saxon king, Alfred, but were, notwithstanding, governed by their own chieftains, one of whom bore the title of king, and had his principal residence at York. In 910, hostilities having arisen between the Danes and the Saxons, Edward the Elder ravaged a great part of Northumbria, and totally routed the Danes, slaying two of their kings, Halfden and Eowils, together with many of their great officers, and several thousand of their soldiers. Athelstan, who ascended the Anglo-Saxon throne in 924, with a large army expelled the Danish chieftains, and made himself master of all Northumbria. Anlaf, one of the expelled princes, having entered into alliance with different chieftains of Ireland and Wales, and with Constantine, King of Scotland, soon after entered the Humber with a fleet of six hundred and fifteen ships, filled with warriors: these troops being disembarked, the Saxons abandoned the stations that were weakly fortified; but the stronger fortresses, being well garrisoned, resisted the attacks of the invaders, and gave time for Athelstan to prepare for the contest. Both parties having concentrated their forces, a sanguinary and decisive conflict took place, in which the confederates were totally defeated; and the king of Scotland, and six Welch and Irish kings, with twelve of their earls and general officers, and a vast number of their followers, were slain. The issue left the Anglo-Saxon monarch master of all Northumbria, which (its population being chiefly Danish) he held in subjection by numerous garrisons, and totally destroyed the castle of York. Some time afterwards, Eric, King of Norway, being expelled by his subjects, was kindly received by Athelstan, who placed him on the throne of Northumbria, as a vassal of the Anglo-Saxon crown: Eric fixed his habitation at York, which thus again became a royal residence. On the death of Athelstan, Anlaf, having obtained assistance from Olaus, King of Norway, once more entered this principality, and, appearing before the gates of York, was admitted by the citizens, whose example was followed in most of the other towns, the English garrisons being either expelled or slaughtered by the inhabitants, who were for the most part Danish: Anlaf then extended his conquests into Mercia, and, by a treaty with Edmund, the successor of Athelstan on the Anglo-Saxon throne, was confirmed in his title to the kingdom of Northumbria.
From this period to the final subjugation of the Northumbrian kingdom by Edred, in 951, its imperfect history is very confused: after that event it was governed by a succession of earls, or viceroys, who, like the ancient kings, had their residence at York. In 993, Sweyn, King of Denmark, entered the Humber with a large fleet and army, and ravaged Holderness, which district also suffered from similar Danish descents in 1013 and 1060. Tostig, brother of Harold, afterwards King of England, who was appointed Earl of Northumberland, in 1055, having been expelled by the people for his tyrannical conduct, was prompted to disturb his brother in the possession of the crown of England, to which he acceded in January 1066. Being assisted by his father-in-law, Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, with about fifty vessels, he infested the English coast, in the beginning of that year, and, entering the Humber, made a descent on the Yorkshire side, and committed the most horrible ravages, but soon crossed over to the southern shores of that æstuary, where he was defeated and compelled to flee to his ships by Edwin, Earl of Chester, and Earl Morcar, who had succeeded Tostig in the government of Northumbria. Later in the same year he re-entered the Humber, accompanied by Harold Harfager, King of Norway, with a fleet of five hundred ships: they advanced up the Ouse, landed their army at Riccall, about ten miles below York, and at Fulford, near that city, defeated the inferior forces of the Earls Edwin and Morcar: they then laid siege to York, which city speedily surrendered. On the approach of Harold, King of England, with the powerful army which he had collected to oppose the expected attack from William of Normandy, the Norwegian army withdrew from York, and encamped at Stamford-Bridge, about seven miles eastward of that city, where, on September 23rd, it received from the English that signal and sanguinary defeat in which the King of Norway and Earl Tostig perished, and after which twenty of their ships were sufficient to carry back to Norway their few remaining forces. On the evening after the battle the victorious Harold returned to York, through which city he had passed in his advance to oppose the North-men, and where he shortly afterwards received intelligence of the landing of the Duke of Normandy, whom he immediately marched southward to oppose.
The strenuous resistance which the Conqueror experienced from the inhabitants of the northern parts of England is well known: after he had partially subdued them, and received the submissions of Edwin, Earl of Chester, and Morcar, Earl of Northumberland, these lords, apprehensive of being involved in the same ruin with the rest of the Anglo-Saxon nobility, raised an army in the north, which was increased by a considerable reinforcement of Welch troops, and the city of York, where William had established a sort of advanced post, declared in their favour. On the Conqueror's sudden approach, the Earls and the people of York, aware of their incapacity for effectual resistance, threw themselves upon his mercy: William received their submission, but compelled the inhabitants to pay a heavy fine, at the same time erecting a strong castle in their city, to keep them in awe. The Northumbrians bore the galling yoke of the Norman with the greatest impatience, and at length called Sweyn, King of Denmark, to their assistance. In 1069, the Danish fleet, under Osbern, brother of the king of Denmark, appeared in the Humber: the whole of Northumbria declared against the Conqueror, and the Danish general, having landed his troops, was joined by great numbers of the English, among whom was Edgar Atheling (whom the insurgents recognised as king), Gospatric, and other fugitive noblemen. Osbern marched without opposition to York, where he put to the sword the Norman garrison, which had fired the suburbs. Earl Waltheof, with a strong garrison of English, was left in that city while the Danish general retired to a strong position at the confluence of two rivers in its vicinity. Entering Yorkshire, William began to inflict vengeance for this invasion and revolt by the most destructive ravages: he laid close siege to York, which, after a vigorous defence, he took and razed to the ground; and then so completely desolated the surrounding country, that such of the inhabitants as escaped slaughter perished by famine; the dead bodies lay putrifying in the houses, streets, and highways, none being left alive to cover them with earth, and during the space of nine years the country lay totally uncultivated, presenting one vast wilderness, the retreat of wild beasts and robbers, and the terror of travellers: in this state, indeed, the entire district between York and Durham continued for at least sixty years after. In the reign of Stephen, in the year 1138, David, King of Scotland, entered England with a powerful army, and ravaged this county, as far as York: Thurstan, the archbishop, who acted as Stephen's lieutenant in the north, summoned the neighbouring barons, each of whom mustered his forces, and the whole having placed themselves under the command of Ralph, Bishop of the Orkney Islands, Walter L'Espec, and William de Albemarle, advanced to North Allerton, where they fought and won the famous battle of the Standard, under the banners of St. Peter of York and St. John of Beverley.
During the inauspicious reign of Edward II., Piers Gaveston, that monarch's favourite, was besieged and taken prisoner in Scarborough Castle by the Earls of Pembroke and Warren. In 1318, Douglas, the Scottish leader, ravaging the north of England, burned the towns of North Allerton, Boroughbridge, Scarborough, and Skipton, pillaged Ripon and several other places in the county, and returned northward, carrying with him a vast quantity of plunder and a great number of prisoners. In the following year, the Scots, under the Earl of Murray, again desolated the northern parts of the county, as far as the gates of York, where they set fire to the suburbs: the Archbishop of York, indignant at this insult, hastily mustered about ten thousand men, and, accompanied by the Bishop of Ely, pursued the Scots, and overtook them at Myton, a village on the Swale, distant about twelve miles from York: in the battle which there ensued the English were totally routed, after a feeble resistance, and the fugitives made a precipitate retreat to the city: from the great number of clergymen that were killed in it, this conflict was for many years after called the “White Battle.” In 1321, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who headed the barons against his nephew, Edward II., was defeated and taken prisoner at Boroughbridge, and, together with several other noblemen of his party, beheaded a few days after at Ponte-fract. While Edward III., in 1347, was engaged in his memorable continental wars, David Bruce, the Scottish monarch, invaded England, and destroyed the whole country with fire and sword as far south as York: Queen Philippa, whom Edward had appointed regent of the kingdom, and who then kept her court at York, having collected troops in the city and its neigh-bourhood, marched with them in person against the enemy, who was brought to action and totally defeated in the battle of Nevill's Cross, near Durham. In 1399, Henry of Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, afterwards Henry IV., landed at Ravenspur (a port formerly situated near the mouth of the Humber, in Holderness, but long since swallowed up by encroachments either of that arm of the sea, or of the ocean itself), and was immediately joined by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, and other northern barons: being refused admittance into Hull, he proceeded on his march, with increasing forces, by way of Doncaster. Richard II., after his deposition, was confined successively in the castles of Leeds, Knaresborough, and Pontefract. In 1405, Henry IV. being then established on the throne, Richard Scroop, Archbishop of York, whose brother that monarch had beheaded; Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland; Thomas Mowbray, Earl Marshal; the lords Fauconbridge, Bardolph, Hastings, and several others, having entered into a conspiracy for his deposition, levied a considerable number of troops, which they led to York, the place appointed for the general rendezvous: Henry immediately sent Ralph Nevill, Earl of Westmorland, with a formidable body of troops, to oppose the insurgents; and he, by his artful policy, having succeeded in drawing the archbishop and the earl marshal to a conference, took them prisoners, thus throwing the confederates into such consternation, that the Earl of Northumberland, who was then in York, finding it impossible to keep his army together, retired northward to Berwick: the archbishop, the earl marshal, and several others, were executed near York. In 1408, the Earl of Northumberland again appearing in arms, was defeated and slain at Bramham Moor, by Sir Thomas Rokesby, sheriff of Yorkshire.
This county was the scene of various important events during the wars of the Roses. In 1460, Richard, Duke of York, was defeated and slain by the superior forces of Queen Margaret, in the battle of Wakefield. Shortly after, his son, having assumed the title of Edward IV., commenced his march northward to oppose the Lancastrians, whose forces now amounted to about sixty thousand. Edward, having arrived at Pontefract, sent two of his officers to secure the passage of the Aire, at Ferrybridge, which they easily effected, and posted their detachment on the north side of the river. Henry VI. and his queen, having given the command of their army to the Duke of Somerset, awaited at York the issue of the approaching conflict; and that nobleman commenced his operations by sending Lord Clifford to dislodge the Yorkists from their post on the northern bank of the Aire, in which he was so successful, that they were driven across the river with great slaughter. Edward then sent William Nevill, Lord Fauconbridge, to pass the Aire at Castleford, between three and four miles above Ferrybridge, which he did unobserved by the enemy, and, marching along the northern side of the river, suddenly attacked a body of horse under Lord Clifford, which was completely routed, and Clifford himself slain. Edward then crossed the Aire with his whole army, consisting of forty-eight thousand six hundred and sixty men, and, advancing towards Tadcaster, encountered the enemy on a ridge of high ground between the villages of Towton and Saxton, where, on Palm-Sunday, March 29th, 1461, was fought the decisive battle of Towton, the most sanguinary of all that occurred in the course of those exterminating wars: the fugitive Lancastrians took their way towards Tadcaster bridge, but despairing to reach it, on account of the close pursuit of their enemies, they turned aside, in order to pass the small river Cock, which movement was performed in such confusion and hurry, that the river was immediately full of those precipitated into it and drowned, whose bodies served as a bridge for their companions: the total number slain is stated at thirty-six thousand seven hundred and seventy-six, among whom were found the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, the Lords Dacre and Wells, Sir John Nevill, and Sir Andrew Trollope; the Earl of Devonshire was taken prisoner, and afterwards suffered death on the scaffold; Henry and Margaret fled into Scotland; and the victorious Edward took possession of York. The same prince, after his flight to Flanders, landed, in 1471, at Ravenspur, with a force of two thousand men, and thence, without opposition, marched immediately to York, pretending to claim only his patrimonial inheritance as Duke of York: having left a strong garrison in that city, he proceeded on his march towards London, and meeting the Earl of Warwick at Barnet, won the battle which placed him on the throne. In 1489, during the reign of Henry VII., the people of Yorkshire and Durham refused to pay a land-tax imposed to defray the expenses of the army; and, supposing the Earl of Northumberland to be one of the chief advisers of that measure, they assailed his house at Topcliffe, near Thirsk, and slew him with many of his servants. The populace then openly raised the standard of rebellion, and chose for their leaders Sir John Egremont and a man of mean extraction, called John à Chambre; but their chief force was shortly afterwards defeated by the Earl of Surrey, who took John à Chambre and several others prisoners: the rest of the insurgents fled to York, but, fearing to stand a siege, they dispersed in different directions, and Sir John Egremont escaped to Flanders; John à Chambre was executed at York, with a number of his chief adherents, and the tax was levied with the utmost rigour.
In 1536, the 27th of Henry VIII., the suppression of monasteries, and the other religious changes, excited great commotions in the northern counties, and in Yorkshire caused a formidable insurrection, headed by Robert Aske, a gentleman of considerable fortune, courage, and capacity, with whom were associated the Lord D'Arcy, Sir Robert Constable, Sir Thomas Percy, brother to the Earl of Northumberland, and different other persons of influence. Professing to take up arms for the cause of religion, they called their march “The Pilgrimage of Grace,” and painted on their banners a crucifix, with the five wounds, and a chalice: a number of priests marched at their head, carrying crosses in their hands, and every one wore on his sleeve an emblem of the five wounds of Christ, with the name of Jesus wrought in the middle. Aske, though unsuccessful in an attack upon Scarborough castle, made himself master of that of Pontefract, and afterwards of York and Hull; and either persuaded or compelled most of the nobility and gentry of the county to join his standard. The insurgents then advanced southward, as far as Doncaster, where the Duke of Norfolk was posted with a force of only five thousand men; but the river Don being swollen by heavy rains, they were unable to effect their passage over it, and a negociation being in consequence commenced, a general pardon was granted, and they immediately dispersed. Some of their leaders, however, endeavouring to excite new commotions, were afterwards taken and executed; and Aske, their commander-in-chief, was hanged in chains on one of the towers of York. In 1537, a less considerable rebellion broke out in the neighbourhood of Scarborough, Malton, &c., and the insurgents made a hasty march towards Hull, with the intention of taking that town by surprise; but Sir John Constable and Sir Ralph Ellerker being informed of their intention, hastily collected a few forces, and threw themselves into it, where they stood a siege of several days, and at last compelled the assailants to retire, at the same time sallying out upon their rear, and killing and taking prisoners a considerable number of them. Sir Robert Constable, and others of the insurgent leaders, however, at last made themselves masters of Hull by a stratagem, and held it for the space of a month, when, their partizans in the country being all either killed, taken prisoners, or dispersed by the king's forces, they were attacked by the inhabitants of the town during the night, and quite overpowered, many of them being taken prisoners, and amongst the rest their chief leader, Sir Robert Constable: these were afterwards hanged and quartered. In 1548, a third insurrection, for a like religious purpose, commenced at the village of Seamer, near Scarborough, and in its vicinity, one of the principal leaders of which was Thomas Dale, the parish clerk of Seamer. The beacon at Staxton having been lighted, collected a tumultuous crowd of about three thousand persons, who committed some barbarous excesses; but the lord president of the North, the seat of whose jurisdiction was at York, having sent from that city a detachment to oppose them, bearing a general pardon to those who should immediately return to their duty, most of the insurgents dispersed, though Dale and eight other ringleaders, refusing the proffered mercy, were soon after taken and executed at York. In 1553, at the time of Wyat's rebellion in the south of England, Thomas Stafford, second son of Lord Stafford, seized Scarborough castle by a stratagem, but retained possession of it only for three days, when it was retaken by the Earl of Westmorland, with a strong force; and Stafford and Captain Saunders, together with three other leaders of this insurrectionary movement, being made prisoners, paid the forfeit of their lives.
Early in the year 1642, the breach between Charles I. and his parliament widening daily, the former, with his son, Prince Charles, the prince elector, and several noblemen, departed from London, and, on the 18th of March, arrived at York, whither most of the nobility and gentry of the North of England, and many from the southern provinces, resorted to offer their services to him. On the 23rd of April, the king, attended by two or three hundred of his servants, and many gentlemen of the county, left York, and about noon reached Hull, which, by order of the parliament, had been garrisoned by troops under the command of Sir John Hotham, who steadily refused to admit the king, and the latter returned in disappointment to York. Having mustered about three thousand foot and nearly eight hundred horse, and having procured arms, &c., from Holland, Charles determined to commence the war by an attempt on Hull, and, with that view, left York for Beverley, where he summoned the trained bands of the neighbouring districts. By cutting the banks of the Humber, thus covering with a considerable depth of water the meadows and pastures to the distance of two miles on every side of Hull, Sir John Hotham for some time prevented all access to the town, the garrison of which, about the middle of July, received powerful reinforcement by sea, and, at the end of the same month, in a vigorous sally, defeated the beleaguering forces, and compelled them to raise the siege. The king, after a stay of five months at York, departed from that city to erect his standard at Nottingham; but, before his departure, as danger was apprehended from the garrison of Hull, the citizens entreated His Majesty to constitute the Earl of Cumberland military commander of the county, and to appoint Sir Thomas Glemham governor of the city, which was readily granted. Sir Thomas Fairfax and Captain Hotham, son of the governor of Hull, advanced so far from that town towards York as to fortify Tadcaster and Wetherby, and twice repulsed Sir Thomas Glemham in two vigorous assaults which he made upon the last-mentioned place. The success of the parliamentarians induced the royalist gentry of Yorkshire to solicit succours from the Earl of Newcastle, who had raised a considerable force in the north, and who immediately marched to their assistance, entering York on the 30th of November, with six thousand men and ten pieces of artillery. The Earl of Cumberland then resigned his commission to the Earl of Newcastle, who, with four thousand of his men, drove the enemy from Tadcaster, while his lieutenant-general, the Earl of Newport, with two thousand men, took Wetherby. In 1643, on January 16th, Colonel Slingsby, with a force of about six hundred royalists, defeated Sir Hugh Cholmley and his troops at Guisborough. On the 23rd of the same month, Sir Thomas Fairfax, with a strong force, took the town of Leeds by assault; and the same commander, having led reinforcements into Bradford, was there besieged by the Earl of Newcastle, who made unsuccessful attempts to storm the town in several places: Sir Thomas having, however, exhausted his ammunition, offered to capitulate, but his terms being refused, he made his escape by cutting his way through their lines with fifty horse. On the 22d of February, Queen Henrietta Maria landed at Bridlington quay, with a considerable quantity of artillery and small arms, and was thence escorted to York by the lord general, the Earl of Newcastle: after remaining there for three months, she proceeded to meet the king, under the escort of the same nobleman, who, for this service, was created a marquis. This commander having driven Sir Thomas Fairfax out of Beverley with great slaughter, appeared with his whole force before Hull, on the 2d of September, and immediately commenced an arduous siege, which, as well as the defence, was conducted with all the military skill of that age, and with the most determined resolution: it continued nearly six weeks, and many were slain on both sides: the parliamentarians, however, being masters of the sea, and having a squadron on the Humber, the town received ample supplies by water, which rendered its reduction by famine impossible; and the Marquis of Newcastle, after sustaining a grand sortie, made on the 11th of October, was obliged to raise the siege.
In 1644, almost every part of Yorkshire was a scene of war and devastation. Early in this year, Sir Thomas Fairfax, having gained a considerable victory over the royal forces near Selby, was joined by the Scottish general, the Earl of Leven, and on April 19th their united forces commenced the siege of York, in which they were shortly assisted by the Earl of Manchester, with his troops and twelve field-pieces. These three generals, having collectively a force of forty thousand men, pressed the siege with great vigour, and the suburbs were fired by the besieged: numerous sanguinary conflicts took place, until, on the 30th of June, the parliamentarian generals receiving intelligence that Prince Rupert, with an army of twenty thousand men, was advancing, and would quarter that night at Borough-bridge and Knaresborough, they raised the siege and marched to Marston Moor, where they arrayed their army for battle, expecting that the Prince would take that road to York, which city, however, he reached by another route. Prince Rupert, contrary to the advice of the Marquis of Newcastle, but alleging that he had positive orders from the king to bring the enemy to action, marched his whole army out of York, on the 2d of July, and encountered the enemy near the position which they had taken up a few days before: there was fought the celebrated battle of Marston Moor, in which the parliamentarians were completely victorious, after a sanguinary conflict, and which cast the balance between the king and the parliament, entirely overthrowing the power of the former in the north. The loss on each side in this encounter is variously stated, but the peasants employed in burying the dead reported that they interred four thousand one hundred and fifty bodies, and of these it was generally believed that three thousand were royalists: the parliamentarians took prisoners above one hundred officers and one thousand five hundred soldiers, and gained possession of the Prince's train of artillery and military stores: the royalist army having fled into York, soon left that city for Lancashire; and the Marquis of Newcastle, with many other distinguished persons of the same party, embarked at Scarborough for the continent. The siege of York was immediately resumed, and that city surrendered on July 11th, after having, since its commencement, sustained twenty-two assaults, and after between four and five thousand parliamentarians had perished before its walls. Soon after these events, Tickhill castle was taken by Colonel Lilburn; Sheffield castle, on August 10th, by Major General Crawford; and Knaresborough town and castle, and Helmsley castle, towards the close of the year, by Lord Fairfax, who also, in December, made himself master of the town of Pontefract, and besieged the castle, which was, however, relieved in January following by Sir Marmaduke Langdale. Meantime, on the 18th of February, 1644, the parliamentarian officer, Sir John Meldrum, took the town of Scarborough by assault, and commenced a vigorous siege of the castle, which was obstinately defended by Sir Hugh Cholmley, who had declared on behalf of the king. On May 17th, 1645, the parliamentarians made a general assault on the castle, but were repulsed with great loss, their commanding officer receiving a mortal wound, when he was succeeded by Sir Matthew Boynton, who at length compelled this fortress to surrender, on July 22d. March 21st, 1645, the parliamentarians regained possession of the town of Pontefract, and besieged the castle, which surrendered on June 20th. In October, Great Sandall castle surrendered, after a siege of three weeks, to a parliamentarian force under Colonel Overton; Bolton castle surrendered to the parliamentarian troops on November 5th; as also did Skipton castle, on December 20th. On June 6th, 1648, a small party of royalists, headed by Colonel Morrice, seized Pontefract castle for the king, by surprise; and in the month of October commenced the third siege of this celebrated fortress, which was at first conducted by Cromwell in person, and afterwards by General Lambert, to whom it surrendered on March 25th, 1649. Colonel Boynton, governor of Scarborough castle, having declared for the king, that fortress was again besieged by the parliamentarians, about the middle of September 1648, and, the garrison becoming mutinous, surrendered on the 19th of December following.
The year 1663 was marked in this county by an insurrection in the West riding, the leaders of which were conventicle preachers and old parliamentarian soldiers: great numbers of misguided people assembled in arms at Farnley Wood, near Otley, where they were attacked by a body of regular troops, with some of the county militia, and several of them seized: twenty-one of their leaders were tried and executed at York under a special commission. At the period of the rebellion in 1745, Herring, Archbishop of York, projected an association of the nobility, gentry, and other inhabitants of the county, which was entered into at the castle of York, on the 24th of September; the sum of £31,420 was subscribed, which, together with the sums raised in a similar manner from the city and ainsty of York, was expended in raising, clothing, and paying four companies of foot, for the defence of the established government, and of the county in particular. In 1757, several riots occurred in different parts of the county, in consequence of the new regulations then introduced with regard to the levying of the militia. In 1812, serious disturbances broke out in the manufacturing districts of the West riding, chiefly owing to distress occasioned by the depressed state of trade at that time; and in 1819 the same part of the county shared in the ferment which then agitated the manufacturing districts of the kingdom generally, and especially those of Lancashire.
This county is in the diocese of York, excepting only a western portion of the North riding, which is in that of Chester: the whole is in the province of York, and forms the three archdeaconries of York (or of the West riding), the East riding, and Cleveland, in the diocese of York, and part of that of Richmond, in the diocese of Chester: the archdeaconry of York is subdivided into the deaneries of the city and ainsty of York, Craven, Doncaster, and Pontefract; that of the East riding into those of Buckrose, Dickering, Harthill and Hull, and Holderness; and that of Cleveland into those of Bulmer, Cleveland, Ryedale, and Ripon; while that of Richmond comprises, in this county, those of Boroughbridge, Catterick, Richmond, and part of Lonsdale: the total number of parishes is six hundred and four, of which one hundred and eighty-nine are rectories, two hundred and ninety-two vicarages, and one hundred and twenty-three perpetual curacies.
The grand civil and military division of Yorkshire is into three ridings,—West, North, and East, (the term riding being corrupted from trithing, a third part), independent of which is the ainsty, or county of the city of York: the West riding is subdivided into the nine wapentakes of Agbrigg (Upper and Lower), Barkston-Ash (Upper and Lower), Claro (Upper and Lower), Morley, Osgoldcross (Upper and Lower), Skyrack (Upper and Lower), Staincliffe and Ewcross (East and West), Staincross, and Strafforth and Tickhill (North and South), with the liberty of Ripon and soke of Doncaster; the North riding into the eight wapentakes of Allertonshire, Birdforth, Bulmer, Gilling (East and West), Hallikeld, Hang (East and West), Langbaurgh (East and West), and Ryedale, Pickering Lythe, and the liberty of Whitby-Strand; and the East riding into the six wapentakes of Buckrose, Dickering, Harthill (Bainton-Beacon, Holme-Beacon, Hunsley-Beacon, and Wilton-Beacon, divisions), Holderness (Middle, North, and South), Howdenshire, and Ouze and Derwent, besides which it comprehends within its limits the liberty of St. Peter of York, the ainsty of the city of York, the borough and liberties of Beverley, and the county of the town of Kingston upon Hull, which comprises a few parishes in the neighbourhood of that place. Yorkshire contains the city of York; the borough, market, and sea-port towns of Hull and Scarborough; the borough and market towns of Beverley, Boroughbridge, Doncaster, Hedon, Knaresborough, Malton, North Allerton, Pontefract, Richmond, Ripon, and Thirsk; the borough of Aldborough; the great manufacturing and market towns of Halifax, Leeds, and Sheffield; the market and sea-port towns of Bridlington and Whitby; and the market towns of Askrigg, Barnesley, Bawtry, Bedale, Bingley, Bradford, Dewsbury, Guisborough, Hawes, Helmslcy, Howden, Huddersfield, Keighley, Kirkby-Moorside, Leyburn, Masham, Otley, Patrington, Penistone, Pickering, Pocklington, Reeth, Rotherham, Sedbergh, Selby, Settle, Sherburn, Skipton, South Cave, Stokesley, Tadcaster, Thorne, Market-Weighton, Wetherby, and Yarm. The Cornish borough of Grampound having been recently disfranchised, on the ground of corruption, the right of electing two additional members was granted to this large and populous county, which accordingly sends four representatives to parliament; two citizens are also returned for the city of York, and two burgesses for each of the boroughs: the county members are elected at York. This shire is included in the Northern circuit: the assizes are held at York, where is the county gaol. The quarter sessions for the West riding are held as follows: the Easter sessions at Pontefract; the Midsummer quarter sessions at Skipton, whence they are adjourned to Bradford, and thence to Rotherham; the Michaelmas quarter sessions begin at Knaresborough, whence they are adjourned to Leeds, and thence to Sheffield; the Christmas quarter sessions commence at Wetherby, and are adjourned to Wakefield, and thence to Doncaster: on the termination of each session there is an adjournment to Wakefield, for the purpose of inspecting the prison, which generally takes place within a month or six weeks after that time. In pursuance of an act passed in the year 1704, the office for the registration of deeds, conveyances, and wills, relating to property within the West riding, was established at Wakefield, where also are kept the records of the sessions. The quarter sessions for the North and East ridings are held respectively at North Allerton and Beverley, in each of which towns are also offices for the registration of all deeds relating to landed property within those ridings. There are two hundred and fifty-one acting magistrates. The rates raised in the county for the year ending March 25th, 1827, amounted to £611,411. 8., and the expenditure to £605,372. 9., of which, £470,677. 18. was applied to the relief of the poor.
One of the most remarkable peculiarities in the civil and military jurisdiction of Yorkshire is, that each of its ridings has a distinct lord-lieutenant. The ainsty of York was formerly a wapentake of the West riding; but, in the 27th of Henry VI., it was annexed to the city, and placed under its immediate jurisdiction: in returning to parliament the knights of the shire, the freeholders in the ainsty vote in common with those in other parts of the county. The liberty of St. Peter comprehends all those parts of the city and county of York that belong to the cathedral church of St. Peter at York: the jurisdiction is separate and exclusive, and it has its own magistrates, steward, bailiff, coroners, and constables: amongst its privileges, the inhabitants are exempt from the payment of all manner of tolls throughout England, Wales, and Ireland, on the production of a certificate from the under-steward. Quarter sessions are held for this liberty at the sessions-house in the Minster yard at York; and a court is held in the hall every three weeks, where pleas in actions of debt, trespass, replevin, &c., to any amount whatever, arising within the liberty, are heard. There is also a court leet and view of frankpledge for the whole liberty, held twice a year, viz., on the Wednesday in Easter week, and on the first Wednesday after New Michaelmas-day. Sessions for the Archbishop of York's liberty of Cawood, Wistow, and Otley, are held at Otley, in January and April, and at Cawood, in April and October.
The West riding, which, whether considered with regard to its extent and population, or to its trade and manufactures, is by far the most important, is bounded on the north by the North riding; on the east, by the ainsty, and the river Ouse, to its junction with the Trent; and on the south and west, by the arbitrary limits of the county: its greatest length, from east to west, is ninety-five miles; its extreme breadth, from north to south, forty-eight miles; and its circumference about three hundred and twenty miles, including an area of two thousand four hundred and fifty square miles, or one million five hundred and sixty-eight thousand statute acres: its population, in 1821, was 799,357. The surface of this portion of Yorkshire is much diversified, but may be divided into three large districts, gradually varying from a level and marshy, to a rocky and mountainous, region. The flat and marshy district, forming part of the extensive Vale of York, lies along the borders of the Ouse, and in most places extends westward as far as within three or four miles of an imaginary line drawn from Doncaster to Sherburn: the general level is broken only by low sandy hills, which occur in the vicinities of Snaith, Thorne, and Doncaster, and the altitude of which is seldom more than fifty feet above the level of the sea; so that the great rivers Ousc, Aire, and Don, which traverse this extensive tract, have often changed their channels. The middle parts of the riding, as far westward as Sheffield, Bradford, and Otley, contain a variety of beautiful scenery, formed chiefly by noble hills of gentle ascent; but further westward the county becomes rugged and mountainous, scarcely any thing being seen beyond Sheffield, in that direction, but high black moors, which, running north-westward, join the lofty hills of Blackstone Edge, on the borders of Lancashire. The north-western part of the riding, forming the western part of the district of Craven, presents a confused heap of rocks and mountains, among which Pennygant, Wharnside, and Ingleborough, are particularly conspicuous, the two latter being amongst the highest mountains in England: the height of Wharnside above the level of the sea is two thousand three hundred and eighty-four feet; that of Ingleborough, two thousand three hundred and sixty-one fect; and that of Pennygant, two thousand two hundred and seventyfeet. Amidst the mountainous tracts of this riding there are also many romantic vallies, presenting the most beautiful and picturesque scenery: the most extensive of these are, Netherdale, or Nidderdale, watered by the small river Nid, Wharfdale, and the vale of the Aire. Many vallies of less extent vie with these in picturesque beauty, and the greater part of them being enclosed, wellwooded, and thickly scattered with almost continuous villages, present a most delightful appearance when viewed from the neighbouring eminences. In the mountainous districts of Craven are also several small lakes, the principal of which is Malham-water, near the village of Malham, of an almost circular form, about a mile in diameter, and remarkably situated on a high moor. Some of the finest scenery in England, in which beauty and sublimity are pleasingly combined, may be viewed in travelling from Knaresborough, or Ripon, to Pateley-Bridge; from Tadcaster to Otley and Skipton; from Leeds, by Bradford and Keighley, to Skipton; from Bradford to Halifax; and from Halifax, by Dewsbury, to Wakefield.
The North riding, the next most extensive division, is bounded on the north by the river Tees; on the north-east and east by the ocean; on the south-east by the rivers Hertford and Derwent, which separate it from the East riding; on the south by the river Ouse and the West riding; and on the west, by the county of Westmorland: its greatest length is eighty-three miles, from east to west; its extreme breadth forty-seven miles, from north to south; and it comprises an area of one million three hundred and eleven thousand one hundred and eighty-seven acres, or about two thousand and forty-eight square miles: its population, in 1821, was 183,694. The face of the country along the coast, from Scarborough nearly to the mouth of the Tees, is hilly and bold, the cliffs overhanging the beach being generally from sixty or seventy to one hundred and fifty feet high; while Stoupe Brow, vulgarly called “Stow Brow,” about seven miles to the south of Whitby, rises to the stupendous height of eight hundred and ninety-three feet. From the ordinary elevation of the cliff the ground rises, in most places very rapidly, to the height of three or four hundred feet; and the maritime tract thus formed, comprising about sixty-four thousand nine hundred and twenty acres, is tolerably productive. A little further inland, successive hills, rising one above another, form the elevated tract of the Eastern Moorlands: this wild and mountainous district, which occupies a space of about thirty miles in length from east to west, and fifteen in breadth from north to south, is intersected by numerous beautiful and fertile dales, some of which are rather extensive, containing from five to ten thousand acres, and Eskdale and Bilsdale, considerably more: the level land at the bottom of these vales is seldom more than two hundred, or three hundred, yards broad, but the soil is generally cultivated from half a mile to a mile and a half up the hills, though the surface is in many places very irregular. Rising to the height of upwards of one thousand feet, the general aspect of this extensive district is bleak and dreary, and the whole is destitute of wood, excepting only a few dwarfish trees, in the vallies among the few scattered habitations. On the roads leading from Whitby to Guisborough, Stokesley, and Pickering, at the distance of a few miles, commence dreary and extensive wastes, bounded only by the horizon. Some of the hills, however, near the edges of this rugged and mountainous region command picturesque and magnificent prospects, particularly the Blue Bank, near Whitby; the hills on the southern border of the moors; the Hamilton hills, which form their western extremity; and the heights near Upleatham, Whorlton, and Arncliffe. But the most remarkable object in the topography of these wilds is the singular peaked mountain called Rosebury-Topping, situated near the village of Newton, about a mile to the eastward of the road from Guisborough to Stokesley which rises to the height of one thousand and twenty-two feet, and is a noted land-mark; the view from its summit is celebrated for its great extent and variety. The total extent of the Eastern Moorland district is two hundred and ninety-eight thousand six hundred and twenty-five acres. The Vale of Cleveland, situated to the north-west of these mountains, is the fruitful tract bordering on the river Tees, in the lower part of its course; in this county it comprises an area of seventy thousand four hundred and forty-four acres, the whole under cultivation, and is lightly marked with gentle eminences. The extensive Vale of York is considered by Mr. Tuke, author of the “General View of the Agriculture of the North riding of Yorkshire, drawn up for the consideration of the Board of Agriculture,” to reach from the border of the Tees to the southern confines of the county, the northern part of it only being included in this riding: this part, bounded on each side by the Eastern and the Western Moorlands, has a gentle slope, from the border of the river Tees, southward as far as York, where it sinks into a perfect flat; between the Tees and York, however, its ordinarily level surface is broken by several bold swells; and on the east it is separated from Ryedale by a range of hills, called by Mr. Marshall, in his Rural Economy of Yorkshire, the “Howardian Hills.” This part of the vale, together with these hills, comprises an extent of four hundred and fifty-six thousand three hundred and eighty-six acres, of which about fifteen thousand are uncultivated. Ryedale (so called from its being traversed by the river Rye) and the East and West Marishes form one extensive level, situated between the Eastern Moorlands and the river Derwent, and contain one hundred and three thousand eight hundred and seventy-two acres, of which about three thousand are waste: the surface of its lower parts is flat, but towards the north it rises with a gentle ascent for three or four miles towards the foot of the moors; its lower levels are also broken by several isolated swells of considerable extent and elevation: the Marishes are separated from Ryedale by the Pickering-beek. The Western Moorlands, occupying the rest of the North riding, to the west of the Vale of York, and of far greater clevation than the Eastern Moorlands, resemble in general character the mountainous parts of Craven, and are, like them, intersected by numerous fertile dales; of these, Wensleydale is the most extensive, the bottom of it consisting of rich grazing pastures, through which the river Ure pursues a very winding course, forming, in many places, beautiful cascades. The next in size is Swaledale, which, however, is much inferior to the former in picturesque beauty. The total extent of the Western Moorlands is three hundred and sixteen thousand nine hundred and forty acres: together with the mountainous districts of the West riding, they form an important part of the long range of mountains reaching northward from Staffordshire into Scotland, and contain several small lakes, the principal of which is Simmer lake, near Askrigg.
The East riding is bounded on the north and north-west by the little river Hertford, and the Derwent as far down as Stamford-Bridge, about a mile above which place an irregular boundary line commences, which joins the Ouse about a mile below York: from this point it is bounded, on the west and south-west, by the Ouse; on the south by the Humber; and on the east by the North Sea: its greatest length is fifty-two miles, from south-east to north-west; its extreme breadth forty-two miles, from south-west to north-cast; and it includes an area of eight hundred and nineteen thousand one hundred and ninety-three statute acres, or nearly one thousand two hundred and eighty square miles: its population, in 1821, including the city and county of the city of York, and the liberty of St. Peter, amounted to 190,449. This division of Yorkshire is far less conspicuously marked with the bolder features of nature than the other parts of the county. It may be distinguished into three districts, viz., the Wolds and the two level tracts, one of which lies to the east, the other to the west and north of that elevated region. The Wolds are a magnificent assemblage of lofty chalk hills, extending from the banks of the Humber in the vicinity of Hessle, in a northerly direction, to the neighbourhood of New Malton on the Derwent, whence they range eastward, within a few miles of the course of that river, to the coast, where they form the lofty promontory of Flamborough Head, and, in the vicinities of the villages of Flamborough, Bempton, and Specton, rise in cliffs to the height of one hundred, and in some places of one hundred and fifty, feet. The ascent of these hills is steep, except upon their eastern side, where they rise in gentle and successive swells: their height in few places exceeds six hundred feet; but many parts of them afford magnificent and delightful prospects. Their northern edge overlooks the Vale of the Derwent, beyound which the black eastern moors immediately rise; the western hills command the Vale of York; and the eastern the rich district of Holderness; but the southern extremity of the Wolds is by far the most distinguished for the beauty and diversity of its prospects, commanding the districts surveyed from the eastern and western heights, together with the vast æstuary of the Humber, and the northern shores of Lincolnshire. The surface of the Wolds is for the most part divided into a number of extensive swells, by deep, narrow, and winding vallies, and occupies an extent of about four hundred thousand acres. Their eastern side, at Bridlington, sinks into a perfect flat, which continues for eight or nine miles southward. At the distance of about seven miles southward of Bridlington, however, the wapentake of Holderness begins, the eastern part of which, towards the sea-coast, is a finely varied country, in which is situated Hornsea mere, the largest lake in the county, being about a mile and three quarters long, and three quarters of a mile across in the broadest part; but the western edge is a fenny tract of about four miles in breadth, and extending nearly twenty miles in length, southward, to the banks of the Humber: these fenny lands are provincially called “Cars.” The southern part of Holderness also falls into marshes, bordering on the Humber; and the county terminates south-eastward in the long low promontory of Spurnhead, the Ocellum Promontorium of Ptolemy. The Humber is known to have made, in former ages, considerable encroachment on the shores of Holderness; but in later times it has gradually receded from very extensive tracts. About the commencement of the reign of Charles I., an island, since called Sunk Island, began to appear in the Humber, nearly opposite Patrington; at first, a few acres only were left dry at low water; but, as it increased in extent every year, it was at last embanked, and converted into pasture ground: successive embankments were made, large tracts being at each time secured, until at the present period it comprises about four thousand seven hundred acres of fertile land, and towards the west end is separated from the Holderness marshes only by a ditch a few feet broad: it is held on lease from the crown. The Holderness marshes have also been increased by the retiring of the waters of the Humber; and a large tract of land, called “Cherry-cob Sands,” which was left dry and embanked in the same manner as Sunk Island, is more particularly worthy of notice. The third natural division of the East riding, which extends from the western foot of the Wolds to the boundary of the West riding, is commonly called “The Levels,” and, though generally fertile, and interspersed with villages and hamlets, is every where flat and uninteresting. One of the most important agricultural improvements in the county is the drainage of the cars and marshes of this division of it, together with those in the North riding, bordering on the course of the Derwent.
The “Holderness Drainage” lies chiefly adjoining to and on the eastern side of the river Hull, extends from north to south about eleven miles, and contains eleven thousand two hundred and eleven acres: in 1762, an act of parliament was obtained for draining this level, much of which before that period was of small value, being usually covered with water for above half the year: the execution of this drainage was vested in trustees, appointed by the owners of land within the limits of its operation. The “Beverley and Barmston Drainage,” executed under the provisions of an act passed about the year 1792, lies parallel to the last, but on the opposite side of the river Hull, and extends from the seashore at Barmston, a few miles south of Bridlington, along the course of that river nearly to Kingston upon Hull, a distance of about twenty-four miles: its northern part contains more than two thousand acrcs, and has an outfall into the sea at Barmston; while the southern division, extending southward from Foston, contains upwards of ten thousand acres, and has its outlet into the river Hull, at a place called Wincolmlee. The “Keyingham Drainage,” lying between Sunk Island and the main land, was originally completed under an act passed in the year 1722; a new act was obtained in 1802, under which the course of the drainage in some parts was altered, and an additional quantity of land included, making a total of five thousand five hundred acres: the execution of this was vested in three commissioners, and on a vacancy occurring by death or resignation, another commissioner is elected by the proprietors. The “Hertford and Derwent Drainage” contains upwards of ten thousand five hundred acres, of which four thousand five hundred are in the East, and the remainder in the North, riding: the act for this was obtained in the year 1800, and its execution was vested in three directors and three commissioners: the directors have a power to levy an annual assessment, not exceeding an average of three shillings per acre, for the purpose of maintaining and repairing the existing works and drains, and also of further making such new works as may, from time to time, become necessary. Spalding Moor and Walling Fen, lying to the westward of the southern part of the Wolds, were drained, allotted, and enclosed, about fifty years since, under the provisions of the same act of parliament.
The ainsty of York is situated to the west, and on the south-western side, of the Ouse, which borders it from the mouth of the Nid to that of the Wharfe, separating it first from the North, and afterwards from the East, riding: from the West riding it is separated for some distance by the Nid, and afterwards by a line including Wilstrop, Cattle-bridge, Bickerton, and Thorp-Arch, and terminating at the junction of the Wharfe with the Ouse: its circumference is thirty-two miles, and, in 1821, the population was 8740. The surface and scenery of this tract have the same general character as the rest of the Vale of York, of which it forms a part: the western portion of it is diversified by various gentle swells; while the eastern, adjoining the Ouse, is an entire flat, abounding with excellent meadows and pastures. The whole district of the ainsty was anciently a forest, but it was disforested by the charters of Richard I. and John.
The climate of Yorkshire is as various as its surface. The Levels of the East and West ridings, owing to their being sheltered from the east winds by the Wolds, enjoy a mild atmosphere, but are subject to continual damps and fogs. In the middle district of the West riding the air is sharper, clearer, and more salubrious: at Sheffield the average annual fall of rain is thirty-three inches. On the western mountains of this riding, as well as among the western Moorlands of the North riding, the climate is cold, tempestuous, and rainy: notwithstanding which, the frequent high winds that purify the atmosphere render it salubrious for strong constitutions, and the inhabitants of those districts have a robust and healthy appearance: the quantity of rain which annually falls in the vicinity of Ingleborough is not less than forty-eight inches: on account of their superior elevation and greater distance from the sea, the climate of the Western Moorlands is much colder than that of the Eastern, and the snow remains upon them much later in the spring. In the Vale of York the climate is mild and temperate, except near the Moors, where the influence of the winds from those mountainous regions is often severely felt. On the Howardian hills the air is colder, and the corn later in ripening. Ryedale and the Marishes enjoy a mild air, but are in many parts rendered unhealthy by the want of better drainage. The great altitude of the Eastern Moorlands renders their climate extremely cold, and presents an insuperable obstacle to their improvement: little corn, therefore, except oats and big, a kind of barley, are sown in the higher parts of the dales that penetrate them. About the end of August the clouds begin to descend, and in the form of dense fogs hang upon these Moorland hills, at an elevation of about seven or eight hundred feet; and as they become rarefied by the warmth of the sun, they either ascend above their summits, or remain upon them at an elevation increased in proportion to their rarefaction: as the autumn advances they hang lower on the hills in the morning, and occasionally leave the summits clear, though only for a short time: the whole tract is afterwards, during several months, enveloped in fogs, chilled with rain, or bound up in frost and snow, from an elevation of about six hundred feet upwards, with little interruption. The climate of Cleveland and of the coast is stormy and cold, but the quality of the soil renders the harvest in those districts nearly as early as in the warmer parts of the county. In the East riding, the Wolds and the country lying eastward of them are much exposed to cold raw winds from the German Ocean: the vicinity of the coast is also exposed to fogs from the sca and the Humber. In the county generally the easterly winds prevail in the spring, with great severity, and during a great part of the summer, as the westerly winds do in the western counties: the conflict between these two currents generally takes place on the western mountains, which also arrest the vapours in their progress from the Western ocean; and to these causes must be attributed the great quantity of rain which falls in those districts. The climate of the eastern part of the county is, however, nearly as much characterized by peculiar dryness, as that of any of the eastern counties of England.
The soils comprise all the varieties common in the kingdom, from the deep strong clay and rich loam to the worst kind of peat earth. In the West riding the prevailing quality is loam, the value of which depends, in a great measure, upon the nature of the substratum. Much of the low ground in this division of the county, bordering on the Ouse, has a clayey soil of a very tenacious quality, the cultivation of which is subject to many difficulties, although it is capable of producing the most abundant crops: this and a rich loamy soil are the predominating kinds, but are intermixed with some sandy and moorish tracts. The middle of the riding is occupied chiefly by loam resting on limestone; and the same kind of soil, with a similar basis, although intermixed in many places with tracts of moor, of different qualities, prevails even to its western limits. In the North riding the soils of the coast district are, a brownish clay, a clayer loam, a lightish soil upon alum shale; a loam upon freestone, or, as it is here called, “gritstone;” and, in some vallies to the west of Whitby, a deep rich loam. The soil of Cleveland is generally a fertile clay, with occasionally some clayey loam, and a fine red sandy soil, the latter of which is found chiefly between Marsh and Worsall, and about Crathorne, near the moors. In the Vale of York, the soil, though varying greatly, is for the most part fertile, and comprises rich gravelly loams; rich strong loams; rich hazel loams; strong and fertile, gravelly, and cold clays; sandy loams of various qualities, sometimes intermixed with cobble-stones and coarse gravel; loamy soils upon limestone; cold and springy soils; and some small tracts of swampy and peaty land: there is also a cold thin clay upon what is called “moorband,” a stratum from six inches to a foot in thickness, of a ferruginous and ochreous appearance, which, wherever found, is attended with great sterility. On the southern side of the Howardian hills good clayey and loamy soils prevail, as also at the western extremity: in other places the soil is frequently thin and poor, resting immediately upon a gritstone, or limestone, substratum. The soils of Ryedale are for the most part of extraordinary fertility, comprising a hazel loam upon a clay substratum, and a deep warp, or silt, washed down from the higher country by the floods of many former ages, and deposited upon a gravel or clay; but some cold clayey and yellow loamy soils, mixed with sandy pebbles, of less fertility than the above, are occasionally met with; the detached swells have a rich strong clay, one only excepted, in the vicinity of Normanby, which is sandy: the northern margin of this vale has for the most part a deep loamy soil, resting on an imperfect reddish sandstone; but approaching the moors, the soil gradually becomes stiffer and less fertile, though in some places it is a vellow sand. The soil of the Marishes is chiefly clay, with some sandy loam, gravel, and peat, the whole very low and wet. Most of the narrow vallies of the Eastern Moorlands contain more or less of a black moory soil, resting upon clay; of a sandy soil, in some places intermixed with large gritstones, upon a shaly rock; and of a light loam lying on gritstone; on their eastern side is also found a stiffish loam upon limestone, and a deep sandy loam upon whin-stone; and in the lowest situation a light loam upon gravel, or freestone. In the Western Moorlands, the soil of the bottom of Wensleydale is generally a rich loamy gravel; that on the sides of the hills, by which it is enclosed, a good loam, in some places rather stiff, and sometimes resting on gritstone, but generally on limestone: there are also some small tracts of clay and peat. Swaledale and the smaller dales are very similar to this in their soils, and several of those which discharge their waters into the Tees are peculiarly fertile.
In the East riding, the whole country to the eastward of the Wolds is occupied by clays and loams, of occasionally varying quality; excepting only a narrow tract of gravelly land, which extends for two or three miles both to the north and south of Rise, near Hornsea, and is excellent turnip land. The Holderness marshes, bordering on the Humber, below Hull, have a strong clayey loam, the fertility of which is almost unequalled. The Wolds are composed almost entirely of chalk; their soils are, therefore, warm and calcareous: the most prevailing kind is a friable and rather light loam, having a mixture of chalky gravel, in some parts very shallow; a deeper sandy loam, resting immediately upon the chalk, is also found in some places. The soil of the “Levels” is, in some parts, clayey; in others, sandy. An extensive sandy, and in some places moory, tract stretches across the middle of them from South Cave, north-westward, to York; but near the banks of the Derwent and the Ouse the predominant soils are a clayey loam and a very strong clay; the latter chiefly prevails from Gilberdike to Howden, and thence extends quite to the Ouse. The tract of ground called “Marshland,” situated below the junction of the Aire with the Ouse, is supposed to have been, at some former period, wholly covered with water, and the soil is for the most part of that sort which, in many places, is known by the name of water-fat. The Vale of the Derwent, extending from the vicinity of the coast westward towards York, is remarkable for the great varicty of its soils, which, however, are generally fertile; they include a very light fine sand, loams of various qualities, a strong clay of divers colours, lying in some places upon a coarse hard limestone abounding in shells, and a black peat, which extends along the course of the Hertford to its junction with the Derwent, and thence to Yeddingham bridge.
The soils of the ainsty bear a character of general fertility: they are chiefly loams of rather various kinds, some on a calcareous, and others on a gravelly, substratum. The low grounds adjoining the rivers have a soil formed chiefly of the alluvial matter washed from the surrounding higher grounds: those on the banks of the Ouse are most remarkable for their fertility. All that portion of the West riding included between the river Ouse and an imaginary line drawn from Ripley south-ward by Leeds, Wakefield, and Barnesley, to Rotherham, is principally employed in the production of corn; while the land in the vicinity of the manufacturing towns is under no peculiar system of husbandry: the amount of arable land in the western parts of the West riding is extremely small. In the North riding, in the Vale of York, one-third of the land is in tillage; on the western end of the Howardian hills, and thence to Thirsk, only one-fourth; on the rest of the Howardian hills, nearly one-half; in Ryedale, the Marishes, and the northern part of the coast, about one-third; the southern part of the coast, one-fourth; in Cleveland, one-half; in the dales of the eastern moors, one-fifth; in those of the western moors, hardly any. In the East riding the proportion of land under tillage, on the Wolds, is two-thirds; in Holderness, rather more than one-third, and towards the south-eastern extremity of the county considerably more; and in Howedenshire, and to the west of the Wolds, somewhat less than one-third.
Every kind of agricultural crop is cultivated in this county; and the systems of tillage, on account of the great diversity of soils and situations, are extremely various. Wheat is grown to a great extent on all the lower and more fertile lands; and no other district in the north of England, in proportion to its size, is considered to produce so much of it, or of so good a quality, as Cleveland, whence large quantities are shipped to the southern coasts of England, and much is conveyed to Thirsk and Leybourn, where it is bought up for the manufacturing districts. Rye is sometimes sown on the lighter soils, more particularly of the North riding, where wheat is not unfrequently mixed with it: of this mixture, provincially called “meslin,” the common household bread of that portion of the county is chiefly made. The quantity of land annually sown with barley is no where remarkably great, except on the Wolds, the soil of which is peculiarly adapted to its culture: in the North riding, in Ryedale and the dales of the Eastern Moorlands, are occasionally seen plots of the species provincially called big, which is six-rowed barley; and of bear, four-rowed. Besides being occasionally grown in other places, oats are very much cultivated in all the arable parts of the North riding, more particularly in Ryedale, which district is as remarkable for the quantity and excellent quality of its oats, as Cleveland is for those of its wheat: two crops are here always taken in succession, and frequently three: in the western parts of the West riding, too, this corn is the prevailing crop: oaten bread is in common use in the manufacturing districts of the West riding. Peas are not extensively cultivated; they are most common in the North and East ridings. Beans are grown on the stronger soils, more particularly in the East riding: beans and peas mixed, provincially called “blendings,” are also sometimes sown on the lighter soils of the North riding. The turnip husbandry prevails in most parts of the county, and the Swedish turnip is occasionally grown to a small extent. Several varieties of cabbages are cultivated in the East riding, as food for cattle and sheep. Potatoes are commonly grown in all parts of the county, and in some districts to a great extent, more particularly on the rich lands near the Ouse and in Holderness, from which great quantities are annually exported to the London market. Rape for seed is extensively cultivated in the North riding, more particularly in Ryedale, upon land pared and burned: rape is also grown in the level eastern parts of the West riding: in gathering this crop, it is a general custom to thrash it in the field as soon as dry. Winter tares are sown in many places, particularly about Sheffield and Rotherham: in the North riding lentils are sometimes sown with beans, from which, when gathered, their seed is separated with a sieve; and in the East riding they are sometimes grown upon the poorer and shallower soils of the Wolds. Considerable quantities of flax are grown in the West riding, in the neighbourhood of Selby; in the East riding, about Howden and on the eastern bank of the Derwent; and in the North riding, a small quantity in Ryedale, and a few other situations. Woad, for dying, is cultivated in the neighbourhood of Selby, among red clover. In the vicinity of York mustard is a valuable article of cultivation, and fields of it are occasionally seen in different places in the northern and eastern parts of the county: that which is grown near York is prepared for use in mills at that city, and is afterwards sold as Durham mustard. The wapentake of Barkstone-Ash, in the eastern part of the West riding, is distinguished for its extensive growth of teasel, which is also occasionally cultivated to a small extent in different other places having a strong soil: it is purchased by the cloth-dressers, for the purpose of raising the nap on cloth, before it undergoes the operation of shearing. Sainfoin is grown in different situations. On the richer soils the principal artificial grasses are, however, red clover, when the next crop is to be wheat; and white clover and hay-seeds, when the land is to remain in pasture; sometimes only the hay-seeds are sown, or trefoil, or ray-grass added: the produce is partly mown and partly grazed.
In the North riding, the cultivation of grasses is little attended to, except in the country lying between Boroughbridge and Catterick: they are here chiefly sown where the land is intended to remain permanently under grass, and consist generally of white clover, trefoil, rib-grass, and hay-seeds, with which some mix red clover, while others sow ray-grass, instead of the hay-seeds. The grass lands are very extensive, for, besides the tracts included with the arable districts in the large proportion above stated, the productive parts of the western side of the county are kept almost exclusively in grass, and from Ripley to its western extremity the whole country is employed in grazing; while corn, and that almost entirely oats, is raised only in very small quantities on the inferior moorish soils. The old pasture lands, forming by far the greater portion of the grass lands, have remained in that state from time immemorial, and in the West riding are frequently mown, producing hay held in great esteem. Some of them are, nevertheless, of a very mean quality, and, especially in the North riding, are often covered with thistles, ant-hills, and occasionally furze: in the dales of the Western Moorlands, however, remarkably great attention is paid to the meadows. The extent of natural meadow, namely, such as derives the whole, or the greater part, of its fertility from the overflow of rivers, is not very great: many of the old fields of this kind in the Vale of York and Ryedale have been constantly mown for ages, and are still highly productive. The East riding contains the smallest quantity of grass land, its sheep pastures on the Wolds, for which it was formerly so distinguished, having been mostly brought under various courses of tillage; but it contains, on the banks of the Derwent, above Malton, and again at Cottingwith, low tracts of marshy meadows, occasionally overflowed by that river, which produce abundant crops of coarse flaggy hay, of which that obtained from the last-mentioned district is of a peculiarly nutritive quality. The whole of the West riding is an eminent grazing district, where cattle and sheep of all kinds are fattened to great perfection, chiefly to supply the manufacturing parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire: for this purpose, great numbers of lean cattle and sheep are annually brought from Scotland and the northern counties contiguous to Yorkshire. It has also numerous small dairies, for the supply of its own manufacturing towns and those of Lancashire with butter; and some large ones in the vicinity of the large towns, to which the milk is chiefly sold. In the North riding, the pastures are for the most part appropriated to the dairy; though grazing is also practised in some parts of it, more particularly in the Vale of York: the butter produced in this riding is chiefly packed in firkins, and sold to factors, who ship it for the London and other markets. In the East riding, grazing and fattening, as also stallfeeding, are practised to a very considerable extent.
The manures are, lime, which is used in almost every part of the county; rape-dust; bones, great quantities of which are imported from abroad; horn-shavings, and several other articles of refuse from the manufacturing towns; kelp-ashes and peat-ashes, in the North riding; sea-wreck, or sea-weed, which is frequently thrown upon the coast by the tide; sea-sand; whale blubber, and the refuse of the oil; and, in the East riding, chalk: in this division, also, straw is frequently spread upon the land and burned, which operation adds great fertility to the soil: in Cleveland, lime is fetched from Sunderland, in Durham; and in the East riding it is obtained, by water-carriage, from Knottingley, Brotherton, and Doncaster, all in the West riding. Extensive tracts, bordering on the Ouse and the Humber, in the East riding, and the eastern parts of the West riding, are rendered of extraordinary fertility by the practice of warping; this is the admitting of the tide, which rises higher than their level, to overflow them, and afterwards allowing it to retire from them at its ebb, when it deposits a thin bed of mud and salts, provincially called warp: this operation is performed chiefly by means of a clough, or inlet in the bank of the river, walled strongly on each side, and a floodgate fixed in the middle, which, as the tide falls, permits the gentle egress of the waters which had been admitted upon the land previously banked and prepared, through a smaller opening on a higher level. The West riding is the only division containing any considerable extent of irrigated meadows, which are most common in the manufacturing districts. A dry limestone ridge, about four miles broad, extending from east to west, northward of Ryedale, and in the vicinity of Kirkby-Moorside, was ingeniously supplied with water, in the latter part of the last century, by means of artificial rills, brought down from the much loftier tract of the Eastern Moorlands. Artificial ponds, of a peculiar construction, for catching and preserving the rain water, are very common on the Wolds of the East riding, and in different parts of the North riding that require such accommodations. With regard to implements of husbandry, the common Rotherham plough, sometimes called the Dutch plough, is in general use, except upon the Wolds, where the clumsy, heavy, old-fashioned foot-plough, having a short straight wooden mould board, is chiefly employed.
The cattle for which the West riding is most noted are the hardy, long-horned, or Craven breed: these are both bred and fattened in the western parts of it: some also are brought from the adjoining county of Lancaster. The cattle and sheep brought into this division of the county, for the purpose of being fattened, include almost all the different varieties reared in Britain, though the greater number are Scotch. Short-horned cattle are the prevailing kind in the eastern parts of this riding, in the East riding, and in the North riding, excepting only its westernmost districts. The short-horned cattle of the northern part of the Vale of York, and of Cleveland, where considerable numbers are bred, are generally known by the name of the Teeswater breed; and in the south of England by that of the Holderness cattle, from the district of that name in the East riding, where this breed was either originally established, or first so improved as to bring it into notice, and where, in common with the tracts before mentioned, the best of the sort are still to be met with: these are also occasionally called Durham, or Dutch, cattle, and the cows are in great demand in some of the southern counties of England, more particularly near London, as their produce of milk is remarkably great: very few oxen in these principal breeding districts are used for draught. Many excellent cattle of this same kind are also bred in Ryedale and the Marishes, and on the Howardian hills; as also in the Eastern Moorlands, and along the coast of the North riding, in which districts, however, they are not quite so large as those bred near the Tees. In the neighbourhood of Pocklington, in the East riding, many calves are fattened for the supply of York, Hull, Beverley, &c., with veal. In the Western Moorlands are found some small long-horned cattle, and a mixed breed, between the long-horned and the short-horned species, which also occupies a considerable portion of the West riding, including Nidderdale and the adjacent country, and is held in great esteem: in the lower parts of the dales of the Western Moorlands many of the short-horned breed are also kept. The working of oxen is most common in the eastern part of the North riding: the cattle of these districts being, from their natural strength and hardihood, well adapted to the purpose, are trained to labour at two or two years and a half old, and are worked until five or six years old.
The kinds of sheep are very numerous and much intermixed. Those bred upon the moors of the mountainous parts of the West riding, which are supposed to be native, have horns, are light in the forequarters, and are altogether well made for exploring the mountain wastes which they inhabit; they are generally called the Penistone breed, from the name of the market town at which they are chiefly sold: when fat, they weigh from ten to fifteen pounds per quarter: their meat is of excellent quality. The Dishley breed is common in the southern and eastern parts of this riding. The sheep of the old stock of the northern part of the Vale of York, and of Cleveland, generally called Teeswater sheep, are very large, with long, dry, and harsh wool; but within the last forty years these sheep have been greatly intermixed with the Dishley, Northumberland, and some other breeds, and the varieties thus produced occupy all the low lands and rich cultivated tracts of the North riding. The next in point of number in this division of the county is the hardy unmixed breed which occupies the summits of both the Moorlands: these sheep have black, or speckled, faces and legs, and fleeces of coarse short wool: the greater number of the sheep on the Moorlands are, however, temporary flocks, of a kind called “Short Scots,” to distinguish them from a larger breed of Scotch sheep, called “Long Scots.” A peculiar, but far less numerous, race occupies a middle region in the western part of the county, the grassy summits of the calcareous hills, and the higher enclosed lands of the Western Moorlands, being a pure, unmixed, and hardy race, much resembling the Old Wiltshire breed: their fleeces are generally thick, dry, and harsh, but some of them produce a very fine wool, used in the hosiery manufacture, for which the dales of these Moorlands are so celebrated. The native sheep of the East riding are the Holderness and the Wolds breeds, which have of late years, been much intermixed with the Leicester; the former of these resembles the Lincolnshire sheep: the Wolds breed is small, hardy, compact, and active, with a short thick fleece of fine clothing wool. The South Down breed has been introduced upon the Wolds, and is gradually extending itself. The hogs are of various kinds; the old sort in the North and East ridings has long ears, long legs, a high narrow back, and low shoulders, being very slow feeders; but the Chinese and Berkshire breeds have been introduced throughout the county. In the western part of the West riding many hogs are fattened upon oatmeal, and their flesh sold for the manufacturing districts of Lancashire, excepting only the hams, which are usually sent to the London market: from the East riding many are sold into Lincolnshire, and are thence, in many instances, forwarded to the metropolis.
In the West riding few horses are bred, except in the eastern parts of it: the size of those employed in its mountainous districts is small, but they are hardy, and capable of sustaining great fatigue; in the other parts of this division they are larger, and those used in the wagons are strong and well made: but the North and East ridings have long been famous for the breeding and rearing of horses, chiefly adapted for the coach and the saddle, for which purposes they are not excelled by any in the kingdom: the strongest of them are chiefly employed as coach-horses; the lighter for the field, the road, and the army. In the dales of the Eastern Moorlands, and along the coast of the North riding, many horses of a hardy useful kind are reared, but they are generally too small for coach-horses. The horses sold for the London market, if for the carriage, are chiefly bay geldings; others, which, from some peculiarity, will not sell for a good price at home, are much sought after by foreigners, or others, who eagerly purchase them for exportation abroad. The principal fairs, for horses of every description, are at Beverley, Howden, Malton, and York, and are resorted to by numerous dealers from London and all parts of the kingdom. At an annual fair held at Hull, in October, great numbers of colts are also purchased by the Lincolnshire farmers and graziers, who keep them until they are four years old, when they are sold to the London dealers at Horncastle fair. Rabbit-warrens were formerly a very prominent feature of the Wolds, but these are now nearly all destroyed by the progress of cultivation: the East riding, however, still contains several thousand acres of warrens, the produce of which is carried to Leeds, Halifax, and other populous places: a few warrens occur on the detached moors, as also on the skirts of the higher moors in the North riding, but only three are of any considerable extent, and these are situated in the vicinity of Pickering. In the dales of the Moorlands, more particularly of those in the north-eastern part of the county, many considerable stocks of bees are kept; they are extremely fond of the flower of the ling, or common heath, and the honey thus collected is of a high colour, and of a strong and peculiar flavour, and is consequently sold in London at a high price. The season for the bees to collect honey being a month or six weeks earlier in the cultivated parts of the country than on the moors, many owners of bees, who reside within a few miles of the moors, take the honey which they have collected at home, as soon as the flowers have ceased blowing, and then remove their bees to the moors to collect a fresh store for their own support during the winter.
The gardens and orchards present no very remarkable feature; considerable quantities of apples are sent from the North riding to Leeds, and many thence into Lancashire: Sherburn and its vicinity are celebrated for the growing of the winesour plum: in the northern division of the county are also several nursery gardens, in which considerable quantities of forest-trees and shrubs are raised. A great deal of oak and ash timber is produced in the West riding, and great attention is paid to the management of the woods by their proprietors: the timber meets with a ready sale to the ship-building and manufacturing towns: much is also used in the mines and collieries; the small wood is made into laths, baskets, puncheons for coalpits, hedge-stakes and bindings, riddles, charcoal, &c.; that of middle growth into agricultural implements of every description; while the largest timber is worked up by the house, and ship carpenters, coopers, &c. The extent of the woodlands in the North riding is estimated at about twenty-five thousand acres, dispersed in all quarters, the Moorlands and Cleveland having the smallest proportion: exclusively of the above, this division also produces a considerable quantity of timber in its hedge-rows, more particularly in the Vale of York, on the Howardian hills, and in Ryedale. The spontaneous produce of the best woodlands is oak, ash, and broad-leaved, or wych, elm; of those in mountainous situations, chiefly birch and alder; and of the hedge-rows, various kinds of trees, for the most part of artificial plantation. In this riding it is the custom to sell the falls of wood to professed wood-buyers, who cut up the trees on the spot, according to the purposes for which the different parts of them are best calculated: the ports of Scarborough and Whitby consume most of the ship timber, excepting only such as grows towards its western extremity: the oak timber grown in the greater part of this riding, though not large, is extremely hard and durable: the only peculiar application of the ash timber, which grows abundantly and in great perfection, is in the manufacture of butter-firkins, in which it is chiefly consumed. Plantations have been made on the sides and summits of several of the Moorland and other barren hills, chiefly of Scotch fir, larch, and spruce, a few oaks, &c. The East riding is little remarkable for its timber; the natural woods are confined chiefly to the levels lying between the rivers Ouse and Derwent and the Wolds, where there are also abundance of timber-trees in the hedge-rows of old enclosures: the only woods to the east of the Wolds are those of Rise and Burton-Constable. The fine elevations of the Wolds have been ornamented in different parts by extensive plantations of Scotch and spruce firs, larch, beech, ash, &c., to the amount of several thousand acres; and various other plantations have been made in the low country to the west of them.
The wastes in this county are very extensive, and about the end of the last century were calculated to amount in the whole to eight hundred and forty-nine thousand two hundred and seventy-two acres: of these the high moors of the western parts of the West riding were supposed to comprise three hundred and forty thousand two hundred and seventy-two acres, and the detached moors and wastes of that division sixty-five thousand; the Western Moorlands of the North riding two hundred and twenty-six thousand nine hundred and forty; the Eastern Moorlands of the same division one hundred and ninety-six thousand six hundred and twenty-five; its detached moors and wastes, eighteen thousand four hundred and thirty-five; and the detached wastes of the East riding two thousand. The amount of waste lands has, however, since that period, been considerably lessened by numerous enclosure acts, obtained both for the detached wastes and for parts of the Moorlands. The surface of some of the higher hills of the Eastern Moorlands is entirely covered with large freestones; while upon others of them are extensive beds of peat bog, in many places very deep, frequently not passable, and never without danger: these are invariably overgrown with ling, in some places mixed with bent and rushes. Near the old enclosures are some considerable tracts of loamy and sandy soils, producing furze, fern (here called “brackens”), thistles, and coarse grass, with but little ling; but wherever ling is the chief produce, the soil is invariably black moor, or peat. The subsoils of these extensive wastes are various: in some places a yellowish, in others a reddish, clay occurs; a loose freestone rubble, resting either upon a freestone rock or upon clay, is also very common; and in different other places is found a rotten earth of a peaty quality (which produces very luxuriant ling, bent, and rushes), a hard cemented reddish sand, or a grey sand: the basis of the whole is freestone. The Hamilton hills, forming the western end of these wastes, are, however, very different, having generally a fine loamy soil on a limestone rock, which produces great quantities of coarse grass and bent, in some places intermixed with ling, more particularly towards the south-western parts of them. The mountains of the western side of the county differ materially in their produce from the Eastern Moorlands: some, instead of black ling, are covered with a fine sweet grass; others with extensive tracts of bent; and though the higher parts produce ling, it is generally mixed with a large proportion of grass, bent, or rushes: the soil on the lower parts is a fine loam, in many places rather stiff, resting upon a hard blue limestone: the bent generally covers a strong soil lying upon a gritstone or freestone rock; the black ling, a reddish peat upon a red subsoil, or, in many places, a loose grit rubble, beneath which is a gritstone rock. Some of the lower tracts of the eastern moors, the lower parts of the western moors in general, and in some instances the higher parts of the latter, are stinted pastures during the summer, and those who have that limited right in summer have a right in winter of turning upon them whatever quantity of stock they choose: these pastures are chiefly stocked with young cattle, horses, and such sheep as are intended to be sold off the same year. The remainder of the moors is common without stint, and is stocked for the most part with sheep, though a small, hardy, and very strong kind of horses are also bred and reared upon the Western Moorlands, and chiefly sold to the manufacturing parts of the West riding and of Lancashire. The Moorland sheep are remarkable for their wretched appearance and great activity: they are wholly supported on these mountain wastes, and their mutton is of a particularly fine quality. The detached wastes are generally pastured by all kinds of stock, and in any proportion which the occupier pleases. The wastes of the East riding consist chiefly of low, sandy, barren, and moory tracts, lying between the Wolds and the rivers Ouse and Derwent, and the chief natural produce of which is short heath. The common fuel throughout the county is coal, with which the North riding, as far south as Thirsk, is for the most part supplied by the collieries in the county of Durham, from which they are brought in one-horse carts to the coast of the East riding from Newcastle and Sunderland, and the rest of the same division from the West riding: in the Moorlands of the North riding much peat is used.
To the geologist Yorkshire affords interesting fields of study: all its strata, with slight variations, dip eastward, those which appear at its western extremities being of the oldest formation. The mineral productions are various and important, and have given rise, and afford support, to some of its principal manufactures: they consist chiefly of coal, iron, lead, stone of various qualities, and alum. The best coal is obtained in the West riding, which comprises one of the most valuable and extensive coal fields in the kingdom. This coal district is bounded on the east by a narrow range of magnesian limestone, extending from Tickhill northward by Doncaster, Ferrybridge, Wetherby, Knaresborough, and Ripon, and consists of a great number of alternations of sand-stone, clay, shale, coal, and iron-stone, which form the substrata of the most populous parts of the riding. Its surface is characterised by successive parallel ranges of high ground, extending in length from north to south: the ascent to these hills on their western sides is abrupt, while on the east they decline more gradually, each one to the foot of the next range, under which its strata dip. Next to the magnesian limestone and its subjacent sand, proceeding westward, appear, first, the blue shale and thin coal of the Vale of Went, and then the grit freestone of Ackworth and Kirby, beneath which is found the swift-burning coal of Wragby, Shafton, Crofton, and other places in the great clay district of the Dearn below Barnesley, and of the Calder below Wakefield. These various measures rest upon the grit freestone of Rotherham, Barnesley, Newmiller Dam, and East Ardsley, through which pits are sunk near Barnesley to several thick seams of hard furnace coal, one of them as much as ten feet thick. The next great sand-stone stratum forms high grounds, and frequently projects beyond the general range into detached hills: it occurs near Sheffield, Wentworth Park, and Bretton Park, and forms the high ground of Horbury and Dewsbury, and of Middleton, near Leeds: beneath it are found valuable beds of ironstone, which are worked at Rotherham, Haigh-bridge, Low Moor, and several other places, where an abundance of muscle shells is found in contact with them: contiguous to this iron-stone are several strata of excellent coal. Next in the series lies the sand-stone of Wortley-Chapel, Silkstone, Elmley, and Whitley-hall, with the valuable bituminous coals of Silkstone and Flockton, the best seams of the whole formation: this rock, entering the West riding from Derbyshire, and passing by Sheffield, Penistone, Huddersfield, Elland Edge, and the Clayton heights, afterwards takes its course parallel with the river Aire, by Idle and Chapel-Allerton, towards the magnesian limestone: in this part of the coal district, near Sheffield, Bradford, and Leeds, is dug the galliard stone, so much in request for making and mending the roads.
The coal mines are most numerous in the tract between Leeds and Wakefield, and in the neighbourhoods of Bradford, Barnesley, and Sheffield. Characterised by its irregular texture, its numerous quartz pebbles, and its frequently craggy surface, the mill-stone-grit, with soft alternations both above and below it, occupies the wide and barren moors to the west of Sheffield, Penistone, Huddersfield, Bradford, Otley, Harrogate, Ripley, and Masham: in the numerous alternations of this stone, thin seams of coal frequently occur, and in certain situations are worked with advantage. Of the millstone-grit, an excellent and almost imperishable building stone, great quantities are annually sent down the rivers Don and Aire. The summits of Wharnside, Ingleborough, Pennygant, and other lofty mountains on the western boundary of the county, are crowned with coal measures, but their base consists wholly of limestone. The principal lead mines in the West riding are at Grassington, about ten miles west of Pateley-Bridge, and are found in a limestone tract which occupies also a great part of Craven; but here the ores are far less abundant than in the vales of the Nid and the Wharfe. Hongill Fells, on the western boundary of the county, consist of the kind of slate called by geologists grey wacke. In the North riding seams of an inferior kind of coal, which is heavy, sulphureous, and burns entirely away to white ashes, are wrought in different parts of both the Eastern and Western Moorlands, at Gilling Moor on the Howardian hills, and in the Vale of York, between Easingwould and Thirsk. Cleveland and the coast of this riding abound in all their hills with inexhaustible beds of aluminous strata; and extensive works for the manufacture of alum have been established in the vicinity of Whitby, where the art is stated to have been first introduced from Italy, in the year 1595. Alum is also found, but not worked, in the Eastern Moorlands, and in the vicinity of Bradford. In the Western Moorlands are many lead mines, some of which have been, and others still are, very valuable: these are situated in Swaledale, Arkendale, and the neighbouring vallies: their annual produce is estimated at six thousand tons, of which one-half is yielded by the mines of Swaledale.
Veins of copper have been discovered at Richmond and at Middleton-Tyas, at which latter place that metal was worked about the middle of the last century: copper pyrites is also found in considerable quantities in all the alum mines, and copperas was formerly extracted from it. Great quantities of iron-stone are found in Bilsdale, Bransdale, and Rosedale, in the Eastern Moorlands, where iron seems to have been extensively manufactured in ancient times; but Ayton is the only place where forges have been erected at a modern period, and these are now abandoned. The iron-ore found in the northern parts of the Eastern Moorlands is sometimes in detached pieces, but more frequently in regular strata, of from six to fourteen inches thick, dipping towards the south: in the neighbourhood of Whitby, some of these beds are wrought, and their produce carried to the works in the north, where this ore is of great use in fluxing the more obdurate ores there obtained. Freestone, or gritstone, of an excellent quality for building, is found in many parts of this riding, particularly on Gatherly Moor, near Richmond, at Renton, near Boroughbridge, in the neighbourhood of Whitby, in all parts of the Eastern Moorlands, of which it forms the chief basis, and in many parts of the Western. Nor is limestone less abundant: the Western Moorlands in a great measure consist of it; the Hamilton and Howardian hills, almost entirely; and a narrow ridge, producing lime of a peculiarly excellent quality for agricultural purposes, extends for at least thirty miles along the southern edge of the Eastern Moorlands: various isolated masses are also found in different situations. In Coverdale, one of the smaller vallies of the Western Moorlands, and at Pen-hill, between this and Wensleydale, a kind of flag-stone, used for covering roofs is dug, and in Swaledale a kind of purple slate, resembling that of Westmorland, but thicker and coarser, the use of which extends little beyond the spot where it is produced. Marble of various kinds, some much resembling that worked in Derbyshire, and some, in closeness of texture and distinctness of colours, superior to it, is found in many parts of the calcareous hills of the Western Moorlands, but is only used for burning into lime, or mending the roads: some of the limestone on the northern margin of Ryedale also greatly resembles the marble of Derbyshire, and is susceptible of nearly an equal polish. In the vicinity of the small river Greta, and in other places in the north-western extremity of the county, large blocks of a light red granite are found scattered over the surface, and in some places a light grey kind of the same stone. Gypsum, or alabaster, is found in the Vale of York, in the North riding, and in some parts of the levels of the East and West ridings: near Thornton-bridge, on the Swale, where it is worked for the use of the plasterers of the neighbourhood, it lies in strata several feet thick, and in some places not more than four feet from the surface. The principal mineral productions of the East riding are, the chalk of the Wolds, which is occasionally used in building, and frequently for burning into lime; and the coarse hard limestone of the vale of the Derwent, which is of little value either for building or burning: the springs in the chalk are remarkably powerful, and many of them, breaking out through the gravel at the eastern foot of the Wolds, combine to form the river Hull. In the gravel beds resting on the chalk, to the east of where this substance appears next the surface, very perfect remains of large animals are found: vertebræ eighteen feet in length, and from eight to ten inches in diameter, have here been exhumed, as are frequently teeth, measuring from eight to ten inches in circumference. The strata of the West riding contain few fossil remains, except at Bradford, where, in a stratum of sandstone, are found beautiful impressions of euphorbium, bamboo cane, and other tropical productions: at a little distance from Knaresborough a bed of strontian earth exists, which is very rare in this kingdom. Various remarkable petrifactions of animals have been discovered in the alum rocks in the vicinity of Whitby, as also cornua ammonis, or snake stones: some of the strata in the same neighbourhood also contain petrified cockle, oyster, and scallop shells; jet and petrified wood; and trochitœ, or “thunderbolts,” as they are vulgarly called, which are singular conical stones of from half an inch to an inch and a half in diameter at the base, and from two to five or six inches long. Great quantities of remarkable crystals of gypsum selenites and prismaticum are discovered in a bed of clay at Knapton, in the East riding.
The manufactures, the most valuable and extensive of which are confined to the West riding, are of the highest degree of importance to the kingdom, as well as to the multitudes to whom they afford subsistence, and, in numerous instances, wealth. The two distinguishing manufactures are those of woollen goods and cutlery; the seat of the former is the district including the towns of Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield, Bradford, and Wakefield; and that of the latter, Sheffield and its vicinity. The principal inducement for the establishment of these great works in the situations which they now occupy, was the plentiful supply of water and fuel for giving motion to machinery, and for the various other purposes of their several departments. The river Aire is the eastern boundary of the clothing district, which extends over the country thence to the mountain ridge separating this county from that of Lancaster. The great bulk of the woollen manufactures consisted formerly of the coarser kinds of cloth; but at present “Yorkshire cloth” no longer conveys the exclusive idea of inferiority, as the manufacturers now produce also great quantities of black and blue superfine cloths of distinguished merit. Until of late years, when numerous extensive factories have been erected (in which the whole process of making cloth, from the first breaking of the wool to the finishing of the piece ready for the consumer is completed), the first stages of the manufacture were carried on in villages and hamlets, where the wool underwent the respective operations of spinning, weaving, and fulling: this, however, is now only partially the case: the cloth from these scattered establishments is sent in its unfinished state to the cloth halls in the respective towns, where it is sold to the merchants, who have it dressed under their own direction. Besides broad and narrow cloths of various qualities, serges, and kerseymeres, the woollen manufactures of the West riding include also great quantities of ladies' cloths, such as pelisse-cloths and shawls; stuff goods of various kinds; camblets, shal loons, tammies, duroys, everlastings, calimancoes, moreens, shags, serges, baize, &c.; blankets, and carpets, much resembling those made in Scotland. Several very large factories have been established for spinning flax for canvas, linen, sacking, thread, &c.: an extensive branch of the Manchester cotton trade is also carried on. there is a considerable trade in the spinning of worsted yarn, and in the manufacture of wool cards and combs. The Leeds pottery enjoys a very considerable reputation both in the British dominions and in foreign countries: the wholesale tobacco trade is also carried on to a great extent in that town, where there are mills for preparing the raw material.
Sheffield has, from a very remote period, been famous for its manufacture of cutlery, which, however, was of very small extent until the early part of the seventeenth century, when it began gradually to increase; and by an act of parliament, passed in 1624, the cutlers of the liberty of Hallamshire, comprising the town of Sheffield and the adjacent country, were erected into a corporate body, which at present consists of between three and four thousand members. Even until the middle of the last century the trade of Sheffield was still limited and precarious, but at that period various new branches of manufacture were introduced, more particularly that of plated goods. Its present manufactures, branches of which are also carried on in the numerous villages and hamlets in the surrounding country, to the distance of about seven miles from the town, include all kinds of cutlery and plated goods, edge-tools, combs, cases, buttons, fenders, files, anvils, joiners' tools, lancets, ink-stands, nails, snuffers, saws, scythes, hay and straw knives, sickles, shears, awls, bellows, and an endless variety of other articles of hardware. There are also several foundries for iron, brass, and Britannia metal, and extensive works for the refining of steel: the iron-works at Rotherham are particularly celebrated, and produce all kinds of articles in cast iron, and much wrought iron, in bars, sheets, and rods, together with tinned plates and steel. At Sheffield is also a minor manufacture of hair seating, besides a more considerable one of carpets. In the dales of the Eastern Moorlands and in Cleveland some coarse linens are manufactured by the small farmers; and at Crathorne in Cleveland, and various places near the Hamilton hills, are considerable bleaching establishments. The dales of the Western Moorlands have long been famous for their manufacture of knit worsted and yarn stockings, but this has been, in a great measure, superseded by the spinning of worsted for the manufactures of the West riding. Cotton-mills have been erected in Wensleydale, at Easingwould, and at Masham, at which latter place is also a worsted-mill, and in its vicinity shalloons and shags are manufactured to a small extent. York and the East riding have various isolated manufactures, the whole of which are mentioned under the heads of the places where they are respectively carried on. In the vicinities of York and Hull a kind of coarse earthenware is made, as well as bricks and tiles; and on Walling Fen, near Howden, great quantities of white bricks are made from a blue clay found there, which are exported in various directions, being in great demand for superior buildings, on account of their beauty of colour, accuracy of form, and durability. Almost every town in the North riding, and many in the other parts of the county have tanners, and tawers, who manufacture the hides and skins produced in their respective neighbourhoods. To this enumeration of manufactures may also be added the building and rigging of ships, which is carried on to a considerable extent at Hull and Whitby, and in a minor degree at Scarborough and Thorne: at the three first-mentioned places are considerable manufactures of sailcloth and cordage. The chief port of the county is Hull, which may be considered the fourth in England; besides this it possesses, of a smaller class, those of York, Selby, Goole, Thorne, Bridlington, Scarborough, and Whitby. The commerce is a very extensive and diversified character: the foreign and coasting trade is wholly centred in the above-mentioned ports, more particularly in that of Hull, through which is poured an immense quantity of manufactured goods, coal, stone, &c., from the West riding, and of cottontwist and manufactured cottons from Lancashire, the latter of which articles are chiefly forwarded to Hamburgh. Hull and Whitby share largely in the Greenland fishery; and their imports of timber, deals, hemp, flax, &c., from the Baltic, are very considerable. The internal commerce of the West riding is very extensive, and is greatly facilitated by an excellent system of artificial navigation. A considerable quantity of corn is exported from Hull, Bridlington, and Scarborough to London and the collieries of the north; and from the various principal markets of the East and North ridings great quantities of grain are sent by water-carriage into the western division of the county, from which the first-mentioned division receives in return coal, lime, flag-stones, bricks and tiles, and sundry other articles. A large quantity of hams and bacon is annually sent from the eastern parts of Yorkshire to the metropolis and other populous districts of the kingdom.
The principal rivers are, the Northern Ouse (so called to distinguish it from the Ouse of Buckinghamshire), the Swale, the Ure, the Wharfe, the Derwent, the Aire, the Calder, the Don, the Hull, the Tees, and the Esk, all of which, except the two latter, pour their waters through the great æstuary of the Humber. The Swale, rising at Hollow Mill Cross, in the Western Moorlands, and watering the romantic valley of Swaledale, flows eastward, by Richmond and Catterick, into the Vale of York, where it gradually assumes a south-south-easterly direction, and is joined by the small stream of the Wiske, which descends from the western edge of Cleveland by the vicinity of North Allerton: proceeding onward it falls into the Ure, a river of about equal magnitude with itself, which, rising at Lady's Pillar, within five miles of the source of the Swale, and winding through Wensleydale, flows, first eastward to Middleham, and then south-ward by Masham to a little below the town, where it becomes the boundary between the West and North ridings, and so continues until it reaches the vicinity of Ripon, where, receiving the waters of the Skell, it makes a circuit of a few miles in the first-mentioned division, and then again separates the two ridings until a little below its junction with the Swale, where it takes the name of Ouse, from an inconsiderable stream, which there falls into it. The Ouse, thus formed (and receiving from the west the waters of the river Nid, which descends from Nidderdale by Pateley-Bridge, Ripley, and Knaresborough), flows south-eastward to York, in the vicinity of which city it separates the ainsty of York from the North and East ridings, and thence southward, with greater windings: about eight miles below York, at the influx of the Wharfe, it becomes the boundary between the East and West ridings, which it continues to form throughout the rest of its course, and re-assumes a winding south-easterly direction, by Selby, Howden, and Goole, at which latter place, having successively received the waters of the Derwent, Aire, Calder, and Don, it becomes as wide as the Thames at London; and after making a circuit to the south, near Swinefleet, takes a north-easterly direction to the place where it unites with the Trent to form the Humber, the Abus of Ptolemy, which is at first about a mile broad, but rolling its vast collection of waters eastward, its breadth, on reaching Hull, is gradually increased to between two and three miles. Below this port, opposite to Hedon and Paul, the Humber takes a south-easterly direction, and opening into a grand æstuary of between six and seven miles in breadth, joins the ocean between Spurn Head and the coast of Lincolnshire. The Humber is navigable up to Hull for ships of the largest burden; the Ouse, up to the newly-formed port of Goole, for vessels drawing not more than sixteen feet of water, and to York, for those of one hundred and forty tons' burden: above that city it is navigable for barges of thirty tons' burden, as also is the Ure past Boroughbridge to Ripon, and the Swale, only for a very few miles: the spring tides would turn the current of the Ouse to a little above York, were it not that they are obstructed by locks about four miles below that city. The Wharfe rises at the foot of the Craven hills, at Green Field, five miles south of Pennigant, and, flowing south-eastward, waters the beautiful district of Wharfedale, passes the towns of Otley, Wetherby, and Tadcaster, and falls into the Ouse a little below the village of Nun-Appleton: this river is navigable as high as Tadcaster. The Derwent, rising in the Eastern Moorlands, within about four miles of the sea, and eight or nine of Scarborough, at first takes a southerly direction, nearly parallel with the coast, through the romantic village of Hackness, and in a remarkably picturesque valley, until it reaches the northern extremity of the Wolds, where it is joined from the east by the small stream called the Hertford, and then pursues a westerly, and afterwards a south-westerly, course, receiving from the north the waters of the river Rye, formed by numerous streams from the Eastern Moorlands: from this junction the Derwent continues the same course by New Malton and Stamford-Bridge, in the vicinity of which latter place it gradually assumes a southerly direction, and joins the Ouse near the village of Barmby, about three miles and a half above Howden: this river forms the boundary between the North and East ridings, from its junction with the Hertford until within about a mile of Stamford-Bridge, where it enters the latter division: it is navigable for vessels of twenty-five tons' burden to New Malton, above which town the navigation has been continued to Yeddingham bridge, a further distance of about nine miles. It is worthy of observation, that the Rye, together with its tributaries, the Rical, Hodge-beck, Dove, Seven, and Pickering-beck, in their course southward, have subterraneous passages under the narrow range of limestone hills which skirts the southern side of the Eastern Moorlands, and emerge at its foot, on the northern side of Ryedale, having run under ground from half a mile to a mile and a half. The Aire, one of the largest rivers of the county, rises at Malham, in the mountains of Craven, and thence glides with a smooth, slow, and serpentine course through the winding valley of Airedale, which extends nearly in a south-easterly direction to Leeds, being about thirty-five miles in length, though little more than a mile in breadth: at Leeds it becomes navigable, and a few miles lower, near Castleford, is joined by the Calder, which rises in the mountains on the border of Lancashire, and takes a very tortuous course eastward, leaving Halifax at the distance of rather less than two miles on the north, and passing by Dewsbury to Wakefield, whence its course is nearly north-eastward to Castleford: thus augmented, the Aire proceeds eastward by Ferrybridge, until, after passing within a very short distance of Snaith, it turns north-eastward to its confluence with the Ouse, a little below Armin: the Calder is navigable to Salter-Hebble, near Halifax. The Don, rising in the moors above Penistone, towards the south-western border of the county, flows south-eastward to Sheffield, where it is joined by the small river Sheaf, and then takes a north-easterly course to Rotherham: having been joined by the powerful stream of the Rother, it hence passes through a narrow and picturesque vale, by Conisbrough, to Doncaster, where it enters the levels, through which it proceeds, by Thorne, to the Ouse at Goole; the lower part of its channel, from the vicinity of Snaith, being artificial, and usually called the Dutch River: in 1751, this river was made navigable to Tinsley, three miles below Sheffield, and, under the provisions of an act of parliament passed in 1815, this navigation has been continued by a cut, called the Tinsley canal, to Sheffield. The Hull, rising at the eastern foot of the Wolds, in the vicinity of Great Driffield, flows from that town southward, within half a mile of Beverley, to Hull, where it falls into the Humber, and where its mouth forms a secure but narrow haven: this river is navigable to Frodingham bridge, several miles above Beverley (with which town it communicates by means of a short cut), whence the navigation is continued by a canal to Great Driffield. Another canal extends eastward from the river Hull to Leven, a distance of about three miles. The Tees rises in the mountains on the confines of Durham and Westmorland, a little beyond the north-western extremity of this county, of which it immediately becomes the northern boundary, and which, throughout the rest of its course, it separates from that of Durham: at first it flows south-eastward by Barnard Castle, but, a little below Darlington, it changes its direction to the north-east, and winds placidly by Yarm, the only town situated on its southern bank, to a short distance above which it is navigable for vessels of sixty tons' burden, and where the spring-tides rise about seven feet: below Stockton it spreads into the fine æstuary of Redcar, three miles broad. The Eske, descending from the northern districts of the Eastern Moorlands, flows eastward through a narrow, but beautiful, dale, to which it gives name, and falls into the North Sea at Whitby, after forming the inner harbour of that port. The smaller rivers are very numerous, more particularly in the mountainous regions, where, in some situations, they form beautiful cascades.
The canals are nearly all within the limits of the West riding. Under this head, however, may be classed the small navigable river Foss, the channel of which is believed to have been originally formed by the Romans, to effect the drainage of an extensive level tract lying between the Ouse and the Howardian hills, near the western extremity of which it rises, and thence takes first a south-easterly, and then a southerly, course to the Ouse, at York: at the end of the last century the navigation was made perfect from York up to Sheriff-Hutton, a distance of about fourteen miles, under the provisions of an act of parliament passed in the year 1793. Market-Weighton and Hedon, which are both situated in the East riding, and are considerable markets for corn, have each the advantage of a navigable canal to the Humber. The canals of the West riding, in alphabetical order, are as follows: the Barnesley canal, which commences in the navigable channel of the river Calder, a little below Wakefield, and, taking a southerly direction, unites with the Dearn and Dove canal, near Barnesley: its length is only fifteen miles, but it is of great importance, as forming part of the line of navigation from Sheffield to Barnesley, Wakefield, Leeds, Huddersfield, Manchester, and Liverpool. The Bradford canal, which is only three miles in length, commences in the Leeds and Liverpool canal at Windhill, in the parish of Idle, and terminates at Bradford, where extensive railways connect it with the collieries and iron-works of Low Moor and Bowling. The Dearn and Dove canal commences in a side cut from the river Don, between Swinton and Mexborough, and, passing north-westward, terminates in the Barnesley canal at Eyming's Wood, after a course of nine miles: together with the Barnesley canal it forms a line connecting the navigable channel of the Don with that of the Calder. From the newly-formed commercial docks at Goole a canal passes westward to the river Aire, at Ferrybridge, and thus completes the water communication between that rising port and the manufacturing districts of the West riding, together with the counties of Lancaster, Chester, and Stafford. The Huddersfield canal, nineteen miles and a half long, commences in Sir John Ramsden's canal, on the southern side of that town, and, proceeding westward, passes near Saddleworth, through the range of mountains on the borders of Yorkshire and Lancashire, by one of the largest tunnels in the kingdom, being nearly three miles and a half in length, and terminates in the latter county in the Manchester, Ashton, and Oldham canal. The Leeds and Liverpool canal enters this county from Colne in Lancashire, whence it proceeds by Skipton, Keighley, and Bingley, and across the river Aire, near Shipley, to Leeds, where it terminates in the Aire navigation: this extensive and important canal connects, by a direct water communication, the ports of Liverpool and Hull with the large manufacturing town of Leeds. The Ramsden canal, four miles in length, commences in the Calder and Hebble navigation at Cooper's bridge, and terminates in the Huddersfield canal at the King's Mills, near Huddersfield; thus completing, in conjunction with the Huddersfield canal, the important line of water communication between Manchester and the great manufacturing towns of Yorkshire. The Rochdale canal, entering from Rochdale in Lancashire, terminates in the Calder and Hcbble navigation at Sowerby bridge, two miles from Halifax. The Stainforth and Keadley canal, partly in this county, and partly in the Isle of Axholme, in Lincolnshire, branches from the navigation of the Don at Fishlake, near Stainforth, and, passing by Thorne, terminates in the Trent, at Keadley, after a course of fifteen miles. On the 29th of May, 1830, an act of parliament received the royal assent, for the construction of a railway from the town of Leeds to the Ouse at Selby, a total length of nineteen miles and seven furlongs: it commences at the east side of Marshlane, in Leeds, and immediately enters a tunnel, which will be eight hundred yards long, to be cut through a hill, the summit of which is seventy-two feet above the line of the railway: the expense of the undertaking has been estimated at £200,000.
In the West riding many of the roads are very good, though a few are indifferent, particularly near some of the manufacturing towns, where the carriage upon them is heavy, and the materials for their repair of an inferior quality, being chiefly burnt freestone and brick: in the western manufacturing districts footpaths are raised on the sides of most of the public roads, some of which are paved, and the rest formed of fine gravel and sand. Many of the turnpike-roads in the North riding are very good; the rest, for the most part, are in an improving condition; and the bridges are very numerous, good, and handsome; but a large proportion of the roads of this division of the county, and nearly all those of the East riding, are parochial. The roads in Cleveland are distinguished for their excellence; but those along the coast, and in both the Moorlands of the North riding, are narrow, steep, and rugged, particularly in the dales of the Eastern Moorlands: in the larger dales of the Western Moorlands they are, however, generally in tolerably good condition. The roads of the East riding are much better in the lower districts than on the Wolds: in Holderness, they are formed chiefly of gravel, much of which is brought from the sea-shore; while in the levels to the west of the Wolds, burnt bricks of irregular form, and, in the vicinity of Howden, gravel, brought by water from Spurn-point, are frequently used. The road from London to Edinburgh, by Coldstream, or Berwick (the great north road), enters the county from Nottinghamshire at Bawtry, and passes through Doncaster, Ferrybridge, Wetherby, Boroughbridge, and North Allerton, to Darlington, in Durham: the road from London to Edinburgh, by Carlisle, branches from this at Boroughbridge, and proceeds through Leeming, Catterick, and Greta-Bridge, to Brough, in Westmorland; while that from London to Edinburgh, by York, branches from the first-mentioned at Ferrybridge, through Sherburn, Tadcaster, York, Easingwould, and Thirsk, to North Allerton, where it rejoins it. A branch from the great north road at Bawtry passes through Hatfield, Thorpe, and Howden, to Market-Weighton; and from this again, at Thorne, there is a branch through Snaith and Selby, to Cawood. The road from London to Whitby branches off at York, and passes through New Malton and Pickering; that from London to Scarborough, by York, from this again at New Malton; and that from London to Hartlepool, from the great north road at North Allerton, through Yarm. The road from London to Hexham and Bellingham branches from the Carlisle road at Greta-Bridge, through Barnard-Castle, in Durham; and that to Askrigg, from the great north road at Boroughbridge, through Masham. The road from London to Hull and Scarborough, by Lincoln, enters the county by the ferry across the Humber from Barton, in Lincolnshire, to Hull, from which town it proceeds, by Beverley and Driffield, to Scarborough. The road from London to Leeds and Ripon enters from Chesterfield in Derbyshire, and passes through Sheffield, Barnesley, Wakefield, Leeds, Harrogate, and Ripley, to Ripon, whence it is continued across the great north road to Thirsk. The road from London to Skipton branches from the road to Manchester and Preston, at Manchester, and entering from Clitheroe in Lancashire, passes through Gisburn to Skipton. The road from London to Kendal, through Bedford, Nottingham, and Skipton, entering from the eastern border of Derbyshire, passes through Rotherham, Barnesley, Huddersfield, Halifax, Skipton, and Settle, to Kirkby-Lonsdale, in Westmorland. The road from London to Skipton, by Leeds, passes from the last-mentioned town through Otley.
Besides the great station of Eboracum, or York, the chief seat of the Roman power in Britain, this county contained also, in the West riding, the stations of Isurium, at Aldborough; Legiolum, a little below the junction of the rivers Aire and Calder; Danum, at Doncaster; Olicana, at Ilkley; Cambodunum, at Slack, near Halifax; and Calcaria, at Tadcaster: in the North riding, those of Cataractonium, at Catterick; and Derventio, at Stamford-Bridge, or at Aldby, a mile further northward: and in the East riding, of Delgovitia, at Londesborough; and Prœtorium, at Patrington. The most durable of the works of this people were the roads which they constructed, in order to facilitate the communication between their military stations, several of which traversed Yorkshire in different directions, and remains of some of them may yet be traced in various parts of it: the common centre from which they diverged was Eboracum, or York. The line of the great road, since called the Watling-street, which ran the whole length of England, from the coast of Kent to the wall of Severus, enters from Nottinghamshire in the vicinity of Bawtry, and passes through Doncaster, Barnsdale, Pontefract Park, Castleford, Tadcaster, York, Aldborough, and Catterick, into the county of Durham at Pierse-Bridge. Another military road entered from Manchester, and passed through the vicinity of Halifax, and by Wakefield, to the Watling-street. Another similar road, from Chesterfield, on the north-western confines of Derbyshire, passed by Sheffield, Barnesley, Hemsworth, and Ackworth, to the Walting-street, at or near Pontefract: a vicinal way also appears to have passed through Pontefract, in a southerly direction to the villages of Darrington, Wentbridge, Smeaton, Campsall, and Hatfield. From York a Roman road ran to Malton, and appears to have there divided into two branches, one, now commonly called Wade's Causeway, leading to Dunsley bay, in the neighbourhood of Whitby; the other to Scarborough and Filey: another road passed from York, by Stamford-Bridge, Fridaythorpe, and Sledmere, and across the Wolds, to Bridlington bay, called by Ptolemy Gabrantovicorum Sinus Portuosus, or Salutaris. Further to the south was a Roman road from York, by Stamford-Bridge and Londesborough, to Patrington: from Londesborough, a branch of this, formerly called Humber-Street, passed in a straight line southward to the village of Brough on the Humber. The most remarkable antiquities exist in the remains of ancient castles and religious edifices; but there are also several specimens of military and other works, of a more remote period. The three gigantic obelisks of single stones, vulgarly called the Devil's Arrows, situated near Boroughbridge, are by some thought to be Druidical, and by others of Roman origin. Traces of Roman encampments are found in several places, and the remains of their roads are more particularly conspicuous on the Eastern Moorlands, where the ancient road from Malton to Dunsley bay, now called Wade's Causeway, is in excellent preservation, being twelve feet broad, in some places raised more than three feet above the surface, and paved with flint pebbles; and on the Wolds, where the Roman road from York to Bridlington bay may be traced for many miles. The only remains of Roman structures now to be seen in York, the site of the ancient Eboracum, are the multangular tower and the south wall of the Mint yard. A vast variety of Roman antiquities has at different times been found in York and its vicinity, in digging the cellars, drains, and foundations of houses, such as altars, sepulchral and other urns, sarcophagi, coins, signets (both cameos and intaglios), fibulæ, &c. Roman urns, coins, &c., have been discovered in several other situations near the stations and roads of that people. Many ancient tumuli are discernible in various parts of the county, particularly on the Wolds. Besides the Roman encampments, others of the Saxons and the Danes may be traced in several places in the North and West ridings. The remarkable assemblage of rocks, called Bramham Crags, about nine miles north-west of Ripon, are supposed, from the peculiar marks of rude sculpture which some of them exhibit, to have been a celebrated Druidical temple.
The number of religious houses was about one hundred and six, including seven Alien priories: the ruins of several of them are extremely beautiful and picturesque. The principal ruins of abbeys are those of St. Mary's at York; of Fountains, Kirkstall, Roche, and Selby, in the West riding; and of Byland, Rievaulx, and Whitby, in the North riding; and of priories, those of Bolton and Knaresborough, in the West riding; of Guisborough, Mountgrace, and Wikeham, in the North riding; and of Bridlington, Kirkham and Watton, in the East riding. The most remarkable specimens of ancient ecclesiastical architecture are, the magnificent cathedral church of St. Peter at York; and, in the West riding, the churches of Addle, Guisley, Halifax, Horton, St. Peter at Leeds, Linton, Rotherham, St. Peter at Sheffield, Sherburn, Thornton in Lonsdale, and All Saints and St. Margaret at York, together with the remains of that of St. Gregory; in the North riding, those of Bowes, Danby-Wisk, Downholme, Grinton, Kirby-Wisk, Kirkdale, Old Malton, Startforth, and Thornton-Steward; and in the East riding, those of Flamborough, Great Driffield, Hemingborough, Howden, North Newbald, and the chapel of Skirlaw in the parish of Swine. There are, besides, several other ancient and curious chapels in the North and West ridings; and the churches of every division of the county possess, in many instances, fonts of ancient date and curious workmanship, among which may be more particularly noticed those of Doncaster, Ingleton, Linton, and Thorpe-Salvin, in the West riding; of Easby and Catterick, in the North riding; and of Everingham, in the East riding. The most distinguished remains of ancient fortresses, besides Clifford's Tower at York, are those of the castles of Cawood, Conisbrough, Harewood, Knaresborough, Pontefract, Great Sandall, Skipton, and Tickhill, in the West riding; of Helmsley, Malton, Mulgrave, Pickering, Richmond, Scarborough, Sheriff-Hutton, and Skelton, in the North riding; and of Wressle, in the East riding. The most remarkable ancient mansions are, Temple-Newsome, near Leeds, the seat of the Marquis of Hertford; and Gilling Castle, near Helmsley, that of the ancient family of Fairfax; besides which, several in different parts of the county are now occupied as farm-houses. Yorkshire contains a great number of elegant seats of more modern erection, belonging to the nobility and gentry who possess estates within its limits: some of those more particularly worthy of mention in the West riding are, Wentworth House, the property and Residence of Earl Fitzwilliam; Wentworth Castle, or Stambrough Hall, formerly the seat of the Earls of Strafford, now that of Wentworth VERNON, Esq.; Methley Park, that of the Earl of Mexborough; Thundercliffe Grange, near Rotherham, that of the Earl of Effingham; Sandbeck Park, near Tickhill, that of the Earl of Scarborough; Newby Hall, near Ripon, that of Lord Grantham; Harewood House, near Leeds, that of the Earl of Harewood, lord-lieutenant of the West riding; Scarthingwell Hall, near Tadcaster, that of Lord Hawke; and Allerton-Mauleverer, that of Lord Stourton: in the North riding, Hornby Castle, near Bedale, that of the Duke of Leeds, lord-lieutenant of this division of the county; Stanwick, near Richmond, that of the Duke of Northumberland; Castle-Howard, near Malton, that of the Earl of Carlisle, lord-lieutenant of the East riding; and Mulgrave Castle, near Whitby, that of Lord Mulgrave: in the East riding, Londesborough, near Market-Weighton, that of the Duke of Devonshire: and in the ainsty, Bishopthorpe, near York, the archiepiscopal palace.
The chalybeate and sulphureous springs of Harrogate, discovered in 1571, are of great celebrity, and have rendered that once obscure hamlet one of the principal watering-places in the North of England. Askerne, about eight miles north of Doncaster, has of late years become much noted for its medicinal waters, which much resemble those of Harrogate, both in smell and taste, but differ from them in their operation. The chalybeate and saline springs of Scarborough, discovered early in the seventeenth century, have long been celebrated and greatly resorted to. In May, 1822, a mineral spring was discovered a mile to the south-east of Guisborough; it is greatly resorted to by persons labouring under different complaints: the waters are diuretic. There are, besides, mineral springs of various qualities at Aldfield, Boston, Gilthwaite, Horley Green, Ilkley, and Knaresborough, in the West riding; a chalybeate spring at Bridlington Quay, on the coast of the East riding; and a noted mineral spring at Thorp-Arch, in the ainsty. At Knaresborough is the celebrated dropping and petrifying well; and at the bottom of Giggleswick Scar, near the village of Giggleswick, is a spring which ebbs and flows at irregular periods. On the Wolds, and near Cottingham on their eastern side, are periodical springs, which sometimes emit very powerful streams of water for a few months successively, and then become dry for years. Some of the most remarkable waterfalls are, Thornton Force, formed by a small stream which is driven down a precipice of about thirty yards in height; and is situated near the village of Ingleton, in the West riding, and in the vicinity of Thornton Scar, a tremendous cliff of about three hundred feet in height; the cataract of Malham Cove, which is three hundred feet high; Aysgarth Force; Hardrow Fall; High Force, or Fall, on the Tees; Mallin Spout; Egton; and Mossdale Fall; all in the North riding. Among the natural curiosities of this county must also be enumerated its caves, the principal of which, situated among the Craven mountains, are, Yordas Cave, in a mountain called Greg-roof, and Weathercote cave, both of them in the vicinity of Ingleton, and in the latter of which is a stupendous cataract of twenty yards' fall; Hurtlepot and Ginglepot, near the head of the subterranean river Wease, or Greta; and Donk Cave, near the foot of Ingleborough. At the foot of the mountain called Pennigant, in the same neighbourhood, are two frightful orifices, called Hulpit and Huntpit Holes, through each of which runs a subterraneous brook, passing under ground for about a mile, and then emerging, one at Dowgill Scar, and the other at Bransil-head.
Combs &c. of Yorkshire
Combs &c. of England