ptfrbMp in M&^n Sim^s 

 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES.
 
 Number 
 
 Of 400 Copies printed for Sale.
 
 orksl^tij^ m OIkn Wm^s 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S., 
 
 A uthor of '■ Historic Yorkshire," etc. 
 
 LONDON: 
 SIMI'KIN. MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO., LD. 
 
 HULL: 
 A. BROWN AND SONS. 
 
 1890
 
 J3A 
 (on t 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The following papers are re-printed from the Wakefield Fyee Press 
 and other journals. The articles, when first published in the 
 columns of the newspapers, met with such favour as to induce me 
 to believe that, if brought together in a volume, they would not be 
 deemed an unwelcome contribution to Yorkshire Literature 
 
 WILLIAM ANDREWS. 
 
 Hull Literary Club, 
 
 June ist, 1890 
 
 511.039 
 
 LISRAR/
 
 An Outline History of Yorkshire 
 
 At the earliest period of which we have 
 any record in ancient history, what is now 
 the County of York was occupied by a tribe 
 of British Celts, whom Tacitus calls Brig- 
 antes, a Cymric name which appears to have 
 been derived from the Gaelic braicjhe, " high 
 land." They were not confined to Yorksliire, 
 however, but inhabited all the north of Eng- 
 land, from sea to sea, and from the Humber 
 to the Tweed. Traces of their occupation of 
 the county have been found in recent times, 
 sill over the Wolds, in excavations and graves, 
 from which rude pottery and their flint 
 weapons and implements have frequently 
 been exhumed. Nothing is known of the 
 history of this primitive race of Yorkshire- 
 men prior to the time, nearly a century after 
 the southern and central portions of England 
 had been subdued by the Romans, when the 
 imperial legions marched in, under Ostorious 
 Scapula, under the pretext of repressing 
 internal disorder. The Brigantes were not
 
 2 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 then conquered, but remained independent 
 nearly twenty years longer. The greater 
 part of their territory was then brought under 
 bubjection to the Roman Emperors by 
 Petilius Cerealis, and in the year 78 their 
 conquest was completed by Agiicola. This 
 part of England was then constituted a pro- 
 vince of the empire under the name of 
 JMaxima Ceesariensis, and the seat of govern- 
 ment fixed at York, then called Eboracum._ 
 
 THE ROMANS IN YORKSHIRE 
 
 Under the Eoman rule, roads were made 
 through the province, permanent camps 
 formed, and towns built, in which all the 
 arts and refinements of Roman civilisation 
 were soon introduced. Eboracum, in paiti- 
 cular, had its temples and palaces, its amphi- 
 theatre and baths, its forts and walls, of 
 which latter there yet remains the multan- 
 gular tower in the grounds of the Yoikshire 
 Philosophical Society. Statues, busts, vases, 
 sarcophagi, and coins of this period have at 
 various times been found and have added to 
 our limited knowledge of the time when a 
 Roman legion garrisoned the city, and the 
 Roman Emperors rested within its walls 
 •when they occasionally visited this remote 
 part of tlieir extensive dominions. Two 
 Emperors, Severiis and Constantius, died at 
 Eboracum, and Constantine was there pro- 
 claimed Emperor on the death of his father. 
 On the withdrawal of the Roman legions
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES 3 
 
 from Britain, consequent on the incursions 
 of the Goths into Italy, the history of York- 
 shire becomes obscure, and tne materiiils for 
 its narration are very scanty. We know, 
 however, that the Scots broke down the 
 norlhern wall, which had been constructed 
 under the Koman rule as a bulwark against 
 their raids, and ravaged the country, until 
 they were routed and driven out by the 
 Saxons. 
 
 YORKSHIRE UNDER THE HEPTARCHY. 
 
 It was nearly a century after the first 
 landing of th^ Saxons in England that Ida, 
 a chief of that bold, enterjDrising race, disem- 
 barked with his hardy followers at Flam- 
 borough, and, after a protracted struggle 
 with the Brigantes, over-ran and subdued 
 all the country between the Humber and the 
 Tweed. He was followed by his kinsman 
 Ella, who sailed up the Humber, and landed 
 a little above Hull, in a district where his 
 name has been preserved in the villages of 
 West Ella, Kirk Ella, Ellerby, Elloughton, 
 and EUerker. Ida had scarcely established 
 himself in the old Brigantian kingdom when 
 lie had to defend it against Ella, by whom 
 he was ultimately forced to vacate all the 
 country between tlie Huml)er and tlie Tees, 
 Thus were formed the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms 
 of JJeira and Bernicia, the former compre- 
 hending Yorkshire and the latter Durham 
 and Northumberland. Under Ella's s^n and 
 successor, Edwin, these two .kingdoms were,^
 
 4 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES* 
 
 by the aid of Redwald, King of East Anglia, 
 •united by conquest under the name of North-, 
 umbria. Edwin married a Christian princess 
 named Ethelbii^ga, and by her persuasions 
 and. the preaching of the Roman monk 
 Paulinus he was converted to his wife's faith. 
 The great temple of Woden at Godmanding- 
 iiam was thereupon demolished, and Edwin 
 founded at York a Christian church, the 
 precursor of the present Minster. But 
 Penda, King of Mercia, who adhered to the 
 old faith, and had made a vow to root out the 
 new religion, invaded Northumbria, in con- 
 j auction with Cad walla, King of Wales, and 
 overthrew Edwin's army in the battle of 
 Heathtield, Edwin was slain in the conflict, 
 and for the time Christianity was blotteil 
 out. Northumbria again became divided into 
 two kingdoms, and a fierce though desultory 
 war was carried on between their kings and 
 the Mercian invaders until Penda was slain 
 in a battle with the Bernicians. Oswy, King, 
 of the northern kingdom, then turned his 
 arms against Oswin, King of Deira, after 
 whose foul murder he became ruler of all 
 Northumbria. 
 
 INCURSIONS OF THE DANES. 
 
 Towards the end of the eighth century, 
 by which time the kingdoms of the Htip- 
 tarchy had become united under Egbert, 
 King of Wessex, the eastern coast of England 
 began to be visited and ravaged by rovers
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 5 
 
 from the islands of the Baltic and the shores 
 of Jutland. The fleets of these "sea kings" 
 appeared oflf the Yorkshire coast, or sailed 
 up the Humber, again and again, plundering 
 the monasteries and then putting to sea 
 until in 867 a larger force of Danes than had 
 yet landed marched upon York and inflicted 
 upon the Northumbrians a severe defeat. 
 Twelve years later these invaders over-ran 
 and subdued tlie greater part of Yorkshire 
 and made a permanent settlement. Anlaf, 
 their chief, set up a Danish kingdom in 
 Northumbria, but he was overthrown and 
 expelled by Atheist an, and thereupon took 
 refuge in Stotland. Constantine, king of that 
 country, invaded the northern counties in 
 order to restore him, but the Scots were 
 defeated by xVthelstan, who pursued them 
 beyond the Tweed and ravaged their country. 
 It is recorded that the English monarch, on 
 his march northward, stopped at Beverley, 
 where he deposited his sword on the altar of 
 the Minster, promising great gifts to the 
 church in the event of his being victorious, 
 and was permitted to carry with him the 
 banner of St John, under which he won the 
 battle. He redeemed his pledge by granting 
 important privileges to the church and town 
 of Beverley, and also to York. There has 
 been much controversy as to the place at 
 wliich this battle, called Brunanburgh, was 
 fought, and the point is still in dispute, and 
 will probably never be determined. Various
 
 6 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 localities have been named by different 
 writers, the balance of evidence being in 
 favour of one or other of two localities, 
 namely, Little Weigliton, near Beverley, and 
 the vicinity of Bamborough Castle, in Nor- 
 thumberland. Antiquaries have yet to 
 decide upon the respective claims of these 
 two places. 
 
 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR IN YORKSHIRE. 
 
 When Canute, King of Denmark, became 
 King of England, he assigned Noithumbria 
 to a chief named Eric, and from that time 
 until the Norman Conquest the country was 
 governed by earls, with vice-regal authority, 
 the most notable of these dignitaries being 
 Tosti, of whom a remarkable record exists 
 at Kirkdale in an Anglo-Saxon inscription on 
 the sun-dial at the church, and who, being 
 exiled in 10G5, fell in the battle of Stamford 
 Bridge, fighting on the side of Harald, King 
 of Norway. Harald was banqueting at York, 
 on the day after this battle, when he heard of 
 the landing of William, Duke of Normandy, 
 with a large army, on the coast of Sussex, and 
 immediately proceeded southward by forced 
 marches. The result is well known. It 
 was not until the summer of 1068, however, 
 that William led his victorious Normans 
 northward, and, having captured York, built 
 a castle there, probably on the site of an 
 •earlier work. Beyond this city, Northumbria 
 was still unconquered, and Norman garrisons
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 7 
 
 were accordingly placed in the castle and in 
 a fort on Baile Hill, on the opposite side of 
 the Ouse. In the following year a combined 
 force of Danes and Northumbrians, led by 
 the sons of Sweyn, King of Denmark, Earl 
 Cospatric, and Edgar Atheling, made its ap- 
 pearance before York, attacked and captured 
 the castles, while the city, having been fired 
 by the Normans, was in flames. William 
 was so enraged when the news of this affair 
 reached him that he marched in hot haste 
 into Yorkshire, and ravaged the whole 
 country between the Humber and the Tyne. 
 Beverley alone escaped his destroying hand. 
 Tlie land was untiUeil that year, and a 
 terrible famine was the result. After the 
 country had recovered from the loss and 
 suffering of that spoliation, the Norman 
 lords to whom William had given estates in 
 Yorkshire — the Percies, Mowbrays, Lacies, 
 and Cliffords — built castles and founded 
 churches and monasteries, on the sites of 
 those which had been destroyed. Whitby 
 Abbey and St. Mary's, at York, were re- 
 founded by some Benedictines from Eves- 
 ham, however, and it was not until the 
 twelfth century that the great monastic 
 houses were founded for which Yorkshire 
 afterwards Ijccame famous, and the ruins of 
 which remain to attest their former magni- 
 ficence. Thnrstan, Archbishop of York from 
 llli) to 1140, was a great patron of the 
 Cistercian order, whose first house in this 
 country, Kievaulx, was founded in 1131
 
 8 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 The splendid Abbey of Fountains also owed 
 its foundation to his influence and help. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE STANDARD. 
 
 Tlie most important event in Yorkshire 
 history subsequent to the Norman Conquest 
 occurred in the reign of Stephen, when 
 David, King of Scotland, invaded England 
 in support of his niece, the Empress Matilda 
 of Germany, daughter of Henry I., and was 
 met near Northallerton by an English army, 
 headed by Archbishop Thurstau, and com- 
 pelled to retreat with the loss of 11,000 men. 
 The doughty deeds of the legendary T?obin 
 Hood and his " nierrie men," the outlaws of 
 Sherwood Forest, may be dismissed as 
 apocryphal, whatever regret may be felt by 
 the admirers of Scott's splendid romance of 
 " Ivanhoe" at the dissociation of the bold 
 archer from the scenes around which the 
 novelist has thrown the spell of his genius. 
 After the battle of the Standard, the next 
 actual occurrence of importance in the 
 history of the county was the foray of the 
 Scots, under the Black Douglas, in 1322, 
 when the Earl of Richmond was taken 
 ])risoner in a skirmish among the hills near 
 Byland, and Edward H. was forced to beat 
 a hasty retreat from the neighbourhood. In 
 the same year the Earl of Lancaster raised an 
 insurrection in Yorkshire against the king, 
 on account of the privileges and benefits 
 bestowed on his unworthy favourite, Piers 
 Gaveston, whom he captured in Scar-
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 9 
 
 borough Castle, and beheaded on Blacklow 
 Hill, in Warwickshire. Gaveston being suc- 
 ceeded in the royal favour by the De 
 Spencer?, the Earl of Lancaster again took 
 up arms, but was defeated and taken prisoner 
 at Boroughbridge, and executed at Ponte- 
 fract. 
 
 THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 
 
 It was in Yorkshire, at a later date, that 
 the first blow was struck in the long strife 
 between the Yorkist and Lancastrian 
 branches of the Plantagenet dynasty, when 
 Henry, the son of John of Gaunt, Duke of 
 Lancaster, returned from exile with an army, 
 and landed at Ravenspurn to tear the crown 
 from the head of his youthful cousin, 
 Richard IL The ancient cross at Hedon is 
 said to have been originally erected at 
 Ravenser, or Ravenspurn, near Kilusea, to 
 commemorate this event. Richard, after his 
 deposition, was taken successively to Leeds, 
 Pickering, Knaresborough, and Pontefract, 
 where, in the Castle, he was cruelly put to 
 death, though the precise manner in which 
 tlie tragedy was enacted is not certainly 
 known. Out of this usurpation of the throne 
 by Henry arose the long and terrible " War . 
 ot the Roses," in the course of which were 
 foii-lit the battle of Wakefield in HGO, when 
 Richard, Duke of York, was slain, and the 
 decisive battle of Towton, in the following 
 year, the result of which restored the crown 
 to the rightful branch.
 
 lO YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE. 
 
 The Eeformation gave rise, in the next 
 century, to very serious disturbances iu 
 Yorkshire, having for their object the restora- 
 tion of the Rora.sh Church and the re-estab- 
 lishment of the monasteries which had been 
 dissolved by Henry Vlll., but owing much 
 of their support from the people to the 
 discontent which was excited by tlie enclosure 
 of commons and the distress arising from 
 the withdrawal of the alms bestowed at the 
 monasteries upon the indigent. The move- 
 ment known as " the Pdgrimage of Grace" 
 commenced in Lincolnshire, where it was 
 soon suppressed ; but a Yorkshire gentleman 
 named Aske, who had been seized by the 
 insurgents, and compelled to swear to sup- 
 poit their cause, found on his return home 
 that all Yorkshire w^as in a ferment, owing 
 to a letter bearing his signature having been 
 circulated through the county, calling upon 
 the people to take arms in defence of the old 
 religion. Lord D'Arcy, a nobleman of great 
 influence in the East Riding, was secretly in 
 favour of the movement, and assisted the 
 insurgents without openly committing him- 
 self to their cause. A rising took place, the 
 rendezvous being Market Weighton Common, 
 where Aske was nominated to the chief 
 command ; and the insurgents, being joined 
 by Sir Thomas Percy, brother of the Earl 
 of 'Northumberland, marched upon York, 
 where the gates were at once opened to
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. II 
 
 them. Thence they proceeded to Pontefract, 
 where Lord D'Arcy surrendered the castle to 
 them, and joined them, with his small garri- 
 son. The Archbishop ot York openly 
 embraced their cause at the same time, and 
 Hull was soon in their hands, and Skiptou 
 Castle invested. 
 
 The insurrection gained ground rapidly. 
 All the nobility and gentry of the north, 
 except the Cliffords, Dacres, and Musgraves, 
 threw themselves into it, and the insurgent 
 army moved from Pontefract towards Don 
 caster, in three divisions. The Earl of 
 Shrewsbury had, in the meantime, advanced 
 northward with the royal forces, and reached 
 the Don, which he was prevented from 
 crossing by its swollen condition, it being 
 then the latter end of October, A herald 
 who was sent to Aske by the earl was 
 informed that it was the intention of the 
 insurgents " to go to London on pilgrimage 
 to the King's Highness, there to have all the 
 vile blood of his council put from him, and 
 all the noble blood set up again, and also the 
 faith of Christ and his laws to be kept, and 
 full restitution to Christ's Church of all 
 wrongs done unto it; and also the com- 
 monalty to be used as they should be." 
 Other communications passed between 
 Stirewsliury and Aske, and then a conference 
 took place between them, others of each 
 party being present, on the bridge at Don- 
 caster, It was agreed that Sir Kobert 
 Bowes and Sir Ralph EUerker should present
 
 12 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 the demands of the insurgents to the King, 
 the Duke of Norfolk undertaking to per- 
 sonally escort them, and that in the mean- 
 time the musters on botK sides should be 
 disbanded. The envoys were detained a 
 fortnight, and Yorkshire continued in a 
 disturbed state. Skipton Castle held out 
 successfully, but the delay of the King's reply 
 excited the minds of the people of the dis- 
 affected districts, and it began to be feared 
 that the leaders would become impatient, 
 and cross the Ilumber. Aske called the 
 disbanded insurgents to his banners again, 
 and a council of notables and the clergy was 
 convened at Pontefract. Aske presided over 
 an assembly of 34 nobles and knights in the 
 great hall of the castle, and the Archbishop 
 of York over a convocation of the northern 
 clergy in the church. The prelate, though 
 thus giving moral support to the rebellion, 
 now declared that he had joined the in- 
 surgents under constraint, and pronounced 
 the assembly unla>vful and the movement 
 treasonable. This declaration caused so 
 much exasperation that he was dragged from 
 the pulpit, and would have been killed if he 
 had not been rescued by friendly hands 
 from his assailants. After he had left the 
 church, the assembled clergy drew up a 
 series of articles condemnatory of everything 
 that had been done by the reformers of the 
 Church.
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I3 
 
 The King was, in the meantime, acting in 
 a very wily manner. He had received the 
 deputation graciously, won them over from 
 the insurgent cause, and then given them 
 letters to others of the rebel leaders with the 
 same object. Commissioners from Henry 
 were sent to Doncaster with what Aske and 
 the other leaders of the rebellion understood 
 as the concession of all their demands. All, 
 however, that was really promised was a 
 general pardon, the assembling of a Parlia- 
 ment at York m the following summer, and 
 the institution of a Northern Council, which 
 was to sit at York, under the presidency of 
 the Duke of Norfolk. Aske was invited to 
 London by the King, by whom he was well 
 received ; but on his return to Yorkshire he 
 found the people excited by their doubts as 
 to the King's intentions, and he wrote to 
 Henry, setting forth the situation, and in- 
 timating plainly that a second outbreak 
 might be expected. His anticipations were 
 fulfilled, another rising taking ])lace under 
 Sir Francis Bigot, but the only eliect, so well 
 had the King taken his measures, was the 
 affording of a pretext for the withdrawal of 
 the promised concessions and the issue of 
 orders for the punishment of all offences 
 committed subsequently to the Doncaster 
 conference. Martial law was proclaimed, and 
 arrests took place throughout the northern 
 counties. Seventy-four persons, including 
 many priests and monks, were hanged, 
 and many more imprisoned. Aske, Lord
 
 14 YORKSHIRE IN ©LDEN TIMES. 
 
 D'Arcy, and Sir Robert Constable were 
 arrested and sent to tlie Tower, but whether 
 on account of their participation in the 
 rebellion, or on the charge of treasonable 
 correspondence with Cardinal Pole, is un- 
 certain, all political trials of that period 
 being more or less secret, and political 
 executions stamped with the odium of 
 judicial murders. They were all executed — 
 Aske at York, D'Arcy in London, and 
 Constable at Hull. 
 
 The Northern Council was duly established, 
 and had its head- quarters at York for more 
 than a century. It had a jurisdiction in all 
 cases of riot and conspiracy, not only in 
 Yorkshire, but also in Durham, Northumber- 
 land, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, and a 
 limited jurisdiction in civil cases. It was 
 abolished by the Long Parliament, at the 
 same time as the arbitrary Court of Star 
 Chamber. 
 
 ANOTHER CATHOLIC CONSPIRACY. 
 
 Thirty years after "the Pilgrimage of 
 Grace," Yorkshire and other northern coun- 
 ties were agitated by rumours of the intended 
 marriage of the Queen of Scotland with the 
 Duke of Noifolk, with the result of new 
 combinations and conspiracies, the objects of 
 which were said to be the liberation of the 
 former, her recognition as heir to the English 
 crown, and the restoration of the old religion. 
 In October, 1569, the Earls of Northumber- 
 land and Westmoreland, and many other
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 1 5 
 
 northern gentlemen, assembled at Topcliffe, 
 one oTTfie' mansions of the first-named 
 nobleman, in the expectation of receiving 
 intelliirenee of a risinsintlie eastern comities. 
 tonT'Eurleigh had succeeded, however, in 
 detaching the Duke of Norfolk from tlie 
 movement, and a letter was sent to Topcliffe 
 by the latter, begging the conspirators not to 
 move, as an outbreak would be the signal for 
 his trial and execution. Their plans had not 
 been well concealed, however, and the two 
 earls received the Queen's commands to 
 present themselves at Court. They refused 
 to obey, and large bodies of armed insurgents 
 assembled at Ilaby, and marched to Durham 
 under the old banners of the Pilgrimage of 
 Grace. From Durham thej'..inoved southward 
 to Darlington, increasing in numericaF 
 strength as they went, and everywhere openly 
 l)rqclaimirig their intention to restore "^the 
 ancient and catholic faith." The Earl of 
 Sussex, who was then at York as President 
 of tlie Co'*tuicil, hod not a sufficient foice at 
 liand to arrest their progress, and they 
 marched on to liipon, Knaresborongh, and 
 Tudcaster, intending to proceed to Tutbury, 
 ill Staffordshire, where the Queen of Scotland 
 was then confined in the castle, release her, 
 and march on to London. At Tadcaster thev 
 learned that Maty had been hastily removed 
 to Coventry,aTid thereupon paused to consider 
 the new situation thus created. They were 
 in communication with the Duke of Alva, 
 who Would no^ move to their support until
 
 l6 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES, 
 
 Mary was at liberty, and many of the Catholic 
 gentry were not willing to move without the 
 help of Spain. After resting a few days at 
 Tadcaster, the rebels retreated northward, 
 therefore, and by the end of November were 
 broken up into detached bands. 
 
 The Earl of Northumberland returned to 
 Durham. The Earl of Westmoreland joined 
 Sir George Bowes, who, with a small 
 following, had entrenched himself before 
 Ba'-nard Castle. After a few days' siege, 
 Bowes surrendered, and Westmoreland fled 
 to Raby, Dacres, of Naworth, had with- 
 drawn from the movement, and was now at 
 Carlisle. The royal forces advanced 
 northwards, and the two earls, with their 
 wives and a remnant of their followers, fled 
 across the border into Scotland. There, for 
 a time, they found a refuge among the lawless 
 moss-troopers. Westmoreland, the two 
 countesses, Norton of Norton Conyers, and 
 his two sons, ultimately succeeded ii» quitting 
 the country and crossing tlie sea to Flanders. 
 Northumberland was less fortunate, being 
 captured by stratagem, given up to the Regent 
 Murray, and imprisoned three years in 
 Lochlevin Oastle, in the rooms which had been 
 occupied by Mary. He was then delivered 
 to Elizabeth, and executed at York. Thojugh- 
 the insurrection had been almost bloodless, 
 the vengeance of Elizabeth fell heavily on all 
 who were known to have taken part in it.
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 1 7 
 
 Domiciliary visits all over the disaffected 
 districts on the same night were made, and 
 thousands of persons arrested, of whom 
 between six and seven hundred were sum- 
 marily executed in the towns through which 
 the insurgents had marched. These were all 
 farmerSj artisans, and labourers. Eleven men 
 of higher social position were tried at York, 
 and four of them were hanged, while the 
 property of the others was declared forfeited 
 to the Crown. 
 
 THE GREAT CIVIL WAR. 
 
 Yorkiihire and Yorkshiremen figured 
 conspicuously in the events of the great civil 
 war of the next century. In 1640 Charlesl. 
 was at York, preparing to march with an 
 army into Scotland, then in open revolt 
 against Archbishop Laud's attempt to impose 
 Episcopacy and the English liturgy upon the 
 people. The Scotch were first in the field. 
 They crossed the Tweed, and advanced 
 towards the Tees. Charles coi.vened a 
 council of peers at York, and by their advice 
 Parliament— the famous Long Parliament — 
 was assembled. Royal commissioners went 
 to Ripon to negotiate with the Scotch leaders, 
 but Avithout effect. The contest between the 
 King and the House of Commons soon drew 
 to a head, and Charles again left London for 
 York, where he was lodged in the mansion 
 now known as the Manor House, which had 
 Ijcen built with a portion of the materials of 
 the ruined abbey of St. Mary. Tiie civil war
 
 l8 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 broke out soon afterwards, the first act of 
 rebellion being the closing of the gates of 
 Hull against the King by Sir John Hotham. 
 Yorksiiire was, speaking generally, well 
 disposed to the royal cause, but the Fairfaxes 
 were active and energetic on the side 
 of the Parliament, and the forces of the 
 Marquis of Newcastle suffered serious losses 
 from them, and were compelled to abandon 
 the siege of Hull. The siege of York, 
 ■whither Newcastle proceeded after this failure, 
 followed, and Prince Rupert was summoned 
 from Lancasliire to its relief. 'J"he Parlia- 
 mentarians moved from the city to intercept 
 him, and took up a commanding position for 
 that purpose on Marston Moor. The prince 
 succeeded by a flank movement in reaching 
 York, however, and the Parliamentary 
 generals, on learning that he had entered the 
 city, determined to march southward, but 
 abandoned that intention on being informed 
 that Rupert was moving from York to 
 attack them. They faced about, occupied 
 the rising ground between Marston and 
 Tockwith, and gave battle to the royal forces 
 there on the 2nd July, 1644. Then ensued, 
 says Carlyle, •' the most enormous hurly-burly 
 of fire and smoke, and steel flashings, and 
 death tumult, ever seen in those regions." 
 The result is known. The royalists were 
 completely routed, and fled along the side of 
 AVilstropWood, pursued by the Parliamentary 
 cavalry to within a mile of York.
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 19 
 
 York surrendered on honourable con- 
 ditions, and the royal cause might from that 
 time have been coiisi'iered lost. PontetVact 
 and Scarborougli still held out for the King, 
 ami were the last strongholds to be 
 surrendered. Scarboiouyh surrendered in 
 July, 1645, but in 1648 Colonel Bo\ nton, 
 who was tlien governor of the castle, declared 
 for the King, ami the town sustained a second 
 siege, from August to December, when 
 Boynton was forced to surrender. Pontefract 
 held out until after the execution ot the 
 King, when the garrison immediately pro- 
 claimed Charles II. ; and did not surrender 
 until its original 500 defenders had been 
 reduced by tha casualties of war to 100. 
 
 With the close of the great civil war the 
 history of the olden time in Yorkshire reaches 
 its natural conclusion. The incidents of the 
 Plantagenet and Tudor periods, which have 
 furnished the ground-work of so many 
 delightful works of fiction, and which are so 
 closely associated with the era during which 
 the old feudal system was in operation, 
 became impossible under the altered con- 
 ditions which came into operation during the 
 first half of the seventeenth century. The 
 state of society, the amusements of the 
 people, tho manners and customs of all 
 classes, underwent a corresponding change, 
 and everything showed that the "good old 
 times," as they have been called, had passed 
 away, never to return. 
 
 Thomas Fiiost.
 
 The Cow Devil. 
 
 A LEGEND OF CRAVEN. 
 
 A month could scarcely tie better spent in 
 summer or autumn, than in Upper Wharfe- 
 dale, in Craven, on the skirts of Pennygant 
 and Wheruside, by the geologist, the lover 
 of wild nature, the archaeologist, or the 
 student of folklore. The scenery of that 
 Pennine region is somewhat peculiar in its 
 character, resembling neither that of the 
 Lake district, the Peak, Wales, or the High- 
 lands of Scotland. It presents a confused 
 heap of rocks and mountains, raised from 
 eigliteen hundred to three thousand feet 
 above the sea, alternating with open moors, 
 and feeding innumerable rivulets, which come 
 tumbhng aown more or less precipitately 
 over masses of boulders from the springs in 
 which they originate, and unite at the 
 openings of deep water-worn doughs, which 
 by-and-by expand into narrow grassy valleys, 
 the upland slopes of which are feathered with 
 iialural woods of ash, intermixed with birch, 
 oak, beech, and maple, commonly called 
 sycamore. The mountain or carboniferous 
 limestone which forms the basis of the district, 
 presents in many places bold bluff precipices 
 and escarpments, and is trequently fuund 
 pierced by large natural caverns. One of the 
 most remarkable of these escarpments is Kiln- 
 sey Crag, near the village of that name,which 
 is about IGO feet high, and extends nearly half-
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. , 21 
 
 a-mile along the valley. It is greatly worn 
 at its base, just like cliffs on the sea coast 
 that are continually exposed to the dashing 
 of the waves; and there can be no doubt 
 that Wharfedale was once an arm of the sea, 
 and this craar a sea cliff on which the waves 
 
 O 
 
 broke for ages. Two miles north-west of 
 Kilnsey, and opposite the village of Hawks- 
 wick, there is an interesting cavern, called 
 Dowkabottom Cave ; it is situated on a lofty 
 plateau of the KUusey range of crags, 1,250 
 feet above the sea, and is of considerable 
 extent. Some twenty years ago, a great 
 quantity of bone was discovered in it, con- 
 sisting ot the skulls and jaw-bones of wild 
 dogs and wolves, mingled with bones of deer, 
 sheep, oxen, horses, etc. There were like- 
 wise traces of human habitation, such as 
 spear heads, glass and shell ornaments, clasps 
 or buckles, and fragments of pottery, besides 
 coins of several of the lioman Emperors — 
 many of them clumsy forgeries, showing that 
 the coiner was afoot in the third and fourth 
 centuries of our era, justifying the law of the 
 Emperor Constantine, by wliich such offenders 
 were declared guilty of high treason, and 
 condemned to be burnt alive. On the hill 
 above the cavern grows the mountain avens 
 (Dryas octo ptitala), a rare plant, which is 
 found native oidy on the highest mountains 
 and flowers in .June. In one of the most 
 romantic parts of the district, nearly opposite 
 the village of Couiston, stood, some seventy
 
 22 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 years ago, an old and venerable mansion, over- 
 looking the Wharfe, rolling rapidly past over 
 a rocky channel, as if hurrying down to the 
 Strid, ten miles below, where the force of 
 the hill floods, operating for untold ages, has 
 worn in the living rock so narrow and deep 
 a channel that it may be crossed by a single 
 stride, and in endeavouring to bound across 
 which the only son ot the Lady Alice de 
 Kommile, Wordsworth's "Noble boy of 
 Egremond," lamentably perished, causing, as 
 tradition tells, an ''endless sorrow," to his 
 fond mother, which prompted lier to found 
 and endow Bolton Abbey. Higher up the 
 valley is seen the place where tiie Skirfare 
 or Lytton Brck joins the. Wharfe. and the 
 dales divide, while in the distance the eye is 
 forcibly attracted hy the lofty liills, amongst 
 which the mist-encircled Wiiernside raises its 
 towernig head, A mansion in so lovely a 
 situation might have been thought a desirable 
 resilience for any gentleman of fortue, who 
 Avished to retire fiom the gay t<cenes of 
 fashional)le life, and live in seclusion and 
 solitude ; hut this house had been for many 
 years without a tenant, not because it was 
 not otherwise eligible, but because it was 
 reputed to be haunted. Strange and un- 
 accountable noises were heard within it, 
 lights were beheld in the win. lows, and 
 figures dressed in uncouth ijuise a[>peared to 
 the view of the horritied midnight wiuderer. 
 This was not deemed in the least degree
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 23 
 
 surprising by the simple-minded natives of 
 Wiiarfedale, unsophisticated as they were in 
 the days of our grandmothers. Among the 
 old people, even yet, one finds the belief in 
 ghosts, fairies and witches, which was once 
 universal, stubbornly lingering. The bleak 
 barren hills, stupendous crags, gloomy caves, 
 mountain cataracts, and dreadful thunder and 
 snowstorms seam to have a natural tendency 
 to create and foster superstition, and to 
 people the depths of every glen and the 
 i'.iterior of every mountain with supernatural 
 beings, tricksy or malign. The story went 
 that the old mansion house referred to had 
 been inhabited, a long time before, by a very 
 wicked man learned in the law, who used his 
 skill in chicanery, to outwit, fleece, and 
 villainously oppress and rob his neighbours, 
 and particularly to cheat his clients, every 
 one of whom had reason in the end to curse 
 the day they employed him. He was, how- 
 ever, it seems, fond of a somewhat less 
 objectionable or cruel sport, being a keen 
 fox hunter, and after his (kath, wms believed 
 to "come back" toe.jj )y it. a;id ixUo lo hold 
 nightly carousa's wiili ^liosrs of like pro- 
 pensilifs. which accounted for tlie strange 
 siglits the people used U> see. Moreover, 
 the gang wei'e woii to i.^siie forth ab(jut 
 miiiiiiglit to engage in a grand hunt through 
 the grounds sun-ounchnii the ; ouse. Here the 
 od Skin-eui- alive. <lre^S(i(l in his wig and 
 go wij,aud mounted on a skeleton horse, hunted
 
 24- YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 nightly ia company with his infernal majesty, 
 who appeared in the shape of a huge monster 
 caparisoned with a pair of horns, and 
 attended by an innumerable pack of hell- 
 dogs-. Persons who professed to have been 
 spectators of the hunt, and who averred that 
 they could not be mistaken about it, said thf^ 
 devil blew his horn in a clear and masterly 
 manner, and shouted "Tally ho! as well as 
 the best huntsman in Graven ; but they did 
 not all agree as to the object of the hunt, 
 some maintaining that the old lawyer was 
 really the hunted party, and that he well 
 deserved to be so for the way he had hunted 
 most people when alive. Amongst those 
 few inhabitants who laughed this legend to 
 scorn, there flourished, about the end of the 
 last centur}', a man whose name has been 
 handed down to us as William Robinson. 
 Bill was one of those characters, who, to 
 use a common phrase, feared neither God nor 
 Devil, being a regular attendant at the ale 
 hoase in Kilnsey, and a most notorious and 
 incorrigible poacher. Once on a dark 
 autumnal night, Will, pursuing bis unlawful 
 vocations, was fearlessly passing through 
 the grounds around the haunted house, 
 breaking down the hedges and climbing the 
 walls that opposed his progress. As he was 
 leaping from the top of one of the walls into 
 the next field, he fell upon something wliich 
 was very rough. What it was he knew not, 
 but up it rose and took off v/ith him on its
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 25 
 
 back at a merry trot. Bill was considering 
 in whose power he was, when the old leji^end 
 rushed upon his memory, and he who had so 
 often ridiculed the story, believed himself 
 mounted on the old enemy of the wicked 
 lawyer, and this belief w?s confirmed by 
 feelmg that his steed had a pair of horns. 
 The affrighted poacher gave himself up as 
 lost, called on all the persons of the Trinity, 
 and invoked the aid of the Evangelists and 
 all the hierarchy, \ owing, if he might be spared 
 a little longer, to leave off poaching, and 
 every other evil practice. His prayers 
 tiiiished, a thought occurred that by freeing 
 himself from the devil's back by a fall, he 
 might have some chance of escaping. He 
 was about to put this project into execution, 
 when, turning round, he espied a host of 
 fiends scampering after him. The sight 
 made him determine to hold fast to the devil, 
 thinking it was better to be under the control 
 of the master than in tlie power of his ser- 
 vants. The devil having carried him round 
 and round the field, at length approached the 
 Wharfe, and conveyed him safely across the 
 stream. Here he became perfectly insensible, 
 and, as he is said to have related the story, 
 had not the slightest remembrance of what 
 happened. When he recovered from his 
 stu])or, he found himself lying in the midst of 
 a pasture field ; instead of the roaiiiig of the 
 Styx, he heard the purling of the Wharfe ; 
 the only flame he beheld was the sun rising 
 over the eastern hills ; and the only fiend
 
 26 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 near him was a small Scotch kyloe cow. 
 That cow explained the night's adventure, — 
 the animal, in order to shelter itself from the 
 cold, had lain down to rest close beside the 
 wall, and being suddenly startled by Bill's 
 leaping on to its back, had acted in the 
 manner described ; and what his heated 
 imagination magnified into fiends was only 
 the rest of the herd. It was not in the 
 nature of the man to keep his strange adven- 
 ture a secret. It became the talk of the 
 village for more than the proverbial nine days, 
 and many a hearty laugh was raised at Bill's 
 expense. The lads everlastingly pestered 
 him by calling out when he passed, " Cow- 
 Devil ! " ; and it seemed as if he was nevet 
 to hear the end of it. Fortunately, however, 
 a perfervid revival preacher happened to visit 
 the neighbourhood, and was so lucky as to 
 convert several of the people, among whom 
 was our hero, who, to use Burns's expression, 
 in his '"Address to the Deil," "took a 
 thought and mended." He accordingly not 
 only left off poaching, but gave up frequent- 
 ing the public house. He joined himself to 
 the Methodists, and attended camp meetings 
 In due course he became a class- leader, a 
 local, and at last a travelling preacher ; and 
 the feelings of reverence and respect with 
 which he came to be regarded flung into the 
 dim and distant background the memorv of 
 his nocturnal ride on the Highland Cow'.'j 
 back. 
 
 William Bhockie.
 
 The First Anglo-Saxon Poet. 
 
 Much is said in these days of poets and 
 poetry. The fashion is to talk of our great 
 writers, living or recent ; to discuss their 
 merits and to analyze their productions. To 
 students is left the task or pleasure of diving 
 into the remote past. Almost exclusively they 
 possess a monopoly of the enjoyment accruing 
 to those who <lig deep into the wealth of 
 English literature produced in by -gone days. 
 Little is known of the various stag<^s through 
 wliich the art of poetry has passed in its 
 gradual development to that state of cultured 
 perfection to which it has attained in modern 
 times. The advance of civilization, and the 
 extension of the Cnmmercial spirit in these 
 islands, have all hut stifled an art which at 
 one time was a common acquisition of the 
 people. The opiidon expiessed by Lord 
 Macaulay is one with which we can lieartily 
 agree: — he says ''that as civilization ad- 
 vances, poetry almost necessarily declines." 
 Far back in the history of our country, and 
 long before the institution of written l.iii- 
 guage, there was a kind of " floating lit- ra- 
 ture" in this lanil, which was better known 
 to tlir- great bulk of the people than modern 
 literature is known to their modern proto- 
 types Anylliing that excited the imagination 
 of our forefathers was readily expressed in
 
 28 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 the language of song. It was customary for 
 the people frequently to assemble themselves 
 together to listen to the breathings of their 
 travelling minstrels. The , common people 
 were in the habit of constantly expressing 
 themselves in impromptu song. At the 
 places of public resort, the public-house or 
 other place, it was the exception rather than 
 the rule to tind one who was not ready to 
 express himself or herself in this way. Any 
 exliibition of exceptional courage or great 
 daring was sure to secure for the hero a place 
 in the singing of the time. Emulation, was 
 inspired, and a sense of duty enforced in this 
 way, insomuch that men were willing to run 
 great risk and attempt great deeds; they 
 were willing to fight gloriously in battle, and 
 die for their country, knowing that their 
 names would be revered by their survivors 
 and posterity, and that they would be the 
 subject of song. Doubtless there were many 
 of these singers who from year to year and 
 generation to generation handed on their 
 songs ; each generation adding new matter. 
 But of this profusion but little comes 
 down to us ; that little, however, is 
 sufficient evidence to show of what 
 stuff our Saxon forefathers were made. 
 The earliest poetry of which we have any 
 authentic record is that of Ccedmon, and lor 
 this reason he is styled the first Anglo-Saxon 
 poet. Not. much is known of him. He is 
 surrounded by a halo of what appears to-day
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 29 
 
 very much like tradition, if not of supersti- 
 tion. Notwithstanding this, his name is 
 worth preserving, and his tlmnglits are worth 
 knowing, not only on account of the merit he 
 may have in himself, or for the glimpse of 
 bye-gone times which his poetiy gives us, hut 
 because he was a good man and a York- 
 shireman. I have said that in these early 
 days the exception was to find one uiigifted 
 with the power of song. Yet tra^litiou tells 
 us thatCagdmon, until very late in life, con- 
 sidered himself one of the exception. It was 
 a great grief to him that he was unable to 
 join with liis friends au'i companions in sing- 
 ing the praises of their heroes. Tliis inability 
 often led liira in soreness of heart to leave 
 the cheerful company and wander away to 
 hide himself and mourn over his defect. • He 
 was born and lived in a locality which was 
 full of nature's beauti(>s,and his daily vocation 
 brought him under the inspiring infliiei.ce of 
 nature in its wildest and grandest aspects. 
 He was a shepherd, we are told, and one can 
 well imagine that with the op})ortunities he 
 had he would frequently gaze with wondrous 
 eyes on the lofty heights, the rugged rocks, 
 the turbulent sea, and the star-sj'angled 
 heavens: his mind beintr lilled with thoughts 
 grand and marvellous, yet without the ability 
 to give them tongue. It is not unreasonable 
 to suppose that often in the, stilly night, as 
 he gazed on the heavens, his heart would go 
 out to the Creator for the gift of song. And
 
 3© YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 at last the answer came. We are told by 
 Venerable Bede, that on one occasion Cajii- 
 mon formed one of a party ot frien<is 
 assembled at a house of one of their number. 
 They travelled from the country round, some 
 on foot, others on horseback and in caits. 
 The festivities were to last more than a day, 
 and in those unsettled times it was necessary 
 to keep careful watch over moveable ])ropeity 
 alive or dead. This watching was done in 
 turns. On this occasion, during the usual 
 entertainment, as the harp passed from hand 
 to hand, each contributing his quota to the 
 common enjoyment, Csedmon felt most keenly 
 his deficiency. As nearer approached the 
 instrument, he felt shame that where all could 
 do so well he could do nothing at all, so he 
 left the hall to bear his sorrow alone. In the 
 agony of his mental pain he threw himself on 
 the ground, and was soon relieved by " tii'ed 
 nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep." His 
 sleep was restful and pleasant, for he had a 
 sweet vision. One came to him and said, 
 " Csedmon sing." He replied, " I cannot 
 sing, and it was for this reason I left the 
 hall." But, answered his visitor, "You must 
 sing to me," and, yielding to the strange pres- 
 ence in the inspiiation of the moment, he 
 said, " What shall I sing 1 " He was told 
 " to sing the origin of creatures." Csedmon 
 then began to sing verses in praise of his 
 great Creator, "• Now we ought to praise the 
 author of the Heavenly Kingdom, the power
 
 YORKSHIRE IX OLDEN TIMES. 3 1 
 
 of the Creator and His counsel, the deeds of 
 the Father of Glory : how He, though the 
 Eternal God, became the author of marvels ; 
 Omnipotent Guardian, who created for the 
 sons of men, first, heaven for their roof, and 
 then the earth." This is the sense thouirh 
 not the exact words of what he sang. It 
 must be admitted that for those rude ages, 
 and at a period so near to the introduction of 
 Christianity into this country, tliese are 
 wondrous sentiments. When Casdmon 
 awoke he was rejoiced to find himself })0s- 
 sessed of a new and marvellous power He 
 remembered the lines he had composed in his 
 sleep, and soon added others. This migljt be 
 and })robabIy was. only the springing into 
 activity of a power which had long been dor- 
 mant. Casdmon himself looked upon it as a 
 direct command from heaven. Tlie grandeur 
 of his subject matte.", and the superior 
 ability shown after such long silence, 
 seems to have impressed his friends with 
 a similar idea. He was living 
 
 in the neighbourhood of a monastery at 
 Whitby, presided over by the Abbess Hihla. 
 This pious lady was soon made acquainted 
 with the wonderful deveh^pement of the gift, 
 of song in Ctedmon, and he had an interview 
 with the lady, who tested his new found 
 power by relating to him portions of Scrip- 
 ture history, and asked him to change it into 
 peetry. Tiiis he speedily did, greatly to the 
 delight of all good people. AH were then
 
 32 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 ready to believe that he had received a Di- 
 vine inspiration, and henceforth he was al- 
 lowed to devote his life and talents to the 
 service of his Creator. He took up his abode 
 in the religious house, and diligently and 
 prayerfully studied the Scriptures and im- 
 proved his gift. Here he lived a calm and 
 peaceful life, devoting the remainder of his 
 days to the glory of God. He left behind him 
 the sweet savour of a pious life and his words 
 were long remembered by his devoted suc- 
 cessors. The works he left behind him were 
 not numerous, though for that age a wonder- 
 ful performance. There exists in the Bod- 
 leian Library at Oxford, an MS., which the 
 celebrated Junius declared to be the work of 
 Caedmon, and was procured from Archbishop 
 Usher. It is not to be wondered at that the 
 authenticity of the composition shouid be 
 doubted by some writers ; but the balance of 
 evidence, both internal and external, is in fa- 
 vour of the contention of the mysterious Ju- 
 nius. I must leave the reader to look for 
 himself more deeply into the subject, if his 
 interest should lead him to desire more in- 
 formation. Mr Thorpe has furnished a valu- 
 able collection of Csedmon's compositions, 
 which is readily accessible to the student. 
 We adopt that gentleman's translations, and 
 shall give a few extracts. The first selection 
 is the very fine passage describing the love 
 of Adam and Eve:
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 33 
 
 In their glad hearts no sinful passions move— 
 Their bosoms glow with pure and ardent love ; 
 With youth and beauty clad, they shone so fair, 
 Well might they with the angelic host compare : 
 The Lord Himself the pair with joy surveyed, 
 And while He.blest, these were the words He said: 
 Teem now and wax : fill with your happy km 
 The all-green earth ; your reign forthwith begin : 
 To you the sea-waves shall service owe, 
 And all creation shall in reverence bow. 
 To you be subject all the horned band, 
 And the wild beasts submit to your command ; 
 All living things that seek on earth their prey 
 And all that swim along the huire whale's way— 
 These all shall you with humble fear obey 
 
 The dealings of the Almighty with the re- 
 bellious angels, and their expulsion from the 
 presence of the Most High, is thus de- 
 scribed : — 
 
 Shattered their vaults, their haughty threats 
 
 mu • 1 ■,. , [brought low, 
 
 iheir glory dimmed, to drear exile they go ; 
 No joyous laugh breaks loudly forth to tell 
 Of heartfelt joy ; in heh accursed they dwell. 
 Of pain and sorrow, now the woe they know. 
 Tormenting waves of darkness o'er them flow; 
 This, this, the meed of their rebellious sin. 
 Since they had thought the throne of God to win • 
 Then, as before, when these base wars did cease ' 
 In heaven's high courts, midst all the blessed 
 
 mT. 1 . , [was peace; 
 
 The glories waxed and the Eternal Lord 
 Was by his faithful ministers adored. 
 
 _ Another passage which is deserving of no- 
 tice — 
 
 Satan discoursed, he who henceforth ruled hell 
 
 Spake sorrowing. 
 
 Gods angel erst he had shone white in heaven.
 
 34 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 Till his soul urged, and most of all its pride, 
 That of the Lord of hosts he should no more 
 Bend to the word. 
 About his heart his soultumultuously heaved hot 
 
 [pains of wrath 
 Without him. 
 
 Then 53aid he, Most unlike that this narrow place 
 To that which once we knew, high in heaven's 
 
 [realm, 
 Which my Lord gave me, though therein no more 
 For the Almighty we hold royalties. 
 Yet right hath He not done in striking us 
 Down to the fiery bottoms of hot hell. 
 Banished from heaven's kingdom, with decree 
 That He will set in it the race of man. 
 Worst of my sorrows this, that, wrought of earth 
 Adam shall sit in bliss on my strong tlfrone ; 
 Wliilst we these pangs endure, this grief in hell. 
 AVoe ! Woe ! Had I the power of my hands, 
 And for a season, for one winters space. 
 Night be without,' then with this host, I— 
 But iron binds me round ; this coil of chains 
 Eides me ; I rule no more— close bonds of Hell 
 Hem me their. prisoner. 
 
 There is traceable here an amount of art- 
 istic power which is evidence of some cul- 
 tured These poems were written about the 
 period 657-680. They were the product of 
 Csedmon's maturer years, and are deeply in- 
 teresting to us as exhibiting some of the 
 piety and poetical power of our Anglo- 
 Saxon forefathers. 
 
 John H. Leggott, F.E.H.S.
 
 The Battle of Brunanburgh. 
 
 This famous battle was one of the most 
 sanguinary conflicts and the most decisive in 
 its results of the many that have occurred in 
 our island ; ranking in importance with 
 Hastings, Towton, Marston Moor, and 
 Bannockburn, Yet do we know but little of 
 its details, and strange to say, we do ot 
 even know where it was fought. It has 
 been sung in the Sagas of Norseland, and 
 mentioned by our own monkish chronicle'-s 
 in their Annals, but is so shrouded by the 
 mists of the distant past, that it has almost 
 become a myth. Scholars and Antiquaries 
 knew of it as the last great struggle of the 
 Angles and Danes of Northurabria for 
 separate and independent existence as a 
 kingdom in opposition to the efforts of the 
 Wessexian line of Anglican Kings to combine 
 the whole of the southern portion of Britain in 
 one undivided monarchy. 
 
 Egbert is reckoned as the first Saxo- 
 English King, but as far as Northumbria 
 was concerned, he could scarcely be con 
 sidered more than Bretwalda of the partially 
 uuiied Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, as although 
 he subdued the Northumbrians, he was 
 only able to keep the turbulent race, jealous 
 as they were of their liberties and in-
 
 36 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 dependence, undei his sceptre in a species 
 vassalage, their line of Anglian, afterwards 
 of Danish Kijig continuing in succession, but 
 in a state of semi-independence and fre- 
 quently struggling to free tiiemselves from 
 their condition as tributory rulers, during the 
 reigns of Egbert's successors until Athel- 
 stone assumed the Anglican crown. He it 
 was who really became the first monarch of 
 South Britain or England in its entirety, and 
 this dignity he acquired by his great victory 
 ever the Northumbrians at the battle of 
 Bruuanburh. 
 
 The interval between Egbert and Athel- 
 stone, was in Northumbria a period of com- 
 plete anarchy, one succession of Danish in- 
 vasions ; conflicts between the Danes and the 
 Angles ; civil war between rival factions, the 
 devastation of lands ; burning of villages, 
 churches, and monasteries, murders and 
 massacres being matters of daily occurrence. 
 King succeeded King in I'apid succession, 
 sometimes Anglian, at others Danish, scarcely 
 oiie of whom died a natural death. Eanred 
 was reduced to vassalage by Egbert in 827, 
 after whom followed 3sl;erht and JElla, the 
 latter of whom was the murderer of iiagnar 
 Lodbrog, the Dane, in the dungeon of Creyke 
 Castle, which brought over his sons, Hinguar 
 and Hubba, to revenge his death, by whom
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 37 
 
 Osberbt and iEIla were slain in batfle, and 
 there followed a succession of Danish Kings, 
 the kingdom being' sometimes divided into 
 three or four portions, held by Danish rulers, 
 but the whole period was one of confusion, 
 fighting' and murder, which through the 
 absence of annalists is exceedingly obscure. 
 
 At length in 741, Anlaf, son of Sightric, 
 came to the throne, who, determining to 
 free himself from vassalage to the Saxon 
 King of England, proclaimed Northumbria 
 an independent kingdom and himself an abso- 
 lute sovereign. Hence he was continually at 
 war with the Saxons, with varied success, 
 being several times deposed, and as frequently 
 recovering' his throne to wage fresh wars 
 with the Saxons, eventuall3' flying to Ireland 
 to make preparations, on an enormous scale 
 to recover his kingdom, and confine the 
 Saxons to that portion of Knglaud which lay 
 south of the I lumber, he claiming 'ill the 
 territory northward to the Tweed, and east 
 and west from sea to sea. 
 
 He contracted an alliance with Cou- 
 stantine. King of the Grampians, and the 
 Kings of Dublin, North Wales, and Strath- 
 clyde, also with the King of Norway, who 
 undertook to send an enormous fleet up the 
 Humber, manned by a host of fearless Scan- 
 dinaviau warriors, the other kings f uiaishiog
 
 38 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 contingents, numerous and well armed, and 
 it was to meet this formidable confederation 
 of forces that Athelstane marched northward, 
 encountering them at Brunanburh, and ob- 
 taining a complete and decisive victory ; 
 " slaying," as the Saxon Chronicle says, "five 
 kings and seven earls.'' 
 
 From this time North nmbria ceased to be 
 akingdom, either independent or in vassalage, 
 and was henceforth, until the Norman Con- 
 quest, governed by Viceroy Earls, appointed 
 by the Kings of Saxon England. 
 
 The question arrises naturally — where was 
 this momentous battle fought? and a most 
 perplexing problem it is, which has never yet 
 been satisfactorily answered, although 
 several who have investigated the matter, 
 have, in their own opinions at least, positively 
 pnt their fingers on the site. Camden, one 
 of our earliest antiquaries, placed it in 
 Northumberland not far from the Castle of 
 Bamborough, and this has never been dis- 
 proved excepting by assertion. It is a 
 question that formerly did not seem to claim 
 much attention from historians, but in more 
 recent times, it has been deemed more worthy 
 of research, and has become a subject of 
 warm controversy among antiquaries. Some 
 of these have formed theories very wide of 
 the mark, notably those who claim to have
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 39 
 
 found the site at Bourn, in South Lincoln- 
 shire; at Burnley, in Lancashire, and in 
 Cheshire. A correspondent of the Gentle- 
 niaiis Magazine in 1832, assumes to have 
 found it Barrow-on-Humber, in Lincolnshii'e, 
 and adduces some coincidental, geographical 
 features, which might have some force but 
 for the apparent fact that the battle was 
 fought north of the Humber. 
 
 From the circumstances that Athelstaue 
 called at Beverley on his march, to implore 
 the aid of St John, and left his sword in 
 pledge that if victoiious he would redeem it 
 with princely donations, and thato/< Itis return 
 he called for his sword and granted the 
 famous charter commencing — 
 
 "Als fre mak I thee 
 As hert may think or e^h may see," 
 
 ■with sundry privileges and immunities to the 
 town, it seems that the site lay northward or 
 westward of that town, and that the battle 
 was fought in either Yorkshire, Durham, or 
 Northumberland. 
 
 There have been two theories recently put 
 forth— one by l\[r Todd of Hull, who places 
 it at Little VVeighton, near Beverley ; the 
 other by Mr lloklerness, of Dridield, who 
 feela assured that the locale of the battle was
 
 40 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 at Battleburn, near Driffield. Botli p^entlemeri 
 support their assumptioDS by a series of most 
 plausible aro-umeiits, of a character that it 
 would be difficult to controvert. iStill, not- 
 withstanding- all these specious hypotheses 
 and, conjectures, ia lack of contemporary 
 evidence the problem remains unsolved. 
 
 Feedeeick Ross, F.R.H.S.
 
 Old Customs at York. 
 
 Old customs, oh ! I love the sound, 
 However simple they may be ; 
 
 Whate'er with time hath sanction found 
 Is welcome, and is dear to me." 
 
 John Claee. 
 
 Shrove Tuesday. 
 
 In oklen time, on this day, tlie Minster 
 was open to all comers, and it was the 
 custom for all the apprentices, journeymen, 
 and others to ascend the towers, and ring 
 one of the bells which they termed The 
 Pancake Bell, an amusement which was 
 pretty well exercised. When Dr Lake came 
 to the Minster he was much scandalised at 
 this custom and its abuses, and resolved he 
 would break through it at once, although 
 the Dean and the other clergy endeavoured 
 to dissuade him from it. Lake, however, 
 was determined to prevent the desecration 
 of the Tilinster, and resolved to make the 
 experiment, for Avhicli he had liked to have 
 paid very dear, for it was near costing him 
 his life ; however he made such a combustion 
 and mutiny that York never remembered or 
 saw the like. He began by reproving the 
 rabble, then by taking steps for tlieir expul- 
 sion, when they assailed him Avith brutal 
 ferocity and would have torn him to pieces 
 if some of the more moderate had not inter-
 
 42 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES, 
 
 posed and advised him to retire. " I have 
 laced death too often in the field," he replied 
 (alluding to his military experiences) " to 
 shrink from the danger of martyrdom in the 
 performance of my duty, but I should be 
 sorry if any of your lives were to be endan- 
 gered through your cruel and cowardly 
 attack on me. But leave the ground at your 
 bidding I will not." He was with difficulty 
 rescued, but continued, at the imminent peril 
 of his life, to reside in York till he had 
 convinced his ferocious adversaries that York 
 Minster was not to be converted into a place 
 of idle riot, and that the custom was one 
 more honoured in the breach than in the 
 observance. Dr Lake subsequently became 
 a Bishop, and was one of the seven who were 
 committed to the Tower in the reign of 
 James II. 
 
 ST. George's day. 
 
 Formerly on St. George's Field, now cut 
 through by the approach to the new bridge, 
 but then attached to the Guild House of St. 
 George, which stood near it, was celebrated 
 the festival of its patron saint. Here page- 
 ants were exhibited, and at their conclusion, 
 a sermon Avas preached from a pulpit to the 
 audience, who were sat on forms and benches 
 provided for the occasion.
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 43 
 
 At the present day. Englishmen are 
 reviving the ancient custom of keeping the 
 festival of their patron saint. 
 
 Not far from St. George's Field was kept 
 the now obsolete ducking stool brought 
 to the river side now and again for some 
 unfortunate woman, who had the reputation 
 of being a scold, and who was subjected to 
 the degrading punishment of being placed in 
 it and plunged three times into the river, 
 amidst the laughs and jeers of the lookers-on, 
 who assembled in large numbers at such 
 times. 
 
 Ascension Day 
 
 "Was, in by-gone days, devoted by the 
 authorities of each of the 24 parishes in York 
 to making their annual perambulation of the 
 parish boundaries. This " beating of the 
 bounds " was a great day, especially to the 
 young Yorker?, who followed in the wake of 
 the i)arish officials, and contrived to get a 
 large amount of fun at their expense. The lads 
 of All Saints' parish, North Street, provided 
 themselves with bundles of sedge, and while 
 the clerk was engaged in inscribing the 
 boundary at the specified places, they struck 
 liis le^s below the knee with their bundk^s. 
 The place nearest the clerk, or that which 
 gave the best chance of exercising this
 
 44 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 popular prerogative, was eagerly contended 
 for. 
 
 The publication of maps, especially those 
 of tie Ordnance Survey, interfered with 
 the. custom, and in some of the parishes the 
 perambulation was replaced by parish dinners 
 on that day, but they have been abandoned, 
 St. John's parish being the last co surrender. 
 
 Corpus Christi Day. 
 
 The great event of the year in mediaeval 
 York was the celebration of the Festival of 
 Corpus Christi, the feast of the Blessed 
 Sacrament, which took place on the Thursday 
 after Trinity Sunday. It was accompanied 
 by the exhibition of pageant plays upon 
 religious subjects, produced by the several 
 trade companies, each producing a pageant. 
 The plays were enacted on portable stages, 
 placed on wheels, enabling the latter to be 
 drawn from place to place. They were decora- 
 ted with tapestry and painted cloths, depicting 
 the appropriate scenes, the necessary music 
 being contributed by the waits and minstrels. 
 The ancient streets being so narrow, it was 
 necessary that the citizens should be separated 
 into several audiences, thus performances 
 were going on simultaneously in twelve 
 different parts of the city. The machines 
 were kept on Toft Green, and the first
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 45 
 
 pageant was always played at the entrance 
 to the Priory of the Holy Trinity, in 
 Micklegate. This interesting thirteen century 
 gateway was demolished a few years ago, to 
 the regret of many citizens. 
 
 The day following, the Friday after Corpus 
 Christi day, the procession took place, which 
 was somewhat similar to the religious proces- 
 sions of the continent at the present time, 
 and was conducted with all pomp and 
 splendour. Those taking part in it assembled 
 at the gateway of the Priory of the Holy 
 Trinity, and, at the appointed hour, the 
 procession commenced, the parochial clergy, 
 in their surplices, leading. Then the Master 
 of the Guild followed, invested with a silken 
 cape, and attended by the six Keepers of the 
 Guild, carrying white wands. The costly 
 shrine of silver, gilt, and decorated with a 
 profusion of jewels, enclosing a vase of beryl 
 iu which the sacred elements were deposited, 
 was borne in the midst by the Chaplains of 
 the Guild. The clergy and singers followed 
 chanting the proper services, and the 
 procession was accompanied by a great display 
 of crosses, tapers, banners, and torches. 
 After the ecclesiastics came the Civic 
 Authorities, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and 
 other members of the Corporation, habited in 
 their robes, attended by the city officers and
 
 46 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 others bearing lighted torches, followed by the 
 officers and members of the numerous trade 
 companies of the city, with their banners and 
 torches. The streets through which the 
 procession wended its way were crowded, the 
 houses being decorated with tapestry and 
 other hangings, and the road strewed with 
 rushes and flowers. From the Priory gates 
 it took its course to the Minster, where 
 a sermon was preached in the Chapter 
 House, at its conclusion the procession was 
 again formed, and proceeded to the Hospital 
 of St. Leonard, where the Holy Sacrament 
 was left. 
 
 St. Luke's Day 
 
 in York was formerly known as Whip-Dog- 
 Day, from the strange custom that the school 
 boys indulged in, of whipping all the dogs 
 seen in the streets on that day. The custom 
 is supposed to have originated from tha 
 following circumstance. In Pre-Reformation 
 times, a priest, whilst celebrating mass at this 
 Festival in York, accidentally dropped the 
 pix after consecration, which was immediately 
 snatched up and swallowed by a dog that 
 had been laid under the altar table. This 
 profanation caused the death of the dog, and 
 then the dog prosecution on this day began 
 in this city.
 
 yorkshire in olden times. 47 
 
 • Lammas Fair 
 
 comrnenced the day before Old Lammas Day 
 by the ringing of the bell at St. Michael's 
 Church, Spurriergate, at 3 p.m., when, in the 
 Sheriffs' Court on Ousebridge, the Sheriffs of 
 York gave up their authority in the city to 
 the Lord Archbishop or his representative by 
 delivering to him their white rods of office. 
 During this Fair, the Sheriff's power of 
 arresting any person was suspended within the 
 city and suburbs, the Archbisliop's repre- 
 sentative only having authority. At 3 p.m. 
 the day after Old Lammas Day the fiiir was 
 concluded, and as the church bell rings the 
 Archbishop's Bailiff re-delivers to the 
 Sheriffs of York their white rods, and there- 
 with their jurisdiction. At this Fair the 
 Archbishop received the tolls on animals and 
 wares at the several gates of the city in 
 coming in and going out, and also kept a 
 Piepoudre Court, for determining any diffe- 
 rences that might have occurred during the 
 Fair, the jury being empannelled out of 
 AVistow, a town within the Archbishop's 
 Liberty. 
 
 MARTINMAS. 
 
 Next to the Corpus Christi procession, the 
 annual riding of the Sheriffs was the great 
 show. It usually took place on the
 
 48 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 Wednesday, eight days after Martinmas. 
 The city waits, in their scarlet liveries and 
 silver badges, led the way -playing martial 
 airs ' on their instruments through the 
 crowded narrow streets; one of the waits 
 was more conspicnous than the rest, he wore 
 on his head a red tattered cap, a badge of 
 great antiquity, its nse or origin being 
 unknown. Following the band were the 
 Sergeants-at-Mace, Attorneys, and other 
 Officers of the Sheriff's Court, on horseback, 
 and habited in their gowns, then came the 
 Sheriffs on horseback, apparalled in their 
 black gowns and velvet tippets, their horses 
 being handsomely clothed. Each Sheriff bore 
 in his hand a white wand, his badge of office, 
 whilst each servant leading the horses carried 
 a gilded truncheon. Then followed a large 
 concourse of country gentlemen, citi;:;ens, &c., 
 on norseback numbering about four hundred. 
 The procession first rode up Micklegate into 
 the gateway of the Priory of the Holy 
 Trinity, where one of the Sergeants-at-Mace 
 made proclamation thus—" Yes ! &c. We 
 command, on our liege Lord's behalf, the 
 King of England, whom God save and keep, 
 that the peace of the King l)e well kept and 
 maintained within this city and the suburbs 
 thereof by night and by day with all manner 
 of men, both great and small, in pain that
 
 YOKKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 49 
 
 falls thereon. Also we command that no 
 man walk armed within the city by night or 
 by day except the officers assigned for 
 keeping the peace, in pain of forfeiting his 
 armour and his body to prison. 
 
 " Also we command that the bakers of the 
 city bake good bread, and that the brewers 
 of the city brew good ale. 
 
 *' Also we command that no man walk in 
 the city nor in the suburbs by uight witliout 
 light before him, i.e., from Pasche (Easter) to 
 Michaelmas after ten of the clock; and 
 from Michaelmas to Pasche, after nine of the 
 clock. 
 
 " Also we command that the lanes and 
 streets of the city be cleansed of all manner of 
 nuisance, that is of stocks of stones, of mid- 
 dings, and of all manner of filth on th® pain 
 that falls thereon. 
 
 " Also we command that no manner of men, 
 make any insurrection, congregation, or 
 assembly, within the city or suburbs, in 
 disturbance of the peace, nor in letting of 
 the execution of the common law, upon pain 
 of punishment, and all that he may forfeit to 
 the King. 
 
 '* Also that no common woman walk in the 
 street without a gray hood and a white wand 
 in her hand."
 
 5© YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 At tlie conclusion of the Proclamntion, the 
 proces.-ion weiuKs its waj- tliioiigli tlic prin- 
 ci});!! sweets of the city, making the t^ame 
 ])ioclainaiioii at tlie coiiieis of the street at 
 the M est side of Oiise Bri(i<:e, afier tliat ou 
 tlie corner of Castlegate and Ousepvte, then 
 at the corner of C(.ney Street and Stonegate, 
 near the Coininon Hall ; then airaiii at the 
 south gate of the Minstei-. After that they 
 rode to St Marygate Tower, .-umI ninde the 
 same indclaniation there. IJetnn ing tliey 
 rodethr' iii^h Pt'teri:ate, C^llieruiite. FossL'ate, 
 over the hridge into tlie VValmLfate. where 
 the prdchimalinii is again made; and. last!}', 
 tln-y retnrn into the Market Phice, in the 
 Pavement, where the same ceiemmiy being 
 I'ep ate<l, the Shejififs dt-pait to tlirir own 
 honses. In the evening the Slieiiff-^' Banquet 
 was liehl. u>ually at one of the imblic halls 
 in the cit\, at which mosi of the gcnllemeii 
 iu the proceshion were present. 
 
 The Twelve Days of Sanctuaky. 
 
 Ycole — Girthol, or tlie twelve days of 
 sanctuaty for all unthrifty folks coming to 
 the City during Christmas, was tlte most 
 remarkable of the old tustoms iu Yoik. 
 
 On St. Thomas's Day (the Apostle before 
 y oole), it was aucieatly the custom of the City
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 51 
 
 Sheriffs at the liearing of the c' urch bell of 
 All Hallows, Pavement, to attend the Mass 
 of St. Thoinas at the High Altar, and there 
 to offer at the Mass. The north door, where 
 the procession possibly emerged after the 
 Mass, possesses a beautiful early knocker, 
 and it is £ui){)Osed that it was used for the 
 purpose of sanctuary, that when a criminal, 
 fleeing from justice, was able to lay hold of 
 the knocker ho was safe from his jmi-sners. 
 From the church the ^heiiffs, with their 
 retinue, procee<led to the Pillory in the 
 Pavement, heie the Sergeants with their 
 brazen hoi'ns blew Yoole-liirllie, and made 
 Pioclamatidn. ''We comniaml tlnit the peace 
 of our Lord the Kuig be well kept, and mnin- 
 taiu'd by niglit and hy d;iy, &i:. ,"(is was used 
 in the [iniclamatiun of the biienfi's riding). 
 
 Also thati all manner of wh s. 
 
 thieves, dice })layers, and all other uiiilinfty 
 folk be welcome to the town, wliether they 
 come late or early, at, tlie reverence of the 
 high feast; of Yoole till the twelve days be 
 passed. 
 
 The Proclamation being duly made they 
 proceeded with the four sergeains to the 
 ancient Toll-Booth in Tlmisday Market (now 
 St. Sami'son's S((Uare), where w;i.s kept a 
 horn of brass beiouj^iug to cue of them and
 
 52 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 blew Yoole-Girthol. The other three 
 Sheriff's Si-rgeants were each provided with 
 a lioni, and went to each of the four City 
 Bars and blew Yoole-Girthol. 
 
 The Sheriffs, their ladies and officers kept 
 the high feast of Yoole by official entertain- 
 ments. In 1839 tlie brazen horn kept at the 
 toll-booth, and which used to be transferred 
 by the City Sheriffs to their successors as a 
 s.vmbol of office, was presented by the then 
 Siieriffs to tlie Museum, where it may now 
 be seen in the Hospitium. 
 
 It was also the custom on St. Thomas's 
 Day for one of the Friars of St. Peter's to 
 ride through the city on horseback with his 
 face to the horse's tail, guiding himself by 
 holding a rope instead of a bridle in one 
 hand, whilst with the other he held a 
 shoulder of mutton, over his back and on his 
 breast hung a cake, whilst his face was 
 painted to resemble a Jew. The youths of 
 the city rode with him, crying and shouting 
 Youl, Youl, with the officers of the city 
 riding before and making proclamation. 
 This custom was said to commemorate the day 
 the city was betrayed into the hands of the 
 Conqueror by two Friars, and the get-up 
 was supposed to represent one of them. At 
 the dissolution of monasteries the custom
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN" TIMES. 53 
 
 was abandoned as far as the Friar was con- 
 cerned in it, but the young men used to 
 dress up one of their companions like the 
 Friar and call him Youl, and continued the 
 custom. 
 
 On Christmas Eve mistletoe was carried to 
 the high altar of the Minster, anil afterwards 
 proclamation was made of " a public and 
 universal libertj'-, pardon and freedom to all 
 sorts of inferior and even wicked people at 
 the gates of the city, towards the four quar- 
 ters of Heaven." 
 
 Christmas. 
 
 The City Waits, until within the last few 
 years, used to perambulate the streets on five 
 successive early Monday mornings immedi- 
 ately preceding Christmas, and after serenad- 
 ing the citizens with an ancient air, proceded 
 to salute the heads of each important house 
 by name — " Good morning, Mr Smith ! Good 
 morning, Mrs Smith ! good masters and 
 ladies all ! Past one o'clock and a fine 
 morning !" The following lines describe 
 the York waits at the beginning of the last 
 century — 
 
 In a winter's morninp; 
 Long before the dawning 
 Ere the cock did crow, 
 Or stars their light withdraw,
 
 54 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 Waked by a hornpipe pretty. 
 
 Played along York city, 
 
 By th' help o'er night's bottle, 
 
 Damon made this ditty. 
 
 In a winter's nio;ht, 
 
 By moon or lanthorn-light, 
 
 Through hail, rain, frost, or snow, 
 
 Their rounds the music go; 
 
 Clad each in frieze or blanket, 
 
 (For either Heaven be thanked !) 
 
 Lined with wine a quart, 
 
 Or ale a double tankard. 
 
 Burglars send away. 
 
 And bar-.L;uests dare not stay 
 
 Of claret snoring sots 
 
 Dream oer their pipes and pots, 
 
 Till their helpmates wake 'em 
 
 Hoping music "11 make 'em 
 
 Find our pleasant Cliff, 
 
 That plays the Eigadoon ; 
 
 Candles four in the pound. 
 
 Lead up the jolly round, 
 
 White cornet shrill i' the middle, 
 
 Marches, and merry fiddle; 
 
 Cortal with deep hum, hum, 
 
 Cries out " We come, we come." 
 
 Theorbo loudly answers, "Thrum, 
 
 " Thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum !" 
 
 But their lingers frost nipt 
 
 So many notes are o'erslipt, 
 
 That you'd take sometimes 
 
 The Waits for Minster chimes; 
 
 And then to hear their music 
 
 Would make both me and you sick ;
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 55 
 
 And much more, too, to hear 
 
 A roopy fiddler call 
 
 With voice as Moll would cry 
 " Come, shrimps or cockles buy I 
 " Past three, fair, frosty morn 1 
 5' Good morrow, my masters all!" 
 
 In the year 1756, Jolm Camirlge, chief 
 musician to the Loiu Mayor and Corporation 
 of Yiirk. aii'i oiLrniiist <it' the Minster, c-un 
 posed, amongst other popular tunes for the 
 Cit}' Waits, a Grand Maroli on the occasion of 
 tlib I'ecepLion in York ottlin Prince of Wales, 
 afc'-rwards Kinic Geor";e the Fourth, The 
 City l);inil pla\e'i this tune .-igain and again 
 and it hecanie very popular. It v/as c-pe- 
 cially played in the Polonaise, an old 
 fa.shion^d cUnce, wlien the Prince hail the 
 Lady Mayoress f >r his partner. Some time 
 after, his Royal Highness seia a letter to the 
 Lord Mayor, saying that during the whole 
 of his siibst-quent journey the tune which he 
 hail lieurd played at York he had been 
 constantly whisiling. The Loiil Mayor 
 acquainted the composer of this, w'l.o gladly 
 sent a co|(y of liis march to the Prince, and 
 who, througli the Duk^i of Yoik gave it to 
 the Guards' b.in i, wlio have i-tdieved guard 
 lo its SI rain sinre, and which tune is the 
 well known " Duke of York's March."
 
 56 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 In 1835, the City Waits, who numbered 
 eight, were abolished by the Municipal Ee- 
 form Act, and were no longer in Corpora- 
 tion employ ; having, however, received fixed 
 salaries and their liveries, a question arose 
 as to whether they were entitled to compen- 
 sation for loss of office, which by an appeal 
 to a High Court was established, and re- 
 sulted in each of them being awarded some 
 £8 odd annually. 
 
 Punishments. 
 
 Amongst the instruments of punishment 
 beyond the Pillory in the Pavement, and the 
 ducking stool near the river, there were fixed 
 amongst others in the city for minor offences 
 the capon call; the thew (a kind of moveable 
 stocks) ; the whipping cart, and the stocks ; 
 an example of the latter still remains at the 
 entrance to the burial ground of St. Law- 
 rence. For greater offences there was the 
 gallows on Knavesmire, known as the 
 Tyburn. The ghastly custom was carried 
 out of fixing the heads of traitors upon long 
 poles and placing th^^m on the summit of the 
 City gateways, especially Micklegate Bar. 
 The last occasion upon which this Bar was 
 disfigured was in the year 1746, when the 
 heads of two rebels were set up; after staying 
 there for above seven years, they were stolen
 
 YORKSHIRl IN OLDIN TIMES. 57 
 
 during a dark night. The event created a 
 sensation, but a few months afterwards the 
 culprit was discovered, and at the Assizes 
 was sentenced to two years' imprisonment,'to 
 pay a fine of £5, and to And sureties for his 
 good behaviour for two years more. 
 
 In the olden times the city was lighted by 
 oil lamps, few in number, watchmen were 
 scarce, so that during the long evenings it 
 was necessary for small parties to be attended 
 by torch bearers, for whose convenience ex- 
 tinguishers hung at the sides of the doorway 
 for putting out the flambeaux when they 
 were no longer required. There yet remains 
 in Petergate the only example we have left 
 of a torch extinguisher. The sedan was a 
 favourite conveyance for a lady to be carried 
 over the then rough pavements, whilst for 
 longer journeys the flying coaches were uti- 
 lized, which often took a week to reach 
 London. Honour was not satisfied unless a 
 duel was resorted to, whilst amongst the old 
 amusements cock fighting and bull baiting 
 occuped a prominent position, the latter 
 being exhibited in Thursday Market (St. 
 Sampson's Square), in the centre of which 
 was formerly a large bull ring. Here were 
 also erected the hustings in election times 
 until the passing of the Ballot Act. 
 
 Gborge Benson.
 
 Elizabethan Gleanings. 
 
 I am not aware how it maj' be in the pre- 
 sent (liiy, but it was the wont ot the former 
 rulers of this country to have drawn up for 
 them elaborate •' hoiisehohl hooks," wherein 
 it iiiiiiht be seen liow much the kind's break- 
 fast was to cost [)er diem, who was to serve 
 it, how ilie ro>ai servants were to be fed, and 
 wiial wages were to be paid to men of all 
 rauksjfroui the L )rd Ciiamheriaiii to tiie Clerk 
 of the Kitchen and the turnspit. Occasionally 
 these l)noks tor the re^idatioii of the ro\aI 
 household went into details of the very minut- 
 est description. Thus, it is presciibed in some 
 of the household books, which of the lower 
 servants .«;hail Ije entitled by way of per- 
 quisite, to the shank bones of legs of mutton 
 and the leavings of cold meat. To the 
 h' usehold book compiled for "the .spacious 
 days of great Elizabeth" was appeixied a 
 statement of the "annual expense, civil and 
 military," which, as it casts some light not 
 oidy on the scale of wages in those days 
 but on the relative importance of certain 
 strong places in the realm, it seems worth 
 while to look through t > see what bearing it 
 it may have upuu Old Yorkshire.
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. $9 
 
 Wlien Queen Elizabeth occnpieii the 
 tlirone (»*' Ei;ul;iii<l tlieii' w;is a Cuiuicil nf ilie 
 Noiili. ciiiisisLJiijr of ;i I, Old Presiiieiit with a 
 salary of £1,000. Thrre wei'o seven coun- 
 cillids with salaries of £50 a year each, ami a 
 secretary, who was paid £3.3 GsSil. Ihe odd 
 shilliiijrs and pence suggest that this secretary 
 must have i)eeii a lawyer. Eacli drstrict ol 
 Eiiuland h id its •' rei'eivers of the revenues of 
 the Crowi.," there being <iie receiver for 
 Yorkshire, with a salaiy of £M)0. with £70 
 for '• poitage," and a £l'0 allowance. '1 hi^se 
 revei.ne.s were, of course, mainly from the 
 cnstoni.s ; and I tind this entry as lo King- 
 stoii-upon-Huil : — 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Customer ; fee, 20 
 
 lieward ; 53 6 8 
 
 Comptroler; tee, 3 6 8 
 
 Two lawyers liere, evidently. No other 
 Yorkshire port finds mention under this 
 head. 'I'liere was a Surveyor of the Queen's 
 Lands in each of the Yorkshire Ridings, each 
 with a fee of £13 6s. 8d. Then tliere were 
 special officers for exceptional duties, as 
 •' Keceaveis for the hon(jr of Ponifrct, with 
 tlie lordship of Kniresliurgh, and the late 
 college, lamis and chauntiey land, York hire ; 
 fee £36 13b 4d." By au accideutal note I
 
 6o YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 find that the receiver in this instance was 
 Richard Ramshare, who, if he had lived to 
 this day, wouhl probably have called himself 
 Ramshaw. There were also receivers for 
 Pickering and Tickhill, in Yorkshire, with 
 salaries of £5 each. 
 
 At Sandal Castle there was then an 
 " under captaine'' who was paid by the 
 Crown, his "fee per diem" being Is 4d. He 
 was permitted to keep a servant at a wage of 
 sixpence a day. In a table of " the number 
 of men appointed to be trayned up in every 
 shire throughout the realm, anno 1584," I 
 find these entries : — 
 
 Yorkshire 490 
 
 York and Kingstou-sit/)er-Hull 40 
 Beverlie ., 10 
 
 There were then "fugitive over the seas" 
 from Yorkshire, ''Thomas Clementes, gent.; 
 Margaret Clement, wido we; John Clement, 
 M.D. ; John Gryffen, and Richard Burton." 
 
 It will be seen that the contribution of 
 Yorkshire to the standing army, or train- 
 bands, was not large, but it was, neverthe- 
 less, larger than that of any other county, its 
 nearest competitor being Kent, with 430 
 men, Devon coming next with 400, The 
 gumma totalis was under 10,000, or, in exact 
 figures, 9,670.
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES, 6l 
 
 Whilst on this subject it will be interest- 
 ing to glance back for a moment to an earlier 
 reign. Tiie houseliold book of Edward III. 
 enables us to see what contributions York- 
 shire made to the navy of that able and 
 stormy-tempered king. To " the Northe 
 Flete" Hull contributed 16 '^shippes" and 
 4G6 mariners. York fitted out one small 
 ship, with nine mariners ; Grimsby (spelled 
 Grymesby), 11 shij)s, with 1 71 mariners, and 
 Scarborough one ship and 19 mariners. The 
 " some of the Northe Flete" was : — Shippes, 
 217 ; mariners. 4,521 ; the "some of all the 
 English Flete" being " shippes, 700 ; 
 mariners, 14,151." 
 
 Aaron Watson.
 
 The Fight for the Hornsea 
 Fishery. 
 
 A Trial by Combat. 
 
 The first beams of the morning sun came 
 over the trees that fringed Hoi-nsea Mere as 
 briglitly six hundred yet»rs ago as tliey do to- 
 day, but very different, upon at least one occa- 
 sion, was the scene wliich they lit up. The 
 Mere, or Marr, as it was then stvled, was the 
 centre of attraction to a large coiicoutse of 
 people, and e.-peciaUy to one portion of its 
 border were the steps of the crowd bent. 
 For the most part the multitude was com- 
 p sed of strangers, who seemed to he of the 
 military order, though there was a goodly 
 nnniber of tne fartn-seivants and others of 
 the district, as well as the lords of the 
 neijiliboiirinfi; manors. \\ hate'er their station 
 or appeai'ance, however, one subject was the 
 theme of conversation, and that was the 
 combat which was to be, tought tliat day by 
 the side of the picturesque little lake. The 
 lake itself, or raiher the right of fishing 
 thti'ein, was tlie object of the fii:hr.. The 
 Abbot of Meaux chiimed the right of taking 
 tue fisli iu llie southeru part of the waters,
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 36 
 
 wliile the Abbot of St. Mary's Abbej% York, 
 asserted that tlie liulit was liis alone. Now 
 at a time when i'.i.st <iays ccmiM only be made 
 feast (lay.s by a plentiful supply ot tisli, such 
 a privilege was one not lightly to be fore- 
 gone; so eiijier woithy monk held out for 
 the coveted prescri|)tiiin for his respective 
 house; They had tried the matter by means 
 of parchment and pen without settling the 
 vexed qiiestioi , so at lenuth it had been 
 decided to try the \ii'tue ol sword and battle- 
 hammer, by strength of arm and skill of eye, 
 which the vain superstition of the age 
 imagined woidd be nnerringly guided by 
 Heaven in the cause of the ri^ht. 
 
 Well, this sunnner's day in the year 
 12G0, was the da}-^ appoint( d for the trial. 
 All was gaiety and miitli ; everyone was too 
 much accustomed to arms to think this a 
 set ions matter, and even the twelve champ- 
 ions (six for each of the Abbots.) grind}'' 
 jol<e«l on the sacerdotal character of their 
 masters as lln-y doimed their bai)'el-sha[)e I 
 helmets, and put right the last buckle of 
 their padded leatlier armour, or ringeii mail, 
 and a(!juste<l the small caps or plate.s which 
 covert (1 tiieir joints. Ijeie, npoii palfieys of 
 beconnnu tlocilitv, wtiv nn tintiMl the rival 
 Abbots, each sunounded by no mean 
 letiuue of well-arined dependants. Theie
 
 64 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 stood, or rode slowly about the place, the 
 knight who had been appointed marshall, 
 and with his heralds kept order, appointing 
 places of vantage to strangers to view the 
 fight. He took notice also that none raoved 
 the boundary of stakes ; these had been 
 fixed the day before by a mounted horseman 
 swimming his steed across the Mere to 
 decide what was the exact limit of right to 
 be exercised by the victorious Abbot, which- 
 ever he might happen to be. At last all 
 was ready ; in a wide ring the two groups of 
 warriors stood facing each other, and but 
 awaited the signal to begin the fray. Oh ! 
 for the pen of some old chronicler of the an- 
 cient days to call up the forms of the stalwart 
 champions, to discourse to you glibly of 
 pourpoint and counterpoint, of gamhesons, and 
 poleyns and many other things which we, how- 
 ever, need perhaps not trouble much with 
 now ; let me briefly say that they were fully 
 armed in the panoply of their day, and that 
 it was, as nearly as may be, that of the 
 average appearance of the cross-legged 
 crusaders upon the tombs in our churches. 
 Each man had a shield, a pointless sword, 
 and either a pointed hammer, or a flail-like 
 mace. The six champions of Meaux (the 
 plaintifi's) had surcoats embroidered with a 
 cross, with birds in the angles 3 the others
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 65 
 
 had upon their surcoats what may have been 
 simply a large cross. 
 
 The herald's trumpet sounds. The mar- 
 shall has given the word to begin. The 
 combat has commenced, and every spectator 
 thrusts his chin eagerly over the shoulder of 
 the one in front, and with a beating pulse 
 feels all the high ecstatic pleasure of the field 
 echoed in his breast. 
 
 The two little forces rush swiftly at each 
 other like two herds of deer, and in a second 
 are in the heat of the strife. They meet ; 
 blows are delivered and parried — till down 
 with a crash falls groat Hubert, the best 
 champion of the Yorkists. He is up again, 
 — no, Brian of Meaux has struck his uplifted 
 shield, once, twice, thrice, till his arm is 
 bent, and he is prostrate once more. 
 Forward rush two others of York, bestride his 
 strugcrline: ficrure, and beat back his asailants, 
 and young Brian, with a plate picked off his 
 armour by Hubert's martel-de-fer, is bleeding 
 at the knee. Hubert rises, and the combat- 
 ants stand back, only to rush together again 
 a little to the right, where Gilbert and Ban, 
 both of the Meaux side, are attacking John 
 of the Ouse, who retreats as best he may. 
 Once again all the glittering swords are 
 scintillating in one confused anvil-striking;
 
 66 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 lange and parry, feint and thrust, succeed 
 each other fast and thick, so that tlie eye 
 cannot see quickly enough to note all the 
 feats of skill and strength' displayed. The 
 burly Hubert throws his shield at the head 
 of one opponent, felling him to the ground 
 senseless, while William of Atwick, not to be 
 out-done, hurls his shield spinning to the 
 edge of the lists, and with his mace — a heavy 
 ball studded with spikes swinging by a chain 
 from a staff — rushes like a wdiirlwind clean 
 through the York champions, and two fall 
 with bruised mail and bleeding limbs before 
 he is seized in the arms of John of the Ouse, 
 and cast headlong at the feet of his friends. 
 Panting and bleeding the sixes face each 
 other again, when the trumpet sounds, and a 
 brief interval is allowed for rest and 
 the washing of wounds. 
 
 Again the clarion peals, again the champi- 
 ons mix in the fray, and once more the eyes 
 of the spectators are all agog with greedy 
 appreciation of the sight. The sun rises, 
   and the heat increases, yet bout succeeds 
 bout, with the scales of victory poised almost 
 equally for each party. 
 
 The noon is passed in more wary fight 
 and longer intervals of rest.
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 6^ 
 
 The noon is gone by, and long shadows 
 trail slowly and silently across the lists ; the 
 combatants renerve themselves at each fresh 
 attack, and every incident of the morn 
 seems to be renewed, though now the war- 
 riors are bruised and battered, red with 
 blood where not washed with the streams 
 from their perspiring brows, and the blows 
 want some of the vigour of the early day. 
 The vesper bell of Nunkeeling Church is 
 -heard in a pause of the fight, and it seems 
 that the champions of the sword are as well 
 matched as those of the pen had been ; when 
 at the sound, feeling that the decisive hour 
 is come, the Yorkists, stung by the taunts of 
 some of the monks of Meaux who look on, 
 throw all their energy into one final effort. 
 Ban is hurled by a supreme effort of Hubert 
 clear out of the lists, and so is out of the fight 
 by the laws of combat, and the remaining five 
 arc unable to stem the torrent of blows which 
 come beating and rattling about their ears ; 
 shields already battered are broken, bruised 
 arms are beaten powerless, and two of the 
 Meaux champions lie in the dust from 
 grievous wounds, of which one of them 
 afterwards is to die. The others, after a brief 
 struggle, are thrown down, and the champions 
 of York have won !
 
 68 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 The shouts of the partizans of the Abbot 
 of St. Mary rent the air, so that the voice of 
 the herald, proclaiming the fishery theirs, 
 was scarcely heard, while the discomfitted 
 Abbot of Meaux and his friends found a 
 hundred reasons why their side had failed. 
 However, they accepted the defeat as became 
 them, though it was said that more than 
 one serious encounter was the result of that 
 day's work. Thus the monks of Meaux 
 lost for ever the right of fishing in Hornsea 
 Mere, and the Abbey table had to be 
 supplied from more propitious waters. 
 
 T. TiNDALL WiLDRIDGE.
 
 Folk Assemblies. 
 
 In England, for hundreds and hundreds of 
 years, it has been deemed one of the rights 
 of the people to publicly assemble for the 
 discussion of public questions, •without let or 
 hindrance. Though kings have tried to 
 suppress and abolish this right,it still lives and 
 flourishes bravely, and to-day, should any 
 common question agitate the public mind, 
 the mayor, or other chief person, summons a 
 town's meeting, for the consideration and 
 discussion of the matter. 
 
 In some of our large towns, Leeds, Glasgow, 
 &c., may be found Moot Halls, but our 
 subject deals chiefly with the legal and 
 judicial aflairs of our ancestors about a 
 thousand years ago, before these Halls were 
 established, and when the meetings were 
 held in the open ,air. The great difference 
 between the holding of a court now, and the 
 holding cf a folk moot in the days of the 
 Saxon and Dane has been brought about by 
 evolution. Altered circumstances have 
 broujrht about a different result. The in- 
 crease of the nation has been a potent factor 
 in the change. In the olden time, when the 
 population of the entire country was under
 
 7© YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 two millions, one court, for general purposes, 
 was sufficient for a district, if it Avere held 
 two or three times a year. Now there are 
 special courts for special purposes. Avhich are 
 held, in some cases, every day. But, in the 
 main, all are modelled on the lines of, and 
 to a great extent governed, as Avere the 
 courts of our early English forefathers. 
 
 It was the boast of our Anglo-Saxon and 
 Scandinavian ancestors that justice was 
 brought to every man's door, by the estab- 
 lishment of courts for shires, hundreds, and 
 tithings. It has been usual to ascribe the 
 establishment of this system to Alfred, 
 rightly surnamed the Great, but it is certain 
 that counties and their government by alder- 
 men and sheriffs existed long before his time, 
 as they are mentioned in the laws of Ina, 
 some three hundred years his predecessor. 
 Hundreds are first mentioned under Edgar 
 (957-975), and tithings under Knut (1016- 
 1035). 
 
 In dealing with questions of the society of 
 so long ago it is necessary to know how the 
 people were classified. The whole free popu 
 lation of England under the rank of royalty 
 Avas divided into tAvo great classes, eorls 
 (earls) and ceorls (churls), that is noble and 
 yeomen ; and as the affairs of each tribe were
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 7 1 
 
 directed by the eldest (ealdorman, alderman) 
 this name, ealdorman, became synonymus 
 with chief, and was the principal Anglo- 
 Saxon title applied to any man in authority. 
 Under the Danish monarchs, the word jarl 
 fearlj became an ofBcial title applied to a 
 governor, and the word thane supplanted the 
 word eorl <^earl) as a designation of nobility. 
 Ilius we have an official class, aldermen and 
 earls, with whom the bishops ranked ; a 
 class of nobles, designated thanes, who were 
 landed proprietors, who were liable to 
 military service on horseback, and therefore 
 equal to knights ; and between the thane and 
 the serf or slave was the ceorl, churl, or free- 
 men, the basis of their society, and all below 
 freemen were mere cyphers in the community, 
 only so many head to feed and keep in sub- 
 jection. 
 
 Every freeman was registered in some 
 tithing or other. Indeed every man was 
 obliged by law to place himself under the 
 protection of some lord, failing which he 
 might be seized as a robber. Each man was 
 bound, or had to be " hour" or bondsman, 
 for the good conduct of the other inhabitants 
 of the tithing. Hence our word neighbour — 
 a " nigh" or " near pledge." 
 
 In the English tongue, the freeman alone, 
 was known as " the man" — " the churl" —
 
 72 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 "the free-necked man" (whose long hair 
 floated over a neck that had never bent to 
 a lord) — " the weaponed nian" (who alone 
 bore sword and spear). His weapons were 
 the insignia of his freedom, and he alone 
 possessed the right of revenge or private 
 war, which was a great check npon lawless 
 outrage in that primitive society. The 
 punishment due for wrong-doing had to 
 spring from each man's personal action, and 
 every freeman was his own avenger for an 
 injury, either to himself, to his wife, to his 
 children, to his slaves, or to anything that 
 was his. But even thus early we can see 
 that there was a desire to modify and re- 
 strict this private revenge, by substituting 
 for it " blood-wite" or money compensation 
 for the injury done. The compensation was 
 assessed according to the injury inflicted, 
 and the rank of tlie injured one. But the 
 price of life or limb was not paid by the 
 wrong-doer to the wronged one, but by the 
 family or house of the wrong-doer to the 
 house or family of the wronged one. At a 
 later period, their kings imposed penalties, 
 besides compensation, on anyone who took 
 revenge before he had demanded legal re- 
 dress. 
 
 This scale ef money compensation could 
 not be drawn up without a conference of
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 73 
 
 freemen ; and thus was held a folk moot, on 
 the moot hill or at the foot of the sacred 
 tree round Avhich their homesteads clustered, 
 and where the whole community met to ad- 
 minister its own justice and frame its own 
 laws. 
 
 A government for each tribe was formed 
 on the model of their township government, 
 and indeed the government of the whole 
 country (when finally united under the rule 
 of one king) was modelled thus. For what 
 was their country to them but one vast home 
 and peopled by one immense family. Some 
 of their laws recognised this as a fact, that 
 an injury done to an individual was not done 
 to him alone, but to the commonwealth. We 
 still recognise this, especially if wrong is 
 done to an English citizen abroad. 
 
 This then was their model — a presiding 
 chief, the leading men proposing and debat- 
 ing, and all the freemen saying " Yea'' or 
 " Nay." Every freeman was a voter, and 
 had a right to attend carrying his weapons. 
 But the attendance at these moots were some- 
 times so poor (not in the Danelagh, where 
 the inhabitants had a natural liking for, and 
 were proud of, and took great interest in, 
 these folk meetings) ; but in Saxon England 
 that it had to be enforced by law. Such law
 
 74 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 maintaining that tlie interests of the common- 
 wealth are paramount, and superior to all 
 private interests. Thus a quorum, or mini- 
 mum number was fixed, and summoned to 
 attend ; and Athelstan ordered punishment 
 to those who refused. Lapse of years and 
 diminishd interest practically limited it to 
 those we were summond. 
 
 We have noticed that the freeman attended 
 armed, but armed men when beaten at law, 
 were apt, in their excited and angry mood, 
 ana in spite of -heavy penalties on all brawl- 
 ing and breaking of the peace at these moots, 
 to fall back on their weapons; and unseemly 
 brawls and bloodshed finally caused the 
 abolition of the practice of attending with 
 weapons. 
 
 The penalty for even murmuring or stir- 
 ring at the Tynwald Meeting in the Isle of 
 Man was hanging and drawing. The people 
 had one chance of conducting themselves 
 with propriety. If they failed to do so then 
 no more opportunity was ofl'ered. 
 
 Like all idolaters, the Anglo Saxons and 
 Scandinavians were very superstitious and 
 were very fearful of witchcraft, hence all 
 their courts were held openly, in the open 
 air, sometimes on the banks of a river, 
 or in some place perhaps sacred in its
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 75 
 
 associations, and sometimes on anartificial 
 hill, according to the locality. If the hill 
 were artificial it was composed of earth 
 brought from all parts of the district in 
 which it was situated. Dotted up and 
 down the country, here and there, we still 
 find remains of these ancient meeting places ; 
 and doubtless more could be found, if 
 only this branch of antiquarian research 
 were well worked, for little has been done 
 in this direction save by a few zealous 
 antiquaries in a few counties. In this respect 
 even our Ordnance Survey Maps are mislead- 
 ing, until the true meaning of their 
 errors is known. Moot Hill is most 
 generally given as Moat Hill. In the 
 East Riding we have one unmistake- 
 able Moot Hill, one which bears its name 
 even to the present day. The moot hill for 
 Driffield Hundred is to be found at the north 
 end of Driffield, not far from the Scarbro' 
 Eoad. The street leading past it 
 is now Gibson Street, but once it was Mood 
 Hill, a corruption of Moot Hill. The name 
 is however preserved in Moot Hill Terrace, a 
 row of houses on the lower side of the grass 
 field in which the hill is situated. The hill 
 is in a good state of preservation, being well 
 rounded on the north-west side, and, having 
 been formed on a rather steep declivity, the 
 top is level, forming a little plateau. There
 
 76 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 are two curved ascents, one on the north and 
 the other on the south side ; and the height 
 of the hill on the west side is between twenty 
 and thirty feet. Not far from the foot of 
 the hill runs a beck of clear water, and in the 
 grassy field across the stream are the remains 
 of the royal castle that once lifted its thick 
 massive walls above the forest which covered 
 this district. One of its owners, King Alfred of 
 Northumbria, is buried about a mile away in 
 Little Driffield Church ; and it was in this 
 castle, doubtless, that the laws were signed 
 and sealed, after their proclamation from the 
 Moot Hill. 
 
 John Nicholson.
 
 Quaint Gleanings from the Parish 
 
 Register Chest of Kirkby 
 
 Wharfe. 
 
 From Queen Elizabeth to Queen Victoria 
 is a lengthy period, and lull of stirring inci- 
 dents in the history of England. Three cen- 
 turies separate them, yet for almost the 
 whole of those three centuries the registers 
 of my late retired rural parish" have been 
 carefully preserved, and the records of three 
 hundred years are all contained in one small 
 iron chest. Into what scanty room is com- 
 pressed the history of an entire parish of 
 seven hundred souls for all those years ! 
 That chest seems fitly to represent the iron 
 hand of Time seizing and pressing in its 
 tight grasp the quickly succeeding genera- 
 tions. And many a moral may the minister 
 who is the guardian of such records gather 
 as from time to time he turns over those 
 yellow, closely-written pages. Though it is 
 his first and highest duty to make himself 
 acquainted with the living inhabitants of his 
 parish, and to minister to their bodily and 
 spiritual requirements, yet he soon feels a 
 curiosity to know something of those who 
 
 * Kirkby Wharfe.
 
 78 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 have gone before — the ministers who have 
 preceded him, and the people amongst whom 
 they dwelt — now swept away like the autumn 
 leaves into the mournful desolation of the 
 past. And that Past is buried in the iron 
 register chest. Thither, therefore, he oft- 
 times resorts. He digs down into the ages 
 that are gone and brings to light the records 
 of those who have long been forgotten, and 
 whose very names would have perished from 
 the earth if they had not been preserved by 
 the careful pens of his predecessors. There 
 he may trace the baptisms, the marriages, 
 the funerals of successive generations 
 chronicled by successive ministers, — people 
 and pastor alike appearing for a little while 
 and then vanishing away. He notices the 
 change of handwriting, betokening the change 
 of minister. He observes it firm and bold 
 at first, as of one in the vigour of middle life, 
 and gradually he sees it become feeble and 
 faltering ere it altogether ceases, all in. the 
 space of a few pages. Then a new officiating 
 minister appears on the scene, and the funeral 
 of the preceding incumbent having been duly 
 registered, the confident hand of his successor 
 takes up the pen and pursues the chronicle 
 of life and death, soon in his turn to resign 
 it to a stranger. There are no books in the 
 minister's library more profitable for occa- 
 sional study than the parish registers. There
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 79 
 
 he learns how soon the people among whom 
 he labours will have passed away, like their 
 forefathers — how quickly he himself will have 
 to resign his office and his dwelling-place to 
 another ; and he girds himself up to do the 
 work of the. present. He desires to leave 
 behind him, if not in earthly registers, yet in 
 another " book of remembrance," kept not in 
 iron chests, but in a more secure and enduring 
 place where moth and rust corrupt not — the 
 lasting record of faithful labours done while 
 it was day. 
 
 But the registers are not altogether mourn- 
 ful, reminding us only of the sorrowful end 
 of weary life. The baptisms tell of the 
 gladness of motherhood triumphing over 
 pain, and the happy gathering of families 
 to the christening of the little one that has 
 long since grown old and grey. And the 
 register of marriages is a long record of 
 bright faces, and merry peals, and bounding 
 hearts ; and every separate signing of names 
 becomes, in the language of Tennyson — 
 
 " Mute symbol of a joyful morn, 
 To village eyes as yet unborn." 
 
 And scattered throughout the registers and 
 the other documents contained in the parish 
 chest there are little traits of character and 
 indications of feeling which reward the
 
 8o YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 diligent investigator. There are few chests 
 from which there may not be culled some 
 illustrations of bygone customs and some 
 allusions to the history of our country which 
 are exceedingly interesting. The old parish 
 accounts, which were formerly drawn up by 
 the clergyman, and which are' often found 
 preserved along with the registers, abound in 
 curious facts and hints, throwing light upon 
 the past. 
 
 From these various ancient documents, as 
 now existing in the chest belonging to my 
 late parish, I propose giving a few extracts 
 which, with the accompanying comments, 
 may prove interesting illustrations of the 
 life of former generations, and may furnish 
 some usej'ul suggestions for the present day. 
 As my latest extract will refer to a period 
 now about a century past, and as the connec- 
 tion of a clergyman's family with the parish 
 in which he has officiated generally ceases 
 with his death, there will be no danger of 
 my hurting the feelings of any friends of the 
 departed vicars of my late parish, when I 
 now proceed to speak of the censorious vicar, 
 the domestic vicar, the ene'-getic vicar, the 
 methodical vicar, and the litigious vicar. 
 
 The censorious vicar comes upon the scene 
 in the year 1628 and signalizes his entrance
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 8 1 
 
 on the duties of his parish by three notices 
 in the registers reflecting on the conduct of 
 his immediate predecessor. Three times 
 over he pecords in Latin, "Through the 
 carelessness and negligence of the preceding 
 vicar all the names of persons baptzed — 
 married — buried — were omitted from the 
 year of our Lord 1623 up to the present 
 time. — Tho. Clarke." Now, no language 
 can be too strong to apply to such culpable 
 remissness in the discharge of a public trust, 
 but that language would come better from 
 the lips or the pen of any other than the 
 successor of him who had been guilty of the 
 grave offence. For a man "to dwell on the 
 faults of his predecessor in office shows at 
 least a want of proper humility. And it is 
 scarcely the part of a wise man thus to draw 
 the attention of the Avorld to his own 
 conduct, and to invite them to look for 
 instances, which may probably soon be found, 
 of his own fallibility. For the sake of their 
 oflBce it is better to throw a veil over the 
 shortcomings of those who have held it, 
 than by unnecessarily exposing their faults 
 to drag the office itself into the dust. Let 
 us speak tenderly of those who have gone 
 before us, even as we shall need the kindly 
 consideration of those who come after us. 
 " De mortuis nihil nisi bonum" is as much 
 the dictate of prudence as of charity.
 
 82 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 This sentiment is singularly enforced in the 
 very instance of our censorious vicar. For 
 when he had passed away, and the parish 
 chest came into the hands of his successor, 
 what now is the state of the registers ? 
 
 * Kirkby Wharfe, Girmston, near Tadcaster, 
 Yorkshire. 
 
 Surely there will be no "carelessness or 
 negligence " visible in any part of them ! 
 The " preceding vicar" will be found immacu- 
 late this time ! There will be no room for 
 censure now. Alas ! for the fallibility of the 
 virtuous and the infirmity of the strong ! 
 For what do we read from the pen of the 
 next clergyman, in the register of baptisms ? 
 " Memorandum. That when Mr. Fra. Sher- 
 wood entered vicar he found the register 
 omitted till May, 1642, from the year above, 
 viz. 1639." In the register for marriages — 
 '^ Memorandum. That when I, Francis 
 Sherwood, entered vicar, I found the register 
 neglected from the year 1639 till the present 
 1648." And again there is a similar memo- 
 randum in the register of burials. Observe, 
 there is here only a notice of the fact, 
 without any reflection on the character of 
 the previous vicar. But how strange that 
 the man who commenced his duties with 
 such a flourish of self-sufficiency and 
 censoriousness, should at the close of them
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 83 
 
 be found as wanting as his faulty predecessor 
 in the discharge of his responsible office ! 
 "Let not him that girdeth on his harness 
 boast himself as he that putteth it off." 
 
 But we pass on to tht" domestic vicar= 
 William Kaye, Master of Arts, who held the 
 living from 1668 to 1704. There is a curious 
 old account book belonging to this vicar, 
 which contains in his own handwriting all 
 the tithes he received for thirty-six years. 
 The separate items of payment as they 
 annually recur appear to have been for 
 " House, Easter due, kine, plough, fat beef, 
 fowls, bees, forge, orchard, wool, pigs, geese, 
 dovecote, kiln, sheep, lambs, servants." The 
 payments of one parishoner are given as an 
 example : — 
 
 Wm Pick. House M. Easter Due 8d. Kine 3s. 4d. 
 Plough Id. Geese and Turkeys 2s. 63. BeefSd. 
 Orchard 4s. Servants 2s. Total 13s. 7d. 
 
 "What endless trouble and ill-will such a 
 system of remuneration must have stirred up 
 between pastor and people ! How painful 
 it must have been for the unhappy parson ! 
 How irritating to his parishioners ! He 
 could not take an evening stroll down a quiet 
 green lane without being suspected of a de- 
 sign to look after his shax'e of the apples and 
 plums in the adjoining orchard. He could 
 not make a call upon one of his farmers
 
 84 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 without being supposed to be counting up 
 the geese and the turkeys. He could not walk 
 past a sheltered cottage without being 
 charged with casting an evil eye on the bee- 
 hives. He must have been often regarded 
 as the common enemy of his people, ever 
 lying in wait for their small profits, and 
 falling on the gardens and orchards like a 
 blight or a mildew ! Let us be thankful 
 that the rural society of the present day is 
 not torn asunder by such an unfortunate 
 system, but that by the commutation of 
 tithes, a fixed payment is settled on every 
 house and holding which the tenant regards 
 as ncufehing more than part of his rent. 
 
 But I have alluded here to this particular 
 titiie-book because, on its outer leaves, there 
 are some very interesting entries of another 
 kmd. By examining the registers, we find 
 that our domestic vicar was so unhappy as to 
 be left a widower in the year 1&80 : " Eli;i;a- 
 beth, wife of William Kaye, vicar of this 
 parish, buried Dec. 22, 1680." The care of 
 his family, consisting of a little girl of seven 
 (•'Bapt., 1673, Anna ffilia Gulielmi Kaye, 
 vie, paroch. Ober. 21"), and one son, seems 
 now to have fallen entirely on the vicar, 
 unassisted by any female friend or house- 
 keeper ; since from this date we actually find 
 the weekly washing accounts for himself and
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 85 
 
 his little daughter in his own handwriting 
 upon the blank pages of his tithe-book. For 
 example : 
 
 " Cloaths at washing, Jan, 9, 1681. 
 
 " 1 Shirt and Waistcoat, 6 Hank, 2 caps, 11 
 Bands, 3 Socks, 11 Cuffs." 
 
 " Jan. 30.— 2 shirts, 8 Bands, 2 Caps, 4 hank, 1 
 ■wastcoate, 2 pare socks, 3 pr cuffs, 1 pr sheet and 
 pillovvbear." 
 
 " Jan. 30.— Nancy's Cloaths.— 2 sh : & 3 Apr : 2 
 night coifes & 3 ffrontlets, 2 bibs, 1 pr of Ruffles, 
 2 pr cuffs, 2 Tuckers, 1 hanli.'' 
 
 Very touching is the enumeration of this 
 poor little motherless girl's neat Avardrobe, 
 so carefully worked for her by loving hands, 
 now still and cold in the grave ! We can 
 almost fancy we see her, Avalking by the side 
 of her fond father in his gown and bands to 
 church, dressed in her "ruffles and ffrontlets, 
 and tuckers, and cuffs" — at least one bright 
 sunny spot in the widower's wintry desola- 
 tion. Alas ! she was not left long to solace 
 him. Among the burials, two years after, 
 1683, appears the melaneholy notice of 
 Nancy's death : 
 
 " Anne, daughter of William Kaye, Clerke, by 
 Elizabeth his Wife, dyed of ye small Pox at 
 Yorke & was buried at Snt Helen's Church Sept. 
 11. 1683." (Probably she had gone to school at 
 York.) 
 
 How much sorrow is compressed into this 
 brief record ! How touching is the mention
 
 86 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 of the dead mother along with the departed 
 child ! How sad that the dear little girl 
 should be buried so far from the quiet country 
 church where her mother lay, and near which 
 she herself had played in her happy infancy 
 — especially as the churchyard of St. Helen's, 
 York, has long ago been desecrated, and no iv 
 forms a paved square resounding all day long 
 with the traffic of the metropolis of the north ! 
 
 Alas ! for her poor father ! " A stricken 
 man was he !'' However, he had still one 
 boy remaining. But he was soon to be 
 deprived even of him ; for, in the register 
 of burials of 1694, we find the following 
 entry : 
 
 •' Wm. son of Wm. Kaye, Gierke, dyed April 
 5th, being Easter Eve, and was buried April 7, 
 1694." 
 
 That is a sweet touch of faith and hope 
 very affecting and very reassuring — "being 
 Saster-Eve." It is not for us to sorrow as 
 those without hope, when our dear ones are 
 committed " earth to earth, ashes to ashes, 
 dust to dust/' since, in the words of the 
 Collect for Easter-even (which must have 
 comforted the good vicar's heart thatdarkday) 
 "through the grave and gate of death we 
 and they shall pass to our joyful resurrection 
 for His merits who died and was buried and 
 rose again for us." There was nothing left
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 87 
 
 to the poor vicar now but his parish and his 
 garden ; and we find in the tithe-book the 
 following interesting entry for 1698 : 
 
 " Ro : Addinell : paid to him for garden 10s ; 3 
 trees, 3s. 6d.— seede, Is.— Rose trees, Is.— in all, 
 10s. 6d." 
 
 So his leisure hours were occupied with 
 his fruit-trees and his flowers. Perhaps the 
 old-tashioned creeping rose-trees, with their 
 variegated petals, which may even yet be 
 seen in the vicarage garden, are descended 
 from the rose-trees which the old vicar 
 planted two centuries since to solace the 
 loneliness of his declining days. 
 
 There only remains one entry more — and 
 not the in vicar's handwriting — to wind up 
 the story of his life : 
 
 " 1704 Wm. Kaye, Clerk and Vicar of this Parish 
 — buried Jan. 6, 1704-5." 
 
 Before, however, passing on to the next 
 vicar, it will be interesting to give a speci- 
 men of the parish accounts during the time 
 of Mr. Kaye as kept by him ; — 
 
 The Churchwardings Accounts £ s, d. 
 
 for the year 16'J7 : — 
 To a Minister's Wife &seaven childn 10 
 To y« Prisoners in Yorlt Castle ... 1 
 To a man yt lost his corn & goods by 
 
 seabreak 6
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 88 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 Spen Iwith our neighbouring minis- 
 ters wn they preach' d 2 6 
 
 For ringing on the day of thanks- 
 giving 
 
 For splicing Bell Ropes 
 
 For ringing flftof November 
 
 To a poor Minister 
 
 For ringing on New years day 
 
 T® two poor Scholars 
 
 To two men that lost all by seabreak 
 
 To a dumb man 
 
 To a poor man who had wife and 
 children and nothing to live on (1700) 2 
 
 The mention of several persons avIio lost 
 tkeir property " by seabreak," reminds us of 
 the constant encroachments of the sea on the 
 eastern coast of Yorkshire, by which whole 
 villages, with their churches and church- 
 yards, have been swept away ; and the tide 
 now rises and falls, and stately ships sail by, 
 where once the corn waved, and cottages 
 smiled in the sunshine, and congregations 
 gathered to the sound of the church-going 
 bell. On some of our maps we Still read 
 such melancholy notices as these : *' Here 
 stood Auburn, which was Avashed away by 
 the sea ; " " Hartburn, washed away ; " 
 " Hyde, washed away." 
 
 The Day of Thanksgiving, referred to 
 above, was probably for the Treaty of 
 Ryswick, Uctober 29th, 1697. when William 
 III. of England, and Louis XIV. of France, 
 and the other contending powers, agreed to
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 89 
 
 allow Europe to enjoy, for a brief space, 
 the blessings of peace. How thankful our 
 country felt for this respite from the burden 
 of war, may be gathered from the heartiness 
 with which the good people even of this 
 remote parish took to the ringing of their 
 bells, which must have been going most 
 of the day, if we may judge from the 
 quantity of ale consumed in the belfry, 
 and the shattered state of the ropes 
 when the rejoicings were over ! — the next 
 item in the accounts being " for splicing the 
 the bell-ropes." The ringers had now got 
 their hand in, and went to work with a will 
 on " the Fift of November," when their Pro- 
 testant feeling appears to have been even 
 more strongly indulged than their patriotic 
 thankfulness for the peace — at all events 
 twice as much ale was allowed for the day's 
 work ! But in those days, when King James 
 II. was still alive, and the exiled dynasty, and 
 with it the Eoman Catholic religion, might 
 possibly be restored, there must have been a 
 depth and reality in the rejoicings of the 
 fifth of November, which are wanting now ; 
 although the very same bells still ring every 
 year to celebrate the defeat of the " Popish 
 conspiracy." The fact, also, of the arrival 
 in England of King William III. on this 
 same day was yet fresh in the memories of the 
 people. So loyalty to the king", and zeal for
 
 90 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 the Church, found a noisier utterance than 
 usual in the ringing of this Fifth of November, 
 It is pleasant to think that our good domestic 
 vicar was a staunch supporter of King Wil- 
 liam and the reformed Church of England. 
 
 His immediate successor, Mr Massey, 
 whom I have distinguished by the name of 
 the energetic vicar, held the living for only 
 six years. He appears to have been un- 
 married, and having no family cares, to have 
 devoted himself to Church improvements. 
 For the "new vicar," as he is called, had no 
 sooner come into residence, than he held a 
 meeting for the purpose of obtaining fresh 
 parish books and registers. The next year, 
 the " great bell " was mended ; the seats at 
 Church were re-arranged, and the bells were 
 hung with great rejoicings. A new surplice 
 was obtained, and greater decency was 
 secured in the services of the Church, by the 
 appointment of a dog-whipper! Two years 
 after the steeple was pointed, the roof having 
 previously been attended to. The following 
 year was signalized by a general " beauty- 
 fieing " of the fabric ; and in the last year of 
 our energetic vicar's life, the " church- 
 bridge " was restored. 
 
 The following extracts from the parish 
 accounts, as kept by Mr. Massey, oaunot fail
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 9 1 
 
 to interest the reader : — 
 
 1704. 
 
 The Accounts of Thomas Shilleto & Thomas 
 Stothard, Churchwardens for ye ear 1704 :— 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Impr for Bread & Wine at Whit- 
 sunday 00 09 02 
 
 To Robert Barker for Sheeps- 
 shanks for hanging ye Tiles ... 00 02 06 
 
 Spent wn Mr Massey came 1st to 
 Kirkby 00 02 00 
 
 Spent upon the new Vicar ... 00 01 00 
 
 Spent at a meeting abt ye Parish 
 books and Register 00 01 00 
 
 To James Wiggins for a spade & 
 shovel 00 03 00 
 
 Given ye Ringers upon ye Victory 
 at Hochstat in Bavaria ... ... 00 02 00 
 
 Spent on ye 5th of Novembr ... 00 02 06 
 
 For nales to mend ye Bier ... 00 00 02 
 
 1705. 
 
 Spent wn ye Great bell was 
 mended & wn ye others were bar- 
 gained to be repaired ... ••- 09 03 00 
 
 Paid for advice about yc seats in 
 ye church ... 
 
 Spent wn ye Bells were hung ... 
 
 Spent at ye Perambulation 
 
 Paid for a new surplice ... 
 
 Paid Rich : Richardson for whip- 
 ping ye dogs out of church... ... 00 03 00 
 
 1706. 
 
 To ye Dog Whipper ." ... 00 03 00 
 To ye Ringers on a day of Thanks- 
 giving . 00 03 00 
 
 Paid on a ringing day (Ramilies ?) 00 08 06 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 06 
 
 00 
 
 07 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 16 
 
 00 
 
 02 
 
 16 
 
 00
 
 9* YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 1707. 
 
 Spent at ye Letting of ye Steeple 
 to be pointed ... ... qO 02 GO 
 
 Paid ye workmen for doing it by 
 agreement 03 00 00 
 
 i'aidiimgers on Thanksgiving day 00 01 06 
 
 1708. 
 Paid for Beautyfieing ye Church 08 00 00 
 
 1709. 
 
 Paid to Ringers Thanksgiving dav 00 02 06 
 Paid for mending the Church- 
 bridge going to Ulleskelf 00 02 06 
 
 1710. 
 
 Paid for Ale when strangers 
 preached ... ... ... 5 6 
 
 To 3 poor men one of wch came 
 when Mr Massey was buried ... 1 
 
 A few remarks may be appended to the 
 foregoing extracts. 
 
 The "sheepshanks" used for hanging the 
 tiles orslates on the roof of the church were 
 well suited for the purpose, being more dur- 
 able than wooden pins. Some of them were 
 actually found in their places when the 
 church was restored in 186u. 
 
 The special mention of the " Victory at 
 Hochstat in Bavaria," better known as the 
 battle of Blenheim, is highly interesting. 
 " It was a famous victory," and the sensation
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OtDEN TIMES. 93 
 
 it created in the world extended even to this 
 omt-of-the-way villagCi which was not too far 
 off for the ripple of excitement to reach it, 
 and set the bells a ringing in proud exulta- 
 tion. 
 
 And other victories followed in such quick 
 succession that it was no wonder the bells 
 required repairing. Those were glorious 
 days for England, but they weighed rather 
 heavily on the country parishes, what with 
 the paying of the ringers, the splicing of the 
 ropes, and the mending of the bells, not to 
 mention the trifle they added to the National 
 debt 1 
 
 With regard to the payment made for the 
 " beautyfieing " of the church, we may be 
 allowed to question the appropriateness of the 
 term used, and even to indulge a wish that 
 our good vicar's energy had been expended 
 in other directions. If to build an unsightly 
 porch — with a horizontal beam of wood 
 instead of an arch — in front of a Norman 
 doorway, special care being taken to conceal 
 the ancient ornamentation, is to " beautyfie " 
 a church, then our active-minded vicar suc- 
 ceeded admirably in his purpose. And if to 
 pebble-dash the tower from top to bottom, 
 and to insert sash windows in the nave, and 
 to darken the interior with a heavy gallery,
 
 94 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 are improvements in eccelesiastical architec- 
 ture, then a great mistake was committed 
 when all this " beautyfieing" was carefully 
 undone at our recent restoration. 
 
 That is a sad but pleasing entry about the 
 " poor man who came when Mr. Massey was 
 buried." In vain we wonder why and 
 whence he came. He must have come out of 
 real love, for the vicar was dead. Perhaps 
 he had met with some great kindness from 
 the departed minister, or received the living 
 Word from his lips, and wished to show his 
 gratitude by attending as a mourner at his 
 funeral. Our vicar could scarcely have shown 
 so much zeal for church improvements, with 
 out possessing a real desire to do his people 
 good. When we see the scaffolding we 
 expect also to see the edifice rising within. 
 Let us hope that the spiritual building was 
 helped forward by the labours of our ener- 
 getic vicar, and that the "poor man who 
 came when he was buried " was one of many 
 who received benefit from his ministry. It 
 is only such spiritual results of our labours 
 that bear the stamp of immortality. 
 
 But we must pass on to our methodical 
 vicar, Mr. Eichard Sugden, who held the 
 living from 1711 to 1727. The registers and 
 accounts were kept with a neatness and
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 95 
 
 exactness which are quite remarkable. His 
 handwriting is beautiful. He drew up a list 
 of the early vicars of the parish, which may- 
 still be seen at the end of one of the oldest 
 registers, with every little particular he could 
 glean respecting each of tliem. The parish 
 accounts were most accurately kept by him, 
 and contain many interesting and graphic 
 allusions. I proceed to give a few extracts : — 
 
 1711. 
 
 Gave to some who had lost their £ s. d. 
 estates (as they said) by seabreach, 6d; 
 to a fat man, 6d. ... ... .. 10 
 
 Gave to a ragged seaman, 2d ; to two 
 other seamen, 4d ; to some other sea- 
 men. Is. Sd 2 2 
 
 Paid to Thomas Pawson for awaken- 
 ing those who sleep in Church and 
 whipping dogs out of it ... ... 4 
 
 The last amusing entry reminds us of 
 
 George Herbert's remark, that " country 
 
 people are thick and heavy, and need a 
 
 mountain of fire to kindle them." But it 
 
 must have been dangerous in those days for 
 
 anyone to indulge in a nap at church, when 
 
 an official was appointed to go about with a 
 
 formidable whip in his hand, which he might 
 
 apply indiscriminately to intruding dogs or 
 
 drowsy parishioners. 
 
 1712. £ s. d, 
 
 Pd at several times for vermine 
 caught and destroyed ... ... 6
 
 96 YORKSHIRE IN OLDKN TIMES. 
 
 To Mr Brown a wandring minister 10 
 
 Gave to a poor man who lost liis 
 ^oods by Murrain ... ... ... 8 
 
 To two seamen one whereof had his 
 wife with him ... ..." ... 4 
 
 To the Ringers on July 7th, being 
 the Day of Thanksgiving for the Peace, 
 3s ; and expended on them & others on 
 the same day 6s 6d. more ; in all ... 9 6 
 
 However the country had rejoiced over 
 Marlborough's victories, they were more 
 thankful still for the peace which put an end 
 to them. The sum expended in this little 
 parish on the Day of Thanksgiving for the 
 peace which was ratified at Utrecht was 
 doubtless a true indication of the general 
 feeling of relief throughout the country at 
 the conclusion of the war. 
 
 It is interesting to notice the mention of 
 the murrain or cattle plague which raged in 
 the year 1712. 
 
 1714. £ s, d. 
 
 To the Ringers on the King's Coro- 
 nation day ... ... ... ... 3 
 
 1715. £ s. d. 
 
 For a fllmart's head, 2d ; to the 
 Ringers on Account of the Victory at 
 Preston, 3s. ... ... ... ... 3 2 
 
 Could anything be more matter-of-fact or 
 else more satirical than this singular entry ? 
 The head of a stoat and the head of the
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 97 
 
 Pretender were evidently of about equal 
 value in the eyes of our metliodical vicar ; 
 for the •• filmart's" death and the Pretender's 
 ruin, through the surrender of the rebels at 
 Preston, in Lancashire, are both dismissed 
 in a Single line, and the two items of ex- 
 pense for the "vermine " thus '"caught and 
 destroyed" summed up together. What did 
 it matter to the loyal vicar of Kirkhy how 
 many misguided gentlemen forfeited their 
 heads for him they deemed their king ? 
 
 " A hundred nailed 
 Like weasels to the gates of each wall'd town," 
 
 would not ruffle the composure of his 
 
 methodical mind. 
 
 1716. £ s. d. 
 
 Paid for three Filmart's heads ... 6 
 To the glazier for mending the Church 
 windows shattered by the wind ... 4 6 
 
 1717. 
 
 To Mr Leedes's servt for two Otter's 
 heads 10 
 
 For a Badger's head to Edward 
 Hazelgrave ... ... ... ... 6 
 
 Filraarts, stoats, and weasels, may still be 
 found in sufficient abundance in tliis or any 
 parish, but otters have long ceased to ascend 
 the little streams, and badgers have been 
 extirpated by the progress of cultivation. 
 The appearance of a new Pretender would 
 scarcely create a greater sensation in the
 
 98 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 parish than the sight of an otter or badger 
 now-a-days. 
 
 1719. ' £ s. d. 
 
 Spent on Easter day when the 
 Churchwardens din'd with Mr Sugden 10 
 
 1720. 
 Wood for Altar-Rails to Madam 
 Leedes ... ... ... ... 10 
 
 This was some curious old carved oak of 
 the Tudor period, Avhich still adorns the 
 church. 
 
 1722. £ s. d. 
 
 To Mr Sugden for scouring Church- 
 plate, transcribing Register and copy- 
 ing these accounts ... ... ...070 
 
 After this Mr. Sugden's handwriting ceases. 
 His death is thus minutely recorded : — 
 
 " Richard Sudgen, M.A.; Vicar of K. Wharfe & 
 Minister of Saxton dyde .January ye 19th between 
 the hours of 6 and 7 at night & was Buried 
 January ye 22nd 1727 by Mr Lowther." 
 
 There only now remains to be noticed the 
 litigious vicar, Eobert Kitching, who died in 
 1788, after a ministry of thirty-two years. 
 I have often conversed with an old par- 
 ishioner who remembered him, and described 
 him as a little, lame man, and a good 
 preacher. The parish accounts in his time 
 are slovenly and uninteresting, and we find 
 no allusions to passing historical events — no 
 echo, however faint, of the mighty strugglss 
 which convulsed the world ; but our choleric
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 99 
 
 vicar has left us in his private account-book 
 an animated description of a tithe trouble 
 which vexed his soul for several successsive 
 years. The loss of a small portion of the 
 vicarial tithes lay heavier on his heart than 
 the defection of the North American pro- 
 vinces. I give the following quotation as 
 characteristic of a state of feeling which was 
 probably not uncommon between different 
 portions of the society of that period : — 
 
 "Memorandum :— In the year 1781 was sown 
 about 6 acres of a dying weed called wold, or 
 woulds, in the west end of Kirby Moor, and 
 pull'd in July and August 1782. The Vicar, 
 Robt Kitching, being informed by the Growers 
 that it was a small or Vicarial Tithe, dischai'gecl 
 Faith Allen, Farmer of the Great Tithes, from 
 meddling with it ; notwithstanding whicli, she 
 ordered her son and servants to take it and lead 
 it by force, in spite of whatever he could say or 
 do, he having tithed it by order of the Growers; 
 but she took all the crop that grew upon two 
 lands into the Tithe Barn. This is a strange and 
 arbitrary way of proceeding ! 
 
 " N.B. The Vicar proposed (as a disputed 
 point) to let it rest with the Growers, till deter- 
 mined by him and Mr. Geo. Finch Hatton, Lessee 
 of the " Great Tithes," and accordingly wrote 
 twice to Mr Hatton about it, but did not receive 
 any answer. This behaviour is like the rest, and 
 though a Member of Parliament, far from a 
 Gentlemanlike Behavi- : but he says, 'The Clergy 
 are the Pest of the Nation' ! 
 
 "N.B. John Johnson of Iloyland, Mr Hatton's 
 ste vard, wrote me a very impertinent note upon 
 a scrap of paper, before I or he had wrote to his 
 Master :—(' Why do you not commence suit
 
 lOO YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 against me? I ordered Allen to take the Tithe 
 of Woulds, &c.') 
 
 " N.B. On Wedy, Dec' 18tb, 1782, the Vicar gave 
 Will. Allen a pretty severe Lecture at Tadcaster 
 ab.out taking the Tithe of the Woulds in an ar- 
 bitrary manner, and spoiling the Vicarage of it 
 by violence : he said, ' Johnson order'd 'em to 
 take it.' — 'Suppose Johnson had order'd you to 
 steal my mare, who was to be hang'd for it?' — 
 'Johnson,' be said, 'had received a letter from 
 his Master, who said they had done right to take 
 it.' — 'Ay,' said 1, ' ri<j;ht or wrong ! only get pos- 
 session.'— ' The Law is open,' said Allen. — 'Yes, 
 and if I was to have a trial for 30s., I should prove 
 myself as big a Fool as others are Kogues 1' 
 
 " N.B. Line and Rape I suppose have been 
 taken in the same arbitrary manner by Finch's 
 Family, Lessees of th^ Great Tithes only, belong- 
 ing to the Prebend of VVetwang, and thereby de- 
 prived the Vicarage of its right. 
 
 "14th August, 1782.— I wrote to Mr Hatton and 
 offered to refer it to Counsel, if it appeared 
 doubtful : he did not give any answer. 
 
 "2 November, 1782,— I wrote again and offered 
 to refer it to his own Honour, if he pleas'd to give 
 an impartial, unbiass'd opinion — he did not give 
 any answer. 
 
 "4th June, 1783.— I threatened to order a writt 
 for Faith Allen for taking the wold, and claim'd 
 the Titht'S of Rape, Line, Turnips, and Clover 
 seed of John Johnson, Steward to Mr Hatton, 
 and dischai'g'd 'em from meddling with 'em in 
 future. 
 
 " 21 June, 1783.— Mr Hatton sent me a Letter 
 that he was ready to defend any action I chose 
 to bring against him or any of his Tenants, and 
 that he liari ordered his Solicitor to retain the 
 Solicitor General, Mr Lee. This appears to be 
 intended to intimidate me from proceeding, and
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. lOI 
 
 is not the behaviour of a Gentleman." 
 
 How small a matter our poor vicar's 
 annoyance appears now ! How we smile at 
 his injured feelings, and wonder at his 
 trouble about this "dying weed called 
 wold !" It might help us to bear our daily 
 burden better, if we were sometimes to 
 consider what will be thouirht of it a 
 hundred years hence. I*Jay, many a care 
 that frets our minds to-day, will be for- 
 gotten by this time next year. '* Why 
 make we such ado V " Why do we not 
 rather take wrong?" Why do we so often 
 " kick against the pricks," and chafe and 
 struggle through *' the days of the years 
 of our pilgrimage 1 '' 
 
 But it is time to close the lid of our Parish 
 Register Chest, and to bring our discursive 
 chronicles to an end. During the nine 
 years I was the appointed guardian of these 
 ancient documents, they were so frequently 
 in my hands, that I became very familiar 
 with them. And in leaving the parish, 
 amidst many natural regrets for my dear 
 people, and beautiful Church, and cherished 
 home, and favourite haunts, I was not un- 
 conscious of a pang in surrendering to my 
 successor the care of my Parish Register 
 Chest. 
 
 Perhaps I may be permitted to conclude,
 
 102 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 by quoting a Sonnet, published by me else- 
 where, as embodying in a few words the 
 leading sentiment of this paper : 
 
 On My Parish Register Chest. 
 
 In the scant compass of this iron chest 
 Lie the brief records of three hundred years, 
 The mute memorials of their smiles and tears ; 
 
 Here side by side ten p;enerations rest. 
 
 As with Time's iron hand together prest ; 
 A catalos^ue of names all that appears— 
 Faded their joys, forgotton are their fears. 
 
 And all the ea^er hopes they once possest. 
 
 With mournful mind I turn the yellow pages, 
 Read tlie dim notice of a long-past wedding- 
 How one was born, and over-leaf was buried ; 
 
 Thus swift and silent pass successive ages. 
 Like autumn-trees their leaves for ever 
 
 [shedding, 
 Which into vast Eternity are hurried. 
 
 Richard Wilton, M.A.
 
 The "Wakefield Mysteries. 
 
 The great and increasing popularity ot the 
 religious drama in this country was very 
 distinctly shewn ahout the end of the thir- 
 teenth century, by the rise and rapid con- 
 solidation of those remarkable dramatic 
 cycles Avhich form so noteworthy a feature 
 in the early history of the English stage. 
 What is known as a dramatic cycle was made 
 up of a number of separate plays dealing 
 with the different episodes of sacred history, 
 but so welded together as to form, when 
 taken in continuity, a complete dramatic 
 presentation of the course of human destiny, 
 as it appeared to the mediaeval thinker. 
 The various cycles were constructed in slight- 
 ly different ways ; for the component pieces 
 varied in number, and sometimes one Bibli- 
 cal incident was taken, and sometimes an- 
 other, according to the taste and intentions 
 of each particular author. But all over Eng- 
 land, the main lines of argument everywhere 
 remained the same. The cycle commenced 
 W'th the creation of the world ; ran roughly 
 through the most remarkable facts of Jewish 
 story; dealt more particularly with the doings 
 and miracles of Christ ; with the trial, cruel-
 
 104 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 fixion, and resurrection ; and closed with a 
 proplielic picture of the Last Judgment. 
 However they might differ in detail, the 
 various collections thus agreed in their 
 general tendencies ; and were, moreover, at 
 one in their teachings, and in the way in 
 which, according to the circumscribed views 
 of things then current, they did their best to 
 
 "Assert Eternal Providence, 
 
 And justify the ways of God to men." 
 
 We know that many of the most important 
 English towns, such as Chester, Coventry, 
 Newcastle, and York, had their own parti- 
 cular collections, and, several of these have 
 come down in manuscript to our own time, 
 and constitute some of the most valuable 
 literary heirlooms of the middle ages. 
 Among them, not the least important is the 
 set of plays anciently performed at " Merry 
 Wakefield," a few remarks concerning which 
 may prove of some interest^to our readers. 
 
 This coHection is generally known as the 
 Towneley or Widkirk collection. Neither 
 of these names is entirely satisfactory. The 
 former, indeeil, is applied with some show of 
 reason, as the manuscript containing the 
 plays was pie<ei'ved in the library of Towne- 
 ley Hall, in Lancashire; but the latter title, 
 which is still in common use, appears to 
 have arisen out of a pure mistake. In 1814
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 105 
 
 Francis Douce, the well-known antiquary, 
 following wliat seems to have been a ti-adi- 
 tion iu the Towneley family, stated tliat the 
 plays '• formerly belone;ed to tlie Abbey of 
 Widkirk, near Wakefield, in the County of 
 York." Furtlier study of the facts, however, 
 has led to the conclusion that there never 
 was any abbey, or even any place of the 
 name Widkirk (or Wildkirk, as the word 
 was sometimes written) in the neiuhbour- 
 hood of Wakefield, or, indeed, anywhere else 
 in England. Widkirk is probably nothing 
 more than a corrupted form of Woodkirk ; 
 by which name, on account of its little church 
 of wood, West Ardsley was frequently desig- 
 nated. There was at Woodkirk a cell of 
 Austin Friars, or Black Canons as they were 
 called from their peculiar dress, in depend- 
 ance upon the great house at Nostel, in the 
 deanery of Pontefract ;* and hero from an 
 early date there ha<l been peciodic gatherings 
 of a semi-religious, semi-commercial charac- 
 ter, such as we frequently read about in the 
 chronicles of tlie middle aojes. " King 
 Stephen," says Burton, ''granted the Canons 
 a charter for two annual fairs at this 
 place, tlie one to be held two days before, 
 and on the assumption of the blessed 
 Virgin Mary; the other two da3S before 
 
 * See John Burton's Monasticon Eboracense, 
 p. 300.
 
 I06 YORKSHIRE IN OLDKN TIMES. 
 
 the Nativity of St. Mary, and on that 
 day."t With a praiseworthy desire for the 
 edification of the masses, and I am afraid 
 we must add, with an eye to interests of a 
 more personal and secular nature, the old 
 monks were everywhere accustomed, on the 
 occasion of such gatherings of the people, 
 to give specially elaborate performances of 
 religious plays — taking for their theme the 
 doings of the particular saint to which their 
 abbey was dedicated, or certain incidents of 
 more general religious history. At these 
 semi-annual ftiirs, therefore, instituted in 
 connection with the cell of Austin Friars at 
 Woodkirkjthe canons soon sought to improve 
 the occasion by introducing the performance 
 of religious mysteries, and in so doing were 
 only acting in accordance with the general 
 spirit of the age. Thus there grew up in 
 time the great cycle of plays to which we 
 here refer, and which, on the analogy fur- 
 nished by other similar collections, should 
 properly be called, not the Towneley or 
 Woodkirk, but the Wakefield Mysteries. 
 
 The manuscript in which these plays have 
 come down to our time is undated, but the 
 best authorities concur in assigning it to the 
 fifteenth century. But the date of the manu- 
 script does not, of course, fix the period at 
 
 t Burton, p. 309.
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 107 
 
 which the plays themselves were first per- 
 formed ; and it is believed that for the earliest 
 representations we may go back to the 
 beginning of the fourteenth century, if not 
 even earlier. That the Wakefield cycle long 
 remained popular is beyond all doubt. In- 
 deed, in one of the plays which deals with 
 the subject of St. John the Baptist, and which 
 is itself of later authorship than the greater 
 part of the contents of the collection, a 
 passage in honour of the Seven Sacra- 
 ments is scored out, and marked in the 
 margin as "corrycted and not played." This 
 of course clearly points to the fact that the 
 representations went on down to the very 
 period of the Eeformation. 
 
 The contents of the series form a most 
 interesting subject for study, for the various 
 plays are upon the whole lively and suffi- 
 ciently well written, and are not so stiff and 
 formal as most of those contained in the other 
 collections. Moreover, the purely dramatic 
 element is more than usually strong ; and 
 there are not wanting traces of a boisterous, 
 animal, north-country humour which, how- 
 ever strangely it may sometimes blend with 
 the more serious stuff of which the argument 
 is composed, is not without significance 
 when considered in connection with the 
 strong, and often grossly humorous side of
 
 I08 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 the later English drama. These plays were 
 evidently from the very first prepared with 
 a special eye to the public before which they 
 were to be performed ; they were meant to 
 strike home to the common intelligence of 
 the unlettered masses — to be popular in the 
 fullest sense of the term. Hence their tone 
 is throughout that of coarse, everyday life ; 
 matching oddly, as we may sometimes think 
 with the solemn and sacred incidents which 
 they unfold, but doubtless endearing them in 
 no small measure to those who crowded 
 round the little wooden stage to wonder or 
 to laugh, as the case might be. 
 
 This popular intention, noticeable enough 
 throughout, is brought home to us particu- 
 larly by the fact that the plays are written 
 in Northern dialect, and are so full of pro- 
 vincial words, phrases, and idioms, tiiat they 
 form by no means easy reading for the 
 uninitiated Southron. Many of the expres- 
 sions which would puzzle a general student, 
 are still used in the same senses in the West 
 Riding of Yorkshire at the present day : a 
 fact which shows how tenacious of life vulgar 
 speech may often be, amid all the changes 
 and modifications to which language at large 
 is ever subject. In the study of these miracle 
 plays, and of all other similar productions of 
 the middle ages, it must ever be borne in
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I09 
 
 mind that tliey were composed and performed 
 at a time when reading and wiitiiig were 
 very rare accomplishments ; when even 
 barons and noblemen were getier.dly unable 
 to sign their names; when knowledge by the 
 great avenue of printed books was "quite 
 shut out;" and when, so far as the masses 
 ■were concerned, oral instruction was alone 
 possible. Hence the place filled by such 
 reli-ious dramas as those in question, was 
 much larger than is sometimes supposed ; 
 and lience, also, the fact that the language 
 used in composition approached more nearly 
 to the vulgar every-day speech of the com- 
 mon people than might at first sight seem 
 fitting, considering the nature of the subjects 
 dealt with. 
 
 The representation of such a cycle as that 
 now under consideration lasted generally 
 from morning till night, and occasionally 
 extended over two or three days, or even 
 more. It must not, however, be supposed 
 that the whole work of such a performance 
 rested with one body of actors. The plays 
 were divided among the various town-guilds, 
 or companies, each guild taking up one 
 special portion of the cycle, and devoting all 
 its attention to that alone. As one company 
 finished that part of the performance which 
 had beea entrusted to its care, the company
 
 no YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 next in order of rotation came forward to 
 take its place; and thus, scene by scene, the 
 whole cycle was played thi'ough. In the case 
 of several of these dramatic collections, we 
 know exactly by what companies the diffe- 
 rent plays were given, and sometimes we 
 find a singular appropriateness in the assign- 
 ment ; as, for instance, in the case of the 
 Flood-play in the Chester Mysteries, which 
 was represented by the water-drawers of 
 the Dee. Regarding the Wakefield collec- 
 tion, our information is not so complete, 
 as the names of only three of the guilds 
 — the Barkers (i.e., tannersj, the Glovers, 
 and the Fisher.s — have come down to us 
 in the manuscript. But we are perfectly 
 safe in arguing from the analogies furnished 
 by other cycles, and in stating that the 
 Wakefield plays, like those of other places, 
 were periodically performed by the trade 
 companies of the town. 
 
 The Wakefield cycle consists of thirty-two 
 plays, of which eight are taken from the Old 
 Testament, and twenty-four from the New. 
 In choice of subject, these pieces exhibit no 
 particular originality. The series, as usual, 
 leads otf with the Creation of the world, 
 after which we are presented with the death 
 of Abel, the Flood, the Sacrifice of Abraham, 
 the histories of Isaac and Jacob, the Pro-
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. Ill 
 
 cessus Prophetarwn^ or pageant of those who 
 had prophesied concerning Christ ; and the 
 tyranny and punishment of Pharoah. This 
 closes the Old Testament division, for we 
 spring at once from the crossing of the Eed. 
 Sea to the time when Csesar Augustus, sit- 
 ting in state upon his throne, is warned 
 
 "That'a qweyn * here, in this land. 
 Shall here a chyld I wene, 
 
 That shall be crowned Kyng lyfand, t 
 
 ***** 
 
 These tythynges doth me teyne." + 
 
 With the usual disregard for chronological 
 accuracy, Ceesar, like other Pagan characters 
 in the old mysteries, swears frequently by 
 Mahomme, or Mohammed ; and, in general, 
 behaves himself like one of the mediteval 
 "payuims," or Saracens, with whom the Holy 
 Wars had made English people familiar. This 
 play, which opens the New Testament series,is 
 followed by the Annunciation^ the salutation 
 of Elizabeth, two pageants dealing with the 
 angels' visits to the watching shepherds, the 
 
 * i.e. "Woman ; Danish Qvinde (in which the d 
 is not pronounced). As applied indifierently to 
 any member of the female sex, this word has 
 almost gore out of use, but it still lingers in 
 the opprobrious "quean." 
 
 t i.e. Living. In these plays the present parti- 
 ciple often retains the old Anglo-Saxon termina- 
 tion— and. 
 
 t Teen— grief, sorrow. Tythynges in the samo 
 line is, of course, tidings.
 
 112 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 offering of tht Magi, the flight of the Holy 
 Family into Egypt, the slaughter of the 
 Innocents (in which, again^ " nioste myghty 
 Mahomme" plays a considerable part), the 
 Purification ot the Virgin, the scene between 
 the boy Jesus and the doctors in the temple 
 at Jerusalem, and the story of John the 
 Baptist. Here we come to another large 
 gap. The teachings and actions of Christ 
 during the time of his public career, did not 
 furnish nearly such striking matter for dra- 
 matic treatment as the miraculous events 
 recorded concerning his birth, and the 
 terribly tragic scenes amid A^hich his brief 
 ministry was brought to a close. Passing 
 over in silence, therefore, the greater part of 
 his public life, the early dramatists came at 
 once to the •' beginning of the end ;" and 
 the plays which follow are all elaborated 
 with great minuteness of detail and almost 
 repulsive realism. There is the conspiracy 
 against Jesus, and his capture ; the trial, the 
 scourging, and the crucifixion, and the scene 
 in which the soldiers cast lots for the raiment 
 and quarrel about its distribution. Then we 
 have the release of the Spirits from Hell, 
 consequent upon Christ's triumphant descent, 
 the Resurrection, the journey to Emmaus, 
 the scepticism of Thomas, and the Ascension. 
 Finally we are presented with a symbolic re- 
 presentation of the Last Judgment, with
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I 13 
 
 Christ as Judge upon his throne, and his 
 foes subject at his feet. This, in the usual 
 way, was evidently intended to end the 
 cycle. In the Townley manuscript, however, 
 there are appended a play on the suliject of 
 Lazarus, and a speech of Judas when he 
 hangs himself. But these are clearly out of 
 sequence, and are without doubt the addi- 
 tions of a later hand. 
 
 Such, very briefly, are the contents of the 
 Wakefield cycle of mystery plays ; and, as I 
 have said, they differ but little in subject- 
 matter from the contents of similar collections 
 still extant. But in language, style, and 
 treatment, the Wakefield series is distin- 
 guished from others in many remarkable 
 ways ; and most of all by a dramatic rapidity 
 of movement, a vigour of dialogue, and a free 
 and homely realism, which contrast favourably 
 with the rigid conventionality of the religious 
 drama at large. The characters might bear 
 the names of the sacred personages whom 
 they were supposed to represent ; and they 
 miglit enact, one by one, the scenes of the 
 solemn tragedy, which, beginning with the 
 creation and ending with the consummation 
 of all things, took in the whole sweep of 
 human history so ftir as it was then under- 
 stood. But none the less were they in reality 
 the common figures of everyday life, drawn
 
 114 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 from types, and embodying ideas, with which 
 the populace were perfectly at home. Even 
 the Divine Ruler of allthings, whom, without 
 thought ot evil, the old dramatists brought 
 in proper person on to the stage, was little 
 more than a mediceval bishop or pope ; 
 while Herod and Caesar were Saracens ; 
 Elizabeth, a good gossiping housewife; 
 and Cain, with his rough voice, coarse 
 language, and burly manners, nothing more 
 nor less than a Yorkshire ploughman of the 
 most familiar and least desirable type. 
 And it was inevitable that this should be so. 
 A religion drawn from an alien race — a 
 narrative made up of strange events and 
 reflecting foreign manners and mode of 
 thought— could have but little hold upon 
 the people at large if they had not been 
 coloured by every day thoughts and feelings. 
 Thus it was that one cannot help realising 
 that, though the characters belong to a 
 different nationality, and though the mystic 
 significance of the cycle separates it once 
 and for all from the ordinary routine of 
 common human existence, it is none the less 
 the spirit and the life of mediseval York- 
 shire, with its provincialisms of thought, 
 manner, expression, which breathe through 
 and inform the whole. 
 
 All this is most noticeable in those
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I15 
 
 portions of the series in which the liumorous 
 element has the freest play. In the scenes 
 between Cain and liis plough-boy, full 
 as they are of rough and boisterous fun, 
 there is little indeed to remind us that we 
 are treading on what is currently held as 
 sacred ground. Similarly when Noah 
 quarrels with his wife, who upbraids him in 
 no measured terms ; when the two have a 
 regular stand up tussle ; and when after tlie 
 ark is built, and she refuses to enter it, her 
 devoted husband beats her black and blue, 
 we cannot fail to see how thoroughly the 
 Biblical narrative is transformed and how 
 completely it takes the tone and manner of 
 rustic English life. More strikingly, how- 
 ever, is this change shown in the second of 
 the two plays dealing with the subject of 
 the shepherds. In this we lose sight alto- 
 gether of the Jewish hills, of the clear 
 eastern night, of the staid and solemn-visaged 
 Hebrews watching their Hocks in the starry 
 silence, and presently aroused from their 
 meditations by the glory of angelic visitants, 
 and the sounds of celestial song. In place of 
 all this, we have a rough-and-ready farce, 
 full of broad jokes and quaint allusions ; 
 redolent of English out-door life, and 
 reflecting with wonderful fidelity the daily 
 experiences of the Yorkshire common folk, 
 ^uch a play may ill-satisfy our nineteenth
 
 Il6 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 century cravings for " local-colouring," but 
 it is as interesting when taken as a picture 
 of contemporary manner, as it is valuable 
 when considered as a forerunner of the 
 humorous element of the great secular drama 
 of later times. 
 
 The Wakefield Mysteries have, I think, 
 received less attention than they deserve. 
 Other cycles, such as those of Coventry, and 
 Chester, have their special claims upon our 
 notice ; but in none of them does the free 
 heart-blood of the English people flow so 
 freely — in none of them does the voice of 
 mediaeval England speak out in such clear 
 and natural tones as in this northern col- 
 lection. For the inhabitants of "merry 
 Wakelield" — some among whom may be the 
 descendants of men and women who stood 
 laughing or wondering round the little stage 
 on which these performances were given — 
 these plays must indeed have a special 
 fascination. But their importance is far 
 from being merely local, Eegarded alike as 
 representing the most independent applica- 
 tion of dramatic treatment to sacred sub- 
 jects, and as furnishing the fullest prophecy 
 of that great burst of genius which was 
 by and by to culminate in Shakespeare, the 
 WakeiJold cycle is perhaps the most interest-
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I17 
 
 ing and valuable remnant we possess of the 
 great religious drama of the middle ages. 
 
 William Henry Hudson.
 
 A Biographical Romance. 
 
 In the olden days the misfortunes of Wil- 
 liam Swan frequently formed the topic of 
 conversation amongst friends, who gathered 
 round the fireside in the homes on the wild 
 wolds of Yorkshire, where he spent some 
 years of his disappointed life. The full de- 
 tails of his career have been lost in the lapse 
 of time ; never, to our knowledge, have they 
 been committed to paper, but sufficient par- 
 ticulars may be brought together to prove 
 in his case the truth of the old saying that 
 " fact is stranger than fiction." 
 
 Nearly two centuries ago there was joy in 
 Benwell Hall, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, the 
 stately mansion of Richard Swan, Esq., the 
 occasion of the rejoicing being the birth of an 
 heir. The parents dreamed of a bright future 
 for their boy, and proudly predicted that he 
 would, in a worthy manner, perpetuate the 
 name and fame of Swan. The happy expec- 
 tations of boyhood were not to be realised, 
 for the young heir had barely reached the 
 age of nine years, when he was kidnapped 
 from his home, in order that another might 
 inherit the wealth that by kinship belonged 
 to him. He was quietly shipped on board
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. II9 
 
 the " New Britannia" brig, which formed part 
 of the squadron under command of the 
 famous Sir Cloudesley Shovel. His position 
 was that of a "powder monkey," and his 
 chief employment was to bring powder from 
 the magazine to the gunners during the 
 naval engagements. On the 22nd of October, 
 1707, the fleet was wrecked on the Scilly 
 Isles, owing to the Admiral mistaking the 
 rocks for the sea-coast. No less than eight 
 hundred brave men found a watery grave, 
 and several vessels were lost. Happily the 
 ship in which Swan sailed escaped destruc- 
 tion. Ill-fate, however, followed.in its wake, 
 for, shortly afterwards, it was captured by an 
 Algerine Corsair, and Swan was sold to the 
 Moors as a slave. Four weary years were 
 passed in Barbary. He gained his liberty 
 through the assistance of the Redeeming 
 Friars, a noble body of men who were the 
 means of freeing thousands of Christians 
 from captivity. Many benevolent persons 
 left large sums of money for redeeming their 
 fellow countrymen from bondage, and this 
 money was expended judiciously though the 
 agency of the Friars. 
 
 Swan had not the good fortune to reach 
 his home in safety. He was again taken 
 prisoner and sold once more into slavery, 
 this time to an English planter in South
 
 I20 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 Carolina. Here his sufferings were terrible. 
 He toiled with negroes from sunrise to sunset, 
 the slave-drivers keeping them busily at 
 work in the cotton and sugar plantations by 
 means of the lash. Managing to escape, he 
 landed, after an exile of twenty years, on his 
 native shore in 1726, and speedily made his 
 way to Newcastle-on-Tyne. His father's 
 footman, Thomas Chance, and his old nurse, 
 Mrs Gofton, identified him, and he at once 
 instituted a claim for the estate of his uncle, 
 Alderman Swan, Mayor of Hull, who had 
 died and left property yielding an income of 
 £20,000 a year. His efforts proved unsuccess- 
 ful, and the deep disappointment broke his 
 heart, his death occurring in 1736 at the 
 age of 38 years. 
 
 Swan had married a Yorkshire woman 
 called Jane Cole, of North Dalton, near 
 Driffield, by whom he had a son named 
 William. The widowed mother told her boy, 
 as soon as he was able to understand, that he 
 was the rightful heir to vast estates, and en- 
 couraged him to persevere to obtain them. 
 The melancholy fate of her husband was not 
 sufficient to crush her ardent spirit. A 
 lawyer at Driffield was consulted, and he ad- 
 vised that action be taken. He undertook 
 to conduct the case without payment until 
 the estates were obtained, beyond the sums
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 121 
 
 for correspondence, court fees, &c. The 
 man, however, drained the poor fellow of 
 every penny that he could procure, and both 
 mother and son denied themselves the 
 necessaries of life to keep up the constant 
 demands of the solicitor. Months and 
 years passed without getting any satisfaction. 
 Poor Mrs Swan at last felt the case to be 
 hopeless, and the anxious waiting with its 
 disappointing results preyed so on her mind, 
 that she fell into ill-health and died. Speak- 
 ing to her son before her death she said : 
 "Oh, William, let this horrid plea drop. 
 Don't pay that man any more money. I feel 
 that he would skin us both alive. They are 
 a bad set all these law men." William was 
 young, and like the majority of young 
 people, hope was firmly fixed in his nature. 
 He not only devoted all his money to law, 
 but bought a second-hand copy of " Black- 
 stone's Comraentaries," and spent all his 
 leisure time in studying it, until he was 
 completely master of the work. After the 
 death of his mother, he gave up house-keep- 
 ing and took lodgings with a widow, having 
 a daughter about twenty-four years of age. 
 They became interested in his case and lent 
 him money to carry on his suit. A rich 
 uncle had left the girl a few hundred pounds. 
 The young couple were brought into sym- 
 pathy with each other, which ripened into
 
 122 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 mutual affection, and in a short time, with 
 the consent freely given of the mother, they 
 were married, Shortly after the wedding it 
 transpired that the attorney at DrifBeld had 
 been cheating his client, and instead of using 
 the hard earned money of William Swan to 
 gain his estates, he had spent it in dissipation, 
 and was a ruined man. 
 
 Swan proceeded to London, and consulted 
 another lawyer. This man advised an 
 action which swallowed up the wife's small 
 fortune, without getting them one step 
 nearer obtaining the estate. Trouble after 
 trouble came upon William. His heart was 
 almost crushed, but he continued the action 
 to the best of his ability. His wife begged 
 of him to leave law alone, and return to 
 their Yorkshire home to live by their 
 industry, fand give up all thoughts of the 
 property, but he could not act upon her good 
 advice. He got into debt and was com- 
 mitted to the Fleet prison on his inability to 
 pay. Here ill luck still followed him, for he 
 caught the jail fever. In his sickness his 
 devoted wife got permission to visit him, 
 and bring some delicacies to him. She, alas, 
 caught the fever, and in a few days died. 
 He recovered, but the death of his loving 
 helpmate was almost too much for him. She 
 had endured much for his sake, but never by
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 123 
 
 word or deed showed regret at becoming his 
 wife. Shortly afterwards a jail delivery 
 enabled hira to leave prison. His illness 
 rendered him so weak that he could hardly 
 walk. He obtained lodgings in an obscure 
 lane or alley near Chiswell-street, London, 
 and {afterwards was found dead in bed. It 
 is believed that his remains were buried in 
 a pauper's grave. 
 
 William Andrews, F.R.H.S.
 
 Some Scraps and Shreds of 
 Yorkshire Superstition. 
 
 It has been truly remarked that this latter 
 decade of the Ninetceth Century is witness- 
 ing the rapid decline and fall of many old 
 customs and habits, and many strange beliefs, 
 ana the superstitions which have held their 
 ground from time immemorial. In almost 
 ev^ery nook and corner of our isle we stumble 
 upon some of these scraps and shreds of 
 " stubborn antiquity," but in no part of 
 England do we find the prevalence of strange 
 old world customs and usages more widely 
 spread, and at the same time more deeply 
 rooted, than in the historic county of York- 
 shire, particularly in those Divisions known 
 as the North and East Ridings. A close in- 
 spection of these various masses of supersti- 
 tion will reveal much that is legendary, and 
 mythical in their character, much that is 
 the outcome of the imagination, and still 
 more of what may certainly be termed 
 " Heathenism in Disguise." Some breathe 
 a deep religious feeling, others again are full 
 of light and peaceful fancy, while a third 
 class, and by far the most numerous, are
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. Xi^ 
 
 gross, vulgar, and even cruel. During the 
 past ten years much interest has been evinced 
 in these studies, and the establishment of a 
 Society for systematically collecting and 
 classifying the remains of our folk-lore, 
 satisfactorily proves that great importance is 
 attached to the subject. We propose within 
 the limits of this short article, bringing under 
 the notice of our readers a few of the many 
 superstitions pertahiing to Yorkshire, which 
 the ruthless hand of old Father Time has 
 hitherto been prevented from consigning to 
 * the limbo vast and wide ' of oblivion. 
 
 To begin with, let us glance for a while at 
 Marriages, and with this stage of human 
 existence what a vast store of superstition is 
 bound up ! In the East Riding we are told 
 when a bride arrives at her father's door a 
 plate of cake is always flung from an upper 
 window upon the crowd beneath. ]\Iucli 
 importance is attached to the fate which 
 attends this plate ; the greater number of 
 pieces it breaks into, the greater will be the 
 bride's happiness, but should the plate fall to 
 the ground unbroken it forebodes misfortune. 
 Formerly when a wedding was solemnized 
 in the Yorkshire Dales, the friends of the 
 bridegroom were accustomed to dance round 
 the bride, shouting and firing volleys from 
 guns which th^y cariied with them. At
 
 126 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 Guisborough in Cleveland, it was the prac- 
 tice to fire giuis over the heads of the newly 
 married couple all the way home from 
 church. In the same village it was custom- 
 ary for the bridegroom to present a handful 
 of money, together with the wedding ring to 
 the parson, who, out of this sum, took his fees 
 and then returned the overplus. It is 
 related that in a certain village in York- 
 shire, the marriage ceremony was once per- 
 formed by a strange clergyman from the 
 South of England, who, at the conclusion of 
 the _ service, was much astonished at 
 finding the party keeping together as if 
 waiting for something to come. "What 
 are you waiting for?" he enquired at 
 length. "Please, sir," was the honest 
 bridegroom's reply, "Ye have no kissed 
 Molly." It was afterwards explained that 
 it was the privilege of the parson who tied 
 the matrimonial knot, to "salute the bride" 
 with a kiss. There is another old wedding 
 usage confined to Yorkshire. We refer to 
 tne singular custom of pouring a kettle of 
 boiling water over the doorstep directly the 
 bride has left the paternal roof; the old 
 wives saying that before the step is dry 
 another marriage will be agreed upon. The 
 ancient custom of throwing an old shoe after 
 the wedding party, called by the peasantry 
 in many remote districts " trashing," is
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 1 27 
 
 believed to propitiate success, Henderson, 
 the indefatigable antiquary, informs us that 
 the "grand finale" of a Yorkshire wedding 
 should take the form of a race for a ribbon. 
 In Cleveland the ribbon is given by the 
 bridegroom, as he leaves the church, and 
 then all who feel so inclined join in the 
 general race for it in sight of the house 
 where the wedding feast is to be held. All 
 the racers, winner and losers alike, are each 
 entitled to a glass of wine, and accordingly 
 as soon as the race is over, they do not fail 
 to present themselves at the house and 
 clamour for their reward. 
 
 Yorkshire has a very peculiar way of 
 ascertaining who will be summoned from 
 this world. Those wlio are anxious for in- 
 formation concerning the death of their 
 fellow parishioners keep watch in the old 
 church porch on St, Mark's Eve, April 25th, 
 for an hour on each side of midnight, for 
 three years in succession. In the third year 
 it is believed that the watchers behold the 
 ghosts of those doomed to die within the year 
 passing " in grim array " one by one into 
 the church. Should the watcher himself, by 
 any chance whatever, fall asleep during his 
 midnight vigil, he will certainly meet with 
 an untimely end, A story is told of an old 
 woman at Scarborough, who kept St. Mark's
 
 128 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 Eve in the porch of St. Mary's Church in 
 that town during the closing years of last 
 century. Figure after figure, it is said, 
 glided into the Church, .each one turning 
 round to her as it went in, so that she was 
 able to recognise their familiar faces. The 
 last figure, however, turned and gazed 
 steadfastly at her ; then she knew herself, 
 screamed aloud, and fell senseless to the 
 ground. The neighbours discovered her in 
 the Church porch the following morning, 
 and carried her home, but she did not sur- 
 vive the shock. An old inhabitant of Fish- 
 lake, in the West Hiding, was in the habit 
 of regularly keeping St. Mark's vigils, and 
 consequently became in course of time an 
 object of great dread to his neighbours. 
 Sextons vreve even known to keep these 
 vigils in order, so it was said, to count 
 the gains of the coming year. Another 
 curious mode of divining into the fu- 
 ture, formerly much resorted to in Y^ork- 
 shire, was that known as "chaff rid- 
 dling," and consisted of throwing the 
 barn dooi's open at midnight, and procuring 
 a "riddle" and chaff. This done, those 
 Avishing to unlock the secrets of the future 
 went into the barn, and in turn commenced 
 the process of "riddling," If the riddler 
 himself was destined to die within that year, 
 he saw two persons passing by the open
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES, 1 29 
 
 barn doors carrying a coffin, but if not so fated 
 he beheld nothing. A contributor of " Kotes 
 and Queries " tells us that once being on a visit 
 at a ^dllage in Yorkshire, he was much amused 
 one evening to find the servants of the house 
 excusing themselves for being out of the way 
 when the bell rung, on the plea that they had 
 been " hailing the first new moon of the new 
 year." The mysterious salutation was effected 
 by means of a looking-glass, in which the first 
 sight of the moon was to be had, and the object 
 to be gained was the important secret as to how 
 many years would elapse before the marriage 
 of the observers. If one moon was seen in 
 the glass, one year ; if two, two years ; and 
 so on. In the case in question, the maid and 
 the boy only saw one moon a-piece. In this 
 county the dog has always been held as an 
 object of superstitious regard. Formerly, a 
 custom existed in the seaport of Hull of 
 whipping all the dogs that were found 
 running about the streets on the 10th of 
 October, and so common was this practice at 
 one time that every little Street Arab 
 considered it his bouuden duty to prepare a 
 whip for any unlucky dog that might be 
 seen wandering in the streets on that day. 
 A correspondent of " Notes and Queries " 
 says that tradition assigns the following 
 origin to the custom : — Previous to the 
 suppression of the monasteries in Hull, it
 
 130 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 was customary for the monks to provide 
 liberally for the poor and wayfarers who 
 visited the fair lield annually on October 
 11th. Once, while the good brothers were 
 making the necessary preparations on the 
 day previous to the fair, a dog strolled into 
 the larder, and on leaving snatched up a 
 piece of meat and made off with it. The 
 cooks instantly sounded the alarm, and when 
 the dog got into the street, he was pursued 
 by the hungry expectants of the charity of 
 the mooks, who were waiting outside the 
 gates, and made to give up the stolen joint. 
 After this occurrence, whenever a dog 
 ventured to show his face during the annual 
 feast preparations, he was invariably beaten 
 off. In days gone by, a similar custom was 
 observed at York, on St. Luke's Day, which 
 from this circumstance came to be popularly 
 designated " Whip-Dog-Day." Tradition 
 asserts that centuries since as a priest was 
 celebrating mass on St. Luke's festival, in a 
 churcli at York, he accidentally dropped the 
 host after consecration, which was instantly 
 swallowed up by a dog couched under the 
 altar. This act of profanation caused the 
 dog's death, and inaugurated a persecution 
 which was afterwards kept up ou the 
 anniversary of the day. A common Yorkshire 
 superstition attaching to the ass is that the 
 marks on its shoulders were given as
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 131 
 
 everlasting memorials that our Saviour rode 
 upon the animal. In the North Riding, 
 according to Brand who mentions it in his 
 "Popular Antiquities," these marks were in 
 consequence of Baalam's striking it, and as a 
 reproof to him and memento of his conduct. 
 
 Passing on now to the subject of " times 
 and seasons," we shall find them marked in 
 Yorkshire by many time-honoured customs. 
 On Christmas Eve, for instance, in the West 
 Riding it was formerly customary for children 
 to carry from house to house figures of the 
 Virgin and child in what were called "milly 
 boxes," a corruption of the words, "My 
 Lady," The boxes were filled with spice, 
 oranges, and sugar, and the custom itself 
 was termed " going a wassailing." Later in 
 the evening the streets of many towns in the 
 West Riding echoed with the old Christmas 
 carol, '• Christians awake, salute the happy 
 morn," the singers, who were dressed in the 
 most fanciful attire, being called "mummers." 
 Throughout the district of Cleveland we are 
 informed these mummers were accustomed 
 te carry about with them a "vessel " cup, 
 more properly called a " wassail cup," 
 together with the figures of the Virgin and 
 child already alhided to, and decked out with 
 such ornaments as they were able to collect. 
 To send them away without any remuneration 
 whatever was believed to forfeit all the good
 
 132 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 luck for the whole year. No meat was at 
 one time eatea in the same district on 
 Christmas Eve, doubtless because it was one 
 of the fasts of the Church. ' The supper there 
 consisted of fruit tarts and furmety, or 
 wheat boiled in milk, with spice and sugar. 
 Towards the close of supper time the yule 
 cake and cheese were cut and partaken of, 
 while the " good man " of the house usually 
 tapped a fresh cask of ale. At Horbury, 
 near Wakefield, and at Dewsbury, we have 
 been informed that the " devil's knell " was 
 rung on Christmas Eve. This " knell " 
 consisted of a hundred strokes in succession, 
 after which a pause ensued, followed by nine 
 strokes. Throughout Cleveland the " Yule- 
 tide log" or "clog" and "yule candles" 
 were duly burnt on Christmas Eve, the 
 village carpenter generally supplying his 
 customers with the first-named, the grocer 
 with the latter. It was considered very 
 unlucky to light either log or candle before 
 the proper hour had arrived. Strange to 
 say, in this part of Yorkshire, " Christmas 
 boxes " were very uncommon. Among the 
 Yorkshire peasantry the feast ot the New 
 Year was observed with more than mere 
 passing notice. The first person who entered 
 a house on New Year's Day was called 
 " First foot," and was considered to influence 
 the fate of the family, especially the head,
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 1 33 
 
 for the whole year. New Year's Day in 
 Yorkshire, and especially in Cleveland, was 
 regarded as the time for making presents. 
 At this period it was customary for poor 
 widows to visit from house to house, begging 
 for gifts. A similar custom we are told still 
 prevails in theWest Riding, where the widows 
 ask and commonly receive at the farmers|houses 
 a small measure of wheat. St. Stephen's Day 
 was once usually commemorated by hunting 
 and shooting, under the belief that the game 
 laws were not in force upon that particular day. 
 The good old custom of hanging up a stocking 
 for the receipt of Christmas presents, has not 
 yet died out in Yorkshire. Throughout the 
 county, and formerly all over England, the 
 various towns and villages were visited at 
 Christmas time by " mummers," attired in 
 garments of various shapes and sizes, with 
 blackened faces or masks, and usually accom- 
 panied by the wooden image of a white horse. 
 The Rev. S. Baring Gould, writing in 1866, 
 says : " At Wakefield, aud at other places, the 
 mummers enter a house, and if it be in a foul 
 state, they proceed to sweep the hearth, and 
 clean the kitchen-range, humming all the time 
 mum-m-m." At Horbury they do no sweep- 
 ing now, though in olden times they used to 
 practise it. As far as I can judge, there is 
 generally one man in sailor's dress, the rest 
 being women, or rather men in women's
 
 134 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 dress, but this is not universal. It is record- 
 ed by Hendei'son that in his day one of the 
 commonest iN e\v Year's greetings to be met 
 with in Cleveland was as follows : — 
 
 " I wish you a merry Christmas, 
 
 And a happy New Year ; 
 A pantry full of roast beef, 
 
 And a barrel full of beer." 
 
 He adds that the lads of that district con- 
 stantly called it through the keyholes of their 
 neighbour's doors on New Year's morning ; 
 and also that it was recited by the children 
 in the West Riding, when they made their 
 rounds soliciting New Year's gifts. Ingledew 
 informs us in his "Ballads and Songs of York- 
 shire," that " Hagmena" songs were formerly 
 sung about this time throughout the North of 
 England generally. He gives a fragrant of 
 that in use at Richmond, in Yorkshire: — 
 
 'To-night it is the New Year's night, to-morrow 
 
 is the day. 
 And we are come for our right and our say ; 
 As we used to do in old King Harry's day. 
 Sing fellows, sing Hagman heigh.' 
 
 Shrove Tuesday, until within recent years, 
 continued to be marked in the villages of the 
 West Riding by men and Avomen playing the 
 game of " battledore and shuttlefeathers" in 
 the streets. Passing on to the observance of 
 Good Friday, it may be mentioned that the 
 incumbent of Fishlake, a village in the 
 South-east of Yorkshire, writing in 1865,
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 135 
 
 mentions that in that village, at eight o'clock 
 
 on Good Friday morning, instead of the 
 
 usual bell being run<? as on Sundays and 
 
 holy days to give notice of Morning Service, 
 
 the great bell was solemnly tolled as for a death 
 
 or funeral. The rector of a parish in the 
 
 North Eiding stated that great care is there 
 
 taken not to disturb the earth iu any way on 
 
 Good Friday, and that it was also considered 
 
 impious to use either spade, harrow, or 
 
 plough. The superstition that the sun 
 
 dances at its rising on the morning of Easter 
 
 Day peeps out in many parts of Yorkshire ; 
 
 and at one time of day the maidens regularly 
 
 got up to look for the Lamb and flag in the 
 
 midst of the sun's disc. Harvest festivities 
 
 are common to all the Northern districts, 
 
 and spring from a grateful sense of the 
 
 reaper's services at a season of great anxiety. 
 
 The Yorkshire custom is that when on any 
 
 farm the harvest is over, one of the reapers 
 
 should mount a wall or bank, and proclaim 
 
 its successful termination thus : — 
 
 " Blest be the day when Christ was born, 
 
 We've gotten mell of ( 's) corn ; 
 
 Weel bull and better shorn, 
 
 Huzza, Huzza, Huzza." 
 
 — all present then being expected to join in 
 the general shout. In Cleveland, we believe, 
 what is known as the harvest " mell supper" 
 is still kept up, though with far less ceremony 
 than formerly. On forking the last
 
 136 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 sheaf in the harvest field the reapers usually 
 shout in chorus these words : — 
 
 " Weel bun and better shorn, 
 
 Is Master ( 's) corn ; 
 
 We hev her, we hev her, 
 
 As fast as a feather, 
 
 Hip, hip, hurrah." 
 
 We will bring our remarks to a close with a 
 brief notice of St Agnes Day — which according 
 to a modern writer on the subject, was once 
 practised throughout Yorkshire in the follow- 
 ing manner:— "Two young girls, each de- 
 sirous to dream of their future husbands, must 
 abstain through the whole of St. Agnes Eve 
 from eating, drinking, or speaking, and must 
 avoid even touching their lips with their 
 fingers. At night they are to make together 
 their " dumb cake," so called from the rigid 
 silence with which its manufacture is attended. 
 The ingredients might be supplied in equal 
 proportions by their friends, who might also 
 take equal shares in the baking and turning 
 of the cake, and in drawing it out of the oven. 
 The mystic viand must next be divided into 
 two equal portions, and each girl, taking her 
 share, carries it upstairs, walking backwards 
 all the time, and finally eats it and retires to 
 rest. A damsel who duly fulfils all these con- 
 ditions, and has also kept her thoughts all the 
 day fixed on her weal of her husband may con- 
 fidently expect to see her future husband in 
 her dreams." W. Sydney, F.R.S.L.
 
 The Salvation of Holderness- 
 
 It was during the perpetration of his 
 atrocious desolation of Yorkshire and 
 Durham, by our first Norman king, that 
 this remarkable deliverance occurred. 
 
 The whilom Norman Uuke, had achi- 
 eved the victory of Senlac, thanks to Tosti 
 and Hardrada at Stamford Bridge, who 
 annihilated a portion of Harold's forces, 
 and necessitated the remainder to hasten, 
 by forced marches, some hundreds of 
 miles, over roads frequently little better 
 than sheep tracks, and through tangled 
 forests and morasses, to fight the invader 
 of Sussex, and his fresh and unwearied 
 troops. The result was the death of Royal 
 Harold, and the decisive defeat of his 
 troops ; the complete subjection of South 
 England, and the crowning of the con- 
 queror in Westminster Abbey. His task, 
 however, was not yet completed ; he was 
 but king of southern and eastern Engalnd, 
 whilst the west, and more especially the 
 north, still maintained their independence. 
 He then subdued the west, and eventually, 
 but not until after a stubborn resistance 
 by the brave Anglo-Danish population of
 
 138 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 Northumbria, — he succeeded in bringing 
 under his sceptre the lands lying north- 
 ward of the Humber. The Northumbrians, 
 however, jealous of foreign domination, as 
 soon as his back was turned, took up 
 arms in the cause of Edgar the Atheling, 
 the heir of the old Saxon line of kings, 
 now an exile in Scotland, which brought 
 the Conqueror again into Northumbria to 
 inflict another defeat on the insurgents. 
 This occurred again and again, until at 
 last, the Norman conqueror, swore by the 
 splendour of God, that he would most 
 effectually put an end to the insurrections 
 of these pestilent and turbulent North- 
 umbrians, by leaving none of them alive 
 to rise against his authority for evermore, 
 and to present a terrible example and 
 warning to others against rebellion. 
 
 Fearfully did he carry out his threat. 
 He was then abiding in York, the capital 
 city of Northumbria, the death place of 
 the Roman Emperors — Severus and Con- 
 stantius, — and where Constantine the 
 Great was first proclaimed Emperor. 
 " Go forth," said he, to his captains, " and 
 desolate the country from hence to Dur- 
 ham, sixty miles in extent ; put the people 
 to the sword, regardless of sex or age ; 
 burn their towns, villages, and home- 
 steads ; destroy their cattle and crops ; 
 and let there be nothing but death and 
 flames and desolation between the two 
 cities, for thus shall it be done to those
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I39 
 
 who rebel against my rule." 
 Langtoft wrote : — 
 
 " William turned agayn and held what he had 
 
 sworn, 
 All mad he was teyn, pasture, medow, and korne, 
 And slough both Fader and Sonne, some lete thai' 
 
 gow, 
 Hors and houndes their eta, un cittis skaped non. 
 
 Greta sin did William, that swilk wo did werk, 
 So grete vengeance he nam, of holy men of kirk, 
 That did no wern to him, ne no trespas, 
 Fro' York unto Durham no wonting stede was, 
 Nien yere, says my buke, lasted so grete sorrow 
 The Bishop Clerkes tuke their lives for two 
 borrows. 
 
 Ordericus Vitalis says that not less than 
 a hundred thousand persons perished in 
 the massacre and through the subsequent 
 famine and pestilence; and adds: — "I 
 have no doubt in asserting that so horrid 
 a butchery cannot pass unpunished."' 
 
 Holderness is a triangular district of 
 flat, low lying land in the south-eastern 
 corner of Yorkshire, with the Humber for 
 its base, the sea and the river Hull 
 forming tlie two sides, with Bridlington 
 lying a little north of the apex. In the 
 Brigantian times it consisted of forest 
 land, morasses, and pastures, where the 
 Parisii, a Tuetonic colony, reared their 
 herds of cattle. In the time of the Con 
 queror it was better drained, and grew 
 oats, but not wheat ; and had, besides the 
 two towns of Hedon and Patrington, a 
 considerable number of villages, which,
 
 140 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 with the apperterast lands, were held by 
 Anglian and Danish proprietors. 
 
 Westward, across the Hull, was the 
 flourishing town of Beverley, thriving 
 under the famous charter of King Athel- 
 stane, which secured to the burghers sev- 
 eral valuable privileges and immunities. 
 It owed its origin to St. John of Beverley, 
 Archbishop of York, who founded here 
 a monastery, and built a church, and 
 who retired here when his episcopal 
 duties became too laborious for his ad- 
 vanced age ; and here he died, and was 
 buried in his church. He was reverenced 
 as a most holy man and a great saint, 
 having, according to the monkish chron- 
 icles, performed some wondrous miracles 
 both whilst living and after death; ever, 
 even when laid in his tomb, keeping a 
 watchful eye over the interests and wel- 
 fare of his monastery and town. When 
 the threatened devastation commenced, a 
 detachment of murderers and incendiaries 
 was sent eastward to lay waste the Wolds, 
 Holderness, and the district which is now 
 the East Riding generally. Agitated by 
 alarm, the people hastily packed up their 
 more portable articles of value, and fled to 
 take refuge at Beverley ; and the church 
 was soon crowded with fugitives, praying 
 for aid supernatural at the tomb of their 
 popular saint, trusting that the sanctity 
 of the place would protect thern from even 
 the ruffianism of the unscrupulous con-
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I4I 
 
 queror. And, indeed, so it proved, event- 
 ually, as further than Beverley south- 
 easterly, the fury was not extended, the 
 town and church standing on the right 
 bank of the Hull as a bulwark of pro- 
 tection for Holderness. 
 
 Thus say the monkish chroniclers was 
 it that the torrent of blood and flames 
 was averted beneath the walls of the 
 monastery of St. John. The soldiers had 
 come from York by way of Pocklington 
 and Market VVeighton, slaying and plund- 
 ering on their route, and leaving behind 
 them a track of blazing villages and 
 stacks, arriving at length in the precincts 
 of Beverley. One party of them came 
 hotly in pursuit of some fugitives, who 
 had some valuable property with them ; 
 and who turned breathless into the church 
 as a refuge. Their pursuers followed 
 sword in hand, some on horseback, others 
 on foot, and hesitated not to enter the 
 sacred precincts to rob and slay the fug- 
 itives even at the foot of the altar. As 
 they entered the church garth, they noticed 
 a venerable old man arrayed in pontifical 
 robes, and with golden bracelets on his 
 wrists, who, with dignified step, passed 
 out of the church by tlie open portal. This 
 served but to excite the cupidity of the 
 soldiers, of one, especially, hardened in 
 sacrilege by the plunder of many a church. 
 He urged his horse onward through the 
 wide doorway of the church, crying out:
 
 142 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 " Deliver up thy bracelets, Sir Priest, or 
 die, and have thy church burnt over thy 
 dead body." St. John, for it was none 
 other than he, who had risen from his 
 tomb to defend his church, — faced the 
 intruder, crosier in hand : — " Vain and 
 presumptuous man," said he, " thou hast 
 dared to enter this sacred edifice on thy 
 horse and sword in hand : this day shalt 
 thou answer at a higher tribunal than 
 that of thy iron-hearted king for thy 
 sacriligeous crime." And immediately 
 the man fell from his horse on the pave- 
 ment, his body twisted into a shapless 
 mass of deformity, and his features re- 
 sembling more those of a demon than of 
 a human being. 
 
 The terror stricken companions of the 
 dead soldier turned back to York, and 
 narrated to the king the occurrence, who, 
 a slave to superstition of a certain kind, 
 although a ruthless despoiler of churches 
 and priests, was persuaded that this St. 
 John must be a most potent saint, and 
 that it would be impolitic to excite his 
 wrath further lest his vengeance should 
 fall upon himself personally. Hence he 
 issued instructions that the town and 
 monastery of Beverley should not be 
 molested, and that ail the possessions 
 of the church and monastery should be 
 held sacred. 
 
 The monastery held lands in not less 
 than 25 Holderness villages, which were
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I43 
 
 not touched by the hand of the ravager ; 
 and the rest of Holderness also escaped 
 scatheless, as the destroyers dared not 
 cross the Hull lest they should inadvert- 
 ently play havock on any portion of the 
 possessions of St. John. 
 
 In the Domesday Book, compiled some 
 fifteen or twenty years aferwards, we 
 find that in Yorkshire, there were found 
 not more altogether than 35 vileins and 
 8 bordarii. There is a constant re-cur- 
 rence of entries of lands " waste," as 
 Northallerton for instance "modo wastum 
 est," and the greater portion is reduced 
 m value from pounds in King Edward's 
 time to shillings ; as tor instance, Eas- 
 ingwold reduced from ^32 to 20 shillings 
 But in Holderness. we find such entries 
 as: — " Arram 20/- in King Edward's 
 time: the same now; Long Riston, 
 30/- : the same now ;" whilst just be- 
 yond the boundary to the north, the 
 manor of Bridlington as "value in King 
 Edward's time ^32 : now 8 shillings." 
 It is true several of the villages are 
 returned as reduced in value, and some 
 as partially waste ; but in the interior the 
 lands had been confiscated, their Anglo- 
 Danish proprietors reduced to serfdom, 
 and their patrimonies granted to Nor- 
 mans ; the seigniory, or supreme lordship 
 being granted to the Fleming, Drogo de 
 Beure, which will account for portions 
 having gone out of cultivation, and the
 
 144 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 consequent lower estimate of value. 
 
 Perhaps the truth of the matter may 
 be, that William, when at York, had 
 heard of the holy miracle-working Saint 
 of Beverley, and imbued, as he was, with 
 a species of superstitous awe, a fear of 
 incurring the vengeance of the Saint, was 
 the reason of his giving instructions that 
 his monastery, and its appendages should 
 be spared. 
 
 Frederick Ross, f.r.h.s.
 
 Yorkshire Fairs and Festivals- 
 Annual fairs for the sale of various 
 descriptions of merchandise are an in- 
 stitution of very great antiquit)'. As soon 
 as our ancestors had progressed in civilis- 
 ation sufficiently to desire articles which 
 were not produced in every locality, and 
 for which, owing to the sparseness of the 
 population, there was not demand enough 
 in any single town to supply the pro- 
 ducers or manufacturers with an adequate 
 inducement to confine their business op- 
 erations to one place, they must have felt 
 the need of yearly or half-yearly markets 
 in the centres of population for the inter- 
 change of such products. The entire 
 production of some commodites, as wool, 
 for example, is limited to one period of 
 the year ; and the demand for many des- 
 criptions of manufactured goods in any 
 one town of England in the middle ages 
 would not enable a dealer in them to live 
 upon his profits, unless he carried his 
 wares from one town to another. 
 
 Hence fairs were in their original form 
 annual or semi-annual markets, the priv-
 
 146 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 ilege of holding which was granted by the 
 Crown or by the lord of the manor, in 
 most cases, to some religious house in or 
 near the town. To this connection with 
 the Church may be traced the custom of 
 holding the fair on the feast-day of the 
 patron saint of the place. For instance, 
 we find the Archbishop of York, at a very 
 early period, granting to the Prior and 
 Monks of Pontefract a charter for the 
 holding of " a weekly market on Wednes- 
 day in the village of Barnsley, and one 
 yearly fair to last four days, that is to 
 say, on the eve and day of St. Michael 
 and the two following days, with all 
 liberties and usages to such market and 
 fair belonging, unless this market and 
 this fair be to the injury of other markets 
 and fairs in the neighbourhood." 
 
 In like manner the Chester fairs were 
 granted by Hugh Lupus, second Earl of 
 Chester, and nephew of William I., to the 
 Abbot of St. Werburgh, and held on the 
 festivals of St. John and St. Werburgh ; 
 and Winchester fair, another very ancient 
 institution, by the monarch just named 
 to his cousin, the Bishop of Winchester, 
 one of whose successors subsequently 
 granted portions of the tolls to the priory 
 of St. Swithin, the Abbey of Hyde, and 
 the hospital of St. Mary Magdalene. 
 
 " Lee fair," held annually in August 
 and September, though now insignificant 
 as compared with what it was centuries
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I47 
 
 ago, is still one of the most important in 
 the West Riding. Though held at West 
 Ardsley, its two fairs, known to horse- 
 dealers throughout Yorkshire as " t' first 
 Lee " and " t' latter Lee," have given 
 their name to that part of the parish in 
 which they are held, which is very gen- 
 erally known up and down the country 
 as " Lee Fair," and to many the place 
 is better known by that title than by it. 
 proper name. 
 
 These fairs are of very ancient date, 
 Mr. Batty, in a paper on the Priory of 
 St. Oswald at Nostell, says that the 
 canons of that place received a charter 
 from Stephen to hold two annual fairs. 
 It has been shown, however, in the pre- 
 face to the Wakefield Mysteries, usually 
 called the Towneley Mysteries, that the 
 original charter was granted by Henry L, 
 and that Stephen only confirmed it. The 
 days for holding the two fairs are given 
 as the Feast of the Assumption and the 
 Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed 
 Virgin, viz : the 15th of August and 
 the 8th of September, but the fairs are 
 now held nine days later, viz. : on the 
 24th of August and the 17th of September. 
 To these two days they are now limited, 
 but a century ago there was in reality 
 but one fair, whicii lasted for three weeks, 
 and was one of the most important horse 
 fairs in the kingdom. Besides being cele- 
 brated for the largeness and importance
 
 148 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 of its business in horses and cattle, it was 
 an annual market for the sale of almost 
 every description of produce, as all the 
 great fairs were originally, and as the 
 great fair of Nijni Novgorod, in Russia, 
 is at the present day. According to the 
 testimony of the oldest inhabitant, "Lee 
 Fair," fifty years ago, was a sight which 
 once seen was never forgotten. Such 
 stores of fruit, onions, &c., were to be 
 seen nowhere else ; and multitudes, it is 
 said, came from Huddersfield, and other 
 parts of the county, to purchase supplies 
 of those articles. 
 
 Scatcherd derives the name of Lee 
 from Dr. Legh, grantee of the site of 
 Nostell Priory, in 1540. That the Legh 
 family was connected with Ardsley is 
 shown by Thoresby, in his pedigree of 
 the Leghs, wherein William Legh is 
 named as seised of lands in West Ard- 
 sley and Westerton. This person was 
 attainted of high treason with Edward 
 Tatterstall, a clothier, and a priest named 
 Ambler, and was executed in 1541. 
 
 An interesting incidental notice of this 
 fair may be found in the court-rolls of the 
 manor of Wakefield, and from it some- 
 thing may be learned concerning the 
 manners of our ancestors six hundred 
 years ago, John of Heton, the head of 
 a family of some importance in this part 
 of the country, and living at Old Howley 
 Hall, near Woodkirk, went to the fair,
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I49 
 
 accompanied by his wife Anabel, and 
 attended by his serving man, John Graf- 
 ford. Indulging too freely in the beer 
 dispensed there, he overturned the stall 
 of William the Carter, and assaulted John 
 of Newcastle and Alice of Scardeby, who 
 had come from those distant places to this 
 very celebrated fair either to sell their 
 wares, or to provide themselves with a 
 stock of necessaries for the winter. Anabel 
 and Grafford seem to have participated in 
 the disturbance, for complaints were laid 
 against both, as well as against John of 
 Heton. John of Newcastle claimed a 
 hundred shillings damages for the assault, 
 which appears to have been a violent 
 one; and William the Carter laid his 
 damages at fort}^ shillings, which included 
 2s. 4d. for twenty gallons of beer, is. for 
 a cask, eighteen-pence for a sack, and is. 
 for damages done to the covering of his 
 stall. 
 
 The fair was known at that time as 
 Woodkirk fair, from the circumstance of 
 it belonging to the canons of that place, 
 and was even then one of the most famous 
 in England. It is said that merchants 
 came to it from France, Spain, the Nether- 
 lands, and even from Italy and Germany; 
 and that every family of consequence, and 
 the religious houses, for many miles round, 
 there made their purchases of necessaries 
 for the ensuing tv\elve months. A curious 
 illustration of the manners of the period
 
 150 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 is afforded by the fact that a priest and 
 clerk regularly attended the fair for the 
 purpose of uniting in matrimony couples 
 who, meeting at that scene of mirth and 
 festivity might be desirous of entering that 
 state. 
 
 Another curious circumstance con- 
 nected with this famous old fair was 
 that on St. Bartholomew's day, on which 
 it ended, the scholars from the grammar 
 schools of Leeds, Wakefield, and other 
 places were brought to " Lee Fair " for 
 examination, and this was done yearly 
 down to the early part of the last century. 
 An amusing incident connected with one 
 of these annual gatherings is related by 
 an old man who died about 1780, and is 
 mentioned in Mr. W. Smith's " Old York- 
 shire." He says: — "My father, when a 
 boy, was present during a disputation, 
 and had well-nigh been knocked on the 
 head by a beadle, for, happening to ask 
 one of the boys who stood up improper 
 questions, the gentleman in gold-laced 
 robe and cocked hat applied his truncheon 
 so forcibly to the pericranium of the cate- 
 chiser as made him remember his impud- 
 ence all his life afterwards." 
 
 The fair ground is now the top and side 
 of a hill east of the church, not far from 
 an older site called Fair-steads field. 
 
 Another fair of this early period, but 
 now fallen to insignificance, was that now 
 known as Field-cock fair, concerning
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I5I 
 
 which Scatcherd, in his ''History of 
 Morley," says : — " In Saxon and early 
 Norman times the church of the parish, 
 in which Howley was situated, was at 
 Morley, and afterwards at Batley. There 
 are vestiges of some place of worship at 
 Howley, and this, in all likelihood, was a 
 mere parochial chapel, called in those 
 days a ' field kirk,' important enough, 
 however, to give rise to a village wake or 
 fair, which would naturally be called Field 
 Kirk Fair. We have also at or near to 
 Howley a " holy well," which also was a 
 place of annual resort. Here, then, in 
 the vicinity of Howley, we have two 
 religious edifices in early times, — the kirk 
 of Batley, and the chapel or field kirk at 
 Howley or Southwell. Can anyone doubt 
 that there was here, in former days, a 
 fair ? Ask, then, a villager returning 
 from the annual assemblage where he 
 has been, and he will reply : ' I have 
 been to Field-cock fair.' This is the only 
 name by which it goes ; but who can 
 doubt that it is a corruption of Field Kirk 
 Fair." 
 
 Nostell fair was granted by Henry I. to 
 the canons of St. Oswald, Nostell, and 
 commenced on the 3rd of August, con- 
 tinuing for five days. This ancient fair 
 was surpressed by John de L'Isle, on 
 account of the riots and disorders for 
 which it became notorious. 
 
 The connection in early times of fairs
 
 152 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 with the Church, to which reference has 
 been made in the preceding pages, led 
 to their being frequently held in church- 
 yards. Bristol fair was an instance, and 
 in- London the ancient and now abolished 
 fair of St. Bartholomew was originally 
 held in the precincts of the priory in West 
 Smithfield, dedicated to that saint. Eld- 
 ward I., however, prohibited the custom in 
 1285 by an ordinance to the effect that 
 " The King commandeth that from hence- 
 forth neither fairs nor markets be held 
 in churchyards, for the honour of the 
 church," &c. 
 
 It seems probable that this custom 
 never obtamed in Barnsley, where the 
 extensive open space still known as the 
 Church Field afforded ample facilities for 
 the purpose in close contiguity to the 
 sacred edifice. The Easter Fair was prob- 
 ably a later institution, and in respect of 
 this it was arranged, as in many other 
 places, that it should be held elsewhere. 
 May-day Green would, of course, offer 
 itself as a very suitable locality. This 
 open space probably acquired its name 
 from the May-pole round which, ac- 
 cording to tradition, the youths of Barn- 
 sley danced in former times on the ist of 
 May, a custom derived from the festival 
 of Flora in the days of heathenism, when 
 it was introduced by the Romans. James, 
 in his romance of " Forest Days," calls it 
 Barnsley Green, and names it as a place
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 153 
 
 of sports in the time of Robin Hood ; but 
 there are no records showing either when 
 the May-pole was set up, or when it was 
 taken down. 
 
 York fair also dates from very remote 
 antiquity, the city itself being one of the 
 most ancient in the county, or even in 
 England. Mr. S. Baring-Gould tells a 
 good story of this fair in the second 
 volume of his " Yorkshire Oddities, In- 
 cidents, and Strange Events." Everyone 
 who knows York knows that the fine ruins 
 of the Abbey of St. Mary and the hoary 
 remains of the Priory of St. Leonard are 
 so near each other, in the grounds of the 
 Yorkshire Philosophical Society, that 
 when perfect their walls must have abut- 
 ted. Those who do not know this require 
 to be acquainted with the fact in order to 
 understand the story. Towards the close 
 of the fifteenth century, the brethren of St. 
 Leonard's numbered among them an un- 
 worthy brother who had taken the vows 
 in haste — in a fit of head-ache and re- 
 morse, after "potations pottle-deep" on 
 an occasion of civic rejoicing — and re- 
 pented at leisure. The head-ache was 
 bad, but the monastic fare of bread and 
 herbs was worse. He longed for beef 
 and strong ale, and in less than a year 
 felt that he must have a jolification, if he 
 died for it. 
 
 York fair approached, and to York fair
 
 154 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 Brother Jucundus resolved to go. So one 
 day, while the brethren were taking their 
 after-dinner nap, he relieved the sleeping 
 porter of his keys, and the sleeping Prior 
 of a crown, and hurried away to Parlia- 
 ment Street, whence the confused sounds 
 of ministrelsy and merriment had reached 
 his ears in the refectory, and made the 
 meagre fare more than ordinarily repulsive 
 to him. His eyes brightened, his colour 
 rose as he gazed delightedly at the feats 
 of jugglers aud posturers, the highly col- 
 oured and much exaggerated pictures of 
 giants and dwarfs, and the long row of 
 stalls laden with gingerbread and "spice."' 
 He supplemented his poor dinner with 
 pastry and cakes, he quaflfed strong ale, 
 he saw the shows. In the midst of his 
 enjoyment, and when he was beginning 
 to see double, he was confronted by two 
 grave monks, sent by the Prior in search 
 of their missing brother. He was ob- 
 liged to return to the abbey, where, in 
 solemn conclave, he was condemned to 
 be walled up alive in a convenient niche 
 m the cellar. 
 
 Just a year and a day after that fearful 
 event, the cellarer of St. Leonard's, on 
 going into the cellar, was startled by 
 hearmg a somewhat thick voice trolling a 
 jovial song, apparently in the niche in 
 which Brother Jucundus had been walled 
 up. He listened ; it was that erring 
 brother's voice ! He ran from the cellar
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I55 
 
 as fast as his trembling legs would bear 
 him, and in gasping accents told his 
 strange story to the Prior. The rev- 
 erend father pronounced it incredible ; 
 but he went down to the cellar, and 
 all the brethren followed. The voice was 
 still lustily singing. " A miracle !" ex- 
 claimed the Proir, and he immediately 
 gave orders for the wall to be broken 
 down. "A miracle !" he exclaimed again, 
 when it was done ; for there stood Brother 
 Jucundus, alive and jolly ! Now, lest my 
 readers should be as incredulous as the 
 Prior was until convinced by the sight of 
 the merry monk in the flesh, the seeming 
 miracle must be accounted for. 
 
 When Brother Jucundus became sober 
 enough to understand the situation in 
 which the awful sentence of the brethren 
 had placed him, he kicked until he kicked 
 down a portion of the wall, and, tumbling 
 through the opening, found himself in the 
 cellar of St. Mary's abbey. That was a 
 Cistercian foundation, in which the "silent 
 system " was observed ; and the brethren, 
 on the appearace of Jucundus among 
 them, asked no questions, and were con- 
 tent to suppose that he was a new brother, 
 duly installed. He abode in St. Mary's 
 unquestioned, therefore, until York fair 
 came round again, when the old longing 
 for a jolification returned, and as he could 
 not gratify it by a fling in Parliament 
 street and the Pavement, he resolved to
 
 156 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 have a booze in the cellar. There he 
 was found, later in the day, drunk and 
 incapable. For that offence he was walled 
 up in the cellar, and in the same niche as 
 before, which, it will be remembered, was 
 in the party wall between the cellars of 
 the two religious houses. That was how 
 it happened ; and if any of my readers do 
 not believe the story, they are referred to 
 Mr. Baring-Gould. 
 
 In and around Bradford all fairs and 
 feasts were formerly outshone and dwarfed 
 into insignifiance by the septennial cele- 
 bration of the Bishop Blaise festival. 
 Upon what grounds this ancient saint 
 holds a place in the ecclesiastical kal- 
 ender, antiquaries are unable to say, or at 
 all events to agree. He is said to have 
 been Bishop of Sebaste, in Armenia, and 
 to have been martyred under Licinius 
 in 316. Tradition credits him with the 
 invention of wool-combing, which is suf- 
 ficient, perhaps, to account for his former 
 reputation in this country, and especially 
 in Yorkshire. Minshow, speaking of him 
 in his obsolete dictionary, under the word 
 " Hocktide," says : — " This day about 
 Candlemas, when countrywomen go about 
 and make goode cheere ; and if they find 
 any of their neighbour women a spinning 
 that day, they burne and make a fire of 
 the distaffe, and thereof called S. blaze 
 his day." Dr. Percy, in his notes to the 
 'Northumberland Household Book,' says :
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 157 
 
 — •' The anniversary of St. Blazius is the 
 3rd of February, where it is still the cus- 
 tom in many parts of England to Hght up 
 fires on the hills and on St. Blayse night 
 — a custom anciently taken up, perhaps, 
 for no better reason than the jingling 
 resemblance ot the name to the word 
 blaze." 
 
 A representation of this festival is given 
 in a book about Yorkshire, published in 
 1814, and in which the order of the pro- 
 cession is set forth as follows : — " The 
 masters, on horseback, with each a white 
 sliver ; the masters' sons, on horseback ; 
 their colours ; the apprentices on horse- 
 back, in their uniforms ; music ; the king 
 and queen ; the royal family ; their guards 
 and attendants ; Jason ; the golden fleece ; 
 attendants ; Bishop and chaplain ; their 
 attendants ; shepherd and shepherdess ; 
 shepherd's swains ; attendants, &c. ; fore- 
 men and wool sorters, on horseback ; com- 
 bers' colours ; wool combers, two and two, 
 with wool wigs and various coloured 
 slivers." But, though a life-size figure of 
 Bishop Blaise may be seen at the prin- 
 cipal entrance of the Bradford Exchange, 
 the great septennial festivals formerly pro- 
 vided by the wool staplers of the town in 
 favour of their patron saint have long ago 
 fallen into disnetude. 
 
 It is now time to say something about 
 the amusements of the fairs at the early 
 period at which they had their origin.
 
 158 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 Ancient records leave a great deal to be 
 inferred from analogy, so far at least as 
 any particular fair is concerned ; but it 
 may, I think, be taken for granted that 
 what is known of fairs in other parts of 
 the kingdom applies equally to those of 
 li^orkshire. 
 
 There being no doubt that itinerant 
 entertainers of the people were in the 
 habit of tramping from town to town, 
 and from village to village, long before 
 the Norman Conquest of this country, 
 there can be none that the minstrels and 
 " gleemen " — the latter class comprising 
 dancers, posturers, acrobats, jugglers, and 
 exhibitors of performing bears, horses, 
 and monkeys, — were to be found at the 
 fairs from the earliest period. Strutt, in 
 his well-known work on the sports and 
 amusements of the people, gives numerous 
 illustrations from the Harleian collection of 
 manuscripts in the British Museum lib- 
 rary, which constitute our chief authority 
 as to the amusements of the fairs in the 
 middle ages. They introduce us to ac- 
 robats and posturers performing the var- 
 ious feats which have been the stock-in- 
 trade of the profession down to the 
 present day, — to jugglers exhibiting the 
 same feats with knives and balls as their 
 representatives in the nineteenth century, 
 — to performers of balancing feats, among 
 which we find the balancing of a cart- 
 wheel, just as it was performed some
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 159 
 
 years ago by an elderly negro, in the 
 streets of London, — to monkeys vaulting 
 over a stretched cord, and bears and 
 horses walking on their hind legs alone. 
 That such freaks of nature as have had 
 their representatives in our own time in 
 the spotted boy, the Siamese twins, and 
 the hairless horse had begun to be ex- 
 hibited by showmeu in the reign of Eliza- 
 beth, is shown by the allusion to such 
 exhibitions made by Shakespere in " The 
 Tempest," when the mariners discover 
 Caliban ; and the practice of displaying 
 in front of the shows large pictures of the 
 wonders to be seen within prevailed at 
 the same period is distinctly alluded to by 
 Jonson, in " The Alchymist :" — 
 
 " What should my knave advance 
 
 To draw this company ? He hung out no banners 
 
 Of a strange calf with five legs to be seen. 
 
 Or a huge lobster with six claws." 
 
 When this comedy was written, the 
 public entertainers, encouraged by the 
 favour of the people they amused, were 
 looking up again, after the sore depression 
 of the Vagrancy Act of Elizabeths reign, 
 which scheduled strolling jugglers and 
 minstrels with fair-going thieves, gipsy 
 fortune-tellers and wandering beggars. 
 
 That companies of stroiling players 
 visited the fairs at the same period is 
 shown by the prologue written for some 
 London apprentices who, when they gave 
 a dramatic performance in 1614, admitted
 
 l60 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 their want of skill in acting and elocution 
 in the lines — 
 
 " We are not half so skilled as strolling players 
 Who could not please here as at country fairs." 
 
 There is an entry in the household book 
 of the Clifford family, quoted in Whitaker's 
 " History of Craven," of the payment in 
 1638 of one pound to "certain itinerant 
 players ;" and two years later, an entry 
 occurs of the payment of the like amount 
 to " a certain company of roguish players, 
 who represented a New Way to pay Old 
 Debts," the adjective being used, it would 
 seem, to distinguish the company referred 
 to, as being unlicensed or unrecognised, 
 from the strolling players who had per- 
 mission to assume the title of some peer 
 and to wear his livery. The Earl of 
 Leicester maintained such a company, 
 and several other nobles of that period 
 did the same, the actors being known as 
 " my Lord Leicester's company," or as 
 the case might be, and being allowed to 
 perform elsewhere when their services 
 were not required by their patron. 
 
 The lesser sights of a country fair in 
 the first quarter of the eighteenth century 
 are graphically delineated by Gay in the 
 character of the ballad-singer in " The 
 Shepherd's Week,'' bringing before the 
 reader's mental vision the stalls, the lot- 
 teries, the mountebanks, the tumblers, the 
 rope-dancers, the raree-shows, the pup- 
 pets, and " all the fun of the fair. "
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. l6l 
 
 " How pedlers' stalls with glittering toys are laid, 
 
 The various fairings of the country maid. 
 
 Long silken laces hang upon the twine, 
 
 And rows of pins and amber bracelets shine. 
 
 How the tight lass knives, combs, and scizzors spies, 
 
 And looks on thimbles with designing eyes. 
 
 Of lotteries next with tuneful note he told, 
 
 Where silver spoons are won, and rings of gold' 
 
 The lads and lasses trudge the street along, 
 
 And all the fair is crowded in his song, 
 
 The mountebank now treads the stage, and sells 
 
 His pills, his balsams, and his ague-spells; 
 
 Now o'er and o'er the nimble tumbler springs, 
 
 And on the rope the venturous maiden swings. 
 
 Jack Pudding, in his party-coloured jacket. 
 
 Tosses the glove, and jokes at every packet. 
 
 Of raree-shows he sung, and Punch's feats, 
 
 Of pockets picked in crowds, and various cheats. 
 
 The fact that, even in modern timesi 
 the commercial element has always had 
 precedence of the amusements of the 
 fairs, in the cases in which horse and 
 cattle fairs are held in combination with 
 pleasure fairs, shows, however, that the 
 former was the origin of the fairs, and 
 the latter an incidental adjunct. Some 
 of the earliest incidents of the Yorkshire 
 fairs that can be gathered from old news- 
 papers, diaries, letters, &c., relate to horse 
 and cattle dealing, and little is found 
 concerning shows and other amusements 
 earlier than the second quarter of the 
 present century. Thus, in the diary of 
 John Hobson, of Dodworth, included in 
 the volume of " Yorkshire Diaries and 
 Autobiographies," issued by the Surtees 
 Society, the only one relatmg to a fair is
 
 l62 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 the following, made May i8th, 1730 : — 
 " Bought a pair of oxen at Rotherham 
 fair." 
 
 Adwalton was formerly the scene of an 
 important cattle fair, and when, in 1765, 
 the first sheep and cattle fair was held at 
 Wakefield the inhabitants of the former 
 place proclaimed it illegal, and threatened 
 actions at law " against all persons by 
 whom such intended meetings at Wake- 
 field shall be held," on the ground that 
 they would be highly prejudicial to the 
 neighbouring fairs and markets at Ad- 
 walton, which were held under royal 
 charter. 
 
 Birstal fair or feast was enlivened in 
 1792 by the breaking loose of a bull that 
 was made to contribute to the amusement 
 of the company by being secured to a 
 post, and baited with dogs. This was 
 one of the popular amusements of those 
 " good old times," which ever)' generation 
 assigns to a previous century. The pop- 
 ulace did not always have the whole of 
 the sport to themselves, however, for it 
 sometmnes happened that the bull got 
 loose, and then he was apt to turn the 
 table on his tormentors. On the occasion 
 referred to, the Birstal bull chased the 
 spectators, some of whom he drove into a 
 pond, where they were as well drenched 
 as they were frightened. 
 
 The beginning of the present centur)/ 
 introduces to our notice Robert Ireland,
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 163 
 
 a famous leaper, who appeared in a circus 
 at Sheffield fair in 1802. He was a native 
 of Yorkshire, and a tall well proportioned 
 young man, who had been for some time 
 travelling from fair to fair. Mr. Charles 
 Leslie, of Siindon House, near Arundel, 
 to whom I am indebted for this account 
 of him, says he leaped over three men on 
 horseback, vaulted backward and for- 
 ward over a horse without the aid of a 
 spring board, and did flights through 
 balloons. When walking he leaped over 
 gates and hedges for amusement or per- 
 haps for practice. On one occasion he 
 leaped over a loaded waggon, and on 
 another accomplished a long jump of 23 
 feet. While in Sheffield, he made a wager 
 — and won it — that he would hop, and kick 
 with the same foot the sign of the Grey- 
 hound, in West Bar, which then projected 
 over the causeway. 
 
 In the following year, while performing 
 in Burslem, he kicked a bladder on a pole 
 20 feet high, and leaped over a coach, on 
 the roof of which were four volunteers 
 with shouldered muskets and fixed bay- 
 onets. He is said to have broken his neck 
 but the year of the casualty has not been 
 ascertained. 
 
 The next event in the history of the 
 Yorkshire fairs of which I have been 
 able to find any record occurred at 
 Northallerton m 1810. Two horse- 
 dealers, Isaac Tetley, of Leeds, and a
 
 164 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 Cheshire man, named Watkinson, were 
 riding from that fair on the night of the 
 14th February, when one of them chall- 
 enged the other to a race to Leeds for 
 twenty guineas. The bet was taken, and 
 the start made from Harewood bridge, 
 which would make the distance nine 
 miles. Watkinson won the wager by 
 half a length, accomplishing the distance 
 in twentj^-six minutes and twelve seconds. 
 
 Thomas Frost.
 
 James Nayler, 
 
 Th3 Mad Quaker, who Claimed 
 
 to be the Messiah. 
 
 History furnishes particulars of several 
 men who have claimed to be the Messiah, 
 and perhaps the most celebrated of the 
 number is James Nayler, " the mad 
 Quaker." He was born at East Ard- 
 sley, near Wakefield, in the year 1616. 
 It is certain that his parents were in 
 humble circumstances, and it is generally 
 believed that his father occupied a house 
 near the old church, and that he was a 
 small farmer. James Nayler, for a person 
 in his station of life, received a fairly good 
 education. In his early manhood he was 
 a husbandman, and resided in his native 
 villa<:je. When about twenty-two years 
 of age he married, as he puts it, " ac- 
 cordmg to the world," and removed to 
 Wakefield. 
 
 Shortly after his marriage, the Civil 
 War broke out in England, and Nayler 
 took his share in the struggle between 
 King and Parliament. He joined, in 
 1641, as a private, the Parliamentarian 
 army, and his conduct and ability gaining 
 him advancement, he rose to the position
 
 l66 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 of quarter-master under General Lambert. 
 While in Scotland ill-health obliged him 
 to retire from active service, and he re- 
 turned home. 
 
 Nayler carefully studied the Scriptures, 
 and was a zealous member of the Inde- 
 pendents, worshipping at Horbury, but 
 he left this body in disgrace. It trans- 
 pired that he had been paying attentions 
 to a married woman named Mrs. Roper, 
 of Horbury, whose husband had been 
 absent from her for a long period, and 
 that she became a mother, and that 
 Nayler was the father of the child. The 
 Rev. Mr. Marshall, the minister of the 
 Independents, exposed him, and took him 
 severely to task, so that he was finally 
 expelled from the society. 
 
 George Fox, the founder of the Society 
 of Friends, visited Wakefield in the year 
 1651, and made a convert of James Nay- 
 ler. Here commences the real interest 
 of Nayler's career — a career in which 
 there is much to deplore, but much also 
 certainly to cause wonder. He possessed 
 extraordinary gifts as a preacher, and 
 impressed the people with the truth of 
 his teaching, more especially in the North 
 and West of England. Trouble beset 
 him almost on every hand — trouble often 
 caused through his own mistaken zeal and 
 frail conduct ; but he bore his trials with 
 a noble Christian spirit. Nayler had no
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 167 
 
 sooner joined the Quakers then he com- 
 menced what he termed his travels. At 
 the quarter-sessions held at Appleby, in 
 1652, he was tried and found guilty of 
 blasphemy, and sentenced to twenty 
 weeks' imprisonment. Un being released 
 he continued spreading his doctrines in 
 the North. We gather from the remarks 
 of an officer who had served under Crom- 
 well a testimony to the power of Nayler's 
 preaching. " After the battle of Dunbar," 
 says the officer, *' as I was riding in 
 Scotland at the head of my troop, I 
 observed at some distance from the road 
 a crowd of people, and one higher than 
 the rest ; upon which I sent one of my 
 men to see, and bring me word what was 
 the meaning of the gathering ; and seeing 
 him ride up and stay there, without 
 returning according to my order, I sent 
 a second, who stayed in like manner ; and 
 then I determined to go myself. When 
 I came thither, I found it was James 
 Nayler preaching to the people, but with 
 such power and reaching energy as I had 
 not till then been witness of. I could not 
 help staying a little, although I was 
 afraid to stay, for fear I was made a 
 Quaker, being forced to tremble at the 
 sight of myself. I was struck with more 
 terror by the preaching of James Nayler 
 than I was at the battle of Dunbar, when 
 we had nothing else to expect but to fall 
 a prey to the swords of our enemies,
 
 l68 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 without being able to help ourselves. I 
 clearly saw the Cross of Christ to be 
 submitted to, so I durst sta}^ no longer, 
 but got off, and carried condemnation for 
 it in my own breast. The people there 
 cried out against themselves, imploring 
 mercy, a thorough change, and the whole 
 work of salvation to be effected by them." 
 
 Nayler, in 1654, after visiting in the 
 West, wended his way to London, and 
 preached to two congregations which had 
 been formed by Edward Burrough and 
 Francis Howgil, members of the Society of 
 Friends, who suffered imprisonment with 
 him at Appleby. He broke up both con- 
 gregations, and drew after him. " some 
 inconsiderate women." 
 
 His mind gave way, and he believed 
 that he was the Messiah. " Notwith- 
 standing the irregularities of Nayler's 
 life," says Scatcherd, the learned hist- 
 orian of Morley, " there were many 
 things in the man, which, with low and 
 ignorant people, exceedingly favoured his 
 pretensions to the Messiahship. He ap- 
 peared, both as to form and feature, the 
 perfect likeness to Jesus Christ, according 
 to the best descriptions. His face was of 
 the oval shape, his forehead broad, his 
 hair auburn and long, and parted on the 
 bro\v, his beard flowing, his eyes beaming 
 with a benignant lustre, his nose of the 
 Grecian or Caucassian order, his figure 
 erect and majestic, his aspect sedate, his
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. l6g 
 
 speech sententious, deliberative and grave, 
 and his manner authoritative." Carlyle 
 has drawn a pen picture of Nayler, but 
 not with the skill of the foregoing. 
 
 It is not our intention to attempt to 
 trace Nayler from place to place in his 
 wanderings, but to touch on the more 
 important episodes of his closing years. 
 He visited the West in 1652 on a religious 
 mission, and revisited it again four years 
 later. During his visit to Cornwall, he 
 prophesied, and subsequently one of the 
 charges made against him was that he 
 proclaimed himself to be a prophet. At 
 Exeter he was charged with vagrancy, 
 and imprisoned. During his confinement 
 he was visited by a number of women, 
 who had been moved by his teaching. 
 Amongst tlie number was a widow named 
 Dorcas Erbury. She fell into a swoon, 
 and It was supposed that she was dead. 
 Nayler went through certain ceremonies, 
 and he pretended to have restored her to 
 life. Referring to this when examined by 
 the Bristol Magistrate at a later period, 
 the woman said, " Nayler laid his hand 
 on my head after I had been dead two 
 days, and said, 'Dorcas, arise!' and I 
 arose, and live, as thou seest." On being 
 questioned if she had any witness to cor- 
 roborate her statement, she said that her 
 mother was present. The local authorities 
 at Exeter released Nayler after detaining 
 him for a short time. At this period
 
 170 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 some strange scenes occurred. " The 
 usual posture of Nayler," says Scatcherd, 
 " was sitting in a chair, while his com- 
 pany of men and women knelt before him. 
 These, it appears, were very numerous 
 and constant for wliole days together. 
 At the commencement of the service, a 
 female stepped forth and sang : — 
 
 "This is the joyful day, 
 
 Behold ! the King of righteousness is come !" 
 
 Another taking him by the hand ex- 
 claimed : — 
 
 " Rise up, my love — my dove — and come away, 
 Why sittest thou among the pots." 
 
 Then, putting his hand upon her mouth, 
 
 she sunk upon the ground before him, 
 
 the auditory vociferating: — 
 
 " Holy, holy, holy, to the Almighty." 
 
 His procession through Chepstow caused 
 much amazement in that quiet place. 
 " Nayler " is described as being mounted 
 on the back of a horse or mule ; — one 
 Woodcock preceded him bareheaded, and 
 on foot ; — a female on each side of Nayler, 
 held his bridle ; tnany spread garments 
 in his way, — while the women sang : 
 '• Hosaimah to the Son of David— blessed 
 is he that coineth in the name of llie Lord 
 — Hosantiah in llie highest !"' 
 
 Nayler and his followers entered Bristol 
 in a procession similar to the one just 
 described. We are told that on this 
 particular day in the year of grace 1656
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 171 
 
 when he visited the city of Bristol, rain 
 was falling, and the roads were deep 
 with mud, but ne ther mud nor rain 
 could check the ardour of himself and 
 disciples, and they sang hymns of praise. 
 They first wended their steps to the High 
 Cross, and then to the White Hart, 
 Broad-street, where a couple of Quakers 
 were staying. The local magistrates were 
 soon on the alert, and had the party 
 apprehended and cast into prison. After 
 being examined by Bristol magistrates, 
 Nayler and his followers were sent to 
 London to be examined before Parlia- 
 ment. His examination and the debate 
 on it occupied many days, and the 
 members finally resolved " that James 
 Nayler was guilty of horrid blasphemy, 
 and that he was a grand impostor and 
 seducer of the people ;" and his sentence 
 was, " that he should be set on the 
 pillory, in the Palace Yard, Westminster, 
 during the space of two hours, on Thurs- 
 day next, and be whipped by the hang- 
 man through the streets from Westmin- 
 ster to the Old Exchange, London ; 
 and there, likewise, he should be set 
 on the pillory, with his head in the 
 pillory, for the space of two hours, be- 
 tween the hours of eleven and one, on 
 Saturday next, in each place wearing a 
 paper containing an inscription of his 
 crimes ; and that at the Old Exchange 
 his tongue should be bored through with
 
 172 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 a hot iron, and that he should be there 
 also stigmatised in the forehead with the 
 letter B ; and that he should be after- 
 wards sent to Bristol, to be conveyed 
 into and through the city on horseback, 
 with his face backwards, and there also 
 should be whipped the next market-day 
 after he came thither ; and that thence 
 he should be committed to prison in 
 Bridewell, London, and there be restrained 
 from the society of all people, and there 
 to labour hard till he should be released 
 by Parliament ; and during that time he 
 should be debarred the use of pen, ink 
 and paper, and he should have no relief 
 but what he earned by his daily labour." 
 This terrible sentence was duly carried 
 out, although Parliament and Cromwell 
 were petitioned to mitigate the punish- 
 ment. During his imprisonment he wrote 
 his recantation in letters addressed to the 
 Quakers. After being confined for two 
 years he was set at liberty, and repaired 
 to Bristol, and at a public meeting made 
 a confession of his offence and fall. His 
 address moved nearly all present to tears. 
 The Quakers once more received him 
 back to their Society. 
 
 His end came in the year 1660. In 
 that year he left London for Wakefield, 
 but failed to reach it. At Holm, near 
 King's Rippon, Huntingdonshire, one 
 night he was bound and robbed, and 
 left in a field, where he was found by a
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I73 
 
 countryman. He was removed to a house 
 at Holm and everj^ attention paid to him, 
 but he soon died from the results of the 
 rough treatment he had received at the 
 hands of the highwaymen. 
 
 William Andrews, f.r.h.s.
 
 Duke Richard's Doom : 
 A Legend of Sandal Castle- 
 
 The castle of Sandal was under close 
 leaguer, for Margaret of Anjou, Lord 
 Clifford, and the followers of the Lan- 
 castrian chivalry were arrayed in arms 
 against Richard, Duke of York, whose 
 claim to the throne of England had been 
 approved by the ordeal of battle, when 
 the red rose of Lancaster was trampled 
 in the blood and dust of Northampton 
 field, on the 20th July, 1460. 
 
 Five months had barely elapsed since 
 that evil day, but the triumph of York 
 had been confirmed by the solemn de- 
 cision of Parliament ; and it was decreed 
 that, when Henry VL passed from the 
 stage of life, the house of York should 
 assume orb and sceptre maugre the kingly 
 paternity of Edward, Prince of Wales. 
 
 Margaret of Anjou felt her bosom stir 
 with the mother and the queen, as she 
 heard the news of the great disaster that 
 ruined the house of Lancaster. Animated 
 by the most implacable hatred towards 
 York, the queen received with the utmost 
 disdain his peremptory summons to repair 
 to London, but prepared to meet him in
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 175 
 
 the field, and again appeal to the god of 
 battle. 
 
 So, as that fated year drew towards its 
 close. North umbria gleamed with arms, 
 and its wild breezes displayed the em- 
 blazoned banners of Northumberland, 
 Clifford, Neville, and Dacre, as the Lan- 
 castrians took the field with bow and 
 bill. More eager for the battlefield than 
 for the reversion of the crown and robe 
 that decked the puppit king, Henry of 
 Windsor, Richard carried his banner 
 northward, to find his enemies too strong 
 for the small but valiant army that 
 marched at his back. In this strait 
 he threw himself into his castle of San- 
 dal, where he proposed to await the 
 arrival of reinforcements under Edward 
 Earl of March. 
 
 The fortress was crowded with armed 
 men ; and outside, the army of Queen 
 Margaret held it under close observation. 
 
 On the 29th of December, Duke Richard 
 sat in council with his noble friends and 
 officers, who, however, united to dissuade 
 him from the rash step of engaging the 
 enemy. Strangely enough, Richard came 
 to the resolution to fight, and many 
 speculations have been advanced to ac- 
 count for this decision, almost unpar- 
 alelled in its rashness. It has been 
 suggested that a scarcity ot provisions 
 compelled him to assume the defensive ; 
 that Margaret taunted him by the most
 
 176 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 insulting challenges, and that she deceived 
 him by concealing the numbers of her 
 troops, availing herself, it is supposed, 
 of some small hillocks, and by the woods 
 that then girded the stronghold, except- 
 ing the open space in the direction of 
 Wakefield. 
 
 The military ardour and high courage 
 of Duke Richard were probably the real 
 incitements to the desperate encounter. 
 Be that as it may, on the morning of the 
 24th of December, York, having completed 
 his preparations for battle, threw open 
 the gates, lowered the drawbridge, and 
 displayed to the incensed Lancastrians 
 his insulting banner, with its proud de- 
 vice of a Falcon volant argent, with a 
 fetterlock Or. The noble bird was rep- 
 resented with expanded wing, attempting 
 to break open the lock, which was pre- 
 sumed to typify the crown of England. 
 Duke Richard was nobly supported as he 
 issued forth to fight his last battle, and 
 the Falcon shook its wings over the crests 
 of the Earl of Salisbury, Sir Thomas 
 Neville, Sir David Hall, Sir John Parr, 
 Sir John Mortimer, Sir Hugh Mortimer, 
 Sir Walter Limbrike, Sir John Gedding, 
 Sir Eustace Wentworth, Sir Guy Har- 
 rington, and many other brave gentlemen 
 and famous men-at-arms, the whole army 
 consisting of not more than 6,000 men. 
 
 With trumpets sounding, and the van 
 flashing with steel, and gay with fluttering
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I77 
 
 pennons, the chivalrous army burst upon 
 the Lancastrians that stood in arms before 
 the castle, and the sudden clash of arms 
 and battle shouts of York and Lancaster 
 rang over the field. Fierce and bloody 
 was the conflict ; but the Lancastrians 
 were broken, and their bravest hewn 
 down, before the onset of York, but while 
 sword, and lance, and mace were in full 
 play, the main body of Queen Margaret's 
 army came marching up from Sandal 
 Common, the fierce Lord (Clifford urging 
 on the van, impatient to bathe his weapons 
 in the blood of the Yorkists, and deliver 
 his soul of the dreadful vow that he had 
 made to cut off the house of York, root 
 and branch, in requital for his father's 
 loss, who had fallen, with Somerset and 
 Northumberland, fighting at St. Alban's, 
 under the banner of King Henry. 
 
 In that hour the bravest warriors in 
 England met face to face, inflamed by 
 mutual hatred, and as the battle was hand 
 to hand, the archers probably pla)-ed but a 
 subordinate part in the bloody conflict 
 that ensued. 
 
 No slackness was found on either side, 
 and York was no doubt soon cut off from 
 the castle, as the Lancastrians drew up, 
 thousand after thousand, and on every 
 side the doomed Yorkists found swords 
 and lances flashing in their faces. Now 
 all the heroic courage of Duke Richard 
 was exerted to maintain the field, and 
 lances were flung aside, as sword, and
 
 178 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 mace, axe, and dagger, performed their 
 murderous work. Hot with the certainty 
 of triumph and revenge, the Lancastrians 
 shrank not from the mighty strokes of the 
 despairing Yorkists, who soon found that 
 no prospect of victory or retreat re- 
 mained to them ; and we may be sure 
 that Duke Richard found full employment 
 for his arms, as Queen Margaret's cav- 
 aliers directed their attacks against him ; 
 and soon his mail gaped with many a 
 rent, where practised warriors had found 
 and probed a joint with keen sword, or 
 gashed the tempered steel with crashing 
 blow of axe or falchion. Gallantly the 
 heroes fought it out to the bloody end; 
 cleaving and shearing with the terrible 
 two-handed swords ; smashing helms and 
 iron skull-caps by sheer force of weighty 
 mace ; gashing good mail with the temp- 
 ered battle-axe, and heaping the field with 
 dead and dying men. 
 
 Pennons and banners fluttered in the 
 December wind ; hoarse war-cries re- 
 sounded o'er the field ; loudly rang out the 
 trumpets of the royalists, and heavier fell 
 the strokes of Clifford as he urged the 
 battle-surges against the struggling bands 
 of York. The wounds of the Duke, al- 
 though they dill not daunt his own 
 courageous soul, operated upon the cour- 
 age of his followers, and a panic began to 
 spread through their decimated ranks, as 
 Clifford drew his lines closer round them 
 and beat a bloody way into their ranks
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I79 
 
 wherever a gap appeared, until the Httle 
 army was cleft through and through, and 
 the sword was raised, not in chivalrous 
 conflict, but vengeful massacre. York 
 fell, and with him the flower of his army. 
 
 So insatiable was Clifford in his pursuit 
 of vengeance, that, on overtaking the 
 Duke's son — a mere youth, — who had left 
 the castle accompanied by his tutor, he 
 put him to death with his own hands, 
 although the youth fell upon his knees, in 
 his earnest supplication for mercy. But 
 CHffbrd's bloody oath was on his lips as 
 he plunged the cold steel into the lads' 
 heart : — " As thy father slew mine, so 
 will I sla}' thee and all thy kin." 
 
 Over two thousand Yorkists perished 
 on Wakefield Green ; and the noblest of 
 the prisoners were condemned to the 
 block by the sanguinary Margaret ; and, 
 among the rest, the veteran Salisbury. 
 It is recorded, by Welhamstede, a con- 
 temporary writer, that York was captured 
 in the field, and there beheaded. It is 
 certain, however, that his body was sub- 
 jected to the axe, and we can easily 
 believe the story of Clifford bearing the 
 Duke's head at point of spear into the 
 Queen's presence, and that the worthy 
 couple exposed it on Micklcgate Bar, at 
 York. So perished Duke Richard of 
 York, in the fiftieth year of his age, in 
 the last hours of the sad, eventful year 
 of 1460. 
 
 Edward Lamplough.
 
   Obsolete Industries of the 
 East Riding. 
 
 The discovery of coal and the apphc- 
 ation of steam power to machinery have 
 locahsed and concentrated some manu- 
 factures which were once widely diffused. 
 Not many generations ago nearly every 
 house was a factory, in which the spinning 
 wheel, and in some instances the hand- 
 loom also, played an important part. 
 Railways have practically annihilated dis- 
 tance between the manufacturing towns 
 and the rural villages, but when there was 
 little or no communication between these 
 places, each community was compelled to 
 produce within itself the necessary articles 
 of food and wearing apparel. Hence the 
 use of the picturesque, but fast-disap- 
 pearing windmill, is nearly abandoned, 
 and the almost forgotten sound of the 
 whirring spinning-wheel, and the click of 
 the hand-loom are entirely things of the 
 past. 
 
 Before the country was so well drained, 
 there were many districts where flax or 
 lin could be grown ; but now the flax 
 industry is nearly, if not altogether, a 
 thing of the past, though Holme-on-
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. l8l 
 
 Spaldinp;-Moor, Winestead, Patrington, 
 Sunk Island, and the Lowlands at Broom- 
 fleet and Gilberdike, once produced en- 
 ormous quantities. After the reaping of 
 the Hn, it was steeped in water, to de- 
 compose the woody portion, and when this 
 offensive work was completed, the hn was 
 heckled and swingled, and the fibrous 
 portion spun into fine thread, during the 
 long winter evenings, by the female mem- 
 bers of the family. We retain the memory 
 of this occupation in our word spinster — 
 literally a female spinner, but now applied 
 to unmarried females generally ; so Web- 
 ster was a female webber, or weaver, but 
 now a proper personal name ; and litster 
 (Lister) was a female dyer. 
 
 As every house could not well have a 
 hand-loom, there would be in each com- 
 munity one or more weavers who would 
 be fully occupied in making up the linen 
 yarn into sheets, table cloths, bed hang-- 
 ings, bed tickings, or towels, and the 
 woollen yarn into coarse but warm and 
 serviceable frieze, and other rough cloths ; 
 while a combination of the two — a linen 
 warp and woollen weft — produced linsey 
 woolsey — a material much approved for 
 dresses. 
 
 I have before me the indenture of 
 apprenticeship of James Fairbotham, of 
 Nafferton, who was bound for twelve 
 years to Richard Billingham, of East 
 Lutton, in order to be " taught, learned,
 
 l82 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 and informed in the Trade, Art, Mistory 
 [sic] , and Occupation of a Weaver.'' 
 Whatever "mislory" there was in the 
 weaver's occupation, they certainly pro- 
 duced a good article, free from s'tarch, 
 whiting, or shoddy. Their linen goods 
 were made to wear, not to sell ; and were 
 not at all like the cotton goods which 
 Manchester now supplies to the nomadic 
 tribes of Africa. When a parcel reaches 
 them, the nearest river is soon filled with 
 a milky fluid, caused by the washing out of 
 the calico all the thickening and stiffness, 
 which prevent the simple natives dyeing 
 it with their brilliant reds, blues, or yel» 
 lows. Although the above=mentioned 
 James F'airbotham terminated his ap- 
 prenticeship in February, 1794, there are 
 still in use linen bed-furniture, ticking, 
 and sheets, which he wove, when master 
 weaver at Nafferton. 
 
 The last of the linen weavers in Drif- 
 field was " Jossy " Barnett, who had 
 sufScient work to employ two or three 
 looms in his own house, now No. i, 
 Chapel Lane. The very mention of his 
 name brings a smile on the faces of those 
 who knew him. So guileless, so peculiar, 
 so pleasant ! His slim, trim figure, his 
 white neck-cloth, his tall hat, knee 
 breeches, and ever-smiling face, were 
 well known throughout the district, and 
 the memory of him is pleasant to this day. 
 W^ien his elderly mother hawked the pro-
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 183 
 
 duce of her son's loom, she used a donkey 
 and panniers to carry her wares ; but 
 Joseph carried his pack on his back, and 
 dearly loved a crack of talk, during which 
 he imparted all the news of the district 
 he had travelled, and received in return 
 that which would interest his customers 
 in the next village. Like many others of 
 his trade, he was a staunch Methodist, 
 and was for many years Superintendent 
 of the Driffield Wesleyan Sunday School, 
 m conjunction with the late venerable Mr. 
 Edward Hayes. 
 
 The last of the linen weavers at Welton 
 was John Bentley, v.h.o was also a Meth- 
 odist and a class leader. At South Cave, 
 poor deformed Willie Lockey, the butt of 
 the thoughtless and ignorant, was the last 
 to ply the shuttle there. 
 
 Though some of the bleaching might 
 be done at home, yet bleaching was a 
 trade which had a home at Beverley, 
 where were three or four extensive bleach 
 ing yards. Some of these, though covered 
 With houses, shops, and streets, are still 
 called the Jjleach Yards. There used to 
 be a bleach yard near Mulberry Cottage, 
 at Driffield. 
 
 Carpet weaving was once an important 
 industry in the East Ridmg. Where there 
 was an al)undance of water power, it was 
 utilised for other purjioses than for flour 
 mills onl)'. The large flour mills ol Mr. 
 Wilson, of Wansford, now occupy the
 
 184 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 site of a similar building, which was 
 burnt down, and which had beenja carpet 
 factory. I have seen carpets^woven there 
 which, for design, colour, and material, 
 will compare favourably with carpets made 
 to-day. There used to be a large carpet 
 mill at Boynton, which employed hundreds 
 of hands ; while at Driffield, Bell Mill flour 
 mill was once an extensive woollen spin- 
 ning mill, and previous to that a paper mill. 
 It was then called the factory, and the 
 lane leading to it is still called Factory 
 Lane. In Middle Street, Driffield, where 
 the York Union Bank now stands, once 
 stood a carpet weaver's shop, kept by a 
 man named Hillaby ; and 
 
 " Children, coming home from school, 
 Looked in at the open door," 
 
 with that curiosity which impels them to 
 watch the progress of any mechanical 
 work that happens to be in their way. 
 
 Mr. Thos. Holderness writes: "Per- 
 haps the last survivor of the journeyman 
 weavers in Bridlington was old Jimmy 
 Welbourn. Jimmy was a little, thin, wiry, 
 old man, with knee breeches and ribbed 
 stockings, and wore a very long frock coat, 
 of primitive cut. He could read but could 
 not vyrite, and was particularly fond of 
 studying a large illustrated edition of 
 " Cooalpepper Yahbley Beuk "' (Culpep- 
 per's Herbal). He was a firm believer in 
 astrology. This made him a skilful dis-
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 1S5 
 
 ciple of old Culpepper, for he was always 
 very particular to gather his " yerbs " 
 when certain planets were in certain 
 positions, as he believed that they would 
 otherwise not possess their desired med- 
 icinal properties. Ignorant and super- 
 stitious as the old man was, he must have 
 had remarkable arithmetical and math- 
 emathical abilities, for a friend once set 
 him the question : " If a pope could pray a 
 soul out of purgatory in an hour, a cardinal 
 in two hours, an archbishop in three 
 hours, and a bishop in four hours, how 
 long would it take them to do it, if they 
 all prayed together ?" The old man set 
 his whole soul on the task, and some time 
 after went to his young friend, and said : 
 '• Ah've deean it!' His friend looked at 
 Jimmy's paper and said: "Why, Jimmy, 
 what are all these?" "Figures," an- 
 swered Jimmy. " Figures ? Do you call 
 these figures ?" "Yes," responded Jimmy ; 
 for, being ignorant of figures, he had in- 
 vented a set of his own, and with these 
 nondescript signs had correctly solved the 
 problem." 
 
 These weavers and spinners would re- 
 quire reels and other wooden articles, and 
 in order to supply them, a Mr. Mark Lay- 
 bourne built a wood-turning mill, on the 
 beck down Albion Street, Driffield, to be 
 worked by water power. It is now used 
 as a flour mill, and is known as Witty's 
 Flour Mill.
 
 l86 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 Captain Edward Anderson, in his poem, 
 " The Sailor," thus describes those days 
 that are gone by : 
 
 " My clothing then it mostly was home-spun ; 
 My stockings did my mother's taste display, 
 Black and white wool she mixed to make them gray, 
 But then the richest woman in the town 
 Would go to church in linsey-woolsey gown. 
 • »*•*« 
 
 On Yorkshire Wolds we mostly barley eat, 
 For there they grow but very little wheat ; 
 We lived on barley bread, and barley pies. 
 And oats and peas the want of wheat supplies." 
 
 Steam and machinery have made it 
 easier to buy new articles rather than 
 repair old ones. A skilled workman will 
 sometimes tell you that he cannot mend 
 an article except at a cost greater than 
 the cost of a new one ; and as woollen 
 clothes can be obtained for little money, 
 leather breeches making is a thing of the 
 past. Brogues, they used to be called ; 
 and though the thing is obsolete, you may 
 yet hear an old country tailor use the 
 term for trousers. The Blue-coat children 
 in Beverley used to wear leather breeches; 
 and the famous Danish chieftain, Ragnar 
 Lodbrog. got his nickname, Lodbrog 
 (Leather Breeches), from a pair he made 
 to protect his legs in his fai)le(l conflict 
 with the dragon. 
 
 Leather gloves for l^edgers and ditchers 
 are still made at Little Drififield, and sold 
 m large quantities, but the industry is
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 187 
 
 not SO thriving as in olden times before 
 kid and woollen gloves were introduced. 
 
 The discovery of coal abolished the use 
 of cazzons for fuel. The cazzons were 
 formed of cow's dung, which was taken 
 up fresh, and cast against a wall. When 
 dry, it was easily detached, and if burnt 
 with wood and chalk formed an ex- 
 cellent fire, giving much heat and httle 
 smoke. 
 
 Before the days of Bryant and May, in 
 the days when the flint and steel and the 
 tinder box were the agents for procuring 
 a light, the boys and men of the family 
 made matches, which were used for ob- 
 taining a blaze after the necessary glow 
 had been obtained by the tinder. A soft 
 piece of wood was obtained, and cut, 
 within half an inch of the end, into thin 
 slips, not severed from each other. The 
 bundle was dipped into a solution of 
 brimstone, and the matches broken off as 
 required. Sometimes the spells (slips) 
 were cut off, and dipped at each end, so 
 that when one end had been used to 
 obtain the required blaze, the lighted 
 match could be blown out, and the other 
 end reserved for another occasion. These 
 matches, being separate, were long and 
 thin ; and gave rise to the saying, applied 
 to a thin person :— " He's as fat as a 
 match dipped at both ends." 
 
 At Paull, near Hull, was once an ex- 
 tensive dockyard, where ship-building was
 
 1 88 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 largely carried on. In May, 1812, The 
 A71S071, a 74 gun ship, was built here, at a 
 cost of ;^i40,ooo. 
 
 The whale fishery connected with Hull 
 was a most important local industry, 
 seeing that the average annual value of 
 the oil, which the whalers brought from 
 1772 to 1852, was nearly ;f65,ooo ; or, 
 including the value of the bone, over 
 ;^85,ooo. During the same eighty years, 
 an annual average of 1,070 sailors went 
 aboard the Hull whalers, bound for the 
 Northern seas. The vessels intended for 
 this service were strengthened externally 
 by iron plates, and internally by strong 
 stanchions and cross bars, so as to resist 
 the nipping of the ice. The departure of 
 the whalers was a time of great excite- 
 ment, for nearly all the inhabitants were 
 connected with some one or other in- 
 terested in the success of the fishery, and 
 the piers and quays were crowded with 
 people, who cheered the crews and wished 
 them God-speed. And when they re- 
 turned, the bells rang and people hurrahed 
 and crowded the streets to do honour to 
 their brave townsmen, who endured such 
 hardships, and faced such danger, in the 
 exercise of their callin^^ Yes ! when the 
 ship came in there was much rejoicing. 
 
 The oil was used for domestic lighting, 
 and, throughout the Riding, may still be 
 seen the jaw-bones of whales used as gate- 
 posts, relics of the whaling industry of
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 189 
 
 Hull, whose merchants, in 1618, had Jan 
 Magen Island granted to them by King 
 James, as a base of operations for their 
 special pursuit. 
 
 Jno. Nicholson.
 
 Bolton Abbey • 
 Its History and Legends- 
 
 '• This hoary pile subdued by outrage and decay." 
 
 Of all the grey and ancient buildings 
 which dot the swelling uplands and smiling 
 valleys of our land a larger number 
 probably date their origin to the hundred 
 years following the battle of Hastings, 
 than to any of the succeeding centuries. 
 In addition to the large number of religious 
 edifices planned and commenced during 
 this period, the turbulent reign of Stephen, 
 the last of the Norman Kings, gave rise 
 to numerous buildings of a far different 
 character. The barons, taking advantage 
 of the distracted state of the country, built 
 strong castles, and from these levied black 
 mail on their weaker neighbours. The 
 old Saxon Chronicler says : " When the 
 castles were finished they filled them with 
 devils and evil men. Then they took 
 those whom they suspected to have any 
 goods, putting both men and women in 
 prison for their gold and silver, and tortur- 
 ing them with pains unspeakable. They 
 robbed the monks and the clergy, and 
 every man plundered his neighbour as
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. igi 
 
 much as he could. Such, indeed was the 
 misery that it was said openly that 
 Christ and His Saints slept." 
 
 It was during this period of confusion 
 and misrule, in 1151, three years be- 
 fore Stephen's death, that Bolton 
 Abbey was established on the banks of 
 the Wharfe. Three other Yorkshire 
 Abbeys — Jervaux, Fountains, and Kirk- 
 stall, date from nearly the same year. 
 
 After William the Conqueror had 
 subdued our country he gave vast estates 
 to his chief followers. In this way a large 
 extent of land in the Craven district of 
 Yorkshire came into the hands of Robert 
 de Romille, a Norman baron, who built for 
 himself a castle at Skipton. His daughter 
 and heiress, Cecily, married one William 
 de Meschines, and some years after, in 
 1 120, founded and endowed a priory for 
 Canons Regular of the Order of St. 
 Augustine. The site of the foundation 
 was the village of Embsay, two miles east 
 of Skipton. In 1151 the priory was trans- 
 ferred to Bolton, by Alice, daughter of the 
 Lady Cecily, who had married a nephew 
 of David, King of Scotland. Wliy the 
 change was made is not exactly known. 
 It may have been to place the Abbey in a 
 pleasanter situation, and one less exposed 
 to pillage during the incursions of the 
 Scots. Legend asserts, however, that 
 the translation took place owing to the 
 only son of Lady Alice de Romille being
 
 192 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 drowned by accident in the Wharfe, about 
 a mile distant. 
 
 As time passed on the influence and 
 worldly possessions of the establishment 
 increased apace, until, in 1199, we find 
 the Canons owning property bringing in 
 a yearly rental equal to ^2,800 of our 
 money. A few years later, we are told, 
 there were belonging to the Abbey over 
 2000 sheep and oxen. One hundred 
 husbandmen were employed on the estate, 
 while thirty other servants of a higher 
 grade were occupied as bakers, smiths, 
 &c., within the building. There were in 
 addition several hundreds of slaves, who 
 did the menial work and received no wages, 
 but coarse food and raiment. Twenty of 
 them were in the service of the prior who 
 ruled the establishment which, in its most 
 prosperous days, comprised not less than 
 1000 persons, including the prior, fifteen 
 canons, gentlemen dependents, servants, 
 and slaves. 
 
 By their rules the Augustinians enjoyed 
 a freer life than other monks. It is said 
 they were well shod, well clad, and well 
 fed. The latter we can readily believe 
 on reading over the huge quantities of meat, 
 flour, game, cheese, ale, &c., which the 
 Bolton Canons consumed in twelve 
 months. Landseer, in his painting "Bolton 
 Abbey in the Olden Time," calls promi- 
 nent attention to this side of monastery 
 life. The foreground of his picture is
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I93 
 
 taken up by the huntsman, and his son 
 bringing in a fat deer and other game. 
 In the doorway stands the prior in white 
 cassock, his portly figure in itself sug- 
 gestive of the lines — 
 
 " The monks made good kale (broth) 
 On Fridays when they fasted." 
 
 We may say generally of the English 
 monasteries that as their wealth increased 
 their usefulness decreased. " It isdifficult," 
 says the proverb, " to carry a full cup 
 without spilling," and so we find that, as 
 the income of their houses grew larger, the 
 monks became more prone to sloth and 
 self indulgence. There is no reason to 
 doubt that Bolton Abbey shared in the 
 general degeneration. 
 
 In consequence of these changes, the 
 orders of Henry VIII., in 1536 and 1539, 
 for the suppression of the monasteries, 
 caused little real loss to the country. 
 Bolton was given up to Henry's com- 
 missioners, on January 29th, 1540. The 
 deed of surrender is still preserved in 
 the British Museum. It was signed by 
 Prior Moone, and the fourteen canons then 
 in the Abbey, and gives many particulars 
 of the property. The Estate was granted 
 at a low price to Henry Clifford, Earl of 
 Cumberland, and from him descended to 
 the Dukes of Devonshire, to whom Bolton 
 woods now belong. 
 
 When the monastery was broken up,
 
 194 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 every thing of value that was saleable 
 was removed. Even the lead was 
 stripped from the roofs and melted down 
 into pigs and fodders, to add a few pounds 
 to the proceeds, from such work of des- 
 truction. Every part was wrecked except- 
 ing the nave, which has continued in use 
 as a Parish Church. In a short time most 
 of what had been so fair and comely was 
 reduced to a ruin. 
 
 " To winds abandoned and the prying stars." 
 
 During the three hundred and more of 
 years which have since elapsed, some of 
 the walls have almost disappeared. Other 
 parts, upon which 
 
 " Old Time hath laid more lenient touches " 
 
 yet remain, focussing the interest in one 
 of the most cliarming of English valleys, 
 inspiring the pencil of the painter and the 
 pen of the poet, and affording at once an 
 object of interest and contemplation to all 
 whose mind dwells ever so slightly on the 
 past history of our land. 
 
 The scenery all along the upperWharfe is 
 singularly beautiful, and especially around 
 the Abbey, assumes a most romantic 
 character. Bolton, indeed, owes most of 
 its present interest, not to the skill of its 
 builders nor to the energy of its priors, but 
 to its picturesque surroundings, bestowed 
 so lavishly by " Auld Nature " herself. 
 
 When Prior Moone was called upon to
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I95 
 
 resign his charge in 1539, he was engaged 
 in building a fine tower at the western 
 end of the Abbey church. This tower, 
 though never finished, still remains the 
 most noticeable feature of the building. 
 It is in the Perpendicular style, and three 
 of the buttresses are curiously ornamented 
 with dogs, carved possibly m allusion to 
 the office of Master Forester, which Prior 
 Moone held to the Clifford family. 
 Passing under this western tower we 
 come to the original front, whose lancet 
 windows and clustered shafts betoken the 
 Early English style. The church has thus 
 now two west fronts, with two hundred and 
 fifty years between their dates of building, 
 and in this respect holds an almost unique 
 position in architectural annals. 
 
 The nave, which has only one aisle, has 
 beeen converted into a neat place of 
 worship, suited for present day needs. 
 Under the Chantry, which formerly 
 existed at the east end of the north aisle, 
 was the burial vault of the Claphams of 
 Beamsley Hall, who are said to have been 
 buried unpright. Wordsworth, in " The 
 White Doe of Rylstone," thus refers to 
 the legend — 
 
 " Pass, pass, who will yon chantry door 
 And through the chink in the fractured floor, 
 Look down and see a griesly si^ht, 
 A vault where the bodies are buried upright.' 
 
 On the soutli side of the nave may be 
 seen a gallery by which the monks reached
 
 ig6 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 the church from their dormitory. Mass 
 was sometimes celebrated at mid- 
 night, and there were frequent early 
 morning services. On these occasions 
 the monks would pass from their sleeping 
 apartments to the church without coming 
 into the open air. 
 
 Nothing remains now of the central 
 tower but the arches which supported it, 
 while portions of crumbling wall, wreathed 
 with masses of luxuriant ivy, mark the 
 extent of the two transepts. At the foot 
 of the one remaining wall in the south 
 transept was found a slab with the epitaph, 
 "Hicjacet d'n's Chrofer Wod quo'd'm 
 P'or." Christopher Wood was the eight- 
 eenth prior of Bolton, and died 1483. 
 Did he, like Browning's bishop, fight 
 " with tooth and nail " to save this spot 
 for himself ? 
 
 Did he think here to 
 
 " lie through centuries 
 And hear the blessed mutter of the mass 
 And see God made and eaten all day long. 
 And feel the steady candle flame, and taste 
 Good strong thick stupifying incense smoke"? 
 
 As was usual in the building of large 
 churches, the chancel was probably the 
 first part commenced, although this and 
 other portions were afterwards rebuilt in 
 the Decorated Style. This rebuilding 
 may have been necessary, owing to the 
 damage done by the Scots when they 
 pillaged the priory in 1316 and 1320.
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. I97 
 
 A specimen of the ornamentation of the 
 first chancel yet exists in an arcade of 
 round, intersecting arches, running along 
 the lower part of each side wall. Under 
 this arcade were nineteen seats on each 
 side, for the use of the canons during the 
 services. On the south side, close by 
 where the high altar once stood, are the 
 remains of a piscina and four sedilia. 
 The latter were stone seats used by the 
 officiating priests during mass. They are 
 rarely found quadruple as at Bolton. 
 The graceful foliated tracery of the 
 windows has nearly all disappeared, and 
 it is difficult now to imagine the scene 
 which would here have met the eye in 
 past days of grand religious ceremony. 
 
 As was usually the case, the Bolton 
 monks, appreciating the warmth of a 
 genial sun, arranged their own apart- 
 ments on the south or sheltered side of 
 the church. Few traces, however, remain 
 of their dormitory, refectory, or other 
 offices. 
 
 The consecrated ground on the north 
 side is still used for burials. The object 
 of most interest is a Cross, erected in 
 memory of the late Lord Frederick 
 Cavendish. It bears the inscription : 
 
 To the beloved memory of 
 
 LORD FREDERICK CHARLES CAVENDISH, 
 
 born 1836. 
 
 He went out as Chief Secretary to Ireland 
 
 •' Full of love to that country, 
 
 Full of hope for her future,
 
 igS YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 Full of capacity to render her service, 
 
 and was murdered 
 
 in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, 
 
 within twelve hours of his arrival 
 
 May 6th, 1.882. 
 
 " The Lord grant thee thy heart's desire 
 
 And fulfil all thy mind." 
 
 Connected with the Church5^ard is the 
 touching legend of " The White Doe of 
 Rylstone," retold by Wordsworth in his 
 " Fate of the Nortons." The Nortons 
 lived at Rylstone, and the father and eight 
 sons were condemned for joining the 
 " Rising of the North," in Elizabeth's 
 reign. 
 
 Before their execution at York, they 
 committed to the care of the eldest son, 
 who had not joined the rebellion, their 
 banner to lay on the altar of Bolton Abbey. 
 He, however, was pursued and slain in the 
 Wharfe valley, and his body buried in the 
 priory graveyard. The only survivor of 
 the family, a sorrowing sister, frequently 
 visited his crave, accompanied by a milk- 
 white doe, which had become her con- 
 stant companion. When death, soon 
 after, ended the sufferings of the unhappy 
 maiden, the doe continued for long to 
 haunt their favourite spots, especially the 
 grave in the priory churchyard. 
 
 A mile further up the river, amongst the 
 most charming woodland scenery, is the 
 Strid or Stride. Here for some fifty yards 
 the river runs through a narrow rift in the 
 gritstone rock, only five or six feet wide. 
 It is possible to spring across, but a slip
 
 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. IQQ 
 
 or false step would lead to certain death, 
 in the foaming torrent beneath. Tradition 
 says that the only son ol the Lady Alice 
 de Romille, in attempting this feat, was 
 swept away, and that in memory of his 
 death, the mother transferred the priory 
 from Embsay to Bolton. The legend 
 attracted the fancy of Wordsworth and 
 Samuel Rogers, and was versified by both. 
 The former, in his poem, " The Force of 
 Prayer," thus relates the story : — 
 
 Young Romilly, through Barden woods, 
 Is ranging high and low, 
 And holds a greyhound in a leash 
 To Jet slip upon buck and doe. 
 
 The pair have reached that fearful chasm. 
 How tempting to bestride, 
 The lonely Wharfe is there pent in 
 With rocks on either side. 
 
 He sprang in glee — for what cared he 
 That the river was strong and the rocks were steep 
 But the greyhound in the leash hung back, 
 And checked him in his leap. 
 
 The boy is in the arms of Wharf, 
 And strangled by a merciless force ; 
 For never more was young Romilly seen 
 Till he rose a lifeless corse. 
 
 'What is good for a bootless bene ?'(irreparable loss) 
 
 The falconer to the lady sairl. 
 
 And she made answer " Kndless sorrow," 
 
 For she knew that her son was dead. 
 
 She knew it by the falconer's words 
 And from the lool< of the falciiier's eye, 
 And from the love which was in her soul 
 For her youthful Romilly.
 
 200 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 Long, long in darkness did she sit, 
 And her first words were, " Let there be 
 In Bolton, on the field of Wharf, 
 A stately priory." 
 
 The stately priory was reared. 
 And Wharf, as he moved along, 
 To matins joined a mournful voice, 
 Nor failed at even-song. 
 
 Alfred Chamberlain, b.a.
 
 20I 
 
 To Bolton Abbey. 
 By Rev. E. G. Charlesworth. 
 
 Though sadder to poetic ears 
 Thine ancient river song appears 
 Than when it passed thee days of yore 
 Majestic in thy youthful 3'ears, 
 Th}' ruin makes more dear its shore, 
 More dear the trees, the flowers, the sky, 
 More dear all things unto thee nigh. 
 
 A full moon in ascent to-night 
 That saw thy glory at full height. 
 Hath sent to thee a tender ray 
 My fancy christens — " Pity's light." 
 
 In earth thy broken walls enclose 
 *Is dust of noblest of my race, 
 Famous in war and in the chase 
 When to full bloom spread York's white 
 rose. 
 
 A vision in my spirit swells, 
 A love that feels the touch of pain, 
 A prayer that fades into complain ; 
 Thou art not in thy youth again. 
 
 *See Wordsworth's "Claphams and Mauleverers."
 
 202 YORKSHIRE IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 And yet I seem with inner ear 
 As if the olden times had come, 
 To hear the music of thy bells, 
 Breeze-blown from their whole-tower-home 
 
 To hear their lowering tones as night 
 Grows to the time of final prayer, 
 Lowering and lowering until low 
 Like whispers in a summer air. 
 
 Their speech of peace above the world, 
 Their speech of death that will be gain 
 Of quiet joy if born of pain, 
 Greater alway than is the pain. 
 
 My prayer that faded lives again 
 As with an inner eye I seem 
 To see lamps burning in thine aisles, 
 And I forget it is a dream. 
 
 Stay rainbow-bridge 'twixt now and then 
 For much on thy far side I see, 
 And much on it more loved by me 
 Than latter shapes of things and men . 
 
 For, faith now dead in every way, 
 Love, thinks her end will come with death, 
 Grown cold, what wonder if she saith 
 " Do things love which but live a day."
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Andrews, Wm., F.R.H. S. A Biographical Romance, 
 ii8 — 123 ; James Nayler, 165 — 173. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon Poet, The First ; by J. H. Leggott, 
 F.R.H. S., 27-34. 
 
 Anjou, Margaret of, 174. 
 
 Arram, 143. 
 
 Barnett, JosFy, Weaver of Driffield, 182—183. 
 
 Barnsley Fair, 146. 
 
 Batty, John, on " Lee Fair," 147. 
 
 Benson, (ieo.; Old Customs at York, 41—57. 
 
 Bentley, John, Linen Weaver, Welton, 183. 
 
 Beverley, 140, 141. 1S3 ; Invasion of, 141 ; Bleaching 
 
 done at, 183 ; St. John of, 140—144. 
 Biographical Romance, A ; by Wm. Andrews, 
 
 F.R.H.S., 118- 123. 
 Bolton Abbey: Its History and Legends; by 
 
 Alfred Chamberlain, B.A., 190—200; Lines to 
 
 "Bolton Abbey;" by Rev. E. G. Charlesvvorth, 
 
 201 . 
 Bridlington, 139 ; Manor of, 143. 
 Brockie, Wm.; The Cow Devil. A Legend of 
 
 Craven, 20 — 26. 
 Brunanburgh. the Battle of ; by Fred. Ross, 
 
 F.R.H. S,, 35-40. 
 
 Csedmon, Anglo-Saxon Poet, 27 — 34. 
 
 Carpet Manufacturing in Yorkshire, 183. 
 
 Cazzons for fuel, 187. 
 
 Chamberlain, Alfred, B.A.; Bolton .\bbey : Its 
 
 History and Legends, 190 — 200. 
 Charlesworth, Rev. E. G., To Bolton Abbey, a 
 
 Poem, 201. 
 Chester Fairs, 146.
 
 204 INDEX. 
 
 Cow Devil, The. A Legend of Ciaven, by Wm. 
 
 Brockie, 20 — 26. 
 Craven, A Legend of, 20 — 26. 
 
 Duke Richard's Doom : A Legend of Sandal 
 Castle; by Edward Lamplough, 174 — 179. 
 
 Elizabethan Gleanings [in Yorkshire] ; by Aaron 
 
 Watson, 58 — 61. 
 Erbury, Dorcas, 169. 
 Exeter, 169. 
 
 Fairbotham, Jas., Weaver of Nafiferton, 181 — 182. 
 Fairs, History of, 145 — 164; held in Churchyards, 
 
 152. 
 Fight. The, for the Hornsea Fishery. A Trial by 
 
 Combat ; by T. Tindall Wildridge, 62—68. 
 Flamborough, 3. 
 Fleming, Drago de Beure, 143. 
 Folk Assemblies ; by John Nicholson, 69 — 76. 
 Frost, Thos. ; An Outline History of Yorkstire, 
 
 I — 19 ; Yorkshire Fairs and Festivals, 145 — 164. 
 
 Gould's Baring, Yorkshire Odditits. quoted, 153 — 
 156. 
 
 Hedon, 139. 
 
 Holderness, The Salvation of ; by Frederick Ross 
 
 137—144- 
 Holm, 172 — 173. 
 Hudson, Wm. H., the Wakefield Mysteries, 103 — 
 
 117. 
 
 Jan Magan, Island of, granted to Hull Merchants, 
 189. 
 
 King's Rippon, 172. 
 
 Kirkby Wharfe, Quaint Gleanings from the Parish 
 Register chest of, by Richd. Wilton, M. A., 77 — 102 
 
 Lamplough, Edward ; Duke Richard's Doom : a 
 
 Legend of Sandal Castle, 174 — 179. 
 Laybourne, Mark, Wood-turner, 185. 
 Leather Breeches, Manufacture of, 186. 
 Leggott, J. H., F.R.H.S. ; The First Anglo-Saxon 
 
 Poet, 27 — 34.
 
 INDEX. 205 
 
 Line, Manufacture of, 180 — 181. 
 London, 172, 174. 
 Long Kiston, 143. 
 
 March, Edward, Earl of, 175. 
 Market Weighton, 141. 
 
 Nayler, Jas. , the Mad Quaker, who claimed to be 
 the Messiah, by Wm. Andrews, F.R.H.S., 
 165—173. 
 
 Nicholson, John ; Folk Assemblies, 69—76 ; 
 Obsolete Industriesof the East Riding, 180—189. 
 
 Northampton, 174. 
 
 Nostell Fair, 151. 
 
 Obsolete Industries of the East Riding, by John 
 Nicholson, 180—189. 
 
 Patrington, 139. 
 Paull, Shipbuilding at, 187—8. 
 Pocklington, 141. 
 Pontfcfract, 146. 
 
 Ross, Fred.,F. R. H.S.; The Battle of Brunanburgh 
 35_^o ; The Salvation of Holderness, 137—144, 
 
 St. John of Beverley, Archbishop of York, 140—144. 
 Sandal Castle, a Legend of, 174 — 179. 
 Scatchard's History of Morley, quoted, 148, 150 ; 
 
 On James Nayler, 170. 
 Skipton Castle, 191. 
 Smith's Old Yorkshire, quoted, 150. 
 Swan, Wm.; A Biographical Romance, by Wm. 
 
 Andrews, F.R.H.S., 118 — 123. 
 Sydney, W., F.R.S.L.; Some Scraps and Shreds 
 
 of Yorkshire Superstition, 124 — 136. 
 Towneley Mysteries, 147 — 148. 
 
 Wakefield, 103— 117, 147—8, 172, 179 ; Court Rolls 
 of, 148 ; The Wakefield Mysteries, by Wm. H. 
 Hudson, 103— 117; the Mysteries, 147 — 148. 
 
 Watson, Aaron ; Elizabethan Gleanings in York- 
 shire, 58 — 61. 
 
 Weavers, Jimmy Welbourn the last of the, 184—5.
 
 206 INDEX. 
 
 Welhamstede on the capture of York, 179. 
 
 West Ardsley, Lee Fair at, 146 — 150. 
 
 Whale Fishery, 188. 
 
 Whalebone used for Gate-posts, 188. 
 
 Wildridge, T. Tindall ; the Fight for the Hornsea 
 
 Fishery. A Trial by Combat, 62 — 68. 
 Wilton, Rev. Richard, M.A.; Quaint Gleanings 
 
 from the Parish Register Chest of Kirkby 
 
 Wharfe, 77 — 102. 
 Winchester Fair, 146. 
 Woodkirk Fair, 148 — 9. 
 
 York, Richard, Duke of, 174 — 179 
 
 York, 141, 142, 174, 177, 178, 179; Ascension day 
 in, 43 ; Christmas in, 53 ; Corpus Christi Day 
 at, 44 ; Lammas Fair at, 47 ; Martinmas at, 47; 
 Old Customs at, by Geo. Benson, 41 — 57 ; 
 Punishments of, 56 — 7 : St. George's Day at, 42 ; 
 St. Luke's Day at, 46 ; Shrove Tuesday at, 41 ; 
 Twelve Days of Sanctuary at, 50. 
 
 Yorkshire, an Outline History of, by Thomas 
 Frost, I — 19; Battle of Brunanburg, 35 — 40; 
 Battle of the Standard, 8 — 9 ; Bolton Abbey, 
 190 — 200; Lines on, 201 ; Catholic Conspiracy in, 
 14 — 17; Civil War in, 17—19; Carpet Weaving 
 in, 183 ; Elizabethan Gleanings, 58 — 61 ; Fairs 
 and Festivals, 145 — 164 ; Folk Assemblies in, 
 69—76; Incursions of the Danes in, 4 — 6; 
 Pilgrimage of Grace in, 10 — 14; Romans in, 2; 
 Some Scraps and Shreds of Yorkshire Super- 
 stition, 124 — 136; Under the Heptarchy, 3; 
 Wars of the Roses in, 9 ; Weaving in, 180- 186 ; 
 William the Conqueror in, 6 — 8.
 
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