through the Hall, crying ‘By your leaves Gentlemen, stand by.’
If any unworthy Fellow do unmannerly sett himself down before his
Betters, he must take him up and place him lower.
Let the best fashioned and apparrelled Servants attend above the
Salte, the Rest belowe.
If one Servant have occasion to speak to another about Service att
the Table, let him whisper, for noyse is uncivil.
What my Lord and Lady had to eat for breakfast is shown in the following
extracts:—
BRAIKFASTIS OF FLESCH DAYS DAYLY
thorowte the Yere.
BRAIKFASTIS for my Lorde and my Lady.
FURST a Loof of Brede in Trenchors ij Manchetts[58] j Quart of Bere
a Quart of Wyne Half a Chyne of Mutton or ells a Chyne of Beif
boilid.
Footnote 58:
Small loaves of white bread.
During Lent no breakfast was allowed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays,
but on the other days of the week there were provided in place of
‘meitt’:—
ij Pecys of Saltfisch vj Baconn’d Herryng iiij White Herryng or a
Dysche of Sproits.
What the Earl’s children had for breakfast in the nursery is similarly
shown:—
BRAIKFASTS for the Nurcy for my Lady Margaret
and Mr. Yngram Percy.
ITEM a Manchet j Quarte of Bere and iij Muton Bonys boilid.
Or, during Lent:—
ITEM a Manchet a Quarte of Bere a Dysch of Butter a Pece of
Saltfisch a Dysch of Sproits or iij White Herryng.
Among the household necessaries to be provided are:—_Wheet_, _Malte_,
_Beefis_, _Muttuns_, _Gascoin Wyne_, _Poorks_, _Veelis_, _Lambes_,
_Stokfish_, _Salt Fishe_, _Whyt Hering_, _Rede Herynge_, _Sproits_,
_Salmon_, _Saltt Elis_, _Fieggs_, _Great Rasins_, _Hopps for Brewynge_,
_Hony_, _Oile_, _Waxe_, _Weik for Lightys_, _Bay Saltte_, _White
Saltte_, _Parishe Candell_, _Vinacre_, _Lynnon Clothe_, _Brass Pottis_,
_Mustarde_, _Stone Crusis_, _Rughe Pewter Vessel_, and _All Manner of
Spices_—_Piper_, _Rasyns of Corens_, _Prones_, _Gynger_, _Clovvez_,
_Sugour_, _Allmonds_, _Daytts_, _Nuttmuggs_, _Rice_, _Safferon_, and
_Coumfetts_—_See Cholys_, _Char Cholis_, _Fagoots_, and _Greet Woode_,
‘bicause Colys will not byrne withowte Wodd.’
For the great feasts during the year xx _Swannys_ were to be provided
from the Earl’s Carr at Arram, in addition to xxix _Does_ and xx _Bukks_
from his Parks at Leconfield and elsewhere. So also for my Lord’s table
were to be bought _Capons_, _Geysse_, _Chekyns_, _Pegions_ (‘iij for
j_d._’), _Cunys_ (‘ij_d._ a pece’), _Pluvers_ (j_d._ a pece’),
_Mallardes_, _Woodcokes_, _Seegulls_ (‘j_d._ a pece so they be good and
in season’), _Styntes_ (‘vj for j_d._’), _Quaylles_, _Snypes_,
_Pertryges_, _Redeshankes_, _Dottrells_, _Bustardes_ and _Larkys_ (‘xij
for ij_d._’). _Hearonsewys_,[59] _Bytters_,[59] _Fesauntes_ and
_Kyrlewes_ were to be paid for at the rate of ‘xij_d._ a pece’; but the
most expensive dish was one of _Cranys_, which cost ‘xvj_d._ a pece.’
Footnote 59:
Herons and Bitterns are known to-day in the East Riding as
‘herrin-sews’ and ‘buttherbumps.’
What high junketings there must have been at Wressle Castle in the days
of ‘Henry the Magnificent’! Did the feasters afterwards pay for their
over-indulgence in rich food? An answer may perhaps be supplied from the
purchase of ‘xxx Saks of Charcoill for Stilling of Bottells of
Waters’—_Water of Roses_, _Water of Harts Tonge_, _Water of Parcelly_,
_Water of Walnott Leeffs_, _Water of Prymeroses_, _Water of Cowslops_,
_Water of Tandelyon_, _Water of Marygolds_ and many others—‘all worth,’
each penitent would doubtless declare, ‘xxj_s._ a bottell.’
* * * * *
In chapter XV. mention was made of the _Percy Tomb_ in the chancel of
Beverley Minster. The magnificent canopy of this was built in memory of
Eleanor Fitz Alan, wife of Henry Percy of Alnwick, who died in 1328.
Henry Percy, fourth Earl of Northumberland, lies buried in the _Percy
Chapel_ at the extreme east end of the Minster, and the wife of another
Henry Percy lies buried in Hessle Church. But of her burial there is no
record but a simple brass inscribed:—
=Here vnder lieth Daim an percy wyff=
=to sir Henry percy=....
[Illustration:
_Photo by_] [_C.D. Holmes_
The Percy Tomb, Beverley Minster.
]
Other proud nobles of our Riding were the WAKES and the CLIFFORDS. Hugh
Wac married the daughter of Gilbert of Gaunt, the first Earl of Lincoln,
and his son Baldwin assisted at the coronation of King Richard I. A
descendant, the first Baron Wake, fought in the Scots wars of Edward I.
Thomas, the third Baron, was granted by Edward III. leave to convert his
manor-house at Cottingham into a castle. From him the Wakes of Somerset
claim descent.
On the chancel floor of Londesborough church may be seen the brass of
Margaret, Lady Clifford and Vescy, the wife of the Lord Clifford whom
Shakspeare calls ‘bloody Clifford.’ This Lord Clifford fought on the
Lancastrian side at the disastrous battle of Towton, and was one of the
many nobles there slain. During twenty-four years after the battle
Henry, Lord Clifford’s son, lived in disguise as a shepherd on the moors
round Londesborough and on the hills of Cumberland, thus earning the
name of ‘shepherd lord.’ But the battle of Bosworth Field restored the
fortunes of the family, and the ‘shepherd lord’ then regained ‘the
estates and honours of his ancestors.’
The descendants of Henry, Lord Clifford, became Earls of Cumberland, and
the heiress to the Earldom married Richard Boyle, the first Earl of
Burlington. Their great-grandson, the third Earl of Burlington, was
famed for the rebuilding of Burlington House, London, and for the
planting of the ‘Londesborough Clumps.’ This was between the years 1703
and 1753.
From the third Earl of Burlington the Londesborough estates passed in
descent to the Dukes of Devonshire, one of whom pulled down its ancient
Hall, and afterwards sold the estates to George Hudson, the ‘Railway
King.’ By further purchase they devolved upon the present Earl of
Londesborough.
* * * * *
Older than the Cliffords are the CONSTABLES, of whom there are in the
East Riding two distinct families. Robert Constable, the son of Ulbert,
possessed the manor of Halsham in the reign of King Stephen; and from
him is descended Major Chichester-Constable, Lord of the Seigniory of
Holderness, and owner of Burton Constable Hall.
[Illustration: BURTON CONSTABLE HALL.]
In the year 1133 was living a certain William Fitz Nigel, Constable of
Cheshire and Lord of Flamborough. From him descended Sir Marmaduke
Constable of Flamborough, who, when seventy-one years of age, fought
together with his four sons in the battle of Flodden. Sir Marmaduke lies
buried in the church at Flamborough, where, on his tomb, is a brass
inscription recording his exploits. Part of it is here given:—
=Here lieth Marmaduke Cunstable, of fflaynborght, knyght,=
=Who made aduentore into ffrance, and for the right of the same=
=Passed over with Kyng Edwarde the fouriht, yt noble Knyght;=
=And also with noble King Herre, the seuinth of that name.=
. . . . . . . .
=But for all that, as ye se, he lieth under this stone.=
[Illustration:
BRASS OF SIR THOMAS DE ST. QUINTIN IN HARPHAM CHURCH. ABOUT A.D. 1420.
]
The Sir Robert Constable who took part in the Pilgrimage of Grace and
was hanged in chains over the Beverley Gate at Hull was Sir Marmaduke
Constable’s eldest son. With his execution the fifty-one manors that he
held were forfeited to the King, but some of these were restored to his
descendants by Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth. The last of the
Constables of Flamborough took the side of the Parliamentarians in the
Great Civil War, and signed the death-warrant of the King.
From the second son of Sir Marmaduke Constable descended the Constables
of Everingham, to which house belongs the Duchess of Norfolk, daughter
of the late Baron Herries. From Sir Marmaduke’s nephew descended the
Constables of Wassand, whose representative to-day is Mr. Henry
Strickland Constable of Wassand Hall.
* * * * *
Another East Riding family whose ancestor ‘came over with the Conqueror’
is that of the ST. QUINTINS, whose name is derived from a town in the
north of France. Sir Herbert de St. Quintin held the manors of Skipsea,
Mappleton and Brandesburton in the reign of Henry I. On the floor of the
chancel of Brandesburton church are the brasses of Sir John de St.
Quintin, who died in 1397, and his wife Lora.
Several members of the family lie buried in Harpham Church, where are
the altar tombs of Sir William de St. Quintin, who died in 1349, and his
wife; the brasses of Sir Thomas de St. Quintin and his wife Agnes,
dating from about 1420; and the brass of another Thomas de St. Quintin,
who died in 1445.
Sir William St. Quintin was Member of Parliament for Hull in the reigns
of William III., Anne, and George I.; and Mr. William Herbert St.
Quintin, of Scampston Hall and Lowthorpe Lodge, is the present
representative of the family.
* * * * *
[Illustration: BURTON AGNES HALL.]
[Illustration:
EFFIGY OF A KNIGHT IN PLATE
ARMOUR IN THE HILTON CHAPEL AT
SWINE CHURCH. ABOUT A.D. 1350.
]
The ancient family of BOYNTONS took its name from the East Riding
village of Boynton. By marriage with the heiress of the Sir Martin de la
Mare mentioned at the close of Chapter XVII., the family became
possessed of the manor of Barmston; and in 1614 Matthew Boynton married
Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Griffith of Burton Agnes. Four years
later he was created a baronet by James I., and forty years later his
son, Sir Francis Boynton, succeeded to the Burton Agnes estates. Sir
Griffith Henry Boynton of Barmston, and Mrs. T. L. Wickham-Boynton of
Burton Agnes Hall, are his descendants.
Burton Agnes Hall is famed as being ‘one of the most beautiful Tudor
houses in Yorkshire.’ Parts of a building to the west of the Hall go
back to about the year 1170, and some of its woodwork dates from the
middle of the fifteenth century. But the Hall itself was built in the
early years of the seventeenth century, and the date 1601 and the
initials of Sir Henry Griffith and his wife are carved in the stonework
over the main doorway.
* * * * *
Taking part in the Wars of the Roses was a Robert Hildyard of Winestead,
famed widely as ‘Robin of Redesdale.’ Winestead came into possession of
the HILDYARDS by the marriage of this Robert with the heiress of the
HILTONS, three of whose altar tombs remain to-day in the Hilton chapel
of the church at Swine.
Another Robert Hildyard had command of a King’s regiment of horse in the
Great Civil War, and for his services in this was knighted and
afterwards created a baronet. There are in Winestead Church fragments of
large brasses, an altar tomb, and a wall monument, to different members
of this family; to a younger branch of which belong the Hildyards who
have for many generations been rectors of Rowley.
* * * * *
[Illustration:
EFFIGY OF A KNIGHT IN
CHAIN ARMOUR IN THE
SALTMARSHE CHAPEL AT
HOWDEN CHURCH.
ABOUT A.D. 1280.
]
How early the SALTMARSHES of Saltmarshe, near Howden, took their name is
not definitely known. Sir Edward de Salso Marisco was Member of
Parliament for Beverley in 1299, and a Geoffrey de Saltmersc held lands
at Swinefleet about 1170. Their ancestor is said to be Lionel
Saltmarshe, who was knighted by William the Conqueror in 1067. Colonel
Philip Saltmarshe is the representative of the family to-day.
* * * * *
Last to be mentioned here are the STRICKLANDS of Boynton. The family had
its origin at Marske, in the North Riding, and a Sir Thomas de
Strickland bore the banner of St. George at the battle of Agincourt.
William Strickland, who purchased the manor of Boynton in 1549, sailed
when a youth to the New World with Sebastian Cabot, and helped to
discover Labrador and Newfoundland. He is said to have introduced the
turkey into our country—a deed commemorated in the family crest. His
descendant was created a baronet by King Charles I., and the present Sir
Walter William Strickland, of Boynton Hall, is the ninth holder of the
title.
[Illustration: COAT-OF-ARMS OF THE STRICKLANDS.]
Readers of _Tom Brown’s School-Days_ will all remember the hero’s friend
Martin, his second in the historic fight with Slogger Williams. ‘The
Madman’ was his name among his fellow school-boys, but it was as Sir
Charles Strickland that he was known in the neighbourhood of Boynton.
XXIV.
STAGE COACH AND RAILWAY.
Travelling for pleasure is something that we all understand. But our
forefathers a few centuries ago would have thought a person mad if he
had said he was going to take a journey for pleasure. Merchants had to
travel, and so had messengers; but ordinary folk stayed at home, unless
the burden of their sins moved them to undertake a pilgrimage to some
far-off shrine. Such journeys were performed on horseback or afoot, but
invalid women and infirm old men might use a horse-litter.
[Illustration:
ON THE ROAD IN 1812.
AN EAST RIDING STAGE WAGGON.
]
Until the reign of Queen Mary I. there was in England no such thing as a
coach. The lumbering _stage waggon_ with wheels ten or twelve inches
wide, and drawn by eight or ten horses attended by a driver who rode on
the back of a pony, came into use during the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Its successor, the _stage coach_, was not invented till the time when
King Charles paid his first visit to Hull.
Two years before the accession of Charles II., a regular coach service
from London to York was announced, the coaches to make the journey three
times a week in the advertised time of four days. But this time was
largely exceeded as a rule, and at nearly the close of the century we
find the coach taking six days to reach London from York.
The development of road travel may be said to date from the year 1662,
when an Act of Parliament was passed for improving the condition of the
main roads, permission being granted to those local authorities that
desired it, to erect toll bars and charge travellers for the privilege
of using the roads when put into repair. Yorkshire roads in particular
were notoriously bad, as the letter written to Thomas Cromwell in 1538
shows.[60]
Footnote 60:
See pages 199–200.
But few local authorities stirred themselves in the matter of road
improvement, and an old coach bill still preserved at the _Black Swan_
in Coney Street, York, has a very significant reminder of the dangers
attending the journey to London in 1706:—
All that are desirous to pass from London to York, or from York to
London ... may be received in a Stage Coach every Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday, which performs the whole Journey in Four Days (_if God
permits_).
As an example of the TURNPIKE ACTS which became numerous as the
eighteenth century slipped away, may be taken the ‘Act for Repairing the
Road between the Town of Kingston upon Hull, and the Town of Beverley in
the East Riding of the County of York.’ This came into force on May 1st,
1744. By it Trustees were appointed
for the surveying, ordering, amending, and keeping in Repair, the
said Road ... and they ... shall and may erect, or cause to be
erected, a Gate or Gates, Turnpike or Turnpikes, in or cross any
Part or Parts of the said Road, and also a Toll-house or Toll-houses
in or upon the same; and shall receive and take the Tolls and Duties
following, before any Horse, Mare, Gelding, Mule, Ass, Cattle,
Coach, Chariot, Landau, Berlin, Chaise, Calash, Chair, Hearse,
Litter, Waggon, Wain, or Cart, or other Carriage whatsoever, shall
be permitted to pass through the same.
The tolls payable varied from one-and-sixpence for a six-horsed coach,
or a waggon drawn by five or more oxen, to three half-pence for an ‘Ass,
not drawing.’ A drove of oxen was charged tenpence, and one of swine or
sheep fivepence, per score.
Thus the users of a road paid for its upkeep, the very necessary
reservation being made that no tolls were to be demanded in the case of
men and vehicles engaged in farming operations; nor for waggons carrying
hay or straw to be laid in the houses of the people in the neighbouring
parishes and townships;[61] nor from persons attending the funeral of a
parishioner, or attending ‘Church, Chapel, or other Place of Religious
Worship on Sundays’; nor from voters going to and returning from the
poll.
Footnote 61:
The floor of the Council Chamber at the Hull Trinity House is still
strewn with rushes, these being changed about every six weeks.
As the result of such Turnpike Acts’ being enforced, stage coaching
increased considerably; and the year 1760 saw the birth of _Flying
Machines on Steel Springs_, that got through the journey from Leeds to
London in the short space of three days. But the journey was still
accomplished at some considerable amount of personal discomfort; for the
‘outside’ passengers had to stand all the time in a kind of huge basket
slung behind the body of the coach.
From 1785, in which year the Royal Mails began to be conveyed by stage
coach, travel increased by leaps and bounds; and stage coaching may be
said to have reached the height of its prosperity about 1835.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: Royal Mail Schedule]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The old coaching roads of the East Riding are shown on the map given on
the opposite page. Most frequented of all was that from Hull to York—in
part the Roman road over Barmby Moor. From Beverley to Bridlington there
were alternative routes used by rival coach proprietors. The
announcement of one of these reads as follows:—
The BRITISH QUEEN leaves the Stirling Castle, Bridlington Quay, at
Seven every morning (Sundays excepted), by way of Brandsburton and
Beverley, and arrives at the Kingston and Vittoria Hotels, the
George and Bull and Sun Inns, Hull, at Eleven in the Forenoon. The
Coach returns in the afternoon, at four, by the same route, after
the arrival of the Barton Packet with the Express Passengers from
London, and arrives at the Stirling Castle, Bridlington Quay, at
Eight o’clock in the evening.
The BRITISH QUEEN will be found a delightful conveyance to
Bridlington Quay, on account of the Road for the last Six Miles
being close to the Sea Side, and passing through a most beautiful
part of the country.
So say the proprietors of the _British Queen_. But what have those of
the rival coach to tell us?
The Public are respectfully informed that the WELLINGTON leaves the
Cross Keys General Coach Office, Hull, every morning, at Six, to
Beverley, Driffield, Bridlington and Quay, Hunmanby, and Filey, and
arrives at the Bell Inn and Blacksmith’s Arms, Scarbro’, at Twelve;
proceeds at Four to Whitby, Guisbro, Stockton, Sunderland, Shields,
Durham, Newcastle, and Edinbro’. Seats secured at any time.
* * * * *
[Illustration: COACHING ROADS AND EARLY RAILWAYS]
The Road by Driffield is so well known as to be universally
recommended. The Sea having made such dreadful havoc of the
Brandsburton Road during the last few years as to render it
dangerous travelling that way, being, for five or six miles, quite
at the edge of the cliff.
Both these advertisements appeared in the columns of the _Hull Packet_
in 1833; and timorous old ladies who wished to journey from Hull to
Bridlington in that year were no doubt very thankful to the proprietors
of the _Wellington_ for making so clear the dangers of the road
traversed by that ‘delightful conveyance,’ the _British Queen_.
Still standing by the side of what is now Cardigan Road at Bridlington,
there is a mile stone informing all who desire the information that
Beverley is distant 22 miles. It is on the old coaching road once
traversed daily by the _British Queen_. But a few hundred yards past
this relic of the old coaching days the road now reaches the sea-shore,
and the remaining portion as far as Barmston has long since disappeared
under the waves of the North Sea.
* * * * *
Very pleasant it must have been in the ‘Thirties’ to travel by a
well-appointed stage coach—say the _Rockingham_, _Rodney_, _Trafalgar_,
_Wellington_, _True Briton_, _Express_, _Telegraph_, _King William_, or
_Queen Adelaide_, all of which coaches were running from Hull in 1832.
But this would be, of course, provided the weather were fine, and one
could afford to travel ‘first class.’ It would not be pleasant to have
to get out and walk uphill as the ‘second class’ passengers were
expected to do in the case of a coach running from North Cave to Hull
through Brantingham and Hessle; and it would be decidedly unpleasant to
have to get out and push behind, as was demanded of the ‘third class’
passengers by this coach.
But there was always the danger of highwaymen to be faced, and the Royal
Mail travelled ‘with a guard well armed,’ as the coaching bill
reproduced on page 241 shows.
And what of winter travelling, with the thermometer down below
freezing-point and the risk every minute of the coach’s being stuck fast
in a snow-drift on a part of the road ‘five miles from anywhere’? Here
are two local records which testify to the existence of such
discomforts:—
[Illustration:
_Photo by_] [_C.W. Mason_
Pistols and Holsters formerly used on the Hull and Patrington Stage
Coach.
(Now in the possession of Dr. J. Wright Mason, Hull)
]
1839. Jan. 7. A dreadful storm visited the country.... For an hour and a
half the Scarbro’ mail coach horses could not contend against the
wind. The inside passengers of the Beverley coach had to get out
and support the vehicle from being overturned.
1846. Dec. 15. Turnpike roads impassable with snow. Scarborough mail
coach unable to proceed beyond Bridlington. Narrow escape of
several persons from being frozen to death on the highways.
Ten years before stage coaches reached the height of their prosperity, a
new era had begun—the era of the RAILWAY. The first railway to be used
for passenger traffic was one between Stockton and Darlington, and in
the year of its opening another from Leeds to Selby was being planned by
the great engineer, George Stephenson.
This, as originally planned, was to be of a length of 20 miles. Near
Leeds there were to be three inclines, up each of which the train was to
be hauled by a fixed engine stationed at the summit. The rest of the
line was to be worked either by a travelling engine or by a horse.
The latter could, it was calculated, be very profitably employed. For
his work would only be needed on the flat and up the slight inclines;
and for six or seven miles on the journey from Leeds to Selby he could
be ‘thrown off’ and could ride ‘in his own carriage behind the train of
waggons,’ until his services were again required. Such was Railway
Engineering in its infancy.
The Leeds and Selby Railway Company having been formed, work was
proceeded with on plans drawn up by another engineer, Mr. James Walker,
and the line was declared open for traffic in 1834.
In the following year a new Company, known as the Hull and Selby Railway
Company, was formed, with Mr. Henry Broadley as Chairman. An Act of
Parliament ‘for making a Railway from Kingston-upon-Hull to Selby’ was
then obtained, and the work of constructing the new railway was pushed
forward rapidly.
This, the first terminal railway to be constructed in the Riding, was
expected to bring with it great advantages. By it Hull would be linked
to Manchester, and Manchester was already linked to Liverpool. Thus
there would be direct railway communication across England from the
North Sea to the Irish Sea.
But, for all this, the scheme met with great opposition. Hull and Selby
were already served by steam packets travelling along the Humber and the
Ouse, and this service was deemed so satisfactory that there was little
chance of the new railway’s proving a commercial success.
Objections were also raised by some of the large landowners, who feared
that the introduction of the railway would very largely decrease the
value of their properties along its route. Such objectors had, of
course, to be conciliated—as was Mr. Raikes of Welton, by a gift of
£10,000 and an undertaking to build a station at Brough instead of at
Welton.
* * * * *