THE OUSE.
The Ure and the Swale--Myton and the "White Battle"--Nun Monkton,
Overton, and Skelton--The Nidd--York--Bishopthorpe--Selby--The
Derwent--The Aire--Howden--Goole--The Don.
The Yorkshire Ouse (from the Celtic "uisg" or water) has one decided
peculiarity among important British rivers: it has no natural
beginning, and it loses its identity before its waters touch the sea.
It is remarkable, further, for the number of other rivers that drain
into it. Within the immense water-shed of Yorkshire, it absorbs in its
course the Ure, the Swale, the Nidd, the Foss, the Wharfe, the Derwent,
the Aire, and the Don. Looked at in connection with these streams and
their tributaries, this chief Yorkshire river receives its supplies
from over a considerable part of the North of England. Although
covering a distance of about fifty miles, it keeps well within its own
county, is almost wholly confined, in fact, to the great plain of York.
Its value as a waterway was recognised from the dawn of our history.
Up its waters rich argosies and primitive war craft have come, and its
ramifications east, west, and north proved a convenient channel along
which to carry weal or woe into the ancient Northumbria. It traverses
beautiful and fertile land, and all its tributaries come to it over
picturesque and classic ground. It springs into existence with a full
flow of water in the neighbourhood of Aldborough, at the confluence of
two of the prettiest rivers in the country, the Ure and the Swale. From
this point in the plain of York the Ouse passes smoothly through rich
agricultural lands, alongside quaint villages, and through the heart of
the capital of the North, and so onwards until it in turn is absorbed
in a greater waterway.
The Ure (from the Celtic "ur" or "brisk") rises on the mountainous
boundary line of Yorkshire and Westmorland, and runs over a course of
about fifty miles, passing through Wensleydale, and skirting Ripon
on its way into the plain of York. In Wensleydale the progress of
the Ure is broken by several fine waterfalls, notably the cataracts
at Aysgarth. Close to Aysgarth the river passes Bolton Castle, a
magnificent keep, well preserved as regards the external walls.
This castle, the stronghold of the ancient Scropes, dates from the
fourteenth century. It was one of the prisons of Mary Stuart on her
way south to Fotheringay. A short distance further down the valley are
the ruins of Middleham Castle, where Warwick the King-maker kept house
and hall, and where Richard III., his son-in-law, spent the happiest
part of his life. Near to Middleham the Ure receives the Cover, a
stream on whose banks are the remains of Coverham Abbey, a house of
White Canons. Coverdale is noted also as being the birthplace of the
divine of that name to whom we owe an early translation of the Bible.
Exceedingly pretty, if scant, monastic ruins are passed by the Ure
at Jervaulx, just before Wensleydale comes to an end. The river then
flows on through tolerably open ground towards Masham and Tanfield into
the Marmion country, and onwards to Ripon, whose Minster dates from
the twelfth century, and is the outcome of a much earlier foundation.
Near by, on the Skell, a tributary of the Ure, is Fountains Abbey,
a majestic and picturesque ruin, whose grounds form part of Studley
Royal, the estate of the Marquis of Ripon. As the Ure nears its point
of junction with the Swale it passes two towns of great historic
and antiquarian interest, lying within touch of each other, namely,
Boroughbridge and Aldborough. Boroughbridge is the site of the battle
fought in 1322, at which was killed the Earl of Hereford, who, with
the Earl of Lancaster, had risen against Edward II. Lancaster was
taken prisoner, and conveyed to his own castle at Pontefract, where
he was beheaded. Three rude blocks of granite, known as the "Devil's
Arrows," form one of the sights of Boroughbridge. They vary in height
from sixteen and a half to twenty-two and a half feet above the ground.
There were four blocks in Leland's time. One theory is that these
monoliths marked the limits of a Roman stadium or racecourse; but they
may have had an earlier significance. Aldborough, the ancient Isurium,
was, apart from York, the most important Roman station in the county.
Here two Roman roads met--one from York and Tadcaster to Catterick,
and the other, the famous Watling Street, running north from Ilkley.
There was a strongly walled camp at Aldborough, and it is said that
the present church occupies a position in the centre of the ancient
possession, and is partly built of material from the Roman town.
The Swale (probably from "swale," the Teutonic "gentle") rises amidst
bleak surroundings on the hills beyond Kirkby Stephen, but soon
reaches the picturesque valley to which it gives its name. It takes in
Richmondshire in its course, the wide district from which the Saxon
Edwin was expelled to make room for the Norman Alan. The Earl Alan
built the oldest part of the castle at Richmond. The massive keep was
erected later on (about 1146) by Earl Conan. A mile below Richmond are
the ruins of Easby Abbey, the ancient granary of which is still used.
The river, on passing out of Swaledale, goes onward to Catterick (where
the Romans had a walled camp), Topcliffe, and Brefferton. The church at
Brefferton is on the brink of the river and is said to mark the spot
where Paulinus baptised his converts in the Swale. There is an opinion
also that the rite was administered at Catterick; but Bretherick, to
judge by ancient place names derived from Paulinus, seems the likelier
spot. A little below Bretherton the Swale unites with the Ure, the
distance traversed from its source to this point being about sixty
miles.
[Illustration:
_Walker & Boutall sc._
THE COURSE OF THE OUSE.]
Close to where the Ouse takes form at the junction of these two rivers
is Myton, the scene of a conflict sometimes spoken of as the Battle
of Myton, but better known in Yorkshire as the "White Battle," and
the "Chapter of Myton." The battle was fought on October 12, 1319.
In the autumn of that year Edward II. had equipped an army and gone
northward to lay siege to Berwick. While the King was thus engaged
a strong detachment of Scots under Randolph and Douglas came into
England by the west, and marched close up to the walls of York. They
destroyed the suburbs, but failed to effect an entrance into the city.
The inhabitants of York were not in a position to do more than protect
themselves behind their barriers, all their fighting men being with
the King. The Scots had, however, done and said things at the walls
that were hard to bear, and on this account an aggressive movement was
made from the city. Soon after the troops of Randolph and Douglas had
started on their return journey they were surprised to find a motley
army of some 10,000 on their rear, made up of clergy, apprentices, and
old men, prepared to give battle. Though a valiant venture, it was
a wild one. This strange force from York possessed but few weapons,
and was without adequate leadership, while the Scots were largely men
trained to warfare, well equipped, and skilfully led. The battle was
soon over. The Scots turned upon their pursuers and effectually routed
them. Great numbers of the English were killed, including the Mayor of
York. Many others were drowned in the Swale. The name "White Battle" is
accounted for by the large number of priests and clerks who took part
in the engagement.
[Illustration: BISHOPTHORPE.]
From the junction of the two rivers out of which the Ouse is formed
onwards to York is a distance of about fifteen miles. About midway over
this stretch the stream passes three villages lying near together--Nun
Monkton, Overton, and Skelton--each of which has an interesting church.
The Skelton Church is Early English throughout, and is dedicated to
All Saints, but is popularly known as St. Peter's, from a tradition
that it has a claim to be considered part of the Metropolitan Church,
it being a common belief that it was built from stones left over after
the completion of the south transept of York Minster. The church at
Overton shows Transition Norman features, and is close to the site
of a Roman settlement, and in the neighbourhood also of a Priory of
Gilbertine Canons founded in the reign of John. Nun Monkton has mention
in Domesday, and is supposed to be the site of a Saxon monastery. Here,
too, in the reign of Stephen, there was a Priory (Benedictine); and the
church, Early English, was the chapel of the nuns. At Nun Monkton, the
Nidd, after a rapid course from Great Whernside, joins the Ouse. The
upper section of Nidderdale is wild and secluded. From Pateley Bridge
the tributary water passes Dacre Banks, above which are the curiously
shaped boulders known as Brimham Rocks. Further down, Knaresborough,
with its castle dating back to Henry I., and its memories of Eugene
Aram and Mother Shipton, rises grandly over the river.
Both the Ouse and the Nidd skirt the grounds of Beningborough, where
the Abbot of St. Mary's, York, had a choice park. At Red Hall on the
Ouse, a mile and a half below Nun Monkton, Charles I. slept on his way
from Scotland in 1633. The building was a seat of the Slingsbys, who
were active Royalists. Sir Henry Slingsby, the entertainer of the King,
suffered on Tower Hill in 1658.
The minster towers of York are seen to advantage from the plain as
the Ouse approaches the ancient city. It is said of York that it
was founded a thousand years before Christ, by one Evrog, son of
Membyr--hence the ancient British name of the place, Caer Evrog, or
Evrog's City. This belongs to Celtic mythology, but it is pretty
certain that the Roman Eboracum is a variation of the name possessed by
York when the Western conquerors settled here. York in the Roman era
was "the seat of the Prefect, with the official staff and the ministers
of his luxury, when London was still a mere resort of traders." Here
Severus died, and his memory remains perpetuated in Severus Hill. Here
Constantine Chlorus also died, and although it is doubtful whether
his son, Constantine the Great, was "a born Englishman," and a native
of York, as some have asserted, he was certainly proclaimed Emperor
in this famous city. Here, too, Paulinus preached, and Edwin of
Northumbria was baptised. Our own early Sovereigns held their Courts
and Parliaments at York, and for many centuries it was a place of great
military, ecclesiastical, and political importance. The Minster--one of
the most impressive of all our cathedrals, with a superb west front,
which is but one of many glorious features--has in its foundations
traces of the Early Saxon Cathedral and Norman work. The superstructure
is Early English and Perpendicular. From the platform on the top of the
central tower (216 feet) magnificent views are obtained on every side.
The ruins of St. Mary's Abbey, near to the river, are very fine, and
are carefully preserved. This was a mitred Benedictine house, and was
one of the earliest monastic establishments founded in the North after
the Conquest. The castle ruins, also seen from the river, occupy the
site of a structure raised by the Conqueror. The walls of York, with
the ancient gateways or bars, remain one of the features of the city.
On the inner side of the embattlements is a promenade, much used. The
circumvallation is practically complete. It does not now, of course,
embrace the whole city, but it has within its limits the historic York.
So well do these old walls become the city, that to this day it is with
a shock the fact is recalled that just before the Queen came to the
throne the civic authorities actually petitioned Parliament for powers
to demolish the ancient environment with its barbicans and posterns.
The successors of the men who advocated such an act of vandalism have,
however, atoned for the shameless proposal. They have put the walls
into thorough repair, and in June, 1889, the Mayor and Corporation
took part in the completion of the restoration by throwing open the
remaining stretch of the walls running from Monk Bar to Bootham Bar.
The Foss enters York on the south, and passes into the Ouse on the
east bank. It has a run of about sixteen miles from the Howardian
Hills, and flows near Sheriff Hutton Castle, a seat of the Nevilles,
originally built in 1140, by Bertram de Bulmer, Sheriff of Yorkshire.
At Fulford, just below York, the Ouse skirts the scene of the defeat
of the Earls Edwin and Morcar, by Hardrada (1063). A little further
down, on the west side, is Bishopthorpe, where the Archbishops have
their palace. A palace was built here in the thirteenth century by
Archbishop de Gray, and presented to the see. Of the original building
there are but few remains. It was at Bishopthorpe that Archbishop
Scrope and the Earl Marshal were condemned in the presence of the King
(Henry IV.) for treason. The sentence was carried out in a field on
the way to York. Old boatmen tell that it was common at one time to
fire a salute of three guns from the river on passing the Archbishop's
palace, and to be rewarded with a supply of the palace ale. At Naburn,
on the east bank, a mile and a half below, is a lock (opened in 1888
by the late Prince Albert Victor) constructed for vessels of 400 tons.
Three miles further down is Stillingfleet, and here the river is in the
neighbourhood of Escrick Park, the seat of Lord Wenlock. Escrick Hall
is Elizabethan, with fine pictures and statuary. Skipwith Common, with
its tumuli and ancient turf dwellings, is also in this neighbourhood.
East of Skipwith, and near the river, is Riccall. At this point on the
Ouse was moored the fleet of Harold Hardrada while his troops advanced
to York. A short distance above Riccall, on the west bank, the Wharfe
enters the Ouse, and on the same side, half a mile below the point of
junction is Cawood, where the Archbishops of York were established in
residence from before the Conquest. Wolsey thought much of Cawood, and
it was from his palace here that he was taken a prisoner, when he had
perforce to bid farewell to all his greatness. There are some remains
of the ancient buildings. The gatehouse stands, and in a room over the
entrance the Court-leet of the Archbishops is still held.
[Illustration: CAWOOD.]
Selby, further down the stream on the same side, is a thriving market
town. It has the advantage not only of the navigable waters of the
Ouse, but of canal communication with the Aire. Its Abbey church has
many noteworthy features, not the least of which is its length (296
feet). The building has a double dedication--to SS. Mary and Germanus.
The foundation is traced to Benedict, a French monk. That monk, while
in the Convent at Auxerre, was, according to the legend, commissioned
in a vision by Germanus to go to England, and find there a similar
spot to one revealed in the vision, and there he was to halt, set up
the Cross and preach. Benedict is said to have been so impressed by
the mandate that he started at once, and continued his travels until,
sailing up the Ouse, he found on the curve of the river at Selby a
district corresponding exactly to what had been revealed to him in
the vision. Here he set up a Cross, and constructed a hut for himself
by the riverside. The year 1068 has been assigned as the date of this
undertaking. There was then, says the old chronicle, "not a single monk
to be found throughout all Yorkshire, owing to the devastations of the
Northmen by the Conqueror." Benedict found favour in the eyes of the
Norman Sheriff, and acting on the suggestion of this functionary, he
waited on the King, and succeeded in obtaining a grant of that portion
of the manor on which he had settled. A monastery of wood was then
erected, and Benedict became first abbot. He held the position for
twenty-seven years, when he died. The second abbot was a member of the
De Lacy family, and was wealthy enough to begin a permanent building
of stone, portions of which may be traced in the existing fabric,
which from the time of James I. (1618) has been the parochial church
of Selby. Pope Alexander II. made Selby a mitred Abbey, the only other
English establishment north of the Trent enjoying this distinction
being St. Mary's at York.
[Illustration: SELBY]
Selby was a place of strategic importance in the wars of the
Commonwealth. It changed hands two or three times, but was eventually
secured for the Parliament by the Fairfaxes, after a battle in which
Lord Bellasis, the Governor of York, and 1,600 men were made prisoners,
with much baggage and a useful supply of guns and horses. The victory
at Selby, to quote Markham, was "the immediate cause of the battle of
Marston Moor, and the destruction of the Royalist power in the North;
and the two Houses marked their sense of its importance by ordering
a public thanksgiving for the same." There is a tradition that Selby
was the birthplace of Henry I., the youngest son of the Conqueror,
and Freeman suggests that "William may have brought his wife into
Northumbria, as Edward brought his wife into Wales, in order that the
expected Atheling might be not only an Englishman born, but a native of
that part of England which had cost his father most pains to win."
Some three miles below Selby is Hemingborough, where there is a
fine church with a lofty spire (180 ft.), and between here and
Barmby-on-the-Marsh, the Derwent, after a long, winding course from the
high moorland south of Whitby, unites with the Ouse. The Derwent passes
Malton, the Roman Derventio, the site of which is still traceable.
Here there is an interesting Gilbertine Priory. The river also passes
Kirkham, where there are remains, notably an exquisite Early English
gateway, of an Augustinian Priory; and on its northern bank at this
point is Castle Howard, the Yorkshire seat of the Earl of Carlisle.
Many smaller rivers are absorbed by the Derwent, particularly the Rye,
on whose banks are the ruins of Rievaulx, the earliest of the Yorkshire
Cistercian houses; the Costa, which runs past Pickering Castle, where
Richard II. was held a prisoner just before his tragic death at
Pontefract; and the Bran, which runs close to the celebrated Kirkdale
Cave.
Two miles further down, on the west side, the Ouse receives another
important feeder in the Aire. Turbid enough is the Aire at this point,
after its contact with Leeds and other West Riding manufacturing
towns; but no river has a more romantic beginning. Rising mysteriously
from its underground source at the foot of Malham Cove, "by giants
scooped from out the rocky ground," it flows onward through a scene of
surpassing grandeur; and very beautiful still is its course through
Airedale proper, from beyond Skipton on to Kirkstall Abbey. The Aire is
joined at Leeds by the Liverpool Canal; at Castleford by the Calder;
and at Birkin by the Selby Canal; and after a run of about seventy
miles it passes into the Ouse at Arnim, opposite the village of Booth.
Howden lies a short distance to the north-east of Booth. It possesses
a fine old church, dedicated to St. Peter, and is the site of a famous
horse fair. Howden boasts also of several celebrities, beginning with
Roger de Hoveden, the chronicler, and coming down to the stable boy who
became Baron Ward, and was Minister to the Duke of Parma. The church
at Howden was handed over by the Conqueror to the Prior and Convent of
Durham, and was made collegiate in 1267. The choir and chapter-house
are in a ruinous state, and of the former, which was erected in
place of an earlier structure about 1300, only the aisle walls and
the eastern front remain. The chapter-house, even in decay, is an
exceptionally fine example of Early Perpendicular work, with elaborate
tracing and arcading. An archæological authority (Hutchinson) writes
enthusiastically of "its exquisite and exact proportions," and speaks
of it as the most perfect example of its kind in the country. After
the dissolution of the collegiate establishment the church at Howden
began to be neglected. It suffered much more from natural wear and tear
than from vandalism, and much of it was easily restored. The portions
in use include the nave, the transept, with eastern chantries, and a
central tower. Over a graceful west front rises a central gable, finely
crocketed, and flanked with hexagonal turrets. A head carved over the
south porch, supposed to be that of Edward II., but also claimed for
Henry III., gives some indication of the date of the erection of this
part of the building. The tower, lighted by tall and handsome windows,
rises 130 feet, and from its summit a commanding view is obtained. Its
chambers are of unusual size, and are said to have been constructed
to serve as a place of refuge to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood
in the event of inundation, the country here having been originally
marsh land and subject to floods. The Bishops of Durham took a lively
interest in their collegiate church at Howden. Here they had a palace,
and here several of them died.
From the point where it receives the Aire, the Ouse flows eastwards and
southwards, and at the end of the bend thus formed touches Goole--a
place which was a quiet village some seventy years ago, but is now
a busy commercial centre, and, moreover, a town which, although
well inland, lays claim to the position of a seaport. Goole has the
advantage of the Don as well as of the Ouse. The former stream comes
into it along a straight, artificial channel, known locally as the
Dutch river, after its constructor, Vermuyden the engineer. The Don
rises in Cheshire, and has branches running out of Derbyshire. It
passes Doncaster, Sheffield, Rotherham, and other towns, on its way
to the Ouse, and is the last of the streams to fall into the great
Yorkshire waterway; the Ouse, after a short run eastward from Goole,
uniting with the Trent to form the Humber.
W. S. CAMERON.
[Illustration: BARTON-UPON-HUMBER.]
THE HUMBER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.