interest of the place centres in Hawarden Castle, the home, until his
death, of the Rt. Hon. W.E. Gladstone. There are really two castles, but
little remains of the old one except the large circular keep and part of
the banqueting-hall. On the spot previously occupied by the old
battlements a modern wall has been built, from which a fine view across
the Dee estuary can be obtained. The castle was probably built before
the time of Edward I. Here Simon de Montfort surrendered the castle to
Llewelyn. After its reversion to the Crown it was again taken by
Llewelyn's brother, and it was about this time that the present keep was
built. After its dismantling during the Parliamentary War, it was
purchased by Serjeant Glynne, in whose family it still remains.
Within full view of the old castle, and enclosed by the same park,
stands the modern mansion, constructed in the style of a castellated
Gothic building of the thirteenth century. It was originally a square
brick building, but it has had so many additions, besides being turreted
and encased in stone, that it is almost impossible to trace the former
structure. The south-east front looks on a gravel walk surrounding some
formal flower-beds, which was one of Mr. Gladstone's favourite walks
when he was unable to take other exercise. Visitors are not admitted to
the modern castle.
Euloe Castle, some two or three miles from Hawarden, is said to be
connected with the few remains of the old chapel by means of an
underground passage. It is a picturesque, ivy-mantled ruin, but little
is known of its history.
Hawarden Church has a central tower, surmounted by a short spire; it was
restored by Sir Gilbert Scott in 1857. A window to the memory of Mr.
Gladstone, by the late Sir Edward Burne-Jones, has just been placed in
the west end.
[Illustration: _Photochrom Co., Ltd._
HAWARDEN CASTLE.
The home, until his death, of the Rt. Hon. W.E. Gladstone.]
YORK MINSTER
=How to get there.=--Train from King's Cross. Great Northern Rly.
=Nearest Station.=--York.
=Distance from London.=--188-1/4 miles.
=Average Time.=--Varies between 3-3/4 to 5 hours.
1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=--Single 27s. ... 15s. 8d.
Return 54s. ... 31s. 4d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=--"Harker's York Hotel," "Black Swan
Hotel," "Station Hotel," etc.
=Alternative Routes.=--Train from St. Pancras _via_ Sheffield, Midland
Railway. Train from Liverpool Street, Great Eastern Railway.
The city of York is one of the most famous and interesting in the
kingdom. It was originally the _Eborac_ of the British and the
_Eboracum_ of the Romans, who made it an imperial colony, and the
capital of _Maxima Caesariensis_. Later the place changed hands many
times between Danes and Saxons until the time of William the Conqueror,
who built the castle. The whole city was burnt in 1137, with the
cathedral and forty churches, and in the Wars of the Roses it was
continually the scene of sanguinary conflicts between the rival parties.
It has been visited at various times by nearly all our kings, and
numerous insurrections have been quelled within its walls. The
cathedral--the chief glory of York--dates from Saxon times. The first
church was founded by Edwin, the fifth king of Northumbria, but before
it was finished he was slain, and the work thenceforward was carried out
by his successor Oswald. The present cathedral was mainly built in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Its chief features are a nave with
the most magnificent side-aisles in the kingdom, two transepts, a choir,
a lady chapel, a large central tower, two bell towers, and a wonderfully
fine chapter-house. During the last century it was twice nearly
destroyed by fire, first by the act of a lunatic, and then by the
carelessness of a workman.
The present structure takes rank with the finest specimens of Gothic
architecture in the world.
Apart from the minster, the whole city teems with archaeological
interest. There are many fine old churches, and much mediaeval
architecture, including the gates of the city, which are wonderfully
well preserved, one of the best being Micklegate Bar, where Richard Duke
of York's head was exhibited. The city walls built by Edward I. still
remain in a remarkably good state of preservation. Many of the towers,
of which Leland stated there were forty, still exist.
[Illustration: BOOTHAM BAR AND YORK MINSTER.]
COXWOLD, YORKSHIRE
THE HOME OF STERNE
=How to get there.=--Great Northern Railway, King's Cross Station.
=Nearest Station.=--Easingwold _via_ York and Alne; from thence runs
a branch line to Easingwold.
=Distance from London.=--199 miles.
=Average Time.=--About 5 hours.
=Fares.=--No through fares in operation.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=--The village inn--"The Fauconberg
Arms."
The pretty little village of Coxwold, where the Rev. Laurence Sterne
wrote _A Sentimental Journey_, lies about 18 miles north of York. The
hamlet stands on slightly rising ground. At the bottom of the hill is
the village smithy, the well, a farm, and facing a big elm tree is the
inn, bearing a great hatchment-like signboard showing the Fauconberg
arms and motto. The cottages of the villagers are on the slope of the
hill, and at the top is the church to which Sterne was appointed vicar
in 1760. Close at hand is the quaint seventeenth-century house he
occupied. It is a singularly picturesque little building, with its mossy
stone-covered roof, its wide gables, and massive chimney-stacks. Sterne,
in his humorous way, called it "Shandy Hall." The stone tablet over the
doorway states that Sterne wrote _Tristram Shandy_ and _A Sentimental
Journey_ at Shandy Hall; but this is not quite accurate, for he entered
upon the incumbency of Coxwold in 1760, whereas two volumes of _Tristram
Shandy_ had already been published in 1759. Of his life at Coxwold one
gathers that the vicar was more devoted to his books than to his parish.
In the intervals of writing and his clerical duties he amused himself
with painting, fiddling, dining out and telling stories, at the same
time suffering from ill-health and other discomforts. His gift of
humour, however, helped him to bear his troubles better than might
otherwise have been the case. He was firmly persuaded that "every time a
man smiles, but much more so when he laughs, he adds something to the
fragment of life." Sterne's study may still be seen. It is a tiny room
with a low ceiling, although it undoubtedly possesses the charm of
cosiness. On one occasion Sterne writes: "I have a hundred hens and
chickens about my yard, and not a parishioner catches a hare or a rabbit
or a trout but he brings it as an offering to me." Sterne died in London
in 1768 at the age of 55 years.
[Illustration: "SHANDY HALL" AT COXWOLD.
Where the Rev. Laurence Sterne lived while he was Vicar of Coxwold. Part
of _Tristram Shandy_ was written here.]
LLANGOLLEN AND VALLE CRUCIS ABBEY
=How to get there.=--Train from Paddington. Great Western Railway.
=Nearest Station.=--Llangollen. Valle Crucis Abbey lies 2 miles
from Llangollen.
=Distance from London.=--203 miles.
=Average Time.=--Varies between 4-1/2 to 7-1/2 hours.
1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=--Single 28s. 10d. 19s. 3d. 15s. 4-1/2d.
Return 53s. 6d. 33s. 9d. ...
=Accommodation Obtainable.=--At Llangollen--"Hand Hotel," "Royal
Hotel," "The Eagle Hotel," etc.
The scenery of Llangollen can scarcely be called mountainous, but the
little town is situated in the most beautiful part of the hill district
of Wales. Its chief charm, in common with all other Welsh villages, is
in its contrasts,--deep lanes with fern and flower-clad banks lead you
past picturesque cottages and farms, surrounded with low stone walls,
half hidden by brilliantly coloured creepers; bold crags, high above the
valley, give place to bright green sheep pastures, they in turn changing
to thick woods of oak and ash.
Llangollen Bridge, across which runs the chief thoroughfare, is one of
the so-called "wonders of Wales." It was built in 1346 by John Trevor,
afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, and was the first stone bridge in Wales.
It is borne by five stone arches, and beneath them rushes the fine river
Dee. The church is dedicated to St. Collen, but is of no particular
interest. In the churchyard is a monument to the two fashionable ladies
who at an early age tired of the vanities of this world, and lived in
complete seclusion at Plas Newydd, a house just beyond the village,
famed for its old oak.
Valle Crucis Abbey, which can be reached either by walking along the
canal from Llangollen, or by train to Berwyn, lies in a beautiful wooded
valley surrounded by some of the best scenery in the neighbourhood of
Llangollen. A little to the east, a very picturesque view of the ruins,
which are the finest of their kind in Wales, may be obtained over a
quiet pool of water. The abbey was founded in the thirteenth century by
Madoc-ap-Gryffydd Moelor, who was a supporter of Llewelyn in the cause
of Welsh independence. The buildings are in Early English style, and
some of the finest remains are a circular gable window and three
decorated Gothic ones, also part of the west end with dog-tooth
moulding, and a piscina and canopy in the south transept. Stretching at
right angles from the south side of the church are the old monastic
buildings.
[Illustration: _Photochrom Co., Ltd._
VALLE CRUCIS ABBEY.
The ruins of the Church. The monastic buildings are on the south side.]
KNARESBOROUGH, DRIPPING WELL
=How to get there.=--Train from King's Cross. Great Northern Rly.
=Nearest Station.=--Knaresborough.
=Distance from London.=--204 miles.
=Average Time.=--Varies between 5 to 7 hours.
1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=--Single 28s. 5d. ... 17s. 0-1/2d.
Return 56s. 10d. ... 34s. 1d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=--"Commercial Hotel," "Crown Hotel,"
etc.
Knaresborough, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, is a town of great
interest and antiquity, and occupies part of the site of an ancient
forest which was 20 miles in length. It was a crown manor before the
Conquest, and was given by William the Conqueror to Serlo de Burgh, a
Norman baron, by whom the stately castle was first erected. The place
was afterwards held by Richard Plantagenet, who founded a priory in the
vicinity, Piers Gaveston, and John of Gaunt, and the castle was for some
time the place of confinement of Henry II. During the Civil War it was
held for the King; but after the battle of Marston Moor it was taken by
Fairfax, and dismantled by order of Parliament in 1648.
The castle, one of the finest of its kind, is situated in a remarkable
position on a lofty rock, and was once practically inaccessible. It was
formerly flanked by eleven towers, of which only one remains. The other
ruins consist of a small portion of the keep and some very beautiful and
elaborate vaulted apartments, in which the murderers of Thomas à Becket
took refuge. On the cliffs opposite the castle is the famous
Knaresborough "Dripping Well," whose waters have the property of
"turning into stone" any articles left for a time under the dripping
waters of the well. The water being highly charged with limestone in a
state of impervious powder, rapidly encrusts the object until it appears
to be made of solid rock, and various specimens of this result may be
obtained.
About half a mile below the castle are the remains of the priory for
brothers of the Holy Trinity, founded by Richard Plantagenet; and
further south, hewn out of the solid rock, at a considerable height
above the river Nidd, is St. Robert's Chapel, with a fine groined roof.
It has an altar on the east side and contains carvings of the Trinity
and the Virgin Mary.
Knaresborough was at one time a place of fashionable resort on account
of the efficacy of its mineral waters, but they have long since been
abandoned for those of Harrogate.
[Illustration: _Photochrom Co., Ltd._
THE DRIPPING WELL AT KNARESBOROUGH.
The water contains limestone, and coats over whatever substance it falls
upon.]
FOUNTAINS ABBEY
=How to get there.=--Train from King's Cross _via_ Leeds. Great
Northern Railway.
=Nearest Station.=--Ripon (2 miles from the Abbey).
=Distance from London.=--214 miles.
=Average Time.=--Varies between 5 to 8 hours.
1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=--Single 29s. 9d. ... 17s. 5d.
Return 59s. 6d. ... 34s. 10d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=--At Ripon--"Black Bull Hotel,"
"Black Swan Hotel," "Bradford Hotel," etc.
Fountains Abbey, about 2 miles south-west from Ripon in Yorkshire,
stands in a beautiful wooded valley, through which runs a pretty stream
known as the Skell. The abbey is noted for the great extent of its
remains, which seem to have escaped any wanton destruction. A fine tower
at the north end of the transept still stands, but the central one has
fallen into great decay. Besides the church there are many remains of
this famous abbey, which at the time of the dissolution of the
monasteries was one of the richest in the country. The cloisters, 300
feet long, are unsurpassed in England. They extend across an archway
over the stream, and are lit by lancet windows. There are also remains
of the chapter-house, the refectory, and the kitchen with its two wide
fireplaces.
The history of the foundation of Fountains Abbey is of considerable
interest. In the twelfth century some monks of the Benedictine monastery
of St. Mary at York, being attracted by the sanctity of the inmates of
the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx in Yorkshire, became dissatisfied with
their own form of government, and wished to adopt the rules of Rievaulx
Abbey and withdraw from their own monastery. This naturally did not
please their abbot; but eventually, after appealing to the Archbishop of
York, some land in a lonely valley, known as Skell Dale, was granted to
them. Here, in the depth of winter, without shelter or means of
subsistence, the pious monks suffered great hardship. After a few years
Hugh, Dean of York, left all his possessions to the Abbey of Fountains,
and after this endowments and benefactions flowed in.
In 1140 the abbey was burnt down, but in 1204 the restoration was
recommenced, and the foundations of a new church, of which the present
ruins are the remains, were laid. The great tower, however, was not
completed till the end of the fourteenth century.
At the Dissolution Sir Richard Gresham bought the estates, and they are
now owned by the descendants of Mr. William Aislabie of Studley Royal.
[Illustration: _Photochrom Co., Ltd._
FOUNTAINS ABBEY.
One of the finest ruined monasteries in England.]
RIPON CATHEDRAL
=How to get there.=--Train from King's Cross _via_ Leeds. Great
Northern Railway.
=Nearest Station.=--Ripon.
=Distance from London.=--214 miles.
=Average Time.=--Varies between 5 to 7 hours.
1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=--Single 29s. 9d. ... 17s. 5d.
Return 59s. 6d. ... 34s. 10d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=--"Black Bull Hotel," "Black Swan
Hotel," "Bradford Hotel," etc.
Ripon is situated on the little river Ure in a picturesque valley in the
west of Yorkshire. Its past history has been eventful enough, for it was
burnt by the Danes in the ninth century, destroyed by King Edred, and
laid waste by the Conqueror. It recovered quickly from all these
adversities, and is now a peaceful town given up to agricultural
pursuits. Besides possessing a small but interesting old cathedral and
some ancient houses in its town, many places of historic importance lie
in its immediate neighbourhood. Fountains Abbey is 3 miles distant (see
Index), and also Fountains Hall, a fifteenth-century building. An
interesting relic of old times is the blowing of the horn at nine in the
evening by a constable outside the mayor's house and at the
market-cross.
Ripon's minster became a cathedral in 1836. In the seventh century a
monastery was established here, and St. Wilfrid, the famous Archbishop
of York, built the minster. Of this building only the crypt remains,
consisting of a central chamber with niches in the walls, and a window
known as "St. Wilfrid's Needle" looking into the passage outside. It is
reached by steps and a long passage leading from the nave of the present
cathedral. Only the chapter-house and vestry remain of Archbishop
Thurstan's Norman church, erected in the place of the Anglo-Saxon one,
for Roger, Archbishop of York, pulled it down and began to erect the
present building in (_circa_) 1154. Being only a Collegiate Church in
those days, it was not built in a cathedral fashion, and it had no
aisles to its wide and low-roofed nave. The present aisles were added in
the sixteenth century, with the intention of giving a cathedral aspect
to the minster church. Much of Roger's work has been altered by
subsequent bishops, and the result is a strange succession of styles of
architecture. Ripon is the only cathedral that has glass in the
triforium of the choir.
The exterior, viewed from a distance, is a little squat, for it needs
the timber spires that formerly crowned the three towers.
[Illustration: _Photochrom Co., Ltd._
RIPON CATHEDRAL--THE MINSTER BRIDGE.]
DARTMOOR
=How to get there.=--Train from Paddington. Great Western Railway.
=Nearest Station.=--Bovey Tracey.
=Distance from London.=--215-1/2 miles.
=Average Time.=--Varies between 6 to 7 hours.
1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=--Single 33s. 0d. 20s. 6d. 16s. 5-1/2d.
Return 57s. 9d. 36s. 0d. 32s. 11d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=--At Bovey Tracey--"The Dolphin,"
"The Railway," "The Moorland" Hotels.
=Alternative Route.=--Train to Okehampton from Waterloo. L. and
S.W. Railway. Okehampton is 5 miles from Sourton and 10
from Lydford.
While only two places are mentioned above as starting-places from which
to get at Dartmoor, a dozen others, such as Tavistock and Ashburton,
might be mentioned. Bovey Tracey, however, has many advantages, for the
moment one alights from the train one sees only four miles distant two
of the most rugged tors of the moor--Hey Tor and Rippon Tor--the last
with its great logan stone balanced near the summit. A coach from the
"Dolphin," which runs three days a week in the season, takes one through
scenery which grows more and more desolate and grand as the summit of
Hey Tor is approached. From Hey Tor the coach goes on to Buckland
Beacon, whence a wide view is obtained, including the shining roofs of
Princetown right away in the distance. Princetown, with its convict
prison, is considered by the people of the moor to be its most important
town. Holne, which is included in some of the coach drives from Bovey
Tracey, contains the birthplace of Charles Kingsley. Dartmoor is so huge
that one must be born and spend a lifetime in or near it to really know
it, and the visitor can merely endeavour to see typical examples of its
granite tors, its peaty streams, its great stretches of boulder-strewn
heather, and its strangely isolated villages.
Eight miles from Bovey Tracey is Widdecombe, the lonely little village
possessing a church which is known as "the Cathedral of the Moor." The
great tower of the church was struck by lightning one Sunday in October
1638, and a contemporary account can be seen on some panels in the
tower.
Brent Tor, illustrated opposite, is quite close to the station on the L.
and S.W. Railway of that name. The little battlemented church on the
summit, which has nave, aisles, and chancel, has a legendary origin and
is dedicated to St. Michael. The rock composing the tor is volcanic
trap.
[Illustration: BRENT TOR, DARTMOOR.
The little church standing on Brent Tor is very prominently situated and
can be seen for many miles across the moor.]
HAWORTH
THE HOME OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË
=How to get there.=--Train from St. Pancras. Change at Keighley.
Midland Railway.
=Nearest Station.=--Haworth.
=Distance from London.=--216 miles.
=Average Time.=--Varies between 5-1/2 to 6-1/2 hours.
1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=--Single 28s. 7d. ... 16s. 6-1/2d.
Return 57s. 2d. ... 33s. 1d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=--At Keighley--"Devonshire Hotel."
Haworth is a long straggling village 4 miles from Keighley, a large
manufacturing town in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The road is very
steep to the village--"four tough, scrambling miles." It consists of one
street, so steep that the flagstones with which it is paved are placed
end-ways that the horses may not stumble. Past the church and the lonely
parsonage are the wide moors, high, wild, and desolate, up above the
world, solitary and silent. This gray, sad-looking parsonage, so close
to the still sadder churchyard, is a spot of more than ordinary
interest, for it was the home of the Brontës--that wonderfully gifted
and extraordinary family! Charlotte Brontë shared with her sisters their
intense love for the wild, black, purple moors, rising and sweeping away
yet higher than the church which is built at the summit of the one long
narrow street. All round the horizon are wave-like hills. _Jane Eyre_,
published in 1847, written with extraordinary power and wonderful
genius, astonished the entire reading world. Little did any one imagine
that the authoress lived far away from the busy haunts of men in a quiet
northern parsonage, leading a gentle, sad life; for her two sisters,
whom Charlotte loved as her own life, were very delicate, and their one
brother, in whom they had placed great hopes, had given way to drink.
Charlotte was known to the literary world as Currer Bell, her sisters as
Acton and Ellis Bell. After _Jane Eyre_ came _Shirley_, written in a
period of great sorrow, for her two loved sisters died within a short
space of each other, not long after the death of their unhappy brother,
and Charlotte was left alone in the quiet, sad parsonage with only her
aged father. _Villette_ was well received. It was her last work.
Charlotte Brontë married, in 1854, the Rev. Arthur Nichols, and after a
few brief months of happiness passed away on March 31, 1855, at the
early age of thirty-nine.
Haworth has been much influenced by the growth of Keighley.
[Illustration: _W.T. Stead, Heckmondwike._
THE PARSONAGE AT HAWORTH, FROM THE CHURCHYARD.
Where Charlotte Brontë and her family lived.]
RIEVAULX ABBEY
=How to get there.=--Train from King's Cross. Great Northern Rly.
=Nearest Station.=--Helmsley.
=Distance from London.=--219-1/4 miles.
=Average Time.=--Varies between 3-3/4 to 5 hours.
1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=--Single 31s. 3d. ... 18s. 3-1/2d.
Return 62s. 6d. ... 36s. 7d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=--"Black Swan" and "Crown" Hotels
at Helmsley. There is no inn at Rievaulx.
=Alternative Route.=--Train from St. Pancras _via_ Sheffield. Midland.
The little village of Rievaulx--the name is Norman-French, but is
pronounced Rivers--is situated close to the river Rye, and 2-1/2 miles
from Helmsley, on the Thirsk road. The great point of interest in
connection with the village is the fact that close by are the ruins of
the once magnificent abbey for monks of the Cistercian order, founded by
Sir Walter D'Espec in 1131. The founder eventually became a monk at
Rievaulx, and at his death was buried there. After the Dissolution the
site was granted to the Villiers family, from whom it came to the
Duncombes in 1695.
The most striking view of the abbey is obtained by leaving the main road
and taking the footpath across Duncombe Park, where a sudden turn brings
one in sight of a bend in the Rye, with the great roofless church rising
on the left bank of the river. The principal remains of the fine old
abbey, one of the most beautiful ruins in the kingdom, consist of the
choir and transept of the church, and the refectory. The hospitium or
guest house was formerly on the right of the lane leading to Helmsley.
The great nave of the church is now a shapeless ruin, but from certain
indications it may be seen that it was Norman, and probably the work of
D'Espec. The lower parts of the transept are Norman, and the remainder
Early English.
The magnificent tower arch, 75 feet high, is still standing, and one of
the most striking views of the ancient fabric is the crumbling nave as
it appears framed in this lofty and wonderfully-proportioned opening,
with a background of rich English foliage and landscape.
West of the nave were the cloisters, of which only a few arches now
remain, and opening from their west wall is the fine Early English
refectory, with the reading-desk still existing. Underneath the
refectory there are the remains of the Norman dormitory.