front faces the Market-place, and whose great length is revealed only by
degrees. Alike in size and beauty, it shows itself in a long crescendo
to the admiring amateur of architecture, who proceeds from the combined
loveliness of the Norman, Early English, and Perpendicular west front, to
the entrance by the grand Transitional Norman-Early English north porch,
thence to the solemn majesty of the purely Norman nave, ending with the
light and graceful Decorated choir and Lady Chapel. The upper stage of
the tower fell in 1690, and destroyed the south transept.
A very destructive fire occurred in October 1906, and opportunity was
afterwards taken of doing a good deal of general restoration.
Before leaving the town of Selby, let us look at the commonplace little
square called Church Hill. A spirit-level might reveal it to be an
eminence of twelve inches or so above the common level of Selby, but to
the evidence of eyes or feet it is in no way distinguished from its
neighbouring streets. Yet it must have presented the appearance of a
hillock when the original founder of the Abbey came here in 1068,
voyaging up the Ouse and landing at this first likely place on its then
lovely banks. This founder was a certain Benedict, a monk of Auxerre,
who, having one of those convenient dreams which came to the pious ones
of that time when they wanted to steal something, made off with the Holy
Finger of St. Germanus; rather appropriate spoil, by the way, for the
light-fingered Benedict. Arriving in England, he met an Englishman who
gave him a golden reliquary. With this, he took ship from Lyme Regis and
sailed to the Humber and the Ouse; landing, as we have seen, here, and
planting a cross on the river bank, where he erected a hut for himself
under an oak-tree. A few days later, Hugh, the Norman sheriff of
Yorkshire, came up the Ouse, by chance, and not, as might be supposed, to
arrest Benedict on a charge of petty larceny. He was impressed by the
devoutness of the holy man, and sent workmen to build the original wooden
place of worship at Selby, on the spot now known as Church Hill, not a
stone’s throw from the existing Abbey.
[Picture: Market Place, Selby]
Centuries passed. The first building was swept away, and even the
cemetery which afterwards occupied the site was forgotten and built over,
becoming a square of houses, among which was the “Crown” inn. From 1798
until 1876, when it was rebuilt, the old “Crown” kept an odd secret. To
understand this, we must go back to 1798, when the neighbourhood of Selby
acquired an ill name for highway robberies. Among other outrages, a
mailbag was stolen from the York postboy, on the evening of February 22
in that year. The Postmaster of York reported the affair to the
Postmaster-General in the following terms:—
“SIR,
“I am sorry to acquaint you that the postboy coming from Selby to
this city was robbed of his mail, between six and seven o’clock this
evening. About three miles this side Selby he was accosted by a man
on foot with a gun in his hand, who asked him if he was the postboy,
and at the same time seizing hold of the bridle. Without waiting for
any answer, he told the boy he must immediately unstrap the mail and
give it to him, pointing the muzzle of the gun at him whilst he did
it. When he had given up the mail, the boy begged he would not hurt
him, to which the man replied, “He need not be afraid,” and at the
same time pulled the bridle from the horse’s head. The horse
immediately galloped off with the boy, who had never dismounted. He
was a stout man, dressed in a dark jacket, and had the appearance of
a heckler. The boy was too much frightened to make any other remark
upon his person, and says he was totally unknown to him.
“The mail contained bags for Howden and London, Howden and York, and
Selby and York. I have informed the surveyors of the robbery, and
have forwarded handbills this night, to be distributed in the
country, and will take care to insert it in the first paper published
here. Waiting your further instructions,—I remain, with respect,
Sir,
“Your Obliged and Obedient Humble Servant,
“THOS. OLDFIELD.”
A reward of two hundred pounds was offered for the discovery of the
highwayman, but without effect, and the matter was forgotten in the dusty
archives of the G.P.O., until it was brought to notice again by the
singular discovery of one of the stolen bags in the roof of the “Crown”
when being demolished in 1876. Stuffed in between the rafters and the
tiles, the workmen came upon a worn and rotten coat, a “sou’wester” hat,
and a mail-bag marked “Selby.” Thus, nearly eighty years after the
affair, and when every one concerned in it must long since have been no
more, this incriminating evidence came to light. The Postmaster-General
of that time claimed the bag, and it was, after some dispute about the
ownership, handed over to him, and is now in the Post Office Museum.
A number of skeletons were discovered in digging foundations for the new
inn, and it was darkly conjectured that the old house had had its
gruesome secrets, dating from the times when inns were not infrequently
the nests of murderers; until local antiquaries pointing out that the
name of the place was Church Hill, and that this was an ancient
grave-yard, the excitement ceased. This view was borne out by the fact
that in many cases the bodies had been enclosed in rude coffins, made of
hollowed tree-trunks; and it was rightly said that murderers would not
have buried their victims with so much consideration.
XXXVI
TO leave Selby for York, one must needs cross the Ouse bridge, one of
thee few places where tolls still survive. Foot-passengers and cyclists
are on an equality, paying one penny each.
Level-crossings again have their wicked will of the road, and are indeed
its principal features, through Barlby and Riccall. We need some modern
Rebeccaites for the abolition of these unpaid-for easements granted to
the Railway Companies by an indulgent legislature, composed largely of
Railway Directors, for the mingled danger and waste of public time caused
by level-crossings over public roads constitute a scandal urgently in
need of being removed. Yorkshire people might be recommended to see to
it, as their forefathers saw to the abolition of turnpikes, collecting in
armed and disguised bands and wrecking and burning the obnoxious gates
for great distances. In May 1753 they assembled at Selby at the summons
of the public crier’s bell, and proceeded at midnight to demolish all the
gates in that neighbourhood. The military were called out to quell these
Hampdens. They did not succeed in saving the gates, but shot and
captured a number of the “rioters,” who were sent for trial to York
Castle.
Riccall, near the confluence of the Ouse and the Derwent, looks an
unlikely seaport in these times, now that those rivers and the confluent
Foss, a mile or so nearer York, flow soberly in their channels and cease
from spreading over the land. Eight hundred years ago, however, things
were very different—as indeed they well might be in that tremendous space
of time. So different, in fact, that when the invasion of the North,
under Tostig and Harald Hardrada, took place in 1066, before that greater
invasion in the South by William “the Conqueror,” whose success has
overshadowed these operations, the invaders’ fleet sailed up the Humber
and the Ouse and blockaded the waterways by anchoring at Riccall. From
this base they advanced, defeating Earl Morcar at the battle of Fulford,
and seized York; retiring on the approach of English Harold to what the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle calls “Staenfordesbryege,” on Derwent, east of the
city. In this we find the original spelling of Stamford Bridge, where
the great battle which ended in the utter defeat of the invaders was
fought and their leaders, Tostig and the gigantic Norwegian king, both
slain. A fortnight later, and the Duke of Normandy had landed at
Pevensey, the battle of Hastings had been lost and won, and the victor of
Stamford Bridge himself lay dead.
Riccall, and the country between it and York, should therefore be
interesting, as the scene of the earlier of these invasions. Aside from
the village flows the Ouse, deep in its channel and navigable for barges,
than which the Norwegian ships were not much larger; but it could not in
these days harbour a fleet, even of these primitive transports. The
village itself bears nothing on its face telling of great events, and is
of a placid dulness, a character shared by Escrick and Deighton, on the
way to York; the road itself gradually becoming an abomination of
desolate fields until the village of Gate Fulford is reached. The Great
North Road is a businesslike highway. It goes as direct as may be to its
destination, and gets there quite regardless of scenery or interest to
right or left. Thus, although Escrick Park is reputed to be a demesne of
great beauty, and the village of Naburn, lying hidden off the road, is a
typical old English village actually boasting a maypole, all the
traveller along the road perceives is an unromantic vista of
cabbage-fields and other necessary but uninspiring domestic vegetables,
through a haze of a particularly beastly kind of black dust peculiar to
the last few miles of the way into York. Fulford itself is no fit herald
of a cathedral city. A wide street, the terminus of a tramway, a
mile-long row of cottages, a would-be Gothic church; here you have it.
Before you, by degrees, York unfolds itself, past the military barracks
and nondescript, but always disappointing, streets, until, emerging from
Fishergate, the ancient city, free from suburban excrescences, opens out,
with the grim castle in front, and the Ouse and Skeldergate Bridge to the
left. The so-called “London Road” lies away beyond the Ouse, its name
referring to the Doncaster, Ferrybridge, Sherburn, and Tadcaster route
taken by some of the old-time coaches. By that route York is most
romantically entered, across Knavesmire, where York’s martyrs, felons,
and traitors were done to death in the old days, and where the racecourse
now runs; coming to the walled city through Micklegate, the finest of all
the mediæval defensible gateways which are York’s especial glory. By the
Selby route, through Gate Fulford and along Fishergate, we seem to slink
in by the back door; through Micklegate we follow in the steps of those
who have marched with armed hosts at their heels, and have entered with
the unquestioned right of conquerors. Thus came the young Duke of York
at the head of his victorious army, after the crowning victory of Towton;
the first thing to meet his gaze his father’s head, fixed on the topmost
turret, and crowned in mockery with a paper crown by the fierce
Lancastrians under whose swords he had fallen at the battle of Wakefield,
three months before. Filial piety could not in those times rest content
with removing the head from its shameful eminence, and so the Duke caused
the Earl of Devon and three others among his prisoners to be immediately
beheaded and their heads to be placed there instead. Of such, and still
more sanguinary, incidents is the ancient city of York composed.
[Picture: Micklegate Bar. (From an old Print)]
Micklegate, like the other “bars” of York, had its barbican, and equally
with them, lost that martial outwork at the dawning of the nineteenth
century. Its appearance then and now may with advantage be compared in
the old print and the modern drawing, reproduced here, which also serve
to show the difference between the road-surface of these times and of a
century ago.
[Picture: Micklegate Bar: present day]
INDEX
Alconbury, 2
Alconbury Hill, 2, 121
Askerne, 236
Ayot Green, 87
Austerfield, 225
* * * * *
Balderton, 193
Baldock, 105
Barlby, 242
Barnby Moor, 209, 212–216
Barnet, 11, 75–79, 171
Barnet, Battle of, 80
Bawtry, 223–225
Bedford, Dukes of, 136
Beeston Green, 108
Bell Bar, 84
Bentley, 236
Biggleswade, 2, 107
Bloody Oaks, 157
Boulter, Edmund, 135
Bradford, William, 219, 225
Brampton, 105, 117
Brayton, 237
Brewster, William, 218–220
Brickwall, 87
Broadwater, 93
Brown’s Wells, 69
Buckden, 2, 114–117
Burghley House, 141–145, 149
* * * * *
Cantley, 226
Carlton-upon-Trent, 205
Chicken Hill, 113
Coaches—
“Amity,” Doncaster and Stamford, 212
“Courier,” Leeds, 41
“Edinburgh Mails” 15, 29–33, 184
“Edinburgh Express” 15, 114
“Edinburgh Stage” 34
“Express,” Leeds, 41
“Express,” York, 114
“Highflyer,” London and York, 76
“Highflyer,” London, York, and Edinburgh, 154
“Lord Nelson,” London and Edinburgh, 22, 233, 234
Mail Coaches, 30–33
“Nelson,” Wakefield and Lincoln, 232
“Post,” London and Carlisle, 22
“Royal Forester,” Doncaster and Nottingham, 232
“Royal Union,” London and Newcastle, 231
Stage Coaches, 33–49
“Stamford Regent” 18–21, 76, 107, 109, 138
“Stamford and Retford Auxiliary Mail” 212
“Union,” Leeds, 15, 41
“Wellington,” London and Newcastle, 15, 234
“York Four-Days Stage” 35
Coaching Accidents, 41
Coaching Notabilities—
Barclay of Ury, 169
Barker, of Welwyn, 88–90
Barker, John, 138
Cartwright, of Buckden, 114
Chaplin, William, 16–18, 73
Clark, George, 212, 214,
Dennetts, The, of Retford, 211
Hennesy, Tom, 88–90
Herring, J. F., 231–234
Horne, B. W., 17, 66
Mountain, Mrs., 18, 22–25
Nelson, Mrs., 18, 25
Percivals, The, of Wansford and Greetham, 138, 158, 211
Sherman, Edward, 14
Waterhouse, William, 16
Whincup, of Stamford, 149
Wood, Richard, 231, 232, 233
Colsterworth, 176
Cromwell, 205
Cromwell, Oliver, 188
Cross Hall, 113
Crow Park, 206
Cycling Notabilities—
Badlake, F. T., 112
Butterfield, W. J. H., 112
Edge, T. A., 111
Edge, S. F., 111
Fontaine, C. C., 112
Goodwin, F. R., 112
Hobson, T., 112
Holbein, M. A., 112
Hunt, G., 112
James, J. M., 111
Keith-Falconer, Hon. Ian, 111
Mills, G. P., 112, 113
Oxborrow, E., 113
Pope, H. R., 111
Sansom, H. H., 113
Shirley, R., 113
Shorland, F. W., 112
Thorpe, J. H. Stanley, 111
Wheaton, C, 111
Wilson, H. E., 112
Cycling Records, 110–113
* * * * *
_Dead Drummer_, _The_, 120
De Foe, Daniel, 135, 188
Deighton, 243
De Quincey, Thos., 25, 30, 101
Diddington, 113, 120
Digswell Hill, 87
Doncaster, 226–235
* * * * *
East End, Finchley, 65
East Markham, 208
Eaton, 210
Eaton Socon, 110, 113
Elkisley, 209
Empingham, 157
Escrick, 243
* * * * *
Finchley, 65
Finchley Common, 66–72, 171
Foston, 193
Fulford, 243
* * * * *
Gamston, 208
Ganwick Corner, 80
Gate Fulford, 243
General Post Office, 2, 25–33, 241
Girtford, 109
Gonerby Hill, 189–193
Grantham, 176, 180–188, 197
Graveley, 105
Great Casterton, 154
Great Gonerby, 189
Great Ponton, 178–180
Greenhill Cross, 73
Greetham, 158
* * * * *
Hadley Green, 2, 80
Hadley Highstone, 80
Hardwick, 117
Hatfield, 2, 84–87
_Heart of Midlothian_, 189–193
Herring, J. F., 231–234
Hicks’s Hall, 2, 49
Highgate, 2, 51–65
Highgate Archway, 63–65, 111
Highgate Hill, 57–62
Highway Acts, 9
Highwaymen, 62, 69–72, 124, 175
Bowland, John, 158
Everett and Williams, 69
Sheppard, Jack, 70
Spiggott, — 68
Turpin, Dick, 70, 193
Holloway, 2, 52
Horn Lane, 157
* * * * *
Inns (mentioned at length)
“Angel,” Grantham, 182
“Angel,” Islington, 49, 50
“Angel,” Stilton, 125
“Bald-faced Stag,” Finchley, 65
“Beehive,” Grantham, 188
“Bell,” Barnby Moor, 212–216
“Bell,” Stilton, 125–128
“Black Bull,” Witham Common, 158, 161
“Black Lion,” Scarthing Moor, 206
“Black Swan,” Holborn, 35
“Black Swan,” York, 35
“Blue Bell,” Barnby Moor, 212–216
“Blue Bull,” Witham Common, 161
“Blue Horse,” Great Ponton, 180
“Brampton Hut” 117
“Brown Cow,” Doncaster, 232–233
“Bull and Mouth,” St. Martin’-le-Grand, 13–15
“Clinton Arms,” Newark, 198, 200
“Crown,” Bawtry, 223
“Crown,” Selby, 241
“Crown and Woolpack,” nr Stilton, 124
“Dirt House,” Finchley, 66
“Duke of York,” Ganwick Corner, 80
“Gatehouse Tavern,” Highgate, 59
“George,” Buckden, 114
“George,” Grantham, 182–184
“George,” Stamford, 146
“George and Blue Boar,” Holborn, 18
“Green Man,” Barnet, 76–79
“Green Man,” Brown’s Wells, 69
“Green Man and Still,” Oxford Street, 13, 18
“Greetham Inn” 158, 211
“Griffin” Whetstone, 72
“Haycock,” Wansford, 136–140, 211
“Jockey House” 209
“Kate’s Cabin, 132
“Lord Kitchener,” Stevenage, 105
“Markham Moor” 208
“Newcastle Arms,” Tuxford, 207
“Norman Cross” 129
“Old Castle,” Stevenage, 101
“Old Red Lion,” Barnet, 79
“Old White Lion,” Finchley, 66
“Our Mutual Friend,” 104
“Peacock,” Islington, 49
“Ram,” Doncaster, 231
“Ram,” Newark, 203
“Ram Jam,” Stretton, 158–161
“Red Lion,” Barnet, 76–79
“Salutation,” Doncaster, 231
“Saracen’s Head,” Snow Hill, 21–25
“Saracen’s Head,” Newark, 191, 198
“Scrooby” 216
“Spread Eagle,” Gracechurch Street, 13, 18
“Swan,” Stevenage, 96
“Swan-with-two-Necks,” Gresham Street, 13–17
“Volunteer,” Doncaster, 235
“Waggon and Horses,” Stamford, 152
“Wellington,” Welwyn, 90
“Wheatsheaf,” Alconbury Hill, 121
“White Hart,” Retford, 211–213
“White Hart,” Welwyn, 88
“White Horse,” Eaton Socon, 110
“White Swan,” Biggleswade, 107
“Whittington Stone Tavern,” 56
Islington, 2, 49–51
* * * * *
Jeanie Deans, 190–192, 198, 204
Jockey House, 209
* * * * *
Kate’s Cabin, 132
Knavesmire, 244
Knebworth, 92
* * * * *
Lambert, Daniel, 152
Lannock Hill, 105
Lemsford Mills, 87
Letchworth, 103, 106
Little Heath, 82
Long Bennington, 193
Lord of Burleigh, Tennyson’s, 141–145
Lower Codicote, 108
Lytton family, Earls Lytton, 92
* * * * *
Macadam, J. L., 6, 10, 12, 31
Mace, Thos, 6–8
Markham Moor, 208
Marston, 193
Matcham’s Bridge, 120
Metcalf, John, 10
Morison, Fynes, 97
Morpeth, 32
* * * * *
Newark-upon-Trent, 193–204
Newton, Sir Isaac, 176
_Nicholas Nickleby_, 22, 110, 184
Norman Cross, 129–133
North Finchley, 66
North Muskham, 205
North Road Cycling Club, 110, 113, 114
* * * * *
Old-time Travellers—
Bacon, Francis Viscount Verulam, 61
Barclay of Ury, 169
Burke, Edmund, 69
Calderwood of Coltness, Mrs., 128, 171
Campbell, Lord Chancellor, 173
Cary, Sir Robert, 166
Charles I., 105, 149
Eldon, Earl of, 172
George III., 165
George IV., 165
Gladstone, W. E., 200
James I., 165, 194
Jeffrey, Lord, 184
Jonson, Ben, 166
Lepton, John, 166
Londonderry, Marquis of, 170
Mansfield, Earl of, 171
Minto, Earl of, 71
Misson, Henri, 51
Monboddo, Lord, 170
Pepys, Samuel, 73, 79, 105, 117
Perlin, Estienne, 146
Powell, Foster, 167
Skene, Dr., 171
Sterne, Rev. Laurence, 214
Thoresby, Ralph, 124, 175
Thornhill, Cooper, 126, 167
Tucker, Henry St. George, 185
Twining, Rev. Thomas, 146, 189, 214
Wharton, Sir Ralph, 175
Woulfe, Peter, 172
Old-time Travelling, 3–8, 11, 36–47, 96–101, 164–175, 184–186, 204–206,
214
* * * * *
Palmer, John, 30
Pedestrian Records, 166–169
Pilgrim Fathers, The, 218–220, 225
Posting, 98–101
Potter’s Bar, 80–82
Powell, Foster, 167
Prickler’s Hill, 74
* * * * *
Railways—37, 46, 75, 82, 93, 125, 174, 228, 234, 236
Great Northern, 174, 228, 236
London and Birmingham (now London and North-Western) 75
Midland, 234
North Eastern, 236
Ranskill, 216
Retford, 208, 210–213
Riccall, 242
Roman Roads, 2–4
Rossington Bridge, 226
* * * * *
St. Martin’-le-Grand, 2, 14, 25–27
Sandy, 108
Sawtry St. Andrews, 124, 176
Sawtry Abbey, 124
Scarthing Moor, 205–207
Scott, Sir Walter, 51, 162, 164, 190, 192, 198, 204
Scrooby, 216–220
Selby, 238–242
Shaftholme Junction, 236
Sibson, 136
“Six Hills,” The, Stevenage, 94–96
South Muskham, 203, 205
Stamford, 140, 145–153
Stanborough, 87
Stangate Hill, 124
Statute Labour, 9
Stevenage, 2 93–96, 101–105
Stibbington, 136
Stilton, 9, 124–128
Stoke Rochford, 178
Stonegate Hole, 176
Stretton, 154, 161
Sutton-upon-Trent, 205
* * * * *
“Tally-ho Corner” 66
Telford, James, 10, 13, 31
Tempsford, 109
Thornhaugh, 140
Tickencote, 154
“Tingey’s Corner,” 108
Tophall, 226
Toplar’s Hill, 107
Torworth, 216
Trent, River, 203–205
Turnpike Acts, 9
Turnpike Gates, 10, 58, 59, 73–75, 82, 87, 105, 209, 218, 242
Turpin’s Oak, 70
Tuxford, 205–208
* * * * *
Wansford, 134
Water Newton, 133–140
Welwyn, 2, 88–91, 116
West Markham, 208
Weston, 206
Whetstone, 72
Whittington, Sir Richard, 53–56
Witham Common, 158, 161, 175
Woolmer Green, 93
Woolsthorpe Manor-House, 176
Wyboston, 109
Yaxley Barracks, 129–132
York, 244–246
Yorkshire, 220–223
Young, Revd. Edward, 90
FOOTNOTES.
{40} These are pre-war (1914–18) prices.
{117} He was baptised in the church of St. Bride, Fleet Street,
according to a discovery more recently made; and he would thus appear
really to have been a Londoner.
{165} Tokens in imitation of the old guineas, which bore on their
reverse the George and Dragon device now used on our modern sovereigns.
The token represented the king on horseback (the Hanoverian White Horse),
with the legend “To Hanover.”