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A MONTH IN YORKSHIRE.
[Illustration: YORKSHIRE.]
A
MONTH IN YORKSHIRE.
BY
WALTER WHITE,
AUTHOR OF "A LONDONER'S WALK TO THE LAND'S END," "ALL ROUND THE
WREKIN," AND OTHER BOOKS OF TRAVEL.
"Know most of the rooms of thy native country, before thou
goest over the threshold thereof; especially, seeing England
presents thee with so many observables."--FULLER.
FOURTH EDITION.
LONDON:
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.
1861.
[_The right of Translation is reserved._]
By the same Author.
A LONDONER'S WALK TO THE LAND'S END; AND A TRIP TO THE SCILLY
ISLES. _Second Edition._
ON FOOT THROUGH TYROL.
A JULY HOLIDAY IN SAXONY, BOHEMIA AND SILESIA.
NORTHUMBERLAND AND THE BORDER. _Second Edition._
ALL ROUND THE WREKIN. _Second Edition._
FOREWORD TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
The first two editions of this work had not long been published when I
was pelted with animadversions for the "scandalous misrepresentation"
conveyed in my report of a conversation held with a villager at
Burnsall; which conversation may be read in the twenty-second chapter.
My reply was, that I had set down less than was spoken--that I had
brought no accusation, not having even mentioned the "innocent-looking
country town" as situate in any one of the three Ridings--that what I
had seen, however, in some of the large towns, led me to infer that the
imputation (if such it were) would hardly fail to apply; and, moreover,
if the Yorkshire conscience felt uneasy, was I to be held responsible?
My explanation that the town in question was not in Yorkshire, was
treated as of none effect, and my censors rejoined in legal phrase, that
I had no case. So I went about for awhile under a kind of suspicion, or
as an unintentional martyr, until one day there met me two gentlemen
from Leeds, one of whom declared that he and others, jealous of their
county's reputation, and doubting not to convict me of error, had made
diligent inquiry and found to their discomfiture, that the assemblages
implied in the villager's remark, did actually take place within
Yorkshire itself. The discovery is not one to be proud of; but, having
been made, let the county strive to free itself from at least that
reproach.
Another censurable matter was my word of warning against certain inns
which had given me demonstration that their entertainment, regulated by
a sliding scale, went up on the arrival of a stranger. Yorkshire wrote
a flat denial of the implication to my publishers, and inclosed a copy
of what he called "his tariff," by way of proof, which would have been
an effectual justification had my grievance been an invention; but, as
it happened, the tariff presented testimony in my favour, by the
difference between its prices and those which I had been required to
pay.
I only notice this incident because of the general question, in which
all who travel are more or less interested. Why should an Englishman,
accustomed to equitable dealings while staying at home, be required to
submit so frequently to the reverse when journeying in his own country?
Shopkeepers are ready to sell socks, or saddles, or soap without an
increase of price on the plea that they may never see you again, and
without expecting you to fee their servants for placing the article
before you; and why should innkeepers claim a privilege to do otherwise?
The numerous complaints which every season's experience calls forth from
tourists, imply a want of harmony between "travelling facilities" and
the practice of licensed victuallers; and if English folk are to be
persuaded to travel in their own country, the sooner the required
harmony is established, the better. It would be very easy to exhibit a
table of charges and fees by which a tourist might ascertain cost
beforehand, and choose accordingly. Holland is a notoriously dear and
highly-taxed country, yet fivepence a day is all the charge that Dutch
innkeepers make for "attendance."
In one instance the discussion took a humorous turn:--the name of a
certain jovial host, with whom I had a talk in Swaledale, appeared
subscribed to a letter in the _Richmond Chronicle_, and as it furnishes
us with a fresh specimen of local dialect, I take leave to quote a few
passages therefrom. After expostulating with the editor for "prentan" a
letter which somebody had written in his "neame," the writer says, "but
between ye an' me, I believe this chap's been readin' a buke put out by
yan White, 'at was trailin' about t' Deales iv hay-time, an' afoare he
set off to gang by t' butter-tubs to t' Hawes, he ast me what
publick-house he was to gang te, an' I tell't him t' White Hart; an'
becoz he mebby fand t' shot rayther bigger than a lik'd, he's gi'en t'
landlord a wipe iv his buke aboot t' length of his bill, an' me aboot t'
girth o' me body--pity but he'd summat better to rite aboot; but nivver
heed, it nobbut shows 'at my meat agrees wi' me, an' 'at t' yal 'at I
brew 's naythur sour ner wake, an' 'at I drink my shar' on't mysel: but
if I leet on him, or can mak' oot t' chap 'at sent ye t' letter, I'll
gi' 'em an on-be-thinkin."
Sheffield, too, has not yet ceased to reprove me for having published
the obvious fact, that the town is frightfully smoky, and unclean in
appearance and in its talk. If I were to make any alteration in this
particular, it would be to give emphasis, not to lighten the
description. A town which permits its trade to be coerced by ignorance,
and where the ultimate argument of the working-classes is gunpowder or a
knock on the head, should show that the best means have been taken to
purify morals as well as the atmosphere and streets, before it claims to
be "nothing like so bad as is represented." But, the proverb which
declares that "people who eat garlic are always sure it doesn't smell,"
will perhaps never cease to be true.
Of the L14,000,000 worth of woollen and worsted goods exported in 1859,
Yorkshire supplied the largest portion; and still maintains its
reputation for "crafty wit and shrinking cloth," as shewn by the
increase in the manufacture of shoddy. One of the manufacturers at
Batley has made known in a printed pamphlet, that 50,000,000 pounds of
rags are at the present time annually converted into various kinds of
so-called woollen goods. We walk on shoddy as it covers our floors; and
we wear shoddy in our stockings and under-garments, as well as in capes
and overcoats. Turning to mineral products, we find that in 1859,
Yorkshire raised 1,695,842 tons of ironstone, and 8,247,000 tons of
coal, worth in round numbers L3,573,000. And with all this there is an
increase in the means and results of education, and an abatement of
pauperism: in 1820, the poor's-rate in Hull was seven shillings and
eightpence in the pound, in 1860, not more than eightpence.
And to mention facts of another kind:--by the digging of a drain on
Marston Moor, a heap of twenty-five or thirty skeletons was discovered,
around which the clay retained the form of the bodies, like a mould; a
bullet fell from one of the skulls, and in some the teeth were perfectly
sound, 213 years after the battle. At Malton, during a recent excavation
of the main street, one hundred yards of the Roman highway leading from
Derby to York were laid bare, three feet below the present surface.
Scarborough is building new batteries on her castled cliff, and
replacing old guns by new ones; and Hull is about to add to its
resources by the construction of a new dock. The much-needed harbour of
refuge is, however, not yet begun, as wrecks along the coast after
easterly storms lamentably testify.
This _Month in Yorkshire_ was the second of my books of home-travel; and
it was while rambling along the cliffs and over the hills of the famous
county, that I conceived it possible to interest others as well as
myself in the Past and the Present, in the delightful natural aspects
and the wonderful industry of our native country to a yet wider extent;
and therein I have not been disappointed. To the objection that my works
are useless as guide-books, I answer, that no intelligent reader will
find it difficult to follow my route: distances are mentioned with
sufficient accuracy, the length of my longest day's walk is recorded,
whereby any one, who knows his own strength, may easily plan each day's
journey in anticipation. By aid of the map which accompanies the present
volume either planning or reference will now be facilitated.
Next to ourselves, there is perhaps nothing so interesting to us as our
own country, which may be taken as a good reason why a book about
England finds favour with readers. For my part let me repeat a passage
from the foreword to the second edition:--"I know that I have an earnest
love for my subject; feeling proud of the name of Englishman, and the
freedom of thought, speech, and action therein involved; loving our
fields and lanes, our hills and moorlands, and the shores of our sea,
and delighting much to wander among them. Happy shall I be if I can
inspire the reader with the like emotions."
W. W
_London, March, 1861._
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE.
A SHORT CHAPTER TO BEGIN WITH 1
CHAPTER II.
Estuary of the Humber--Sunk Island--Land _versus_ Water--Dutch
Phenomena--Cleathorpes--Grimsby--Paul--River Freaks--Mud--
Stukeley and Drayton--Fluvial Parliament--Hull--The Thieves'
Litany--Docks and Drainage--More Dutch Phenomena--The High Church
--Thousands of Piles--The Citadel--The Cemetery--A Countryman's
Voyage to China--An Aid to Macadam 5
CHAPTER III.
A Railway Trip--More Land Reclamation--Hedon--Historical
Recollections--Burstwick--The Earls of Albemarle--Keyingham--The
Duke of York--Winestead--Andrew Marvell's Birthplace--A Glimpse
of the Patriot--Patrington--A Church to be proud of--The Hildyard
Arms--Feminine Paper-hangers--Walk to Spurn--Talk with a Painter
--Welwick--Yellow Ochre and Cleanliness--Skeffling--Humber Bank--
Miles of Mud--Kilnsea--Burstall Garth--The Greedy Sea--The
Sandbank--A Lost Town, Ravenser Odd--A Reminiscence from
Shakspeare--The Spurn Lighthouse--Withernsea--Owthorne--Sister
Churches--The Ghastly Churchyard--A Retort for a Fool--A Word for
Philologists 14
CHAPTER IV.
Northern Manners--Cottingham--The Romance of Baynard Castle--
Beverley--Yorkshire Dialect--The Farmers' Breakfast--Glimpses of
the Town--Antiquities and Constables--The Minster--Yellow Ochre--
The Percy Shrine--The Murdered Earl--The Costly Funeral--The
Sisters' Tomb--Rhyming Legend--The Fridstool--The Belfry 27
CHAPTER V.
A Scotchman's Observations--The Prospect--The Anatomy of Beverley
--Historical Associations--The Brigantes--The Druids--Austin's
Stone--The Saxons--Coifi and Paulinus--Down with Paganism--A Great
Baptism--St. John of Beverley--Athelstan and Brunanburgh--The
Sanctuary--The Conqueror--Archbishop Thurstan's Privileges--The
Sacrilegious Mayor--Battle of the Standard--St. John's Miracles--
Brigand Burgesses--Annual Football--Surrounding Sites--Watton and
Meaux--Etymologies--King Athelstan's Charter 33
CHAPTER VI.
The Great Drain--The Carrs--Submerged Forest--River Hull--Tickton
--Routh--Tippling Rustics--A Cooler for Combatants--The Blind
Fiddler--The Improvised Song--The Donkey Races--Specimens of
Yorkshiremen--Good Wages--A Peep at Cottage Life--Ways and Means--
A Paragraph for Bachelors--Hornsea Mere--The Abbots' Duel--Hornsea
Church--The Marine Hotel 40
CHAPTER VII.
Coast Scenery--A waning Mere, and wasting Cliffs--The Rain and the
Sea--Encroachment prevented--Economy of the Hotel--A Start on the
Sands--Pleasure of Walking--Cure for a bad Conscience--Phenomena
of the Shore--Curious Forms in the Cliffs--Fossil Remains--Strange
Boulders--A Villager's Etymology--Reminiscences of "Bonypart" and
Paul Jones--The last House--Chalk and Clay--Bridlington--One of
the Gipseys--Paul Jones again--The Sea-Fight--A Reminiscence of
Montgomery 48
CHAPTER VIII.
What the Boarding-House thought--Landslips--Yarborough House--The
Dane's Dike--Higher Cliffs--The South Landing--The Flamborough
Fleet--Ida, the Flamebearer--A Storm--A talk in a Limekiln--
Flamborough Fishermen--Coffee before Rum--No Drunkards--A
Landlord's Experiences--Old-fashioned Honesty 56
CHAPTER IX.
Men's and Women's Wages--The Signal Tower--The passing Fleet--The
Lighthouse--The Inland View--Cliff Scenery--Outstretching Reefs--
Selwick's Bay--Down to the Beach--Aspect of the Cliffs--The Matron
--Lessons in Pools--Caverns--The King and Queen--Arched
Promontories--The North Landing--The Herring-Fishers--Pleasure
Parties--Robin Lyth's Hole--Kirk Hole--View across little Denmark
--Speeton--End of the Chalk--Walk to Filey 60
CHAPTER X.
Old and New Filey--The Ravine--Filey Brig--Breaking Waves--Rugged
Cliffs--Prochronic Gravel--Gristhorp Bay--Insulated Column--Lofty
Cliffs--Fossil Plants--Red Cliff--Cayton Bay--Up to the Road--Bare
Prospect--Cromwell Hotel and Oliver's Mount--Scarborough--The
Esplanade--Watering-Place Phenomena--The Cliff Bridge--The Museum
--The Spa--The Old Town--The Harbour--The Castle Rock--The Ancient
Keep--The Prospect--Reminiscences: of Harold Hardrada; of
Pembroke's Siege; of the Papists' Surprise; of George Fox; of
Robin Hood--The One Artilleryman--Scarborough Newspapers--
Cloughton--The Village Inn, and its Guests--Tudds and Pooads 66
CHAPTER XI.
From Cloughton to Haiburn Wyke--The embowered Path--Approach to
the Sea--Rock, Water, and Foliage--Heavy Walking--Staintondale
Cliffs--The Undercliff--The Peak--Raven Hall--Robin Hood's Bay--A
Trespass--Alum Works--Waterfalls--Bay Town--Manners and Customs of
the Natives--Coal Trade--The Churchyard--Epitaphs--Black-a-moor--
Hawsker--Vale of Pickering--Robin Hood and Little John's Archery--
Whitby Abbey--Beautiful Ruin--St. Hilda, Wilfrid, and Coedmon--
Legends--A Fallen Tower--St. Mary's Church--Whitby--The Vale of
Esk--Specimens of Popular Hymns 78
CHAPTER XII.
Whitby's Attractions--The Pier--The River-Mouth--The Museum--
Saurians and Ammonites--An enthusiastic Botanist--Jet in the
Cliffs, and in the Workshop--Jet Carvers and Polishers--Jet
Ornaments--The Quakers' Meeting--A Mechanics' Institute--Memorable
Names--A Mooky Miner--Trip to Grosmont--The Basaltic Dike--
Quarries and Ironstone--Thrifty Cottagers--Abbeys and Hovels--A
Stingy Landlord--Egton Bridge--Eskdale Woods--The Beggar's Bridge 89
CHAPTER XIII.
To Upgang--Enter Cleveland--East Row--The first Alum-Maker--
Sandsend--Alum-Works--The huge Gap--Hewing the Alum Shale--
Limestone Nodules: Mulgrave Cement--Swarms of Fossils--Burning the
Shale--Volcanic Phenomena--From Fire to Water--The Cisterns--
Soaking and Pumping--The evaporating Pans--The Crystallizing
Process--The Roching Casks--Brilliant Crystals--A Chemical Triumph
--Rough Epsoms 97
CHAPTER XIV.
Mulgrave Park--Giant Wade--Ubba's Landing-place--The Boggle-
boggarts--The Fairy's Chase--Superstitions--The Knight of the Evil
Lake--Lythe--St. Oswald's Church--Goldsborough--Kettleness--Rugged
Cliffs and Beach--Runswick Bay--Hob-Hole--Cure for Whooping-cough
--Jet Diggers--Runswick--Hinderwell--Horticultural Ravine--
Staithes--A curious Fishing-town--The Black Minstrels--A close-
neaved Crowd--The Cod and Lobster--Houses washed away--Queer
back Premises--The Termagants' Duel--Fisherman's Talk--Cobles and
Yawls--Dutch and French Poachers--Tap-room Talk--Reminiscences
of Captain Cook 104
CHAPTER XV.
Last Day by the Sea--Boulby--Magnificent Cliffs--Lofthouse and
Zachary Moore--The Snake-killer--The Wyvern--Eh! Packman--
Skinningrave--Smugglers and Privateers--The Bruce's Privileges--
What the old Chronicler says--Story about a Sea-Man--The Groaning
Creek--Huntcliff Nab--Rosebury Topping--Saltburn--Cormorant
Shooters--Cunning Seals--Miles of Sands--Marske--A memorable Grave
--Redcar--The Estuary of Tees--Asylum Harbour--Recreations for
Visitors--William Hutton's Description--Farewell to the Sea 115
CHAPTER XVI.
Leave Redcar--A Cricket-Match--Coatham--Kirkleatham--The Old
Hospital--The Library--Sir William Turner's Tomb--Cook, Omai, and
Banks--The Hero of Dettingen--Yearby Bank--Upleatham--Guisborough
--Past and Present--Tomb of Robert Bruce--Priory Ruins--
Hemingford, Pursglove, and Sir Thomas Chaloner--Pretty Scenery--
The Spa--More Money, Less Morals--What George Fox's Proselytes did
--John Wesley's Preaching--Hutton Lowcross--Rustics of Taste--
Rosebury Topping--Lazy Enjoyment--The Prospect: from Black-a-moor
to Northumberland--Cook's Monument--Canny Yatton--The Quakers'
School--A Legend--Skelton--Sterne and Eugenius--Visitors from
Middlesbro'--A Fatal Town--Newton--Digger's Talk--Marton, Cook's
Birthplace--Stockton--Darlington 123
CHAPTER XVII.
Locomotive, Number One--Barnard Castle--Buying a Calf on Sunday--
Baliol's Tower--From Canute to the Duke of Cleveland--Historic
Scenery--A surprised Northumbrian--The bearded Hermit--Beauty of
Teesdale--Egliston Abbey--The Artist and his Wife--Dotheboys Hall
--Rokeby--Greta Bridge--Mortham Tower--Brignall Banks--A
Pilgrimage to Wycliffe--Fate of the Inns--The Felon Sow--A Journey
by Omnibus--Lartington--Cotherstone--Scandinavian Traces--
Romaldkirk--Middleton-in-Teesdale--Wild Scenery--High Force Inn--
The voice of the Fall 136
CHAPTER XVIII.
Early Morn--High Force--Rock and Water--A Talk with the Waitress--
Hills and Cottages--Cronkley Scar--The Weel--Caldron Snout--
Soothing Sound--Scrap from an Album--View into Birkdale--A Quest
for Dinner--A Westmoreland Farm--Household Matters--High Cope Nick
--Mickle Fell--The Boys' Talk--The Hill-top--Glorious Prospect--A
Descent--Solitude and Silence--A Moss--Stainmore--Brough--The
Castle Ruin--Reminiscences 146
CHAPTER XIX.
Return into Yorkshire--The Old Pedlar--Oh! for the Olden Time--
"The Bible, indeed!"--An Emissary--Wild Boar Fell--Shunnor Fell--
Mallerstang--The Eden--A Mountain Walk--Tan Hill--Brown Landscape
--A School wanted--Swaledale--From Ling to Grass--A Talk with Lead
Miners--Stonesdale--Work for a Missionary--Thwaite--A Jolly
Landlord--A Ruined Town--The School at Muker--A Nickname--
Buttertubs Pass--View into Wensleydale--Lord Wharncliffe's Lodge--
Simonstone--Hardraw Scar--Geological Phenomenon--A Frozen Cone--
Hawes 157
CHAPTER XX.
Bainbridge--"If you had wanted a wife"--A Ramble--Millgill Force--
Whitfell Force--A Lovely Dell--The Roman Camp--The Forest Horn,
and the old Hornblower--Haymaking--A Cockney Raker--Wensleydale
Scythemen--A Friend indeed--Addleborough--Curlews and Grouse--The
First Teapot--Nasty Greens--The Prospect--Askrigg--Bolton Castle--
Penhill--Middleham--Miles Coverdale's Birthplace--Jervaux Abbey--
Moses's Principia--Nappa Hall--The Metcalfes--The Knight and the
King--The Springs--Spoliation of the Druids--The great Cromlech--
Legend--An ancient Village--Simmer Water--An advice for Anglers--
More Legends--Counterside--Money-Grubbers--Widdale--Newby Head 165
CHAPTER XXI.
About Gimmer Hogs--Gearstones--Source of the Ribble--Weathercote
Cave--An Underground Waterfall--A Gem of a Cave--Jingle Pot--The
Silly Ducks--Hurtle Pool--The Boggart--A Reminiscence of the
Doctor--Chapel-le-Dale--Remarkable Scenery--Ingleborough--Ingleton
--Craven--Young Daniel Dove, and Long Miles--Clapham--Ingleborough
Cave--Stalactite and Stalagmite--Marvellous Spectacle--Pillar Hall
--Weird Music--Treacherous Pools--The Abyss--How Stalactite forms
--The Jockey Cap--Cross Arches--The Long Gallery--The Giant's Hall
--Mysterious Waterfall--A Trouty Beck--The Bar-Parlour--A Bradford
Spinner 177
CHAPTER XXII.
By Rail to Skipton--A Stony Town--Church and Castle--The Cliffords
--Wharfedale--Bolton Abbey--Picturesque Ruins--A Foot-Bath--Scraps
from Wordsworth--Bolton Park--The Strid--Barden Tower--The Wharfe
--The Shepherd Lord--Reading to Grandfather--A Cup of Tea--
Cheerful Hospitality--Trout Fishing--Gale Beck--Symon Seat--A Real
Entertainer--Burnsall--A Drink of Porter--Immoralities--
Threshfield--Kilnsey--The Crag--Kettlewell--A Primitive Village--
Great Whernside--Starbottom--Buckden--Last View of Wharfedale--
Cray--Bishopdale--A Pleasant Lane--Bolton Castle--Penhill--
Aysgarth--Dead Pastimes--Decrease of Quakers--Failure of a Mission
--Why and Wherefore--Aysgarth Force--Drunken Barnaby--Inroad of
Fashion 191
CHAPTER XXIII.
A Walk--Carperby--Despotic Hay-time--Bolton Castle--The Village--
Queen Mary's Prison--Redmire--Scarthe Nick--Pleasing Landscape--
Halfpenny House--Hart-Leap Well--View into Swaledale--Richmond--
The Castle--Historic Names--The Keep--St. Martin's Cell--Easby
Abbey--Beautiful Ruins--King Arthur and Sleeping Warriors--Ripon--
View from the Minster Tower--Archbishop Wilfrid--The Crypt--The
Nightly Horn--To Studley--Surprising Trick--Robin Hood's Well--
Fountains Abbey--Pop goes the Weasel--The Ruins--Robin Hood and
the Curtall Friar--To Thirsk--The Ancient Elm--Epitaphs 206
CHAPTER XXIV.
Sutton: a pretty Village--The Hambleton Hills--Gormire Lake--
Zigzags--A Table-Land--Boy and Bull Pup--Skawton--Ryedale--
Rievaulx Abbey--Walter L'Espec--A Charming Ruin--The Terrace--The
Pavilion--Helmsley--T' Boos--Kirkby Moorside--Helmsley Castle--A
River swallowed--Howardian Hills--Oswaldkirk--Gilling--Fairfax
Hall--Coxwold--Sterne's Residence--York--The Minster Tower--Yorke,
Yorke, for my monie--The Four Bars--The City Walls--The Ouse
Legend--Yorkshire Philosophical Society--Ruins and Antiquities--
St. Mary's Lodge 217
CHAPTER XXV.
By Rail to Leeds--Kirkstall Abbey--Valley of the Aire--Flight to
Settle--Giggleswick--Drunken Barnaby again--Nymph and Satyr--The
astonished Bagman--What do they Addle?--View from Castleber--
George Fox's Vision on Pendle Hill--Walk to Maum--Companions--
Horse versus Scenery--Talk by the Way--Little Wit, muckle Work--
Malham Tarn--Ale for Recompense--Malham--Hospitality--Gordale Scar
--Scenery versus Horse--Trap for Trout--A Brookside Musing--Malham
Grove--Source of the Aire--To Keighley 226
CHAPTER XXVI.
Keighley--Men in Pinafores--Walk to Haworth--Charlotte Bronte's
Birthplace--The Church--The Pew--The Tombstone--The Marriage
Register--Shipley--Saltaire--A Model Town--Household Arrangements
--I isn't the Gaffer--A Model Factory--Acres of Floors--Miles of
Shafting--Weaving Shed--Thirty Thousand Yards a Day--Cunning
machinery--First Fleeces--Shipley Feast--Scraps of Dialect--To
Bradford--Rival Towns--Yorkshire Sleuth-hounds--Die like a
Britoner 235
CHAPTER XXVII.
Bradford's Fame--Visit to Warehouses--A Smoky Prospect--Ways and
Means of Trade--What John Bull likes--What Brother Jonathan likes
--Vulcan's Head-quarters--Cleckheaton--Heckmondwike--Busy Traffic
--Mirfield--Robin Hood's Grave--Batley the Shoddyopolis--All the
World's Tatters--Aspects of Batley--A Boy capt--The Devil's Den--
Grinding Rags--Mixing and Oiling--Shoddy and Shoddy--Tricks with
Rags--The Scribbling Machine--Short Flocks, Long Threads--Spinners
and Weavers--Dyeing, Dressing, and Pressing--A Moral in Shoddy--A
surprise of Real Cloth--Iron, Lead, and Coal--To Wakefield--A
Disappointment--The Old Chapel--The Battle-field--To Barnsley--
Bairnsla Dialect--Sheffield 245
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Clouds of Blacks--What Sheffield was and is--A detestable Town--
Razors and Knives--Perfect Work, Imperfect Workmen--Foul Talk--How
Files are made--Good Iron, Good Steel--Breaking-up and Melting--
Making the Crucibles--Casting--Ingots--File Forgers--Machinery
Baffled--Cutting the Teeth--Hardening--Cleaning and Testing--
Elliott's Statue--A Ramble to the Corn-Law Rhymer's Haunt--Rivelin
--Bilberry gatherers--Ribbledin--The Port's Words--A Desecration--
To Manchester--A few Words on the Exhibition 256
CHAPTER XXIX.
A SHORT CHAPTER TO END WITH 266
A MONTH IN YORKSHIRE.
CHAPTER I.
A SHORT CHAPTER TO BEGIN WITH.
I had cheerful recollections of Yorkshire. My first lessons in
self-reliance and long walks were learned in that county. I could not
forget how, fresh from the south, I had been as much astonished at the
tall, stalwart forms of the men, their strange rustic dialect and rough
manners, as by their hearty hospitality. Nor could I fail to remember
the contrast between the bleak outside of certain farm-houses and the
rude homely comfort inside, where a ruddy turf fire glowed on the
hearth, and mutton hams, and oaten bread, and store of victual burdened
the racks of the kitchen ceiling. Nor the generous entertainment of more
than one old hostess in little roadside public-houses, who, when I
arrived at nightfall, weary with travel, would have me sit at the end of
the high-backed settle nearest the fire, or in the 'neukin' under the
great chimney, and bustle about with motherly kindness to get tea ready;
who, before I had eaten the first pile of cakes, would bring a second,
with earnest assurance that a "growing lad" could never eat too much;
who talked so sympathisingly during the evening--I being at times the
only guest--wondering much that I should be so far away from home: had I
no friends? where was I going? and the like; who charged me only
eighteenpence for tea, bed, and breakfast, and once slily thrust into my
pocket, at parting, a couple of cakes, which I did not discover till
half way across a snow-drifted moor, where no house was in sight for
many miles. All this, and much more which one does not willingly
forget, haunted my memory.
The wild scenery of the fells, the tame agricultural region, and the
smoky wapentakes, where commerce erects more steeples than religion,
were traversed during my rambles. While wandering in the neighbourhood
of Keighley, I had seen Charlotte Bronte's birthplace, long before any
one dreamed that she would one day flash as a meteor upon the gaze of
the "reading public." Rosebury Topping had become familiar to me in the
landscapes of Cleveland, and now a desire possessed me to get on the top
of that magnificent cone. In the villages round about its base I had
shared the pepper-cake of Christmas-tide; and falling in with the
ancient custom prevalent along the eastern coast from Humber to Tyne,
had eaten fried peas on Carlin Sunday--Mid-Lent of the calendar--ere the
discovery of that mineral wealth, now known to exist in such astonishing
abundance, that whether the British coal-fields will last long enough or
not to smelt all the ironstone of Cleveland, is no longer a question
with a chief of geologists. I had mused in the ruin where Richard the
Second was cruelly murdered, at Pontefract; had looked with proper
surprise at the Dropping Well, at Knaresborough, and into St. Robert's
Cave, the depository of Eugene Aram's terrible secret; had walked into
Wakefield, having scarcely outlived the fond belief that there the Vicar
once dwelt with his family; and when the guard pointed out the summits
as the coach rolled past on the way from Skipton to Kirkby Lonsdale, had
no misgivings as to the truth of the saying:
"Penigent, Whernside, and Ingleborough,
Are the three highest hills all England thorough."
Unawares, in some instances, I had walked across battlefields, memorable
alike in the history of the county, and of the kingdom; where marauding
Scots, dissolute Hainaulters, Plantagenets and Tudors, Cavalier and
Roundhead had rushed to the onslaught. Marston Moor awoke the proudest
emotions, notwithstanding my schoolboy recollections of what David Hume
had written thereupon; while Towton was something to wonder at, as
imagination flew back to the time when
"Palm Sunday chimes were chiming
All gladsome thro' the air,
And village churls and maidens
Knelt in the church at pray'r;
When the Red Rose and the White Rose
In furious battle reel'd;
And yeomen fought like barons,
And barons died ere yield.
When mingling with the snow-storm,
The storm of arrows flew;
And York against proud Lancaster
His ranks of spearmen threw.
When thunder-like the uproar
Outshook from either side,
As hand to hand they battled
From morn to eventide.
When the river ran all gory,
And in hillocks lay the dead,
And seven and thirty thousand
Fell for the White and Red.
* * * * *
When o'er the Bar of Micklegate
They changed each ghastly head,
Set Lancaster upon the spikes
Where York had bleached and bled.
* * * * *
There still wild roses growing--
Frail tokens of the fray--
And the hedgerow green bear witness
Of Towton field that day."
Did the decrepit old shambles, roofed with paving-flags, still encumber
the spacious market-place at Thirsk? Did the sexton at Ripon Minster
still deliver his anatomical lecture in the grim bone-house, and did the
morality of that sedate town still accord with the venerable adage, "as
true steel as Ripon rowels?" Was York still famous for muffins, or
Northallerton for quoits, cricket, and spell-and-nurr? and was its beer
as good as when Bacchus held a court somewhere within sight of the three
Ridings, and asked one of his attendants where that new drink, "strong
and mellow," was to be found? and
"The boon good fellow answered, 'I can tell
North-Allerton, in Yorkshire, doth excel
All England, nay, all Europe, for strong ale;
If thither we adjourn we shall not fail
To taste such humming stuff, as I dare say
Your Highness never tasted to this day.'"
Hence, when the summer sun revived my migratory instinct, I inclined to
ramble once more in Yorkshire. There would be no lack of the freshness
of new scenes, for my former wanderings had not led me to the coast, nor
to the finest of the old abbeys--those ruins of wondrous beauty, nor to
the remote dales where crowding hills abound with the picturesque. Here
was novelty enough, to say nothing of the people and their ways, and the
manifold appliances and results of industry which so eminently
distinguish the county, and the grand historical associations of the
metropolitan city, once the "other Rome," of which the old rhymester
says--
"Let London still the just precedence claim,
York ever shall be proud to be the next in fame."
I was curious, moreover, to observe whether the peculiar dialect or the
old habits were dying out quite so rapidly as some social and political
economists would have us believe.
Quaint old Fuller, among the many nuggets imbedded in his pages, has one
which implies that Yorkshire being the biggest is therefore the best
county in England. You may take six from the other thirty-nine counties,
and put them together, and not make a territory so large as Yorkshire.
The population of the county numbers nearly two millions. When within it
you find the distances great from one extremity to the other, and become
aware of the importance involved in mere dimensions. In no county have
Briton, Roman, and Dane left more evident traces, or history more
interesting waymarks. Speed says of it: "She is much bound to the
singular love and motherly care of Nature, in placing her under so
temperate a clime, that in every measure she is indifferently fruitful.
If one part of her be stone, and a sandy barren ground, another is
fertile and richly adorned with corn-fields. If you here find it naked
and destitute of woods, you shall see it there shadowed with forests
full of trees, that have very thick bodies, sending forth many fruitful
and profitable branches. If one place of it be moorish, miry, and
unpleasant, another makes a free tender of delight, and presents itself
to the eye full of beauty and contentive variety."
Considering, furthermore, that for two years in succession I had seen the
peasantry in parts of the north and south of Europe, and had come to the
conclusion (under correction, for my travel is brief) that the English
labourer, with his weekly wages, his cottage and garden, is better off
than the peasant proprietor of Germany and Tyrol,--considering this, I
wished to prove my conclusion, and therefore started hopefully for
Yorkshire.
And again, does not Emerson say, "a wise traveller will naturally choose
to visit the best of actual nations."