[Illustration: THE HUMBER AT HULL.]
Following the Trent down to the Humber, and turning towards the sea, we
come to the noted seaport of Hull, or, as it is best known in those
parts, Kingston-upon-Hull. While not possessing great attractions for
the ordinary tourist, yet Hull ranks as the third seaport of England,
being second only to London and Liverpool. It is the great
packet-station for the north of Europe, with steam lines leading to
Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia, and the Baltic, most of the
English trade with those countries being centred at Hull. It is a town
of extreme activity, its docks being all the time crowded with shipping,
and its location, practically upon an island, with the river Humber on
the south, the river Hull upon the east, and docks upon the northern and
western sides, giving it every maritime convenience. The docks, though
inferior to those of Liverpool, are the chief feature of the town. The
Hull River itself forms a natural dock about a mile and a half long, and
from this a chain of other docks leads through the warehouses and the
town to the Humber. Hull possesses the Trinity House, one of the three
ancient establishments in England--the others being at London and
Newcastle--which were founded first as a religious fraternity in the
fourteenth century, and became afterwards establishments for the relief
of distressed and decayed seamen and their families. The present Trinity
House building was erected in the last century. The chief ornament of
Hull is the Wilberforce Monument, a pillar of sandstone seventy-two
feet high, erected about a half century ago, and surmounted by a statue
of the celebrated philanthropist. He was born on High Street August 24,
1759, this being the most important thoroughfare in ancient Hull, but
now a narrow and inconvenient lane following the right bank of the Hull
River. Here were in former days the houses of the great Hull merchants,
and the Wilberforce House is about halfway down the street. It is a
curious specimen of brickwork, of a style said to have been imported
from Flanders in the reign of William and Mary. It is a low, broad house
with a surmounting tower over the doorway. Hull has little else of
interest in the way of buildings. Its Holy Trinity Church, in the
market-place, is the largest parish church in England, having recently
been thoroughly restored, and the Town Hall, built in the Italian style,
with a clock-tower, is its finest edifice of modern construction.
[Illustration: HOUSE WHERE WILBERFORCE WAS BORN.]
[Illustration: ENTRANCE-GATE, BEVERLEY.]
We have now come into Yorkshire, and a few minutes' ride northward by
railway along the valley of the Hull River brings the visitor to
Beverley, an old-fashioned Yorkshire town of considerable antiquity,
eight miles from the seaport. This was anciently a walled town, but of
the entrance-gates only one survives, the North Bar, of the time of
Edward III. It is a good specimen of brick architecture, with mouldings
and niches upon the surface and battlements at the top. This is a
favorite old town for the retired merchant and tradesman who wish to
pass the declining years of life in quiet, and it contains many ancient
buildings of interest. Several of these are clustered around the
picturesque market-square, which is an enclosure of about four acres,
and contains a quaint cross, a relic of the time when it was customary
to build market-crosses. These ancient crosses, which were practically
canopies erected over a raised platform, were generally used as pulpits
by the preachers when conducting religious services in the open air.
Sometimes they were memorials of the dead. We are told that there were
formerly five thousand of these crosses of various kinds in England, but
most of them were destroyed in the Civil Wars. At these old crosses
proclamations used to be read and tolls collected from the
market-people. The covered market-cross at Beverley was one of the last
that was erected. The name of this interesting town is said to be
derived from Beaver Lake, the site having at one time been surrounded by
lakes that were formed by the overflowing of the Humber, in which
beavers lived in great numbers. The Beverley Minster is an attractive
Gothic church, and from the tops of its towers there is an excellent
view over the rich and almost level valley through which the Hull River
flows. Leconfield Castle, in the suburbs, was an ancient residence of
the Percys, of which the moat alone remains.
[Illustration: MARKET-SQUARE, BEVERLEY.]