Scar, Burton Head, Rosebury Topping, Blackstone Edge, Wasset Fell. Of lakes, there are Gormore Lake, Simmer Water,* and Malham Tarn, or water.† Of caves, caverns, or, as they are variously called, pots, coves, holes, there are Ingleborough, Yordas, and Weathercote Caves, Hurtle Pot, Gingle Pot, and Malham Cove. These caverns are chiefly to be found in the north-western or limestone district, and contain either water or visible traces of the agency of that element. Many of them are richly clothed with stalactites of brilliant sparry deposit standing in shaftlike pillars from roof to base. Of water-falls, or forces, as they are called, there are many of considerable size and power. Hardraw Force, High Force, and the fall in Weathercote Cave, are among the most picturesque. The mountains are too numerous to notice in detail. Mickle Fell, and Shunnor Fell, are the highest in the North Riding. Ingleborough § and Whernside || are pre-eminent in the western division, while Burton Head (one of the kind containing sandy and argillaceous rocks, and resting upon the upper lias shale) and Black Hambleton (one of the tabular oolitic hills) are the highest in East Yorkshire.

The castles, or the remains of those magnificent strongholds which seem to have once guarded every assailable place or pass, are too well known by name to be described here. Those of Bolton, Scarborough, Pickering, Pontefract, Sherriff, Hutton, Wresill, and Knaresbro', are of historical note. Of Castle Howard,

* Simmer. This word is supposed to be a combination of two others, see and meer both signifying lake.

Tarn. From the Danish word taaren, or trickling of tears, by which we understand a deposit of waters gathered together by the many tricklings from the surrounding perpendicular rocky heights, but, unlike a lake, having no distinct feeder or outlet.

The waters of Hurtle Pot are noted for abounding in black trout.

§ Ingleburg. Signifies fire or beacon mountain.

il Whern, anciently Quernside; Quern being the German name for a hand-mill, such as might have been cut from the millstone grit of the surrounding district.

which does not resemble, in origin or appearance, any of the above, Gent thus speaks

Whose archéd walks adorn the twilight grove,

Where Strephon mourned and Sylvia's tears did move.

In the number, extent, and beauty of the abbeys which remain to her, Yorkshire can fairly compete with any county in Great Britain. Rivaulx, Fountains, Byland, Kirkham, Egglestone, (A.D. 1189,) Kirkstall (often called Cristal Abbey, because of the limpidity of its pleasant streams), Coverham, Bolton Abbey, Drax Abbey, St. Hilda's Whitby, Jervaux Abbey, and Wykeham Abbey (once a priory of nuns), furnish a noble treat to the antiquary.

Probably as regards natural beauties, the crowning distinction of the county is to be found in the size, number, and remarkably diverse character of its dales, some unfolding scenery of a very picturesque and lovely kind, while that of others is of a wild, rugged, and gloomy character. In this distinction Westmoreland only can fairly be esteemed as a rival. The Yorkshire dales are simply innumerable. It would be tedious to name them, for they can be counted by the halfhundred. Wensleydale and Bilsdale are two of the largest, being twelve or thirteen miles in length.

PART II.

at any

Whatever may happen in time to come, now, rate, Yorkshiremen have a pride in the vastness of their county as compared with others, so that it is their boast that it exceeds in size by six times the smallest county in England-we say, whatever may happen, for there are, undoubtedly signs that the sea is stealthily but surely winning back its own; or what our neighbours would call revindicating its frontiers. Hornsea was once ten miles from the sea, which it now overlooks. In 1828, part of Outthorne remained, and the church

66

yard, containing a curious old tombstone, was still in existence. Twelve years afterwards, all had disappeared beneath the waves. On old Yorkshire maps we read, "Here stood Auburn, washed away by the sea," Hyde lost in the sea," "Hartburn washed away by the sea;" and, in still older documents, other names, now passed away beyond the memory of any living man, are recorded as then indicating well-known villages or towns. Whether it will ever be again, as geologists tell us it once was, the Vale of York, ocean covered, Creyke an island, and Black Hambleton a sea cliff, as Whitby is at this moment, none can say; but nowhere are relics of the past to be found in greater richness or profusion than in Yorkshire. At a period which in geological reckoning is of a very recent kind, the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, hyæna, &c., must have prowled about in the valleys and on the mountains, since their bones, teeth, &c., are continually found deeply imbedded in certain strata. In the celebrated Kirkdale Cave, (which now stands about thirty feet above the level of the little river Bran, but was probably once situated on the margin of an inland lake,) a discovery was made some years ago of a perfect treasure of these relics. Bones not only of the abovenamed animals were found, but also of the tiger, ox, stag, &c. Very perfect remains of the plesiosaurus and other aquatic reptiles disinterred in the neighbourhood of Whitby refer to a vastly earlier stage of the world's history; and geological monuments are not wanting which point to periods greatly exceeding even this in antiquity; periods in which no trace of organic life has ever yet been found.

The greenish slate rocks of Ingleton, Coniston Fells, and Hougill Fells, are monuments of the oldest period in which trace of life has been discovered in Yorkshire. Then came the coloured marls which accompany the old red sandstone series, and these are found in the neighbourhood of Kirkby Lonsdale, and so on with the evidence of each successive epoch, until at length we arrive at the last great elevation of land from out of

the glacial sea, when the vales of York, Pickering, and Holderness were left above the ocean level, and as they exist at present.

Geologically, the county of Yorkshire might be described as an apple divided into two, and then transversely severed across into four parts, for in this fashion are the vales and lowlands arranged, taking them as the natural divisions. The Vale of York, running nearly due north and south, but inclining a little to the north-west, and the Vale of Pickering lying at right angles with that of York, and extending (along with the Vale of Esk) from York to the east coast, through Malton, and towards Whitby, while Ribblesdale runs westerly by Knaresbro', Gisburn, and above Settle, Skipton, and Clitheroe. The land, as a whole, rises in masses to the west, or limestone district, and is also higher in the north than in the south, but the hills themselves are distinguished by Professor Phillips as lying in groups and occupying the four regions northeast, north-west, south-east, and south-west.

Legally, however, Yorkshire is divided into three Ridings (trithings, or thirdings, as is the old reading)— north, east, and west; each having well-marked characteristics of its own, not only in geology and scenery, but in the dialect, character, and pursuits of the inhabitants. Briton, Roman, Saxon, Dane, and Norman, have all contributed to make the Englishman, and consequently the Yorkshireman.

ex

Nevertheless it is only with great reservation that anything definite can be said as to the particular race which predominates in each district. In some tremely sequestered parts, men are found who proclaim in feature and appearance their descent from the old British stock. But the Saxon type certainly preponderates in the inland dales, the Celtic in the West Riding, and the Danish along the coast. The Saxons are fair, tall, and stalwart; and in disposition just, self-controlled, slow of belief, stolid in manner, and with the power of quickly adapting inclination to circumstances. The second (or Celtic) are shorter, swarthy,

and much more excitable, with a fondness for music and the drama. The last (the Danes) are bold, dark men, with somewhat massive limbs for their height; they embrace and cleave to a maritime life, as becomes their race. These men are our best fishermer; they become our boldest sailors, and, on the coast line, from Dunbar, in Scotland, to Holderness, in Yorkshire, are the fisheries which form the nursery ground for our future tars. They generally dwell entirely apart from the inland inhabitants; as, for instance, we see in Berwickshire, Coldingham village, and Coldingham shore (the fisherman's village), Cockburnspath village, and Cockburnspath cove, ditto. They have their own separate customs, festivals and merry makings. Many among them are teetotallers; those, who are not, generally get very drunk once a week, i.e., on the Saturday night. Their women sell the fish, rule the house, and bear the purse. The men commonly defer greatly to the women, and in cases of fighting and brawls (not unfrequent) the women never hesitate to part the combatants and bear away each her respective husband to his own home.

The pursuits and callings of the people of the three Ridings are quite unlike in kind. The West Riding is industrial, and abounds in spinners, weavers, mechanics, and artizans. The East Riding is essentially a pastoral country. Shepherds, graziers, and farmers live therein, and cultivate the alluvia mud and rich fat soil. The North is pastoral, agricultural, and partly mining in character. The lead mines in Arkendale, Swaledale, &c., and the ironstone in Rosedale and Cleveland, are annually increasing the proportion of the population who earn their subsistence in the mines and quarries. In all the Ridings the sentiment is strong in the heart of the natives, that not only their county is the best and finest in England, but that their Riding surpasses, in all things, the other two.

Clear proof of early Teutonic habitation is afforded by the numerous towns which bear the Anglo-Saxon termination of ton, as Northallerton, &c.; ham "home" (heim in South Germany), as Malham. &c.; and ley, as Helmsley,