The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

TOEKSHIEE. 253
tion of iron vessels. Hull has a fine park, a museum, and several learned societies.
Wilberforce was born here, and a monument has been raised in his honour.
Cottingham, a suburban village of Hull, with many market gardens, lies on
ihe road to Beverley, a very ancient city, at one time of greater importance than
its neighbour Hull, and still the capital of the East Riding. Beverley boasts a
remarkably fine minster. There are chemical and agricultural machinery works,
and a great trade in corn and provisions is carried on. Passing through Great
Driffield, we reach Bridlington, with its fine priory church, and Bridlington Quay,
its port, on the great bay, protected in the north by Flamborough Head. A
chalybeate spring and several intermittent springs, known as the " Gipsies,"
are near the town. Geologists will be interested in the caverns and fossils of
the chalk cliffs, as well as in the ancient bushes covered with shells, which Gwyn
oefireys refers to the glacial epoch.
There are no towns of importance in the fertile district of Holderness. The
only places worth notice are Patrington, with a church described as " one of the
glories of England," Withernsea, and Hornsea, the two latter quiet seaside places,
as is implied by their names.
We now turn to the desolate moors and romantic valleys of North-western
Yorkshire, where the mountains are steepest and the population least dense.
This district, known for its greater part as Craven, is intersected by the upper
valleys of the rivers Swale, Ure, Nidd, TTharfe, and A ire. It pelds a little lead,
but no coal : hence the striking contrast it presents to the great hive of industry
which adjoins it on the south.
The Swale, in its upper course, flows past the small mining villages of Xeld
and Eeeth, and below the ancient parliamentary borough of Richmond it emerges
upon the broad plain of York. The Norman castle which overshadows this
picturesque town is now used as a militia store. Near this stagnant town is the
village of Hipsirell, the reputed birthplace of "\Yicklifie, the reformer.
The Ure, or Yore, traverses the TVensley Dale, where woollen knitting and
carpet-makiug occupy some of the inhabitants of the small towns of Ha ices and
Askrigg. Leyhourne, at the mouth of the dale, has a lead mine ; and at Middleham,
near it, are the ruins of one of the castles held by Warwick the King-maker.
Eijion is the principal town on the Ure, and one of the oldest. Near it a
funereal mound is pointed out, which tradition asserts to contain the bones of
Saxons and Danes who fell on a neighbouring battle-field. There are a small
cathedral raised above a Saxon crypt and several ancient hosjDitals. Studley
Royal, the princely seat of the ilarquis of Ripon, lies to the west of Ripon, and
near it are the picturesque ruins of Fountains Abbey, at one time one of the most
powerful houses of the Cistercians, who held all the land from the banks of the
Ure as far as the hills of Cumberland. Boroughbridge and Aldhorough, the Roman
Isurium, are small towns below Ripon, in whose vicinity many antiquities have been
discovered. Most curious amongst these relics of the past are three obelisk-like
masses of ragstone, which have long puzzled the brains of antiquaries.
VOL. IV. .•;