york00orns

INTRODUCTORY. 3
may, however, be not unfitly given of the tract of
country over which the rule of the Archbishops
extended, its earliest inhabitants, its domination by
the Romans, and its subsequent occupation by the
Angles.
The great shire of York, the largest of English
counties, was conspicuously the main territorial
feature of the Northern Archbishopric, though the
original limits of the latter were commensurate with
the ancient kingdom of Northumbria, and embraced
at one time not only the county of Nottingham, but
extended northward as far as the Firth of Forth.
The area of the county contains about 5,961 square
miles. Its surface is varied. Speaking generally, it
slopes upwards from the sea, until it gains its highest
elevation on the upland range which forms a natural
division between it and the western side of the island.
That upland range, containing Ingleborough, Penigent,
and other hills and groups of lesser elevation,
is the great water-shed of Yorkshire. Almost all the
rivers which flow through the great central vale of
York have their sources amongst the deep valleys
which lie between the ranges of these western hills.
The rivers of that rich and fertile vale receive tributary
streams also from the elevated land on the
Eastern side of the county. All, with few and
insignificant exceptions, combine to swell the great
volume of water which the estuary of the Humber
pours forth into the ocean.
The vale of York extends from south to north
through the whole county for 120 miles or more.
It was said by Baron Bunsen to be " the most
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