Part 16

In asking the way to Nappa from the village of Askrigg, we were told to follow a "gentleman with a flock of sheep who was going up that way"; but as the distance was the matter of a couple of miles--and Yorkshire miles too, we preferred to follow the telegraph poles, which, after all, was more expeditious and quite as reliable. We give this as an instance of the ordinary pace at which things move in these parts; and perhaps it is as well, otherwise the old Hall built by William Taunton in 1678 (so it says on the door), with its upper balcony of wood looking upon the quaint old market-cross where the bull-ring used to be, might have given way to co-operative stores or some new hideous building.

The village-green of Bainbridge to the west is quite shut in with hills, and in the centre are the stocks, or rather the stone supports minus the most important part, with a rough rock seat which must have added considerably to the victim's discomfort. The principal curiosity, however, is the ancient custom prevailing here of blowing a horn at 10 p.m. during the summer months, to guide belated travellers on the moors. This was an excellent provision for safety hundreds of years ago, when Bainbridge was practically in the midst of a forest, and even in the twentieth century may have its uses. The older horn, that was used half a century ago, is now in Bolton Castle Museum. It is very large, and curiously twisted. The houses at Bainbridge are of the ordinary ugly Yorkshire type; but on high ground overlooking a ravine stands a nice old gabled grange, which must have tempted many an artist and photographer to pause upon their way to the famous Falls. These, of course, are very fine, but to our mind far less beautiful than the single plunge of water just below the grange, from a wide and scooped-out bed of precipitous rock. Nor are the high, low, and middle Falls of Aysgarth half so picturesque, though in a sense they are more boisterous, like coppery boiling water.

Aysgarth church is perched up high, and you have to climb up many steps to reach it from the moss-grown bridge. The doors of most of the Yorkshire churches we found were kept unlocked; but this was an exception, so down those steps we had to come, to go in search of a key; but reaching the bottom of the flight, up we had to go again to try and find the rectory. Oh! the time that may be lost in hunting for a church key, and what a blessing it would be if notices were stuck up in the porches to say where they were kept. The interior of Aysgarth has a new appearance, but the splendid painted screen from Jervaulx (placed east and west instead of across the chancel) is worth a hunt for the key. Another screen, dated 1536, has upon it the grotesque carving of a fool's head with long-eared cap. Here again in the village are the stocks; but the Maypole, which once was its pride, long since has made its exit.

By far the nearest way to Richmond from Leyburn is across the moor, a rough and desolate road, but preferable to the terrible long way by Catterick, more than double the distance (by rail it is four times the distance!). This is the prettiest village of any on the way (which is not saying much, be it said). The early fifteenth-century church has some good monuments and brasses, one of the latter to a lady who for many years before she died carried her winding-sheet about with her; and one would naturally suppose one with such gruesome ideas would still walk the earth for the edification of the timid, but she doesn't.

The entrance to Richmond by the nearest way is very charming. You come suddenly upon the castle perched up over the river, and as you wind down the hill the grouping of its towers is thrown into perspective, forming a delightful picture with the river and the bridge for a foreground. Three kings have been prisoners within these formidable Norman walls: two kings of Scotland, William and David Bruce, and after the lapse of three centuries, Charles I., who passed here on his way to Holdenby. The stalls and misericordes in the fine old church came from Easby Abbey. They are boldly carved, and one of them represents a sow playing a fiddle for the edification of her little pigs. There is a curious coloured mural monument, on the east side of the chancel, of Sir Timothy Hutton and his wife and children--twelve of them, including four babes, beneath two of which are these verses:

"As carefull mothers do to sleeping say, Their babes that would too long the wanton play; So to prevent my youths approaching crimes, Nature my nurse had me to bed betimes."

The next is less involved:

"Into this world as strangers to an inn This infant came, guest wise; Where when 't had been and found no entertainment worth her stay, She only broke her fast and went away."

Altogether it is a cheery tomb. Faith, Hope and Charity are there, one of whom acts as nurse to one of the babes. Her ladyship's expression is somewhat of the Aunt Sally type, but that was the sculptor's fault. The ancient church plate includes a chalice dated 1640. The registers are beautifully neat and clean, and full of curious matter, such as the banns being read by the market-cross.

Apropos of Yorkshire marriages, the odd custom prevails in some parts of emptying a kettle of boiling water, down--not the backs of the happy pair, but down the steps of the front door as they drive away, that the threshold may be "kept warm for another bride," we presume for _another_ swain. The way also of ascertaining whether the future career of those united will be attended with happiness is simple and effective. All you have to do is, as the bride steps out of the carriage, to fling a plate containing small pieces of the wedding-cake out of a window upon the heads of the onlookers. If the crowd is a small one, and the plate arrives on the pavement and is smashed to pieces, all will go well; but if somebody's head intervenes, the augury is ominous; which, after all, is only natural, for is it not likely that one thus greeted would call at the house to bestow his blessing upon somebody? What a pity this pretty custom is not introduced into the fashionable marriages of St George's, Hanover Square. It would at least create a sensation.

For the rest of Richmond church, well--it was restored by Sir Gilbert Scott. It is regrettable to find the piscina on a level with the floor, beneath a pew seat!

The curfew still rings at Richmond, telling the good people when to go to bed; but whether they go or not is another matter. We are told it is, or was, also rung for them to get up again at six o'clock; and the aged official whose duty it was to ring the morning bell, like a wise man, did so at his leisure, lying in bed with the rope hanging from the ceiling.[35]

From the churchyard, Easby Abbey is seen in the distance in a romantic spot by the river: and the walk there is delightful, along the terrace above the Swale. Like the rest of these fine structures, it was destroyed by the vindictive Henry in 1535. The water close at hand, the old abbot's elm, and the little church and gatehouse beyond, altogether make this a spot in which to linger and ruminate. The church walls are covered with curious and very well preserved paintings of the twelfth century, giving a good idea of the costume of the period. The tempting serpent, too, is shown twisted in artistic coils around a very pre-Raphael looking tree; and in another scene the partakers of the fruit are doubled up with remorse, or dyspepsia.

So close at hand as is Bolton on Swale, to the east, it would be a pity not to mention Henry Jenkins, who died there in 1670, aged one hundred and sixty-nine!--a man in Charles II.'s reign who remembered the dissolution of the monasteries, and who recollected as a boy assisting in carrying arrows in a cart to the battle of Flodden field (where veteran soldiers remembered the accession of King Edward IV.), was a wonder compared with the feeble memory of our present-day centenarians, who rarely recollect anything worth recording. When we think how nearly we are linked with 1670 by the life of Mrs. William Stuart, who died in the late queen's reign, and who heard from the lips of her grandmother how she had been taken to Court in a black-draped Sedan when Whitehall was in mourning for the death of the king's sister, Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans,--it would have been possible for the little girl to have spoken with old Jenkins, and thus with only three lives to have linked the early part of the reign of Henry VIII. with that of Victoria.

FOOTNOTES:

[31] We have described these relics (now in the possession of Mrs. Martin-Edmunds) in detail in the _Memoirs of the Martyr King_.

[32] In the account in _Secret Chambers_ of the inscription on the swords, it is given in error as "Shortly."

[33] See _Some Beauties of the Seventeenth Century_.

[34] See _King Monmouth_.

[35] This and other information we have derived from Mr. Harry Speight's interesting work, _Romantic Richmond_.

INDEX

Abbotts Ann, 221. Amber, river, 217. "Angel," Ringwood, 178. "Angel," Stilton, 10. "Angel," Yeovil, 145. Ashford, 221. Ashover, 217. Askrigg, 261. Athelhampton, 173, 174, 175. Avon, river, 84, 85. Axmouth, 169. Aysgarth, 249, 262, 263.

Baddesley Clinton, 72, 73, 76. Bainbridge, 262. Barnard Castle, 225. Barnborough, 230. Barnstaple, 164, 165, 166. Barrington Court, 135, 137, 138. Barton Hall, 23. Barton-on-the-Heath, 66, 67. Beckington Castle, 130. Beeley, 210. Beer, 168, 169. Bellerby, 256. "Bell," Mildenhall, 22. "Bell," Sandy Lane, 105. "Bell," Stilton, 10, 86. Bere Regis, 158, 176, 177. Beverstone Castle, 100. Bewley Court, 109. Biddestone, 114. Bildeston, 32. Bindon, 169. Birdlip, 97. Birtsmorton Court, 81, 83, 84. Bishop's Lydeard, 147, 148. "Black Horse," Birdlip, 98. Blackladies, 199. Blickling Hall, 45, 46, 47, 49. Blore Heath, 192, 193. "Blue Lion," East Witton, 249. Bolsover Castle, 210, 217. Bolton Castle, 251, 256, 260, 262. Bolton-on-Swale, 267. Bossington, 159. Bovey, 169. Bowes, 225. Brailes, 68. Brampton, 4. Branscombe, 167, 168. Braunton, 165. Broadway, 85, 87, 89, 90. Bromham, 103, 105. Brotherton, 236. Broughton Hall, 193, 194. Brympton D'Eversy, 135, 141. Brynkinalt, 185. Buckingham's hole, Blore, 192. Buckland, 89, 90. Bullich House, Allington, 117. Burrow Farm, 136. Burton Constable, 248. Bury St. Edmund's, 27, 31. Bushley, 83.

"Cannard's Grave," Shepton Mallet, 133, 134. Carhampton, 157, 158. Castle Combe, 114. "Castle Inn," Castle Combe, 116. Catterick, 263. Chapel Plaster Hermitage, 110. Charlcote, 72, 73. Charterhouse Hinton, 128. Chastleton, 62, 64, 66. Chatsworth, 208, 210. Chavenage Manor House, 100, 101. Chedzoy, 135. Cheney Court, 111. Chevin Hill, 242. Chideock, 171, 172. Chipping Campden, 87, 92. Chipping Norton, 61. Chirk Castle, 181. Church House, Crowcombe, 149. Church Stanway, 90. Church Stretton, 188, 189. Claverton Down, 111. Clifton Maybank, 143. Clovelly, 162, 163. Coaxden, 170. Colerne, 112. Coles Farm, Box, 111, 112. Combe St. Nicholas, 145. Combe Sydenham 152, 153. Compton Wyniates, 42, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73. Condover Hall, 187, 188. Connington Hall, 7. Coombe Abbey, 72, 195. Coppingford, 6. Corby, 20, 21. Corsham Court, 109, 112, 113, 114, 128. Cothelstone, 148. Court Farm, Hadleigh, 33. Cover, river, 250. Crimplesham, 56. Croscombe, 132, 133. Crowcombe, 132, 149, 150, 152, 153. Crowther's Farm, 178. Croxton, 194. Croyde Bay, 166. Culford, 26. Curry Rivel, 135, 136.

Dacre, 248. Dalby, 10. Danby Hall, 249, 250. Darfield, 230. Dedham, 34. Deene, 15, 16, 18. Derwent, river, 210. Dethick-cum-Lea, 217. Dob Park Lodge, 247. Dover Hill, 89, 92. Downham Market, 56. Downside, Shepton Mallet, 133. "Dun Cow," Market Drayton, 190. Dunster Castle, 155, 157, 158.

Easby, 249, 258, 259, 264, 266. East Barsham Manor House, 41, 42. East Bergholt, 34. East Witton, 249. Eaton Constantine, 188. Edensor, 209. Eleanor Crosses, 21. Elworthy, 153. Enmore Castle, 150, 151. Ermine Street. 6, 97. Erwarton Hall, 36.

Fakenham, 42, 43. Farleigh Castle, 128, 136. Farnley Hall, 243. "Feathers," Ludlow, 188. Fenstanton, 223. Ferrybridge, 236. Fewstone, 247, 248. Finghall, 248. Flatford, 34, 35. Foss way, 134. Fotheringay Castle, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15. Four-Shire Stone, 66.

Gastard, 109, 110. Gaulden, 154. Gedding Hall, 31. Geddington, 21. "George," Glastonbury, 126. "George," Huntingdon, 2. "George," Norton St. Philip, 125. "George," Sandy Lane, 105. "George," Yeovil, 145. Glatton, 7. Glossop, 222, 223. Godmanchester, 4. "Golden Lion," Barnstaple, 164. Great Chaldfield, 118, 121, 135. Great Houghton, 230. Great Snoring, 42. Great Torrington, 53. Great Wenham, 35. "Green Dragon," Chipping Campden, 88. "Green Dragon," Combe St. Nicholas, 145. Guiseley, 242.

Hack Fall, 248. Haddon Hall, 54, 86, 170, 183, 196, 200. Hadleigh, 32, 34. Hardeby, 21. Hardwick, Derby, 143, 210, 212, 239. Hardwick, Suffolk, 30. "Hare and Hounds," East Bergholt, 35. Harkstead, 36. Hathersage, 222. Hautboys Hall, 53. Hawstead Place, 30, 31. Hazelbury House, Box, 111. Helmingham, 27, 150. Hemington, 15. Hengrave Hall, 26, 27, 28. Heytesbury, 128. Hinchinbrooke, 1, 3. Hinton St George, 135, 138, 139, 143. Hoare Cross, 240. Hobbal Grange, 198, 199. Holkham Hall, 40. Holt Lodge, 178. Hungerford Hospital, Corsham, 112. Hunslet, 239. Hunters' Hall, Colerne, 112. Huntingdon, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 11.

Jervaulx Abbey, 248, 255, 263.

Kenilworth, 27, 72. Kineton, 94. "King's Arms," Market Drayton, 190. Kingston, 147. Kingston Lacy, 179. Kingston St Michael, 117. Kippax Park, 237. Kirby Hall, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 42. Knapton, 44. Knowsthorpe Hall, 239.

Lacock Abbey, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109. Langley, 188. Langport, 135. Lark, river, 24. Leathley, 244. Ledston Hall, 237. Leyburn, 255, 256, 257, 263. Little Compton, 61, 62. Little Gidding, 7. Little Saxham Hall, 26. Little Stukeley, 5,6. Little Wenham, 35. Little Woolford, 66. Long Compton, 59, 60, 61. Long Marston, 89. Low Hall, Rawdon, 241. Low Hall, Yeadon, 241, 260. Ludford, 188. Ludlow Castle, 188. "Luttrell Arms," Dunster, 157. Lydcote, 53. "Lygon Arms," Broadway, 85. Lymington, 139, 140. Lynmouth, 160. Lynton, 160, 161. Lytes Cary, 134.

Malvern Chase, 81. Mannington Hall, 49. Manor Farm, Norton St Philip, 124. Mapperton Manor House, 173. Market Drayton, 189. Martock, 135, 138. Masham, 248. Maxstoke Castle, 72. Melksham, 109, 118, 151. Melplash Court, 173. Menden, 72, 73. Mickleton, 89. Middleham, 248, 249, 251, 252, 254, 257. Middlesoy, 135. Mildenhall, 22, 23, 24. Minehead, 158. Monksilver, 152, 154. Monmouth House, Shepton Mallet, 134. Montacute House, 135, 142, 143. Montacute Priory, 144. Mundesley, Rookery Farm, 44. Mundford, 56.

Nailsworth, 99, 100. Nappa Hall, 260, 261. Needham Market, 31. Nene, river, 12. Neston, 110. Nettlecombe, 153. Newbury Farm, Bildeston, 32. Newby Hall, 261. "New Inn," Clovelly, 163. North Lees, Hathersage, 222. Norton House, Chipping Campden, 89. Norton St Philip, 123, 126, 127, 128.

Offenham, 85. Old Cleeve, 154. "Old Hall Inn," Great Houghton, 231. "Old Red Lion," Long Compton, 59. Old Weston, 223. Orwell, river, 34. Otley, 242, 243, 246. Oundle, 11. Ouse, river, 4, 223. Oxburgh Hall, 53, 54, 55. Oxnead Hall, 47, 53.

Painswick, 98. Parnham Hall, 173. Payne's Place, Bushley, 83, 144. "Peacock," Rowsley, 207. Penhill, 251, 255. Pilsdon, 171. Pilton, 165. Pirton Court, 80. Pitchford Hall, 187, 188. Pixham, 78. Plâs Baddy, 185. Plash Hall, 188. Plumpton Hall, 30. Pontefract Castle, 283. Pontfaen, 186. Porlock, 159, 160, 161. Postlip Hall, 93, 96. Powick Bridge, 78. Priors Court, 78. Puddletown, 175, 176.

Raynham Hall, 42, 47, 48, 74. "Raven," Church Stretton, 189. Rawdon, 241. "Red Lion," Chipping Camden, 88. Richmond, Yorkshire, 256, 258, 263, 264, 266. Ripley, 247. Ripple, 84. Rodborough, 99. Rollright Stones, 60. Rushbrooke Hall, 27, 28, 29, 30.

St. Giles Park, 178, 179. Sandford Orcas, 135, 140, 141. Severn End, 80, 81, 195. Severn, river, 84. Sheffield Manor House, 208, 213, 225. Sheldon Manor, 118. Shepton Mallet, 132, 133. "Ship Inn," Porlock, 160. Shrewsbury, 81, 181, 188, 189. Shute House, 170. Silton, 171. Snowre Hall, 55. Somerton, 135. Southam House, 93, 96. Southfield, Woodchester, 99. South Petherton, 135, 138. South Wraxall, 118, 121. Spaxton, 151. Spennithorne, 254. Sprowston, 58. Spye Park, 104, 105, 109, 151. Stainborough Hall, 228. Stamford, 16, 18. Stanfield Hall, 53. Stanton, 89, 90. Stanton St. Quinton, 117. Stanway-in-the-Woods, 89. Stiffkey Hall, 41. Stilton, 8, 10, 11, 86. Stogumber, 153. Stoke Ferry, 53. Stokesay Castle, 186. Stour, river, 34. "Strafford Arms," Stainborough, 229. Strensham, 84. Sudeley Castle, 93, 96, 100. Swale, river, 266. "Swan and Salmon," Little Stukeley, 5. "Swan Inn," Downham Market, 56, 58. Swinnerton Hall, 194. Swinsty Hall, 244.

"Talbot," Oundle, 12. Tamworth Castle, 72. Tansor, 15. Taunton, 136, 147. Tawstock, 166, 167. Temple Newsam, 229, 237. Tetbury, 100. Tewkesbury, 81, 83, 84, 181. Thorpland Hall, 42. Tintinhull Court, 135, 140. Tissington, 221. Tixall, 195. Tong, 196, 197, 199. Trent House, 135, 140, 156. Trentham, 195. Trunch, 44. Tudor House, Broadway, 86. "Turk's Head," Oundle, 11. Tutbury Castle, 260.

Walsingham, 43, 44. Wamil Hall, 24. Warwick Castle, 72. Waterstone, 173, 174. Wellow, 127, 128. Wells-next-the-Sea, 40, 43, 44. Wensley, 258. Wentworth Castle, 227, 230, 237. Wentworth Woodhouse, 228, 229. West Lydford, 134. Weston Hall, 244. Weston Zoyland, 135. West Stow Hall, 24, 32. Wharfe, river, 242, 244. White House of Pixham, 78. White Lackington, 137. "White Lion," Hadleigh, 34. Wimborne Minster, 177, 179. Winchcombe, 93. Wingfield Manor, 209, 215. Winnington, 189. Wolverton, 173, 174. Woodchester, 99. Woodlands, 178. Wood Stanway, 90. Wool, 176. Wootton Lodge, 195, 196. Wormleighton, 13. Wormwood Farm, Neston, 110. Worsborough, 226, 227. Wothorpe Hall, 18. Wye, river, 204. Wylde Court, 171. Wymondham, 51, 52, 53.

Yatton Keynell, 116, 117, 118. Yeadon, 241. Yew Tree Farm, Bushley, 83. Yore, river, 250, 252.

End of Project Gutenberg's Nooks and Corners of Old England, by Allan Fea