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MEMORIALS OF OLD WHITBY 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028281891 
 
MEMORIALS 
 
 OF 
 
 OLD WHITBY 
 
 OE 
 
 HISTOEICAL GLEANINGS 
 FEOM ANCIENT WHITBY EECOEDS 
 
 BY 
 
 EEV. J. C. ATKINSON, D.C.L. 
 
 CANON OP YORK, AND INCUMBENT OF DANBY- IN -CLEVELAND 
 
 EDITOR OF 'the WHITBY CHAHTOLARY,' ETC. 
 AND AUTHOR OF 'FORTY YEARS IN A MOORLAND PARISH,' ETC. 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK 
 1894 
 
 (A 
 
A-'2.6.5"]-| 
 
 7 
 
TO 
 
 GEORGE BUCHANNAN 
 
 FOR MANY YEARS 
 
 MY LOVED AND HONOURED PRIEND, AND 
 
 MOST WILLING HELPER WITH 
 
 THE PRESENT BOOK 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 I REMONSTRATED with a local writer of Local History, less 
 than twenty years ago, because he had introduced in his parish 
 sketch, as history, much that was altogether inaccurate, and 
 much besides which was simply fabulous. His reply was to 
 the effect that "the public liked the fabulous and the non- 
 historic, especially if the story was as they had been accustomed 
 to hear it." 
 
 With the public for whom this author professed to have 
 written, the present book will certainly not be popular ; for 
 its object surely is to elicit the historical truth on the various 
 subjects touched upon, and wherever such truth is not 
 demonstrably attainable, still to suggest such conclusions as 
 are most consistent with the ascertained contemporaneous 
 history, and the circumstances of the times and places con- 
 cerned. Of course these conclusions may not be in all cases 
 right ; they may be ill-grounded or wrongly drawn. But they 
 have in all cases been arrived at only after years of patient 
 thought and consideration, and when those they profess to 
 supersede are manifestly erroneous, and as evidently unsatis- 
 factory. 
 
 That some of these earlier views should ever have been put 
 forward at all, and much more, that they should have met 
 with unquestioning acceptance, may seem to be a remarkable 
 
viii Memorials of Old Whitby 
 
 circumstance. Such representations as that Whitby itself, as 
 well as its once Holy House, lay ruined and desolate for two 
 long centuries ; that the Abbey church was customarily 
 available — not to say, intended — for the public worship of 
 the townspeople, until a feeling of a supposed something 
 strongly resembling spiritual pride prompted the building of a 
 parish church to obviate the necessity ; and divers others of 
 the same general character, seem so incongruous and even 
 extravagant, that one wonders how they could ever have 
 obtained the currency which undoubtedly belonged to them. 
 And again, it seems almost equally strange that the facts 
 latent in the mere circumstance that such a place-name as 
 Thingwal — it being obtrusively evident that the place itself 
 was not only very nigh to Whitby, but of importance enough, 
 notwithstanding the evident smallness of its area, to be 
 reckoned among the " maneria " or quasi-townships appertain- 
 ing to the home manor — should have been passed by absolutely 
 as if non-existent. 
 
 The explanation of such apparently unaccountable over- 
 sights and anomalies is probably of a twofold nature. There 
 is a certain equipment of mind and faculty, over and above 
 the accumulation of knowledge which comes from varied and 
 heedful study, which is altogether essential in the case of 
 any one who would fain undertake the historian's labours. 
 He must "read, mark, and learn"; but he must be able 
 " inwardly to digest " as well. I do not seem to think that 
 either of the prominent Whitby historians, so far as regards the 
 ancient and most important sources of information touching the 
 elder cycles of its history, were adequately possessed of the 
 faculty in question. One of them, as is but too apparent, could 
 only read the old writing imperfectly, and neither of them was 
 
Introduction ix 
 
 well, or even sufficiently, acquainted with mediiBval phrase, 
 custom, usage, or history ; some of the mistakes made being 
 really grotesque in their simplicity. 
 
 Still, with all its imperfections, the work done both by 
 Charlton and Young, and especially in view of the difficulties 
 under which they lay, was highly meritorious. Neither of 
 them spared either labour or inquiry ; and the mistakes they 
 made, or the shortcomings that hindered their perception of 
 full historic truth, cannot be charged upon them as resulting 
 from either carelessness or indifference. The disadvantages 
 they laboured under were of a different character, and their 
 comparative failure asks for condonation rather than challenges 
 condemnation. 
 
 But the same can hardly be said about the numerous 
 smaller so-called historical essays in the form of "guides" or 
 "handbooks," which are intruded on the notice of the visitor 
 to Whitby, and in many various forms. I have perhaps a 
 dozen lying on my table as I ^vrite this. Taking them at 
 random, I find such statements as the following : — " The 
 building," says one of them, speaking of the ruined Abbey 
 Church, " like all Gothic structures, too light and ephemeral 
 in its construction, and very faulty in the masonry, could not 
 resist the vicissitudes of a northern atmosphere, and gradually 
 went to decay " ! ! How could a man in his senses, and a not 
 unobservant man in other particulars, commit himself to such 
 astonishing perversion of fact, both general and particular ! 
 Another, and within the last three or four years, writes : " The 
 refectory has almost disappeared, as also the dwellings of the 
 monks " ! Possibly the judicious expenditure of a few score 
 pounds might lead on to the discovery of the sites of the 
 chapter-house, frater or refectory, dortor or dormitory, parlour, 
 
 I 
 
Memorials of Old Whitby 
 
 and all the other offices of the Convent, in and among which 
 the monks had their dwelling; but it is long enough now 
 since any one of them has been in any way traceable. Is it 
 possible that this writer has not even the slightest conception 
 of the nature of monastic buildings and their relative arrange- 
 ment? It is clear that he has no idea of what it is he is 
 writing about. A third writes : "At the time of the Conquest, 
 Whitby and its strand belonged to an earl named Gospatric, 
 who, refusing to submit to William, fled for safety into Scot- 
 land. His lands were confiscated and given to Hugh Lupas 
 (sic), who, not liking the situation of the place, afterwards 
 disposed of them to his friend William de Percy. The latter 
 built two seats upon this estate, one at Sneaton and the other 
 at Hackness " ! ! 
 
 I think the whimsicalities involved in the last paragraph 
 may safely be left without comment; it is sufficient to say 
 that there is a fine supply of the like in the class of publica- 
 tions referred to. 
 
 But a few words should be given in the way of explanation 
 of the plan of the town, as it may or must be assumed to have 
 been at the time of the Dissolution, and which is inserted 
 below at p. 191. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that our modern idea of a street 
 in a town or village is entirely inconsistent with the idea of 
 "a street" as it was then. No two houses stood together, or, 
 quite possibly, were in the same line. Every house, whether 
 it stood in a toft or a half toft, stood precisely where and as 
 the will or the whim of the builder dictated. One might stand 
 in the centre of its toft ; the nearest, on either side, might 
 stand in the north-east, north-west, south-east, or south-west 
 angle of their several tofts, the tofts themselves being of 
 
Introduction xi 
 
 varying sizes and shapes. The buildings themselves, more- 
 over, were in many cases so slight and unsubstantial in respect 
 of structure, that it was no unusual thing on some lordships 
 for the occupying tenant, who should have built himself a 
 dwelling on entering on his tenancy, to have liberty to remove 
 the said dwelling bodily on the termination of his tenancy, 
 should such termination ensue otherwise than as usually. 
 
 The shaded spaces in the plan just referred to, then, are to 
 be looked upon, not as designating houses or dwellings, but 
 only the areas or plots of ground, on some small patch of 
 which a cottage had its site. As one walks about the country 
 districts of our Island he may see any number of cottages, 
 each standing in its own enclosure, a strip of flower-garden 
 in front, perhaps, and a kitchen-garden extending on either 
 side and in the rear. Such in general were the houses in 
 Whitby, each in its own toft or enclosure, as in other towns 
 also, and the villages besides, as long as ever the toft system 
 continued in being ; and that, in some North Yorkshire dis- 
 tricts, was down to, and even later than, the first years of 
 Elizabeth's reign. 
 
 I must repeat that in no way whatever can our modem 
 idea of a " street " be suffered to intrude itself, if we desire to 
 realise what Whitby was in 1540. It is true that in the plan 
 under notice the tofts are all made to abut in a continuous 
 line on what are now, and long have been, streets in the full 
 modern acceptation. But that is so rather from the necessity 
 of the case than because I believe it to have been so then. 
 The old tofts were, no doubt, plotted out more according to 
 the circumstances, conditions, contours, conveniences of the 
 locality, than on any other principle ; symmetry and exactitude 
 being probably the last things to be thought of. The front of 
 
xii Memorials of Old Whitby 
 
 one might project in advance of, or recede behind, the front 
 of another, from a foot or two to perhaps six or ten times that 
 measure. And besides, it is quite likely that in such streets 
 as High Street, Cross Street, and Southgate in Whitby were, — 
 and the same too of the hillier parts of the town on the other 
 side of the river, — the tofts themselves were most irregularly 
 shaped, owing to the remarkable contours of the areas 
 available. 
 
 Again, I have not attempted to indicate even the sites of 
 the horse-mills which are specifically mentioned, or of the 
 herring-houses and other places of storage or safe -keeping 
 which are not specifically mentioned, but which we know had 
 their site and their being. My only object has been to try 
 and give some sort of an idea as to where the dwelling-places 
 of the time were placed, and of what cast and character their 
 grouping was. 
 
 A few words more on a matter which may be not fully 
 understood rather than misunderstood, if no direct reference 
 is made to it : I refer to the phrase " Old Danish." 
 
 .Colonists of whatever nationality, and wherever their 
 settlements may be made, carry their own tongue with them, 
 and they and their descendants continue to employ the said 
 tongue. If they are numerous enough or powerful enough to 
 make a clean sweep of the previous denizens of the colonised 
 country, they retain the language of their own old country. 
 If not sufficiently numerous or influential for that, their own 
 national tongue is liable to be more or less affected by the 
 terms and even idioms of their adopted country. There is no 
 need to illustrate this position by particular instances. They 
 abound in the experience of our own countrymen in our own 
 time. 
 
Introduction xiii 
 
 But so I conceive it must have been, and was, in the time 
 and experience of the Danes and Northmen who practically 
 and eflfectually colonised such large portions of North England, 
 and especially this most Danish part of the " Danish counties." 
 They brought their language with them, and they and their 
 immediate descendants spoke it, and continued to speak it, 
 however much it may have been modified in successive genera- 
 tions by the infusion of English, which would of necessity be 
 introduced as time continued its endless precession. But the 
 tongue they brought with them was, principally at least, the 
 Danish or Norwegian of the ninth and tenth centuries, already, 
 perhaps, somewhat altered from its archaic form, but not as 
 yet even beginning to be stereotyped into any literary form. 
 Moreover, "Only in Iceland," as the writer of the preface to 
 Cleasby and Vigfussen's Icelandic Dictionary says, "did a living 
 literature spring up and flourish ; there alone the language 
 has been handed down to us with unbroken tradition and 
 monuments, from the first settlement of the island to the 
 present day." The mere fable (if it be no more) or legend of 
 the colloquy between the fugitive Northman, after the battle 
 of Stamfordbridge, with the husbandman of the country, shows 
 how little the modifications made during the century and 
 half preceding the battle named had affected the language as 
 then spoken. The Yorkshire farmer understood the escaping 
 straggler from the routed Northern host, and the latter equally 
 comprehended the speech of the former. And this is the form 
 of the language which I wish to indicate by the term " Old 
 Danish." It was the language which, with steadily increasing 
 modification from the Northern English, continued to be 
 spoken by many a generation of the descendants of the original 
 colonists, and of which such remarkable survivals remained till 
 
xiv Memorials of Old Whitby 
 
 quite lately, to be only too surely swept away by the modern 
 " elementary " teacher and the unsympathetic school inspector. 
 If more proof than that afforded by the various North Country 
 Glossaries that the case was even so, be required, a careful, not 
 to say critical, study of the inexhaustible lists of old or ancient 
 field-names would be amply sufficient to furnish it. For these 
 all must have been given by the descendants (and many not in 
 very near generations) of the first settlers, and the proportion 
 among them which is not English and is Scandinavian, is not 
 either trifling or unstriking. 
 
 I have only now to express my acknowledgments to the 
 editors of the Yorkshire WeeMy Post and the Wliithy Times, for 
 their obliging permission to reproduce several pages which 
 originally appeared in their columns. My best and very 
 sincere thanks are also due to George Buchannan, Esq., of 
 Whitby, for the assistance he has given me in the selection 
 and loan of not a few of the illustrations introduced below. 
 And in the same connection I must acknowledge the courtesy 
 of the authorities of the Whitby Museum, to whom I owe the 
 permission to obtain photographs of their two engravings of 
 the Abbey for reproduction. I would remark also that most 
 of the cuts are from photographs specially taken for this book 
 by Mr. F. Sutcliff"e. 
 
 \st September 1894. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Myths, Legends, and Traditions connected with Whitby — 
 
 (a) The Stoky of Caedmon . . . 1 
 
 (6) The Hokngakth . . . 35 
 
 Whitby and the District before the name Cleveland 
 
 was given . . . .58 
 
 Whitby : what it used to be called, and why . 76 
 
 Shreds of Old Whitby History . . .89 
 
 Further Historical Shreds touching the Refoundinq of 
 THE Monastery, first as a Priory, and then as an 
 Abbey ..... 102 
 
 Additional Notes on the change of the Pbioratb into 
 AN Abbacy, and inferential Matters therewith con- 
 nected . .110 
 Stjcoessional Churches (Abbey) at Whitby, and Fabric 
 
 Notes . .... 118 
 
 Old Whitby : its Site, Topography, and Distribution . 157 
 The Site of the Market-Place in Old Days . 196 
 
 The Tollbooth of Old Whitby, and its true Character 204 
 
 The Relations between the Abbot of Whitby and Sir 
 Alexander de Percy, and Conclusions therewith 
 connected . . . 215 
 
 The Conditions under which the Abbey Tenants held 
 
 THEIR Lands in the Out-Towxships . . . 227 
 
 The Chapels and Hermitages attached to the Abbey . 239 
 Detailed Inquiry touching Burgage in Whitby, and its 
 
 REAL Import . 262 
 
XV i Memorials of Old Whitby 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Enclostjke op the Abbey Peecincts, and its Gatehouse 300 
 The Old Church at Whitby . .311 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 Appendix A — Touching the Penny Hedge Site . 318 
 
 Appendix B — Translations of Old-Feenoh Documents . 321 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS 
 
 The Abbey from the south-west: from a drawing made pre- 
 viously to the fall of the Tower . . . Frontispiece 
 
 From a di'awing made from under the Tower previously to its 
 fall, showing the junction of the North Transept with the 
 Choir ....... 119 
 
 From a photograph by C. C. Hodges of the interior of the Nave, 
 looking west, showing remains of West Entrance and the 
 inserted Perpendicular window at the west end of the North 
 Aisle of the Nave, with the curious lozenge-shaped light 
 above . . . . . . .127 
 
 Wall of North Transept (interior) near its junction with the 
 North Aisle of the Choir, against which was set the Altar of 
 the Blessed Vii'gin : the line of cessation of the first build- 
 ing period being nearly coincident with the line marking 
 the insertion of modem masonry on the right-hand side . 127 
 
 Exterior of the same part. The distinctly-marked descending 
 line of joints in the masonry marks the break of continuity 
 in the work. The new line of the lower string-course in 
 the renewed work of the second period may also be noted 
 on the right-hand side of the engraving . . . 128 
 
 From a photograph by C. C. Hodges, showing the North Aisle 
 of the Choir as it is at present, opening into the Chapel of 
 the Virgin in the North Transept . . . .128 
 
 From an old engraving showing the West Entrance to the Nave 
 with large west window over it ; the Tower with indications 
 of former roofs, and remains of the west wall of the South 
 Transept ....... 129 
 
xviii Memorials of Old Whitby 
 
 PAGE 
 
 From an old engraving showing the length of the Abbey Church, 
 with remains of the West Front, Tower, South Transept, 
 and Choir ... . 130 
 
 From an old engraving showing the Tower and remains of West 
 Front still standing, and with the North Ti-ansept fairly- 
 perfect . .... 131 
 
 Exterior of the north wall of the North Aisle of the Nave, in 
 which the remains of the ruined and departed buttress show 
 the point of junction between the wall of the second build- 
 ing effort and its continuation during the period of the 
 . third effort ...... 132 
 
 Interior at the same point, showing the continuation coinciding 
 
 in plane with the earlier wall . . . .133 
 
 From an old engraving showing the Tower still standing, but 
 much dilapidated above, with North Transept and remains 
 of the north wall of the North Aisle of the Nave, North 
 Entrance to the same, the junction of the later or Decorated 
 work with the earlier and simpler work of the second build- 
 ing period ; and also the north wall of the North Aisle of 
 the Choir, with the mis-drawn East Gable . . .134 
 
 Showing the remains of Perpendicular insertion in the original 
 west window over the western dr Great Entrance into the 
 Church ....... 135 
 
 w 
 
 From Buck's view of the Abbey, dated in 1711, showing (but 
 inaccurately) the Clerestory of the Nave, the West end, the 
 South Transept, with indications of Slipe, Cloister, Chapter- 
 house, etc. . . . . . .136 
 
 View from the south-east showing some remains of the walls of 
 
 the South Transept . . . .137 
 
 From a drawing by Gastineau, made before the fall of the Tower, 
 looking east, and showing the arches of the Tower into the 
 South Transept and the Choir, the south wall of the Choir, 
 and the upper triplet of the East Gable, mistakenly drawn 
 by reason of the misleading effects of existing dilapidation . 139 
 
 From a photograph by F. M. Sutcliffe, taken specially for this 
 book, showing the interior of the East Gable of the Choir as 
 it is seen at the present time, the mason -work being all 
 
List of Ilhtstrations xix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 recent and put up simply to arrest decay, and without regard 
 of any kind for arcMtectural objects or considerations. 
 The presence of the little remnant of ancient work apparent 
 on the right-hand side of the right-hand lancet will both be 
 seen to be of no little interest, and better understood by a 
 reference to the cut next ensuing . . . 140 
 
 From F. M. Sutcliffe's photograph enlarged, showing the 
 remnant left of the moulding of the springer specially 
 refen'ed to in the last paragraph . . .141 
 
 Reproduction on a lessened scale of Sharpe's architectural restor- 
 ation of the elevation of the interior of the uppermost 
 tier of triplets in the East Front of the Choii- . . 142 
 
 From Sharpe's Elevation, somewhat enlarged, showing the 
 
 southernmost or right-hand light of the triplet aforesaid . 143 
 
 From .an old engraving showing what the old Drawbridge, 
 superseded now many years ago by the predecessor of the 
 modern Bridge, was like originally ; or rather, after divers 
 restorations or remodellings ; down to the commencement of, 
 and into, the present century . . .185 
 
 Plan of the site and gi-ouping of the Town of Whitby, as, in the 
 main, it certainly was at and about the period of the Dis- 
 solution. The plan is deduced from the statements in 
 Ministers' Accounts, which deal with the matter in the year 
 succeeding the appropriation by the King of the possessions 
 of the " late Monastery " . . . . .191 
 
MYTHS, LEGENDS, AND TRADITIONS 
 CONNECTED WITH WHITBY • 
 
 a. THE STOEY OF CAEDMON 
 
 Looking into Professor Skeat's Etymological English Dictionary 
 just now, I found the word Myth defined "a fable," and 
 remarked upon as " now a common but quite a modern word, 
 and formed directly from the Greek, signifying a fable"; 
 while the next word in succession, namely, Mythology, is 
 described as meaning " a system of legends ; the science of 
 legends," and as due to another Greek word having the 
 signification of " legendary lore, a telling of fables.'' And on 
 turning a few pages back, or to the word Legend, I found the 
 definition given was " a marvellous or romantic story." 
 
 In this way we have the two words which stand first in 
 the above heading brought into close connection, and the 
 ideas of matters fabulous, marvellous, romantic, marshalled 
 together. Perhaps the idea of Fiction also enters, but only 
 indirectly, and not as an essential factor in the conception or 
 conceptions indicated. 
 
 A moment's reflection advises us that the "baseless fabric 
 of a vision leaves not a wrack behind," because the "fabric," 
 besides being utterly unsubstantial, imaginary, illusive, is 
 above all " baseless " ; has no foundation, lacks even the 
 merest reality to rest upon. Just so it is with Fiction pure 
 and simple. Its creation is like that of the unreal objects 
 that float before the distempered eye, and it vanishes as 
 
 B 
 
The Story of Caedmon 
 
 readily when scrutiny is directed upon it and its unsubstantial 
 constituents. 
 
 But the same is hardly true of either Myth, Legend, or 
 Fable in our sense, whatever we may think or say about that 
 which we brand as simply " fabulous." The Myth, the Fable 
 (of the mythic sort), the Legend, has always "a base," a 
 substratum or foundation of some sort. Like the Pentacle, 
 witlf its mystic application and use, or the Svastika, Fylfot, 
 or Hammer of Thor, the Monolith or Standing Stone — from 
 Jacob's stone at Bethel, and before and since — it has always ■ 
 had its own something to rest upon, its something of substance 
 to spring from, its actual material " base " or occasion. 
 
 And that is what is eminently true of the myths, fables, 
 and legends which connect themselves, or are connected with, 
 the ancient history of Whitby — by no means few in number. 
 They are none of them " baseless," like the vision-fabric. It 
 may be that, in many instances, what is merely "fabulous" 
 has been patched upon them, or inserted in them, like the 
 peacock's feathers amid the dusky plums^ge of the jackdaw 
 in the old old fable; but still there is the actual "base," the 
 something which does not disappear or fade away when the 
 iight of inquiry is turned steadily upon it. Nay, it is even 
 possible that the light of inquiry, especially of scientific 
 inquiry (as most recent inquiry has proved itself to be), when 
 cautiously and carefully directed, may lead to the revelation 
 of something not only very real, but very curious and very 
 instructive as well. 
 
 Among the matters that may be specially mentioned as 
 coming under such a category as this, are the Horngarth (now 
 recalled to mind rather than represented by what is called the 
 "Penny-hedge"), the Caedmon legend, and two or three 
 matters of a less prominent character, such as the wasting of 
 Whitby by the Danes and its consequences, the conversion 
 of the original Priory into the eventual Abbey, and so forth. 
 
 Now, in thinking or speaking about these matters, or some 
 
The character of the Whitby Traditions 3 
 
 of them, it may not be amiss to remark at the outset that 
 the myths or legends in question are not only not all of one 
 date, but that divers of them are, as I expressed it a moment 
 since, " patched upon " ; or, in other words, that additions and 
 insertions have been made to and in the originals at different 
 and necessarily successive periods. Thus the Horngarth 
 "base" is undoubtedly a very ancient one, the hermit story 
 having been patched upon it, the said story being not only 
 incongruous and inconsistent, alike with reason and history, 
 but also altogether " modern," the late and questionable entry 
 on the parchment flyleaf of the Abbot's Book being almost 
 certainly its foundation. And as regards the Caedmon legend, 
 it is abundantly evident that while it is impossible to regard 
 Baeda's account as pure unsophisticated history, it is at least 
 equally manifest that what Baeda actually did write has been 
 liberally embellished, as well as " patched upon " by a sedulous 
 succession of later writers. 
 
 In dweUing, however, for a space upon the story of 
 Caedmon, it will be expedient to remark that (in the words of 
 Professor Morley, English Writer's, vol. i. p. 299) "we know 
 nothing of the history of Caedmon and his work except from 
 Bede, who in two successive chapters tells first of the life and 
 death of the Abbess Hilda of Whitby, and then of Csedmon, 
 whose great sacred poem was produced at Whitby in her 
 time.'' 
 
 I think the most eloquent and touching (and for our 
 purpose the most suggestive) testimony to the character, 
 attainments, and qualifications of Baeda I am acquainted with 
 is from the pen of the historian, J. E. Green. He says, 
 giving a rapid but comprehensive risumi of the circumstances 
 of the time : " Under the peaceful reigns of Aldfrith and 
 Ceolwulf, kings of Northumbria, their kingdom became the 
 literary centre of Western Europe. No schools were more 
 famous than those of Jarrow and York. The whole learning 
 of the age seemed to be summed up in a Northumbrian 
 
The Story of Caedmon 
 
 scholar. Bseda was born about ten years after the Synod of 
 Whitby, beneath the shade of a great abbey which Benedict 
 Biscop was rearing by the mouth of the Wear. His youth 
 was trained, and his long tranquil life was wholly spent, in an 
 offshoot of Benedict's house which was founded by his scholar 
 Ceolfrid. Bseda never stirred from Jarrow. ' I spent my 
 whole life in the same monastery,' he says, 'and while 
 attentive to the rule of my order and the services of the 
 Church, my constant pleasure lay in learning, or teaching, or 
 writing.' The words sketch for us a scholar's life, the more 
 touching in its simplicity that it is the life of the first great 
 English scholar. The quiet grandeur of a life dedicated to 
 knowledge, the tranquil pleasure that lies in learning and 
 teaching and writing, dawned for Englishmen in the story of 
 Baeda. While still young he became a teacher, and 600 
 monks, besides strangers that flocked thither for instruction, 
 formed his school at Jarrow. It is hard to imagine how 
 among the toils of the schoolmaster and the duties of the 
 monk Beeda could have found time for the composition of the 
 numerous works that made his name famous in the West. 
 But materials for study had accumulated in Northumbria 
 through the journeys of Wilfrid and Benedict Biscop and the 
 libraries which were forming at Wearmouth and York. . . . 
 Little by little the young scholar made himself master of the 
 whole range of the science of the time ; he became, as Burke 
 rightly styled him, 'the father of English learning.' . . . 
 His work was done with small aid from others. ' I am my 
 own secretary,' he writes ; ' I make my own notes. I am my 
 own librarian.' But forty-five works remained after his death 
 to attest his prodigious industry. . . . But the encyclopaedic 
 character of his researches left him in heart a simple English- 
 man. He loved his own English tongue, he was skilled in 
 English song, his last work was a translation into English of 
 the gospel of St. John, and almost the last words that broke 
 from his lips were some English rhymes upon death. . . . But 
 
Baeda not superior to contemporary credulity 5 
 
 tte noblest proof of his love of England lies in the work which 
 immortalises his name. In his Ecclesiastical History of the 
 English Nation Baeda was at once the founder of mediaeval 
 history and the first English historian. All that we really 
 know of the century and a half that follows the landing of 
 Augustine we know from him. Wherever his own personal 
 observation extended, the story is told with admirable detail 
 and force. He is hardly less full and accurate in the portions 
 which he owed to his Kentish friends Alcwine and Nothelm. 
 What he owed to no informant was his exquisite faculty of 
 story-telling. . . . First among English scholars, first among 
 English theologians, first among English historians, it is in 
 the monk of Jarrow that English literature strikes its roots. 
 In the 600 scholars who gathered round him for instruction, 
 he is the father of our national education. In his physical 
 treatises he is the first figure to which our science looks 
 back." 
 
 Now that is a great testimony, and, as I think, in no way 
 exaggerated ; and it seems almost an invidious thing even to 
 appear to derogate from it. All the same, there is a qualifi- 
 cation which must needs be mentioned in passing, especially 
 with such an object before us as that of the present book is. 
 Foremost as he was as a scholar, as a theologian, as a historian, 
 still there was one particular in which he was not ahead of 
 his own times. What we nowadays style credulity, and 
 stigmatise perhaps as credulity of a gross character, the off'- 
 spring or result of absolute superstition and the merest 
 ignorance, was a marked and inseparable characteristic of the 
 times in which Baeda lived. And with all his learning, and 
 research, and attainment, Baeda was very far indeed from 
 being free from it. I was looking a day or two ago into the 
 Preface to Cockayne's Saxon Leechdoms, and, his immediate 
 subject being the reported power of witches and wizards over 
 storms, and especially of such power as was commonly attri- 
 buted to the Finns and members of other Northern nations, I 
 
6 The Story of Caedmon 
 
 came by the merest chance upon this : "Beda had full faith 
 in the pretensions of these witches to raise storms. He relates 
 how Grermanus and Lupus, bishops of Auxerre and Troyes, 
 were encountered by an 'inimica vis daemonum,' a hostile lot 
 of demons, who raise storms, turn day into night, driving the 
 bishops'^ vessel from its course, and flinging the raging billows 
 over it. Lupus calls up Germanus, who felt somewhat dis- 
 ordered by all this tossing, and with the name of the Trinity 
 and some sprinkling of water the tempest is stilled." The 
 book and section are quoted, and truly there is the whole 
 story, only told with " the admirable detail and force " 
 emphasised by Green, and of which Cockayne's bald version 
 gives not the faintest idea. There is the host of malignant 
 demons. Their object is to frustrate the missionary ends and 
 objects of the devoted bishops. They evoke the storm, and 
 turn day into night with the thick darkness of clouds. The 
 sails are rent by the blasts. The baffled and exhausted sailors 
 can do no more. If the vessel continues to live, it is in virtue 
 of prayer, not of seamanship ; but the leader and chief of the 
 two bishops, worn out with the strife, yields to weariness and 
 sleep. This was the opportunity for the malevolent devils, 
 and the ship is all but foundering with the seas that are 
 shipped, all flung with that intention by demoniacal hands. 
 So Lupus and the rest wake poor overtasked Germanus in 
 their dread of going to the bottom. He invokes the name of 
 Christ, takes up a little of the superabounding water in his 
 hand, and in the name of the Trinity sprinkles it over the 
 raging billows, and quells them in a moment ; and bidding 
 his colleague be more of a man, he gives encouragement to 
 the rest ; when, lo ! Divinity is there ! The devils are put to 
 flight. A great calm follows ; and the winds, going back into 
 the right quarter, favour the scudding craft, which quite easily 
 now attains the haven where it would be. The graphic power 
 and force with which the story is told are inimitable. The 
 author tells it as if he had seen it all, felt it all. And I 
 
The credulous element in Baeda 
 
 am sure no one can read it in the short incisive sentences of 
 the Latin text without feeling that he believed it all. 
 
 But if one looks with some degree of attention through 
 the book, one component part of which this story is, and even 
 bearing in mind Mr. Green's well-deserved eulogy of- it, one is 
 simply astonished at the great mass of stories of the same 
 kind and character with which its pages are embellished. In 
 my copy I find I have ticketed no less than eight-and-thirty 
 or forty of the headings of the chapters in the English Table of 
 Contents of the volume as containing, if not altogether com- 
 posed of, exactly the same class of narratives. There is no 
 absurdity, however grotesque in the sight of the modern 
 reader it may be, which is not put down there as a matter of 
 historic faith and credibility. It is a fact that, out of the 
 first eighteen or twenty chapters of the Ecclesiastical History, 
 one half involves, or is mainly made up of, relations of 
 marvels or " miraculous " effects, such as curing animals and 
 men of divers grievous disorders by administering to them 
 water in which had been soaked shavings or scrapings from 
 the cross erected by King Oswald before he engaged in the 
 battle with Penda at Maserfield ; a badly injured arm being 
 made sound by the application of a little moss taken from the 
 same cross ; a foundered horse and a palsied maiden being 
 saved from supervening death, or cured, by contact with the 
 diist of the place in which the said devout king had laid down 
 his life ; the same dust as potent to defy the force of fire ; 
 demoniacs being completely cured by the inherent virtue of 
 his personal relics ; a lad cured of an inveterate fever through 
 coming nigh his tomb ; an Irishman in the throes of death 
 recalled to life by a similar agency; the foretelling of a 
 violent storm at sea, and hallowed oil given in advance where- 
 with to quell it ; fire which had been applied to the gates and 
 wall of a beleaguered burgh being deprived of its efficacy to con- 
 sume by dint of prayer ; and the like, without stint or regard for 
 the possible. It is in reference to forthtellings of this nature 
 
The Story of Caedmon 
 
 that Mr. Henry Morley writes : " Pious frauds were accordant 
 with the civilisation of a time which thought it no sin to mis- 
 lead heathen opinion in small or even in great things when it 
 appeared that so, with hurt to none, men sitting in darkness 
 might be brought more readily into the way of everlasting 
 truth. . . . But of good Christians who sacrificed themselves 
 to their work in the far past, let us not forget that when they 
 did feign miracles (and possibly there were miracles rather 
 believed than feigned) they who feigned were also of the 
 world in which they laboured, eager to stir with a new life 
 rude masses of people steeped in superstition ; for whom 
 marvels were invented by their heathen teachers, and who, 
 knowing as yet nothing of the ways of God in nature, saw 
 the supernatural in every sight, sound, or incident that raised 
 their wonder." 
 
 As for myself, however, I totally reject the idea of 
 "feigning" as applicable in the case of Baeda. I look 
 upon him as too honest, too good, too clear-sighted, to 
 be capable of consciously writing and even embellishing a 
 lie, in order to make it — so to speak — go down the more 
 easily. What he believed, that he wrote; that and nothing 
 else. And if he believed what everybody else, "lered and 
 lewed," clergy and laity, the taught and untaught, accepted 
 and believed, there is little that is remarkable in that. 
 
 "In those days," "In Beeda's time," "In Csedmon's age," 
 such terms are sufficiently common, and in suflBciently familiar 
 use. But it by no means follows that they carry the weight 
 or significance they ought ; the weight and significance they 
 would carry if deliberate thought and attention were given to 
 them in adequate degree. Unwilling as I am, and for many 
 considerations, to overburden my text with quotations from 
 other writers, yet from the point of view indicated in the last 
 period I think it best to reproduce the following from the 
 pages of a recent, but very thoughtful, and quite equally 
 weighty book, appending in a note the opening and con- 
 
Characteristics of the Anglo-Saxons 9 
 
 eluding sentences of the extract i; "The Saxons were only 
 a step removed from all the concomitants of heathenism and 
 all the practices incident to a barbarian people. It is not 
 easy to read ourselves into the actual condition of Anglo- 
 Saxon society, particularly among the lower classes. Study- 
 ing the laws will not do it, nor yet will the examination 
 of the poets, of Bede, or the Chronicle. From any of these 
 we might be justified in supposing that Anglo-Saxon Britain 
 was, to use Professor Pollock's negative phrase, 'a paradise 
 of yeomen.' Perhaps the best conception is to be gained 
 from an analysis of the list of commissions chargeable by 
 the Church as ofi'ences, or from the recipes contained in' 
 the books of the Saxon leech. From these we can see how 
 prominent was the animal nature of these old Saxons. The 
 
 ^ ' ' Hardly any part of the work of the Church was of greater importance 
 than that -which related to the moral and social elevation of the slave 
 class. Its influence did much to mitigate their hard lot, both directly 
 and indirectly. It endeavoured to instil moral principles, particularly in 
 the relation between master and slave, and to preserve the sanctity of 
 marriage, exacting severe penalties for breaches in its laws. It strove to 
 break up illicit intercourse and concubinage ; to check entirely the 
 killing of slaves, and their excessive flogging at the hands of their 
 mistresses. The influence of Christianity showed itself in placing free- 
 man and slave on a common basis as Christians, and forbidding many 
 things to be done within this brotherhood which, without the bond of 
 higher union, would have continued to exist in as great a measure as 
 before." After the passage which is incorporated in the text, the writer 
 continues : "Then too every day had its good or evil reputation. Each 
 had its particular use. If unfavourable for sowing seed, it might be 
 favourable for taming cattle. On one day they were to buy, on another 
 to sell, on a third to hunt, on a fourth to do nothing. If a child were 
 born on such and such a day it would live, if on another its life would 
 be sickly, if on a third it would perish early. Much of this was of course 
 not necessarily degrading, but all shows the prevailing credulity. The 
 Church worked ingeniously and indefatigably with these superstitions, 
 turning all that could be used to good account, sprinkling old customs 
 with holy water ; drawing lessons from heathenish practices and turning 
 charms, fairy-stones, and potions to the soul's good" {The Old English 
 Manor : a Study in English Economic Eistory, by Dr. C. M'Lean 
 Andrews, pp. 188, 190). 
 
lo The Story of Caedmon 
 
 Poenitentials of Theodore and Ecgbert show us one side of 
 Anglo-Saxon society. In these we change the colour and 
 the picturesqueness of their great deeds for the astonishing 
 homeliness and, at times, beastliness of their daily life. 
 Eoseate views of Anglo-Saxon freedom hardly accord with 
 the evidence which the list of penances offer. In addition 
 to the degrading practices, the ignorant superstitions of the 
 slave classes in all countries found themselves reproduced 
 in full measure among the Anglo-Saxon theowas. But they 
 were not confined to the slave class. The lower classes of 
 freemen as well were basely ignorant and superstitious, and 
 the injunctions of the Church were directed against all. 
 Specifically some of their chief practices were as follows : 
 the worshipping of devils — that is, the heathen gods, idols, 
 sun, moon, stones, men, trees, running water and wells; the 
 belief in witchcraft, enchantments, auguries, divinations, the 
 telling of fortunes and the interpretation of dreams, the 
 mixing of love-potions and torturing with pins. They used 
 charms to make the fields fertile, to find things lost or stolen ; 
 amulets to guard against poison, disease, and the risks of 
 battle." 
 
 . The writer quotes a copious list of authorities, and strong 
 and outspoken as his language is, there is no question that 
 every word of it is more than justified by the evidence 
 adduced. In fact, with more than one of these authorities 
 open before me as I write, and with others on my shelves 
 within reach, I own myself astounded at the low, degraded, 
 wretched brutality — Professor Andrews' word "beastliness" 
 is too mild a term for it — of the habits of mind, thought, 
 feeling, purpose, of the folk of Baeda's and Caedmon's time 
 or age. " In the Shrift-book of Ecgbert, Archbishop of York," 
 says Cockayne, " one of the methods adopted by their women 
 is censured; and it is so filthy that I must leave it in the 
 obscurity of the original Old English. And another record 
 of their nasty ways," which he thinks it necessary to quote. 
 
Source of our knowledge touching Caedmon 1 1 
 
 he leaves in " the obscurity " of the Latin original ; and it 
 would be difficult to iind words too strong to express the 
 gross ignorance, the monstrous superstition, the heathenish 
 barbarism of the time and the people as revealed by the 
 evidence from the sources of information appealed to. 
 
 But this method of Itfoking at things as tl^ey were then, 
 does not appear to have commended itself- to many among 
 those who have taken in hand to discuss the history of 
 Caedmon and Abbess Hild's action as connected with his 
 poesy, and the use she made of itself and its outcome. So 
 far as I have seen, the general rule — at least, until quite 
 recently — has been, not so much to ignore, as practically 
 to leave unnoticed the mental tendencies of the writer who 
 is the sole authority in connection with the story of our first 
 English poet, the actual circumstances of the time, and the 
 material influences which must have controlled and given 
 a definite shape and colour to the action of all who were 
 concerned. It would almost seem too as if no attempt, 
 sufficiently definite and purpose-like, had been made to read 
 between the lines of the account of the transaction as it has 
 been handed down to us. There are, in point of fact, two 
 versions of it, using the term " version " in its literal sense ; 
 namely, a Latin version, written by Baeda himself, and a 
 translation of the same into Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), 
 the author of which is not certainly known, although it 
 has been attributed to an exalted hand. And it is between 
 the lines of this Old English version that we are now in 
 some measure enabled to read. 
 
 I take it that the notion most commonly received touching 
 Caedmon is that he was an " oxherd," although some call him 
 a "cowherd." Thus J. E. Green, talking of him, says : "But 
 the name which really throws glory over Whitby is the name 
 of a cowherd from whose lips during the reign of Oswiu flowed 
 the first great English song." " On the morrow," says another 
 writer, as he recounts the tale of the sudden inspiration of 
 
1 2 The Story of Caedmon 
 
 Caedmon, "the cowherd recounted his story to the Abbess 
 Hild." Other views, as expressed by sundry among the 
 divers who have taken in hand to set forth the marvellous 
 story, represent that he was " an wilettered peasant who . . . 
 received his poetical genius by inspiration while sleeping in a 
 manger (!)"; that he was "an ignorant ^rnsam^ . . . who had 
 retired to the stall of the oxen"; that, being one of "the 
 inhabitants of the monastery," he had "lived in a secular 
 habit, and been occupied in menial positions till he was 
 advanced in years " ; and so forth. Charlton, the Whitby 
 annalist's, account is: "This Cedmon had lived in a secular 
 habit till well advanced in years, being extremely beloved 
 and respected for his integrity of life and the uprightness 
 of his morals. He was but little acquainted with letters, and 
 possessed no taste for the softer sciences. He was serious 
 and reserved ; so that when the monks were invited to any 
 entertainment or feast, and disposed to be merry, it was his 
 custom to retire, and return home, as having no inclination 
 to their mirth and jollity. Once at a certain time, being 
 invited to one of these banquets, it fell in his turn to take 
 care of the horses; and after supper, when others began 
 •to make merry, he retired to the stable, under a pretence 
 of minding his charge." And even the sober and much more 
 considerate Whitby historian. Dr. Young, describes Caedmon 
 as " coming in the morning to his master, who was the cMef 
 man of the village." 
 
 A more thoughtful and better-informed writer than any 
 of these last, with their strange, grotesque, and discordant 
 notions and misconceptions of the situation and circumstances, 
 expresses himself thus : " Once, when he had left the house 
 of festivity, he went out to the stables of the beasts, whose 
 custody was on that night entrusted to him, a statement from 
 which has arisen, partly through King Alfred's translation of 
 the passage, the common habit of assuming that he was a 
 cowherd " ; and this (Professor Morley's) is the only reference. 
 
Caedmons actual " condition " 13 
 
 or nearly so, to the fact that there is what I have called "an 
 Anglo-Saxon version " of Baeda's Ecdesiastical History. 
 
 Now, in commenting upon the foregoing, I would wish 
 in the first place to remark that it is very far indeed from 
 being certain what Caedmon's social condition really was. 
 For it must be remembered that there were others besides 
 the " oxherd " actual, or (so to say) professional, to whom the 
 charge of the oxen by night might be, and was, from time to 
 time, actually delegated. These were the geM/rs. He may, 
 therefore, have been (not a cowherd, but) an oxherd ; or he 
 may have been a geMr : a man, that is, whom Mr. Seebohm 
 describes as a "villanus," — usually Englished by "villein" — 
 "proper, or occupier of a yardland, nominally of thirty acres, 
 with outfit of two oxen and seed"; one of the "services he 
 had to render being that he was 'to lie (that is, spend his 
 night) at his lord's fold from Martinmas to Easter as often as 
 he was told ' : in plain words, take his turn at watching the 
 fold or cattle-pens, which may have been near the manor, or, 
 as was not impossible, at a distance in one of the enclosed 
 fields, where the danger was chiefly from thieves and wolves " 
 {Old English Manor, p. 160).^ And both versions state that 
 the charge of the cattle-stalls had been put upon Caedmon that 
 night. But if he was not a " villein '' or geMr, he must then, 
 of necessity, have been an oxherd. And his duties in that 
 capacity were not light. " The oxen were employed during 
 the day for ploughing, or other draught -work on the land, 
 and as soon as loosed by the ploughman from the yoke, 
 they were taken charge of by the oxherd, who drove them 
 
 ^ This, of course, at once does away with all the drivelling nonsense 
 about his being one "of the inhabitants of the monastery," the "secular 
 habit," the "menial situations," his association with "the monks when 
 they were invited to any entertainment or feast," and leaving them when 
 they became jolly ; and all the rest of it. One is not surprised at any 
 absurdity one meets with in the pages of Charlton ; for any one who is 
 familiar with his book, and is consequently aware of his inveterate habit 
 of putting his own silly, often absurd, fancies down as facts, is prepared 
 to receive his wonderful statements with the requisite amount of discount. 
 
14 The Story of Caedmon 
 
 to the pasture, where he remained during the night for fear 
 of depredations. In the early morning he returned them 
 to the ploughman well fed and watered, ... As this 
 labour was performed during the autumn, spring, and summer 
 months, it would not appear to have been more burdensome 
 than that which the geM,r performed in lying at the 
 lord's fold from Martinmas until Easter. For during the 
 winter the cattle would be enfolded in the pens upon the 
 ' inland '" (16 j^.) 
 
 It was apparently this latter duty that Caedmon was 
 performing when the inspiration of song is described as having 
 come upon him ; for he had gone out from the entertainment 
 or gebeorscipe, in somebody's house in the tim to the neat scipene, 
 the oxstall where he "had been bidden to watch the lord's 
 herd during the night." Such stall, it is known, stood within 
 the inland enclosure, and not in the pasture. Another thing 
 which we are distinctly told is that Caedmon had a home, a 
 Ms of his own, and was accustomed to meet in the flet, what 
 we should term the " house-floor '' of his neighbours, whenever 
 a gebeorscipe was given. We have also another fact which, 
 though of small moment, is yet worthy of notice; namely, 
 that the oxherd slept — in precisely the same sense as when 
 we say of any one that he "slept at a friend's house" on 
 any occasion — at the allotted place when watching on the 
 " inland " ; for Caedmon had composed his limbs for a night's 
 rest, and was " sleeping in the ^hippon when the vision came 
 to him, and this was apparently the custom. Now, while we 
 may be somewhat uncertain as to the class to which Caedmon 
 belonged, it is of interest to be told that when he awoke from 
 his dream he went directly to the Mngerefa who was his 
 ealdorman — the reeve of the township who was the superior 
 official — and reported his dream, and was then led by the gerefa 
 to the 'lord,' who, necessarily, was the Abbess. Thereafter 
 Caedmon gave up his life as a gehUr, and became a brother in 
 the monastery. Such promotion was quite in accord with the 
 
The historical facts touching Caedmon 15 
 
 spirit of Anglo-Saxon times : it was possible for a swineherd 
 to rise to be a bishop, as the story of Denewulf shows." ^ 
 
 Much of the above is quoted m extenso, and it is only 
 necessary to add that the Anglo-Saxon text lies under my eye 
 as these lines are written, that the translation is perfectly 
 literal, and that the terms as given are the terms actually 
 employed ; while, as being the native or Old English terms, 
 they give us an insight which their equivalents in the Latin 
 or original version cannot but fail to do. 
 
 We see then the undeveloped poet in the fashion of a 
 simple farming-man — for whether geMr or oxherd (with his 
 own private pair of oxen and a cow), he was thai — present, as 
 he not infrequently was, at a gebeorscipe at the house of one 
 like himself as to class and condition, a homely gathering in a 
 cot in the Mn or hamlet, such as the cots or huts, then called 
 houses, were, and where the liquor provided would doubtless 
 be the beer from which the descriptive term employed takes 
 its derivation. We see him for shame (for sceoma) creeping 
 away when the harp was coming, in its ordered course, near 
 to the seat he occupied, sometimes retiring to his own house 
 or cot, but on this particular night withdrawing to the neat- 
 shippon or ox-stalls, of which by special order he happened to 
 be in charge ; and there, at the usual hour, he laid himself 
 down to rest. Then in the morning we see him make his 
 way to report himself, and what had happened, to the proper 
 official, the towns-reeve, namely, part of whose special business 
 it was in ploughing time to see the oxen duly yoked and the 
 several ploughs duly and punctually at work ; and by this 
 official he is taken as by one under authority to one still nearer 
 the head of all authority in the establishment, the "alder- 
 man," as he is called, or the steward (as we might call him), 
 by whom he is conducted to the actual head over all — under 
 ordinary circumstances the " lord," but in this particular case, 
 the Abbess, known as the Lady Hild. The " stable," the 
 ^ See Old English Manor, pp. 211-215. 
 
1 6 The Story of Caedmon 
 
 "horses," the " manger," the "menial situation," his habitancy 
 at the monastery, his presence with other monks at a banquet, 
 his "master who was the chief man of the village," all 
 disappear, and instead we have the sober every-day arrange- 
 ments of the ordinary Old English manor or estate. 
 
 But it still remains to estimate the nature and quality of 
 the history itself as we find it in the pages of Baeda. On the 
 one hand, we have to consider the attitude of the historian's 
 mind, his manner of thought and feeling, his intellectual and 
 mental culture and capacity. On the other, the character and 
 quality of his contemporaries, both mental and material, and 
 of the constraining forces which must of necessity have proved 
 operative in controlling and directing any such work as he set 
 himself to do. We are accustomed to think and to speak of 
 an " intelligent public." We allow for the existence of dense 
 ignorance in places, and as affecting a vast aggregate on the 
 whole ; and we lament alike the existence and the extent and 
 the operative influence of the evil. But we fall back with 
 comfort on the prevailing good sense and information and 
 culture of the immense majority, which majority constitutes 
 our "intelligent public." But there was no "intelligent 
 ■ public " in this sense, or in any sense the least like it, in 
 Baeda's time, and of course things would have been worse 
 rather than better in that particular in Caedmon's time. The 
 men and women who felt and thought as Baeda did were few 
 and far between ; a scanty band separated by wide intervals, 
 and with rare and difficult opportunities of inter-communion 
 and fewer still of co-operation. I cannot think that even 
 Green's vivid picture of Cuthbert's missionary experiences is 
 anything like adequate for giving us a lifelike idea of what 
 had to be encountered as well as effected within the area of 
 the old Streoneshalh influence. But it may help, and far 
 more effectually than any words of mine could do, in 
 suggesting what it was that had to be looked in the face, and 
 strenuously grappled with. "In 651," says the historian 
 
Christian Teachers experience in the North 1 7 
 
 named, " Cuthbert made his way to a group of straw-thatched 
 log-huts in the midst of untilled solitudes, where a few Irish 
 monks from Lindisfarne had settled in the neighbourhood of 
 Melrose. To-day the land is a land of poetry and romance, 
 Cheviot and Lammermoor, Ettrick and Teviotdale, Yarrow 
 and Annan-water, are musical with old ballads and border 
 minstrelsy. Agriculture has chosen its valleys for her 
 favourite seat, and drainage a;nd steam-power have turned 
 sedgy marshes into farm and meadow. But to see the 
 Lowlands as they were in CuthKert's day we must sweep 
 meadow and farm away again, and replace them by vast 
 solitudes dotted here and there with wooden hovels and crossed 
 by boggy tracks, over which travellers rode spear in hand and 
 eye kept cautiously about them. The Northumbrian peasantry 
 among whom he journeyed were for the most part Christians 
 only in name. With Teutonic indifference they yielded to 
 their thegns in nominally accepting the new Christianity, as 
 these had yielded to the king. But they retained their old 
 superstition side by side with the new worship; plague or 
 mishap drove them back to a reliance on their heathen charms 
 and amulets ; and if trouble befell the Christian preachers who 
 came settling among them, they took it as ia proof of the 
 wrath of the older gods. When some log-rafts which were 
 floating down the Tyne for the construction of an abbey at its 
 mouth, drifted with the monks who were at work on them 
 out to sea, the country bystanders shouted, ' Let nobody pray 
 for them; let nobody pity these men; for they have taken 
 away from us our old worship, and how their new-fangled 
 customs are to be kept nobody knows ! ' On foot, on horse- 
 back, Cuthbert wandered among listeners such as these, 
 choosing above all the remoter mountain villages from whose 
 roughness and poverty other teachers turned aside." 
 
 But the sentences with which this graphic sketch of 
 Cuthbert's apostolic or missionary efforts and experiences is 
 introduced merit attention, and especially at the point now 
 
 
 
1 8 The Story of Caedmon 
 
 reached, no less than the statements themselves. " Already 
 in his youth Cuthbert's robust frame had a poetic sensibility 
 which caught, even in the chance word of a game, a call to 
 higher things ; and a passing attack of lameness deepened the 
 religious impression. A traveller coming over the hillside in 
 his white mantle, and stopping his horse to tend Cuthbert's 
 injured knee, seemed to him an angel. The boy's shepherd 
 life carried him to the bleak upland, still famous as a sheep- 
 walk, though a scant herbage scarce veils the whinstone rock. 
 There, meteors plunging into the night became to him a 
 company of angelic spirits carrying the soul of Bishop Aidan 
 heavenwards, and his longings slowly settled into a resolute 
 will towards a religious life. So easy was it to an even greater 
 than Bseda, and possibly not so very much inferior to him 
 in imaginative self-deception, to see visions and to dream 
 dreams." 
 
 It is very possible, with such considerations present in our 
 mind, to regard Baeda's narrative of Caedmon's nocturnal 
 visitation and its alleged results, inclusive of his reception into 
 the monastery, as "perhaps only a misreading of the natural 
 into the supernatural." There is nothing to forbid the view 
 that Caedmon was a homely native poet of some genius, as 
 yet undeveloped ; that he was among those who, if not origin- 
 ally converted by the agency of the missionary influences set 
 in motion by Hild's wise and energetic action, had at least 
 been greatly moved and affected by them; or that he had 
 vague yearnings after something higher, nobler, better than 
 the lays and songs the themes of which were bloody battles, 
 struggles with mythical monsters, perilous descents into 
 fearful depths in the madness of self-exposure ; and that the 
 heroism of the Story of the Cross and the grandeur of its 
 associations may have wakened the latent spark into life and 
 radiance. But the theory would almost seem to be that of an 
 apologist ; of one who would be glad to accept Baeda's story, 
 and to suggest that it may be believed notwithstanding the 
 
Professor Morleys views touching Caedmon 1 9 
 
 miraculous — what many would call the romantic, and others 
 the impossible — element in it. Let us take the sketch of the 
 story as usually told, and as adopted by one (Professor Morley) 
 who took some such view as that just shadowed forth. " When 
 at his usual hour Csedmon yielded to sleep, one stood by him, 
 saluting him, and calling him by name. ' Csedmon,' he said, 
 ' sing me something.' ' I cannot sing,' he replied ; ' for I have 
 come out hither from this feast because I could not sing.' 
 Again he who spoke with him said, ' But you must sing to me.' 
 ' What,' he said, ' ought I to sing ? ' And he answered, ' Sing 
 the origin of things created.' Having received which answer, 
 he began immediately to sing in praise of GoD the Creator 
 verses of which the sense is," etc. etc. It is further told that 
 Caedmon on waking remembered the few lines he had made 
 in his sleep, and proceeded to make others like them. And 
 then follows this comment : "Now all this may be true with- 
 out a miracle. ... In his lay habit Csedmon had listened to 
 the preaching and had reverenced the self-denying practice of 
 the Culdee missionaries. The songs he had never learnt by 
 rote he had left unlearnt because — though hardly conscious 
 that it was so — they did not satisfy him. He evaded his turn 
 with the harp at feasts. On this occasion he went forth from 
 among his comrades — some of whom had ridden or come in 
 vehicles to the place of festival — because he it was among the 
 guests whose turn it was that night, in the half-civilised 
 community not unused to cattle-plunder, to keep night watch 
 over the beasts of the whole company. The rude feast and 
 song might have impressed the imagination of a poet warmed 
 and influenced by the report of zealous preachers. So, 
 dreaming on his watch, he might have been prepared for the 
 embodiment in vision of his waking thoughts; the waking 
 thought having been that the song demanded from the 
 Christian in those rough days must celebrate to men the glory 
 of the King of Hosts, the Lord Almighty. ' What,' he asked 
 when still dreaming, ' what ought I to sing '! ' and the answer 
 
20 The Story of Caedmon 
 
 given, as we know, in that night, dreaming and waking, he 
 began to weave the solemn song, and his soul, stirred by the 
 theme, seemed to him stirred by sudden inspiration." 
 
 Now this is putting the consciousness of inspiration on 
 Oaedmon himself instead of attributing the perception of it to 
 others, as the historian does, and the adoption of the phrase 
 " lay habit " tacitly, even although unintentionally, makes him 
 already a member of the religious community. It is open too 
 to unfavourable comment (whether it be a blunder on the 
 writer's part or otherwise to be accounted for) that the teaching 
 of Hild and her associates and fellow-labourers is altogether 
 ignored, unless it is intended to be understood beneath the 
 very questionable word "Culdees.'' Even if he were only a 
 gehdr, or a neatherd of the tdn of which the Abbess was the 
 " lord," and by no means a lay brother of the monastery, he 
 was pretty sure to have learnt Christian doctrine at home. 
 But the fact is, the name of Culdee does not appear till the 
 beginning of the eighth century. " To Adamnan, to Eddi, 
 and to Bede it was totally imknown. They knew of no body 
 of clergy who bore this name, and in the whole range of 
 ecclesiastical history there is nothing more entirely destitute of 
 authority than the application of this name to the Columban 
 monks of the sixth and seventh centuries, or more utterly 
 baseless than the fabric which has been raised upon that 
 assumption " (Skene, Celtic Scotland, ii. p. 256). 
 
 The statement that Caedmon " evaded his turn with the 
 harp " must be dealt with by itself : it is Baeda's, and not 
 that of the modern writer. But the charming simplicity of 
 the view that some of^ "Csedmon's comrades" had either 
 "ridden or driven" to the house of festivity must not be left 
 quite unnoticed; nor yet the question how it came to be a 
 matter of " turn " among the guests that any one in particular 
 should keep night watch "over the beasts of the company." 
 I am afraid that even if we could accommodate our mental 
 receptivity to belief in the " horses and carriages " of the guests 
 
Were the Labourers proficients in Music ? 21 
 
 in those days, the unromantic homeliness of the " neat-stalls " 
 (neata scypene) and of the straightforward statement that in 
 the morning he came to the town-reeve who was his alderman 
 (Sa com he on morgene to '6am tun^erefan se 5e his ealdorman 
 w(es) might disabuse our minds both as to the nature of the 
 "beasts" and the quality of the "guests" who had been 
 present at the feast. So also his " dreaming on the watch " is 
 a little at variance with the literal " in due season his limbs at 
 rest he set and slumbered " (on gelimplicre tide his lima on reste 
 he gesette and onslmpte). 
 
 But these vagaries are those of the modern Englishman. 
 Did the ancient Englishman also commit analogous, if not 
 similar, deviations from the authentic track? Is there no 
 poetic touch, no imaginative limning, in the sketch which he 
 draws for us? Were the Anglo-Saxon boors — this word is 
 closely related to the old-time geb&r, we may as well remember 
 — after all, a cultured class, and not the degraded, sensual, 
 ignorant, as well as superstitious set of people which contem- 
 porary writings, the authority and actual testimony of which 
 cannot very easily be set aside, would make them out to have 
 been ? 
 
 That there were kings and princes who were proficients on 
 the harp, and most likely thanes and drengs as well, besides 
 gleemen and glee-maidens, we are of course well aware. But 
 that such accomplishments should have been common, should 
 have pervaded the rude, rough masses of the agricultural 
 community, so that the harp should pass from hand to hand 
 in its circling course among them, and in hands so coarse 
 should produce a fitting accompaniment for even the rudest 
 poesy we can conceive of, is, I confess, a new and startling 
 conclusion to my mind. And it is not t)ne, either, to which 
 any general course of reading seems to lead up, or for which 
 we are prepared by any familiar analogy. On the contrary, 
 it is as incongruous, as irreconcilable with the facts of history, 
 and even the deliverances of tradition, as it is in itself 
 
2 2 The Story of Caedmon 
 
 incredible. In short, on deliberate thought, one cannot but 
 look upon the story as so greatly embellished that the plain 
 ■warp and woof of simple, matter-of-fact truth is scarcely to be 
 discerned under the thick embroidery of imagination. 
 
 It is here that such expressions as those that follow strike 
 us as suggesting considerations which by no means ought to 
 be passed by on one side when we are trying to weigh the 
 exact amount of historical significance attaching to the story 
 of Caedmon as it is originally told. 
 
 "In investigating the lives of the fathers of the Columban 
 Church, and endeavouring to estimate the true character of 
 their mission, we have to encounter a very considerable 
 difficulty. They filled so large a space in the mind of the 
 people, and became in consequence the subject of so much 
 popular tradition, that the few authentic facts of their history 
 preserved to us became overlaid with spurious matter stamped 
 with the feelings and the prejudices of later periods ; and these 
 popular conceptions of the character and history of the saint 
 and his work were interwoven by each of his successive 
 biographers into their narrative of his life, till we are left with 
 a statement of their career partly true and partly fictitious, 
 and a false conception is thus formed of their character and 
 mission" (Odtk Scotland, ii. p. 79). 
 
 Written as this was with quite a different object, and 
 without a thought of its application to the story of Caedmon, 
 there is yet hardly a word in the paragraph that does not 
 accommodate itself to what we may descriptively designate the 
 Caedmon myth.i And it is not the less remarkable that it 
 seems to have been copied, or repeated (the names and locality 
 only being changed) again and again, — a thing that has 
 happened and as repeatedly with myths and legends vastly 
 more ancient than that of the Caedmonic inspiration. The 
 barest and briefest reference to the Scandinavian story of the 
 
 1 "The story of the manner of the -writing is pronounced commonly 
 and readily to be a myth" (Morley, i. p. 306). 
 
The facts of the Caedmon story accepted 23 
 
 poet Thorleifr, in this connection, must suffice. The goat- 
 herd Hallbiorn was pasturing his flock about the poet's cairn 
 or barrow, and struggling in vain to sing his praises. One 
 night he saw the hill open and a majestic figure issue from it, 
 which after touching his tongue with its finger retired again 
 into the hiU. Hallbiorn remembered the verses he had con- 
 ceived and became a poet himself. Now it is impossible not 
 to be struck with the coincidences between this story and 
 that of Caedmon ; only, as a written story, it is later by at 
 least three or four centuries. 
 
 Now, in assuming or asserting the idea that the story of 
 Caedmon as told by Baeda may be, almost certainly is, largely 
 mythical, not so much in its origin as in its general character- 
 istics, it is by no means intended to question its authenticity 
 throughout, and to relegate it to the same category as a fairy 
 tale or an Arthurian legend. That there are elements of 
 historical truth in it, and those of a distinctly interesting as 
 well as curious nature, we have already abundantly seen. 
 The coincidences between what is suggested by the terms 
 employed in the Anglo-Saxon version and the realities of 
 working agricultural life in those days, as faithfully and 
 graphically reproduced by the careful and critical modern 
 inquirer, "unintentional" as they may well be called, are 
 such as to suggest more than ordinary caution in the endeavour 
 to eliminate what is historical from the merely fanciful, 
 imaginative, or fabulous. And thus it is not meant — notwith- 
 standing modern misconceivings and fanciful additions — to 
 question the fact that there were festive gatherings among the 
 class that Caedmon must be taken to have belonged to ; but 
 only to indicate what grave reasons there are for coming to 
 the conclusion that the story as it is really delivered to us can 
 scarcely be a " plain, unvarnished tale," or a simple narrative 
 of certain facts as they actually occurred. No doubt there 
 were such parties then, as since, and as now. The very 
 existence of the word jfg&gorecipg— " beership," as I saw it 
 
24 The Story of Caedmon 
 
 rendered the other day — is suflBcient to assure us of that. And 
 no doubt, either, that music and singing, as well as the beer- 
 drinking, formed part of the entertainment. Nor can there 
 be any doubt that the itinerant musician, whatever his instru- 
 ment might chance to be, or the glee-maiden (whose name 
 remains in the A.-S. dictionary, as well as those of others 
 whose business it was to minister to popular tastes and popular 
 pleasures), had both place and opportunity for plying their 
 craft at other times and on other occasions besides great 
 public gatherings, or in the hospitable hall of the thane, the 
 lord, or some other great personage. And so it is not easy 
 to see why humbler performers should not find a welcome 
 among any company of Caedmon's compeers, and a share in 
 such good things as were to be had there. But to admit 
 this is a very different thing from subscribing to a belief 
 in any such " paradise of yeomen " as must be implied in 
 the meetings of accomplished boors and neatherds to which 
 Baeda's history of the Caedmon episode, taken literally, would 
 of course commit us. 
 
 There need be no doubt, however, that there was a basis 
 of truth, a nucleus of historical fact, to serve as the foundation 
 f OP" the narrative as we have it. I am aware that this is by 
 no means an uncontroverted view ; and that even the existence 
 of such a person as Caedmon has been gravely questioned. 
 But I find myself unable to believe that Baeda, living and 
 writing not so very much over half a century later than the 
 date of the events in question, can have made a mistake about 
 the name and personality of Caedmon, or the facts connected, 
 as alleged, with his poetic character and the uses made of his 
 productions. There was doubtless time for " fictitious state- 
 ments " and "false conceptions" to have been formed, but 
 hardly for the necessity of creating" a new origin for poems 
 which assuredly existed. For whether the poem or poems 
 which have remained to this day are rightly or wrongly 
 attributed to Caedmon is a matter of no moment in such a 
 
The nature of Caedmons " Inspiration " 25 
 
 question. Such poems existed then, and had to be accounted for. 
 And the difficulty of accounting for them on any other historical 
 principle than that adopted by Baeda is simply insuperable. 
 
 So then, on the whole, I believe in Oaedmon as a poet ; I 
 believe in him as a Whitby— at least, a Streoneshalh— poet ; 
 and I believe in him, for reasons I have yet to try and set 
 forth, as not only the poet that the times Avanted, but as being 
 recognised by the practical and clear-headed Hild as just the 
 man made to her hand. The old and hackneyed dictum, 
 "poeta nascitur, non fit," may have more meanings than one 
 only ; and equally so the application thereof may not always 
 be the same. It matters but little what we call the gift 
 possessed by Milton, by Shakespeare, by our lately -lost 
 Tennyson, or any other of the goodly band. I think it and 
 call it "heaven-born," as I do the like or analogous gifts 
 bestowed on hosts of other " gifted " men. And in this sense 
 I look upon the inspiration of Caedmon as something very 
 real indeed. Certainly, according to the apparently true parts 
 of the legend, it cannot, with any measure of truth or fitness, 
 be said that he " lisped in numbers and the numbers came '' ; 
 but so far from seeing any difficulty in recognising the " spirit " 
 latent under the "letter"' of that line, I see no other way 
 in which Caedmon's " heaven-born gift " could have been 
 attested. The "spirit" was there, and doubtless in such a 
 case as his — whether he were gebur or herd — the "groanings" 
 must have been "hard to be uttered." The case is strictly 
 analogous to that of the embryo astronomer who, an untaught 
 shepherd-lad, lay on his back amid his flock and measured the 
 distances between the stars by aid of a string of beads, or of 
 the nature-sprung painter whose first efforts at delineation 
 depended on a bit of charcoal and a whited board or wall. 
 The " gift " was in them, and it sought and found its natural 
 development. And who can number the illustrative instances 
 of the same kind which have repeated themselves from even 
 the very beginning of culture ? 
 
26 The Story of Caedmon 
 
 But there are other matters awaiting our consideration. 
 If we adopt the views expressed in the foregoing paragraphs, 
 it is obvious enough that the part played by Caedmon in the 
 great work projected and carried out by the able and energetic 
 Abbess of Streoneshalh may well have been a great and 
 important one. Given the fact that the lower classes among 
 the Anglo-Saxons — all, as a rule, agricultural workers — were 
 rude, ignorant, uncultured, superstitious, degraded and de- 
 based in modes of thought and practice, hardly half-converted 
 from the heathenism of their forefathers, indeed barely 
 Christian except in name, there was in truth a wide field for 
 Abbess Hild and others like-minded to labour in, and her 
 intelligent and wisely zealous fellow-labourers cannot have 
 been any too numerous. 
 
 The difficulty of effectually approaching such a collection 
 of possible disciples or catechumens must have been exceedingly 
 great. We know how indispensable the interpreter was even 
 at the Synod of Streoneshalh. The bishops, priests, and others 
 interested in the questions mooted there, who came from 
 Scotland, Ireland, France, — men who did not know the tongue 
 of the Angli, the northern English of the time, — required the 
 interpretation into their own tongues of the arguments and 
 suasives employed by the English speakers. But it must 
 needs be remembered that Hild's earlier intercourse had been 
 mainly with the so-called Scottish (really Irish in origin) 
 priests and prelates, and that not a few of her most strenuous 
 helpers hailed from the north. For a while, at least, home- 
 born and pure-speaking Englishmen would not be too numerous 
 among her immediate personal associates and auxiliaries. 
 And how, under such conditions, was she effectually to get at 
 what we might call " the masses " ? Missionaries nowadays 
 have their special training in the languages of the peoples among 
 whom it is intended that they should be set to work ; and as 
 a preparatory schooling it is by no means perfunctory or make- 
 believe. Hild could have had but few men so trained to help 
 
Hild's difficulties in reaching Field-workers 2; 
 
 her in her early years. And even if she had had, or when 
 she had begun to have them, where were what we may, for 
 illustration's sake, style her text-books, available for use 
 among such a growth in such a field of labour as hers, the 
 bulk of the learners being such as they have been described 
 to us as being? Of course oral teaching must have been the 
 rule of the day, as in all new mission-fields especially, and 
 without it not a step could have been taken, not a single lesson 
 inculcated. But there must have been much to strive and toil 
 over before systematic instruction in Christian principles and 
 Christian practice could have been efi'ectively organised and 
 initiated. 
 
 Yes : but this reminds us that the same means were open 
 to her as were resorted to by not a few contemporary 
 "makers" and "singers" for keeping alive the recollection of 
 great deeds, the illustrious descents of the doers of them ; 
 for ministering to the pleasure, gratification, entertainment of 
 the folk, the people, by aid of songs, lays, metrical legends, 
 or what not, of the existence and acceptableness of which we 
 are left in no doubt^ even if we go no further than what this 
 Caedmon story reveals to us. The " boors " themselves might 
 not be the tuneful singers, and the convivial " beership " might 
 not be furnished with minstrels for guests ; but if there had 
 been no lays and no minstrels available and accustomed at 
 such gatherings, most assuredly Baeda would have had no 
 materials out of which to construct and fashion forth such a 
 story as he has given us. 
 
 So that Hild too could recognise a suggestion in what was 
 in practice among her own dependents and field-workers. She 
 too might employ the method of the incisive, easily-remembered 
 alliterative measures and sentences of the heroic or mythical 
 or fabling romances of the day, only putting in the place of the 
 giant, the monster, the fen-drake, the mere-hag of the ordinary 
 lay, the Evil One with his hosts and his satellites. She too in 
 this way could tell of the death-struggle of the Hselende, the 
 
28 The Story of Caedmon 
 
 Eescuer, the Saviour, with the powers of sin and evil and him 
 that had the power of death. She too could go farther back 
 still, and tell how the strife began; she could tell of the origin 
 of all things and the cause of their being j-she could publish 
 abroad the absolute truth of the All-father, the All-embracing 
 Creator, the Author of life and health and hope, and what she 
 wanted was "the Sc6p," "the maker," "the poet," to grapple 
 with these themes, deal with them, and hand them back to 
 her in a form which should render them as self-recommendatory 
 as the old lays of the old makers and singers of stirring exploit 
 and daring venture. 
 
 And this was what Caedmon supplied in the time of her 
 experienced need of it. Strip the story of its romantic clothing 
 and covering, and the plain facts amount to this. A man 
 belonging to the human agricultural equipment of the "familia** 
 of which Streoneshalh formed the most important section ; a 
 man maybe more familiar with the wattled work, the horn- 
 garth-making, the diking and fencing or tyning the grouped 
 dwellings of the township, or the sheepfold of the lord (that 
 is, the Lady Abbess), or with the feeding and care-taking and 
 yoking of her plough-oxen, than with matters calling for more 
 culture or greater refinement ; a shy man, reserved, dwelling 
 on matters apart from the daily round of homely task and 
 occupation when the time for thought or reverie came ; a man 
 with but little in common with the tastes and likings of the 
 groups he mixed among or made one of ; a man who could 
 people the empty space, the yearning solitude of the dusk of 
 evening, or the prompting silence of the midnight darkness, 
 with things and beings and utterances as real as the offspring 
 of imagination actually is to the seer of such visions ; such a 
 man as this is found on some occasion or by some chance 
 discovery — perhaps finds himself : who shall say? — possessed 
 of a gift, a facility for stringing together line upon line, strophe 
 upon strophe, according to the accustomed models familiar to 
 the rough unpolished wassailers of his tm, and time. Nay, 
 
The actual probability in Caedmons story 29 
 
 more : I can see no difficulty in conceiving of such a man as I 
 have imagined actually leaving the geheor&d'pe, and far seeoma 
 moreover, under the uneasy consciousness of the nascent birth- 
 pangs of a possible utterance like in its fashion and form to 
 what he with the others had been listening to — like, yet 
 different ; and different mainly in the subject and in the treat- 
 ment. I can imagine him, as the rhythm and the recurring 
 letter -sounds throbbed in his still listening ears, involun- 
 tarily, almost unconsciously, laying word to word and cadence 
 to cadence, and waking from his preoccupation to a startling 
 consciousness that he too was unknowingly a Sc6p, a shaper 
 of thoughts in ordered words. I can imagine him at the 
 accustomed time composing his limbs to sleep, and the refusal 
 of his mind and his imagination besides to be composed 
 in like manner; and if he actually made some verses in 
 his sleep, he would not have been the first by many and 
 many a one to do the same, and certainly not the first nor the 
 last to remember some small part of his makings when he 
 awoke. 
 
 And I think I can see him as he was taken to the wise 
 and understanding Abbess when the discovery had been made ; 
 whether it had been made by himself or by some one else ; that 
 he, he too, — herdsman or geMr, it makes not a pin of difference 
 now, — was a maker of verses ; that in his own home-sprung, 
 home-like tongue he could frame them ; that he could soar to 
 the heaven above for his theme, instead of dwelling on fights 
 on the earth or conflicts with dread creatures of the fancy in 
 the waters under the earth. Well, then, I do not see him any 
 longer so much as the kindly, gracious, earnest lady before 
 whom he stands. I seem to see her features, — pale with the 
 paleness of thought, and care, and fasting and much prayer, 
 with her great share in the care of all the churches that were 
 within reach of her fostering help, counsel, experience, 
 pmdence ; pale with the anxieties of the nursing mother of 
 the ' childling Christianity in and around Streoneshalh, 
 
30 The Story of Caedmon 
 
 Hackness, and all East Cleveland, — flush up with a glad, 
 hopeful thankfulness as she recognises the tool made to her 
 hand for the more effectual working out of the great purposes 
 she had so nearly at heart. A homely poet had arisen, who 
 could frame his lays in the homely Anglo-Saxon speech, so as 
 to be understood by the homeliest boor ; marked, learnt, and 
 inwardly digested by the plainest of those who yoked the 
 patient Celtic-Shorthorn oxen, or guided the cumbrous, clumsy 
 plough ; or drank themselves stupid at the scot-ale, or church- 
 ale, or bride-ale gehedrsdpes of the t&n or the ham they belonged 
 to. I think I can see what would be the prevailing thought in 
 her mind, and the ultimately prevailing feeling in her heart, 
 and how, if she had put it into words then and there, no words 
 that she could think of would be much more to her purpose 
 than " Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant go forth in peace : 
 for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation which Thou hast 
 prepared for these my children." 
 
 But yet another matter for a little thought and con- 
 sideration suggests itself. Cultureless, sensual, degraded, 
 animal -like as we have seen but too much reason for 
 concluding the rank and file of the Anglo-Saxon community, 
 - — the actual hand -workers of it, at all events — to have 
 been, how was it likely, how was it possible even, that 
 one like unto Caedmon should have risen up from among 
 them? How came he to have the finer temperament, the 
 preference for the non-sensual, for the spiritualised rather 
 than the animalised, the mastery of mind over matter "! 
 whence came the power, or even the bare idea, of attempting 
 so to " lisp in numbers " ? 
 
 Here I could be well content to extract certain paragraphs, 
 if not even whole pages, from Mr. Stopford Brooke's remark- 
 able book on Early English Uleratwe — that part of it, namely, 
 which deals with Christian poetry and Caedmon's share in it 
 especially. The beauty of his style is so great, and the 
 imaginativeness of his descriptions so taking, that it is hard 
 
Impulses and Influences bearing on Caedmon 3 1 
 
 to be recalled to the contemplation of things as they were. 
 He speaks of "the influences which bore on Caedmon and 
 nourished his genius." "The actual poetry which we have 
 in Caedmon," he writes, "does not belong, I think, to the 
 inland moorland, but to the coast. ... A large number of 
 the monastic centres of the seventh century were situated 
 on the sea. Each sat on its promontory ' stern and wild,' 
 
 meet nurse for a poetic child. 
 
 They looked alike on the solemn moorland and on the 
 roaring sea. From Coldingham, from Lindisfarne, from 
 Tynemouth and Whitby, the moors, divided by brown and 
 rushing streams, stretched inland league after league, and 
 filled with their mystery the Angle and the Scot. On the 
 other side was their daily companion, the changing sea. . . . 
 AU the nameless passion of the sea and the stormy sky, of 
 the loud winds and white horses of the deep, of the black 
 clouds and the red lightning, entered day by day into the 
 life of those who watched the business and fury of the 
 elements from the edges of the cliffs; and the watchers 
 were men and women who had received the impress of 
 the sea and its love, not only from their Teutonic fore- 
 fathers, but from the Irish, whose tales are full of the great 
 waters, and who were as much children of the billows as 
 Beowulf and his men." 
 
 But there were other "impulses" and "influences" still 
 which this eloquent writer assumes to have "borne on 
 Caedmon" — influences and impulses which, according to 
 the tenor of his pages, we can hardly dissociate from 
 almost habitual intercourse with the great and elevated 
 and learned habiMs of the monastery. True, he supposes 
 Caedmon to have been "probably a heathen" originally, 
 and that " as a secular servant of the monastery he belonged 
 to the little fishing hamlet which lay at the foot of the cliff; 
 or that he accompanied Hild as a retainer from Hartlepool." 
 
The Story of Caedmon 
 
 The baptism of Hild by Paullinus, the familiar " glory of the 
 great King Eadwine"; his reburial at Streoneshalh, making 
 Whitby "the Westminster Abbey of Northumbria " ; the 
 burial of King Oswiu, and perhaps his queen Eanfleda, 
 in the same church, over whose tombs, great princes as 
 they were, "shone into Caedmon's eyes the national glory 
 of Northumbria." And "still deeper probably was the im- 
 pression made by the continual residence of ^Ifleda, whose 
 life in the monastery was bound up with the great victory 
 of Winwsed. . . . Nor was this all; Oswiu and the princes 
 of Northumbria were frequently at Whitby, and with them 
 may have come at one time or another Ecgfrith, who in 
 670 came to the throne of England when Caedmon ascended 
 the throne of Poetry." 
 
 Now all this, imaginative as it is, and poetically put, does 
 not commend itself to me as consistent with what we know of 
 the facts, or what is the equally certain aspect and condition 
 of the times. But there are other matters still in which I 
 find myself compelled to dissent from the views put forward 
 in this almost fascinating book. At p. 64 in the second 
 volume, I find the following deliverance of view: "The 
 mixture of races in Northumbria on which I have dwelt 
 was not, I should think, personally represented in Caedmon. 
 It is not likely that the family of one who lived in the midst 
 of the east coast of Deira had anything to do with Cymry or 
 Pict or Irish. But of course the whole influence of the Irish 
 spirit, thrilling with the emotions of Christianity, was con- 
 tinually around him. It was the spiritual air that he 
 breathed." Except as regards the influence of the Irish 
 (or, as usually called, Scotch) spirit, I am unable to assent 
 to these views of Mr. Brooke's. What he thinks not likely 
 I, on the contrary, look upon as much more than merely 
 likely. I do not look upon it as probable, or even possible, 
 that so clean a sweep could have been, made of the entire 
 Celtic population which, every smatterer in archeeology 
 
Philological character of the name Caedmon 33 
 
 knows, possessed this whole district into and after Roman 
 times, as that no traces even of its admixture with the races 
 that later still became dominant were likely to occur. I 
 flatly disbelieve in any such clean sweep ; and even if I 
 could admit its possibility, I should still fail to see how 
 either " Cymry, Pict, or Scot " was to be kept out : but in 
 fact we know that they were not excluded. 
 
 There is, however, another matter which is overlooked by 
 any one who makes or maintains the theory that Caedmon was 
 personally unaffected by the mixture of races in Northumbria. 
 His very name — what of IT % 
 
 Divers attempts have been made at divers times and by 
 divers derivationists to explain this name, which of course, like 
 aU other old names, must have had its meaning. But all of 
 them, from the Hebrew to the Anglo-Saxon, have proved to 
 be halting, limping, stumbling guesses. A reference of the 
 name to Cymric sources, however, almost if not quite 
 certainly dispels the difficulty. Mr. Henry Bradley's views 
 on the question will be found in the Dictionary of National 
 Biography, and I am permitted to quote the following from a 
 letter of that gentleman's (an old personal friend) now lying 
 open before me : " My notion about Caedmon is that it is 
 probably the Celtic name Catumanus; in modern Welsh, 
 Cadfan. Caed or Cead in Old English names occurs in 
 Ceadwalla, which is known by external evidence to be a 
 British name; and in Ceadbead, which is pretty certainly 
 of British origin. These are the only instances, except 
 Ceadda, which is probably a 'kurzname' for Ceadwalla, or 
 some other name of Celtic origin. I was gratified to find that 
 York Powell had independently arrived at the same conclusion, 
 though I don't know that he has printed it anywhere." 
 
 This letter was written in January of last year, and a few 
 days after I met Mr. Powell, who, in answer to my question, 
 " What do you make of Caedmon \ " replied immediately in 
 the words, "A Welshman." 
 
 D 
 
The Story of Caedmon 
 
 It is not simply that this conclusion is one of great 
 philological interest; there is something more than that 
 involved. There were things, Mr. Stopford Brooke says, 
 in Caedmon's daily and continued life - experience which 
 "would work even on a stupid soul; they would certainly 
 work on one in whom abode, though as yet in slumber, 
 the spark of genius.'' But what if the soul, so far from 
 being "stupid," was a soul in which dwelt the Celtic 
 temperament, to which fervid imagination, vivid fancy, were 
 not only no strangers but as native inhabitants ? What if we 
 are permitted, nay, constrained to think of the man as one in 
 whose veins coursed the blood of the race which furnished 
 forth the bards, the minstrels, the harpers, who were, in fact 
 and effect, such mighty as well as sweet singers, able to stir 
 the pulses of their countrymen with the force of their lays, 
 with the fire of their chants, and to send them to dare and 
 do and die, if need were, under the strange energy and in- 
 spiration of their bardic craft ? 
 
 To myself, I confess, the suggestion comes as one almost of 
 enlightenment as well as confirmation, in a place where both 
 were felt to be needed. 
 
MYTHS, LEGENDS, AND TEADITIONS 
 CONNECTED WITH WHITBY (continued) 
 
 b. THE HOENGAETH 
 
 The inquiry touching the Horngarth is of a very intricate, 
 difficult, and perplexing character. It is true it has hardly 
 been dealt with, on all occasions or by those who have written 
 about it, as such, but has rather been disposed of in a summary, 
 non-questioning, and debate-forbidding manner; as any one 
 may see who reads what is written in popular histories, hand- 
 books, and guides. This is natural enough for such as like 
 to take their history ready-made and without reference to the 
 actual sources of the history themselves, or without making 
 trial of the competency of their authorities, or the authenticity 
 of the statements made by them. 
 
 A case in point presents itself to our notice at the very 
 outset of any real inquiry into the origin or the nature of the 
 Horngarth itself; for Charlton, at p. 96 of his History of 
 Whitby, both misunderstands and misconstrues one of the 
 earliest and most important sources of information touching 
 the "service'' in question. What the charter he is dealing 
 with really says is that Abbot Benedict (who was Abbot for 
 ten years, and died in 1148) granted the vill and manor of 
 Dunsley to William de Percy (son of Eichard de Percy, who 
 was the founder's third son, and the original grantee under 
 the Abbey) in fee and hereditary possession, permitting him, 
 however, to commute the various services due from him thence 
 
36 The Horngarth 
 
 to the Abbey, the Horngarth only excepted, for two marks 
 annually. But the Horngarth was to continue to be made in 
 such proportion as appertained to his, William de Percy's 
 lands {ad suam ferrcm). Charlton translates this as "the 
 redemption of all service belonging thereto except making up 
 as much of the Horngarth as pertains to this land." The 
 substitution of "all" in the first place and "this" in the 
 second for the personal pronouns sui and suam is a bad 
 blunder from any point of view, schoolboy's or student's, but 
 especially so for any one who knows or cares for no other 
 authority save Charlton, or Charlton's like. 
 
 There is some uncertainty as to how Dunsley came into 
 the hands of the Percies — that is to say, the founder and his 
 son Alan ; as there is in regard to the lordship or possessor- 
 ship of most of the other Whitby lands which were not Percy 
 lands in the time of Domesday, but loere Percy lands at the 
 date of the Foundation. Thus, Dunsley was a part of the 
 Terra Eegis in 1086-87 ; but before the time of the William 
 de Percy, son of Alan and grandson of the founder, or in the 
 time of Henry I., it had become Percy land. 
 
 But whatever uncertainty of this kind there may be, there 
 is' none as to the fact that, at the time of the Domesday Survey, 
 Dunsley was returned as comprising three carucates ; and three 
 carucates there was no mean fraction of a " knight's fee " ; and 
 the " service " due from the tenens in capite on such an extent 
 would be far from inconsiderable. 
 
 With the sanction of both the Conqueror and his son, the 
 Red king — for both of them confirmed the Percy grants to 
 the Abbey — this territory was made over, with its dues and 
 with its rights, to the Abbot; and whatever became of the 
 military duties, or services, of which nothing will be said here, 
 the said dues and rights were, like the territory, far from 
 inconsiderable; and besides that, they were of sundry and 
 various kinds. All these the Abbot and Convent permitted, 
 first, Richard de Percy, third son of the founder, as has been 
 
Historical data as to the H orngarth 3 7 
 
 said, and second, his son William, to enjoy in consideration 
 of the commuted payment of two marks by the year : the one 
 exception as to commutation being the Horngarth ; which 
 service was to be made or done or rendered according to the 
 actual extent, whether by estimation or valuation, of the 
 Dunsley territory. This is what is not brought out by 
 Charlton's mode of dealing with the matter. 
 
 But neither is the fact, which by no means ought to be 
 lost sight of, and much less ignored or blinked, that William 
 de Percy, son of Richard (the first de Percy of Dunsley), held 
 the territory on the same conditions as his father had done ; 
 and that is, subject to the Horngarth service. But this brings 
 us to the beginning of the twelfth century at the latest, or 
 some two hundred years anterior to the era of the actual or 
 realised feudal manor. 
 
 In trying to deal with the general subject of the Horngarth, 
 the best method of procedure will be to pass in review all that 
 we really know about it from actual historical details or 
 references. 
 
 Clearly we have thus at once to try and discriminate 
 between what is historical and what is not ; and necessarily 
 we are met, at the very outset, with the question whether or 
 no the generally assumed connection of the so-called Penny- 
 hedge with the ancient Horngarth is a real one, or only 
 dependent on mere assumption. 
 
 The most recent professedly " historical " reference to the 
 subject is that made by Charlton in his Whifby History 
 (p. 125), wherein he states that "in these our days a printed 
 paper is, and has been for time immemorial, handed about 
 and sold in the town of Whitby, relating a transaction that 
 is said to have happened in the year 1159. As no copy of 
 this paper is to be found among our Abbey records, or in any 
 written deed now extant, it will be very difficult for us to 
 trace it to its original. Most probably it has had its rise 
 from the making up of the Horngarth." Farther on, he 
 
38 The Horngarth 
 
 proceeds, " We shall beg leave to present the reader with an 
 exact copy of this extraordinary paper," and he does so in 
 the hackneyed form of the legend, as always told. 
 
 Nevertheless, he makes no attempt whatever to "trace 
 it to its original." Either the "diflSculty" he alleges was 
 insurmountable, or, more probably, he saw no occasion to try 
 and overcome it. This historian's statement, then, amounts 
 merely to this : that there was, or had been no long time since, 
 a printed copy of the story, of a certain very measurable 
 antiquity (for " from time immemorial " in relation to a 
 " printed paper " is necessarily mere vague, meaningless 
 phraseology), but that there was no extant authority what- 
 ever for its authenticity or that of its contents. 
 
 Neither Charlton himself, nor his much abler and more 
 trustworthy successor. Dr. Young, strange to say, dwells upon 
 or even adverts to this most fatal objection to the his- 
 torical validity of the circumstances alleged as facts in the 
 narrative referred to. Certainly both of them expose the dis- 
 tinctly unhistoric nature of the statements delivered ; but both 
 equally fall into the gi'oss mistake of connecting the fictitious 
 Abbot's name — Sedman — with the poet's name, Caedmon; 
 averlooking or probably being ignorant of the fact that the 
 initial C in the latter name was, to all intents and purposes, 
 a K, and that, consequently, there was no more connection 
 between the two names than there is between that of the 
 captain who headed the Eevolt of Kent in 1450 (John Cade) 
 and our common English word " seed " — a circumstance quite 
 sufficient almost to date, and fully to expose, the precious 
 farrago of rubbish they were commenting upon. 
 
 Thus we see that the historical value of this "printed paper" 
 of Charlton's is absolutely nil, though it seems to establish 
 the existence or continuance of the making of the Horngarth 
 in some shape or form at the period of its own date. As to 
 that date, I think we may very safely set aside Charlton's 
 attribution of it to a "monkish origin"; he speaks of its 
 
The origin of the Penny Hedge Legend 39 
 
 author at p. 130 as "some conceited monk,'' and of the tale 
 itself on the following page as a "monkish legend." On the 
 slightest consideration of the facts, this is seen to be impossible 
 as well as absurd ; and there can be no difficulty about claim- 
 ing for it a very distinctly post-Dissolution date. By far the 
 most probable surmise is that it owed its origin to some pro- 
 fessional story-teller ; as, there can be no doubt, did the Henry 
 the Eighth legend of " Stormy Hall " at Danby, and that of 
 the " Beggar's Bridge " at Glaisdale. It would thus date from 
 the time when the said "professional" told stories which were 
 dressed up with local colouring, and introduced personal and 
 local names, in order to pay for his supper and his night' 
 lodging. Some with whom I have spoken on this topic have 
 proposed to set this professional's date about the beginning of 
 the sixteenth century : others, with whom I am more in accord, 
 prefer to make him at the least continue until after the close 
 of the reign of the eighth Henry, or from the middle to the 
 end of the century named. And with this, it may be added, 
 agree the other colourings and characteristics of the story. 
 
 That the story originated with some person or persons 
 utterly unacquainted with the real history of the Abbey, if not 
 with actual history generally, we may judge from the ignor- 
 ance manifested of the fact that, at the date alleged, the forest 
 of Whitby was a Eoyal forest, and by no means in the tenure 
 of the Abbot. It had been ceded (and no doubt for a con- 
 sideration ; of which more in another place) to King Henry I., 
 and was not restored or re-granted to the Abbey until John 
 had been some time king. Consequently they who hunted 
 the boar or anything else in Eskdaleside would have had, not 
 the Abbot of Whitby, but the king himself to reckon with. 
 The same want of historic knowledge is also shown by the 
 inventor's manifest ignorance of what a hermitage, at the date 
 assigned, really was ; of the functions of the hermit or hermits, 
 and of his or their relations or connection with the Abbot. 
 
 For my own part, I put this printed paper story down as 
 
40 The Horngarth 
 
 later in date than the questionable entry on the parchment 
 fly-leaf at the commencement of the Abbot's Book ^ or 
 Whitby Eegister, whichj as being of some importance, I 
 quote below at full length.^ Mr. Charlton, on the contrary, puts 
 it before the same, founding mainly, as it would appear, upon 
 what may have been merely the formal proclamation of the 
 making of the hedge or "garth." And he adds: "By the 
 blowing ' oute upon them ' it appears that our legend was now 
 invented." 8 
 
 ^ The Abbot's Book in reality is a Chartulary of the Abbey. It contains 
 a large number of copies, made (as the writing shows) at diflerent periods 
 of the Abbey's being, and made with care and fidelity, as comparison with 
 the other known compilation of the same sort, now in the British Museum, 
 sufficiently shows. The earliest writing in it is probably not later than 
 1170 to 1180, and is of an historical nature, but the greater proportion 
 belongs to the thirteenth century ; while some few pages do not antedate 
 the Dissolution by very many years. It is not. easy to overrate the import- 
 ance of these two Chartularies, or their value to any student occupying 
 himself with the ancient history of Whitby. 
 
 2 "Everie year the Horngarth service ys to be doone upon HoUie 
 Thursday evne. 
 
 Tho. Cockrill being baylyf to the abbot did meete by sonn Rise the 
 Conieres, the Strangwayes, the Eldringtones, and AUettson, who weere 
 bound to this service, in the Strye-head hard by Lyttell-beck, and the 
 said Cockrill did see every one cutt downe with a knyfe, he appoynting 
 the wood, so muche as should serve. From thence they caym not the 
 nearest way, but brinnging theym upon theyr backe, went a good way 
 before they caym in to the way. So comminge to the water at the towne 
 end they maid the hedg which should stand three tydes, and then the 
 officer did blow owte upon they." 
 
 ' There is yet another consideration, and by no means an unconnected 
 one, which is suggested by what is stated by Jamieson sm& uoce Hokn. 
 "To put to the horn," he says, "is to denounce as a rebel ; to outlaw a 
 person for not appearing in the court to which he is summoned. . . . The 
 phrase originates from the manner in which a person is denounced an out- 
 law. A king's messenger, legally empowered for this purpose, must give 
 three blasts with a horn, by which the person is understood to be pro- 
 claimed rebel to the king for contempt of his authority. . . . This form of 
 denouncing rebels was most likely introduced into Scotland from .the 
 ancient mode of raising the hue and cry. In this manner at least was'the 
 hue anciently raised : ' Gif ane man findes ane theif with the fang doand 
 him skaith ; incontinent he should raise the blast of ane home upon him ; 
 
Means of dating the nascent Legend 4 1 
 
 Any one acquainted with Blackstone's statement that 
 " Hue and cry {hutesium et clamor) is the old common law 
 process of pursuing, with horn and with voice, all felons and 
 such as have dangerously wounded another,'' or with the 
 Middle English " howtyn," to cry aloud, may possibly suspect 
 alike the origin of the " owte upon they " of the fly-leaf entry 
 under notice, and the fact of its dependence upon the mysterious 
 " printed paper " story. 
 
 I have printed the entry as it stands on the fly-leaf in the 
 Abbot's Book in the Whitby Chartulary, p. 341 (vol. i. near 
 the end), and I have appended the following note : " This is 
 an entry, one of two, on the reverse of the fly-leaf of parch- 
 ment at the commencement of the volume. It is in a hand as 
 late perhaps as the end of the sixteenth or the early part of 
 the seventeenth century, and its only value rests on the testi- 
 mony it bears to the fact that, at the date at which it was 
 written, the Horngarth service had become little or nothing 
 else than a mere empty or purposeless ceremony." If I had 
 had the same object as in this present writing, I might and 
 should have added that all the persons named in the entry under 
 notice are also named as holding office, lands, or tenements, 
 lately those of the not long since dissolved Abbey of "Whitby, 
 in the year 1540-41. Thomas Elryngton holds the manor of 
 Ugglebarnby; Thomas Cockerell and his son, like-named, 
 hold lands in Sleights or Eskdaleside, etc.; James Strang- 
 wayes, Esq., holds lands in Sneaton and elsewhere ; Conyers, 
 several of the name, but especially George and James, hold in 
 Stakesby, Kuswarp, and so forth; while Alletson, Alatson, 
 or Allettson (two of them) are holders or occupants in Filyng 
 
 and gif lie has not ane home, he should raise the shout with his mouth ; 
 and cry loudly that his neighbours may heare.' " Three blasts with the 
 horn to proclaim the defaulter, and, failing the horn, three cries, clamours, 
 Middle English "howtings" ; bat always if possible the three "blasts" 
 with the three "howtes." It is easy to see how, given the making of the 
 story or legend, the "horn" and the "out upon them" found a door of 
 admission. 
 
42 The Horngarth 
 
 and Filyng-Eaw. Give this fact due consideration, and the 
 coincidence of these names, both local and personal, is toler- 
 ably decisive as to the approximate date of this fly-leaf entry. 
 It must have been written before the iirst generation (so to 
 speak) of the holders, into whose hands the late Abbey lands 
 had fallen, had had time to die. The entry is necessarily 
 either made by a person duly authorised to insert such entries, 
 or it is intruded by one possessing neither right nor authority 
 so to act. In the former case it would be made before the 
 Dissolution, however short a time before, and would be 
 authentic, as far as it goes. If made after the Dissolution, it 
 might be made by any person into whose hands the manuscript 
 volume had fallen, and would then possess no authority at all. 
 In either case, however, it at least afibrds tangible evidence 
 that the Horngarth, absolutely so called, was still made during 
 the first half of the sixteenth century. 
 
 But further. It will be well to note with some precision 
 the lands which are connected with the personal names just 
 now mentioned, the occupants of which we have, in some 
 measure, thus been able to identify: They are principally 
 in Eskdaleside, Sleights, Ugglebarnby, Sneaton, Stakesby, 
 Kliswarp, and so forth. 
 
 Next let us notice that, in the year 1351, a certain William 
 Page, and others named as members of and acting on behalf 
 of the Community [Commonalte) of Whitby, contested (among 
 other matters) the exclusive right claimed by the Abbot 
 and Convent of Whitby to pasturage within the mmpi or 
 common-fields of Stakesby, Newham, Larpool, Whitby-lathes, 
 Lathegarth, and all land within the Acredike in the said vills ; 
 and that, in the issue, they fully acknowledge the fact of the 
 Conventual right so claimed. Furthermore, in the year 1354, 
 or three years later, Alexander de Lith drops all personal 
 actions instituted by or through him against the Abbot and 
 Convent, and at the same time releases and quitclaims to the 
 same all right and claim which he had, or might possibly have 
 
Meaning of the word " Garth " 43 
 
 had, to common of pasture within the Acregarth in the vills 
 of Whitby, Stakesby, Newham, Priestby, Soureby, Eisewarp, 
 Filyngs North and South, Stowpe, and Hackness. 
 
 Now, the lands thus specified are, except only the newly- 
 introduced Hackness, substantially identical with those pre- 
 viously mentioned in connection with the contested claim of 
 three years earlier, and with those named in the Horngarth 
 entry on the fly-leaf of the Abbot's Book, which we identified 
 by aid of the personal names involved in the same entry. 
 
 Moreover, it is abundantly clear that the terms Acredike 
 and Acregarth are synonymous and interchangeable, and that 
 the meaning is that of an enclosing fence, while the employ- 
 ment of the two terms is expressively instructive if we give 
 due attention to the force of the words employed. A dike is 
 an earthen bank, or a bank of earth and stones combined ; 
 while in the later Norse (or Icelandic) a garth is a fence of any 
 kind, — earth, stones, turves, posts and rails ; for all are specified 
 in the explanation of the word as given. The employment, 
 then, of the two words each to express or convey the same 
 idea, or the idea of the same object, shows the compound 
 nature of the object denoted — earth or turves below ; rails or 
 brushwood, or any so-called dead hedging on its crest. 
 
 Whether we are ready at once to admit the identity of the 
 Acredike or Acregarth with the Horngarth or not, surely one 
 thing is made suflBciently clear, and that is the meaning of the 
 element " garth " in the compound word Horngarth. Still it 
 is necessary to dwell upon this question for a space, because 
 there is such a perplexing uncertainty in the words, if not in 
 the minds, of all who have taken in hand to write about the 
 Horngarth, as to what the garth element of it really was. 
 Thus, Charlton at p. 96 says : " The Hornegarth seems to me 
 to have been a certain stake and yether hedge, made up in the 
 beginning of summer. ... It seems to have been intended 
 for a landing-place in that port." And again, at p. 128 he 
 writes : " While there was a harbour, and any use made thereof, 
 
44 The Horngarth 
 
 it was necessary that some part of it should be properly secured, 
 so that vessels might be built, repaired, or laid up therein, 
 and all kinds of merchandise or goods safely imported and 
 exported. Now this could not be done without having a garth 
 formed by a good fence, wherein fish might be dried and other 
 articles deposited without any danger of being injured by 
 horses, cows, sheep, goats, dogs, or any other kind of animals." 
 And to give but one other instance of this mental confusion 
 between the enclosing fence and the space enclosed and the 
 consequent inconsistencies and contradictions it introduces, in 
 Home's ?FAi% (rwirfe it is written (p. 18): " The Horngarth, 
 therefore, must have been some garth, yard, or enclosure, 
 fenced with wood, which the Abbot's homagers and tenants, 
 at least such as were near Whitby (!), were bound to repair 
 every year; and it probably received the name Horngarth 
 from their being assembled for that purpose at the blowing of 
 a horn. What was the use of this garth it is not easy to 
 describe. Perhaps it was the Abbot's coal-yard, where the 
 coals for the monastery were delivered and laid up."i 
 
 Not a few other accounts and "histories" of the same 
 character might be alleged ; but all the soi-disant " authorities " 
 responsible for them confuse the true idea of the old word 
 garth, meaning fence, with the modern idea of that which is 
 
 ' This is almost immediately followed by the following gratuitous and 
 equally unsupported statement that "it appears that long before the 
 dissolution of the monastery the use of this garth was superseded by the 
 erection of better yards and more substantial warehouses. Yet the Abbot 
 and Convent, ever jealous of their rights, still compelled such of their 
 tenants as did not purchase an exemption, to continue this annual service, 
 or at least the semblance of it ; and thus the shadow was retained while 
 the substance was gone." There is actually no scrap of authority for any 
 one of the statements made, or the assumptions implied, in the foregoing 
 paragraph. The "superseding" of an imaginary "garth, yard, or en- 
 closure" is in itself surely imaginary. The "better yards and more 
 substantial warehouses " are equally so. The compelling of the tenants 
 who did not "purchase an exemption" is, as a duly supported historical 
 fact, as much a hit of moonshine as the asserted purchasable exemption 
 itself. ^ 
 
Trite meaning of the word " Garth " 45 
 
 included or fenced in by the garth itself, the area enclosed, in 
 other words ; and hence they blunder on and on perpetually 
 and hopelessly. 
 
 It is scarcely possible, if we wish to form a true notion of 
 what the Horngarth service really was, to lay too much stress 
 on the point that the actual and philological meaning of garth in 
 both Acregarth and Horngarth is fence, whatever the material 
 employed in making it — earth, stones, wood, hedging-stuff, or 
 what not — and fence only ; and even, I think, it might be in- 
 sisted, without the idea of enclosure implied. The garth, 
 whether an enclosing garth or no, is a garth or fence still. 
 And the common -sense meaning of the words employed is 
 and must be consistent therewith. One can talk reason- 
 ably of "making up" a fence, or so much of it; but 
 hardly so of " making up " an area or superficial space. That 
 is made up of, or by, so many square feet or yards, perches 
 or roods, furlongs or acres ; but not by turves or earth, rails 
 and stoups, or brushwood. And consistent with this are both 
 the idea and the action involved alike in the name and the 
 fact of the somewhat farcical survival, as it is practically taken 
 to be, of the Horngarth, which is described as " the making " 
 or "the setting of the Penny Hedge." 
 
 Understood in any other sense than that advanced in the 
 foregoing paragraphs, such memoranda as those contained in 
 the document headed " Memorabilia inter Abbatem de Whitby 
 et Alexandrum de Sneton " become nonsensical and unintel- 
 ligible. It appears from the Fourth Article in this document 
 that Alexander's homines or dependants had been in the habit 
 of cutting down and taking away more of the Abbot's wood 
 than was requisite for the actual and sufficient making of the 
 Horngarth, and selling the surplus for their own profit ; and, 
 according to the new arrangement or settlement, this was for 
 the future to be obviated by providing for the delivery to 
 them, at the hands of the Abbot's own people (ministri), of 
 such a quantity only of wood as was judged by the said 
 
46 The Horngarth 
 
 ministri to be sufficient for the adequate making of the Horn- 
 garth; and any consequent defect in the "garth," should such 
 occur, in the case of too little wood having been supplied, was 
 to be considered as attributable to the Abbot and his men, 
 and not to Sir Alexander's homines. 
 
 Of course, there is but one way in which this is to be 
 understood; and it is quite decisive as to the nature of the 
 garth — that it was a fence, namely — and equally so as to its 
 quality or dimensions. These homines could hardly have got 
 into the habit of selling a few spare sticks only, and those, 
 moreover, the surplus of a small supply taken : nor, indeed, 
 could such sale have been made, or even twisted, so as to 
 assume the semblance of a substantial grievance. Surely it is 
 tolerably evident that the quantity of wood taken and used 
 in the making of the gmih or fence must have been sufficiently 
 large, when even the surplusage afforded an opportunity for 
 some considerable peculation. 
 
 But it should be carefully observed here, that the relations 
 between the Abbot and Sir Alexander de Percy had been very 
 seriously strained, this matter of the Horngarth roguery form- 
 ing but one of the points at issue between them. The evidence 
 in support of this assertion is very abundant and equally clear 
 and direct. The document just now referred to under the 
 title of " Memorabilia " between the two parties named, con- 
 tains no less than eight " articles " relating to matters which 
 had been subjects or sources of debate and contention between 
 them; while a cyrograph dated 16th January 1307^ (Whitby 
 Chartulary, ii. p. 415) testifies to the settlement of a controversy 
 between them, and to the relinquishing by Sir Alexander of 
 all actions brought by him against the Abbot, whether in the 
 King's Bench, or of any other nature. 
 
 The fact was, that Sir Alexander had been a ward of the 
 Abbot's, and for a period of several years. On the termina- 
 tion of the wardship or guardianship, de Percy accused the 
 ^ Almost certainly, it should be 1305. 
 
Sir A. de Percy a " ward" of the Abbot's 47 
 
 A'bbot of mismanaging his estates during his minority, and 
 indeed of something worse still,— of what, in fact, amounted to 
 malversation and peculation. 
 
 But there is no need for us to trouble ourselves over the 
 rights or wrongs in the case ; and the matter is not mentioned 
 here with any such intention. The fact of the wardship alone 
 has any concern for us. " If the heir were under age," says 
 Sir Frederick Pollock (LandAaws, p. 62), "the king or other 
 lord became the guardian of both the heir and the estate, and 
 rendered no account of the proiits, and on the heir's coming of 
 age a fine was payable to the guardian for quitting the land. 
 This privilege of the lord, in many cases a highly lucrative 
 one, was called wardship." We can easily see how this 
 relationship between the Abbot and Alexander de Percy may 
 have led to many complications and much unpleasantness. 
 But what we do not see so easily is how it was that the Abbot 
 came to have the wardship in this particular case. For the 
 fact that Sneaton was a part of the "fee" of the Abbot hardly 
 affords a full explanation of the fact that the Abbot was in the 
 possession of the rights of wardship over the young Alexander 
 when his father died and left him a minor (age fourteen) in 
 1294-95. Certainly his case is the only case of the sort we hear 
 of in connection with the Abbot of Whitby ; and the exercise 
 of what was usually the king's right in the case of his tenants 
 in capite, or that of the greater lords (possibly by permission of, 
 or deputation by, the king in the case of their subinf eudatories), 
 by one who was an ecclesiastic and held by frankalmoigne, 
 and not a lay lord, seems to call for comment and inquiry. 
 
 But we shall not pass very far in the track of inquiry 
 before we come upon the fact that the Abbot had the said 
 right in virtue of the "forinsecum servitium quod dicitur 
 Horngarth"^ — the extraneous or forinsec service which is 
 
 1 It is somewhat difEoult to find a satisfactory rendering for the phrase 
 "forinsecum servitium." The translation adopted by some is "foreign 
 service," which, bearing in mind the set of ideas always associated with 
 
48 The Horngarth 
 
 called the Horngarth — which was due to him among other 
 servitia in the lands wherein the said service is incident. In 
 an " Inquisitio ad quod damnum " taken at Whitby in the year 
 1325-26, to ascertain whether it would be to the damage of the 
 king or any one else if Gawayn de Thweng, parson (that is, 
 rector) of Lythum (Kirkleatham), is allowed to assign a certain 
 messuage, 6 tofts, 10 bovates, 18 acres of land, 3 acres of 
 meadow, 160 acres of wood, 12s. 6d. of annual rent, and half 
 a toft, in Dunsley, to the Abbey of Whitby, which several lots 
 are held of the said Abbey "per homagium et fidelitatem 
 et per forinsecum servitium quod dicitur Hornegarth," it is 
 immediately thereafter added "quod quidem servitium de 
 Horngarthe tribuit wardum et maritagium eisdem Abbati et 
 Conventui cum acciderit " (which service of Horngarth confers 
 on the said Abbot and Convent the right of wardship and 
 marriage whenever it befalls). 
 
 Now this is not only a very curious and interesting state- 
 ment, but to one who wishes to enter fully into the history of 
 the Horngarth, and to arrive at sound conclusions as to what 
 its nature and characteristics really were, exceedingly instruc- 
 tive. For assuredly it ceases to be anything that could be 
 adequately kept in mind even, and, much more, intelligibly 
 represented, by the sticking in of a few sticks, as according to 
 the Penny Hedge farce. On the contrary, it is something of 
 such dignity, of such weight and importance, that there is no 
 place beside it for the prerogative of the over-lord or even of the 
 king himself. It is the Horngarth itself, or at least the Horn- 
 garth right, which conveys and bestows the right of wardship 
 
 the word "foreign," is misleading as well as unsatisfactory. The ordinary 
 servitium was that which was due, or was rendered, to the lord from or 
 out of the lands of the home lordship or manor itself. The forimectim, on 
 the contrary, was what was due and rendered to the said lord from or out 
 of lands not within the limits or boundaries of the home or domestic 
 manor or lordship. "Extraneous " expresses this badly, but better than 
 "foreign" does. "Forinsec" is better still, and is now adopted by the 
 best authorities. 
 
Great antiquity of the Horngarth service 49 
 
 and marriage. And it seems absolutely clear that such condi- 
 tions are not in any sense " manorial " in the later sense of 
 the word, or dependent on the manor as the " manor " became 
 eventually developed and disposed. 
 
 This is certainly a strong commentary upon a sentence 
 from one of the latest and most far-seeing writers on the 
 subject of "The English Manor" (Dr. 0. MacLean Andrews). 
 At p. 146 we find him saying : " There certainly has been too 
 strong a feeling among scholars that the Norman Conquest 
 was a great economic dividing line, and that the condition of 
 local life found in the year 1000 was of no practical import- 
 ance in understanding the latter economic history. . . . For 
 we have," to quote further words by the same writer, " now dis- 
 covered that the manor grew according to some definable 
 process from primitive conditions, and that it did not cease to 
 undergo change and modification with the year 1000 " ; and 
 thus, in the matter of the Horngarth, we must clearly look for 
 an origin in the years preceding — almost certainly far preced- 
 ing — the year named, and not in the years later, and least of 
 all in the years as late as even the' commencement of the 
 thirteenth century. 
 
 In the way of a brief riswmi of the historical notices of the 
 Horngarth as they are given us in the various ancient records 
 connected with Whitby, I will first of all mention that, quite 
 early in the century last mentioned, Eoger Burigan or Brun, 
 father-in-law of Henry, son of Simon Escrop, le Scrope, or 
 Scrope (of the family who became afterwards the Scropes of 
 Bolton and Masham), conceded and confirmed to Abbot Eoger 
 a bovate of land in North Fieling, but undertook himself to 
 make good the " firma et servitium de Hornegarth " to which 
 the said bovate was liable, as well as all other services thence 
 due, out of the rest of his tenement in the vill aforesaid. 
 From several other like sources we know that the Horngarth 
 service was incumbent on the Fyling lands, and from a charter 
 of Alan de Percy's (son of the founder) we know that the 
 
 E 
 
50 The Horngarth 
 
 Fyling lands (both North and South Fyling), together with 
 Normanby and Hauchesgard (Hawsker), became part and 
 parcel of the endowment of the Abbey through the channel of 
 purchase from Tancred the Fleming effected by William de 
 Percy, first Abbot of the monastery, ratified and confirmed 
 by Alan de Percy himself. This was as early as quite the 
 beginning of the twelfth century, probably before the year 
 1110. And as we are quite certain that the Horngarth service 
 was not imposed on these lands subsequently to this purchase, 
 the equally certain deduction is that Abbot William bought 
 the vills named subject to this " firma et servitium." 
 
 Again, within thirty years of the same date. Abbot 
 Benedict granted Dunsley, in hereditary fee, to William de 
 Percy, grandson of the founder, in succession to his father, 
 Eichard, who had been the first grantee (c. 1095) under the 
 Abbey ; the annual acknowledgment to be paid by him being 
 two marks, in redemption of the various services due from the 
 vill, excepting only the Horngarth to the extent to which it 
 was due, or incident on the lands concerned. 
 
 Yet again, Eichard,~the second Abbot of that name, who 
 succeeded to the dignity in or about the year 1176 or 1177, 
 grants and restores in hereditary fee to William de Everley, 
 the vills of Ugglebarnby and Everley, the acknowledgment 
 to be rendered by the grantee being eleven shillings yearly, 
 with certain boon-services to be performed with a given 
 number of men from each of the two vills, and to make his 
 due or proper proportion of the Horngarth in the accustomed 
 manner. 
 
 Now these are very early instances of the existence and 
 incidence of the service in question, and, admitting that, when 
 Abbot William acquired the Fyling territory, that territory 
 was as much subject to such service as to the other services 
 due and exacted within its limits, there is no reason whatever 
 for questioning the conclusion that the Horngarth service was 
 of earlier date than the reconstituted and re-endowed Abbey 
 
The term "Horngartk" regarded philologically 51 
 
 itseK, or that, in other words, it must date back to pre-Con- 
 quest times. 
 
 And indeed there should be no more difficulty in admitting 
 this than there is in admitting that all the other services, 
 demands, exactions, of whatever nature or kind, of which 
 mention, or to which reference, is made in these elder docu- 
 ments, had existed in pre-Conquest times, — a conclusion 
 to which few can be found to object at the time in which 
 we live. 
 
 And it is here that our knowledge of pre-Conquest services, 
 customary payments, dues, what-not, stands us in good stead 
 for our, at least, inferential instruction in the matter of the 
 Horngarth service. 
 
 But before we proceed to the comparison or collation thus 
 suggested, it may not be amiss to remark that the term 
 "Horngarth" itself is essentially a pre-Conquest term. I 
 mean that, on analysis, it is seen to be " Old Danish " in both 
 its parts. Touching the part or element " garth " it is un- 
 necessary to repeat what has been already said, a little above, 
 relatively to its source and meaning. It is simply an Old 
 Danish term which conveys the meaning " fence," of whatso- 
 ever materials, and in whatsoever manner, constructed. But 
 the first element is no less Old Danish than the second ; and 
 its meaning is simply "cattle, horned stock." Thus, the 
 Swedish Dialect Dictionary gives as the second meaning of 
 the word horn, as " horn-boskap," a word which is literally trans- 
 lated by the English phrase just employed, " horned stock," 
 or oxen, bulls, and cows ; while in Old Swedish, not only does 
 horn signify horned animals or oxen, but the phrase horn och 
 hof (horn and hoof) denotes oxen and horses collectively. The 
 compound word harngata, also, is the way or track along which 
 the creatures in question are driven or proceed ; while the 
 Anglo-Saxon horngild, meaning the tax exacted on horned 
 stock, is quoted by the Swedish Lexicographer as illustrative 
 of the word he is explaining. 
 
52 The Horngarth 
 
 The pre-Conquest meaning, then, of horngarth is most 
 clearly "horned-stock-fence"; a fence, namely, that would 
 turn oxen and cows. 
 
 Thus confirmed in our view that the Horngarth itself is of 
 pre-Conquest origin, let us turn to the sources of information 
 just now adverted to. 
 
 There is a remarkable document which is justly assumed 
 to date from the tenth century, and its Latin translation to 
 the thirteenth, which is entitled " Eectitudines Singularum 
 Personarum," or the services due from each several person in 
 the community connected with the land. It begins with the 
 thegn or thane, and proceeds with the geneat, or, as he was 
 called in later times, the villein or villain. Third comes the 
 cotsetla, cottar or cottier ; and after him the geMr ^ or husband- 
 man ; and beyond this, for our special purpose, we need not 
 proceed. To us any notice of what is said about the oxherd, 
 cowherd, shepherd, goatherd, and so forth, is quite un- 
 necessary. 
 
 As to the services for which the Thegn was responsible, at 
 least so far as they are limited by the scope of the present 
 inquiry, they were not the same on all lands, or estates 
 "(if that phrase be preferred) ; but on some, among the excep- 
 tional services specified, is "deer-hedging at the king's 
 command." What the precise nature or object of the 
 deor-hege actually was is only conjectural ; but doubtless, 
 says Dr. Andrews (p. 127), "it involved the construction 
 and maintenance of the fence or hedge surrounding the 
 king's hunting park. This, we know, was of so great an 
 extent that -it was often contiguous to or even embraced 
 
 1 There is a difficulty about fixing the precise meaning of the word 
 geMr, and it has been the subject of much discussion, as well as a rather 
 wide diversity of opinion. Perhaps the prevalent view is that the geb^r 
 was the representative of the main body of Anglo-Saxon men who 
 were bound to the tillage of the laud. "Husbandman," from this and 
 other considerations, seems to be a fairly satisfactory as well as reasonable 
 equivalent. 
 
Hedge-making important in ancient " services "53 
 
 portions of land held by large numbers of the country 
 Thegns." 
 
 As to the services due from the geneat, we may note that 
 one of them was to do a share in making the deor-hege, by hewing 
 and setting the stakes and other wooden constituents ; to keep 
 ward of the said hedge when made ; or, in other words, to 
 see to its being kept in a state of repair, whenever and wher- 
 ever necessary ; as well as to build and maintain the hedge 
 or fence around the hurh or manorial dwelling and its out- 
 buildings. 
 
 The cotsetla, or cottar, was, whenever bidden, to acquit his 
 lord's "inland" or demesnelands of certain important services — 
 that is to say, if the lord desired or required him, he took 
 upon himself certain duties which belonged to the lord as 
 holding his land by charter ; and among other things, was the 
 service of working at or upon the king's deor-hege. 
 
 Even if my space allowed me to quote in full the passages 
 from which the above notes are extracted, it would still, I think, 
 be difficult to overlook entirely the repeated mention that is 
 made of hedge-making, which, as we have seen, forms the 
 staple of the selections just actually given. The Thegn was 
 answerable to the king in certain cases for such and such 
 proportions of the specified work; he had to make or 
 cause to be made so much of a hedge or fence. But to him- 
 self were answerable those who lived under him or held land 
 of him ; and not merely for one kind or class of hedging, but 
 for diverse kinds. The geneat must make and repair the deer- 
 hedge, and must also, in his own proper order and proportion, 
 sustain the fence of wood, living or dead, with which the hurh 
 itself was protected ; in short, he must do the " tyning " or 
 fencing-in with stoup or stake, and wattle or brush, which 
 constituted the t4n so familiar in our English ears as the final 
 syllable in so many of our commonest place-names. Again, 
 the simple cottar — the holder of a cot only, with four or per- 
 haps five acres of the soil — must also at his lord's behest 
 
54 The Horngarth 
 
 give his service at the rearing and maintaining of the royal 
 deer-hedge. 1 
 
 ^ That hedge-work was very real work may he seen from the following 
 extract from Fitzherbert's Husbandry, p. 79 : " Thou musts gette the 
 stakes of the harte of oke, for those be best ; orabtre, blacke-thorne and 
 ellore be good. Reed wethy is beste in marsshe ground ; asshe, maple, 
 hasel, and white thorne wyl serve for a time. And sette thy stakes within 
 ij foote and a halfe together, excepte thou have very good edderynge 
 and longe, to bynde with. And if it be duble eddered it is moche the 
 better and gret strength to the hedge, and moche longer it will laste. 
 And lay thy small trouse or thornes that thou hedgest withal over thy 
 quickset, that shepe do not eat the spring nor buddes of thy settes. Let 
 thy stakes be well driven that the point take the hard erthe. And whan 
 thou hast made thy hedge and eddered it well, than take thy malle agayne 
 and drive downe thy edderinges, and also thy stakes by and by. For with 
 the wyndynge of the edderynges thou doost leuse thy stakes ; and there- 
 fore they must nedes be driven newe, and hardened agayne, and the better 
 the stake will be driven whan he is well bounden. " Perhaps too it may 
 aid in the conception of what an ancient }iege, haga, haya, or hedge, was 
 if I mention a local feature of that description still extant — at least, in 
 part — in this immediate vicinity. I call it ancient, for it is known to have 
 been in being in the year 1119, and the safe presumption is that, even then, 
 it was not of recent origin. Its name was Ernaldi haya, but who or what 
 Ernaldus was, — except that he was the holder of a great estate, and much 
 given to what we should call " public works," for he left a semita or public 
 road or way such as roads or highways then were, also named from him 
 "Ernaldi semita," — we do not know. But his haya remains, as far as 
 the bank part of it is concerned, extending to a length of scarcely less, and 
 perhaps more, than two miles. The bank is still more than 5 feet in 
 height, and must originally have been at least 6| feet to 7 feet high, by 
 a basal width of not less than 12 feet. This gigantic bank was of 
 course topped with a fence of wood,— a "dry fence," in our terms. It 
 begins at a water-coiirse and stretches its huge length along until it 
 comes to a place where another and smaller water-course comes in, partly 
 oozing nowadays from a morass or bog which must have been an eifeo- 
 tual barrier in the old days, and where this ceases there still remain the 
 ample and convincing evidences that a carefully -made stone dyke or 
 dry wall continued the barrier for nearly as far as the bank and boggy 
 boundary had already proceeded. This great work had been a part, and a 
 part only, of the hedge-making and dyking which Ernald's geneats, gehUrs, 
 and cotsetlas had had to execute in virtue of the several services they owed 
 their lord. Moreover, this was one only of three hayas mentioned in the 
 same document, other two being within the parish of Skelton, and this in a 
 township of the parish of Guisborough. There is but little suspicion 
 
Reasonable conclusion from the premises 5 5 
 
 With what has been thus brought forward we will collate 
 the following extracts from the " Consuetudines Cotariorum 
 de Hakenes," printed in the second volume of the Whithy 
 Ghartulary (pp. 365 et seq.), merely premising that divers 
 other places besides Hackness are referred to. Every bondus, 
 — the bondus being apparently identifiable with the gebUr (if not 
 the geneat) of previous paragraphs, — every bondus of Silfhow, 
 fifty-four of them in all, each holding a bovate of land, is 
 bound to make his proportion of the fence or hedge around 
 the Abbot's orchard ; to do the same at the Abbot's bercaria 
 or sheepfold, and to wattle the walls of the grange with pliable 
 rods, called virgce in the entry, and identical with the " yethers " 
 or " yedders " of the Penny Hedge story or the " edderynge " 
 in the preceding note. All the Suffield bondi were under the 
 same liability, as were also the bondi of Dales. The bondi of 
 Hackness, moreover, were to take part in making the Abbot's 
 bercaria or sheepfold within the township (the Abbot finding 
 the material of green and dry wood), and were to keep it in 
 repair. Over and above all these services due in divers locali- 
 ties, and all of them involving more or less of labour of the 
 hedge or fence-making kind, every bondus of Newham (New- 
 holm, near Whitby), thirty-five of them in all, and each hold- 
 ing two bovates, was to aid in making the Horngarth as well 
 as render other services at the Abbot's will ; while precisely 
 the same held good with respect to the bondi of Staynseker. 
 
 We can hardly pass all these facts and circumstances in 
 review, and avoid the conclusion that these special services 
 entailed on the agricultural operatives of the series of lord- 
 ships or manors grouped together under the headship of the 
 Abbot of Whitby were, not the survivals merely, but the actual 
 and legitimate descendants of the services which were incum- 
 bent on the corresponding classes of operatives in the times of 
 
 generally of the extent to whicli the survivals of the agricultural under- 
 takings of our far-away predecessors still remain among us, craving for 
 notice and recognition. 
 
56 The Horngarth 
 
 what is known as the Anglo-Saxon rule ; that, in point of fact, 
 they prevailed under the rule of the restored Monastery as 
 they had prevailed, if not because they had prevailed ; when 
 Abbess Hild filled the position of Capitalis dominus in Whitby 
 itself, and in the lands that were then grouped together under 
 her headship and dominion, as the then " lord." For, as we 
 remember, it was to her that the Mngerdfa was responsible, 
 and made his business and other reports. And, indeed, it is 
 not a little suggestive to learn that it was this official, and no 
 clerical or ecclesiastical person, who conducted Caedmon to her 
 presence, and gave her the first details touching the oxherd- 
 or geMr-poet's "inspiration." 
 
 But admitting what has been so far advanced, and suppos- 
 ing Caedmon to have been a geb&r rather than a neat-herd 
 (as there is certainly some show of reason for accepting as a 
 possibility), who will be found adventurous enough to deny that, 
 in the days preceding the development of his poetic faculty, his 
 hands may have been actually and literally employed in the 
 making of the Horngarth itself? Indeed, on the premises, I 
 hardly see how we can come to any other conclusion. 
 
 On the whole, then, I am unable to regard the Horngarth 
 in any other light than as the continuance of a service the 
 first historic starting-point for which, as far as we know, is 
 approximately coincident with the epoch of St. Hild's acquisi- 
 tion of the Whitby familice or concessory lands. The name 
 through which we know of it may be, and is, of later origin. 
 But so is the name of Whitby itself. As things are, we do not 
 know too much about the appellation Streoneshalh, although 
 we may possibly infer or deduce something. But we do know 
 that it was superseded by the name Whitby. It is possible 
 that, in like manner, " horngarth " replaced a name which 
 was, in some sense, a parallel to the name Streoneshalh, 
 — a name which perhaps embodied the element hege,— although. 
 it is scarcely likely that deorhege was the full word to be 
 replaced ; neathege or even IwifSerhege was more likely than that. 
 
Reasonable conclusions from the, preceding 57 
 
 That the nature of the Homgarth is indicated by the name 
 itself, as interpreted above, — and that it is as indisputably 
 an "Old Danish" phrase or term, — hardly allows room for 
 discussion. For the idea that the element horrn meant, or had 
 any connection with, the horn that can be blown, involves so 
 many and such inconsistencies and absurdities that it could 
 hardly have obtained acceptance except in what was known 
 at first to be merely a legend which had obtained popular 
 recognition. 
 
WHITBY AND THE DISTEICT IT BELONGS TO, 
 
 BEFOEE THE NAME OF CLEVELAND 
 
 WAS GIVEN 
 
 No little of the interest connected with Ancient Whitby, 
 and more especially with Old Whitby, centres rather in its 
 associations than in the place itself. And it is remarkable 
 how many and how diversified these associations are, and 
 with how many ages and with how many matters they connect 
 themselves. 
 
 In all the long years of her historical existence, Whitby, 
 or her Anglian predecessor, has never for long stood isolated, 
 or without practical influence affecting a far wider area than 
 merely her own immediate precincts. The part she played 
 in fostering the renascent Christianity of Northumbria during 
 the epoch of Abbess Hild's personal labours and those of her 
 immediate disciples and followers, is scarcely to be calculated. 
 Then again, in the flourishing town and port she became under 
 the sway of the strenuous Danes, and particularly as the 
 place of principal resort for political and religious reunion 
 among those sturdy and energetic settlers, Whitby un- 
 questionably had a vast and effective pre-eminence through- 
 out the whole of the district called Cleveland by Danish 
 speakers. And later yet, when the renovated Abbey had 
 begun to exercise in the minds of all the dwellers in the 
 district west of her a superiority like to that held by her 
 glorious church over all other buildings whatsoever, whether 
 in the town or in the country, it is hard to say within what 
 
The name " Cleveland" not ancient 59 
 
 limits her influence would cease to be actively operative. At, 
 and soon after, tte Dissolution, no doubt, she would be like 
 other places whose chief dependence and glory had departed. 
 But no very long time passes before Whitby is yet once again 
 a port with shipping and trade, and one enterprise leads on 
 to another, and shipping and trade and enterprise do not 
 allow their source and starting-point to be nameless, or with- 
 out a bearing upon other places in the vicinity and the people 
 living in them. 
 
 Thinking thus, it is hardly possible to write or speak of 
 Old Whitby as if all the interests concerned centred in or 
 circled round Whitby itself or Whitby alone. In any retro- 
 spective glance Whitby can only be viewed as a part of a 
 larger whole, and associated with the rest by the common 
 bonds of general condition and experience. Whatever the 
 remainder of the district now called Cleveland may have been, 
 whatever its condition, its status, its modes of living were, 
 such, allowing only for the differences introduced by proximity 
 to the sea, was what is now Whitby, and such also were its 
 daily, or casual, or more permanent habitudes and experiences. 
 
 It may, and at first sight it does, seem strange to us that 
 such a district as Cleveland now is should have been, as far 
 as we know, unmarked by any ancient name. In reality, 
 however, it would rather have been remarkable, in the general 
 absence of like local names of absolutely ancient origin, if it 
 had been otherwise. The few distinguishing appellatives of 
 that class remaining are the general names of provinces, and 
 by no means of merely local districts. And, besides, other 
 reasons explanatory of the circumstance that no name belong- 
 ing to the same category as Streoneshalh should have left any 
 reminiscence behind it, are not slow to suggest themselves. 
 
 The name Cleveland itself can hardly have been formed 
 or spoken before the ninth or tenth century, and certainly 
 cannot have become a geographical designation, recognised 
 and accepted as such, until late in the period last named; 
 
6o Ancieiit Whitby and the District 
 
 although, at a time when all names meant something and 
 were understood accordingly, it could have needed nothing 
 but publication to ensure its recognition and acceptance. Like 
 SMi^aborg, the burg or stronghold of the steep-faced cliff, it 
 was too happily descriptive not to be adopted when once 
 suggested. Kliflond or KlifsHmd — how could the contour of 
 the coast-line of country designated be more happily represented 
 to the mind ! 
 
 And yet there may be reasons why what has been called 
 Cleveland for near upon ten centuries not only may but must 
 have had a name before the time of its re-christening by the 
 Danish or Norwegian invaders. It was peopled, perhaps not 
 very sparsely, probably throughout both the earlier and later 
 Bronze periods. Then, again, there is evidence to justify the 
 presumption that it was visited, perhaps in part occupied or 
 dwelt in, by Teutonic crews or communities in the early 
 centuries. Certainly it had been regarded by the Roman 
 masters of the Island as possessing important strategical 
 features, and as consequently calling for the construction 
 and maintenance of a military road into and through it, and 
 also of similar (if less elaborate) means of intercommunication 
 in the interior, parallel to the coast-line. 
 
 All these statements admit of adequate or satisfactory 
 substantiation. The barrows which have been scattered 
 broadcast over all the high grounds of the district — no un- 
 important section of the whole — the very numerous and, 
 some of them, elaborate earthworks that score the country- 
 surface and make conspicuous its defensible places and natural 
 strongholds, both alike tend to prove that the Ancient British 
 occupancy was considerable alike in duration, in amount, and 
 in importance. From some of the larger barrows as many as 
 eight or ten, and in one instance sixteen, cinerary vases have 
 been taken; and that, besides other interments in the same 
 houes which were unaccompanied by the customary urn. 
 And while these larger burial -hills have been exceedingly 
 
Testimony of Earthworks and Grave-mounds 6 1 
 
 numerous on almost all the high grounds in the district, 
 the smaller mounds of 12 or 15 feet only in diameter, each 
 of which has covered the body of an ancient inhabitant, 
 have been as ten or perhaps even twenty to one of the more 
 imposing-looking monuments of the class they belong to. 
 
 The testimony of the earthworks, and especially when 
 allowance is made for such as have been obliterated by 
 agricultural and other more modern operations, is to the same 
 effect. Passing by the great defensive work at Eston Nab, 
 and the almost more interesting, although smaller, hill-forts, 
 such as those at Castle Levington, Easby Castle Hill, Girsby 
 Castle Hill, and other places, the way in which all the tongues 
 of lofty moorland which stretch down in their grand elevation 
 into the valley of the Esk on its southern side, creating the 
 Cleveland dales by the fact of their own being, are scored 
 across with single lines, or by a more compound work of foss 
 and vaUum (doubled or trebled in some instances), is both 
 remarkable and significant ; and what they reveal seems to be 
 not merely that they were intended to be defensive against 
 attack from the south, but (what is more to our present 
 purpose) that they were constructed at such cost of effort and 
 toil and perseverance as could have been available only as the 
 result of concert and combination on the part of a not scanty 
 population, united alike in the toil of constructing and in the 
 resolution to defend a series of works which has to be measured 
 by miles rather than by furlongs merely. 
 
 I make no attempt here to assign even an approximate date 
 to these earthworks further than by assuming that they are 
 probably coeval with the earlier section of the grave-mounds. 
 As to these latter, however, their construction and their con- 
 tents, the case is somewhat diflferent. All the burials in them, 
 almost entirely without exception, and amounting to a very 
 large aggregate number, were after cremation and not by 
 inhumation. Personally, I have met with but one instance of 
 the latter ; and even in that case the grave had been dug 
 
62 Ancient Whitby and the District 
 
 through a previous houe, which had been raised to cover a 
 cremated body. 
 
 It is, however, none the less true that articles, mainly 
 associated with such burials as are most frequently accompanied 
 by objects of bronze, and of such a character as to be unhesi- 
 tatingly assigned to the Bronze period, have been met with in 
 several of the barrows under comment. I have myself taken 
 three finely-moulded and nicely-polished axe-hammers from 
 grave-hills on the Danby and Skelton moors ; one of them from 
 an original interment, the other two from secondary or inserted 
 deposits. One of these was from a barrow which had been so 
 often added to and so much re-fashioned that the true centre, 
 with originally a very archaic deposit, had been completely 
 lost sight of. And in another instance there were found the 
 most unquestionable evidences of four successive epochs of 
 burial, the latest being accompanied with three jet beads of 
 the rudest workmanship I have ever met with. 
 
 So that, while it is clear that the Bronze period is repre- 
 sented in our Cleveland grave-hills, on the other hand, it is 
 abundantly apparent that the great bulk of the larger barrows, 
 and presumably all the almost innumerable smaller hills in 
 which nothing but fragments of unwrought flint and small 
 pieces of charcoal is found, must be referred for their con- 
 struction to the period which witnessed the possibly tardy 
 introduction of this metal into this remote district. 
 
 On the whole, no other conclusion seems to be possible 
 but that, speaking generally, in Ancient British times, down 
 to the epoch in which metal had become (at least, in other and 
 less isolated districts) an article in common use, the population 
 of the district was anything but scanty; and, .besides, was 
 capable of executing large works that could only have been 
 designed and much more executed under a system of distinct 
 civil and political combination. 
 
 Continuing to advance, as time advances, in our notice of 
 Cleveland experiences, and with a leap that possibly covers 
 
Why was the Roman Road constructed ? 63 
 
 more than a century or two, so as to arrive at the period of 
 Roman domination, we encounter facts that have been gener- 
 ally passed over with very much less attention than they 
 deserve and indeed demand ; for their significance cannot but 
 be considerable both in amount and importance. What I refer 
 to more particularly is the fact that there is a Roman Road 
 through the eastern part of the district, and the further fact — 
 singularly remarkable as taken in connection with the cir- 
 cumstance that such a road existed and exists — that not only 
 are there no traces of any Roman settlement in the interior of 
 the country, but an almost entire absence of any Roman 
 remains whatever. It is remarkable too that, of the few 
 Roman finds recorded, the most have been met with on or 
 near the line of the military road named, or at certain points 
 at or near the sea-coast. Practically, at the date of the Roman 
 occupation, so far as indications to the contrary are concerned, 
 Cleveland — at least, the eastern part of it — must have been 
 almost a desolate, uninhabited wilderness with one, possibly 
 a second, practicable route through it, made and maintained 
 at cost, and with effort and determination by the soldiers of 
 Imperial Rome. 
 
 The question will suggest itself, " Why was this cost, this 
 serious expenditure of effort and pertinacity, deliberately 
 incurred^ Why was this carefully-devised and engineered 
 and massively-constructed road projected, executed, and per- 
 manently maintained and defended % " Obviously, under the 
 circumstances already specified, the objective purpose and end 
 could only have been found at the terminus of the road. 
 Obviously again, as the one port of the coast to which the 
 road indisputably tends, namely, Whitby itself, is deliberately 
 passed by, at a distance of three miles and more, the object 
 was not to open or maintain communication with a harbour ; 
 and indeed a harbour on that coast would seem to have been, 
 from a military point of view, but of very little use. 
 
 Hence, then, it becomes apparent that the object must have 
 
64 Ancient Whitby and the District 
 
 been one limited by the line of the coast itself ; and it is at 
 this point that the Eoman finds adverted to become so 
 singularly significant. At two places, one on either side of 
 the point to which the Eoman Road is directly tending when 
 last ascertained or recognised, and these places separated from 
 the said intermediate point or assumed terminus by distances 
 of fourteen, and eighteen to twenty, miles, remains of Eoman 
 presence and occupancy have been found, and of such a 
 nature as to show that permanent buildings of solid construction 
 had once existed there, and unmistakably Eoman in their 
 character. One of these places is on the verge of the sea-chff 
 above the Coastguard Station, overlooking Saltburn; and in 
 noting this, we must remember that fifteen or sixteen centuries 
 ago what is now the verge was many yards inland. The other 
 is at or near the Peak, about half-way between Whitby and 
 Scarborough. 
 
 There is also, and strictly in the same connection, the 
 further fact that, between the westernmost of these two places 
 and the assumed or apparent terminus of the road itself, the 
 highly significant name of " street " is met vrith as applied to 
 a very lonely piece of road running in the very direction that 
 an inner line of communication between the said assumed 
 terminus and the western outpost would have required. And 
 as to the continuation of this inner line of communication on 
 the other side. Dr. Young distinctly asserts that traces of a 
 road are found in the vicinity of the Eavenhill or Peak 
 Station. 
 
 It seems at once gratuitous and unreasonable to attempt 
 to connect the existence of the Eoman Eoad, of these permanent 
 settlements on the very outline of the coast, of these means of 
 ready communication between the one and the other, with 
 anything save military objects, and those objects such as were 
 in some manner connected with the sea. In short, the only 
 tenable theory is that the Eomans, under the impulse of 
 adequate, and indeed very cogent, considerations, maintained 
 
The condition of Cleveland in Roman Times 65 
 
 not only nostra spemlatoria or posts of military observation 
 along the coast from Teesmouth past Whitby, and still on 
 southwards, but means of military defence as well ; and, as 
 an inevitable corollary, against attacks which must have been 
 delivered from the side of the sea ; in other words, against 
 Teutonic descents, incursions, or invasions. 
 
 And with this conclusion another fact, scarcely more than 
 incidentally glanced at so far, may be coupled. The remains 
 given up by the grave-mounds of the district have, as already 
 noted, been with few exceptions of a certain character. No 
 metal has been met with in any case, and the occurrence of 
 bronze finds of any sort within the area defined have been 
 few and far between. It has indeed been argued that the 
 non-occurrence of metal in any of the very numerous Cleve- 
 land interments which have so far been scientifically exam- 
 ined, and the very rare occurrence of metal finds unconnected 
 with sepulchral deposits, besides its affording only negative 
 evidence, may also admit of the explanation : (a) That the 
 district was remote and not of easy access, and that therefore 
 the introduction of bronze articles might be expected to be, on 
 that ground simply, much retarded ; and (b) that the district 
 must have been exceptionally poor and ill-provided with 
 articles for barter, so that there was no inducement to a trader 
 to adventure himself there with metal or other costly wares ; 
 that, in other words, it was non-productive and inhabited by 
 a poverty-stricken stock of inhabitants. 
 
 'But may it not fairly be inquired whether, assuming the 
 poverty of the people, and the unproductiveness of the district, 
 there was not some other, or at least some additional explana- 
 tion of the fact, besides merely the physical character of the 
 district itself ? May not the population, besides being poor, 
 have been somewhat scanty 1 May not the district have been 
 poor because in later time sparsely inhabited 1 And may it 
 not have been sparsely inhabited for reasons quite independent 
 of the physical character of the country 1 For it is to the 
 
66 Ancient Wkitby and the District 
 
 point to remark that the Eomans would not have adopted the 
 measures noticed in the foregoing paragraphs merely in the 
 face of a prospective or hypothetical danger. The danger 
 must have been real, actual, imminent, before the construction 
 of five-and-twenty to thirty miles of main road, and more than 
 the same amount of lateral communication between post and 
 post, would have been devised and completed, and the 
 necessity of maintaining permanent outlook-posts and their 
 requisite garrisons recognised. And if that were so, what 
 about the absolute condition of the district whose coasts it had 
 become so necessary to watch and protect, and of its in- 
 habitants during the generations antecedent to the recognition 
 of such necessity, and the commencement of the defensive 
 measures taken in consequence? Practically speaking, it is 
 obvious that the condition of Cleveland for the epochs nearly 
 preceding and immediately following the Christian era may 
 well have been that of a virtually depeopled country. The 
 period was one when persons and property, and failing 
 the latter, the former at least, were matters to be " lifted " by 
 those who had the opportunity and the power, and no small 
 part of the business of whose life it was to do it when 
 occasion offered; and piratical or predatory Teutons would 
 have scrupled little about reducing our ancient Cleveland to 
 the condition of a desolate, uninhabited wilderness. 
 
 We need hardly pause to remark that, if what has just 
 been advanced is true with respect to Cleveland itself, it must 
 be admitted as still more true for such parts as Teesmouth, 
 Staithes, Runswick, and Whitby ; because there, as the prac- 
 ticable landing-places for the piratical crews or squadrons, 
 the hand of the plunderer would naturally and necessarily be 
 felt, and the wastings of the ravager be iniiicted, with the 
 most severity, and on obvious accounts. 
 
 Passing on with the times, we have next to notice the at 
 least partial occupation of some portions of Cleveland, and of 
 Whitby in particular, by immigrants of Teutonic origin and 
 
The coast of Cleveland specially assailable 67 
 
 descent whom we may safely designate Anglians. But there 
 is this diflference between this transition and the last, that we 
 seem to see the processes of acquisition and occupation in 
 actual progress. The piratical, predatory, occasional raids or 
 infalls, — we can hardly dignify them by calling them invasions, 
 — from the side of the sea, depending mainly or simply, 
 perhaps, upon the personal impulses of any plundering sea-rover 
 who found himself strong enough for the attempt, would after 
 a space become more systematised and regular in their 
 character, instead of desultory and without combination as at 
 first; and it is no doubt to such a state of affairs that the 
 original conception and execution of the Roman Eoad must 
 be referred. Not only the sea-board, or the narrow strip of 
 country called Cleveland, would seem to be in continual 
 jeopardy, but the wide and fertile plains to the south and west 
 and south-west of the Cleveland hills would be endangered ; 
 and there can be but little doubt that, when the weakness 
 which led to the eventual retirement of the Eoman forces 
 from Britain began to make itself sensibly felt, the conse- 
 quences of the commencing reflux would become sensible in so 
 remote, and by ordinary routes so inaccessible, a district as 
 Cleveland, before they were actually realised in the more 
 central and more fully organised settlements in the interior 
 or home region. Or, to put the same in other terms — and 
 without pausing to dwell, however cursorily, on the inherent 
 probability (recommended as it is by apparent historical refer- 
 ences) that scattered groups of settlers of Teutonic origin 
 may have found sites for habitation in the very early stages, 
 if not actually before the commencement, of the Eoman 
 domination in North England — permanent settlement and 
 occupation may be regarded as likely to have become actual 
 at an earlier period than in the more southern portion of the 
 island. And it may be noted' that this conclusion, arrived at 
 as it has been through the foregoing considerations, is not 
 without some actual confirmation arising out of ascertained 
 
68 Ancient Whitby and the District 
 
 facts. For what was beyond question a Teutonic cemetery, 
 and certainly a very early one, was discovered some few years 
 ago at Boulby, not far from Staithes, on opening out a quarry 
 there. Six bodies were met with before the quarrying opera- 
 tions were suspended, each in its own carefully if roughly 
 constructed stone-cist ; and under such conditions that there 
 could be no question as to their being pre-Christian, and at the 
 same time neither Komano-British nor Ancient British. And 
 to this, interesting and instructive as the fact is, it may be 
 added that over and above the subsequent discovery of a 
 seventh body, buried under the same conditions, an interment 
 of another character was found in the closest local association 
 with the others, which was such as perhaps to supply a 
 connecting link between the receding and the intruding races 
 or peoples under notice; for the interment was one after 
 cremation, and the cinerary vase containing the calcined 
 remains was of the unmistakably Ancient British character. 
 But while this Teutonic settlement at or near Boulby seems 
 to present something of the nature of positive evidence 
 attesting its exceptional earliness, it does not seem reasonable 
 to assume that Boulby and its vicinity would be the only sites 
 of early Teutonic occupation. It is indeed more reasonable 
 to assume that it and others like it were most likely precursors 
 of the more general allotment — at least, occupation — which 
 there is ample reason for concluding took place eventually 
 through a great part (if not the greater part) of the district as 
 a whole. 
 
 It is at this point that we are brought face to face with the 
 fact that when the first sufficient record of Cleveland place- 
 names becomes available, five-sixths of these names so recorded 
 are Scandinavian and not Germanic. And the question may 
 be asked— as, indeed, it has been asked — " What assurance is 
 there that the district in question was ever parcelled out 
 among and named by settlers who were Germanic in origin, 
 or say Anglian, and not Scandinavian % " The answer to this 
 
The argument from Philology 69 
 
 is that, did not the other one-sixth exist, involving the presence 
 of such names as Easington (a hamlet of which parish Boulby 
 actually is), Hemlington, Levington (Leofwin-ton), Newham, 
 Middleton, and the like ; and did we know nothing from 
 historical sources of the renaming by the Scandinavian 
 conquerors and colonists of the places they severally took 
 possession of — of which Whitby itself is a remarkable case in 
 point — still the existence of such a local name as Freebrough 
 in the district could hardly pass unnoticed. To the student of 
 philology from the historical starting-point, there are many 
 words indeed which are pregnant with historic fact, and such 
 words may be found neither few in number nor unfertile in 
 interest and suggestiveness in ascertained place-names. I will 
 instance but two or three cases out of almost any number. 
 Documents of the thirteenth century give up the name marke- 
 mot, while others a little later in date yield marmothou and 
 mermoffhorne, wherein the mer or mar = mere or mark, which 
 again = Anglian marc, mearc. Seamer reveals the continued 
 occupation of a people who called a sheet of fresh water by 
 the name see, and " the Acres '' near Stokesley reproduces the 
 term found in the Anglo-Saxon Gospels, and meaning the 
 " corn-lands." These all, in their way, are as significant as is 
 the name Thingwala, found in the earliest document contained 
 in the Chartulary of JVhitby, usually called the Abbot's Book. 
 For just as this last tells, with an authority which cannot be 
 gainsaid (and even without the corroboration enforced by two 
 different places in the interior called by the significant name 
 of Thinghou), of the established Danish polity in Cleveland in 
 the tenth and eleventh centuries, so in the same way the 
 words just adduced betoken the systematised Anglian usages 
 of the earlier times still. 
 
 Perhaps the survival of such traces of Anglian ownership 
 and occupation makes it the more remarkable that no indica- 
 tion remains of the former existence of any name applied to 
 the district at large. We have to wait for that until the saga 
 
JO Ancient Whitby and the District 
 
 of Haralldr Hardrddr tells how that king made the coast of 
 England er Klijlond heita (where it is called Klifland), and fared 
 on south to Skar'Sdborg. 
 
 A very brief retrospect will suffice to indicate how this had 
 come to pass. The Anglians had come, had slain where op- 
 posed, and had taken possession. But no long time elapsed 
 before it was done to them as they had done to the men they 
 had themselves found in possession. The Northmen, or Danes 
 as they are among ourselves more usually designated, had come 
 and obtained the mastery, the ultimate issue being that a 
 systematic apportionment or allotment of the lands of the 
 entire district was made among the captains of the successful 
 host, who as systematically became a host of colonists. 
 
 I know that this used to be looked upon as a heresy by 
 many, and that even yet it is, if admitted at all, admitted with 
 much reluctance. Still, like all that has gone before, it is fully 
 borne out by facts. The ordinary mode of expression in old 
 Higden's somewhat hackneyed phrase is that there was a 
 "strong infusion of Danish blood and Danish language" 
 among the inhabitants of Northern England. I would, on 
 the contrary, rather say that, in the original settlement or 
 colonisation of this district of Cleveland, the infusion — if we 
 can with accuracy use the word at all — was rather of English 
 blood and English idiom among the Danes, than of Danish 
 among English. No doubt, in the lapse of time, and speaking 
 of a wider district, as was the case with the author quoted, this 
 would be modiiied, and perhaps materially altered. But no 
 one can notice and consider the Cleveland place-names with 
 an adequately attentive mind, or give thoughtful heed to the 
 peculiarities of the folk-speech, even in the measure and mode 
 in which they are found still existing, without being compelled 
 to adopt certain definite conclusions. Such names as Ormesby, 
 Bergulfsby, Soureby, Coleby, Swainby, Normanby, Uglebardby, 
 Asulfsby, Aslacsby, Overby, Upsal, Arusum, and multitudes 
 of others, speak for themselves, and in a way that does not 
 
Further Philological Evidence 7 1 
 
 admit of contradiction. Some of them, moreover, speak with 
 a double force or emphasis ; for they not only depend upon 
 inflexion, but the inflexion they depend upon is Old Danish 
 and not English. This speaks decisively as to the language 
 of the people by whom Cleveland was colonised and its con- 
 stituent places renamed, — a language which must naturally 
 have remained in continuous use for some lengthened period 
 afterwards. 
 
 This indeed is an inference which is more than simply con- 
 firmed by the very large number of so-called "dialect" or 
 " provincial " words, many of which are still living words, not- 
 withstanding the operative influence of the Education Act and 
 the School Inspector. Multitudes of such words, not so 
 numerous now as, according to the testimony of many ancient 
 writings published by the Early English Text Society, they 
 were four to five centuries ago by at least nearly one-half, are 
 so purely Scandinavian that neither they nor any cognate 
 forms of them are to be found in any Germanic " word-book " 
 whatever. Some of them, indeed, are hardly to be found in the 
 recognised word-books of Denmark and Sweden themselves ; 
 and not a few are now as much dialect-words in those countries 
 as in the remotest parts of Cleveland itself. 
 
 One singular illustration of this point, and more strongly 
 corroborative than could a priori have been anticipated, arises 
 out of a conclusion (which admits of absolute demonstration) 
 that a very large proportion of early mediaeval designations, of 
 the general class of "field-names," are names imposed at a 
 period or periods distinctly later than Domesday. First and 
 last, I think I may safely venture to say, I have taken notice 
 of over rather than under 3000 words or names of the 
 class referred to, of which, while it would be nonsensical to 
 say they could not be found in Domesday, it is not the least 
 nonsensical to say that the reason above all others why they 
 could not be found there is that they had not then been given ; 
 for they are such in their nature and their composition as to 
 
72 Ancient Whitby and the District 
 
 make it absolutely certain that their coinage depended upon, 
 or took its rise from, gradual rural development, agricultural 
 or other. I will give but one illustration out of the numbers 
 that are available, and that taken from the circumstance that in 
 my own parish there were, four centuries ago, and had been 
 for I do not know how long before, no fewer than eight place- 
 or field-names depending for their formation on the element 
 thwaite, all of which thwaites had resulted from the gradual 
 clearing away of the nine square leugce of silva pastilis recorded 
 in Domesday. But thwaite is, according to the authorities in 
 such matters, a distinctive token and assurance that a Scandi- 
 navian godfather had been present and officiated at the naming 
 of that place. 
 
 I do not think that attention has been sufficiently drawn 
 to the principle which underlies these last remarks, nor that 
 sufficient prominence has ever been given to" it. But it is an 
 important one, and attention to it might have saved deriva- 
 tionists from some serious blunders. 
 
 One other observation, and of the same general tendency, 
 should be made : namely, that there is, in a variety of in- 
 stances, an almost absolute verbal coincidence, if not practical 
 identity, between proverbial phrases and expressions current 
 in both Cleveland and Scandinavian countries. Thus, the 
 Whitby saying preserved by the late F. K. Robinson of 
 Whitby "to blash upon the seas" is not so much a trans- 
 lation as a reproduction of "at pladske paa soen." The 
 same is true of " lost like a lopp (flea) iv a barn " ; and again, 
 and even more strikingly, of "he does not look as if he had 
 lived upon deaf nuts," the Danish form of which is "han 
 lever int' ved dovv nodr." As actually spoken by a dalestaan 
 these sayings are nearly identical in word, almost in the form 
 and sound of the word, with the same sayings as expressed in 
 Scandinavian lands. 
 
 When we have such evidence to prove the nationality of, 
 and the nature of the speech employed by, the dominant if 
 
Philological Evidence contimied 73 
 
 not the main body of the colonists and occupants of Cleveland 
 in the ninth and tenth centuries — a manner of speech which 
 has to such a remarkable degree survived even into this nine- 
 teenth century — the wonder that might naturally have been 
 excited by the discovery of such a place-name as Thingwala is 
 materially lessened if not practically removed. This place, of 
 which I shall speak more in detail farther on, was situated 
 not only in the close neighbourhood of Whitby, but, as I 
 think, at no great distance from the site of the Monastery ; 
 and the name serves to show that the men who spoke the 
 tongue, the nature and essential body of which we have 
 just been noticing, and who occupied the country from 
 Eskmouth to Teesmouth with all the appertaining interior, 
 brought something besides their national tongue with them. 
 They were nationally coherent enough to have transplanted 
 their national polity with not only its fashion of law, but 
 its stated time-honoured law-place and the name for it. And 
 so, I would observe, there was a great reason not only for 
 the imposition of the Northman's name Cleveland upon the 
 district, but for the continued abidingness of it as the 
 distinguishing name of the country. 
 
 But time passes on, and in due process we have to note 
 another great change in the fortunes and conditions of the 
 space of country we are interested with. The Norman 
 Conquest, with all its ulterior consequences in and upon 
 Cleveland, is now claiming our attentive notice and con- 
 sideration. But it must suffice here to remark briefly that 
 one of the last organised attempts at resistance to the 
 Conqueror's will and purposes had its local habitation in 
 the marshes of Cleveland. The Camp of Refuge described 
 by Orderic Vitalis would appear to have been constructed 
 on the marshy flats between Coatham and Warrenby. But 
 in spite of its almost inaccessible position, and its numerous 
 and well-provided body of defenders, the Conqueror prevailed. 
 The upshot to Cleveland in common with the rest of the 
 
74 Ancient Whitby and the District 
 
 North was the fearful wasting designed and executed by 
 William's orders. Then came the re-allotment of the lands 
 among his faithful followers and trusted adherents. Among 
 these were Hugh, Earl of Chester, and William de Percy. 
 Customarily, but quite erroneously, spoken of as in the same 
 category, was Robert de Brus. It has always been usual to 
 say that this baron was among those who " came over with 
 the Conqueror." If that had really been the case, it would 
 have been a strange thing indeed if he had been left out in 
 the cold when all the others, many of them much meaner men 
 than he, had been so warmly provided for. But his name is 
 not so much as mentioned among those of the allottees of the 
 earlier part of the Conqueror's reign, and we do not hear 
 of him at all in Domesday until after the year in which 
 that momentous record was given in ; and that, it is hardly 
 necessary to say, was the year preceding William's death. 
 
 These three nobles are mentioned here because it was out 
 of the lands granted to them that the main part of the 
 earliest endowments of the renascent Abbey of Whitby was 
 furnished forth. Whitby, with all its then wide appendages, 
 belonged to the Earl of Chester, of whom William de Percy 
 held as subinfeudatory. He also held Hackness, but of the 
 king in capite ; and at Hackness was perhaps the earliest as 
 well as the most important cell dependent on Whitby. 
 Middlesbrough, with its considerable endowments, becoming 
 eventually Whitby's most considerable cell, was in the 
 domains of the first Brus baron. 
 
 I would only remark further, in this place, that in the 
 year or years closely preceding the date of the proceedings 
 taken with the view of resuscitating a religious house at 
 Whitby, Dunsley with Newham (Newholm nowadays and 
 for long past) was in the king's hands, or part of the " Terra 
 Regis"; and that in some way, not hitherto explained or 
 apparently explainable, William de Percy had taken the 
 position held by the Earl of Chester in Domesday as 
 
Feudal Lords of the Lands allotted to Whitby 75 
 
 tenant m ca'pite of Whitby and its appendant "maneria" 
 and sokes. 
 
 It may also be noted that, whether by the Earl of Chester 
 or by William de Percy himself, certain grants or concessions 
 had been made to lay individuals, notably Tancred the Fleming 
 in Fylingdales, which had to be purchased back before the 
 endowment of the Whitby House could be (so to speak) 
 fittingly or completely rounded off. 
 
WHITBY : WHAT IT USED TO BE CALLED, 
 AND WHY 
 
 It is hardly possible in a book entitled Memorials of Old 
 Whithy to omit all reference to the derivation of the two 
 names by which the town in question has been at different 
 times designated ; namely, Streoneshalch or Streaneshalh, and 
 Whitby. 
 
 In general estimation, apparently, and certainly according 
 to much prevailing practice, nothing seems to be thought 
 easier than to derive a place-name. Thus it has been assumed 
 once and again that Aislaby, sounded Hazelby, and in the 
 mouth of the general population, Hesselby, must as a matter 
 of course have taken its name from the prevalent growth of 
 the hazel — locally called " hessel " — there, in days of old if not 
 now ; and further yet, that Danby, Ingleby, Sexhow, Picton, 
 names of stations passed as one journeys west from Whitby 
 towards Stockton, serve to remind us severally of the Danes, 
 the English, the Saxons, and the Picts ! 
 
 The real fact is that no craft is really — not more difficult 
 exactly, but more a work of labour and real study, and in- 
 formed if not learned investigation, and patient research, than 
 that of the man who would try to explain our various local 
 names and designations. 
 
 The instance of Aislaby just mentioned is indeed both 
 very illustrative and instructive. No one could by any 
 possible guess or mere process of assumption light upon its 
 actual formation. There are four places so named — two in 
 
Derivation of the name Whitby jj 
 
 Yorkshire, one in the county of Durham, and the fourth in 
 Lincolnshire, not far from Sleaford. They are all called 
 Hazelby, and by the country people Hesselby. Yet, in spite 
 of this seeming identity, they proceed from two different and 
 equally distinct originals. The place near Whitby so named 
 is first met with as a written name in the form of Asulvbi or 
 Asolvesbi — that is, the hj, or coloniser's farm-settlement, of 
 Asolf or Asulf. But the other three are met with in the same 
 authoritative writing under the coincident forms of Aslacebi, 
 Aslacsbi, or the ly of Aslac ; Aslac and Asulf being as totally 
 distinct as Smith, Brown, and Robinson. And in the same 
 way the four names of stations just now mentioned depend on 
 the personal names Dane, Ingialldr, Sex or Sax, and Pik or 
 Pick. 
 
 In reference to Whitby, a great deal has been written, and 
 more still spoken, as to the derivation of the name. There is 
 no need to recapitulate the various guesses or " shots " which 
 have been made ; and as to my own, that it depends on the 
 personal name which is now written " White," I surrender it 
 as unsatisfactory, because arrived at on false principles. That 
 the old form was Hwitabi, Whitaby, Whiteby, needs nothing in 
 the way of proof ; nor yet that the meaning was " white hy " : 
 only we must bear in mind that this little word by soon came 
 to be applied not only to a single or isolated colonist's dwelling 
 with all its necessary " buildings," but also to a collection of 
 human dwellings — that is, a village or town. What has done 
 more to recommend this meaning of "white village" or 
 " white town " to my acceptance than anything else is this 
 sentence from Baeda's Historia Ecdesiastica : " Qui locus . . . 
 vulgo vocatur 'Ad candidam casam,' eo quod ibi ecclesiam de 
 lapide, insolito Britonibus more, fecerat "; that is, "Which place 
 (Hwiterne, now Whitehorn) is commonly called ' at the white 
 place or building ' because he had made build there a stone 
 church, after a fashion the Britons were entirely strangers to." 
 And just as Whitehorn church (a cathedral church in the 
 
78 What Whitby used to be called 
 
 issue) was so named from the comparative whiteness of the 
 material employed, so the presumption is that Whitaby 
 {Hvitabyr, originally) was so named because the" cluster of 
 habitations constituting the ly or town were built with some 
 material naturally white, or rendered white by artificial 
 means ; probably, however, white stone, like Hwiterne. 
 
 As to the older name Streanaeshalch, Streanaeshalae, 
 Streanaeshalc (all these three forms being used by Baeda), 
 Streoneshalch, Streoneshalh, Streaneshalch, or any other form 
 of the name, the case is different. 
 
 In my Handhooh to Whitby and the Alley I wrote : 
 " While discussing the name of Whitby, it must not be for- 
 gotten that there is another and an earlier name by which the 
 place was designated at a remote period, which has been the 
 subject of almost more questioning, and the occasion of even 
 more guessing, than the name Whitby itself. The reference, 
 of course, is to Streoneshalch and its variants. That the name 
 is Anglian in its origin and imposition there can, it is thought, 
 be little hesitation about admitting. The form is Anglian, 
 and the constituent elements would clearly seem to be the 
 same." And then, in a note I subjoin: "At p. 142 Dr. 
 Young adverts to the subject and continues his remarks over 
 several pages following. First, he notes the interpretation 
 alleged as Baeda's, namely, sinus fari = the bay of the light- 
 house, a reading he does not think could have been Baeda's 
 own. Then he suggests for notice the guesses Gain-bay or 
 Bay of success; Camden's Healthy-bay; Gull-bay; Pirate's- 
 bay ; Open-bay or Gaping-bay ; with a final return to the Bay 
 of gain." 
 
 This enumeration of guesses, put even thus baldly, is 
 perhaps not very exhilarating to the student-inquirer, — except 
 perhaps in the way of encouraging a smile, whether more or 
 less cynical; but still it is significant of the attempts that 
 have been made to deal with the name as of Anglian origin 
 and composition. And it is not to be denied that there is 
 
Probable origin of the name Streoneshalch 79 
 
 much more than apparent prima facie justification for attempts 
 of such a kind. In the first place it looks like the customary 
 compound word which the Anglian place-name is so continually 
 found to be, where the first element is the name of a person 
 or thing, and the second more or less adjectival or descriptive. 
 It is true that such Anglian names do not abound in Cleve- 
 land, however obtrusive they may be in other parts of the 
 kingdom. Still there are some few, such as, for instance, 
 Levington (Leof win-ton), Easington, Hemlington, Stokesley ; 
 and it is indisputable that Streon did exist in Anglian times 
 as a name particle. For, as Mr. W. H. Stevenson writes in 
 the Academy (July 1885) : "In that invaluable list of Anglo- 
 Saxon (or, rather, Old-Northumbrian) names, the Liber Vitce 
 of Durham, which dates from the ninth century, I fi:nd the 
 names Str^onbercht and Streonuulf. Florence of Worcester 
 records the death of Strenwoldus, 'miles fortissimus,' in 987. 
 Here we have 'Streon-' in combination with -beorht, -tvulf, 
 -weald. If any further proof of the existence of this name 
 particle were wanted, it might be found in the Anglo-Saxon 
 name of Whitby — ' Streon-es-healh,' where ' Streon ' is a pet 
 name formed by the first member of the full name — a practice 
 common to the Aryan name system. Compare also Strensall 
 near York." Thus the complete "pet name" would be 
 Streona, with Str^ones as genitive. The writer quoted goes 
 on to say : " There is at least one instance in Anglo-Saxon 
 where streon means bodily strength : this or the more usual 
 meaning of treasure, riches, would be in harmony with the 
 Teutonic name system." 
 
 This theory then leaves only the final element to be 
 accounted for, namely, the variously written syllable halch, 
 hale, healh, halh, etc. The fact that in Bradley's edition of 
 Stratmann's Middle-English Dictionary the word halh is found, 
 with the variants healh, halche, hawch, hawgh, haugh, and the 
 explanation- "haugh, meadow," is sufiicient in itself not only 
 to arrest immediate attention, but to suggest the more than 
 
8o Wkai Whitby used to be called 
 
 merely probable identity of this word and its variants with 
 the final element in the name at present under notice. In the 
 handbook referred to a moment since, I wrote in connection 
 with Ualch and its varying forms, that there is another instance 
 of the same final element occurring in the Abbot's Book, and 
 that, also, what appears to be an alternative form of the same 
 name is met with, wherein the final ch or c seems to give place 
 to an /, just as in the Cleveland vernacular the gh in such 
 words as " through," " plough," "slaughter," "maugh," and 
 the like, gives place to nearly, if not exactly, the sound in- 
 tended to be represented by that letter. There was enough 
 in this to induce the thought not so much that the syllable 
 haWi or hale was descriptive — that I took for granted — as that 
 it was very likely connected with the word which in other 
 parts of the kingdom occurs in the form haugh, hauch, halche, 
 or possibly heuch, hewch, heugh. I mention both these forms, 
 the a form and the e form, almost of necessity. They may 
 differ a little in shades of meaning, but I do not think they 
 ara of different origins ; while it is quite certain that the mean- 
 ing of either form is such as to adapt itself to the local circum- 
 stances of Whitby. Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictionary, gives 
 haugh, hauch, halche, as meaning "low-lying flat ground, 
 properly on the border of a river, and such as is sometimes 
 overflowed " ; and also, a few pages later, heuch, heugh, hewch, 
 as "a crag, a precipice, a rugged steep." Now, while the 
 entire Abbey chflf is , essentially a " heugh " according to the 
 latter meaning given, it must be remembered that the whole 
 of the town of Whitby between the river and the foot of the 
 height on which stand the parish church, the Abbey, the 
 Abbey House, precincts and buildings, is essentially a "haugh " 
 according to the other meaning quoted. 
 
 Moreover, it is quite more than possible that the meanings 
 put upon and represented by the two forms "haugh" and 
 " heugh " are more or less arbitrary, and were not so markedly 
 differentiated when the name Streoneshalch was first imposed. 
 
The Import of " Hag, " " Nagger " 8 1 
 
 And it certainly is worth remarking that the local name 
 " hyngand-heugh " remained current as applied to two places 
 in the Whitby vicinity as late as the fourteenth century ; and 
 that the explanation given by Jamieson for this term is " a 
 glen, with steep, overhanging braes or sides " ; and it is difficult 
 to imagine any kind of phraseology more descriptive than 
 this, of what Whitby must have been when the name Streon- 
 eshalch was given ; or, in other words, when what is now 
 represented by "The Crag" on one side of the harbour 
 entrance, and by the mouldering edge or brae of the Almsclose 
 field on the other, were less distant from each other than they 
 are now by many score yards. 
 
 But there is yet another matter cropping up for notice 
 here, which, although it may seem visionary and gratuitous 
 from certain points of view, or at least as viewed by certain 
 authorities, is not, I venture to think, so evidently fanciful as 
 to be altogether unworthy of serious attention. What I mean 
 is this. On the Crag side of the river, within the harbour- 
 mouth, is a street called Haggersgate, with a variety of vary- 
 ing forms, such as Hakelsougate, Haggleseygate, etc. etc. On 
 the other or opposite side of the river is another street 
 now called Henrietta Street, but which finds its site on or 
 near what used to be called Haglyth, Haggerlyth, or by some 
 variant of either. I have been asked scores of times, and by 
 as many different interrogants, what the meaning of these 
 several names may be ; but I do not remember that any one 
 ever suggested that the occurrence of " bagger," " hag " on 
 both sides of the river-mouth, and more or less opposite each 
 other, might be a circumstance worth observation if not inquiry. 
 
 For one, however, I can hardly bring myself to look upon 
 the coincidence as either fortuitous or without significance. 
 To put this another way : I am inclined to think that this 
 hag, duplicated as it is, is not altogether suggestionless. A 
 hyngand-heugh, it would be noted just now, has two sides to it. 
 It is a " glen," according to the definition ; and it was more 
 
 G 
 
8 2 What Whitby used to be called 
 
 than dimly intimated a few periods back, that time was when, 
 inside the harbour-mouth, there were two sides, not so far apart 
 as now. 
 
 Now I am not going to advance the theory that there 
 is an absolute etymological connection between "heugh" or 
 "haugh" and "hag," though, as far as I am aware, no avail- 
 able derivation has ever been suggested for the latter, from a 
 participation in which the former could be effectually excluded ; 
 but I do intend to suggest that there may be at least a 
 phonetic connection between them, depending on what is called 
 corruption or possibly confusion. Given, however, that the 
 radical idea in one is that of " chopping, hacking, cutting by 
 aid of a blow," it is hard to exclude the said idea from the 
 meaning of a word which may be seen to imply the notion of 
 that which results from the action of chopping, hacking, bag- 
 ging. A glen is but a nick, a cleft on a large scale, analogous to 
 the nick or cleft formed by a blow with a chopping or hacking 
 instrument ; and regarded from this point of view, it is at 
 least plausible — I think, more — to look upon the two Whitby 
 " hags," being what they are, and where they are, as the result- 
 ants, the survivals (it may be) of the original " halch," " haugh," 
 " heugh " involved in the old name Streoneshalch. 
 
 But I am quite aware that there are other considerations 
 relevant to any discussion as to the origin and explanation of 
 the name Streoneshalch, which have not so far been adverted 
 to, and which it is by no means desirable to blink, and, much 
 more, ignore altogether. In what has been already said we 
 have seen our way to recognise the " sinus " in the old in- 
 terpretation of the name Streoneshalch; but in what was 
 advanced relatively to the former element of the name of 
 Streona, no approach whatever was effected towards the 
 application or meaning of the said former element. To put 
 this into other words. What about the " farus " ? 
 
 Satisfactory in many ways as the preceding explication of 
 the probable formation and equally probable meaning of the 
 
Interpretation of the name Strenaeshalc 83 
 
 old name may be held to be, still there is one particular, and 
 that an important one, in which it can hardly be considered 
 equally satisfactory. 
 
 I must honestly admit that I have always felt that it 
 ought to be supposed that Baeda knew what he was talking 
 about, and that he wrote what he did write about the name, 
 knowing what he meant to say ; namely, that the name in 
 question did actually mean "sinus fari." Assumptions essen- 
 tially at variance with this idea have been put forward, as also 
 the hypothesis that the said explanation is not Baeda's own, 
 but an interpolation by some unauthorised scribe, reader, or 
 meddler. But the absolute fact is, that it is not an interpola- 
 tion. It is as much a part of the original MSS. as the sentence 
 proposed to be explained is. That is unquestionable. And 
 thus we are thrown back on the conclusion that Baeda knew 
 what he meant to write, and wrote what he meant. 
 
 But if this be admitted, any derivation of the name 
 Streoneshalch that contradicts, or ignores, or is essentially 
 inconsistent with Baeda's interpretation, is put out of court at 
 once. Now, admitting this, as I have done once and again in 
 the way of private consideration, it occurred to me some time 
 ago to recognise the possibility that the name in question 
 might be a survival, in part or in whole, of a more ancient 
 name which had come down to the times of Abbess Hild and 
 her occupation, and which, being conceived in a quasi-foreign, 
 certainly an obsolete, tongue, required to be explained or 
 "interpreted." With this thought in my mind I turned to 
 Baeda's mention of the name (Lib. III. chap, xxv.), finding the 
 passage " in monasterio quod dicitur Strenaeshalc, quod inter- 
 pretatur Sinus Fari." Turning next to other places in the 
 same volume in which place-names were given, and their 
 meanings as well, collating in all more than twenty instances, 
 the term " interpretatur " was not found to occur in any one 
 of them ; and I hardly think it is to be met with in any other 
 place in the book employed in the same sense and connection. 
 
84 What Whitby used to be called 
 
 But it is to be observed that, on the same page, and only a 
 few lines lower. Bishop Cedd is described as acting as interpres 
 (interpreter) at the council of Streoneshalch, the speakers in 
 the tongue of the Angles being of course equally unintelligible 
 by the Scottish (Celtic) and G-allic presbyters and others who 
 were present. 
 
 The phrase, of such frequent occurrence in the English 
 Bible, " which being interpreted is,'' will no doubt occur to 
 many who read these lines ; and with it, possibly, the thought 
 that its analogue must have been familiar enough to the man 
 who, among his other and multifarious writings, penned so 
 much in the way of "commentaries and homilies upon the 
 various books of the Bible which he had drawn from the 
 writings of the Fathers.'' And it is at least possible that 
 Baeda in penning this sentence touching Strenaeshalch and its 
 signification, may have used the word " interpretatur " with 
 precisely this intention. 
 
 It is not intended to found an elaborate argument on what 
 is nothing more than a mere suggestion, however probable the 
 conclusion connected with the suggestion may commend itself 
 as being. But it certainly does indicate a new line of inquiry. 
 Assuming that Baeda was quoting the name as an old name, 
 a survival from an older and now practically "dead language," 
 and explaining the said name out of his own remarkable stores 
 of knowledge, or from information specially acquired, what 
 was the practically dead language from which this name had 
 remained as a survival 1 And it is here at the very outset that 
 the inherent difficulty, certainly the perplexity, is seen to begin. 
 
 The two words " sinus " and " f ari " (more correctly, phari) 
 convey the several ideas of bay, frith, creek, inlet or cove; 
 and of a structure more or less lofty assumed to bear upon 
 its summit an apparatus designed to afFord light to sailors 
 navigating by night. And the quest seems to be the possi- 
 bility of finding these two ideas expressed in combination in 
 the appellation Streoneshalch or Streaneshalh. 
 
Is the name Streoneshalh a "survival'"? 85 
 
 It is at least worth notice ttat there is more than a possi- 
 bility of finding them — one of them precisely, and the other 
 approximately — in combination, in the local characteristics of 
 the place indicated by the appellation. The Whitby historian 
 reverts once and again to an idea which had certainly com- 
 mended itself to his mind, and which he gives expression to at 
 p. 473, in the words: "If the Eomans had any fort here, it 
 probably stood on the East cliff, near where the Abbey was 
 afterwards built ; this being the most advantageous situation." 
 In his note on p. 717, in seeking in part to justify the some- 
 what wild, and more than improbable, theory that " the bay 
 of Whitby is generally supposed to be the Dunum Sinus 
 of Ptolemy,'' he says that if we adopt this opinion and the 
 further conclusion that "the name is derived from some 
 dunum or fort contiguous to it, I should suppose that dunum 
 to have stood on our East cliff, as our harbour must always 
 have been the best landing-place in the bay." 
 
 Without in the least giving any measure of adhesion to 
 the good doctor's theory as to the identity of Whitby Bay 
 with Dunum Sinus, it is to the point to repeat that he sees 
 no difficulty in assuming the former existence of a hill-fort 
 or " dun " upon the height which is positively identified with 
 the site of Abbess Hild's Anglian monastery. To this I would 
 add that, if we admit the theory broached elsewhere touching 
 the terminus of the Roman Road and its subsidiary look- 
 out stations, it becomes exceedingly difficult to exclude the 
 Streoneshalh site from being also the site of one of the said 
 stations or Casfra exploratoria. From it both the Kettleness 
 terminus and the Peak fort would be fully visible; and, 
 besides that, it supplies precisely the intermediate station that 
 seems to be required. 
 
 But further, it is to be remarked that the term farus as 
 employed by Baeda by no means necessarily, if at all, implies 
 or conveys the idea of lighthouse. On the contrary, he is 
 found using it in the exact sense of a watch-tower; as, for 
 
86 What Whitby used to be called 
 
 instance, at the close of chap. xi. of his first book, where, speaking 
 of the district of Britain occupied by the Eomans, he says that 
 the fact of their occupancy is attested by the continuance to 
 his day of the " civitates, farus, pontes et stratse " constructed 
 by them ; where farus, as noted by the editor, simply means 
 watch-towers or posts of observation. 
 
 This gives the/a?'MS of Baeda's "interpretation " as clearly 
 as could be desired; but it does not identify "Streones" or 
 " Streanaes " with fari. That, however, is a point which it may 
 be better to reserve, for the present at least. What seems to 
 call more distinctly for consideration is the possibility of 
 collating, or even, as regards the question of signification, 
 identifying, the word " sinus " with the terminal element of the 
 name Streoneshalch, or Streanaeshalh, or Straeanaeshalae. 
 
 If it be admitted that Streanaeshalh is really a name 
 requiring to be " interpreted," as being a word belonging to an 
 obsolete or practically dead language, it would seem to follow 
 that the final element of the name should be taken to be 
 obsolete as well as the first ; and according to strict rule, no 
 doubt, it ought to be so taken. Possibly, however, there may 
 be no actual necessity to enter into that question at all, either 
 critically or otherwise ; for while hahh, hale, halh may all be 
 accounted for as forms of a Teutonic word, the meaning of 
 which is fairly representable by sinus, as meaning a cove, creek, 
 inlet, wyke or small bay, there is also a Celtic word, much 
 in use in the old times of name-formation, which, meaning glen 
 or steep-sided valley, or a stream with precipitous banks, again 
 reproduces the secondary sense presented by sinus. The word 
 in question is aill, synonymous and apparently interchangeable 
 with allt, both originally signifying a height, a precipice, a 
 cliff. "In Galloway and Ulster," says Sir Herbert Maxwell 
 {Studies in Galloway, p. 50), "it nearly always means a glen, or 
 the stream that runs within the glen. The change of meaning 
 has been progressive from the height to the valley between the 
 heights, thence to the stream in the valley." Words more 
 
Streoneshalh not yet ''interpreted" 87 
 
 locally descriptive than these, relatively to the water-passage, 
 the smws between the heights of the East and West Cliffs at 
 Whitby, it might be hard to meet with. 
 
 But, while all these considerations supply at least an 
 approximate accommodation of local features with the essential 
 signification of Baeda's interpretation of Streanaeshalh, or 
 sinus fari, what is of certainly equal seeming importance, 
 namely, the equation of Streone or Streones with fams, seems 
 as far off as ever, and without something of that kind all that 
 precedes counts for nothing. 
 
 Now, it was here that I was always brought to a standstill 
 in all my previous speculations, and I see no legitimate way out 
 of the difficulty still. I could see my way to the Roman look- 
 out fort, and from that to the Celtic dun; and from that, 
 again, by a not unusual transition, to the hill-promontory on 
 which it was planted. And from this it was not diflBcult to 
 arrive at the Celtic prefix Stron, Stran, Stroan, Stroon, all 
 from Gaelic Srdn, a promontory, a hill-end, which we have at 
 Whitby in its full sense in what was, beyond dispute, the site 
 of the Anglo-Saxon monastery. But there the facilities ended, 
 and the difficulties commenced in serious earnest. For one 
 thing the introduction — preferably the intrusion — of Srdn, 
 Anglicised as it is in pronunciation into Stron or Stroon, 
 necessitated the stress to be laid on the final element, which 
 we have no reason to suppose was or could be the case ; and 
 in the second place, there is the intermediate s to be accounted 
 for ; for it could not possibly belong to Sr6n, and it was equally 
 difficult to see how it could be lawfully introduced by the aill 
 or allt. And with the recognition of this difficulty the hope 
 of reconciling the idea of a lost or obsolete tongue with 
 Baeda's phrase " quod interpretatur sinus fari " disappeared 
 from view. 
 
 On the one hand, we have the apparent impossibility of 
 making Baeda's "interpretation" square with the otherwise 
 unobjectionable Anglian derivation ; and on the other, the 
 
88 What Whitby used to be called 
 
 more important philological difficulty of finding a defensible 
 theory based on any obsolete language once supposably current 
 in the district. There may have been Celts there; there 
 probably were. But to this probability attaches the other 
 probability that, if so, they were Cymric, and not Goidhelic. 
 There may have been, in Hild's time, at all events, Scottish 
 (and that is Irish, and that is Goidhelic) priests and others 
 as abiding, or visiting, or occasionally presenting themselves. 
 But there is nothing to warrant even the hypothesis either 
 that the name could have originated with the Welsh, or that 
 it could be of actual Goidhelic origination. So that so far 
 Baeda's phrase serves us to no good purpose. The Anglian 
 hypothesis, although not reconcilable with the phrase, has the 
 most to recommend it. 
 
SHREDS OF OLD WHITBY HISTOEY 
 
 There is no occasion in the present book to speak at length 
 about either the history of, or the mere legends connected 
 with, the early monastery founded at Streoneshalc by the 
 Abbess Hild. As to the history, we know all too little ; for 
 what we do know makes us long with much earnestness to 
 have the full and authentic details of so great a work, together 
 with a suflBcing and trustworthy biography of so great and 
 energetic a woman. As to the legends, on the other hand, 
 while we feel that we would willingly give the pages which 
 remain (redeemed here and there by passages, all too brief, of 
 sterling history) for only a few additional details of hard, dry 
 matter of fact, we also see what the feeling, the culture, the 
 religious condition, as well as the credulity of the community 
 at large, must have been when such compositions were not 
 only put together but unhesitatingly accepted. 
 
 But in place of continuing this line of general remark, it 
 may seem better to reproduce at least the substance of what 
 has been said already on this subject in my History of Cleveland : 
 "The materials out of which a history of the pre-Norman 
 monastery at Whitby may be constructed are not only suffi- 
 ciently scanty, but they are also by no means such as to be 
 free from many elements of doubt and uncertainty. The main 
 facts that Hild, or (as she is mostly called from the Latinised 
 form of the name) Hilda, was the founder, and that the founda- 
 tion took place about two years after the battle of Winwidfield, 
 fought 15th November 654, may, however, be looked upon 
 
90 Shreds of Old Whitby History 
 
 as resting on the positive testimony of Baeda. In what way 
 the future Abbess became possessed of the land on which her 
 monastery was to be built, and out of which it was at least in 
 part to be sustained, does not positively appear. Young says 
 she 'purchased a possession of ten hydes of land in a place 
 called Streoneshalh,' adding in a note that the 'words of Bede 
 do not necessarily imply that she purchased the land although 
 the word gahohte is employed.' But he seemingly overlooks 
 the fact that the Anglo-Saxon version does not yield the 
 ' words of Baeda ' while the Latin version does ; and in it 
 the expression is 'comparata possessione decern familiarum' 
 (having acquired or become possessed of ten famiUce). And 
 inasmuch as six of the twelve possessiones originally conceded 
 by King Oswiu for the purpose of aiding the erection of 
 monasteries were in the district of Deira, which included 
 Cleveland, it cannot be unreasonable to conclude that the old 
 original Whitby Abbey lands may most likely have been, if 
 not certainly were, a part of the Royal donor's munificent 
 grant. 
 
 "The character, the dimensions, the precise site of this 
 earliest Whitby church are alike utterly concealed in impene- 
 trable obscurity. There can be little doubt, however, that it 
 was not so much a plain as a rude structure ; most likely 
 framed of split trunks of trees adjusted side by side so as to 
 give a partially smooth wall within, with thatch of rushes or 
 reeds, and side-lights only partially secured by light lattices 
 of wood. A church of this description has continued to exist 
 at Greensted in Essex, traditionally connected with the transit 
 of the body of St. Edmund in the year 1010 ; and though 
 recently 'restored,' enough of the old timbers still remains to 
 show what it was originally like. Baeda himself tells us that 
 Aidan built his Lindisfarn church, suitable to his episcopal 
 see there, in the Scottish fashion, not of stone but of hewed 
 oak, thatching it with reeds, the reed thatch being afterwards 
 removed by Bishop Eadberct, and replaced with sheet lead. 
 
Streoneshalh noted before Hild's time 91 
 
 This would happen between 688 and 698. It seems hardly 
 necessary to advert to the inevitable corollary that the dwell- 
 ings of the Abbess, the monks and nuns, and the servants of 
 the House, would show the strictest accordance with the rude- 
 ness of this early House of God, not better but worse, or still 
 more rude and inartistic." 
 
 As to other characteristics of such a religious settlement 
 as the early Whitby monastery was, reference will be made 
 to the subject at a subsequent page. 
 
 In addition to the remarks made in the last section as to 
 the derivation of the name Streoneshalh, it is hardly superflu- 
 ous to observe that this name seems to have been a recognised 
 name antecedently to the foundation of Hild's Holy House. 
 Like Heruteu (Hartlepool) and Laestingaeu (Lastingham), both 
 of which places had been made the sites of religious founda- 
 tions only shortly before, there is ample reason for concluding 
 that Streoneshalh was already familiarly known, if not even a 
 place of some celebrity. For, although after the disastrous 
 battle of Haethf elt, in which King Edwin lost his life, the head 
 of the unfortunate king was taken to York and eventually 
 deposited in the church of St. Peter there (which he had 
 himself begun to rear), yet his body was in the sequel buried 
 at Streoneshalh, and the historian gives no intimation, or even 
 a hint, that it had been previously buried, or temporarily 
 deposited, in any other place whatsoever. Now the year of 
 his death was 633, that of the foundation of the monastery 
 656 or 657. The inference therefore certainly is that the 
 burial took place many years before the inception of Hild's 
 undertaking ; and consequently that the place itself and the 
 church of St. Peter in which he was buried were already places 
 of note. But it is certainly not a matter of inference or pre- 
 sumption only that within but a short time of the settlement 
 at Streoneshalh, growth and increase became the characteristics 
 of the undertaking, and the new establishment was recognised 
 as equally notable and important. According to William of 
 
92 Shreds of Old Whitby History 
 
 Malmesbury, it was the largest of the monasteries founded by 
 Oswiu's bounty, and, as Dr. Young well remarks, " its increase 
 might rationally be expected, both from the rank and character 
 of its Abbess, and the dignity of her youthful charge, the 
 princess Aelfleda. Every one who adopted the monastic life 
 would be eager to enter an abbey where a lady so illustrious 
 presided, and where a young princess was a disciple. Oswy 
 and his queen would be the first to patronise an establishment 
 which contained an object so dear to them. The fame of the 
 lady Hilda was extensively spread abroad ; she was visited by 
 persons of the most exalted station, and her monastery became 
 the scene of important transactions." 
 
 The " important transaction " specially in the mind of the 
 historian, as he penned those words, would necessarily be 
 the famous Synod of Streoneshalh in 66-3 or 664, summoned 
 for the purpose of settling the disputes which agitated the 
 early Northern Church touching the precise time for keeping 
 Easter, the priestly tonsure, and one or two minor matters. 
 King Oswiu himself presided at the council, and besides him 
 there were present his son Alchfrid (a reigning prince). Bishops 
 Colman and Agilbercht (each with a train of clergy), Romanus 
 (the Queen's chaplain), the venerable James, long associated 
 with Paulinus, and of course the lady Hild herself. 
 
 Twelve centuries have passed away since this memorable 
 gathering, and the points then mooted are matters in which 
 it is not easy to take a very lively interest at this time and 
 in this country ; and probably we fail entirely in any attempt 
 to realise how much of at least adventitious importance actually 
 gathered about the transaction ; as we most certainly fail in 
 recognising the weight of the argument which is said to have 
 influenced the royal president's decision as to the principal 
 matter debated. Indeed it is rather hard to suppress a smile, 
 as we read of the reason alleged by the king for advocating 
 and deciding in favour of St. Peter's side. 
 
 But there were other reasons besides the holding of this 
 
The operative Influence of Streoneshalh 93 
 
 synod which tended to make Streoneshalh a place of importance 
 and distinction. The institution from among whose foster- 
 children a poet such as Caedmon, and bishops like Bosa and 
 John, both of York, could be furnished forth, must have been 
 one in which there was real life and activity in intellectual 
 as well as in spiritual and religious matters. That Hild her- 
 self was an extraordinary woman, and would have made her 
 mark in any age, is a matter which admits of one view, and 
 one view only ; and the presence of such a woman in such 
 times and under such fostering circumstances might alone 
 have been taken as a guarantee that much and wisely-organised 
 labour and effort would be steadily brought to bear on the 
 great objects of early religious life. We may of course, and 
 without much compunction, discard the tales of Caedmon's 
 somewhat melodramatic " inspiratio," and of John's miraculous 
 performances, as due simply or principally to the legend-loving 
 genius and temper of the times in which the legend was com- 
 piled. But there will still remain more than enough to show 
 that good men and true were working with brain and pen and 
 heart and hand, and that their spirit and will and energy of 
 working were fostered and guided as well as inspired from 
 the fountain-head of Hild's Streoneshalh monastery. 
 
 Hild appears to have died in the year 680. She was 
 succeeded by her royal pupil ^Ifieda, who for several years 
 after she became Abbess had not only the benefit of her mother's 
 presence and support in the discharge of her onerous duties, 
 but also the counsel and aid of the wise and pious Bishop 
 Trumwine, who took refuge at Streoneshalh when driven 
 from his own district. by the inroads of the Picts and Scots, 
 or other Northern enemies. ^Ifleda's death took place in 
 the fifty -ninth year of her age, and consequently in the 
 year 713. 
 
 After the death of .^Elfleda a blank in the history of 
 Streoneshalh occurs, so complete that during a period of a 
 century and a half no record at all of its work and progress — 
 
94 Shreds of Old Whitby History 
 
 or, it might be, of its falling-ofF and declension — is known to 
 have existed. It seems strange that such should be the state 
 of the case, for we have ample assurance from the bare outlines 
 of the facts already stated that a period of extraordinary 
 activity and diligence in the special work of a seminary of 
 ecclesiastical learning and discipline had (as of necessity) 
 resulted in the rearing of a succession of able and devoted 
 men, rising one after another to posts of the highest dignity 
 and influence. Independently of the accessions to the numbers 
 and efficiency of its inmates which would be induced in such 
 cases as that of Bishop Trumwine and his attendants — a case 
 which it would be unreasonable to look upon as of unusual 
 occurrence in that age — there must have been a large body 
 of duly taught and trained men in the monastery long after 
 ^Ifleda's decease, and it seems hard to believe that no one 
 of them all should have been found as able as willing to 
 chronicle the annals of the House. But so, as far as all 
 seeming goes, it actually is. If any such record was ever 
 compiled, the writings were lost or destroyed ; and we hear 
 no more of Streoneshalh until we hear of it in its ruin under 
 the incursions of the Danes. 
 
 The accounts given of the destruction of the monastery 
 and of the attendant ravaging of the district, by the different 
 annalists who record the circumstances, are not altogether 
 consistent, and consequently they require close sifting and 
 comparison in order to elicit the probable truth. For this 
 there is neither space nor call here. And it must be sufficient 
 to state that about 867 to 870 the place was laid waste and 
 the desolation of the holy House became a lasting one. In 
 Dr. Young's words, " Streoneshalh lay desolate for 207 years." 
 
 But there are two remarks which I think ought to be made 
 at this point. First, it is necessary to call attention to the fact 
 that, whatever the simplicity or plainness, the rudeness even, 
 of the early structures connected with the Foundation, — the 
 very church itself being no exception, as has been remarked. 
 
The Monastery desolate for two Centuries 95 
 
 to the general rule of rough wooden buildings thatched with 
 rushes or reeds, and lights of slight lattice, or, as at York 
 Minster, of boards pierced with many holes, — still, before 
 destruction at the hands of the Danish invaders and spoilers 
 came upon the monastery, the simple or rude structures of the 
 early days had given place to oratories and shrines and altars 
 so massive and strong that yet, after the first wasting and 
 after two centuries of neglect and worse than neglect, and of 
 the effects of winter's storms and frosts, of equinoctial gales 
 and other elemental forces, the walls and the shelterless altars 
 of nearly forty " oratories " are described as remaining to show 
 what the final works of the early piety had been. But more 
 about this elsewhere. 
 
 The other remark which it would seem expedient to make 
 here is that, although the sacred house and its buildings had 
 been ruined and left in their desolation for over two hundred 
 years, still it must not be supposed that the same terms could 
 in any sense whatever be applied to describe the condition of 
 the town of Whitby itself. This may not be the old doctrine, 
 or that of the careless compilers and copyists who profess to 
 supply the modern demand for historical information touching 
 the condition and fortunes of Whitby, Ancient and Modern. 
 It is quite true that Dr. Young, and others following him, 
 have stated that when " the Abbey was ruined by the Danes, 
 the town of Streoneshalh shared the same fate, and when after 
 the lapse of two hundred years the monastery was restored 
 the town revived also '' (Young, p. 474). But this is wrong, 
 and it is strange that men like Young and Charlton, doing so 
 much worthy work, and under serious disadvantage too, and, 
 besides, holding the clue to further and fuller knowledge in 
 their very hands, should have failed to perceive, at all events 
 to recognise, the indications that lay undisguised before them. 
 
 At the beginning of the said two hundred years no doubt 
 the scene we are constrained to look upon is a wild and bar- 
 barous one. Ruin, wasting, desolation, havoc, and slaughter 
 
96 Shreds of Old Whitby History 
 
 everywhere. But after the lapse of a certain time,- — we do not 
 know how long or how short, — we are permitted to see the 
 reign of order reasserting itself, ruin and desolation giving 
 way to reconstruction, thrifty " Sys,'' each with the colonising 
 proprietor's wooden shantie, and those perchance of his freed- 
 men and thralls as well as cattle-stalls, sheds, and byres clus- 
 tering about it, replacing the ravaged farmsteads and wasted 
 hamlets of the slain or dispossessed previous occupants ; smil- 
 ing cornfields and green meadows again clothing the slopes 
 and brightening the hollows of the landscape as fair then as 
 now — -perhaps even fairer still — with charms belonging to 
 Nature herself. 
 
 For the new occupants, owners mostly, are brothers in 
 nation, in blood, in bone and thew and muscle, in spirit and 
 energy and hardihood, — some of them, perhaps, brothers in 
 even a nearer sense, — of the men who colonised Iceland, and 
 wrung a subsistence not so very rude or scanty from its, by 
 comparison, strangely inhospitable shores, and in spite of the 
 obduracy of its winters, the inclemency of its springs and 
 autumns. Fifteen or eighteen of these men, each of them prob- 
 ably men of mark enough to have been " a man under authority, 
 having soldiers under him," and still to have men in sub- 
 jection to him as his thralls, settled about within the wide 
 area of the district embraced by Old Whitby ; and it is scarcely 
 reasonable to suppose that they would sit with their hands 
 folded and suffer the desolation to remain. The ships too 
 that had borne them to the conquered coast, and which could 
 be and were turned to the purposes of commerce when the 
 objects of plunder or piracy or war were not the more potent 
 in their attraction, these were not likely to be let rot in the 
 harbour, or lightly left to be dashed to pieces on the shore in 
 the time of storm. 
 
 Eeference was made a little above (p. 81) to the wasting 
 of the cliffs at the entrance to the harbour. Speculation need 
 not be altogether vain as to the area and the depth of water 
 
The Fact of a Whitby Thingwal 97 
 
 in the Whitby port twelve hundred years ago, before the cliffs 
 just named had shrunk to their present limit of projection, or 
 the Esk in its ceaseless energy of work as the carrier for the 
 mighty agencies of weather and time and the natural causes 
 of earthy disintegration at large, had brought down and 
 deposited the fifty-five or sixty millions of cubic yards of clay 
 and sand and stone which have been allotted to her to trans- 
 port during that interval of time. But as surely as there was 
 a harbour there, and without question far more landlocked and 
 secure than perhaps we have been in the habit of allowing for, 
 so surely did the keels of the " Old Dane " and the " Northman," 
 — no longer needed to transport fresh hosts of armed men to 
 these shores in order to acquire fresh lands or consolidate past 
 acquisitions, yet still manned by shipmen who were marrows 
 to those who sailed to Greenland and Finland, Constantinople 
 and Africa, trading or fighting as commerce or war seemed 
 the more attractive or the more stirring, — find both a haven 
 and a mart within the bold headlands that guarded the entrance 
 to the ancient harbour of Whitby. 
 
 What has been so far advanced may of course be regarded 
 as inferential in its nature ; and equally, of course, inferences 
 may be mistaken or wrongly drawn. In the present case, 
 however, there is a great array of fact on which to fall back, 
 and of such a nature as amply to confirm the inference. And 
 first there was (as noticed before) a place within the area of 
 what is now looked upon as Whitby, called Thingwala. This 
 place is mentioned again and again in documents of the twelfth 
 and thirteenth centuries, and even later, and always as a place 
 that was still familiarly known. It is mentioned together with 
 Stakesby and Hawsker and Stainsacre, and other fourteen or 
 fifteen places or hamlets still in being, as well as two or three 
 that have lost the identity they had then. It is not known 
 precisely where it was, but most likely on the line of the cliff 
 at no great distance from the existing ruins. At least, a tradi- 
 tion I have met with seems to point out its absolute site there. 
 
 H 
 
98 Shreds of Old Whitby History 
 
 It seems strange that the significance of such a name 
 should ever have been overlooked, not only by the men who 
 had the Whitby records under hand, but even by the more 
 general reader or student. Indeed, it seems strange that 
 any one who had ever read an account not only of the Iceland 
 Thingvellir, but any of the ordinary books of travel or descrip- 
 tion dealing with the Orkneys, Shetland, Chester, and the 
 Thingwall, Dingwall, ThingvoUr of either or all, should not have 
 had his attention arrested by Charlton or Young's bare mention 
 of the Whitby Thingwala as the name of one of the places 
 conceded nearly at the outset to the renascent Abbey. 
 
 And still more, it would have seemed quite impossible for 
 any one moderately conversant with ancient Scandinavian 
 history, or with the Icelandic sagas and the development and 
 practice of Jurisprudence, Polity, Eeligion described as having 
 their seat and scene in Iceland, and as transplanted thence in 
 divers instances to different parts of our own shores, and in 
 each case associated with the self-same name of Thingwal or 
 Dingwall, not to perceive the weightiness of the suggestion 
 conveyed by the occurrence of precisely the same name at 
 Whitby. 
 
 And yet it is, it may be, less strange that .the name should 
 have failed to arrest attention than is at first sight apparent. 
 Both Young and Charlton were at a disadvantage. It was 
 with them as with a person who is colour-blind. They were 
 not in a position to see what there was to be seen, from (so to 
 speak) the imperfect development of a faculty. What is 
 meant is this : — They failed to note the nature and therefore 
 the meaning of the phenomena of language, names, charac- 
 teristics (both physical and psychical) of the people in the 
 midst of whom they lived. The Danish invasions, maraudings, 
 desolatings were all facts to them. But the subsequent Danish 
 occupancy, colonisation, supremacy; the Old Danish sponsor- 
 ship for five-sixths of the original place-names of the district, 
 and for not quite as much of the language of the country-folk 
 
Whitby did not lie desolate as well as the Abbey 99 
 
 as it was spoken in their day ; in short, the fact of the Dane- 
 lagh and the meaning of the Danelagh, where the infusion of 
 Danish blood and old Danish speech was great enough to have 
 inverted Higden's manner of expression about it, — all these 
 matters were not realised as facts by the authors named, and 
 consequently they failed to note either the name Thingwala 
 or its special testimony and import. 
 
 But it has been different with others, and many men — 
 among them men distinguished as men of mark in the pursuit 
 of archaeological, historical, and philological studies — have 
 accepted the conclusions dealt with above, and all that follows 
 thereupon. And this one local name, Thingwala, especially 
 subsidised as it is by the Thinghows of the interior, goes far 
 indeed in establishing the fact that the ascendancy of the 
 Danish colonists of the district was so real that they not only 
 introduced their language, their usages, their modes of thought, 
 but even their polity both civil and religious. But surely this 
 Thingwala fact — and it is as certainly a fact as that there was 
 a Stakesby, a Dunsley, a Stainsacre, a Hawsker, a Sneaton, an 
 Ugglebarnby, nay, even a Whitby itself, from (let us say) the 
 year 900 onwards — is a fact that is flatly inconsistent with the 
 notion that for two hundred years and more the town of 
 Whitby lay desolate as well as the ruined Anglian monastery. 
 But that is not all, or nearly all, in the irresistible array 
 of facts tending to prove beyond the possibility of any save 
 ignorant questioning, that Whitby was far indeed from lying 
 desolate from the last quarter of the ninth century to the same 
 portion of the eleventh. On the testimony of Domesday, 
 which is not likely to be set aside as valueless or deficient in 
 authority, we are told that in the Confessor's time, or from 
 1050 to 1060, Whitby was geldable, or in a position to be 
 assessed to the impost called Danegeld, in the sum of £112, a 
 sum representing more rather than less than £3500 of our 
 present money. Geldable to this amount, the manerium of 
 Whitby with the berewick of Sneaton comprised 15 carucates 
 
I oo Shreds of Old Whitby History 
 
 of land, and had soke besides in Fylingdales, Hawsker, 
 Presteby, Ugglebarnby, Soureby, Brecca, Florum, Stakesby, 
 and Neuham to the extent of 28| carucates more. 
 
 Now let us compare these figures with those in some 
 corresponding entries in Domesday touching some of the 
 contemporaneously more important localities in Cleveland. 
 The manerium of Lofthus then, with 4 carucates at home, 
 and soke in various other townships and parishes amounting 
 in all to nearly 47 carucates more, was geldable at £48. At 
 Stokesley, with a home manerium of 6 carucates and soke of 
 34 carucates in other places, the geldable value was £24. 
 At Hutton Rudby, also with 6 carucates and soke of 20 
 carucates additional in other places, the geldable value was 
 £24. So that, on comparison, Whitby, with a total of 43f 
 carucates, is rated at £112; Lofthouse, with nearly 51 caru- 
 cates, at £48 ; Stokesley, with 40|^ carucates, at £24 ; and 
 Hutton Eudby, with 26 carucates, is set down at precisely the 
 same figure. 
 
 Thus Whitby, with sensibly less carucatage than Lofthouse, 
 was very considerably more than twice as productive as 
 regards assessment to Danegeld; with a little more extent than 
 Stokesley, was nearly five times as productive ; and with nearly 
 twice as much acreage as Hutton, was yet nearly five times 
 as valuable. 
 
 Or, to put it in another way, Whitby was geldable to 
 the amount of upwards of £2 : 10s. for each carucate in the 
 estimate; Lofthouse at not quite 18s. lOd. ; Stokesley at 
 lis. lOd. ; and Hutton Eudby at something under 18s. 6d. 
 
 Of course, in the face of such statistics as these, it is idle, 
 not to say absurd, to speak of Whitby, town as well as 
 monastery, as lying desolate for over two hundred years, and 
 only reviving after the refounding of the Abbey in 1075 or 
 thereabouts. For really, after making all possible allowance 
 for the probably greater value of land, then as now, when in 
 the vicinity of a place like Whitby, in contradistinction to 
 
Early Prosperity of Whitby loi 
 
 more inland and country places like Lofthus, Stokesley, and 
 Hutton, still we are obliged to leave a large margin for value 
 of another kind ; such, namely, as would depend on civil and 
 mercantile considerations. That is to say, Whitby at the 
 time of the valuation taken in Edward the Confessor's time, 
 as recorded in the Domesday Book, must have been, for the 
 times, an important, a prosperous, and wealthy town and 
 harbour. Less than this can scarcely be said of a place which 
 was returned as assessed at a sum of £3500 or more to the 
 one specified impost called the Danegeld. 
 
 If any word further of explanation is required, it may 
 perhaps be found in Freeman's remark that " along with the 
 Danegeld, a tax which was strictly a tax upon ihe land, came 
 the aids of the towns, an impost which has been held to be 
 in effect the Danegeld levied on those parts of the kingdom 
 to which the reckoning by hides " — carucates in the North — 
 "could not apply." Apply this principle in the case of 
 Whitby, and the figures which have been quoted above will 
 amply sufiice to show what an exemplary balance remained 
 to be paid by the town after the 43;^ carucates in the Whitby 
 estimate had already paid their quota. Could a town that 
 was still in a state of ruin and desolation have done this ? 
 
FURTHER HISTORICAL SHREDS TOUCHING THE 
 REFOUNDING OF THE MONASTERY, FIRST AS 
 A PRIORY, AND EVENTUALLY AN ABBEY 
 
 What has been remarked on the subject of the Restoration 
 of the Monastery of Whitby in the Introductory Chapters of 
 the TVhithj Chartulary is as follows : " The history of the 
 earlier steps taken in the refounding of the monastic House of 
 Whitby is involved in very great obscurity and beset with 
 much perplexity ; not because there are no ancient records 
 treating of the subject, but because these ancient records are 
 so hopelessly inconsistent, and indeed in no small measure 
 irreconcilable with each other, that even a probable approxi- 
 mation to the truth becomes extraordinarily difficult." 
 
 These records, together with the estimate formed, after 
 much and careful consideration, by the writer touching their 
 authenticity and value, may be briefly set down as follows : — 
 
 I. There is what is usually described as the " Memorial of 
 Benefactions," which is clearly the most ancient writing in 
 the Abbot's Book or Whitby Register, and which, being 
 certainly of a date anterior to 1175, may thus claim to be 
 considerably earlier than any other of the records in question 
 save only Domesday, and by a less space than the notice by 
 Symeon of Durham. As to the authenticity and authority of 
 this document, it would seem that almost complete credit 
 may be given to its statements, and that thus its historical 
 value is of a high order. 
 
Sotirces of Whitby History 
 
 II. Secondly, there is the statement given by Symeon of 
 Durham, which also may be accepted as distinctly authentic, 
 but which is necessarily brief, and contains merely bare facts 
 without much, if anything, of the nature of detail. In fact, 
 what is said is that Keinfrid, one of three monks who had left 
 the Convent of Evesham together, in order to strive to restore 
 religious life in the North, came to " Streoneshalc, which is 
 also called Hwitebi, where, receiving all who came to him, he 
 commenced a regular monastic establishment." 
 
 III. Thirdly, there is the story given in the narrative 
 which purports to be by Stephen of Whitby, touching the 
 foundation of St. Mary's Abbey at York, and which there can 
 be no hesitation in describing as eminently untrustworthy. 
 It is ascribed to the pen of Stephen himself; but regarded 
 from that point of view, it can only be spoken of as a forgery. 
 Besides, it is what may be fairly characterised as a sensational 
 fiction rather than a sober history ; and it was probably written 
 by a monk of St. Mary's long after Stephen's decease, and 
 with the object of enhancing and magnifying his fame. 
 
 IV. Then, in the fourth place, there is the relation of the 
 troubles which befell the rising community at Whitby in the 
 time of Rufus. This is derived from the Dodsworth MSS., 
 and is therein said to have been taken from a book or books 
 formerly in the possession of the Cholmley family, but of 
 which no trace has been met with for many generations. This 
 too, while dealing with facts, as Stephen's narrative does, 
 deals with them in a way which is inconsistent with other 
 and well-ascertained facts, and may therefore, as to many of 
 its details, be treated as a fiction founded upon fact, and only 
 be depended upon when its statements are not either directly 
 or indirectly contradicted or invalidated by better authority. 
 
 V. Fifthly, there is the testimony which may be collected 
 from the very numerous documents, copies of which are found 
 in the two Chartularies of the monastery yet extant, one ofthem 
 in the possession of Sir Charles Strickland and the other in 
 
I04 Further Historical Shreds 
 
 the British Museum; from a variety of MSS. preserved in 
 the Bodleian Library at Oxford, in the British Museum, in 
 the Record Office, and elsewhere; besides the books of the 
 Archbishops in the Registry at York, almost all of which are 
 of true historical value, and many of them of exceeding interest 
 as well. 
 
 VI. Lastly, there are the notices in Domesday touching 
 Whitby and Hackness ; and the inferences, some of them 
 plain and inevitable, others of them more of the nature of 
 presumption, which may or must be derived therefrom. 
 
 All that can be done in this place, however, in reference 
 to these several sources of history as bearhig upon the details 
 connected with the refounding of the Abbey, is to make a 
 brief and plain statement of the results of the long-continued 
 and very careful collation and consideration of them with 
 which the writer has been engaged over a space of more than 
 thirty years. These results were thus summed up in the his- 
 torical recapitulation printed at the close of the Introductory 
 Chapters to the author's volumes (published by the Surtees 
 Society) of the Chartulary of Whithj : although it ought to be 
 premised that there are two or three points, to be indicated 
 in their proper places, as to which a more definite opinion has 
 been arrived at than when those words were committed to the 
 printer's hands. 
 
 "On the whole, the history of the renascent monastery 
 may be read somewhat in this way : At or near the date 
 alleged (some definite but not very long time before the year 
 1078), a monk named Eeinfrid (Regenfrith) came to WhitbJ^ 
 He had been an active and energetic officer in the Conqueror's 
 service ; he was connected by marriage or otherwise with 
 well-known and important families; and more than presumably 
 he had been an agent in carrying out the terrific wasting to 
 which the North had been subjected in the year 1070 by 
 William's orders. Struck with compunction, he had retired 
 to the Convent of Evesham, and there had been duly trained 
 
Elements of Early Whitby History 105 
 
 and instructed in the duties and practices of a monastic life. 
 Filled with an ardent desire to be instrumental in the revival 
 of religion in the North, he, with two others like-minded with 
 himself, penetrated eventually to Jarrow, and in the sequel 
 came on by himself to Whitby. Here, before long, he succeeded 
 in collecting a body of would-be ' Religious ' ; having already, 
 it may be presumed, ascertained the willingness, if not more 
 than willingness, of William de Percy (then apparently the 
 mesne lord of the entire Whitby district) to sanction the 
 undertaking and further his objects by at least giving leave 
 and licence to occupy the site and the remains of buildings, 
 together with the ancient appurtenances, of the original 
 monastery. 
 
 "This concession, however, if not made at once, speedily 
 ensued; and a settlement having certainly more or less of 
 monastic form and order was organised and effected, assuredly 
 before the year 1080. Eeinfrid continued to act as head or 
 superior of this monastic establishment, bearing the title q\ 
 Prior — a title which endured throughout a period of several 
 years. And it is not unimportant to remark that, at and after 
 the date of the refounding, the House was a Priory and not 
 an Abbey. 
 
 "Under Reinfrid's government certain accessions accrued 
 to the lands and church already assigned to the brotherhood ; 
 notably the church or chapel of Middlesbrough with its tithes, 
 the latter payable out of a considerable district ; and also, not 
 less notably, the church of St. Peter at Hackness, or, in other 
 words, that one of the two churches there that had been 
 attached to the Cell which, in the old days, had been a 
 dependency or appurtenance of the Streoneshalh monastery ; 
 and, together with the said church, two or more carucates of 
 land in the same vill. 
 
 "During the incumbency of Reinfrid, Stephen, afterwards 
 the first Abbot of St. Mary's at York, joined the brotherhood ; 
 and being a man of position and importance from the worldly 
 
io6 Further Historical Shreds 
 
 point of view, and of considerable capacity as well, conceived 
 himself, and was considered by a not inconsiderable party 
 amongst the brethren, to be a suitable successor to Prior 
 Eeinfrid when the career of the latter was cut short by his 
 accidental death, occasioned as it was while helping in the 
 labour of constructing a bridge at a place called Ormesbridge 
 on the Derwent. The Percy family, however, preferred one 
 of themselves (a brother of the founder, in point of fact, who 
 was already a monk of some standing in the monastery, and 
 who when he joined the fraternity had brought with him a 
 considerable addition to the endowment) as the successor to 
 the vacant Priorate, and consequently Serlo de Percy was 
 made Prior in the room of Eeinfrid." 
 
 About or not long after this time, in all probability, 
 Stephen departed — in the Introduction to the Wliithy Chartu- 
 lary it is said that he "seceded" — from Whitby, and with 
 a possible halt at Lastingham, went on to York, where 
 eventually, indeed no long time afterwards, he became Abbot, 
 the first Abbot, of St. Mary's Convent. 
 
 "The word 'seceded' was employed in the place referred 
 to because it seemed quite probable that Stephen, under the 
 influence of disappointment or irritation — -it might even be of 
 ambition — might have resolved on some such line of action. 
 In the Chronicle of the Monastery of Meaux it is directly 
 affirmed that a party of monks issued forth from the monastery 
 of Whytby with the object and for the purpose of initiating 
 the monastery {ad inchoandum monasieriwn) of Blessed Mary 
 of York. That Stephen was at the head of this party can 
 hardly be a matter of doubt or question, when it is borne 
 in mind that he actually became the first Abbot of the 
 nascent Convent." 
 
 Assuming the statement thus made and the inference from 
 it just adduced to be true and valid, there is afforded an ex- 
 planation exactly where an explanation is required. It is 
 obviously very far from imlikely that such a man as Stephen 
 
Serlo de Percy succeeds Rein/rid as Prior 107 
 
 evidently was, should aspire to succeed to the Priorate on the 
 untimely decease of Reinfrid, and still less so that he should 
 be disappointed by the natural, not to say inevitable, preference 
 of a member of the founder's family over himself. If it was 
 so, it would be a strong additional reason for his selection as 
 the head of the body of monks who were deputed by the 
 Whitby brethren, or, to say the least, went out from among 
 them, to formally commence and organise the monastic settle- 
 ment "in honour of the Blessed Mary" at York. And even 
 if it were otherwise, his recognised fitness and capacity — and 
 from both points of view, the secular as a man of evident mark, 
 and the religious as an adequately trained director of monks — 
 might and would be amply sufficient to induce his appointment 
 as their leader and eventual Superior. In a few words, we 
 seem to be amply warranted in assuming that Stephen's with- 
 drawal from Whitby depended upon some such considerations 
 as those suggested in this paragraph. 
 
 To resume the thread of the narrative of the sequence of 
 events as they transpired during the first stages of the ref ound- 
 ing of the Whitby monastery : " Serlo de Percy had become 
 Prior in the room of Eeinfrid. Further concessions were made 
 to the Convent, just as some additions had been made when 
 he took upon himself the monastic profession and became an 
 inmate of the monastery ; and the renascent foundation and 
 its head became invested with considerable influence and 
 prestige." 
 
 It is true there were certain breaks in or checks to its 
 prosperity, and possibly at an early period of Serlo's presidency, 
 under the attacks, as it is alleged, of pirates, marauders, and 
 banditti ; and thus a retreat to the Hackness cell for a time 
 became compulsory. 
 
 Still these breaks or checks were but temporary, and the 
 House continued to grow in wealth, influence, and importance. 
 "And it was while this was so that William de Percy, the 
 founder, animated by the same religious fervour which sent 
 
1 08 Further Historical Shreds 
 
 him forth as a crusader, to meet his fate in the Holy Land, 
 conceived the idea in its positive form of converting what had 
 hitherto been comparatively a somewhat unimportant Priory 
 into a well-endowed and influential Abbey; and his own grants 
 and donations being largely supplemented by others from 
 various members of his family, and from a number of his sub- 
 infeudatories, and other men of note besides, the proposed 
 change was effected, and William de Percy, nephew of the 
 founder and of Prior Serlo, was advanced to be the first 
 Abbot." 
 
 It is of course possible that this was done with the full 
 approval and concurrence of Serlo ; but it seems to be more 
 likely that it was otherwise, and that the change was brought 
 about rather by the virtual supersession, than in virtue of the 
 voluntary resignation, of the incumbent Prior ; who, however, 
 it is known with entire certainty, retired to the Cell of All 
 Saints at York, and continued to be Prior there for several 
 years after the constitution of the Abbacy of Whitby. 
 
 But whether he ceased to be Prior of Whitby by super- 
 session or by resignation, a foundation might easily be found, 
 in the fact of his ceasing to be Prior just when his nephew 
 was advanced to be Abbot, for the stories compiled by writers 
 living probably some generations afterwards, about the variance 
 between the two brothers, William the Founder and Serlo the 
 Prior, and the persecution the latter was represented as having 
 undergone at the hands of his, as alleged, unscrupulous 
 relative; — a man whose last recorded act, notwithstanding, 
 is a munificent deed of gift to the self-same object of 
 persecution and his canons ! 
 
 A few special words should be written touching the migra- 
 tion of the brotherhood of the monastery to Hackness, which, 
 it would be observed, was alleged, not merely suggested ; and 
 also as to the corresponding manner in which the retirement 
 of Serlo to the All Saints Cell as its Prior was distinctly 
 affirmed. There is absolutely no doubt on either head. In the 
 
Serlo de Percy Prior of All Saints Cell, York 109 
 
 Liher Vitce of Durham there is a note which has been copied in 
 one of the Cotton MSS., and also in one place at least in the 
 Dodsworth Collections, which mentions a conventio or covenant 
 between the monks of Durham and those of, not Whitby, but 
 Hackness, with Serlo distinguished by name from among the 
 rest, and in such wise as only the head or Superior possibly 
 could be. 
 
 And as to Serlo's retirement to the presidency of the York 
 Cell : — Certainly Dr. Young ventures the statement that 
 he was succeeded by his nephew, William de Percy, who 
 " obtained the title of Abbot,'' and notices the obscurity touch- 
 ing the date of his death, and obviously regards the succession 
 of the nephew as consequent on the death of the uncle ; and 
 Charlton, with his characteristic dogmatism as to dates as well 
 as other matters, states on the authority of his own ipse dixit 
 only that "Serlo continued to preside with great reputation 
 as Prior for almost twenty years, and died about the year 
 1102 . . . being succeeded as Prior of Whitby by his nephew 
 William " ; but all the same, there is a charter by Nigel de 
 Albini in the Whitby Eegister or Abbot's Book, the date of 
 which charter lies between the years 1108 and 1114, which 
 expressly mentions Prior Serlo and the other monks of the 
 Cell of All Saints in Fishergate at York, besides the corro- 
 boration of the same fact obtained from another charter by 
 the same grantor still extant at Durham. 
 
ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE CHANGE OF THE 
 PEIORATE INTO AN ABBACY, AND INFEREN- 
 TIAL MATTERS THEREWITH CONNECTED 
 
 I HAVE spoken in the preceding section of the elevation of the 
 original Priory into the eventual Abbey, and of the supersession 
 or resignation of Prior Serlo as probably being inseparably 
 connected with it. I think, hovi^ever, that in a book of this 
 sort it would hardly be fitting to speak of a matter of such 
 weight only in the way of a passing reference. Hence I intro- 
 duce the following, mainly from the Introduction to the 
 Whitby Ghartulary. 
 
 It is distinctly asserted by the writer of the earliest docu- 
 ment contained in the Ghartulary, usually spoken of as the 
 " Memorial of Benefactions," that Serlo de Percy was created 
 Prior on the death of Reinfrid, and continued in that office 
 until such time as William de Percy, nephew of the founder, 
 was created Abbot ; and I have above adverted to the possibility 
 that this transaction, especially if regarded from the super- 
 session point of view, might perhaps afford some measure of 
 explanation as to the alleged variance between the two brothers, 
 ■ — the founder, namely, and the second Prior. 
 
 As to the fact of Serb's withdrawal, whether consequent 
 on supersession or on resignation, there can be no possible 
 doubt. There is a charter granted by Nigel de Albini, the 
 date of which (as previously mentioned) lies between 1108 and 
 1114, by which the grantor restores to God and the Church of 
 
How Serlo de Percy became Prior of the Cell 1 1 1 
 
 All Saints in Fishergate, at York, a certain half-carucate of 
 land at Thorp, near York, with the explicit direction that 
 Serlo the Prior and the other monks of that same place should 
 have and hold the same. And it is to be remarked that while 
 Whitby is not so much as named, or even referred to, in the 
 terms employed, the church itself, which had been granted by 
 William Eufus for the establishment of a Cell there, is both 
 named and described with more than the accustomed 
 precision : " Deo et ecclesise Omnium Sanctorum . . . scilicet 
 ecclesiae quae est in Fisergate apud Eboracum." There can, 
 therefore, be no doubt at all as to the position Prior Serlo held 
 at the date of the charter in question. The clause "Prior 
 Serlo et alii monachi ejusdem loci " can be understood but in 
 one sense ; namely, that Serlo had ceased to be Prior of 
 Whitby, and had become simply Prior of the All Saints Cell 
 at York. 
 
 Now, such a change as this could have been effected but 
 in one of two ways, — either with his acquiescence, or against 
 his will, and as the result of influence brought to bear upon 
 him, of such a nature, whether suasive or compulsory, that he 
 was unable to resist it. In the latter case the fact of the 
 variance, its nature, and its probable acerbity must all be 
 admitted ; in the former, when we take into consideration 
 the strangely loose and inaccurate way in which the writers 
 of such narratives as that of the alleged Stephen, of the 
 Dodsworth Memoranda, and even some later scribes of the 
 monastic period, put their materials together, there is no 
 difficulty in accounting for such tales as those which convey to 
 us all the information we possess as to the alleged variance 
 between Serlo and his brother, and particularly as to the 
 attempt and desire of the latter to take back all his former 
 gifts to the monastery. On the whole, there seems to be little 
 doubt that William de Percy did, for some reason or other, 
 press or perhaps force upon his brother the resignation of the 
 headship of the Whitby Monastery ; and that this pressure 
 
1 12 Change of Priory into an Abbey 
 
 was applied at the time when he had made and been enabled 
 to carry out his plans for the constitution of an Abbacy in 
 place of the hitherto existing Priorate. 
 
 As to the time when this change was finally carried out, 
 although there are no precise or exact dates available, still 
 there are facts and considerations such that a safe inference 
 may be founded upon them; and also, perhaps, a further 
 inference as to at least a part of the reason for the royal assent 
 being given to such a change. 
 
 In a previous Section it was remarked that there were 
 evidently at least two periods at which donations were made 
 by the Founder to the rising Eeligious House — the first at or 
 about the time when Eeinfrid arrived and commenced work 
 at Whitby, which also may, without violence, be held to include 
 the augmentations conceded on occasion of his brother Serlo's 
 admission into the number of the monks ; the second, that 
 which is marked by the charter in which his wife, his heir, and 
 two other sons are named as " concessores " together with 
 himself, as well as acting as witnesses to the grant made. That 
 this charter was executed after the commencement of William 
 the Second's reign, is clear from the fact that he is mentioned 
 in it as the regnant king ; but at what particular period of his 
 reign there is nothing in the charter itself to indicate with 
 precision. Nevertheless it would seem possible to infer the 
 probable date, approximately at least, from some considerations 
 suggested partly by historical fact, and partly by the wording 
 of the charter. The Founder, as is well known, took part in 
 the crusade of 1096-97, and on the authority of the " Memorial," 
 died on the march to Jerusalem, at a place called Mons 
 Gaudium, within what the writer designates " the province of 
 Jerusalem.'' This would of course be after the rendezvous at 
 Constantinople in 1097 ; but how long after there is no means 
 of ascertaining, and it is not material. But it is to our purpose 
 to remark that William de Percy's last and enlarged grant 
 must have been made before he set out to join the crusading 
 
Terms of the Founder' s ultimate Grant 1 1 3 
 
 host, and doubtless before he made his final preparations for 
 so formidable an expedition. Indeed, no more plausible 
 suggestion can well be made than that the resolution to take 
 part in the crusade, and the resolution to constitute an Abbey 
 in lieu of a Priory at Whitby, and endow it with accordant 
 liberality, were probably contemporaneous, or at all events due 
 to the same religious impulse. And there certainly are 
 features in the charter in question which seem to bespeak the 
 presence of more than usual earnestness and solemnity in the 
 grantor's mind and intention. The Archbishop,- besides the 
 founder's wife, his heir, and two other sons, with his kinsman 
 Ernald de Percy (the founder of the Kildale family), and 
 Gilbert FitzAdelard, are all present, and all formally uniting 
 with himself in the grant, concession, and confirmation of his 
 munificent donation : " Huic dono afiuerunt testes et concessores 
 Thomas Archiepiscopus Ebor., Emma de Port, uxor mea, 
 Alanus, Walterus, Willelmus, filii mei," etc. Surely no 
 occasion can be imagined more suitable to call forth such 
 unusual manifestations, on the part of a great benefactor, of 
 an earnest solicitude that his grants should have every 
 possible sanction, and especially on the part of those most 
 nearly concerned in the lands and possessions proposed to be, 
 and now actually and formally, alienated, than one on which 
 the said benefactor stood on the verge of an enterprise, in 
 which, advanced in years as he already was, he was about to 
 expose himself to all the perils of travel and hardship, sickness 
 and warfare, and from which, humanly speaking, the chances 
 of his return in safety could scarcely in any sense be considered 
 hopeful. 
 
 But there is still another point in this charter to which 
 attention should be given ; I mean the terms in which the 
 object for which the old grants are confirmed and so largely 
 augmented by new ones, is specified, namely, " ad fundandam 
 Abbatiam olim destructam " (for the refounding of the Abbacy 
 long ago destroyed). It being the fact that, unquestionably 
 
 I 
 
1 14 Change of Priory into an Abbey 
 
 within the four years next succeeding our assumed date, the 
 Priory was erected into an Abbacy, the language employed 
 does appear to be significant ; and the circumstance that the 
 grant is made to Prior Serlo and the monks serving God at 
 Whitby makes it in so far more probable that the measures 
 which were already taken, or were to be taken in the near 
 sequel, for raising the house to a higher dignity were designed 
 and carried out with the existing Prior's acquiescence if not 
 concurrence. Probably, too, the formal appointment of the 
 first Abbot would follow at no very remote date after the 
 execution of the charter and the formal completion of its 
 purpose. 
 
 At least this much is certain, that William de Percy had 
 been created Abbot antecedently to the year 1100; and 
 among the charters printed in the Ghartulary is one by 
 King Henry the First addressed to Thomas, Archbishop of 
 York, Osbert the Sheriff (of York), Nigel de Albini, and 
 Aschetil de Bulmer, which contains the following remark- 
 able clause : " Sciatis quod Willelmus, Abbas de Whitby, et 
 monachi illius loci dederunt michi in forestis suis omnes 
 cervos et cervas et porcos, et ego illas forestavi michi et 
 haeredibus meis." (Know all of you that William, Abbot of 
 Whitby, and the monks of the same place, have given to me 
 in their forests all the stags, hinds, and boars, and I have 
 afforested the said forests to myself and my heirs.) 
 
 That this concession on the part of the Whitby Convent 
 had been made in consideration of some countervailing grant 
 or concession on the king's part, may of course be looked 
 upon as a certainty. Equally of course it may be suggested 
 that it was made in return for the full confirmation which 
 the latter part of the charter conveys. But the Confirmation, 
 save only that it is prefaced by a declaration on the part of 
 the king that he takes no rights in the woods and pastures 
 belonging to the Abbey, save those of the forest only, is 
 in no respect different from the ordinary royal charters of 
 
Forest-rights in Whitby conceded to the King 1 1 5 
 
 confirmation; and these were customarily paid for by tlie 
 recipients at the cost of a few pounds only ; and there could 
 have been no difficulty to the Convent in meeting such an 
 expense as that. The concession of the forest to. the king, 
 then, must have been made on some other consideration than 
 that involved in this possible suggestion. 
 
 To me it seems probable that this sacrifice on the part of 
 the Convent of rights so highly prized as were the forest 
 rights which had been surrendered to Henry, may have 
 been made conditionally on the creation of an Abbacy in 
 place of what before had been merely a Priory. 
 
 It should be remarked, in the first place, that the king's 
 charter is an ex post facto one : " Et ego illas forestavi michi et 
 haeredibus meis." Not only has the concession been made by 
 the monks, but the king has already acted upon it by taking 
 all the proceedings necessary towards constituting the forests 
 in question part and parcel of the Royal forests. And in the 
 second place, that the said proceedings were not reversed 
 until the reign of John, who in the year 1203 restored to the 
 convent precisely what the convent had conceded to Henry I. 
 just two or three years more than a century before. 
 
 Whether the suggestion made above involves or implies 
 the explanation of the remarkable surrender by the Abbey of 
 all its extensive and important forest-rights to the king or 
 not, must be a matter left to the consideration and judgment 
 of the critical reader. But there is yet another matter for 
 notice, not entirely unconnected, which may as well, be mooted 
 in this place. What I mean is that in the yet existing docu- 
 ments we have many tokens of rearrangement of fees, or 
 portions of fees, some dependent on a change of the tenant 
 in capite, others on possible exchange or sale, or, it may be, 
 even on an entirely new grant emanating from the rightful 
 authority. 
 
 Thus it is perfectly evident that at the time of the 
 charter by William de Percy the Founder, to which not 
 
1 1 6 Change of Priory into an Abbey 
 
 only his wife, Emma de Port, but specially his son and heir, 
 Alan, is a party, William de Percy himself (as is the case 
 also with his said son Alan quite early in the first Henry's 
 reign) has become tenant in capite; although we have no 
 hint as to the time or the manner in which he had become 
 so, or as to any consideration or compensation made on that 
 account to Earl Hugh of Chester, who was the previous 
 tenant in capite. But independently of this, which could 
 only have been brought about by the direct consent and 
 co-operation of the king, we find in the same charter 
 evidences of further change, involving similar royal action 
 of even a more direct nature still. In the Domesday Eecord 
 we have mention of the manor of Walesgrif (now Palsgrave) 
 with the berewic of Nordfeld, as a part of the Terra Eegis, 
 and, appertaining thereto, soke of Tornelai. Sufifield and 
 Everlay, however, are named as in William de Percy's 
 Hackness fee, either as parcels, or as appurtenances thereof. 
 But the charter under note, after detailing the grants and 
 donations made to the Convent at and near Whitby, and 
 also of Hackness and the two churches there, goes on in 
 immediate connection to specify as follows : " Et Norfelt et 
 Sudfelt, Everlay e et Brokesaye et Tornelaye," with all their 
 appurtenances. It is certain then, that, in the presumed 
 rearrangement of fees or portions of fees, which must, as 
 we see, have taken place after the date of Domesday, and 
 most likely in the earlier years of Eufus' reign, the king 
 had over ajid above, or independently of, his own royal gift 
 of lands in Hackness and Nordfeld, with others in Burniston, 
 made over to William de Percy, to be, for the future, appur- 
 tenant to his (de Percy's) manor of Hackness, all rights 
 whatever involved in the soke of these (geographically- 
 considered) portions of that territory. And one can hardly 
 help concluding that such surrender was made by the king 
 with the distinct object of enabling William de Percy 
 formally to make good the Abbey's title to the whole 
 
Whitby History less obscure after 1 1 oo 117 
 
 district embraced in what is now looked upon as the 
 parish of Hackness. 
 
 It is unnecessary to pursue this line of remark any 
 further in these pages. From the time that Alan de Percy 
 begins to grant charters on his own sole account, and royal 
 charter succeeds royal charter, the early history of the 
 restored Abbey, although the materials may be meagre, 
 becomes fairly free from the doubts and uncertainties con- 
 sequent on such inconsistencies and contradictions as those 
 we have had occasion to remark upon above. Grants, 
 donations, and concessions flowed in rapidly, and from 
 many different sources during the reign of Henry I. ; and 
 I think especially during the early part of it, and possibly 
 in the later years of William Eufus; and copies of many 
 of the charters conveying such grants and concessions are 
 still extant, on which notes and commentaries may be found 
 in the Whithy Chartulary referred to once and again in the 
 preceding pages. 
 
SUCCESSIONAL CHUECHES AT WHITBY 
 AND FABRIC NOTES 
 
 This book would, I am afraid, be looked upon as imperfect 
 were it to include no notice of the material fabric of the Abbey 
 and its church, and especially of the small remaining fragment 
 of the latter which still remains to justify our admiring gaze. 
 One needs no considerable architectural knowledge and 
 experience in order to be sensible of its singular beauty and 
 even grandeur. Among the remains of ancient conventual 
 churches with which we may be acquainted there seem to be 
 few that surpass Whitby in symmetry, grace, and beauty, and 
 the charm of all these qualities united is of no ordinary kind. 
 It is not simply the composition of "the matchless eastern 
 elevation " of the choir, or other portions of the building, or 
 the grace of the grouping, or the tender handling of the 
 mouldings, or the lovely ornamentation of the sculpture, and 
 the like ; but there is something which grows on the beholder, 
 impresses him with an idea of beauty and grandeur which is 
 almost mysterious. It is as when a man, who has not the 
 advantages of an imposing presence or majestic stature, yet 
 impresses on his hearers, associates, or contemporaries the 
 conviction of his essential greatness, power, or perhaps majesty. 
 Just so, Whitby is not a large church, rather the contrary. 
 And yet there are impressions produced on the mind of 
 observant and thoughtful visitors such as are usually associated 
 only with great expanse or majestic proportions. 
 
From a drawing made from under the Tower previously to its fall. 
 
 Tafam-p. 119. 
 
Early Date of Church-building at Whitby 1 1 9 
 
 And this is but one of the claims on our admiration, 
 silently but forcibly put forth by this remnant of the work 
 of other and elder days. The somewhat mysterious influence 
 just spoken of is there, but there is besides a subtle beauty 
 and power which twines itself about our affections, and fills us 
 with a loving, longing recollection that is slow to fade from 
 memory for long years after other Whitby associations have 
 practically passed away. 
 
 Before proceeding to notice more definitely the indications 
 which yet remain of what the Abbey church must once have 
 been, it will be well to remark that as early as Serlo's Priorate, 
 or, in other words, before the close of Eufus' reign, there was, 
 as is disclosed by a charter granted by Uctred FitzCospatrick, 
 a " Magister operationum ejusdem loci " named Godefridus — 
 that is to say, one who was, to all intents and purposes, 
 professionally engaged in designing and constructing the 
 buildings of the new foundation ; and first and foremost, as it 
 cannot so much as be questioned, among those "works'' or 
 buildings must be the church in which the brethren were 
 continuously to serve God in the way of prayer and praise. 
 
 This is a very important fact, and assuredly one that should 
 not be overlooked, that before the year 1 1 00 — probably between 
 1095 and that year — church-building especially, as well as other 
 works of construction, was being pushed forward at Whitby. 
 
 The fact is, I repeat, an important one, and in the following 
 connection as well as others : I mean in respect of the notion 
 there is abroad that there was no stone church built at Whitby 
 before that one the ruins of which we still have before our eyes. 
 That notion, however, is certainly erroneous. More probably 
 there were three ; and even, in a certain sense, four. 
 
 In the first place, quite independently of historical 
 testimony, it is altogether impossible to assume that a place 
 like Streoneshalh, so important alike in its connections and 
 influence, and so widely famous throughout the North, should 
 alone have been left without more abiding buildings than the 
 
I20 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 probable wooden ones of her earliest days. Were there nothing 
 else than the fragment of the shaft of an Anglo-Saxon grave- 
 cross which lies just within the wicket-gate that gives admission 
 to the Abbey grounds, or the fine similar shaft still standing 
 at Hawsker, in the way of wrought stones belonging to that 
 period, it would be quite enough to establish the fact of the 
 necessary existence at Streoneshalh of stone buildings. Besides, 
 the remains of the same era belonging to Hinderwell and 
 Hackness (pre-eminently the latter) all corroborate the same 
 view; while the positive testimony of the writer of the 
 "Memorial of Benefactions " would, if necessary, place the matter 
 beyond the reach of possible doubt. It is as follows : Speaking 
 of the grant of the " hallowed place " to Eeinfrid by William 
 de Percy, he mentions a fact which is full of significance as to 
 what the monastery had become before that great ruin at the 
 hands of the Danes had come upon it. " There were at that 
 time," he says, " in that vill of Presteby, as ancient men of the 
 country have delivered to us, almost forty cells or oratories 
 {monasteria vel oratorio), only the walls of which, however, 
 with the disused and unsheltered altars, had remained in being, 
 owing to the destruction wrought by the piratical host." 
 
 Now, while from the numbers specified we may gather 
 something as to the eventual magnitude and extent of the 
 Anglo-Saxon establishment, we are certainly not left in 
 uncertainty as to the massive nature of the buildings — 
 ecclesiastical buildings, moreover, from the particular mention 
 of the "altars'' — which had replaced the more than possibly 
 rude and frail structures of the earlier settlement. Walls and 
 altars which still retained their form and consistency after 
 two centuries of exposure and neglect, over and above the 
 violence of the original havoc, must have been well built as 
 well as strong and massive. 
 
 But I do not think, that the nature of the language 
 employed in speaking of these ancient and much-enduring 
 remains of the old monastery should be left unnoted and with- 
 
Character of an A . S. Monastic Establishment 1 2 1 
 
 out commentary, — " nearly forty monasteria vel oratoria ; " that 
 is, according to the literal meaning of the words made use of, 
 places where people lived alone, or places where prayer was 
 wont to be made. 
 
 Now, in speaking of the early monastery at Coldingham 
 (about contemporaneous with that established by Hild at 
 Streoneshalh) Baeda makes mention of the many several 
 "casse vel domunculse quse ad orandum vel legendum factse 
 erant " constituting the establishment, and each occupied by 
 its own specific inmate ; in English, little cots or dwellings 
 built for praying or reading, as well as for separate occupation 
 or living in by the recluses. The same thing appears again in 
 notices of the monastic establishment at lona, not to mention 
 other accounts. " Within the enclosure was a, plateola or open 
 area, surrounding or beside which were the lodgings (hospitia) 
 of the community. They appear to have been huts, originally 
 formed of wattles or of wood. External authorities call 
 them bothce, cellce, celluloe " (Historians of Scotland, " Life of St. 
 Columba," p. 120). But the " most important building was the 
 sacra domus, indifferently called ecclesia and oratorium. It was 
 provided with an altarium, remote from the door, and on it 
 the customary vessels " (Ibid.) Again, in one instance quoted in 
 the notes to the same book (p. 240), mention is made of three 
 churches within the enclosure, together with the cellulm of the 
 monks. In this case there would have been several altars ; 
 and no doubt, in such an establishment as the Streoneshalh 
 monastery had grown to be, probably even before Abbess Hild 
 went to her well-earned rest, there would be much more than 
 one single church. But even if there were not separate or 
 several churches within the sacred enclosure, — an assumption 
 which is made all but, if not quite, compulsory when we 
 recall the very great accessions to the number of worshippers 
 incident on the visits or permanent residence of royal or 
 other visitors, religious refugees, men in course of training for 
 monastic or missionary work, elsewhere as well as at Streones- 
 
122 Successional Abbey Chtirches 
 
 halh itself, — still there might well be, almost of necessity must 
 be, many altars within the precincts of the main church of all. 
 And thus, besides the coniirmation of the truth of the narrative 
 incidentally afforded by the mention of sundry and manifold 
 oratoiia, we may easily apprehend the explanation of the fact 
 that there were several or many altars still or recently extant 
 when Eeinfrid began his work on Priestby heights, which the 
 Memorialist identifies with the more ancient Streoneshalh. 
 But we may also learn something from the parallel cases at 
 Jarrow and Monkwearmouth. Symeon of Durham, giving an 
 account of the journey of Eeinfrid and his two companions, 
 says they came first to Munecaceastre, and thence, at Bishop 
 Walcher's instance, proceeded to Jarrow, where he granted to 
 them the monastery of St. Paul the Apostle (which had been 
 originally built by Abbot Benedict) ; and this is his description 
 of its condition : " The walls were still standing, but roofless, 
 and with scarcely any marks of their original greatness about 
 them. On these walls they placed a roof of unshaped timbers 
 and dry herbage, and straightway began therein to celebrate 
 the ofiices of divine service. They made for themselves also 
 a cabin (casula) beneath the said walls, wherein to eat and 
 sleep, and lived a hard life on the alms of the religiously 
 disposed." 
 
 I must ask special attention to the fact that Eeinfrid, the 
 first Prior of Whitby, was one of the three named ; and surely 
 that which he had seen done, and helped in with his own hands 
 at Jarrow, would not be without its practical influence and 
 operation when he came to Whitby and had grant, with 
 unconstrained power and liberty to make the best of what was 
 granted, — that is, of a place with its remains so precisely parallel 
 to Jarrow and its roofless walls. At Whitby too, unsquared 
 timbers and rushes for thatch — the material used systematically 
 for such purpose by the monks in after ages, and by the 
 country people of the district still, for covering purposes — 
 would be available in any quantity, and a hastily repaired 
 
Architect Godfrey s Church 123 
 
 church would be extemporised. In effect, this would in no 
 long time, when the earliest leisure of the gathering and 
 earnest-minded community permitted, become a more carefully 
 repaired or, shall we say, "restored" church, and as such, 
 practically a second stone church. 
 
 But it did not stand long in the greater seemliness of its 
 restoration. For in the time of King William Eufus — and 
 we may safely attach confidence to the statement made to that 
 effect, although we meet with it in an historical account of 
 questionable accuracy in other matters — "banditti and plun- 
 derers emerged from the woods and their lurking dens, and 
 carried off all the goods of the monastery, laying the sacred 
 place itself utterly waste. Pirates also came and pitilessly 
 ravaged and devastated the entire settlement." And on this 
 account it was that what I have spoken of as the retreat or 
 retirement to the Hackness Cell became compulsory. 
 
 However, the evil times of brigandage and piratical invasion 
 passed away, and more prosperous times dawned upon the 
 monastery; the monks, with Serlo at their head, returned to 
 the time-honoured and venerated site; building works were 
 resumed, and, as we have so lately noted, under the professional 
 guidance and direction of Godfrey, the " Magister operationum 
 illius loci." 
 
 Fifty years of peace and prosperity seem then to have been 
 enjoyed by the Convent, and there can be no doubt whatever 
 that the church which Architect Godfrey was employed upon, 
 so far as all the wants of a monastic community — quite suffi- 
 ciently exacting — were concerned, became a completed building. 
 And this, then, continuing our former enumeration, was the 
 third stone church. For less than a stone church at this date 
 assuredly would not meet the requirements. A casula, a mere 
 cabin in which to eat and sleep, might serve the personal wants 
 of an early fraternity, but for the service and honour of God 
 not " a building that cost them nothing." Advancing with the 
 years, and arriving at the end of the just-named half-century 
 
124 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 or so of peace and prosperity, we have this to note : During the 
 time of the first of the two Abbots named Eichard, or between 
 1148 and 1175, "the King of Norway entered the port of 
 Whitby with many ships, ransacked the goods of the monks, laid 
 waste everything both within and without, and, though he shed 
 no blood, yet he carried off with him whatever he could find; so 
 that they who by the management of their Abbot had grown 
 very rich now became very poor, the rapacious Norwegians 
 having left them nothing." 
 
 "Laid waste everything, both within doors and without," 
 are the words ; Architect Godfrey's church, it stands to reason, 
 as well as the rest — conventual buildings, granges or farm 
 buildings, and whatever there was to be ruined by violence or 
 by fire. 
 
 Yes, but we have to wait until 1220 or thereabouts before 
 the first stone of the church, the grand remnant of which still 
 stands to greet our eyes, was laid. Fifty or sixty years then 
 had elapsed since the ruinous visit of the Norwegians; and 
 surely no one with the slightest thoughtful consideration of 
 the question will propose to us to believe that during all those 
 years of that architecturally wonderful period, the twelfth 
 century, no church-building was done at Whitby. Hinderwell, 
 Danby, Egton, Ingleby Greenhow, Liverton, Easington, Faceby, 
 Yarm, and a noble array of other contemporaneous churches 
 throughout Cleveland, all raised, and many of them with much 
 decorative detail, during that period, would put us to open 
 shame if we did believe it ; two of the churches thus named 
 being, in point of fact, mere dependencies of Whitby herself. 
 So that we should have to assume that the church of "the 
 House " itself was left in its meanness or disrepair, while those 
 of mere appendages of the House were duly, reverently, or 
 munificently cared for! Nay, the Whitby parish church, 
 which, as built at all, must of course have been built by the 
 Convent, was itself built from choir to nave during this same 
 period. 
 
Church after Church on the same Site 125 
 
 We must assume, then, the construction of another church, 
 and necessarily a stone church, between 1160 and 1220; and 
 that would be the fourth in our enumeration. The absence of 
 any fragments of carved or moulded stone (the remains of 
 either of these previous churches) in the rubble of the existing 
 ruins is a feature which has been dwelt upon by many other 
 writers besides myself ; and it certainly is a feature that should 
 not be passed by quite without notice. The absence of such 
 stones is not, however, so total as has been assumed, inasmuch 
 as in some of the fallen masses towards the western end of the 
 church stones marked with what are apparently Early English 
 mouldings may be detected in different parts of the rubble. 
 Still, there is a remarkable paucity, or rather absence of such 
 stones in the more central and easternmost parts of the build- 
 ing ; and especially of any stones that could have been used 
 in a Norman building. If an observer inspects what is left 
 of the other great conventual church of the district, namely, 
 that of Guisborough Priory, he will not fail to have his atten- 
 tion arrested in the course of the briefest examination by the 
 striking evidences that the materials of an earlier structure 
 had been available to the builder, and in no niggardly quantity. 
 He may not be aware that the earlier church was destroyed 
 by fire in 1289, but he will be forced to observe that destruc- 
 tion in some shape had preceded the building efforts of 1300. 
 It is quite otherwise at Whitby. 
 
 Two or three suggestions may be offered, not as altogether 
 explanatory of the circumstance under notice, but as possibly 
 furnishing what may prove an occasion for explanation. 
 
 In the first place, it is hardly likely that quite different 
 sites would be adopted for these successive churches; perhaps a 
 more appropriate mode of expression may be that it is morally 
 certain that the successive churches we have assumed would 
 all, practically, be built on the same site ; the space of con- 
 secrated ground would religiously be adhered to ; partly, no 
 doubt, because of the cemetery for the deceased inmates of the 
 
126 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 monastery, and partly for the sake of the hallowed associations 
 of past times. But with such disasters successively, and at such 
 brief intervals, affecting not only their buildings but their 
 material resources, we may safely assume that the restored 
 churches were, as regards dimensions, simply such as the 
 exigencies of divine service required ; though no doubt 
 rendered as seemly, and even as handsome and artistic, as the 
 means at the builders' command permitted. Even after years 
 of unchecked prosperity, and with an able and energetic Abbot 
 at the head of the Convent, the choir alone of the existing 
 remnant, with hardly a rood of mason-work beyond its limits, 
 was completed before the work which was destined to become 
 the wondrously beautiful church of St. Peter and St. Hild 
 came to its first pause. Much more then, after such a harrying 
 as that by the Norwegian king, the restored or rebuilt House 
 of God might be by comparison small and limited to just that 
 part which was adequate to the end in view ; and just as the 
 contemporary choir of the cathedral church at York was 
 singularly short and narrow in proportion, and remained such 
 until replaced by Archbishop Eoger's chancel more than half 
 a century later, so the choir of the last early church at Whitby 
 may have been not only proportionably small and narrow, but 
 so placed as to allow the structure the remnant of which we 
 are acquainted with, to be begun, as usual, from the east end 
 and pushed forward until sufficiently advanced to be available 
 for the celebration of the wonted services, without in the least 
 interfering with the being or the utility of what we know must 
 have been its practically make -shift predecessor. Nay, in 
 noting the last pre -Dissolution work done at Bolton Abbey, 
 we may see for ourselves how reconstruction could be and was 
 entirely consistent with the steady and stately continuance of 
 the daily and nightly conventual services. 
 
 Yet further : the assumption that the church built or recon- 
 structed during the second third of the twelfth century was 
 thus suffered to stand until the still-existing choir was so far 
 
Date of existing Choir and North Aisle 127 
 
 completed as to be ready for service, tends in rather a striking 
 way to explain the fact that no traces of any material employed 
 
 
 Line of cessation of first building effort — Interior. 
 
 in a previous Norman structure should be found in the rubble 
 of the said choir or near it. For the materials of the super- 
 
128 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 seded church, which would only be in the way if suffered to 
 stand, would naturally be employed in such part of the 
 domestic buildings as next came under the hand of the 
 conventual architect, and might well be used up long before 
 
 Line of cessation of iirst building eflbrt — Exterior. 
 
 the next portion of the mason-work of the church itself was 
 inaugurated. 
 
 However this may be, the church, which in part remains 
 until the present day, was begun almost certainly very early 
 in or immediately before the healthy times of Abbot Roger's 
 presidency, and we may see for ourselves how the effort — a 
 great and sustained one, indeed — initiated and supported as it 
 
North Aisle of the Choir, with opening into North Transept. 
 
 To face p. 128. 
 
«; 
 
 s 
 
 f^ 
 
 & 
 
Pause before the second building effort ■ 129 
 
 assuredly was by him, was maintained with unflagging energy, 
 perhaps throughout most of his incumbency, until it resulted 
 in the completion of the choir from base to roof, and with (as 
 it would seem) the two easternmost legs of the tower and the 
 adjoining bays of the transepts, both north and south. The 
 exact point — or line, it may be better to say — at which the 
 effort ceased can be seen as plainly as on the day which saw 
 the last stone laid in the east wall of the north transept ; and 
 there is no reason to doubt that precisely the same limit was 
 attained in the case of the south transept also. 
 
 This first of the great works of construction or reconstruc- 
 tion may be safely dated, from the evidence of the style, as 
 belonging to the period between 1218-20 and 1230-35. 
 
 There was then an appreciable pause or rest of from ten 
 to fifteen years before any further addition was made to the 
 structure. Roger de Scardeburgh had been Abbot from 1222 
 or 1223 to 1244, and beyond all question, as just noted, the 
 great work of the choir was a part of what his energy and 
 general popularity enabled him to accomplish. As to the rest, 
 the very large amount of grants of land and other valuable 
 matters made to the Abbey during his presidency is the best 
 testimony. He was succeeded by John de Steyngrave, a 
 member of a family of considerable local influence and wealth, 
 the head of which in 1257 held large possessions in Yorkshire 
 (besides other lands at Frisby in Lincolnshire), and was probably 
 the Abbot's elder brother. He ruled from 1245 to 1258 ; and 
 as the appi-oximate date which inust be assigned for the 
 execution of the next portion of the constructive works at 
 the Abbey tallies with singular exactitude — from 1245 to 1260 
 — it is a matter of certainty that Abbot John II. was the 
 personage under whose fostering care and direction the glorious 
 north transept, together with the two western legs of the 
 tower, and two and a half bays of the nave — these last having 
 the use of serving as an abutment to the rest of the work — 
 were added to the structure as it was left by Abbot Eoger. 
 
 K 
 
1 30 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 No doubt also the south transept and a like part of the nave 
 on that side were completed at the same time. 
 
 In this case again, starting from the definite line of cessa- 
 tion already noticed, and observing the progress westward, 
 course by course, as the mason-work proceeds, the line of 
 discontinuance just to the westward of the opening for the 
 third lancet in the nave is as plainly and definitely marked as 
 in the case of the eastern wall of the north transept. See 
 pp. 132, 133. 
 
 If corroboration of what is structurally so entirely apparent 
 were required, it is found in a remarkable feature preserved 
 in several of the engravings extant of the ruins, derived from 
 drawings taken before the disastrous fall of the tower. For 
 on the west face of the tower there is plainly to be seen the 
 roof-table of what can only have been a lower and temporary 
 roof, the occasion for which must have been the necessity of 
 covering in an incomplete and yet completion-awaiting build- 
 ing. This roof -table shows that the roof which it indicated 
 joined the tower at a point 2 or 3 feet above the apex of 
 the tower-arch, and ran parallel with the tangent of the 
 curve of the arch on either side almost, but not quite, in the 
 same line with the line of roof which covered in the first 
 three or rather two and a half bays of the nave. Slightly 
 above it there seems to have been a horizontal projecting line 
 or table, as if to supplement the weather-resisting power of 
 this temporary roof, the pitch of which was very low in 
 comparison with that of the final roof; the junction of the 
 latter with the tower being marked as at the same height — 
 a stage higher on the side of the tower — and of the same 
 proportions with those of the transepts and the choir on the 
 other three sides. The fact of a flatter and lower roof can 
 scarcely be interpreted in any other way than that which is 
 implied by terming it, as I have done, a "temporary roof." 
 And a temporary roof can have been required only under the 
 circumstances assumed in the preceding paragraphs. 
 
A bbots contemporary with completion of Nave 1 3 1 
 
 There is then, after the stage of construction we have just 
 been dwelling upon, another pause or cessation of from forty 
 to fifty years in duration, before the next and final building 
 efibrt is inaugurated, which it seems quite safe to date as 
 having probably begun about or a little before 1310, and as 
 having continued certainly as late as 1325; and most likely, 
 taking the upper and destroyed portion of the work into 
 account, even later. During this period the five westernmost 
 bays of the nave, with the west front and (judging as well as 
 we can from the old engravings of the Abbey) the low tower 
 or lantern which stood upon the crossing of the transepts with 
 the main body of the church, were built. 
 
 As to the dates thus suggested, and the identity of the 
 Abbots then presiding over the affairs of the Convent, the 
 next succeeding remarks will not be considered as out of 
 place. 
 
 Thomas de Malton was Abbot from 1304 to 1322, and he 
 was succeeded by a member of a local family long connected 
 with the Convent, namely, Thomas de Haukesgarth, who, 
 succeeding in the year last named, resigned in 1354. The 
 works of the third building period were commenced, as it may 
 be assumed with almost complete certainty, during the incum- 
 bency of the former and brought to completion during the 
 earlier period of the rule of the latter. And it should be 
 mentioned here that there is still extant one piece of evidence 
 of considerable interest bearing upon the series of works which 
 were certainly in hand during the period noted ; I mean an 
 Episcopal brief in aid of the Fabric Fund of Whitby Abbey. 
 It is dated 7th October 1333, and at the outset it states that 
 the Abbot and Convent have undertaken with pains and at 
 cost to renew their monastery for the comeliness of the House 
 of the Lord, and that whereas the personal means of the said 
 community do not suffice for the completion of the work, the 
 Archbishop empowers one John de Lumby, specially appointed 
 proctor for such purpose by the Abbot and Convent, to 
 
132 
 
 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 receive the alms of the faithful throughout the city, diocese, 
 and province of York in aid of the fabric of a work so sump- 
 tuous, and to exhibit the indulgences specially conceded in 
 furtherance of the same. The brief was to be in force for the 
 space of a year, and the bearer was to have precedence over 
 
 Line of cessation of second building effort — Exterior. 
 
 all other collectors and proctors, save only those of the 
 Cathedral church of York. 
 
 At this point it becomes necessary to remark upon the 
 term " insertion " which has been employed in reference to the 
 work still evident in the ruins of the Abbey church, and which 
 
A lleged "insertions" in Remains of North Aisle 133 
 is, as evidently, later than the thirteenth century ; the conten- 
 
 Line of cessation of second building effort — Interior. 
 
 tion set up by those who have employed the term in question 
 being that the church was completed at one and the same 
 
134 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 period, and that the difference of styles observable is due to 
 subsequent alterations and insertions. 
 
 There is, however, a very remarkable feature which would 
 seem to have escaped notice in such descriptions of the 
 Abbey as have hitherto been given, and which completely 
 negatives such contention, even if it could be reasonably raised 
 on any architectural ground whatever. This feature is to 
 be observed at a point a little west of the third window of the 
 north aisle of the nave, half-way, in point of fact, between it 
 and the first of the five notable Decorated windows that suc- 
 ceed. The feature in question was originally and intentionally 
 concealed by the apposition of a buttress (now fallen away in 
 ruin), and it depends on an architectural necessity inherent in 
 the style in which this third eff'ort in the work of construction 
 was carried out. The same amount of thickness of wall as in 
 the three first bays west from the tower was not adequate to 
 the exigencies of the mouldings of the window-arches in the 
 new work ; and consequently the wall of the nave from the 
 point indicated as it runs westward is built very nearly or 
 quite a foot and a half thicker than the wall between it and 
 the transept which is pierced for the three simple lancet 
 windows. In the interior, the line or plane of the wall is 
 perfectly continuous. Outside, the fourteenth-century wall 
 projects by the measure just noted, but the break in con- 
 tinuity was skilfully and artistically hidden by the means 
 indicated. It is hardly necessary to add that the idea of 
 " insertion " is entirely incompatible with such an architectural 
 feature as this. 
 
 Of course, it is not intended to deny that there are 
 evidences of insertion in other parts of the structure; only 
 that at present none exist to the eastward of the west front. 
 Even a moderately good photograph is sufficient to show that 
 the Perpendicular windows — the large one which formerly 
 filled the space over the main entrance to the church and the 
 other still existing on the north side of it, and which once 
 
Inserted Perpendicular Windows in West Front 1 35 
 
 helped to light the north aisle of the nave — are simply " inser- 
 tions." The arches and some of the mouldings of arch and 
 jamb of the older or Decorated windows originally there 
 sufficiently attest the fact. Why or when these Perpendicular 
 windows were inserted there is no evidence to show, nothing 
 even to suggest. Nothing, however, is more likely than that 
 in some fearful storm damage may have been done to such 
 
 Eemains of Perpendicular iusertion, Great West Window. 
 
 large expanses of comparatively weak portions as such windows 
 of a building placed in so exposed a position as that crowned 
 by the Abbey church. And no doubt such damage would be 
 repaired in the prevailing style of the period. 
 
 Of those portions of the Abbey which have been destroyed 
 for the sake of the materials, or have fallen under the rude 
 assaults of tempest, or the more insidious but not less certain 
 sappings of time and decay, it is unhappily impossible to speak 
 with any certainty. There are engravings, it is true, taken 
 from old drawings or pictures, but there can be no doubt that 
 
136 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 the drawings themselves, in some or several cases, besides 
 being architecturally inadequate, and even grossly inaccurate, 
 were made with little attention to that fidelity which alone 
 could give them any true value in such an inquiry as the 
 present. 
 
 The earliest of these is one dating from quite the early 
 part of last century, and which, valuable as it would have 
 been had it been even moderately faithful, is disfigured by 
 such manifest blemishes and strange inaccuracies as to be 
 comparatively of but little use. It purports to be a " North 
 View," but it is in reality a view taken from the south-west, 
 of the south wall of the nave, together with a fragment of the 
 south aisle of the same, and part of the arcade of the 
 cloisters. 
 
 But the south wall of the aisle (as what is shown really is) 
 is, by a grotesque blunder either of the draughtsman or the 
 engraver, made to join on to the south-west angle of the tower, 
 so that in reality it occupies the position of the eastern part 
 of the south side of the nave, and thus of necessity conceals 
 the series of arches which supported the wall containing the 
 clerestory. Besides this it gives no trace of the still existing 
 south wall of the choir with its clerestory and triforium, while 
 the triplets of the east front are drawn in a marvellously or 
 even grotesquely distorted perspective. Much or most of the 
 south transept appears to be still standing, and other buildings 
 are shown both towards the east and west terminations of the 
 church which can only be spoken of (so far as the drawing is 
 concerned) as quite unintelligible as well as strangely out of 
 perspective. 
 
 But, notwithstanding all this, neither the drawing nor the 
 distortion is without its value ; for it is rendered abundantly 
 evident that there was a building the walls of which were not 
 set rectangularly, just about the middle part of the east wall 
 of the cloister, eastward — that is to say, in the normal place 
 of the Chapter-house. The self-evident presumption therefore 
 
Hints as to Architectural Details 
 
 "^n 
 
 is not only that the walls of the Chapter-house were still 
 standing in that place in 1711, but that the Chapter-house 
 itself had been an octagonal building similar to the contem- 
 porary Chapter-houses of Westminster and Salisbury. 
 
 Some remains also of the arched passage across the south 
 end of the transept from the cloisters are likewise indicated in 
 this engraving, which is thus seen to be of great interest. See 
 also p. 129. 
 
 Indications of South Transept. 
 
 One other feature, moreover, is represented which may, it 
 is likely, be depended upon ; and that is that the entire tier 
 or row of clerestory windows of the south wall is shown as still 
 in existence. But whether they belonged to the Decorated or 
 Perpendicular style of architecture cannot of course be decided 
 authoritatively from such a representation as is thus given. 
 
 There is another drawing dated in 1773, and a third dating 
 from 1780, each of which gives some details connected with 
 
138 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 the soutt transept, but of sucli a character as to be quite in- 
 consistent the one with the other. Thus the drawing of 1773 
 shows the south front of the transept as gone; that of 1780 
 represents it as still there. Besides which, there is a confusion 
 between doors and windows which is utterly perplexing. So far, 
 however, as any safe inference can be made from such sources 
 of information, the architectural details, whether arising from 
 insertions or reconstruction, would appear to be entirely 
 different from those of the north transept. Large lights of a 
 later date on the west side would appear to have replaced 
 the graceful lights which ornament the corresponding side of 
 the northern counterpart, and a large Decorated window 
 almost certainly filled the south front. Originally, judging 
 from the one column which remains, the inference that no 
 material difference obtained between the design and the 
 execution of the two transepts is quite safe. Possibly, how- 
 ever, the south transept may have been somewhat the less 
 rich of the two. 
 
 This surmise is ventured on the fairly certain hypothesis 
 that the central bay of the north transept aisle, according to 
 an arrangement by no means unusual in large churches where 
 there was no special Lady Chapel, may have been appropriated 
 to the altar specially dedicated to the Virgin's honour and 
 service. Dr. Young, in a note on the partly - destroyed 
 inscription on the north column in this transept, says 
 (apparently in ignorance of the arrangement just named), 
 "We can easily suppose that an altar was erected to the 
 honour of the Virgin Mary in the aisle of this transept." 
 There is no question that an altar with its adjuncts of piscina 
 and aumbry has stood there ; and assuming it, as we must, 
 to have been dedicated to Our Lady, it might be possible, 
 out of the three imperfect or unsatisfactory readings of the 
 inscription just named which have been proposed, to construct 
 one which may be reasonable. And quite possibly the said 
 reading might run, "Johannes de Bromton, quondam famulus 
 
J>ra;wiLb7 H.G 11.3 tia e an. . 
 
 ZagcavEdnji Stedlr^ R.^'V^Ucs. 
 
 WETETB^ ABBIETo 
 
 From a drawing by Gastineau looking east, and showing tiie misunderstood 
 Upper Triplet. 
 
 To face p. 139. 
 
Features of Upper Triplet, East End 139 
 
 Dei in hoc monasterio, hoc altarium extruxit ia 'perpetuum 
 honorem Virginis Beatse Marise." ^ 
 
 There is still another matter to be adverted to before 
 passing on to other branches of our subject. In a view of the 
 Abbey " drawn and engraved by J. Bird," which is inserted in 
 Young's History of Whitby, the upper part of the gable of the 
 east front is represented as being in an exceedingly dilapidated 
 condition. In a careful drawing by Gastineau (of about 1824 
 or 1825) of the interior of the choir as seen through the 
 arches of the still-standing tower, there appears what seems 
 to be an artist's restoration of the uppermost triplet with a 
 light above, but in continuation of the central light. If 
 attention is thus or otherwise drawn to the present condition 
 of that part of the ruin, whether on the spot or by the aid 
 of satisfactory photographs, it will be seen that while the said 
 triplet by comparison seems to be in fairly good condition 
 on the outside, on the inner side it shows unmistakable 
 evidences of having been, not restored, but built up, and 
 on the same principle, or rather in the self-same mode, as 
 the square supporting pillars of masonry which serve the 
 purpose of sustaining several of the triforium arches in 
 the choir. 
 
 Closer inspection, however, reveals the presence on the 
 south side of a fragment of moulding, evidently the springer 
 
 ^ If this hypothesis he conceded to be reasonable, there would he this 
 inference to be deduced : The inscription would be of the nature of an 
 epitaph. " Quondam famulus Dei in hoc monasterio ''—which words are 
 really ascertained, I think— can only imply that the person named had 
 been a member of the monkish community. " Famulari Deo " is a recog- 
 nised phrase to imply the service or manner of life of a monk. But this 
 monk, Johannes de Bromton, was no longer a monk ; he was " quondam 
 famulus,'' and a professed monk only ceased to be a "famulus Dei" by 
 death. The probable, if not necessary, meaning of the inscription then 
 is that it was through his agency or at his cost that this chapel to the 
 Virgin in the north transept was built and dedicated. The merest glance 
 at the adjoining pillars shows how elaborate the parclose erected in con- 
 nection with the altar really must have been. 
 
140 
 
 Successionai Abbey Churches 
 
 of the arch abutting on the outside light of the triplet on 
 that side ; and there is enough in this fragment of rich 
 moulding of the inside of the mutilated lancet to show that 
 the whole interior of these lights has been richly decorated, — 
 more richly decorated, indeed, than the larger window below. 
 This is made fully apparent by Sharpe's restored drawing, 
 which, it is unnecessary to say, was most carefully measured 
 
 Gable, Upper Triplet, east end of Choir — Interior. 
 
 and drawn from the existing remains ; and further still, 
 by drawings made and engraved in 1817 for Dugdale's 
 Monasticon, in which there is seen delineated in perspective 
 precisely what is seen drawn hi elevation in Sharpe's plate 
 of the interior of the east end of the choir as regards the 
 upper triplet of lancets : — that is to say, the interior arches, 
 each springing from its triple cluster of shafts, are seen to 
 
Features of Upper Triplet, East End 141 
 
 be, particularly the middle one, much lower than the arches 
 of the exterior opening j while, besides this, the sloping sills 
 of the exterior or glass-receiving openings are very distinctly 
 elevated above the sills of the interior openings. 
 
 It is not very easy by means of verbal description only 
 to convey a clear conception of what is thus mentioned here 
 
 From enlarged Photograph, showing the remnant of old Mouldings. 
 
 — namely, that the exterior openings are seen to be much 
 higher than those on the inside. But in the first place it is 
 quite clear that there has been an inner or, so to speak, lining 
 wall, which originally, of course, shut out all appearance of 
 any opening above that of the inner arches. A portion of 
 
142 
 
 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 this still appears in these engravings m situ above the inner 
 arch of the central light, while it has entirely disappeared, 
 by reason of the working of decay and ruin, from above the 
 mouldings of the two outside arches, one on either side. In 
 fact, one sees quite clearly from the engravings thus com- 
 mented on, which were beyond question carefully executed 
 from carefully -made drawings, that there had been an 
 
 Elevation of same from Sharpe's Parallels. 
 
 interspace or passage, analogous to the passages across the 
 windows of the clerestory, between the inner and outer 
 openings of these lancets, with tooled faces on both sides of 
 both walls ; and that, the inner wall having been the first 
 to yield to the destructive forces in operation, the still-perfect 
 lancets in the outer wall (which had in reality framed the 
 glazing of the windows) had been thus rendered visible from 
 the floor of the church beneath the tower from whence the 
 view had been taken. In the view by Gastineau, which was 
 
Features of Upper Triplet, East En^ 1 43 
 
 taken between tlie date of these engravings and the fall of 
 the tower in 1830, the remaining portion of the inner or 
 lining wall, mentioned above as still to be seen above the 
 central inner arch, is gone, and the picture contains, as was 
 noted a little above, the at first sight somewhat unintelligible 
 
 Slightly enlarged from Sharpe's Plate. 
 
 representation of a lancet window divided in the middle by the 
 head of another lancet in the case of each light in the triplet. 
 
 It is impossible for any one who examines what is thus 
 delineated in these drawings of 1817 and somewhat later, 
 to come to any other conclusion than that this upper triplet 
 was designed and executed with a view to its being seen 
 from the floor of the church. 
 
144 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 This would appear to be altogether inconsistent with the 
 idea of a flat or even a canted ceiling covering the choir of 
 the Abbey church, and concealing or maybe cutting across all 
 the richness of detail noted above. Mouldings so elaborate 
 and decoration so rich can scarcely have been intended to be 
 relegated to a dark garret ; for in point of fact a canted ceiling 
 would but barely have cleared the head of the three great 
 lancets below. 
 
 Besides, there are in point of fact, as just remarked, two 
 levels indicated in these restored lancets — that of the base of 
 the glass lights, and that of the inner opening next the choir 
 of the church, the former being raised considerably above 
 the latter ; and for this reason, that being placed so high, and 
 having to be viewed, not on the level, but from the floor, 
 the thickness of the wall would by the law of perspective 
 have prevented the lower part of the glass from being seen if 
 it had been brought down equally low ; and therefore it was 
 lifted up to just such a height as would bring it within the 
 line of sight of those who were down below. 
 
 Again, in elevation, or as the window is shown in Sharpe's 
 view, only about half of the lower part of the side light 
 appears below the arched headings which cut the light in two, — 
 an arrangement which would never have occurred had the 
 window been intended to be seen on a level with the eye ; 
 but which is perfectly reasonable and proper when the point 
 of view is lowered to the floor of the choir, from which the 
 whole of the glazing would be visible in perspective. • 
 
 Lastly, one cannot fail to be struck with the very remark- 
 able difference in the plan of this uppermost triplet internally 
 and externally, the side lights in the interior being so excess- 
 ively low in comparison with the glazed or external ones. 
 And why this difference % It is hard, indeed, to suggest any 
 reason save one, and one only, namely, to admit of the main 
 timbers or principals of an open roof clearing the richly 
 moulded arches, which, had they been arranged in the same 
 
General character of the Tower 145 
 
 form as on the outside, they would have cut into and con- 
 cealed. 
 
 Taking all these matters into consideration, there seems to 
 be an accumulation of proof that the upper triplet in the east 
 gable was not only ilitended to be seen from the inside of the 
 church, but that the roof also was open, its timbers being so 
 arranged as exactly to fit the shape of this window, which 
 they framed in a perfectly symmetrical manner. In other 
 words, it may be seen that there was not, that, indeed, there 
 could not have been, a ceiling of any kind whatsoever, inasmuch 
 as, had there been, it must have put the whole of this ad- 
 mirably contrived design out of sight and rendered it of none 
 effect. 
 
 A few words touching the fallen tower will not, I think, 
 be altogether out of place here. 
 
 From the many prints and drawings extant, the dates of 
 which range from the beginning of last century almost up to 
 the eve of its fall, and from the written descriptions proceeding 
 from the pens of not a few of such as have taken in hand to 
 give an account of the antiquities and other matters of interest 
 in Whitby and its neighbourhood, we are not left in any 
 uncertainty as to its appearance, dimensions, and general 
 character. There can be no doubt that it was eminently suited 
 to the place it had to occupy. Of no great altitude in itself, 
 overtopping the ridges of the roofs which met its four sides 
 with no great pre-eminence, massive and firm rather than 
 imposing and grand, it exposed but little surface to the fury 
 of the blasts which rash over the site with a violence little 
 realised by the ordinary visitor. Mr. H. W. Benson's descrip- 
 tion is as much to the point as any that can be selected from 
 other accounts, and its date precedes that of the fall of the 
 tower by only a couple of years or so. "The four great 
 arches of the tower rise the whole height of the upright of the 
 choir, and over them is the first story of the tower, round 
 which runs a gallery lighted from without by four massy plain 
 
 L 
 
146 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 windows divided into two lights by mullions, with quatrefoils 
 above the intersections ; and from within by windows of the 
 same size, but without the quatrefoils. The upper story of 
 the tower consists of a range of three windows on each side, 
 some of which are pierced ; the middle' one is divided into 
 three portions by stone mullions, and the outer ones into two, 
 having trefoils above the intersection. One of the windows 
 in this story on the south side consists of a triple arch within 
 a Gothic arch, similar to those in the body of the Temple 
 Church, London. I have not been able to discover another 
 like it in the building." 
 
 To this it may be added that each of the four great arches 
 into the tower was finely moulded within and enriched with 
 dog-tooth pattern besides ; while a corresponding string- 
 moulding runs round its interior just above the crowns of the 
 arches, and a second just below the tiers of triple windows, 
 proving beyond doubt that the lantern was open to the church. 
 And while all this makes it quite certain that no bells ever 
 hung there, it is to be noticed that a bell gable with openings 
 for two bells is shown in Buck's print as furnishing a finish 
 to a corner turret at the south-west angle of the south transept. 
 
 "The tower fell on a calm day, 25th June 1830. The 
 pillar at the south-east corner," says the late F. K. Eobinson, 
 " had long been cracked." The marvel is that it stood so long. 
 Robbed of its leaden covering soon after the Dissolution in 
 1540, rendered subject to a multiplied force of decay on four 
 sides, and both within and without, consequent on the ruin of 
 the roofs of nave, transepts, and choir, which laid it bare to 
 the violence of elemental warfare on all sides, what a striking 
 testimony it gives, by its endurance of all for nearly three 
 centuries, to the surpassing excellence and honesty alike of the 
 material and the workmanship ! It is a strange commentary 
 that is afforded by the contrast between these mighty masses 
 of fallen masonry, with their rubble as compact as living rock, 
 and the joints of the encasing ashlar, almost as close as on 
 
Notes on Ground-plan of the Abbey Church 147 
 
 the day which saw the one course laid on the other nearly six 
 hundred years ago, notwithstanding the terrible shock of their 
 fall, and the bulging walls and gaping joints of too many, by 
 comparison, right modern buildings. 
 
 But it is not simply the tenacious endurance and massive 
 solidity of the mere mechanical mason-work which appeals to 
 our sense of admiration ; there is the limitless variety effected 
 in the arrangement of the courses, in the proportions and 
 placing of the separate stones composing them, in the wonder- 
 fully effective contrast of colour, always pleasing, brought 
 about by a careful and strangely well-ordered employment of 
 stone of varied hue, and, quite likely, derived from different 
 quarries, which is a source of endless satisfaction to the be- 
 holder's eye. Things that the modern builder and even an 
 occasional self-dubbed architect think beneath their notice, or 
 never think of at all, are in this almost matchless building 
 made a fruitful and abiding source of absolute pleasure to the 
 attentive eye — a pleasure none the less real because it origin- 
 ates without conscious inquiry or search for its causes in the 
 spectator's mind. 
 
 A few words may be added as to the peculiarities of the 
 general ground-plan of the church. The most cursory obser- 
 vation shows that the axis or medial line of the choir is not 
 coincident with that of the nave ; that the general direction 
 of the nave diverges much from that of the choir. Dr. 
 Young remarks that "the nave is not in a straight line 
 with the choir, but diverges about 5 degrees towards the 
 north, so that at the west end of the building the north 
 wall is 10 feet out of the line of the north wall of the 
 choir"; while F. K. Eobinson says, "The nave is not in a 
 straight line with the choir, but exhibits a deflection of 
 9 feet towards the north." 
 
 The true deflection may perhaps be better represented by 
 a comparison of the directions of the two lines according to 
 the compass. These directions are, for the choir, nearly S.E. 
 
148 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 by E. and N.W. by W. ; and for the nave, almost E.S.E. 
 and W.N.W. ; or more approximately still, the angle of the 
 quadrant being of course 90, the angle made by the line of 
 the choir is nearly 6 2 '5, while that formed by the line of the 
 nave is 57 'S. By actual observation, however, the axis of the 
 nave diverges from true E. and W. by 14 '5, and that of the 
 choir by 97 ; while, according to the lines of the Ordnance 
 map of the town (which, however, are not drawn exactly due 
 N. and S. and E. and W.), the divergences are approximately 
 11 and 6. 
 
 This peculiarity is, as is well known, not by any means 
 confined to Whitby Abbey church. It is not an unusual 
 one, and many like instances might be mentioned. And, as 
 may be expected, there are diverse explanations suggested 
 for it. Some of these seem almost nonsensical, and others 
 are contradicted by experience. Probably had there been 
 any valid foundation for either of these theories, some trace 
 of its existence would have been met with in ancient writings, 
 or in the consenting testimony of repeated and wide-spread 
 observation. But no proof of this sort has been hitherto 
 alleged in such form or to such extent as to be in the least 
 degree convincing. 
 
 Among the other suppositions which have been put 
 forward, is the one that the irregularity noticed is due simply 
 to the heedless or inexact measurements of the workmen, or 
 even of the plans of the master-builder : but to me this 
 suggestion hardly seems to merit deliberate consideration. 
 
 There is, however, another feature in the structural 
 arrangement of the Abbey church of Whitby which may 
 possibly be not without bearing upon the question, "Why 
 was the building so planned that the axes of the nave 
 and choir were not in the same straight line ? " 
 
 For that it was planned so requires no elaborate proof : 
 a simple narrative of facts suffices to that end. As has been 
 already noted, the inceptive building effort was sustained 
 
Divergence of the lines of Nave and Choir 149 
 
 until the choir with its aisles, the two easternmost legs of 
 the tower with the adjoining bays of either aisle, and a few 
 feet of the east wall of the north transept (with presumably 
 also as much of the south transept, of course), were completed. 
 When the second building period arrived the work was re- 
 sumed at the points thus indicated, and carried on until 
 both the transepts, the tower up to above the arches into 
 it from choir, transepts, and nave, and the first two and a 
 half bays of the nave and its aisles were finished. But 
 just as the builders of the first epoch settled the line of 
 their work for the builders of the second epoch by setting 
 out two of the pillars of the tower with the adjoining bays 
 and the return of the east walls of the transepts, so those 
 of the second period settled the line of their work for the 
 builders of the third period by setting the north wall of 
 the aisle of the nave at an angle less than a right angle 
 with the west wall of the north transept. This must have 
 been done deliberately, or with set purpose and intention. 
 So simple a matter as setting one wall at right angles 
 with another can in no way be supposed to have been a 
 matter of uncertainty in the case of such architects and 
 such masons. And there is no need to dwell upon what 
 was involved in setting out the corresponding parts of the 
 south transept. 
 
 We assume then — there being indeed no other alternative 
 — that all this deviation from the ordinary rules of construc- 
 tion was made of set purpose, and of course with an intention, 
 or object and design. And then we have to notice this 
 further : that the wall with which the wall of the aisle 
 makes an angle less than a right angle is not symmetrical 
 with the wall on the opposite side. For this again is a fact. 
 The west wall of the north transept is longer than the east 
 wall of the same by nearly the thickness of the wall of the 
 north aisle. In other words, the west wall projects from a 
 foot upwards into what should have been, according to 
 
150 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 ordinary rule, the unbroken vista of the aisle of the nave 
 as seen from that of the choir. 
 
 Now it is still less possible that this should have occurred 
 as the result of carelessness or a blunder on the part of the 
 workmen or the director, than the structural blunder of 
 a wrong angle. The occurrence of two such blunders or un- 
 intentional mismeasurements is simply inconceivable. Both 
 of them, it may be remarked, must have been detected a 
 hundred times over before it became too late to remedy 
 them, if unintentional. But, as we see, they were allowed 
 to remain ; and we assume therefore that they were from 
 the first intended to remain. 
 
 So far the matter is easy and our course direct. But 
 when it is attempted to advance further and to seek for 
 an explanation of the anomaly, to endeavour to penetrate 
 to the design or intention of those who planned and built 
 the church thus, very real if not insurmountable difficulties 
 stand in the way. If the building were still standing as 
 it used to stand in all its wondrous beauty and aspiring 
 grandeur, a solution might possibly be found, at all events 
 by a skilled or educated eye. Even as it is, it is conceivable 
 that some eifect depending on perspective was aimed at, and 
 as surely attained. It has been already remarked that the 
 church, for a church of the class it belonged to, was not a 
 large one; rather the contrary. Its utmost length inside 
 from end to end was something short of 300 feet; and 
 yet the effect produced upon the observer's conception 
 in the maimed and scanty portion left, is much as if it had 
 been as large again by half. Quite possibly the intentionally 
 interrupted line of nave as seen from choir or crossing, or 
 of choir as seen from nave, may have been designed to aid 
 harmoniously in producing a like effect, as to vista and area, 
 to that which was and is yet produced in other respects as 
 they stand. This is conjecture necessarily; but so is the 
 somewhat fantastic idea of the symbolising of a drooping 
 
Dimensions of the Abbey Church 151 
 
 head, or the suggestion of a sunbeam, which at the most 
 accounts for the direction of but one out of two divergent 
 lines. 
 
 I will mention but one other fact in connection with the 
 subject thus far dealt with ; and that is, that the axis of the 
 parish church close by, which must have been completed before 
 the latter part of the twelfth century, is exactly parallel with 
 that of the choir of the Abbey church. The parish church is 
 dedicated to St. Mary, the Abbey church having been dedicated 
 to St. Hilda as well as St. Peter. 
 
 It remains but to notice the dimensions of the Abbey 
 church, and to give a very short and unscientific notice of its 
 more salient architectural characteristics. 
 
 It seems somewhat remarkable that the measurements of 
 the building as given by different authorities should not be 
 coincident. But it is likely enough that, in a building two 
 separate parts of which are not (in the direction of their 
 length) in the same straight line, two modes of measurement 
 may be adopted — the one, that of taking the direct length 
 from end to end without noting the divergence of direction 
 referred to, the other by measuring from the same limits 
 at either extremity each divergent line to the point of inter- 
 section; in which case the latter measure would obviously 
 be the longer. Premising this, we may note the measurements 
 given by Dr. Young, giving some of those by other authorities 
 for comparison before finally dismissing the subject. 
 
 "The dimensions of the Abbey church are as follows. 
 Outside : length, from the western extremity to the buttresses 
 of the transept, 1 40 feet ; across the transept, buttresses 
 included, 65 feet; from thence to the eastern extremity, 105 
 feet ; total length without, 310 feet. Breadth from the 
 extremity of the north transept to the north buttresses of the 
 choir, 38 feet; across the choir, buttresses included, 77 feet; 
 and, if the south transept which is gone was equal to the 
 north, the total breadth on the outside must have been 153 
 
152 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 feet. Inside : length, from the west gate to the central 
 toM'er, being the extent of the nave, 137 feet; across the 
 tower, including half the diameter of the pillars on each side, 
 33 feet 6 inches ; from thence to the east end of the choir, 
 116 feet; total length within, 286 feet 6 inches. Breadth of 
 the body of the choir, including half the thickness of the 
 pillars on each side, 33 feet 8 inches ; breadth of the aisle on 
 the north side of the choir, 14 feet 4 inches; so that if the 
 south aisle corresponded with the north, the whole breadth of 
 the choir within was 62 feet 4 inches. The breadth of the 
 nave and its aisles cannot be so exactly given, the pillars as 
 well as the south wall having all fallen. But their dimensions 
 were probably the same with those of the choir and its aisles. 
 The north transept measures from its north wall to the inside 
 of the north wall of the choir, 37 feet 8 inches ; and if the 
 opposite transept was of the same extent, the extreme breadth 
 within from the north wall of the one transept to the south 
 wall of the other must have been 137 feet 8 inches. The 
 breadth of the body of the north transept is 30 feet 8 inches ; 
 its aisle, which is on the east side, 1 4 feet 8 inches ; total 
 breadth, 45 feet. Each of the four pillars of the tower is 25 
 feet 4 inches in circumference; each of the other pillars, 15 
 feet 4 inches. Each of the four large arches of the tower is 
 about 60 feet high, which is also the height of the walls ; the 
 total height of the tower, 104 feet. Breadth of the great 
 west gate, 9 feet 6 inches ; which is about half its height. 
 The west front has extended about 84 feet, including the 
 buttresses, which project 8 feet. The buttresses of the choir 
 project 5 feet 3 inches." 
 
 According to Sharpe's plan, however, the total length of 
 nave and choir together is 291 feet, as against Young's 288^ 
 feet ; of the transept, 135 feet 8 inches; Young's measure being 
 2 feet more. The breadth of the nave is 60 feet 9 inches ; 
 of the transept and aisle, 45|^ feet, against Young's 45 ; and of 
 the choir, 62 feet 8 inches, or 4 inches in excess of Young's. 
 
General A rchitectural Features 153 
 
 A part of the choir is given by Sharpe on a larger scale than 
 his plan of the whole church, and on this his measures are : 
 full breadth of the choir, 62 feet 5^ inches ; of central part of 
 the same to centre of walls, 33 feet 'i\ inches ; of aisles from 
 outer wall-face to centre of main wall, 14 feet 7 inches ; of aisle 
 proper, 12 feet 8|^ inches ; of main walls, 4 feet 5 inches ; of 
 arcades, from centre to centre of pillars, beginning from the 
 east, 16 feet 5| inches, 17 feet, 17 feet, 16 feet 10 inches, and 
 16 feet 5 inches. 
 
 The western bay, which is governed by the breadth of the 
 transept aisle, is not given, as it is beyond the limits of the 
 plan ; but it is a good deal narrower than the rest. The 
 gradual way in which the spaces are contracted, as shown in 
 the succession of measures given in the last paragraph, should 
 be noticed, such divergence from mathematical accuracy giving 
 as it does such noteworthy variety and beauty to the best 
 mediaeval work, and affording such a marked contrast to the 
 feeble monotony observable in so many modern buildings, in 
 which all the parts might have been cast out of one common 
 mould. 
 
 A former editor of Murray's Handlooh jot YorJcshire writes 
 thus of the general architectural features of the Abbey 
 church : " The choir. Early English, but retaining a transi- 
 tional character, is the earliest portion. The north transept 
 is also Early English, but of a later date, and the nave is rich 
 Decorated." This is, as is afterwards noted by the writer 
 himself, too sweeping, the first three bays west of the tower 
 being of the same date with the transept. Mr. King then 
 proceeds : " The triforium of the choir, a circular arch enclosing 
 two pointed arches, each of which is again subdivided, should 
 be compared with those of Early English date at York and in 
 the choir of Eievaulx. It extended over the aisles. The east 
 end, square, with three tiers of three lancets, the uppermost 
 rising into the gable, is fine ; and the foiled openings not quite 
 piercing the wall, between the lancets of the lowest tier, are 
 
154 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 worth notice.'' Let me remark here that the same feature is, 
 or has been, observable in other parts of the choir, as is dis- 
 closed by more than one of the more careful drawings referred 
 to previously. " All the choir work is much enriched with 
 dog-tooth. ... In the north, transept the window-mouldings 
 show large open flowers (lilies), differing east and west. . . . 
 One pier alone of the south transept is standing. In the 
 nave the three easternmost windows are Early English, the 
 others Decorated, of a somewhat peculiar design, recalling the 
 ' Kentish ' tracery of Chartham and May field." 
 
 I supplement this as follows, being indebted to an archi- 
 tectural friend for the annotation given : " With respect to 
 the Decorated windows, the following may be cited among 
 similar examples more or less contemporaneous : the side and 
 east windows of the chancel of Chartham church, Kent, the 
 former of two lights, the latter of four. These, however, are 
 somewhat earlier than those at Whitby, and may be dated 
 about 1290. Examples somewhat later at Billingborough in 
 Lincolnshire and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, the latter being 
 pretty certainly of about 1320; since the tomb of Sir Adam 
 de Stock, which forms an integral part of the mortuary 
 chapel in which the window is found, is constructed im- 
 mediately beneath it: and he died in 1312. The chapel was 
 probably built by his son. Sir Eoger de Stock, who died in 
 1325; so that we get the date pretty accurately.'' "In the 
 west gable of the north aisle," continues Mr. King, " is a small 
 and curious lozenge-shaped window of the same date. Out- 
 side the ruins, remark in choir the clerestory windows with 
 heads at their corbel stones ; the pinnacle-capped buttresses 
 of the north transept, much enriched with canopied niches; 
 and the whole north front." 
 
 One paragraph is omitted in the above extract, which, 
 however, I cite here because it is sufficiently to the point as 
 well as accurate, if only we bear in mind that an hypothesis 
 resting on an hypothesis cannot carry much weight with it. 
 
Architectural indications in existing Ruins 155 
 
 What is alleged is, " There is some trace of a screen between 
 the two first piers from the east, and perhaps the shrine of St. 
 Hilda stood here, if her relics were ever brought back from 
 Glastonbury." Mr. F. K. Robinson, moreover, writes : "At the 
 distance of one arch from the east end of the choir the pillars 
 indicate a screen for the High Altar." The indications on the 
 pillars are certainly there, although the precise point or points 
 at which they are apparent are but loosely indicated. And as 
 there can be no doubt that there was a parclose or screen in 
 special connection with the said altar, it is almost certain that 
 the marks referred to may or must be the traces that are left 
 of the mode and the manner of its fixture. It should also be 
 remembered that the erection of tombs in the later ages of a 
 monastic church's being often led to what, when they were 
 removed, became disfiguring marks as of former violence. 
 
 One other remark bearing on part of the architectural 
 features of the ruins yet extant, and this portion of our notice 
 of the Abbey church must come to a close. Dr. Young 
 remarks that " in the choir a great part of the vaulted roof 
 still remains. In the eastern parts the intersection of the 
 groins is plain ; but in the western extremity, which has 
 perhaps undergone some alterations, there are keystones finely 
 carved. On one is a lion rampant, on another an indistinct 
 figure which may have been a lamb, a third seems to have 
 been two fishes, and a fourth has only foliage or flowers. The 
 brackets from which the arches spring in this aisle are in the 
 form of flowers ; bTit those in the aisle of the north transept, 
 and in that part of the nave which is of the same date, are 
 grotesque .human figures supporting the arches on their 
 shoulders. The upper part of the choir is ornamented with 
 a multitude of heads of a diff'erent form, placed in various 
 situations." 
 
 When reading of these alleged " human figures," and com- 
 paring one's own observation with the account, perhaps one 
 feels a little inclined to allow for a little imagination on the 
 
156 Successional Abbey Churches 
 
 good doctor's part, deeming it impossible that so great a 
 defacement should have been eifected within the period between 
 the second quarter of the present century and our own time. 
 Certainly I have looked in vain for any possible likeness of the 
 human frame. Nor is the likeness of a quadruped very easily 
 recognisable. From what exists it is even hard to say that 
 the stones have been carved at all, although there can be no 
 doubt at all that they were. So that it is only fair to say that 
 in Dr. Young's time they may have been easier to identify 
 than they are at the present day. 
 
 Any remarks on the probable position of the other portions 
 of the conventual buildings besides the Chapter-house and 
 cloisters would be too much of the nature of guess-work to be 
 adventured here. 
 
OLD WHITBY: ITS SITE, TOPOGEAPHY, 
 AND DISTEIBUTION 
 
 When speaking of " Old Whitby " I think a distinction should 
 be made between "Ancient Whitby" and "Old Whitby. " Even 
 should the distinction seem to be an arbitrary one, the occasion 
 for it would remain. What is meant may perhaps be made 
 more clear if we define " Ancient Whitby " as Whitby before 
 the Conquest, and "Old Whitby" as Whitby at and about 
 the Conquest, down to the time of the Dissolution, and for 
 some sensible (but not lengthened) space thereafter. Certainly 
 this latter definition, in one or more of the phases or aspects 
 presented, will suffice to limit the scope and the extent of the 
 topics discussed in the present section or sections. 
 
 I suppose that in speaking of Old Whitby few persons 
 would be prepared to admit, — perhaps even to recognise, — the 
 comparative insignificance of the place, the town and district 
 so designated. In order to illustrate what is meant, Kelly's 
 Directory may be referred to. In the edition of 1872 one 
 may read that, as regards Whitby, "the area of the township 
 is 2243 acres " ; ^ while touching Sneaton the same authority 
 states that its area is 4040 acres. Yes, but in Domesday times 
 Whitby, with its dependent "berewic" Sneaton, constituted 
 
 ' It is not superfluous to remark that on sheet 32 of the 6-inch Ord- 
 nance Survey the area of " Whitby Township " is set down as 78 acres and 
 6 poles, which, entirely accurate as it is, serves to illustrate the contrast 
 suggested on the text with singular clearness. 
 
158 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 but one " manerium " ; and the dependency, in respect of acre- 
 age, outmeasured the capital manor in the ratio of nearly two to 
 one. Or, to put it somewhat differently, the latter, or Whitby, 
 by the side of the former, Sneaton, is but what its fair but 
 unpretentious church, as it would be in mediaeval days, would 
 have been side by side with the noble Abbey church in all its 
 perfect symmetry and the glorious beauty of its architecture. 
 
 But it may be well, if it is desired to have a clear idea of 
 what " Old Whitby " really was, to fix our minds on this con- 
 trast, and not to shrink from deliberately contemplating what 
 I have called its comparative insignificance. Because what 
 has been, so far, already advanced, namely, that Whitby is 
 now, and beyond all dispute was then, merely a township half 
 the size of its berewic Sneaton, perhaps even less than that, 
 must be carried still further. The same record which tells us 
 what Whitby and Sneaton relatively were, tells us also not only 
 that to the manor of Whitby appertained soke in North and 
 South Fyling, Ghinipe (or Hawsker), Presteby, Ugleberdesby 
 (or Ugglebarnby), Soureby, Brecca, Baldby, Florun (now 
 Flowergate), Staxeby (Stakesby), Neweham (Newholm) ; but, 
 telling us that Presteby, Baldby, Soureby (just west of Baldby), 
 Florun, Stakesby were all distinct places, tells us too that all 
 of them have to be carefully eliminated from any idea we may 
 have formed of what Old Whitby really was in respect of 
 area. Nay^ we must even proceed a little farther still in the 
 same direction. For, in the " Memorial of Benefactions " to 
 the Abbey — a writing barely a century less old than Domesday 
 itself — we find enumerated besides the vill and port of Whitby, 
 and besides Stainsacre, Hawsker, the two Fylings, Sneaton, 
 Ugglebarnby, Soureby, Stakesby, Baldby, Flore, Newholm, 
 and Dunsley, these other places also : Overby, Thingwala, 
 Lairpel (Larpool), Bertwait, Setwait, Risewarp (now Euswarp), 
 and — what we have to note particularly — all of them (as 
 enumerated at all) enumerated as distinct from the vill of 
 Whitby proper, or " Old Whitby " in its positive actuality. 
 
The actual area of Old Whitby 1 59 
 
 But the result of all these eliminations or deductions is 
 obviously to leave but a very insignificant residuum for the 
 constitution or absolute area of what must be understood by 
 the term " Ancient Whitby." 
 
 Now, if any reader were to take a large sheet of paper and 
 roughly shape it after the outlines afforded by the 6-inch 
 Ordnance maps, ,so as to take in the area indicated by the 
 aggregate of places, townships, or vills just now enumerated, 
 and then were to proceed successively to shear off Fylingdales, 
 Hawsker, Stainsacre, Sneaton, Ugglebarnby, Ruswarp, on the 
 south and south-west, and next go on to remove Dunsley and 
 Newholm on the north and west, he would most likely be 
 somewhat surprised at the small dimensions of the scrap of 
 the original shape or areal facsimile that was left. For the 
 abstraction of Euswarp, Newholm, and Dunsley alone would 
 bring him into the very heart of what is now the town of 
 Whitby ; while the snipping off of Stakesby, Larpool, Baldby, 
 Florun, would grievously lessen the already strangely dimin- 
 ished remnant that was left. But even that is not quite all ; 
 Thingwala has yet to be pared off, and so has Priestby. The 
 very site of the Abbey itself, not to mention the site of the 
 church and the churchyard, is not within the limits of the 
 township of Whitby proper. 
 
 Whitby without its Abbey, without even the site of its 
 Abbey included, is an idea to which the modern mind is 
 indeed a stranger. Yet it is an idea to which we must learn 
 to reconcile ourselves if we desire to recognise what the area 
 implied by the name Whitby really was in the time of Ancient, 
 if not of Old Whitby. For this is the way in which the site 
 of the Abbey is mentioned in the earliest historical writing 
 touching Whitby, next after Domesday, which has come down 
 to us : " The place which in olden time was called Streoneshalc, 
 next was denominated Prestebi, but now " — somewhere about 
 1170 to 1175, that is — -"is spoken of as Witebi." In other 
 words, the Streoneshalh of the olden time has been renamed 
 
1 60 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 Presteby, say about the year 890 or 900, when Whitby also 
 was brought by the conqueror-colonist to the Eegistrar of the 
 day, together with its multiplied sisters Stakesby, Risewarp, 
 Flore, Ugelbardeby, and all the rest of the family, all of them 
 as separate and distinct as the twelve sons of Jacob (not to 
 mention his daughters), and almost all of them destined equally 
 with and in like manner as the majority of the twelve patriarchs 
 to be eventually, and before long, overshadowed and practically 
 absorbed by the predominating growth, importance, and in- 
 fluence of the foremost of the family. And thus it was that that 
 which was not Whitby in or about the year 900, but had its 
 own name as well as its local habitation on the high ground 
 that furnished the site of the Abbey and parish church and 
 graveyard, and is bounded by the sea-cliff on the one side, 
 and the brae overhanging the old town on another, had, soon 
 after the middle of the twelfth century at the latest, come to 
 be absorbed by, and known under, the general or non-discrimin- 
 ating name of Whitby. 
 
 But however strongly we may desire to confine ourselves 
 to the topic of Old Whitby as distinguished from Ancient 
 Whitby (adhering to the definition of either given above), 
 still it is not easily possible to avoid all reference to at least 
 the later days of the latter. 
 
 More than one attempt has been made by the author, on 
 different occasions, to show that the received doctrine touching 
 the continued condition of ruin and desolation of Whitby, 
 town and Abbey alike, is utterly and absurdly untenable. 
 But such errors when once received and popularly accredited 
 die hard. They are taken up and repeated in newspaper 
 sketches and popular handbooks compiled by persons who 
 possess no original or acquired knowledge of their own, and 
 so the old myths live and flourish still with a vitality which 
 reminds one of the old story of the Hydra. But, for all that, 
 it is absolutely certain, as we have seen above, that the town 
 did not lie desolate during the two centuries through which 
 
Inference from Names of the Out- Townships 1 6 1 
 
 the monastery continued in its state of ruin, and that its 
 restoration to being almost, and to prosperity certainly, did 
 not wait for, or depend upon, the restoration of its ancient 
 Religious House. On the contrary, there is no question that 
 at the time of the valuation taken in the Confessor's time, 
 according to the record as given in the Domesday Book, Whitby 
 must have been an important, prosperous, and wealthy town 
 and harbour. For less than this can in no way be inferred 
 with respect to the condition of a place returned as being 
 assessed at a sum at least equivalent to £3500 in our modern 
 money, and to one single impost only. 
 
 But there is something not a little suggestive in a conclusion 
 that can be thus formulated. If we cast a glance over the 
 various places whose names are tabulated above in connection 
 with Whitby, — more than one of which to this day retains the 
 rank of a manor, — we naturally form the conception of a 
 considerable group of separate and independent tenements or 
 holdings, resulting from separate and independent grants or 
 allotments, made possibly by some subordinate captain or 
 chieftain to the worthier among his own subordinates or 
 soldier - followers. More than one or two of these have 
 bequeathed the memory of their names to us, preserved, like 
 flies in amber, in the appellation of the place which he "called 
 after his own name.'' Instances in point are TJgelbardr, Haukr, 
 Northman, Baldr, and, quite likely, Prestr. But no long time 
 first, and these originally separate and independent fighting 
 adventurers who had turned their soldier's sword into the 
 colonist-settler's reaping-hook, seem to be grouped together 
 otherwise than by the mere vicinity of their allotments ; for 
 they, with their allotments, have passed under the headship 
 of a more powerful man than themselves ; they have practically 
 become, what later was called, "his men," and their lands a 
 part of his "fee." Certainly it was so by the time of the 
 Conquest, and it is more than a matter of mere inference that 
 it had been so at the time of Edward the Confessor's valuation. 
 
 M 
 
i62 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 Of course it may have been so from the first. But I am 
 disposed to read the imperfect record otherwise, and to think 
 that there was as general or practical independence among the 
 Old Danish colonists of Cleveland as there had been some 
 generations earlier among the Norwegian colonists of Iceland. 
 At all events, the Whitby group of manors, vills, and town- 
 ships, with Whitby, port and manor, at their head, had become 
 a centre of great importance, and from both a religious and 
 political point of view, some long time before the Conquest. 
 The existence there of a separate and definite locality with 
 the name Thingwala attached to it, is in itself quite a sufficient 
 proof of the validity of the statement thus put forward. 
 
 It is a fact of considerable significance that even as late as 
 1070 to 1080 Thingwala should have been still not only an 
 identifiable locality, but a recognised name for a territorial 
 division of land, however limited or constricted its actual 
 dimensions may have been. There it was, and there it 
 remained, to attest the fact that, within the easy scope of 
 perfectly trustworthy tradition, even if not of the memory of 
 the "oldest inhabitant," there had been at the place so desig- 
 nated periodical gatherings of the Old Danish inhabitants of 
 eastern Cleveland, and alike for civil and religious purposes 
 and observances. 
 
 Perhaps we may be the better able to recognise what is 
 implied in and by this if we think what a Quarter Sessions 
 town means nowadays in our own familiar country homes. 
 For such, and more still by far, must Whitby have been even 
 after the decadence of the heathen ritual or worship among 
 the Old Danish settlers and their next descendants, and down 
 to an easily appreciable time before King Edward's accession 
 to the throne of England. Suppose we were to allow for the 
 erection of booths, as in the case of the Icelandic Thingwala, 
 for the reception of the men who fared thither for Thingwala 
 objects and proceedings, still we have to bear in mind that in 
 the later days of Ancient Whitby there must have been a 
 
Inqtdry as to the actual Site of Old Whitby 163 
 
 considerable population of seafaring folk, and of other people 
 depending upon them; to wit, "chapmen," many of them 
 men of no mean substance, the "bargainers," that is, or 
 "merchants" of a later mode of name-giving, shipbuilders, 
 rope-makers, sailcloth-weavers, and so forth ; with dwellings 
 adequate in number, and with the requisite appliances 
 according to the requirements of the day. Less than this can 
 scarcely be admitted when we are brought face to face with the 
 fact that the Port of Whitby had, according to the testimony 
 of the invaluable record quoted, to supplement the "caru- 
 cates " or " landed interest " of Whitby to the extent of very 
 near two-thirds of the whole sum leviable on account of the 
 tax called Danegeld, considerable as that sum so obviously was. 
 
 But where would these dwellings be placed \ Or, in other 
 words, what was really the site of Old Whitby % 
 
 This question has been asked before, and more answers 
 than one suggested in reply to it. 
 
 Thus, some publication or other which fell into my hands 
 no long time since, stated that there were many sites of old 
 habitations traceable still on parts of the plateau which furnishes 
 sites for the parish church and churchyard, as well as for the 
 Abbey and its ancient structural appendages. The information 
 would have been welcome enough ; but still one was not able 
 to feel quite confident of the author's wisdom or judgment in 
 suggesting correlation between these assumed habitations and 
 the dwellings of the Old Whitby inhabitants. I confess to 
 having thought that he might be puzzled in many particulars 
 as well as many instances to find the foundations of the co- 
 ordinate buildings of a village or hamlet of even less than one- 
 half, if not one-third, of the antiquity assumed in this sagacious 
 surmise of his. Besides, what should a seafaring population, 
 either fisher or mercantile, do up there ? One would surely 
 say that then even as now they would desire to be located at 
 no greater distance than was necessary from the immediate 
 position of their business or their calling. 
 
1 64 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 But again, and as touching an at least tentative answer to 
 the question, "Where were the dwellings of the inhabitants of 
 Old Whitby % " or " Where was Old Whitby itself placed 1 " 
 
 The Handbook, which has been referred to more than 
 once above, was the outcome of a lecture delivered before the 
 members of the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society. 
 On the morning succeeding the delivery of the lecture the 
 writer was walking on the pier when he met one or two of the 
 Whitby folk of long local standing, and after some little conver- 
 sation he was told that his estimate of the waste of the cliffs on 
 either side, within, of the harbour mouth, as hazarded in the 
 lecture aforesaid, was under the mark rather than over, and 
 that several old seamen had been referring that morning to 
 what had taken place, in the way of such waste, within their 
 own period of recollection. The lecturer had said that he had 
 seen about 9 feet of the margin of the cliff go at one par- 
 ticular point within the thirty-five years over which his own 
 observation had extended. These old seamen were able, from 
 the results of what they had noticed themselves, to corroborate 
 this statement, and indeed go beyond it. Now Dr. Young at 
 p. 755 says : "In the cliffs along the coast the strata are not 
 only liable to be decomposed by the atmosphere, but undermined 
 and wasted away by the tides, especially in storms. The ratio 
 in which this decay proceeds is not easily ascertained ; but it 
 does not appear on an average to exceed a yard in ten years 
 or ten yards in a hundred years ; for though in some spots 
 the decay is much greater, in others it is much less. The 
 exposure can, however, be nowhere greater than at and about 
 the chff-ends or nabs on either side of the harbour mouth " ; 
 and suppose we assume that the waste there, on both sides, 
 has been progressing at the ratio alleged since the date of Old 
 Whitby, what is the conclusion up to which we are led 1 
 
 From a chart now before me, drawn to a scale of 3^ 
 inches to a mile, the width from nab-end to nab-end across the 
 harbour mouth is as nearly three-quarters of an inch as can 
 
Considerations limiting the Site of Old Whitby 165 
 
 well be ascertained from such a drawing. Three-quarters of 
 an inch on the scale given represents 338 yards. Allow for 
 waste on Dr. Young's ratio of 10 yards in a century, and we 
 have to take 100 yards from either side as accounted for 
 by the waste of the last thousand years, leaving a clear inter- 
 space of 178 yards to afford an entrance to the harbour at 
 or about the period of the occupation by the Danes. But 
 this of necessity, if we do but bear in mind that the waste 
 was, though greatest at and near the present so-called harbour 
 mouth, by no means confined to the cliffs there, places the 
 actual harbour — the absolute port of Whitby in those days — 
 very much higher up the bed of the Esk than it is now. 
 
 To some such a calculation as this may appear far-fetched, 
 fantastic, unreasonable. But to the writer it is not so. To 
 him every consideration, geological as well as others, depend- 
 ing on physical or scientific observation and experience, seems 
 inevitably to lead up to this same conclusion. There can be 
 no real doubt that the Esk, at some not easily reckoned time 
 since, found its way into the sea through a rift in the rocks 
 due to a fault, or, in other words, "to the settlement of the 
 strata on one side of what is now the harbour mouth, or their 
 upheaval on the other," and that the whole empty width from 
 side to side now is the result of the joint action of water and 
 weather ; and the strong presumption is that a thousand years 
 ago the interspace between the braes on either side was scarcely 
 two-thirds of its present width. Even of this space no small 
 portion, by reason of its nature, or because of sand thrown up 
 to the depth of many feet by the action — sometimes combined 
 and sometimes opposed — of sea waves and river streams, must 
 have been unavailable for the site of such dwellings as were 
 the vast majority of those put up at the period indicated. 
 
 We must, therefore, on this line of reasoning, look for the 
 site of Old Whitby town, not at or near the northernmost 
 portion of the present town, or anywhere between the present 
 bridge and harbour mouth, but much farther away from the 
 
1 66 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 sea. And the probability is that it was on the east side of 
 the river-bed as well as mainly beyond the line of the bridge, 
 and the street now known as Bridge Street. 
 
 It will be thought strange, perhaps, if no notice is taken of 
 what has been advanced by previous writers on the subject 
 under discussion, although the amount of such statement is 
 really so very scanty that it almost seems as if something in 
 the way of apology or explanation were needed for introducing 
 it at all. It is indeed possible that the subject never actually 
 excited their awakened or attentive consideration. 
 
 The following extracts may be taken as fairly indicating 
 the view which Charlton {History of Whithy) was disposed to 
 take: "After the destruction of Streanshalh by the Danes, 
 some few huts or cottages were, in process of time, erected on 
 its ruins, which, fr6m the neighbourhood of the Abbey, where 
 the priests or monks formerly resided, got the name or 
 appellation of Presteby; and by this name it several times 
 occurs in our records, though never more after the date of the 
 charter of confirmation granted by Eufus, for the harbour 
 and some few fishermen's huts below the hill having been, 
 before the Conquest, called Wyteby ... it by degrees 
 communicated its name not only to what stood below, but 
 likewise to what was afterwards built upon the hill, so that, 
 after the reign of William Eufus, Presteby was no longer 
 heard of, nor did the monastery there ever more retain that 
 name." 
 
 " Some few huts or cottages " near the Abbey, and " some 
 few fishermen's huts below the hill," that is all that this writer 
 allows for ; while at p. 1 45 he says, under date of 11 85, " As for 
 Baxtergate, no such street then existed ; it was all overflowed 
 by the sea every day at the time of high water, and made a 
 part of the Bell. Nor were the church-stairs as yet erected." 
 While, as to his idea of what Whitby had come to be at the 
 end of the period which limits our epoch of Old Whitby, what 
 follows is graphic enough : " When the monastery of Whitby 
 
Charlton's Idea of Old Whitby 167 
 
 was dissolved the town was divided into three parts, all of 
 which taken together contained but a very inconsiderable 
 number of inhabitants. One of these parts, consisting of only 
 about ten or twelve houses, stood above the hill on or near 
 that plat of ground where Streanshalh had formerly been. . . . 
 These houses were inhabited by the menial servants and other 
 dependents of the Abbot, who assisted in the tilling of such 
 land in the neighbourhood of the monastery as was not let out 
 to tenants. And fish being in those days ... an article of 
 very great consequence, some of them probably were also 
 employed in providing that useful commodity for the monas- 
 tery, though it is certain most of the fishermen of Whitby, 
 even in those days, for the convenience of fishing, had their 
 habitations below the hill. Another part of Whitby stood 
 below the hill, on the east side of the Eske, where ten or 
 twelve more straggling houses, placed in an irregular manner 
 at a considerable distance from each other, formed a sorry 
 street, then called Kirkgate, but now commonly known by the 
 name of Church Street, beginning at the lower end of the 
 Green Lane and terminating at the bottom of the Church 
 Stairs. Beyond this street, to the northward, was a place 
 called Haglathe. . . . The whole of Kirkgate was divided into 
 tofts and crofts, and inhabited by a few fishermen, mechanics, 
 artisans, and perhaps a shopkeeper or two. It certainly was 
 very poorly defended from the violence of the sea. . . . The 
 harbour was but meanly provided with piers, and had hardly 
 any other defence than what Nature herself had formed . . . 
 and there was no place nearer the mouth of the harbour where 
 boats could come ashore sooner in bad weather, or where 
 they could be laid up in safety, than the place where the 
 Horngarth was made. The third part of Whitby was situate 
 on the west side of our harbour, and consisted also of ten or 
 twelve cottages or houses, which formed two streets, if they 
 can be thought properly deserving of the name of streets; 
 one of which, called Flowergate (wherein was a House of 
 
1 68 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 Correction), seems to have taken its name from the flowers 
 which grew in the fields adjoining thereto ; and the other, 
 called Hacklesougate, or Hackersgate, from," etc. etc. The 
 author then goes on to mention Wind Lane (now Cliff Lane), 
 Scate Lane, and Backdale, repeating what he had already said 
 about Baxtergate, and concludes : " Such was Whitby in the 
 year 1540, the whole town consisting of thirty or forty houses, 
 containing in it not more than one hundred and eighty or 
 two hundred inhabitants." 
 
 So far Charlton. Dr. Young takes a different and some- 
 what brighter view of what Old Whitby practically was, and 
 certainly more consistent with probability and with reasonable 
 induction. It is true that, much against recorded facts, as well 
 as against all probability and reason both, he asserts that the 
 town after its devastation by the Danes lay in its desolation 
 until " after the lapse of two hundred years it revived " co- 
 incidentally with the "restoration of the Abbey." And then 
 he proceeds : " About this time it obtained the modern name 
 Whitby or White town ; and the name Presteby or Priest- 
 town was then also occasionally given either to the town itself 
 or to one of its appendages. It was then chiefly situated on 
 the east cliff, and contained but few inhabitants. . . . But in 
 prbportion as the Abbey grew in riches and respectability, the 
 town increased in size and importance, and not only occupied a 
 part of the east cliff near the monastery, but extended itself 
 southward along the east bank of the Esk, but also ascended the 
 gentle declivity on the opposite bank toward the west. As 
 the port of Whitby was granted to the monks by William de 
 Percy, and as the fishermen of Whitby are noticed about the 
 same period, the lower part of the town must have been 
 inhabited soon after the Conquest, if not before; and in 
 process of time the largest portion of the town was below, 
 most of the secular inhabitants having their houses on the 
 banks of the river, or on the declivities on each side ; while 
 the upper part of the town was chiefly occupied by the offices 
 
Assumed Growth of Old Whitby 1 69 
 
 of the monastery, and the dwelling of its immediate servants 
 and dependents." 
 
 A considerable portion of this is consistent with facts as 
 well as with probabilities ; but as to the deductions and 
 qualifications with which it may be finally received, it will be 
 seen in the sequel that they are neither few nor of slight 
 consequence. 
 
 But, proceeding with the quotation from the point at 
 which it was discontinued, we read that "before the year 
 1189 the town of Whitby had become so considerable that 
 the Abbot Eichard II., with the consent of the whole chapter, 
 granted his charter for creating it into a borough, with 
 privileges similar to those conferred on other boroughs about 
 that time. By this charter the town was to be a free borough 
 for ever ; the burgesses were to have '' such and such rights 
 and privileges. However, "the privileges thus conferred on 
 the town of Whitby were soon after confirmed by a royal 
 charter, and had no unfair means been employed to set them 
 aside, Whitby might now have been a royal borough enjoying 
 the right of sending members to Parliament.'' 
 
 Now the proposition here formulated is so extraordinary, 
 so extravagant in point of fact, that although it may seem to 
 be a digression from the direct way of dealing with our 
 immediate subject — the attempt to ascertain the site and 
 the material characteristics of Old Whitby — yet, as the matter 
 is one so intimately connected with our general subject, we 
 may be pardoned if we turn aside for a moment to examine 
 the scope and significance of the foregoing extract from 
 Young's history. 
 
 It seems strange that Dr. Young should never have asked 
 himself who was the person or party with whom rested the 
 prerogative of constituting a borough, a possible " royal 
 borough" even, according to his expression. Could he really 
 suppose, if he had given the matter a moment's attentive 
 consideration, that it was competent to the abbot of a by 
 
1 70 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 no means as yet important or influential abbey to "erect a 
 place into a borough " % Surely that must be an exercise 
 of prerogative that could appertain only to the king, or, 
 under certain circumstances, to persons authorised by him, 
 mediately, at least, in virtue of the dignities conferred upon 
 them by his royal grace and authority. 
 
 Let us refer to the document itself, in order that we may 
 ascertain what the language employed in it really is, and 
 whether or no some possible misunderstanding of it may not 
 have arisen, and if so, in what way or to what extent. The 
 charter in question is printed in the Whifby Ghartulary as No. 
 266 (i. p. 211), and runs thus : "Know all men that I (Abbot 
 Eichard II.), with the assent of my entire chapter, have given 
 and for ever conceded Whitby in free burgage, and to the 
 burgenses abiding there liberty of burgage, and free laws and 
 free rights " — the laws in question being simply, as a matter of 
 course, of the nature of what would be called by-laws nowadays. 
 
 Now the Abbot could of course give only what he had 
 himself received ; and he had received from William de Percy 
 (the founder) and his son Alan the vill of Whitby with the 
 seaport, with all such feudal and other rights and privileges 
 as it was competent to the said barons to convey. He had 
 received also from successive kings, namely, both Williams, 
 Henry I., Stephen, and Henry II., full confirmation of the 
 Percy grants, without which the said grants would not have 
 been valid ; and besides, such liberties and privileges as had 
 been accorded to the churches of Beverley and Eipon, together 
 with soca et saca, et tol et team et infangenetheof- within the vill 
 of Whitby and some other possessions. But it is the charter 
 
 ^ Full explanation of these terms, and of others of the same nature 
 and involved in the same inquiry, will be given at a future page. The 
 object in mentioning them and the charters containing them here is 
 connected simply with the inquiry as to the absolute local position or 
 site of the ancient town, or group (or groups) of inhabited houses of Whitby, 
 and no further reference is made to the charters in question, or expressions 
 contained in them, than is necessary for the illustration of the specified 
 
L imits of Grant conceded to the Convent 1 7 1 
 
 of grant and confirmation of the last of the monarchs named 
 which is the most to the point, and from this I extract 
 the following passage : " I grant and confirm to the aforesaid 
 church (of Whitby, namely ; and that is to the Abbey) in the 
 said vill of Whitby burgage and a fair at the feast of St. 
 Hilda, with soc and sac, etc. ; and let all the comers to the said 
 fair have my firm peace with all their goods, coming and 
 going. I grant and confirm the port also," etc. etc. To us 
 the important part of this grant is in the clause, "eoncedo 
 et confirmo prsedictse Ecclesise in villa de Witebi burgagium,'' 
 that is, "I grant and confirm to the said church burgage in 
 Whitby " ; and burgagium, or " burgage," is defined by Bishop 
 Stubbs {Select Charters, p. 520) as "tenure of land in a 
 borough" — that is, town as opposed to country — "equivalent 
 to free and common socage in the country " ; socage meaning 
 " tenure of land on condition of fixed and determinate service, 
 especially that of suit to the lord's court or soken." This 
 then was what the Abbot and Convent were able to grant, 
 and the terms on which it was granted are defined in the 
 " fixed and determinate service " specified in the charter itself ; 
 namely, the rendering, in lieu of all other services whatso- 
 ever, 5d. yearly for every toft, together with certain other 
 conditions touching the sale of lands in Whitby, settlement 
 of disputes among the burgenses or privileged inhabitants, 
 and so forth. It hardly needs to be added that this immunity 
 from personal services, and whether of the free or unfree 
 sorts or classes, was in those days an enormous boon in itself ; 
 while the fixed and determinate service of paying simply 
 5d. a year, in the way of acknowledgment for the site of 
 each separate house, or site on which a house could be built, 
 
 object. In the later section the matter dealt with will be the condition 
 and importance of the town and its inhabitants, and not the position or 
 site of their habitations. Some measure of repetition, in the way of 
 extracts and deductions founded on them, will be observed, no doubt ; 
 but no more than is necessary for the elucidation of the special matters 
 of inquiry under the two separate heads specified. 
 
1 7 2 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 attending the holding of the Abbot's Court, giving the Abbot 
 the first offer when any one desired to sell house or land, and 
 two or three other matters not at all more burdensome than 
 those specified, can hardly be looked upon as detracting much 
 from the value of the concession granted in this much mis- 
 understood charter of the Abbot's. 
 
 We see then on what a very slight and feeble foundation 
 both Charlton and Young have built their structure of an 
 "ancient free borough" of Whitby, and raised their wail over 
 the right of Parliamentary representation lost through the 
 " unfair means employed to set their charter privileges aside." 
 
 But in this brief and hasty retrospect of charters and facts 
 and circumstances, as they actually were, we have (necessarilj^ 
 perhaps) passed over terms and considerations of such a nature 
 that, at the present day, when both have become obsolete, unless 
 attention is specially drawn to them, full comprehension and 
 much more suitable appreciation of the same and their conse- 
 quences has become next to impossible. One of these terms 
 is " toft " ; and, as we have seen, for every toft the burgher 
 holding it had to pay to the Abbot 5d. a year. Now it 
 is of importance to remember that the toft was the special 
 site of the ancient dwelling-house of whatever grade — short 
 perhaps of the manor-house itself — whether it might be a 
 mere cottage or hut, or abode of somewhat greater pretension. 
 But the word " site " just used must be qualified in this way : 
 the toft was not the mere area occupied by the actual edifice ; 
 it was the area within which, with a margin, and possibly a 
 considerable margin all round the edifice, the dwelling was 
 actually reared ; so that no two houses stood together, or in 
 contact, as the houses in a modern street do. On the contrary, 
 there were spaces, and very distinct spaces, between each' 
 house and its neighbour on either side ; on the same principle 
 as the so-styled "villa residences" in the outskirts of a town 
 nowadays. 
 
 As to the "fixed service," Dr. Young mentions (p. 501) 
 
Tenure of Land by, and under, the Convent 173 
 
 "an acknowledgment anciently called toft-rent" to which 
 "each tenement is subject, to be paid yearly if demanded. 
 In general it is from 2d. to 6d. ; in one instance only three 
 pepper-corns; in another 5d. and two fat hens." But the 
 writer does not appear to recognise the origin and raiion d'etre 
 of such acknowledgment. For just before (p. 499) he says : 
 "At the time of the surrender a great proportion of the 
 houses in Whitby belonged to the monks, an effect resulting 
 from the regulation of Richard de Waterville " — that is, the 
 grantor of the special charter now in question " which secured 
 to the Abbot the first offer of every house that was for sale." 
 But the Doctor overlooks, or probably had never realised, the 
 fact that originally every toft, whether built upon or not 
 (cedificatum aiit non-mdificaium), was as much the Abbot's as, 
 before the endowment of the Abbey, it had been the founder's ; 
 and that no absolute alienation of so much as an inch of the 
 entire fee by the Abbot and Convent was possible without the 
 royal license. He could give, grant, or sell this or that por- 
 tion, but always subject to an acknowledgment from the grantee 
 or purchaser, which acknowledgment, however trifling, testi- 
 fied to the fact that, after all, he was not the absolute owner. 
 The " freeholder," in the modern sense of the word, did not 
 then exist. The liberi tenentes themselves all paid their annual 
 acknowledgment; it might be "a rose in the time of roses," a 
 sparrow-hawk in its first year's plumage (the sparverius soras of 
 a certain document in the Abbot's Book, which so sorely per- 
 plexed both Charlton and Young), a certain quantity of incense, 
 a pepper-corn, or other matter of even still less intrinsic value. 
 What Abbot Eichard de Waterville's charter provided for 
 was that, supposing a portion of land so given, granted, or sold 
 came into the market (always subject to such acknowledgment 
 as aforesaid), the Abbot was to "have the refusal" of it; in 
 other words, he was to have the option of reinstating himself 
 at a fair and reasonable price in as full and plenary possession, 
 subject only to the king's rights, as he had originally been. 
 
1 74 'S'z'/^ and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 There are three documents in the Whithy Chartulary which 
 are singularly illustrative of the practice involved in this 
 system. They are numbered 12, 19, and 11. In No. 12 
 Thomas Wybern and his heir grant half a toft in Kirkgate to 
 Alexander Here and his wife, to be held of the grantors and 
 their heirs for ever, on condition of paying them 4s. 6d. yearly, 
 besides 12d. a year to the precentor of the Abbey, and render- 
 ing the burgage of the Lord Abbot as much as belongs to a 
 half toft in the said vill. In No. 19 the aforesaid Alexander 
 Here remises and quitclaims to the Abbot and Convent all his 
 right and title in the said half toft for a specified purpose, 
 namely, in aid of the almsgiving of the Abbey. In No. 11 
 the Abbot and Convent grant and demise to Johannes ad 
 Fontem, otherwise John atte Keld, the same half toft for the 
 term of forty years, on condition of his paying thereout to 
 Thomas Wybern and his heirs 4s. 6d. yearly, and the before- 
 mentioned shilling to the precentor. This deed is dated in 
 1318, and the series of three is specially interesting, not only 
 from the point of view particularly noted, but from the illus- 
 tration given of the working of the burgage grant made in 
 Richard de Waterville's charter. 
 
 One word more as to the privilege implied or conceded in 
 the said burgage grant. According to a singularly interesting 
 and instructive document, headed " Consuetudines Cotariorum 
 de Hakenes," and printed in the second volume of the Whithy 
 Chartulary, the services incumbent upon the occupant of a 
 cottage under the Convent, out of Whithy, or under ordinary 
 circumstances, were as follows : he paid 8d. yearly, besides two 
 fowls and twenty eggs. In the way of " boon work " (precarice 
 or frecationes) he had to give two days' labour, hoeing or 
 weeding ; four days' mowing ; four days' haymaking ; to work 
 when required at repairs of the mill and milldam of the vill 
 he belonged to; to give "tol"and "tac" and "mercet," i.e. 
 to make a certain arbitrary payment once ■ a year, to pay a 
 certain sum on taking land under the Abbey, and to make a 
 
Abbot Richard's Charter misunderstood 175 
 
 payment on the marriage of his daughter ; and, besides two 
 or three other smaller matters in the way of " service," he 
 must grind at the Abbot's mill, paying as multure one-thirteenth 
 part of the quantity ground. The slightest consideration of 
 these terms is sufficient surely to show that the burgage pay- 
 ment of merely 5d. a toft implied a very real privilege or 
 benefit to the burgher. 
 
 But there are still a few words of commentary to be added 
 on one of the statements quoted a little above, as having been 
 put forward by the two principal Whitby historians. It is 
 not true to say that " the privileges so conferred upon Whitby 
 were set aside " in any real sense. I do not mean, of course, 
 that the writers referred to advanced a deliberate, or any 
 other species of untruth ; only that they vtrote in ignorance, 
 partly due to their first misconception, partly to want of 
 information. The information they lacked is, however, now 
 available to any reader in the charters derived from the British 
 Museum copy of the Whitby Chartulary, which are printed 
 in vol. ii. of the Cartularium in question, issued by the Surtees 
 Society. The two charters to which special reference is made 
 are both in Old French, and in the second of them (p. 501), 
 dated in January 1387, which, in fact, is the award of the 
 Earl of Northumberland (acting as arbitrator between the 
 Convent and the burghers tenant and resident in Whitby), 
 the concluding clause is : "Item, quant al auncien chartre del 
 Abbe Kichard, ceo ne doit autrement estre interprete3 mes 
 come es declarej en la composition William Page et compaig- 
 nons susdit3 "; or, in English, " As to the ancient charter of 
 Abbot Eichard, it is to be in no other way interpreted than as 
 in the composition (or agreement) with William Page and his 
 associates before named." 
 
 Now this agreement with Page and the burghers associated 
 with him is printed as No. 473 ^ in the volume just cited, and 
 
 1 Very careful and liberal translations of both the documents thus 
 referred to are given in the Appendix. 
 
176 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 is dated in 1351. It is the settlement of a contention between 
 the Abbot and Convent of the one part, and the town, repre- 
 sented by William Page and twenty-three others named, of 
 the other part, this latter party actually citing the charter of 
 Richard de Waterville in support of their plea. And the 
 decision, after due consideration had of all matters pertinent 
 on which the aforesaid agreement rests, is as follows : " And 
 the ancient charter made before the memory of man, being 
 such as is alleged, cannot avail or take effect save only accord- 
 ing to what had been the use and practice in former times.'' 
 Wherefore the parties come to an agreement on the following 
 terms : namely, that Page and his fellows acknowledge the 
 Abbot and Convent to be utterly Lords (seigneurs entierment) 
 of the said vill of Whitby, and to have the seignory and all 
 the franchises, as hitherto claimed by them, within the said 
 vill of Whitby. 
 
 It is thus quite evidently idle to say that the charter in 
 question had been " set aside," when questions as to its mean- 
 ing or interpretation could be and were raised and settled 
 nearly two hundred years after it had been originally granted. 
 In order, however, to set the matter in its true light and 
 prevent misconception, it may be expedient to state in detail 
 the several privileges which the burghers claimed in virtue of 
 the said charter as specified and set forth in the Composition 
 with William Page and others, as they are briefly stated in 
 the Earl of Northumberland's award as constituting all the 
 articles debatable between the two parties : 1. Amends of 
 assise of ale broken, in the Abbot's Tourn twice a year. 2. 
 Plankage in the Port of Whitby. .3. The right of taking 
 earth and stones in or on the Abbot's wastes or commons. 4. 
 The right of pasturage within the Abbot and Convent's 
 Acredike. 5. The fines leviable and levied on the re- 
 marriage of widows and the creation of burghers. 6. The 
 "spredeles" of nets (whatever that may have been, the 
 value of them amounting to £7 : 6 : 7 in a year). 7. The 
 
Former estimates of Size and Population 1 77 
 
 interpretation of the charter made in the time of the Abbot 
 Richard. 
 
 All this is of course simply destructive of the notion that 
 the said charter had been "set aside," whether by fair means or 
 foul, and that, if it had not been so set aside, such and such 
 privileges would have remained with the town. And besides, 
 it becomes entirely evident that both Charlton and Young, 
 when writing as they did about the matter, wrote under very 
 grave misapprehension of the main features of the point at issue. 
 
 Passing onwards from this digression, we find ourselves 
 in a more advantageous position for reverting to the point at 
 which it was made. 
 
 We had already seen that Charlton allowed for some 
 thirty or forty houses and one hundred and eighty to two 
 hundred people as constituting the town of Old Whitby and 
 its population about the middle of the sixteenth century. 
 Young, on the other hand, had concluded that the town had 
 become actually considerable before the close of the twelfth 
 century. But he gives no details and alleges no special reasons 
 for his view, save only the granting of the oft-named charter 
 by Abbot Richard de Waterville ; unless perhaps it may be 
 held to be inferred by the way in which he mentions what he 
 calls "the four principal ways into Whitby then existing" as 
 deducible from the terms of the charter. 
 
 I think, however, that this would be rather a begging of 
 the question. The charter simply concedes or grants four 
 ways or roads for entering or leaving, entry and exit by which 
 was to be free and quit of all customs and dues, without in 
 the least specifying or localising them, and much less con- 
 stituting them "principal ways." Charlton is less open 
 to criticism, writing of them as he does : " As for the four 
 highroads mentioned in the preceding charter," is his mode of 
 expression ; and that is precisely all that can be said about 
 them, as founded, that is to say, on the way in which they 
 are mentioned in the charter. 
 
 N 
 
178 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 This author's view touching them, or rather concerning 
 their direction, is, however, at variance with Dr. Young's. 
 He writes : " There is no doubt but two of them lay on each 
 side of the river ; viz. on the east side, one over Spital Bridge, 
 towards Sneaton and Stainsacre, and the other up Green Lane,^ 
 towards Hawkesgarth and Fylingdales ; and on the west side, 
 one towards Flowergate Cross, and the other down Scate Lane, 
 up Backdale (that is Bagdale), and along the present turnpike 
 road. As for Baxtergate, no such street then existed," etc. 
 
 Young, on the other hand, after inferring from the charters, 
 as we have seen, that there were then four principal ways into 
 Whitby, proceeds in the following terms : " And it is by no 
 means improbable that they were the extremities of those 
 four streets called gates or ways, viz. Haggersgate, Flower- 
 gate, and Baxtergate on the west side of the Esk, and Kirk- 
 gate (which now receives the name of Church Street) on the 
 east." "By this route," he continues, "the York Eoad then 
 proceeded," and also Fylingdales and Scarborough were 
 reached. " Haggersgate led towards the west sands, Flower- 
 gate towards Dunsley, Lyth, etc. ; and Baxtergate towards 
 Stakesby, Euswarp, and other places," to wit, Guisborough, 
 Stockton, and so forth. And then, two or three pages farther 
 on, he goes on as if in reference to his supposition that the 
 four principal ways into Whitby were " the extremities of those 
 four streets called gates or ways." There was " more propriety 
 in calling the streets of Whitby at that era gates, gaites, or 
 ways, as they were very unlike the streets of the present day " ; 
 and then follows a fair enough account of the aspect of matters 
 in accordance with the time. 
 
 But the mistake is in coupling the modern idea of the word 
 "street" with that of the same word as employed at the time in 
 
 ^ This is altogether improbable, if not impossible. The highroad 
 towards Hawsker lay along what is now Church Street and up the Church 
 Lane, and a mere " venella,'- as the Green Lane was to about a century 
 ago, was not likely to supersede the recognised and legally authorised 
 High Street or High-gate. 
 
What " Street " meant in former days 179 
 
 question. In other words, Dr. Young, naturally enough, entirely 
 fails to comprehend that "street" then had no connection 
 whatever with houses at all, and much less with a line or row 
 of houses even on only one side. There might not be a house 
 within a mile of the "street" named. In fact, there were in 
 this district and in divers parts of it, and as late as the seven- 
 teenth century, many scores of miles of " street," actually so 
 called, without a house of any sort near it, except sparsely and 
 at long intervals. I give one instance, the first I come to out 
 of many, indeed almost any number, occurring in the North 
 Eiding Quarter Sessions Eecords : " The streete leading from 
 Faceby to Yarme" is out of repair, and its condition is, in 
 technical terms, therefore "presented." The distance from 
 the village to the town named is not less than nine miles, and 
 even at the present day houses are sufficiently scarce along its 
 whole line. But in the year 1612, to which the entry belongs, 
 there might be one-fourth or one-fifth of what houses there 
 are now, or hardly a house to a mile. 
 
 The fact to be kept in mind as regards those old days, and 
 the days older still, of which Dr. Young was writing, is that 
 the word "street'' or "high-street" was simply a synonym 
 of the common term " highway " or " highroad " ; our English 
 word " way " and the Danish word " gate " being also equally 
 synonymous. The full phrase was "the king's high-street" 
 or "highway," which in the contemporaneous writings in 
 Latin was rendered by ma regia, or alta via ; and in that sense, 
 and no other, is the term employed when applied either to 
 what long afterwards became Church Street ori the east, or 
 Flowergate on the west. And what is true of the word 
 "street" is, it should be remembered, equally true of the 
 word "gate," in such writings as those under notice. It 
 simply meant then the " highway " or " public road," and is 
 now as much a " provincial " word as any other of the pure 
 Danish words still retained in our so-called Northern " dialect." 
 
 The more clearly we keep this in our mind the better 
 
1 80 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 shall we be able to conceive the meaning of the four ways of 
 ingress into and exit out of Whitby, which are mentioned in 
 this much-vexed charter of Abbot Richard's. And then, no 
 doubt, we shall find no difficulty in conceiving that Young is 
 right in his distribution of the vim or roads in question, 
 namely, one on the side of Scarborough and the intermediate 
 country ; and the other three leading severally to the sands, 
 and on through Lythe and along the coast to Stokesley, 
 Guisborough, Yarm, and the north; and lastly, by way of 
 Sleights, to Malton, Kirkby Moorside, York, and so forth. 
 
 It may be thought that this too is ■ a digression, but in 
 reality it is not, as will be apparent enough in the near sequel. 
 And besides, I do not wish it in the least to be understood as 
 a denial of, or refusal to believe in, such rudimentary streets 
 (in the modern sense) of or about the period of the middle of 
 the sixteenth century, as Dr. Young gives a sketch of at the 
 page last quoted from. It is simply intended as a sort of 
 introduction to the statement that when we first have a sort 
 of tangible, at least conceivable, plan, however incomplete and 
 unsatisfactory, of Old Whitby presented to us, there being 
 nearly one hundred houses, and not merely Charlton's " thirty 
 or forty," roughly jotted down on it, the word "street" does 
 not occur at all. Baxtergate, Crossgate, Flowergate, Greffer- 
 gate, Hagilsougate or Hagelseygate (represented by Hagil- 
 syke), Highgate, Southgate, Skategate, are all of them met with; 
 Bagdale Lane, Grape Lane, Russell Lane also occur ; and like- 
 wise Helle, Bridge End, Stairfoot, and "Nigh the Monastery." 
 The whole of Whitby in 1540 was grouped in the vicinities 
 thus distinguished, and it did not extend beyond Skate Lane 
 on the Stakesby side, nor much beyond Baxtergate and 
 Bagdale on the Ruswarp side.^ 
 
 Let us try and keep these rudimentary delimitations in mind. 
 
 1 In fact, it seems to have been almost exactly conterminous with the 
 singularly small district still recognised as the area of the township, of 
 Whitby proper— 78 acres and 6 poles in all. 
 
What Whitby was like in the year 1540 181 
 
 What I call " the grouping of Old Whitby " in the year 
 1540 is not without its interest in connection with the earlier 
 parts of this section dealing with the presumptive site or 
 location of the quite early town. Let us remember that the 
 induction arrived at was that, on the east side of the Esk, 
 very little if any of the old town could have existed on the 
 north side of a line drawn directly across the present bridge. 
 Dr. Young remarks (p. 484) that " not only a part of Baxter- 
 gate, but a considerable portion of Church Street and other 
 streets on the banks of the river, must have been built 
 originally where beds of sand were once thrown up"; and 
 that " it would appear hence that the town has been gradually 
 gaining from the sea." But this conclusion is nearly identical 
 in its general bearing with our induction touching what now 
 forms a great part of Church Street, and it will not be without 
 value as we proceed a step or two farther and try to realise 
 what our quasi-plan of 1540 reveals to us touching the 
 contemporaneous condition, as regards buildings, of that part 
 of Old Whitby. 
 
 It is this. There were then in Highgate " certain lands '' 
 for which 6d. a year was payable, probably — for the record 
 is not quite plainly legible at the place — a house also ; two 
 cottages, for which 6d. more was payable ; and a cottage at 
 the foot of the stayre (ad, pedem de la stayre), for which 4d. 
 yearly was payable. These all appear to have been free 
 tenements ; but whether so or not, nothing can be plainer 
 than that in the year named, 1540, buildings either for 
 habitation or other purpose were few indeed in this part of 
 Whitby. 
 
 But it will be asked, What is the authority for these or 
 any such like statements? Whence is the so-called "plan," 
 upon a part of which they must be assumed to depend, actually 
 derived? And on what authority is Highgate assumed to 
 have been located between the Stair-foot and the end of the 
 existing Bridge Street, if not farther north still ? 
 
1 82 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 The answer to the first question is the documentary 
 evidence afforded by the records denominated "Ministers' 
 Accounts," dating 31 to 38 Henry VIII. (1540-1547), in the 
 part thereof touching "the late Monastery of Whitby." And 
 the answer to the second is that, as we have already had 
 occasion to note, Highgate and High Street are synonymous 
 terms ; and that the meaning of either at that date was simply 
 road or highway; and further that a hundred years later 
 (or in 1638, to be quite precise) this same road, highway, 
 street, or gate is authoritatively described as " leading from the 
 foote of the church staires unto the towne of Whitby," thus 
 indisputably proving that at that date the "town of Whitby" 
 was much to the south of the church stairs. 
 
 But it will be well to make good every item of that which 
 is herein alleged. And, to begin at the beginning : The 
 document referred to as supplying the answer to the first 
 question is printed in vol. ii. of the Whitby Chartulary, p. 719, 
 and several consecutive pages, and is officially described as 
 "the account of all and singular the bailiffs, prmpositi (or 
 reeves), collectors of farm rents, and other accounting officers 
 of the proceeds of all and singular the demesnes, manors, 
 lands, and tenements, and other possessions and sources of 
 income alike temporal and spiritual whatsoever, appertaining 
 to the late monastery aforesaid, all and singular of which 
 demesnes, manors, lands, and tenements, etc., have come into 
 and remain in the possession of the said king by reason of 
 the free resignation and dissolution of the said late monas- 
 tery," etc. etc. 
 
 In connection with the answer to the second question, 
 moreover, it should be remembered that the formal or more 
 elaborate " highway " of the times was the flagged causeway, 
 " pannierman's causey" or "horse road," many of which still 
 remain in the neighbourhood of Whitby, and mostly alongside 
 of the modern macadamised road or highway. And the less 
 formal or elaborate road was simply a track-way made by 
 
Identification of the old High Street or Gate 183 
 
 what is termed " the traflSc " along any given route, whether 
 conducted on foot or on horseback, or by the narrow carts and 
 wains of the day. 
 
 As to the locality of Highgate or High Street the evidence 
 is as follows : In October 1638 the inhabitants of Whitby 
 were presented at the Thirsk Quarter Sessions for "not 
 repairing the king's highway leading from the foot of the 
 church staires unto the said town of Whitby,'' and the towns- 
 men were ordered to be fined in the sum of £40 if the necessary 
 repairs were not effected within the next three months. The 
 fact that at a subsequent Sessions they appealed for more time, 
 on the ground that the road could not be sufficiently repaired 
 within the given time, gives a lively idea of what the con- 
 dition of the said " highwaie " or " highgate " must have been, 
 while the wording of the order enforces the inevitable conclu- 
 sion that the " town of Whitby " did by no means begin at the 
 foot of the stairs. The second entry, moreover, is equally 
 conclusive as to the considerable distance intervening between 
 " the foot of the church stayres " and the then town. The 
 inhabitants allege "that it cannot be sufficiently repaired in so 
 short a time," an allegation which surely could not have been 
 put forward if the " said highwaie in a place leadeing from the 
 foot of the stayres into the town " had occupied but the space 
 of a score or two of yards. 
 
 On the whole, allowing for the ascertained rarity of houses 
 in this division of what is now a part of the town of Whitby, 
 in or about the year 1540, and accepting the inferential as 
 well as direct testimtoy of these two orders made a century 
 later, the only possible conclusion we can arrive at is that up 
 to 1640 the town of Whitby extended very little beyond the 
 line threading Bridge Street, in the direction of the church 
 stairs ; and that the part of what is now Church Street, but 
 which was then or soon after known as Highgate, being the 
 king's highway from the stair foot to the town of Whitby, is 
 in this way fully identified. 
 
1 84 Site and Distrihttion of Old Whitby 
 
 Assuming, then, this identification of what used to be called 
 indifferently High Street, Highgate, or Kirkgate, with that 
 part of the modern Church Street which lies between the end 
 of Bridge Street and the lower end of the church stairs to be 
 satisfactory and complete, we may find it expedient, on con- 
 tinuing our inquiry, to recall the precise position of the 
 imaginary line supposed to be drawn across the bridge from 
 the Old Market-place or St. Anne's Staith into Church Street. 
 For that will serve as an occasion for venturing the inquiry, 
 "Is it quite certain or assured that the bridge in its earlier 
 epoch stood precisely where it stands now?" Or, to put a 
 part of what is essentially the same question in another form, 
 " Does any one suppose that the only access to the bridge from 
 the lower or broad end of Flowergate was by the narrow 
 twisting, almost unavailing Golden Lion Bank of the present 
 day ? " I cannot help thinking there is a sort of anomaly in- 
 volved in this inquiry, which if recognised and examined into 
 will provoke a measure of useful consideration. 
 
 Let any one look at such plans of Whitby as those which are 
 given by Young (facing p. 504), and by Charlton at the beginning 
 of his book, the former dating in 1740 and the latter just thirty- 
 eight years later, and note the quaint intervention of the block 
 of buildings between Golden Lion Bank and St. Anne's Lane ; 
 and again, and with equal attention, the abrupt interruption 
 of the general direction of Baxtergate by the like block 
 between Horse-mill Ghaut and the west end of Bridge Street, 
 and then say what must be the answer to the second of the 
 above questions, and may be the answer to the first as well. 
 As regards the latter, this much at least is certain : that on 
 12th July 1609 the Surveyor of Whitby Bridge was, by order 
 of the Court of Quarter Sessions holden at Thirsk, to receive 
 3s. 4d. " for triall of the fitt ground for the placeing of the 
 new bridge there," an estimate touching the cost of the con- 
 struction of the said new bridge having been given in in 
 January of the same year (Norili Biding Records, vols. iii. 46, 
 

Convergence of Baxtergate and Flowergate 185 
 
 and ii. 319). Now this answers our question decisively. 
 Between January and July in the year named " triall for fitt 
 ground for the new bridge " had been made ; and, moreover, a 
 considerable sum, as compared with the bridge-building grants 
 of money then customarily made, or nearly £70, had been 
 spent upon the bridge in question. In the face of such 
 expressions it goes without saying that the new bridge was on 
 a different site, whether more or less removed from that of 
 the previous, though most likely still surviving or respited 
 one, which had been condemned as defective. 
 
 Again, look at the plans just now adverted to, and consider 
 the suggestion which is supplied by the general direction of 
 Baxtergate, and by the vacant space at the lower end of 
 Flowergate, now built upon, but then open and free. Surely 
 this is only another way of indicating that the presumption 
 evidently, not to say inevitably, must be that Baxtergate 
 equally with Flowergate (as regards the converging nature of 
 the directions which were theirs) must have met in a wide, 
 open area at the end of the bridge, and that in order to accom- 
 modate itself to the direction of Baxtergate, the bridge-end 
 must then have been sensibly, even if not very far, to the 
 south of the position of the present end of the bridge. 
 
 While a few moments' consideration is amply sufficient ta 
 manifest the reasonableness of such an assumption, there seem 
 to be some grounds of a totally different character for arriving 
 at the same conclusion. Dr. Young, p. 372, expresses his firm 
 conviction that the original St. Ninian's Chapel stood at the 
 north-east end of Baxtergate, close^to what is called "Horse- 
 mill Ghaut." While there is no reasonable objection to this 
 hypothesis, there are good and valid reasons, over and above 
 those stated by Young, and of an earlier date, for its accept- 
 ance ; and one of not the least curious and significant among 
 them is the ascertained customary proximity in mediaeval 
 times of bridge and chapel. M. Jusserand, in his English 
 Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century, dwells, and not with 
 
1 86 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 undue insistency, on what he calls "the pious character" 
 of bridge-building and bridge-reparation, and he quotes the 
 accompanying chapel which, in not a few cases, stood actually 
 on the bridge itself, or otherwise was " an oratory by the side 
 of the water," as effectually attesting the said pious character. 
 Certainly the position of this old St. Ninian's, on a site that 
 could scarcely in those days have been other than on the sand 
 — there being scores of acres of sound and solid ground obtain- 
 able in the near vicinity — is one to occasion some little surprise 
 unless explained, and therefore to suggest the expediency of 
 endeavouring to meet with something of the nature of such 
 explanation. And this seems to be afforded, if we assume 
 that it was placed side by side with the Baxtergate end of the 
 oldest Whitby bridge. 
 
 As corroborative of this view, it may be mentioned that 
 there was a bridge at Holmswath and a chapel by it previously 
 to the year 1400, and that the modern name of the survival 
 of that bridge is Egton Bridge. Besides which, there was 
 another bridge in the same district, only nearer to Beck Hole, 
 as I am inclined to think, also with a chapel by it, dedicated, 
 as possibly it may be some day shown, to St. Leonard. And 
 quite possibly another corroboration may be found in a fact 
 which seems rather to have perplexed Dr. Young ; I mean that 
 " the oblations thrown into St. Ninian's box were more than 
 what were cast into St. Mary's." His proposed explanation is 
 that they were "oblations from the profits of trade." Suppose, 
 however, that we amend the suggestion by assuming that they 
 were, as Jusserand expresses it, "pious offerings made at the 
 chapel of the bridge and to its warden." For I suppose that 
 few, possessing only a moderate acquaintance with the history 
 of early bridge -building, would be found ready to deny to 
 the Convent a somewhat important share and interest in 
 the bridge -building and bridge -maintaining operations at 
 Whitby. 
 
 But to revert once again to the "grouping of Old Whitby," 
 
Highgate, Crossgate, and Southgate distinct 187 
 
 which, as has been seen, cannot but be placed to the south of 
 a line drawn across (or along the length of) the present bridge ; 
 at least, indisputably so, as far as the east side of the river is 
 concerned. Then this is what is supplied by our record, or 
 means of forming a quasi-plan : One cottage in (or on) Grape 
 Lane, rented at 6s. 8d. a year, and a garden rented at 8s. 
 And here attention should be paid to the difference between 
 the amounts paid as rents for cottages, etc., and the sums paid 
 as acknowledgments by or for the free tenements — 3s. to 10s. 
 in the one case, 4d. to 6d. in the other. 
 
 Next after Grape Lane we have in Crossgate a cottage 
 rented at 6s. 8d. ; a second at the same rate, with a close, 
 at Is. 4d. ; a third, with its appurtenances, at 7s. ; a fourth 
 (copyhold) at 6s. 8d. ; a fifth and sixth at is. each ; a seventh 
 at 3s. ; an eighth at 6s. ; a ninth at 7s., with a cellar at- 
 tached at 2s. more ; a tenth at 5s. ; an eleventh at 7s. ; a 
 twelfth at 5s. ; a thirteenth, and onwards to an eighteenth, 
 at 3s. each ; a nineteenth at 6s. 8d. ; three others at 4s. each ; 
 a twenty-third at 3s. ; and a twenty-fourth at 10s. ; besides 
 two horse-mills at 2s. and 3s. severally ; and a shop at 12s., 
 which, together with the cellar, is specified as being below the 
 Tollebooth. 
 
 Next in order we have Southgate, with the tenements in 
 or abutting upon it. These are six cottages, let respectively 
 at the sums of 3s., 3s. 4d., 5s., 6s. 8d., 8s., and 9s. ; and besides 
 these, two gardens let at 4s. each. 
 
 But a pause in the tracing out of our postulated plan 
 should be made here in order to note and, if possible, arrive 
 at the absolute localisation of these two gates or ways, Cross- 
 gate and Southgate. Dr. Young (p. 486) says : " No street in 
 Whitby has obtained a greater variety of names than Kirk- 
 gate, for besides that ancient name it has been called at 
 various periods Highgate, High Street, Crossgate, Southgate, 
 Churchgate, and lastly. Church Street." But this dictum of 
 the Doctor's is characterised by great looseness, not to say 
 
1 88 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 inaccuracy, of speech; for, as we have fully realised, two of 
 these names, viz. Highgate and High Street, are simply 
 synonyms and count but for one ; and that one, or Highgate, 
 with Crossgate and Southgate, do not present us with names 
 belonging to "various periods," but contemporaneous, which 
 therefore of course must have been applied with practical or 
 actual delimitation to different parts of the same actual gate, 
 road, or highway. 
 
 As for Highgate or High Street, we have developed that 
 already. It extended from somewhere very near, if not 
 actually coincident with, the end of the Bridge Street of 
 to-day to close by the stair-foot, probably to within a very 
 few feet of it. 
 
 As to the relative position of Crossgate and Southgate, 
 the inference is easy and obvious. The furthermost part of 
 the street as it extends towards the south, or in the Spital 
 Bridge direction, must of necessity be Southgate, and Cross- 
 gate must be intermediate between it and the end of Highgate. 
 The exact line, however, at which Crossgate ends and South- 
 gate begins is less easily defined. In a will dated in 1426, 
 tenements in Bagdale, Southgate, and Grape Lane are men- 
 tioned, as also one " super cornellum ejusdem versus Crosser- 
 gate" ("upon the front thereof towards Crossgate"). This 
 makes it certain that Grape Lane debouched upon Crossgate ; 
 and this again is consistent with an old plan of Whitby as 
 the town was more than a hundred years ago, which makes 
 Crossgate reach from Bridge Street to the end of the wider 
 part of the street past the end of Grape Lane, and where the 
 thoroughfare begins to widen as one advances towards St. 
 Michael's Church; or, in other words, to the entrance of 
 Alderswaste Ghaut. 
 
 But before leaving this side of the river in the prosecution 
 of our survey, it will be well to notice that near the Abbey 
 ("juxta nuper Monasterium ") there were two cottages with a 
 close, rented at 16s., two more at 3s. each, and two others 
 
Sites of He lie and Ponte-garth 189 
 
 at 6s. ; and that is the utmost extent to which the list of 
 habitations in that part attains. 
 
 Crossing now to the other side of the Esk we find a locality- 
 called Helle, which seems to have been of not altogether un- 
 important dimensions, for there was a garden there rented at 
 4d. a year ; three cottages at 4s. each ; a fourth at 3s. ; a 
 fifth at 3s. 4d. ; a sixth for which only Is. annually was paid ; 
 and three others at 5s. each. 
 
 The identification of this place, fortunately, is not diflBcult. 
 There is a narrow, rather steep lane leading to St. Anne's 
 Staith from the north-east corner of Flowergate, usually called 
 St. Anne's Lane. Northward from the end of this lane, as 
 one proceeds along the houses or shops on the Staith, is a 
 blind yard. This yard is part of the old Helle, and is so 
 described in old deeds. But Helle itself must have extended 
 for some little way on each side of the yard in question. 
 Nay, even so recently as less than forty years ago, St. Anne's 
 Lane was still called " Hell Lane." 
 
 In the next place we have, in our documentary plan, 
 mention made of Bridge End (" ad finem pontis ") and Ponte- 
 garth. Now it cannot be asserted positively that these two 
 localities were on the Baxtergate side of the river, but there 
 seems to be no reason at all for thinking that it was not so ; 
 and when we remember the large garden — for the rent paid 
 for it shows it to have been a large one — on Grape Lane, there 
 seems to be no space on that side for the garden at Bridge End 
 rented at 4d., and for the other garden called "Ponte garth": 
 besides, the four cottages in the same locality, severally let 
 for the sums of 8s., 3s. 8d., 4s., 6s. 8d., as well as a toft not 
 built upon and let for 4d. a year, involve too great a space to 
 find place there. 
 
 But we still have Baxtergate to pass under review, and 
 Bagdale beyond it as well. Then also at a higher level there 
 are Flowergate and, at least presumably, Russell Lane and 
 Russell Lands, besides Hagilsyke or Hagelsougate. And first 
 
1 90 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 for Baxtergate. On this " via regia " or highway there was 
 a tenement rented at 12s. ; a cottage at 6s. 8d. ; another at 3s. ; 
 a third, fourth, and fifth at 4s., 5s., and 3s. severally ; a sixth 
 and seventh at 5s. each ; an eighth at 8d. ; a ninth and tenth 
 at 5s. each ; then three more at 3s. each ; other three (making 
 sixteen) at 4s. each; two others at 3s. and 3s. 4d. severa;lly ; three 
 more at 5s. each ; and a twenty-second at 3s. ; besides which, 
 there were a garden called Helle, a piece of land on the north 
 side of the " king's highway " set at 3s. ; two small crofts near 
 Bagdale Lane, on the west side of the water, let for 3s. ; a 
 shop let for 5s. ; a garden for 4s. ; and another garden, a 
 small one, let for 8d. a year. 
 
 In Floregate (or Flowergate) — and here, unfortunately, the 
 document, injured either by damp or time, or both, is im- 
 perfect, so that details are wanting as to the greater part of 
 the free tenements — there was a free tenement of some kind 
 for which an acknowledgment of 2s. was paid ; two cottages 
 at 4s. each; four others at 4s., 6s. 8d., 6s. 6d. respectively; 
 and a garden at 4s. 
 
 In Hagilsyke there were two waste places for which 6d. 
 yearly was paid by James Conyers, free tenant. 
 
 And then we come to Eussell Lane and Eussell Lands, as 
 to the exact locality of which we have no precise details or 
 indication. But it cannot fail to be observed by any one who 
 has followed these data up to the present point, that, while 
 other districts in the actual " Old Whitby " are well filled up 
 according to the circumstances of the time and their require- 
 ments, we have a very considerable space indeed to the north 
 of Flowergate and the west of the high ground above Haggers- 
 gate — the whole area, indeed, enclosed within the lines of 
 Haggersgate to the east, Flowergate on the south, and Skinner 
 Street on the west, and towards the sea-clifF on the other side 
 —altogether unappropriated. The locality called Eussell 
 Lands must, I think, have found its site within this space, 
 and it is more than probable that what is now Cliff Street or 
 
Old Whitby thus partly delimitated 191 
 
 Cliff Lane may have been the old Eussell Lane. In this lane, 
 however, situated wheresoever it may have been, there were 
 in all thirteen cottages, variously rented at 3s., 5s., 4s., lis., 
 12s., 6s., 4s., 4s. 8d., 4s., 12s., 4s., and 5s., besides two gardens 
 at Is. 4d. In Eussell Lands, although from the cause already 
 mentioned without individual description, there were certain 
 lands in the occupation of James Conyers, free tenant. 
 
 And yet again, besides the " gates," roads, or ways already 
 specified, there was another called Greifergate, as to the site of 
 which even a possible surmise can hardly be ventured. But it 
 must not be left out of the enumeration, for upon it there 
 were a tenement for which a rent of 16s. was paid, and three 
 cottages valued respectively at 5s., 3s. 4d., and Is. 2d. Gregory 
 Conyers made a payment for a house " juxfca communem(viam) "; 
 the wife of one Smith held certain lands for Is. a year, and 
 James (Conyers, probably) held a certain tenement, but where 
 and what is not decipherable. 
 
 Such then is the glimpse we are enabled by the Ministers' 
 Accounts to obtain of Old Whitby at the time of the Dissolu- 
 tion of the Monastery. In one particular the sketch thus 
 presented may be incomplete, perhaps may fall considerably 
 short of being complete, and fail to exhaust all the particular 
 information available. For we know from other sources that 
 there were other buildings, herring-houses to wit, belonging to 
 the Abbey ; and beyond doubt there would be storehouses of 
 other kinds, though perhaps not so very many. But, after 
 all, these buildings might not make such a very great difference 
 in the aspect of the place as we have been trying to see it. 
 They would all have been necessarily in the immediate occupa- 
 tion of the Monastery itself ; and so would not be rated as the 
 free tenements, and the rented cottages or dwellings, with the 
 gardens, crofts, and the like, necessarily were. At any rate, 
 from the detailed mention made, however imperfect, of the 
 free tenements on the one hand, and of those which paid 
 actual rent on the other, we have a very fair means of judging 
 
192 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 what Old Whitby really was in the year 1540 and thereabouts, 
 and are abundantly enabled to apprehend how decidedly 
 Charlton's rather flippant "thirty or forty houses, with 180 to 
 200 inhabitants," falls short of the truth, and how Young's 
 more guarded but indefinite language fails to give any adequate 
 idea of it. 
 
 For, the lowest numerical reckoning we can make as we go 
 over these entries one after another shows us that there were 
 well on to a hundred inhabited dwelling-houses in Whitby at 
 the date in question, besides horse-mills, cellars, shops (very 
 few in number), gardens, and so forth. And a hundred habita- 
 tions will give us a very respectable population, even if we 
 adopt — which we are forbidden to do by the facts — so low an 
 estimate as a little under six souls to each inhabited house. 
 
 Some points of special interest may be noted in the grouping 
 of the houses as indicated in our conjectural plan. Thus, Cross- 
 gate, with nearly one-fourth of the inhabited houses of the 
 period, was the chief centre of the population ; which is just 
 what we should a priori have expected in view of the considera- 
 tions advanced at a previous page. Helle (with its adjuncts at 
 Bridge End and Ponte-garth) and Eussell Lane, each with its 
 average of over a dozen dwellings, come in next for notice as 
 affording nuclei for the quickly ensuing accrescence of houses 
 which soon caused them to enlarge their borders. To these 
 succeed Floregate and Southgate, each with their six or seven 
 habitations ; and so with the rest. 
 
 There is no doubt that a great deal more than has been so 
 far advanced might be made out by one who had the necessary 
 time and knowledge to devote to the subject, by no means 
 omitting the necessary critical equipment. As to the lines on 
 which such an inquiry must be prosecuted, I may say that 
 what has been recorded by Dr. Young is of the greatest value 
 and importance. So is much of what has been given by 
 Charlton when once one can distinguish between fact and 
 fancy, or mere baseless assertion. Old deeds, old leases, old 
 
Sources of further Information 193 
 
 memoranda, old plans or maps, and by no means the least, the 
 small plans so often found affixed to old conveyances, nay, even 
 old letters occasionally, all are fertile sources of information. 
 
 A still further and equally important source of information 
 is to be found in old wills. Thus reference was made above 
 to a wiU which gave the names Bagdale, Southgate, Crossgate, 
 and Grape Lane as extant in 1426. In the same year another 
 will mentions a "venella" or lane called Brewster Lane in 
 Kirkegate, and a "clivus" or cliff called Alinorigarth. A 
 Wayngate in Bagdale is mentioned in 1432; and in 1396 
 Grape Lane is named in what I assume is its earliest and 
 original form. And close by, apparently, is a spring called 
 Seynt-Hild-keld, possibly where the so-called " Virgin pump " 
 stands, or stood, not so very long since. In 1417 Schat-gate, 
 of course the original of Skate Lane, is specified ; and the 
 testator bequeaths his barn there to his son-in-law and the 
 daughter married to him. 
 
 I will give but one other illustration of this sort, and then 
 have done with this section. In 1483 John Stevenson, Eector 
 of the chapel of Sneaton, directed his body to be buried in the 
 burial-ground of St. Mary's at Whitby, on the east side of the 
 great cross. It would take a great deal more personal know- 
 ledge and acquaintance with documentary evidence than is 
 possessed by one man in a thousand to prove that the great 
 cross still standing just outside the churchyard at Whitby is 
 not the "Great Cross" in question. For my own part, not 
 unfamiliar as I am with encroachments made in former days, 
 not far remote from the Dissolution period, on parochial 
 burial-grounds (my own at Danby among others), I have no 
 doubt whatever that the bones of this old-time Eector of 
 Sneaton were laid to rest on the Abbey side of this much 
 misunderstood "Great Cross." 
 
 lifote. — There is a curious — curious by reason of its date, which is subse- 
 quent to the Dissolution — memorandum of the last institution of a Eector of 
 Sneaton by an Abbot of Whitby recorded in the document printed as No. 
 
 
 
1 94 Site and Distribution of Old Whitby 
 
 458 in the JVhitby Glmrtulary. The institutiou was made in the year 
 1548, and it rehearses the conditions under which, according to Abbot 
 Benedict's concession (made as nearly as possible four centuries earlier), 
 the bodies of the dead belonging to the chapelry named were to be buried. 
 They were to be buried in the cemetery of the parish church of Whitby. 
 No one of them was to be carried for burial to the cemetery of St. Peter, — 
 that is, of course, the cemetery within the Abbey precincts, the cemetery of 
 the monks. " The lord of the vill (Sneaton)," however, or the " clericus," 
 without leave asked of the parson assigned to the chapel, was to be buried 
 in the said cemetery of St. Peter, if he had so elected in his lifetime, or 
 his friends after his death had so requested. Other conditions are named 
 over which there is no need to tarry. 
 
 It so happened that two rectors of Sneaton, and as it would seem two 
 successive ones, left testamentary directions concerning their several inter- 
 ments. The former of these, who had been preferred when still a monk, 
 John Nyghtyngale by name, expresses his desu-es in 1474 ; the other, 
 John Stevenson, in 1483. The terms employed in Nyghtyngale's will are 
 as follows : "Also I desire, and my last will shall be, that my body, as 
 that of a faithful and obedient son of the Lord (Abbot) Thomas Pykeryng, 
 be buried within the monastery of SS. Peter and Hild, on the north side, 
 before the Cross, in my monk's vestments, according to my profession and 
 promise." 
 
 As the cemetery of the monks was of necessity on the north side of 
 the monastic church— the other sides being all taken up with the various 
 monastic buildings and the special approach to the church — I consequently 
 take the "in boreali parte" to denote the north part of the space on the 
 north side of the Abbey church ; and this leads to the not unimportant 
 conclusion that the cemetery cross in the monks' burial-ground was at no 
 great distance from that part of the wall which was recently demolished 
 in a way not very creditable to any one concerned. 
 
 In 1483, as it was said, or nine years later, John Stevenson, Rector of 
 Sneaton, bequeaths "his body to be buried in the cemetery of St. Mary's 
 Church of Whitby, on the east side of the Great Cross, by the body of his 
 mother." 
 
 Now this not only gives us the fact of a second cross and a second 
 cemetery between the north side of the Abbey and the parish church, but 
 does so by informing us that the cross referred to was itself a second cross. 
 If there had been no other cross in the cemetery of St. Mary's, the dis- 
 tinguishing epithet "Magna" would have been alike unnecessary and 
 meamngless. There must then have been another and a lesser cross in the 
 cemetery somewhere. And this is exactly what any one only moderately 
 aoquamted with ancient church usage would have looked for. The normal 
 position of the churchyard or cemetery cross was on the south side of the 
 church, not very far from the entrance to the holy building, as may be 
 seen m not a few churchyards in England still. With all those outlying 
 
Alienation of quondam Churchyard 195 
 
 townships and ohapelries appertaining to Whitby, the inhabitants of 
 which were (mainly, at least) under like obligations as to burial as were 
 those of Sneaton, there can be no doubt that what are now called ' ' addi- 
 tions to the burying-ground " of the mother church would soon have to be 
 made ; and thus it is easy to see how there might arise occasion for a new 
 or even an additional graveyard cross ; and, at least, the architectural 
 features of the cross on the miscalled Abbey Plain indicate a much later 
 date for it than that of the original graveyard cross could possibly have 
 been. Besides, from its imposing dimensions and general grandeur of 
 conception and construction one can easily see how the descriptive word 
 "magna," or great, would assuredly come to be applied to it. 
 
 That the boundaries and dimensions of the churchyard have sustained 
 both modification and alteration is a matter of even recent history. 
 
 If it be asked when and why that which had once been a churchyard, 
 and a cross which had once been a cemetery cross, had been severed from 
 and put outside of the hallowed precincts (a part of the contents of which 
 they had once been), it must simply be said ; " The when and the why are 
 both unknown, as is the case also with sundry and manifold other places 
 up and down the entire country." Thus an additional space was required 
 in the parish of Danby. It was obtained, added to the old graveyard (on 
 which it abutted at the east end), and consecrated in the year 1860. No 
 long time elapsed before in the process of grave-digging it was discovered 
 that this newly added piece had already at some by no means recent time 
 been used for the same purpose. Yet the bit that was added was taken 
 from a field which had been one of the fields of the Church House Farm 
 time out of mind. Another instance is still nearer Whitby. In Domes- 
 day times there was a church at Seaton in the present Hinderwell parish. 
 I wanted to discover the precise site of this church or chapel. I knew 
 that stone coffins, at least three in number, had been dug up in one of the 
 fields some half mile or so distant from Seaton Hall. I made inquiry 
 singly, and in company with friends, at different times, among these the 
 late Mr. Armfield and Canon Greenwell ; but, as regards precision, alto- 
 gether in vain. The site of the church, and even of the graveyard, had 
 been lost sight of, and the most exact information I could obtain was, 
 "It was somewhere about yon place on yon hillside." The same thing 
 that had happened at Danby and at Seaton has happened at Whitby also. 
 What was once God's Acre has ceased to be so, and no one can tell when 
 or why or how. 
 
THE SITE OF THE MARKET-PLACE IN 
 OLD DAYS 
 
 The market-place in old towns is not, generally speaking, a 
 place concerning the site of which much uncertainty prevails, 
 or room for lengthened discussion is afforded. It seems to be 
 otherwise with Whitby. According to some authorities the 
 site of the market-place of this town was up on the clift', in a 
 sort of intermediate position between the parish church and 
 the modern entrance to the Abbey precincts. Then again, the 
 existing name " Old Market-place " certainly indicates that the 
 market-place nowadays is in a different place from that in 
 which it was in the old days referred to in the name itself. 
 
 As regards the first-named of these sites I remember that 
 some four or five years ago I was reported, and quite correctly, 
 to have said in public — on occasion of some Petty Sessions 
 proceedings, in point of fact — that I thought Mr. Charlton's 
 notion that " the mart for fish, as well as for all other sorts 
 of commodities, was constantly held at the old cross above the 
 hill," an eminently absurd, and, indeed, preposterous notion. 
 Regarded from a business point of view, no thinking man can 
 consider it as anything else. Certainly Mr. Charlton remarks 
 with charming simplicity that " holding the market at such a 
 distance from the river and from the residence of the principal 
 inhabitants of Whitby" was, no very long time after the 
 Dissolution, "found to be inconvenient"; and one is naturally 
 inclined to inquire whether the same elements of inconvenience 
 were not in existence previously to the Dissolution. Besides, 
 
Convent and Inmates secluded from the World 197 
 
 ■why should the "resort to the cross above the hill become 
 less frequent " after the "fraternity of monks was dissolved"? 
 In what way did or could the absence or the presence of the 
 score or two of monks and lay-brethren who constituted the 
 "fraternity" at the Dissolution, and for some length of time 
 previously, affect the market more or less, whether it were 
 held at "the cross above the hill " or elsewhere? 
 
 The truth is that in Mr. Charlton's mind, and, it is to be 
 feared, in the minds of not a few of his readers, as well as of 
 the readers (and writers too) of " local history," there was and 
 is but a dim, indistinct, confused idea of what a convent really 
 was, and of how little its inmates had to do with the secular 
 world, or the secular world with them. Certainly it is apparent 
 enough that neither of the elder historians of Whitby realised 
 the fact that the monastery of the old days was jealously 
 guarded, and access to its inmates, and their liberty to go out 
 or enter in at their own discretion, strictly limited. Indeed, 
 it almost looks like the intrusion of a novel idea to suggest 
 that, as a matter of fact, so long as the monastery remained, 
 it, with all its buildings, courts, cloisters, ofiBces, was girt in 
 with a strong high wall ; and that admission was through a 
 great architectural " gateway," the wide portals of which were 
 opened only on special occasion, and all ingress or egress by 
 the massive side door or gate supervised and controlled by 
 the Convent porter, who knew his place depended on his 
 fidelity in the discharge of his duty. One may still see amid 
 what is left of some of the larger religious houses of North 
 Yorkshire — as at Guisborough or Byland — what, and how 
 guarded, the great gateway of an ancient convent really was. 
 
 But there is still another consideration which presents 
 itself for recognition and consideration at this point. The 
 monks individually had no private bargains to make. They 
 were supposed to have no money to buy with and no goods 
 to sell. The rules of different orders might vary in divers 
 particulars, but in all essentials the principle was the same, 
 
198 The Site of the Market-Place in Old Days 
 
 and the vow of poverty was, I think, taken in all cases. And 
 as to the community, or the convent as a body, its business 
 was transacted by the bailiff, bursar, cellarer, and so forth. 
 Moreover, it would be well to bear in mind that the Convent 
 had much more to sell than to buy ; and, from the nature of 
 the case, the selling would hardly be done very far from the 
 place of production, and certainly not anywhere near the 
 "cross on the hill." They grew their own corn of all sorts, 
 used what they wanted of it, and sold the surplus, by no 
 means a small quantity. And the same with their beef and 
 mutton and pork, and butter and cheese. Then again, as to 
 fish : their dues and tithes in kind amounted to so great a 
 quantity that, besides large payments in kind in difi'erent 
 quarters, their receipts for fish sold annually came to a very 
 considerable sum. Thus, in the half year's account from 
 nth November 1394 to 30th May of the following year, 
 they received under this head no less than £42 : 8 : 3, a sum 
 which might very well represent £600 or £700 of our money 
 at its present value — an ox or a cow being valued at about 
 10s. in the same reckoning. And as sellers, I repeat, that 
 they would of course sell where it was most convenient to 
 sell, and not where both they and their customers would be 
 put to the greatest possible amount of " inconvenience." 
 
 But all this, it may be said, is negative, and does not over- 
 ride the facts to the contrary, if such facts there be. In 
 answer it may be advanced that the facts, as well as the 
 presumptions, are all the other way. In the first place, in 
 the time of Abbot Thomas de Malton, or between 1304 and 
 1322, the market, for corn especially, but for other vendibles 
 also, was held in " villa de Whitby," a phrase which can by 
 no ingenuity be twisted so as to mean " out of the town of 
 Whitby." Now this does not rest on my, or any man's mere 
 assertion; it is apparent from the "articles of agreement " 
 between the Abbot just named and Sir Alexander de Percy 
 of Sneaton and Ormesby, about which, and whom, Charlton 
 
Positive Testimony as to Site of Market- Place 199 
 
 makes (as is noticed elsewhere) the most startling series of 
 misstatements as well as blunders. Sir Alexander claimed, 
 as of hereditary right, the liberty of buying and selling in 
 the vill of Whitby without payment of theoloneurn (toll), which 
 was leviable, as we ought to observe, at the tollbooth (not the 
 "old cross"), — from which circumstance, indeed, the name 
 of the said ofl&ce is derived. His claim was conceded only 
 under the following conditions or understanding : if he wanted 
 to sell corn grown on his "manerium" of Sneaton, he was 
 at liberty to do so without payment of toll or custom ; 
 and the like if he found occasion to buy corn "in the port of 
 Whitby for his own consumption at Sneaton." But if he 
 wanted to sell corn bought elsewhere than in Whitby, or to 
 sell corn bought there to go to some outside place, he was 
 by no means to be free from the payment of toll or custom. 
 Moreover, the Abbot conceded to him that he might procure 
 a measure or bushel to be made, have it gauged and approved 
 by the bailiflf of the Convent as a true or standard measure, 
 and then have it stamped or sealed accordingly with the 
 Abbot's own stamp, in token that it had been tested and 
 approved. Such measure was then to be kept safe where the 
 Abbot's tourn was held — at least, that is how I imderstand 
 the terms " custodiendum turnis." Dr. Young translates the 
 phrase by the words " committed to the custody of the 
 market-clerk," which certainly cannot be right. The Abbot's 
 tourn appears to have been held twice a year, receipts on 
 account of it being acknowledged in the accounts rendered 
 for each half year. Where it was held is another matter, but 
 from the nature of the court so denominated it is almost certain 
 that the officials connected with it would have a safe place of 
 deposit, and it hardly needs to be remarked that such a place 
 would obviously be the proper place for such articles as the 
 measure referred to. 
 
 Arriving thus at the general conclusion that the ancient 
 market was really held in " villa de Whitby," or within the 
 
200 The Site of the Market- Place in Old Days 
 
 limits of the old town of Whitby, and certainly not out of the 
 town, or at a distance from it, it is quite possible to go a 
 step farther and make it clear that there is no uncertainty 
 as to the precise site of the ancient market held in the vill 
 of Whitby. 
 
 With this view we can hardly do better than notice what 
 Dr. Young has written at p. 572 of his History. His words 
 are : " In what particular part of the town the fairs and 
 markets were anciently held it is not easy to decide. Perhaps 
 they were, at various times, held on both sides of the river. 
 . . . But the spot where the markets were usually held rather 
 appears to have been on the west side of the Esk, in the place 
 that is still called the Old Market-place. This was the centre 
 in which the principal streets, Flowergate, Haggleseygate, and 
 Baxtergate met ; and its proximity to the Bridge and to St. 
 Ann's Staith, where goods were anciently delivered, must also 
 have pointed it out as the most eligible place." 
 
 As to this same Old Market-place, Mr. Charlton writes: 
 " With the consent of Mr. Cholmley, a place was pitched upon 
 for the purpose of holding the market, on the west side of the 
 river Eske, which is known by the name of the Old Market- 
 place.'' 
 
 This author's idea then evidently is that the Old Market- 
 place dates back to the time when the Mr. Cholmley referred 
 to was in a position to give his consent ; and both the date 
 quoted and the inferences advanced place that time not very 
 long after the dissolution of the Monastery, or about or soon 
 after the middle of the sixteenth century. But it is necessary 
 to observe that, as in so many other cases of positive allegation 
 by Mr. Charlton, the story of " Mr. Cholmley's consent " rests 
 solely on that writer's ipse dixit. There is not an atom of 
 known authority for it. And it should also be noted that, 
 having himself (so to speak) removed the market from the 
 vicinity of the "old cross upon the hill," he was bound to find 
 a contemporaneous, as well as a new, site for it, and found it 
 
The Testimony of the term '' Market-stede" 201 
 
 accordingly in what has subsequently been called " the Old 
 Market-place." 
 
 To revert, however, to what Dr. Young says. There can 
 be no doubt as to the validity of the considerations he adduces 
 in support of his conjecture as to the most likely place for the 
 market to have been held in; and all that is wanting is 
 sufficient evidence to convert his very probable conjecture into 
 absolute certainty. And this evidence both he and Charlton 
 in reality held in their hands, if only they had known how to 
 eliminate it. What I mean is, that Yoimg quotes Charlton as 
 recording (at p. 308) the sale of a house near the Old Market- 
 place in the year 1609. The paragraph is worth quoting, and 
 runs as follows : " Leonard Newton of Staynsikarr, merchant, 
 sold the market-stede house to Leonard Bushell of Whitby, 
 merchant, with right of ingaite and outgaite to the lofts above 
 the shops, situate in the town of Whitby, and on the west side 
 of the said town, having the Market-place towards the north, 
 the east end of Baxtergate towards the south, the Stayth 
 towards the east, and the lands of Nicholas Bushell, gentleman, 
 and Anthony Marsingill towards the west." Mr. Charlton's 
 commentary upon this is : " By which it is apparent that this 
 house had then no other building near it, though it now stands 
 in the most crowded and populous part of the town." The 
 commentary is well worth noting, particularly in reference to 
 the question whether there was actually room for a market 
 there, — a question which really has been mooted. 
 
 The matter to be especially noted, however, is the name 
 by which the house in question is distinguished, or " Market- 
 stede House." Charlton, as we have seen, claims a date of 
 about 1550 or so for the site called "the Old Market-place"; 
 but earlier generations had heard the same place, or one in the 
 closest vicinity, called the " market-stede " ; and the word 
 " stede " so used is strictly an archaic term. It is as old as 
 the time when what we describe as Anglo-Saxon was spoken, 
 and it cannot be younger, in such application, than the time 
 
202 The Site of the Mar ket-P lace in Old Days 
 
 at which our usual English word "place " superseded its older 
 equivalent "stede." Thus the name — for it really is a "place- 
 name " — market-stede may easily be as old as the first holding 
 of a regular market in Whitby ; and, at the latest, is what is 
 usually called " Middle English," or say English of the thirteenth 
 and fourteenth century. 
 
 Put this into other words, and it comes to this, that, as 
 early as Sir Alexander de Percy's time, or about 1320, — and 
 how much earlier no one can say, — the stede, or place, or site, 
 of the market in the town of Whitby was as well ascertained 
 and universally known as the stede, place, or site of the cemetery 
 (or churchyard) of St. Mary's, the Stair-foot, or the exact lines 
 of the several roads (such as they were then) called Flowergate, 
 Baxtergate, Haggleseygate, Highgate, Crossgate, and Southgate. 
 
 And then again, as to the amount of space available for 
 market-place purposes there and thereabouts, I do not think 
 that any one who takes the trouble to read the sections of this 
 book which deal with what I have called the "grouping of 
 Old Whitby " is likely to feel the least doubtful. Nay, Mr. 
 Charlton himself has given us his views on that matter, and 
 at a much later date than that which I have claimed. 
 
 No doubt the majority of my readers are aware of the 
 continual occurrence of the element stede or stead in place- 
 names belonging to the period of the Anglo-Saxon occupation. 
 In some of the southern counties such names occur by hundreds 
 rather than by scores only. In the days of my boyhood I 
 lived within familiar cognisance of nearly a dozen of them. 
 Here, in North Yorkshire, we have by and thorpe and dale, 
 with a good many tons, as the more characteristic endings of 
 our place-names. But that fact is very far from precluding 
 the occurrence of stede or stead in other cases of archaic usage 
 over and above the present instance of "market-stede." Thus 
 in old writings of two hundred and fifty years ago I have 
 within the last few years met with several instances of boi:U 
 firestead and fotheringstead, both of them, as to the actaui 
 
" Fotheringstead" and " Market-stede ''obsolete 203 
 
 sense belonging to them, obsolete for generations past ; while 
 gatestead, doorstead, frontstead, middenstead, and others like, 
 are still to be commonly heard. 
 
 I have mentioned "fotheringstead"^ as obsolete. Indeed, 
 it is as much so as " marketstede " itself. And yet two 
 hundred and fifty years ago there were not less than fifteen 
 to eighteen fotheringsteads extant in Danby and Glaisdale, 
 with not a few others (the number of which I have no means 
 of estimating) in the adjoining parish of Egton. So completely 
 obsolete were they in Dr. Young's time, both name and thing, 
 that he has described one group of them in a part of the 
 parish of Danby as British camps. The good Doctor was not 
 alone in going a little wild over things and places to which it 
 was possible to affix either of the words " British," " Druidical," 
 or "camp." But it was a little stranger than usual to find 
 these three enclosures, of the most absurdly indefensible 
 character, and placed on a still less defensible site, described 
 as camps of any sort, and more still as British camps. They 
 were used by the farmers of the old days as places in which 
 to fodder their outlying stock, and were sometimes far away 
 out on the moor. 
 
 ' Places wliere cattle at pasture on the common were wont to lie 
 foddered and folded. 
 
THE TOLLBOOTH OF OLD WHITBY AND ITS 
 TEUE CHAEACTEE, 
 
 Occupied as we were in the last section with considerations 
 relevant to the site of the old-time Market-place of Whitby, it 
 would be leaving the inquiry imperfect or unfinished if no 
 attention whatever should be directed to the subject of the 
 Old Whitby Tollbooth. 
 
 In his Histm-y of WTiithy, p. 588, Dr. Young remarks that 
 "it does not sufficiently appear where the Whitby courts were 
 held prior to the erection of the tollbooth" — that is, of the 
 building of his time, and still known under that designation. 
 "But," he continues, "I am strongly disposed to think that 
 for several ages the place of meeting was in Flowergate, in 
 a house called the Correction-house. This building was on the 
 north side of that street, and on the west side of Cliff Lane, 
 and had a yard behind it called the Correction-house garth, reach- 
 ing to the water-course or gutter adjoining to the bakehouse 
 in CliflF Lane. These premises were divided and let in 1654, 
 having ceased to be used as a correction-house a few years 
 before ; now as the tollbooth or town-hall was built at that 
 very period in the market-place, there is reason to believe 
 that both houses served the same purposes, and that the old 
 was superseded by the new ; especially as the lower part of 
 the latter was made the hoppet or prison. The tollbooth, as 
 its name imports, was intended among other uses as a place 
 to accommodate the officers who collected toll or custom for 
 the lord of the manor at markets and fairs ; and for holding a 
 
The Site of the Tollbooth in 1540 205 
 
 court of piepowder, for deciding any differences arising at the 
 fairs, so tliat when the market was removed to the east side 
 of the Esk, the tollbooth or court-house behoved to follow it ; 
 but when the markets and fairs were held at the foot of 
 Flowergate, the correction-house was conveniently situated for 
 the purposes now mentioned, and had possibly been used as 
 the tollbooth both before and after the Dissolution." 
 
 I must admit that I find myself unable to acquiesce with a 
 good deal of what is herein and thus advanced. Either there 
 is great misconception, or there is an equally great historical 
 inaccuracy, in the statements touching the correction-house. 
 Neither am I able to agree as regards the meaning or import 
 of the name "tollbooth''; and still less so as to the assumed 
 "following" of the tollbooth to the east side of the Esk when 
 the market was " removed " thither. 
 
 To deal with the last-named point first. 
 
 I am not the least assured that in 1640 — which is the date 
 really involved — the tollbooth was actually and veritably on the 
 west side of the Esk. Quite certainly it was not so a century 
 earlier. For in 1540 it was unquestionably in Crossgate, and 
 Crossgate was limited as lying between the end of the street 
 now called Bridge Street and " the end of the wider part of 
 the continuation of the said street just past the end of Grape 
 Lane, or where the thoroughfare begins to widen as you pro- 
 ceed towards St. Michael's Church, or, in other words, to the 
 entrance to Alderswaste G-haut." This fact is definitively 
 settled by the following entry in Ministers' Accounts (JVhithy 
 Chmtvlary, ii. 722) : "To 7s. for rent of a cottage in Crossgate 
 and a cellar below the toUeboothe in the same place, viz. 5s. 
 for the cottage, and 2s. for the cellar, let to John Pacok." 
 And the next entry but one stands : "To 12s. rent of a shop 
 below the toUeboothe in the same place, let to George Bushell." 
 There cannot then very well be any question as to the site of 
 the tollbooth in the year 1540 or thereabouts. Of course, 
 however, the question remains as to any removal of the toll- 
 
2o6 The Tollbooth of Old Whitby 
 
 booth from Crossgate to Flowergate, near the end of Cliff 
 Lane, between the two dates 1540 and 1640 — that is to say, if 
 any such question should be raised ; a circumstance which has 
 not befallen, as far as I know. 
 
 Next, as to what I look upon as "misconception or his- 
 torical inaccuracy " in the statements touching the correction- 
 house. Dr. Young writes that he is "strongly disposed to 
 think that for several ages the place of meeting '' for court- 
 holding purposes was "in the Flowergate correction-house, 
 which, however, ceased to be used as such a few years before 
 1654." Now, here I would remark that "an age" is often, 
 though loosely, taken to stand for a period of about thirty 
 years. "Several ages," therefore, must needs stand for a very 
 considerable term of years; a century and more, at least. 
 And this of course would carry us back to the days and years 
 forerunning the Dissolution. But the truth unfortunately is 
 that no correction -house, either at the place indicated or 
 anywhere else in Whitby, existed antecedently to the year 
 1636. 
 
 This fact is, I think, sufficiently evident from what follows, 
 extracted from the fourth volume of the Nwih Riding Records, 
 p. 55 : " Whereas it is considered necessary for the parishes 
 of Whitby, Lyeth, Sneaton, and Hinderwell to have a House 
 of Correction near them, by reason that the trade of fishing 
 doth in those parishes encrease a multytude of poore who in 
 wynter time, when the saide trade faileth, are either driven to 
 begg or wander, or else cast upon the chardges of the severall 
 parishes, which without some mean of correcting them and 
 settinge them to works, are no way able to releive so great a 
 multytude of poore and idle persons drawne thither from 
 diverse places, who being of stronge and able bodyes doe not 
 only refuse to labour, but comitt diverse outrages and mis- 
 demeanours ; and for that the House of Correction for the 
 North Riding already erected is soe farr distant that those 
 partes can have small benifitt thereby : it is therefore now 
 
Real date of the Whitby Correction- House 207 
 
 Ordered that a new House of Correction shalbe erected at the 
 charge of the said parishes, any two or more of the Justices 
 residing therein to be authorised to raise a sum of money not 
 exceeding £200, for the cost of the same, with provision for 
 the master of not more than £20 a year; and to take all 
 further order for the same at their own discretion, with 
 reference on all just occasions to the Generall Quarter 
 Sessions." 
 
 The date of this Order is 12th July 1636; and the two 
 justices who undertook the matter were Sir John Hotham 
 and Sir Hugh Cholmley, who, at the Helmsley Sessions, held 
 19th January following, gave an account of "the great paines 
 they had taken about the settings and ordeininge of the said 
 House." And again, at the Sessions held at Thirsk 18th April 
 next ensuing, a further report of their proceedings in the 
 matter is presented and fully approved by a very full and 
 representative body of justices, " the proceedinges in the matter 
 being conceived by the Court to be reasonable and verie usefull 
 and necessarie for that part of the country." 
 
 There is still, however, another Order made at the Sessions 
 which were held at Thirsk on 3rd October of the same year, 
 which enables us to ascertain that the two baronets named had 
 availed themselves of a building already erected, and had fitted 
 it in the requisite manner within three months of the date of 
 the first Order. For while it informs us that £25 had been 
 raised within the four parishes named for the " repairs of the 
 said House of Correction at Whitby, and utensils for the same," 
 it also, by authorising the payment of a year's salary to the 
 master of the said House, due at Michaelmas just past, makes 
 known to us that it had been eflBcient as such a house ever 
 since 29th September 1636. 
 
 There can therefore be no doubt that Dr. Young is mis- 
 taken in his persuasion that for several ages before 1650 the 
 correction-house in Flowergate had been available for holding 
 the Whitby Courts, and I think it must be equally apparent 
 
2o8 The Tollbooth of Old Whitby 
 
 that the house which had been acquired in order to be, and 
 actually adopted as the first House of Correction at Whitby, 
 and for the neighbourhood as well as Whitby itself, in the 
 month of September 1636, had scarcely ceased to be used as 
 such so soon as 1640, or scarcely four years later. And thus 
 I find myself totally unable to acquiesce with the Whitby 
 historian when he states his conclusions not only that " when 
 the markets and fairs were held at the foot of Flowergate, the 
 correction -house was conveniently situated for the purposes 
 mentioned," but that "it had probably been used as the toll- 
 booth both before and after the Dissolution." 
 
 But there is another matter as to which also I have said 
 above that I am unable to agree with Dr. Young, — I mean as 
 regards the meaning and import of the term "tollbooth." 
 His words touching thereupon are as follows : " The tollbooth, 
 as its name imports, was intended, among other uses, as a 
 place to accommodate the ofiicers who collected toll or custom 
 for the lord or lady of the manor at markets and fairs, and for 
 holding a court of piepowder for deciding any difTerences arising 
 at the fairs." 
 
 Remarking simply as we pass that there was no question 
 of " lady of the manor " at Whitby, the Abbot having been 
 lord of the manor up to the Dissolution, and male Cholmleys 
 subsequently, I have to observe that the tollbooth, as far as 
 "its name imports," had but one use, and that use in no way, 
 not even the slightest, connected with the objects of accommo- 
 dating officers or holding courts, whether of piepoudre or any 
 other. Its one use was that consequent on its being the place 
 appointed for the receipt of the customs or dues which came 
 under the general name of " toll " ; all, in short, that is implied 
 by the term tol or thol in the clause of the Kings' Confirmations 
 which stands " cum soca et saca, et tol et tern, et infangentheof," 
 the Latin word used as its equivalent being fheolonevm or 
 teloneum. But apart from this, which of course is sufficiently 
 obvious, the name imports a good deal more than only just 
 
The literal meaning of " Booth " 209 
 
 that. A few pages above it was shown that the name " market- 
 stede " imported a good deal ; and it is precisely the same with 
 the term or name " tolboothe." 
 
 What "toUbooth" came to mean some century or two 
 before Young wrote, and what it meant when the place so 
 called was first instituted at Whitby, are two very difiFerent 
 things. But it behoves us to look at the latter, not at the 
 former, if we wish to take the historian's phrase, " as its name 
 imports," as alone, and indeed necessarily it must be taken. 
 In other words, not only the word or term tol, but the word 
 or term booth or bothe, must be dealt with as the word or term 
 sfede was a little above. 
 
 For what is — not only used to be, but still is — a " booth " 1 
 I have half a dozen or half a score dictionaries lying or standing 
 within reach of my hand — English, Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse or 
 Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, etc. — and while all unite in harmony 
 as to the meaning of the word, the one that lies handiest, 
 namely, Skea.t's etymological Dictionary, explains "Booth" as 
 "any slight building." Indeed, what do we all understand 
 by what we term the "booths'' at a fair, the "drinking- 
 booth " or the " dancing-booth " at a cattle-show, or any other 
 place of popular concourse 1 Going one step still in advance 
 in the inquiry, we find a further sense affixed to the word, 
 namely, that of shop or stall, as in a public market, entirely 
 independent of the shops in the street. But the Icelandic 
 Dictionary gives as illustrative an explanation as, for our 
 purpose, could even be wished. The sense or explanation 
 given is " booth, shop ; as FarmarnabuSir, merchants' booths. 
 Specially used of the temporary abodes in the Icelandic Parlia- 
 ment, where, as the meetings only lasted two weeks in a year, the 
 booths remained empty the rest of the year." And then, after 
 citing a large number of booths answering this description, the 
 compiler goes on to specify jugglers' booths, ale-booths, souters' 
 booths, sword-cutlers' booths, beggars' booths, and so forth. 
 But perhaps I can help the half -developed idea of "booth" 
 
 p 
 
2 1 o The Tollbooth of Old Whitby 
 
 already in our minds better by citing a sentence or two from 
 one of Scott's novels {Peveril of the Peak) than in any other 
 way. He is speaking of a riotous assault and scufHe supposed 
 to have happened in Fleet Street, not far from Charing Cross, 
 in Charles the Second's time, " near the booth of a cutler, from 
 amongst whose wares, as they stood exposed to the public," 
 two of the party on whom the onset was made "snatched 
 swords to defend themselves with." The third of the party 
 was a dwarf little more than a yard in stature. This manikin 
 had been knocked down, and was in danger of being trampled 
 to death, when the tallest and strongest of his companions 
 caught him up and "put him out of danger by suddenly 
 placing him on the bulkhead, that is to say, the flat wooden 
 roof of the cutler's projecting booth." And it is not quite 
 idle to remark that when " shops " proper were scarcely to be 
 numbered by the half dozen, booths of this description were 
 no doubt plenty enough. 
 
 The two ideas which so far go to make up our conception 
 of the mediaeval booth are — save only that he fails to recognise 
 the important share the Icelandic, Anglo-Saxon, and Germanic 
 usage had in the matter — very well brought together by 
 Bardsley, when he writes : " The Celtic booth, a frail tenement 
 of boughs, whose temporary character is preserved in the Bible 
 history of the Israelitish wanderings, has given birth to our 
 'Booths' and 'Boothmans' [he is speaking of the personal 
 names only], once written de la Bothe and Botheman. They 
 may possibly have kept the stall at the fair or market." 
 
 Perhaps as lively a presentment as can be obtained of what 
 the ancient tolhothe really was is that which is derivable from 
 Wycliffe's translation of the Scriptures (dating in 1389), 
 wherein the calling of Matthew the publican is thus told : 
 "And when Jesus passide thennis, he seigh a man sittynge in 
 a tolbothe, Matheu by name," the Anglo-Saxon Gospel, side 
 by side with the other, giving it, "He geseah aenne man 
 sittende aet toll-sceamule," or "sitting at the toll-bench," not 
 
Testimony of Court Rolls and Accotints 2 1 1 
 
 even a slight or temporary booth being so much as hinted at 
 there. But if such is really the conception connected with 
 the mediaeval, and much more the primitive, tolhothe, it needs 
 but little to convince us that it could not have been naturally 
 the place for holding courts or deciding differences. 
 
 What the toUbooth and its uses came to be in after days 
 is another thing ; but originally it was otherwise. Mr. Gomme 
 would tell us that the courts were held in the open air, as 
 very likely in their earliest institution they were. But nob so 
 in the times we are concerned with. There were the proper 
 or recognised places for holding the courts at Hackness, 
 South Fyling, Whitby Lathes, Eskdale, Stakesby, which, as 
 is seen from the EoUs of Accounts printed in the JVhithy 
 Cliartulary, were actually and regularly held in the places 
 named; and it would have been strange indeed had there 
 been no such place at Whitby itself, with its (practically) three 
 courts. Curiously enough Dr. Young, with all these considera- 
 tions suggesting themselves to him, and indeed with much 
 more besides, and some of it still more suggestive, had no eyes 
 to discern things as they were. Thus, meeting with the entry 
 "de Curia ibidem," that is to say in Hackness, in the 
 "compotus" of 1396, he translates curia, the ordinary Latin 
 word for "court," by "hall," a meaning which does not belong 
 to it; the very blunder he makes actually suggesting the 
 place where the Court was held. Touching the Priory of 
 Durham, the editor of a Surtees Society volume published 
 two or three years ago, having for its subject-matter the Court 
 Eolls of the said Priory, says, "The Halmote Court would, 
 no doubt, where the Prior had a manor-house (in any given 
 place among the Priory estates), be held in the hall," whence 
 indeed the name "halmote."^ For "Prior" in the above 
 
 ^ Touching this word "halmote" we find Professor Maitland {Select 
 Pleas m Manorial Courts, p. Ixx vi. ) writing : " In the Leges Henrioi as printed 
 we find a varying spelling, halinwto, hallemotis. Have two different words 
 been fused ? On the whole, it would be convenient if philology would 
 suffer us to believe that we have to do with a 'hallmoot.' In Domesday 
 
2 1 2 The Tollbooth of Old Whitby 
 
 sentence we have but, in the case of Whitby, to substitute 
 the title "Abbot," and for "halmote" read the "curia" of 
 these ancient Account Rolls, and the sentence applies to Whitby 
 with exactly the same amount of historical accuracy and truth 
 as it does in the case of Durham, and indeed of any or every 
 place with the same privileges and under the same conditions. 
 Whatever and wherever the Abbot's manor-house of and at 
 Whitby was, there (and almost of inevitable necessity in no 
 other place) were the courts, of whatsoever character, con- 
 nected with the vill of Whitby, originally held ; and that there 
 was such a place at Whitby is as certain as that there was a 
 tolbothe, a parochial cemetery, or a literal market-stede. 
 
 It might probably be safe to let the matter rest upon the 
 inevitable inference, but there is no occasion to do so, as 
 documentary evidence is available. For there is a man who 
 is sometimes called Willelmus de Aula de Whiteby, sometimes 
 Willelmus de la Sale de Whitby, and once at least, and in 
 a public document (as recently dead in the year 1328), as 
 William atte Hall de Whiteby, and who is one of the witnesses 
 to a variety of deeds printed in the Ghartulary (very frequently 
 in company with the Abbot's Seneschal), who, by his very 
 description, sets the question beyond the limits of doubt. 
 Whatever and wherever "the Aula," "la Sale," "the Hall" 
 de Whitby was, that was the place under the old conditions 
 wherein the Abbot's courts were held. 
 
 Reverting to the implied statement on the preceding 
 page that although "tolbothe" originally meant custom-house 
 or "receipt of custom," it came to have another meaning 
 in later days, it must be remarked that while in Scotland 
 the word came to mean "a prison or jail" (Jamieson sub 
 voce), and also a place of meeting for a debating body (the 
 
 the Jicdla, haula, aula seems the very essence, or at least the outward and 
 visible sign, of the manerium, so that a maneriwm sine haulais a note- 
 worthy thing. When we read ' Hoc manerium habet suum placitum in 
 aula domini sui ' we are greatly tempted to believe in the existence of a 
 hall moot.'' 
 
The Tollbooth as it became eventually 213 
 
 Scottish Parliament, for instance), or for the administration 
 of justice ; in many places, especially in the north of England, 
 it stood as an equivalent to such words as "moot-hall," " tholsel 
 or tolsetl," "town-hall," "common-hall," and even "gildhall." 
 It is mentioned in a note (vol. i. 81) by G-ross as the usual 
 designation in Alnwick, Berwick, Durham, Lancaster, Preston, 
 Stockton, Morpeth, Bradford, and our own Whitby. Only 
 in this^last instance the reference is simply to the Whitby 
 Ghartulary, so that it adds nothing in the way /of informa- 
 tion to what we already possess, which simply is that at 
 Whitby, in the years which saw or succeeded the Dissolution 
 of the Monastery, there was a building situate in Crossgate 
 known by the name ToUeboothe. It does not assure us 
 that the building so called was put to any other use or 
 purpose than that of a custom-house. 
 
 That it did so may be looked upon as possible, or even 
 probable. That its successor, built a hundred years later, 
 did, is, I should say, absolutely certain. But then we have 
 to remember what an utter change, indeed what a complete 
 hovleversement, had taken place in the town, consequent on the 
 Dissolution and the inevitable reconstruction of the entire 
 theory of town government, rather than only the government 
 and the executive through the instrumentality of which it 
 had to be carried out. When the town ceased to be governed 
 by the Abbot and his officers, and had to begin, in such fashion 
 and degree as became, or was made, possible for it, to govern 
 itself, then a town-hall, a "tolbooth" in that sense, became 
 absolutely necessary ; and then, no doubt, the state of things 
 contemplated by Dr. Young became not only actual, but was 
 rendered so by the force of circumstances. Whitby, or any 
 other town under the like circumstances, could not have 
 existed without its tollbooth in the later sense. 
 
 That Whitby before the Dissolution required its custom- 
 house, its tollbooth in that sense, there is no need to take 
 up any space in the way of demonstrating. And it is equally 
 
2 1 4 The Tollbooth of Old Whitby 
 
 certain that it would be situated in that place which would 
 be the most convenient, and therefore the most suitable for 
 the purposes it was intended to fulfil. And the simple fact 
 that Crossgate alone, limited as it was in regard to space, 
 absolutely as well as comparatively, furnished sites for more 
 than one-fourth of all the habitations in the town, besides 
 being on the very verge of the harbour, is quite enough to 
 assure the inquirer that there was no other possible* site for 
 the custom-house of the sixteenth and nearly preceding 
 centuries which could be preferable to it in any noteworthy 
 particular. 
 
THE EELATIONS BETWEEN THE ABBOT OF WHITBY 
 AND SIR ALEXANDER DE PERCY, AND THE 
 CONCLUSIONS THEREWITH CONNECTED 
 
 In dealing with the question or subject of the Horngarth 
 it would, under any circumstance, have been very difficult 
 to avoid reference to the manor and lands of Sneaton among 
 the other manors and lands in the Whitby district which were 
 held of the Abbey subject (among other imposts or exactions) 
 to the service known by that name. Under the special circum- 
 stances of the case, however, it became entirely impossible to 
 avoid such reference, and I think this impossibility will become 
 more and more apparent as we proceed. 
 
 At p. 45 supra I advert to a certain document entitled 
 " Memorabilia inter Abbatem de Whitby et Alexandrum de 
 Sneton " (printed in the Whitby Chartulary), and remark that, 
 among other things, it makes it apparent that certain of 
 Alexander de Percy's Sneaton homagers, "homines," or 
 "ministri" had so acted in respect of the wood ostensibly 
 required for the due making of the Sneaton portion of the 
 Horngarth, as to lay themselves open to the charge of pecula- 
 tion. I also note that there were other matters of debate and 
 strife, involving legal proceedings on de Percy's part, between 
 the said Alexander and the then Abbot. 
 
 A paragraph or two further, and I express myself thus : 
 "It should be observed here, and by no means in only an 
 incidental manner, that relations between the Abbot and Sir 
 
2i6 Alexander de Percy v. the Abbot 
 
 Alexander de Percy had been very seriously strained, this 
 matter of the Horngarth roguery forming but one of the 
 points at issue between them " ; and I give certain illustrative 
 statements, and then I continue : " The fact was that Sir 
 Alexander had been a ward of the Abbot's for a period of 
 several years. On the termination of this period of wardship 
 or guardianship, de Percy accused the Abbot of mismanaging 
 his estates during his minority; and, indeed, of something 
 worse still — of what, in fact, amounted to malversation and 
 peculation." 
 
 Now this whole transaction, involving the relations of 
 guardian and ward between the Abbot of Whitby and the 
 young owner of the Sneaton manor and lordship, has been 
 so much misconceived, misunderstood, and misrepresented 
 that it becomes fairly a bit of the Old Whitby story which 
 requires something in the way of critical investigation, and 
 at least an attempt to clear away the fallacies and set forth 
 the undisguised truth. One Whitby historian, for instance, 
 makes the following statement : "Sir William de Percy it 
 was who, about the year 1300, purchased the Sneton estate 
 for his son Alexander, of the Abbot and Convent of Whitby. 
 Our Monastery was then burdened with a very considerable 
 'debt, part of which was to be immediately discharged, and 
 this laid the monks under the necessity of raising money. 
 Now the great obligations they lay under to the Percy family, 
 who were originally their first benefactors, induced them to 
 convey that estate over to Sir William de Percy on terms 
 which would hardly have been offered to any other family ; 
 on which Sir Alexander, his eldest son, came to settle at 
 Sneton, and seems to have been a particular and intimate 
 acquaintance of Thomas, the Lord Abbot of Whitby. We 
 own that the charter for this purchase is not now to be met 
 with among our records ; . . . neither can we be positive as 
 to the precise time of purchasing this estate; yet thus purchased 
 it most certainly was. ... Sir Alexander and his tenants. 
 
Gross Misstatements made by Charlton 2 1 7 
 
 after having been some considerable time at Sneton, began to 
 look witb an evil eye on the authority claimed by these neigh- 
 bours (the Convent, that is) of theirs ; they supposed them- 
 selves entitled to some particular privileges, and began to take 
 liberties which the Abbot and Convent of Whitby did not 
 think proper to indulge them in. This by degrees dissolved 
 their friendship and produced continual quarrels, vi^hich seemed 
 to portend fatal consequences ; but, however, at last all dif- 
 ferences, divisions, and animosities were happily compromised 
 in the year 1320, and I look upon the Memorabilia between 
 the Abbot of Whitby and Sir Alexander de Percy of Sneton, 
 which were produced by this compromise, to be so particularly 
 curious that," etc. etc. 
 
 Now it will hardly be believed that these several state- 
 ments about the purchase, the burden of debt, the necessity 
 for discharging a part of the said debt immediately, the con- 
 sequent necessity for raising money, the terms so favourable 
 to the purchaser, the identity of the purchaser, his object in 
 purchasing, the settlement at Sneaton, the particular and 
 intimate acquaintance and friendship between the Abbot and 
 de Percy, are aU the creations of the writer's imagination, and 
 as much figments as the alleged incidents in an extravagant 
 fairy tale. There was no such purchase, for the sufficient 
 reason that the Sneaton lordship and appurtenances did not 
 belong to the Abbey. There was no such debt, as far as any 
 one knows, or even has reason for suspecting. There was no 
 such person as the Sir William de Percy raised up for the 
 occasion by the author in question. Sir Alexander de Percy 
 was not the eldest son of the Sir William who was his father, 
 and his family seat was at Ormesby, and not at Sneaton. It 
 is not even known whether, when, at the age of fourteen, on 
 occasion of his father's death, he became a ward of the Abbot's, 
 he had to reside at the Abbey, at Sneaton, or in his late 
 father's manor-house at Ormesby; and the particular and 
 intimate acquaintance and friendship part of the fanciful 
 
2i8 Alexander de Percy v. the Abbot 
 
 story depends only upon the possibility that he lived at the 
 Abbey. 
 
 The elements of truth involved in these so-called histori- 
 cal statements are that the lordship of Sneaton did belong 
 to Sir Alexander's father, Sir William de Percy de Kildale, 
 did descend to the son on the father's death, and that there 
 were quarrels and much animosity between the young Lord 
 of Sneaton and an Abbot of Whitby. But these elements of 
 fact are so thickly overlaid with misconception and fiction, 
 that it needs some trouble to disentangle the truth. 
 
 The simplest way of procedure is to show how Sir 
 Alexander de Percy's father, Sir William of Kildale, acquired 
 his interest in the Sneaton property. But in order to do this 
 it becomes necessary to begin at the beginning, and expose the 
 fallacy under which the writer talks of the " great obligations 
 the Convent lay under to the Percy family," the " terms which 
 would hardly have been offered to any other family,'' and the 
 hke. 
 
 The historian was totally ignorant of the fact that the 
 family of de Percy de Kildale was, from the very first, totally 
 distinct from that of the de Percy the Founder. Certainly 
 the two families possess the same patronymic in common; 
 and besides there is evidently an heraldic connection. Of 
 course it is to be supposed that there was a blood relationship, 
 but there is no extant evidence to show that it was so ; and at 
 least this much is certain, that the Kildale Percies had not 
 the same feudal relationship that the Whitby Percies had. 
 They held under Brus, and not under Hugh of Chester, as the 
 Whitby Percies originally did. Ernald de Percy was a witness 
 to the Foundation Charter of Whitby Abbey, which dates 
 before 1096. With his two sons he was a witness to the con- 
 vention between the Houses of Guisborough and Whitby, 
 dating before 1135 ; and we remark as we pass that the heirs 
 of his son Robert were wards of Adam de Brus II. in the year 
 1160. 
 
True Descent of the Kildale Percies 2 1 9 
 
 Ignorant as he was, — I do not like to say unobservant of, or 
 disposed to ignore this great cardinal fact of the original dis- 
 tinctness of the two families of Percy de Kildale and the 
 Founder's stem, — there is no wonder that the writer fell into 
 the same set of errors as almost every other compiler of the 
 pedigree of the earlier Percies had done. We have one in- 
 stance of such a pedigree, with quite the full amount of 
 gratuitous anomalies and absurdities in it, in the one which 
 Ord, the Cleveland historian, prints on p. 426 of his History of 
 Cleveland ; and copying from something of the same character 
 (obtained probably from the apocryphal pedigrees given by 
 Dodsworth and in the Harleian MSS.), our Whitby author 
 writes : " William, son of Alan de Percy, had a daughter 
 called Agnes. . . . This Agnes married Josceline de Louvaine 
 (brother to Adeliza, who was Queen to King Henry I.), by 
 whom she had a son called Henry, who, I apprehend, lived at 
 Batersby near Kildale. He married Isabella de Bruce, by 
 whom he left issue a son called William, who is frequently 
 stiled Lord of Kildale. ... To him descended almost all the 
 vast possessions of the Percy family, which were inherited after 
 his death by his sons Henry, Walter, William, and Ingeram. 
 Among these, Walter seems to have been left in possession of 
 Kildale and the several manors adjoining thereto; and this 
 Walter was succeeded by his son William," the alleged pur- 
 chaser of the Sneaton estate. 
 
 Now, to expose these fallacies let us glance at the perfectly 
 authentic and fully ascertained earlier descents of the Kildale 
 family. The first of them of whom we have any actual know- 
 ledge, a contemporary of the founder of Whitby Abbey and 
 his son and heir Alan, named Ernald (sometimes written 
 Ernulf) de Percy, was lord of Ormesby before the foundation 
 of Guisborough Priory — that is, before 1119 ; for he gave the 
 advowson of that church to the Priory on its foundation. He 
 had two sons, Ernald and Eobert; but the family was, for 
 some reason unknown (probably the death of Ernald without 
 
2 20 Alexander de Percy v. the Abbot 
 
 issue), carried on through the younger son Eobert. This 
 Eobert died between 1165 and 1170, and was succeeded by 
 his son William, who was a minor at his father's death, and 
 consequently became (as already noticed) a ward of his feudal 
 lord, Adam de Brus of Skelton. William's son and successor 
 was Walter, who, in his turn, had a son and successor named 
 William, who is styled "William de Percy de Kildak" in the 
 Yorkshire Pipe Eoll in 1241-42. He died, a very old man 
 and with impaired intellect, in 1283, seized of lands and 
 manors in Cleveland only (Kildale and Ormesby both of 
 course included) to the extent of five knights' fees, besides 
 other manors and lands elsewhere. He was succeeded in his 
 estates and manors, and his territorial title of de Percy de 
 Kildale, by his son Arnold, who appears to have been a still 
 more important as well as a wealthier man than his father ; 
 and most certainly he was able to act a most liberal part by 
 his younger brother William, whom he permitted to hold 
 Ormesby by charter from his father, and Kildale also, by the 
 service of rendering all forinsec services to himself (Arnold) 
 after his father's death. And thus he also was styled William 
 de Percy de Kildale. This William de Percy de Kildale, as 
 he was by grace of his elder brother Arnold, is the gentleman 
 who, according to the Whitby historian quoted from, "pur- 
 chased the Sneton estate ; and purchased it, moreover, for his 
 son Alexander." 
 
 That he, not by his own right, or by himself alone, but 
 jointly with, and in right of, his wife, Johanna by name, had 
 territorial rights in Sneaton, is a fact ; and the real question 
 is, How did he acquire them, or become possessed of them ? 
 The first fact that militates against the historian's explanatory 
 allegation that it was by purchase from the Whitby Convent, 
 is that Sneaton was not, as noted above, the Convent's to sell. 
 They had parted with all such rights many generations before, 
 and even as early as 1145, or thereabouts, the patronage of the 
 Chapel of Sneaton had been transferred by the Abbot and 
 
True Descents of the Founder s Family 221 
 
 Convent to the head of the family which held the lordship of 
 Sneaton in possession, namely, the family of Arundel. From 
 John Arundel, the said head of the family, the lordship, etc., 
 passed to his daughter Johanna. From her it descended to 
 her son by her first husband, one of the Neville family ; from 
 him to his son, who died without offspring, so that the inherit- 
 ance devolved upon his sister Johanna, who was married first 
 to a certain William de Upsal, by whom she had no family, 
 and second to William de Percy de Kildale, who thus, in right 
 of his wife Johanna, became possessed of Sneaton. 
 
 This is all incontestably proved by a record in the York- 
 shire Assize Rolls, and it effectually disposes of the whole 
 train of misconceptions and fictions involved in the Whitby 
 writer's statements. 
 
 But this is not all ; for we have still to notice the actual 
 descents, corresponding in point of time with those of the 
 Kildale Percies, of the main or great family named de 
 Percy. 
 
 The de Percy of Domesday, who was the Founder of the 
 Abbey, was the father of Alan de Percy, spoken of in early 
 records as Alan the Great. The said Alan died (having 
 succeeded his father in 1096) between the years 1133 and 
 1 1 35. He was succeeded in his possessions by his son William, 
 who founded Sallay Abbey in 1147, and was still living when 
 his son, the last male descendant of the Founder — " the Percy 
 of Domesday," as Freeman calls him — died, leaving his three 
 sisters co-heiresses of the Percy lands and lordships. The 
 second of these sisters married Josceline of Louvaine, as has 
 been already mentioned, and had by him a family of divers 
 sons and two daughters. Of the sons, Henry was the eldest, 
 and besides the dower brought him by his wife, Isabel de 
 Brus, he had the heir's share — that is, the "lion's share" — of 
 his mother's magnificent estates, succeeding in addition to 
 his father's hereditaments, inclusive of the "noble honour of 
 Petworth," as Dugdale phrases it. This is the baron — one of 
 
22 2 Alexander de Percy v. the Abbot 
 
 the greatest of his day — ^whom, as we may as well notice in 
 passing, our Whitby historian sends " to live at Battersby 
 near Kildale," marrying his daughter to some obscure person 
 called Grundy ! ! 
 
 The actual history of the family, however, goes on as 
 follows : Henry de Percy, last named, is succeeded by his 
 son William. William's son by his second wife, named Henry, 
 died in 1272, leaving a numerous family, — no less than seven 
 sons indeed. The eldest of these, the heir of course, was 
 another William de Percy, who died without issue, and was 
 succeeded by his brother Henry, another brother, John, having 
 also died childless. 
 
 This Henry de Percy it was who purchased the barony of 
 Alnwick in 1309. He became Governor of Scarborough 
 Castle a couple of years later, and died in 1314-15. Thus, 
 Alexander de Percy de Ormesby, lord also of Sneaton, who 
 came of age in 1301-2, was a contemporary of this first baron 
 of Alnwick, as he actually was; outliving him, however, by 
 nearly thirty years, inasmuch as there is a charter by Alexander, 
 executed at Ormesby and dated in 1342, still extant. 
 
 There is still a matter remaining to be touched upon in 
 connection with "the particular and intimate acquaintance 
 and friendship " alleged by our writer to have once subsisted 
 between Alexander de Percy and Abbot Thomas, and which 
 I have said might depend upon the possible residence of the 
 former at the Convent during his minority. It is as well to 
 remember the dates in this conjunction. Young Alexander 
 de Percy's father died in 1295, the boy being then thirteen 
 years of age. He would therefore attain his majority in 1302. 
 But the Whitby writer's Abbot Thomas did not become Abbot 
 until 1304, or two years later. Abbot William (de Kirkham) 
 had been the reigning Abbot during the whole period of the 
 lad's minority. It is true that the amicable arrangement 
 between the Abbot and Sir Alexander was brought about very 
 soon after Thomas's accession. The deed recording it is dated 
 
How the A bbot came to be de Percy s Gttardian 223 
 
 18th January 1307; although a memorandum (which finds 
 place next after the copy of the deed) puts the date some two 
 years earlier, or in 1305. From the date that is mentioned 
 at the close of the third "articulus" in the "Memorabilia" I 
 am disposed to think that the earlier date is the true one. 
 
 But still the most curious and, as I think, the most interest- 
 ing part of the whole matter has been so far barely mentioned. 
 I am well aware that the view I am disposed to take of it is 
 one which will not commend itself to some. What I refer to 
 is not so much the fact — for there is no question that Alexander 
 de Percy was a ward of the Abbot of Whitby — of the ward- 
 ship, as the way in which such wardship came about. It is 
 quite true that Alexander de Percy is mentioned as doing 
 homage and fealty ("fecit homagium et fidelitatem") to the 
 Abbot in the year 1327, and that Sir Robert Conyers of Hornby, 
 who married Sir Alexander's daughter, is described as doing 
 the same for the same manor in 1350, besides paying 50s. 
 " pro relevio " on succeeding in right of his wife to the said 
 manor, which is represented as constituting half a knight's 
 fee. But it is remarkable that up to the times thus indicated 
 there has not been the slightest hint that Sneaton was held 
 of the Convent " per servitium militare," which is implied in 
 the two entries just referred to, and positively asserted in the 
 next subsequent as well as the next preceding entries. 
 
 Now the only way in which these circumstances seem to 
 admit of easy or satisfactory explanation is that which is 
 suggested in the following sentences from Digby's Law of 
 Real Property: "Where land is held of a mesne lord by 
 knight service, the actual military service is due not to the 
 immediate lord, but to the king " ; in other words, I suppose, is 
 a "forinsec service." A little further on he writes : " No services 
 of whatever character rendered to the lord in his private 
 capacity are sufficient, according to the better opinion, to give 
 the tenure the character by knight service, and consequently to 
 cause the incidents of wardship and marriage to attach " ; and 
 
2 24 Alexander de Percy v. the Abbot 
 
 immediately after, referring to the confusion arising between 
 certain tenures, he continues : "The distinguishing characteristic 
 was evidently the one of most practical importance, — whether 
 the lord was or was not entitled to wardship and marriage." 
 
 This seems to be precisely the Sneaton case. The Abbot, 
 as regards the manor of Sneaton, had this right, and he 
 exercised it in the case, and during the minority, of Alexander 
 de Percy. But it was the "servitium" of Horngarth 
 which conveyed to him this right, which "servitium" is con- 
 sequently classed as a forinsec service (see above, p. 48), and 
 then, by way of accommodating old and more or less obsolete 
 conditions with modern doctrine and legal notions, the service 
 comes to be regarded as 'a knight service, and the lordship as 
 one the tenure of which exacted the rendering of homage and 
 fealty on the part of all successive tenants. 
 
 That I am not taking an untenable or indefensible view of 
 the matter will, I think, become apparent if my readers take 
 into consideration the terms of the Concord between Sir 
 Alexander and the Abbot as recorded in the Cyrograph already 
 adverted to as probably misdated by two years. For in it 
 we have, in the first place, a specification of the tenure, or, at 
 the least, a plain statement of the terms on which the lordship 
 was held of the Abbey as from the days of old ; and in the 
 second we shall be obliged to notice the terms in which the 
 settlement of pending disputes is conceived. I translate the 
 passage as literally as possible as follows : ^ " The said 
 
 ^ "Idem Alexander pro se et lieeredibus suis per prtesens soriptum 
 reoognoscit tenere manerium prEediotum de eisdem Abbate et Conyentu 
 per eadem servitia per quae antecessores sui illud tenuerunt ; viz. per 
 unam marcam de praedioto manerio et per dimidiam marcam pro quodam 
 prate quod voeatur le Newenge per annum, faciendo seotam ad Curiam 
 ipsorum Abbatis et Conventus de Whiteby apud Wliiteby de tribus septi- 
 manis in tres septimanas, et etiam per servitium inveniendi triginta 
 homines metentes super terram prsedictorum Abbatis et Conventus in 
 campo de Lairepelle, et unum hominem ad custodiendum paunos eorundem 
 per unum diem in autumpno quolibet anno, ad repastum ipsorum Abbatis 
 
Abbot's Wardship depends on Horngarth 225 
 
 Alexander for himself and his heirs acknowledges that he 
 holds the said manor of the said Abbot and Convent by the 
 self -same services by which his ancestors held it — that is to 
 say, by the payment of one mark per annum out of the said 
 manor, and of half a mark by the year for a certain meadow 
 called the New Ing ; by doing suit to the Court of the Abbot 
 and Convent at Whitby from three weeks to three weeks j 
 and likewise by the service of furnishing thirty mowers to 
 mow on the Convent land in the common-field at Larpool, 
 with another to look after their garments, one day in the 
 autumn of each year ; one meal in the day to be supplied by 
 the Abbot, due warning having been given him the evening 
 before, at the manor aforesaid ; and by performing the service 
 called Horngarth like as his ancestors were bound and 
 accustomed to perform it." 
 
 The character of the services set forth is as plain as the 
 language in which they are specified, and it is as obvious as 
 anything can possibly be that in the Horngarth, and the 
 Horngarth only, in what it was, and what depended upon it, 
 consisted the Abbot's claim to wardship and marriage, assum- 
 ing such a claim made and established as valid by him. It 
 was the forinsec service " quod tribuit wardam et maritagium 
 cum acciderit." 
 
 But we have still to note the language employed in alleging 
 the settlement of existing plaints. Two are particularly 
 specified, namely, the seizure of certain of the Abbot's work- 
 ing cattle by de Percy's men, and the " homagium " the Abbot 
 and Convent were seeking to impose upon him. The words 
 are, "homagium quod prsedicti Abbas et Conventus de eo 
 exigent." The exaction is prospective or future, not past or 
 present, like the forcible seizure of draught animals ; and, for 
 
 et Conventus semel in die, cum idem Abbas vespere prsecedente ad prse- 
 dictum manerium debito modo fuerit praemunitus, et faciendo servitium 
 quod vocatur Hornegarthe prout anteoessores sui facere debuerunt et 
 consuererunt. " 
 
 Q 
 
2 26 Alexander de Percy v. the Abbot 
 
 myself, I cannot but connect it with the fact that Sir Alexander 
 actually did, so short time subsequently, render homage and 
 fealty to the Abbot. 
 
 And, granted that connection, it will be difficult to exclude 
 the connection indicated above as more than possible. 
 
THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THE TENANTS 
 OF THE ABBEY IN THE OUT - TO WNSHIPS 
 HELD THEIE LANDS 
 
 There is a certain document printed early in the second 
 volume of the Whitby Chartulary, of which it may be said not 
 only that it was unknown to both Charlton and Young, but 
 that it bears an intimate relation to more than one. of the Old 
 Whitby topics dealt with in this book, and the considerations 
 suggested by their discussion. The document I refer to is 
 headed " Consuetudines Cotariorum de Hakenes," or "The 
 Customary Services and Dues incumbent on the Hackness 
 Cottars " — services and dues, that is, which they were under 
 obligation to render to the Abbot and Convent of Whitby as 
 the lords under whom they held. 
 
 No small part, however, of the interest and the value alike 
 of this writing depends upon the fact that the heading just 
 quoted and translated is altogether fallacious and misleading. 
 Certainly the Consuetudines of the Hackness cottars are 
 specified, but in barely eight lines out of a total of close upon 
 ninety. Certain other cottars, those of Newholm (apparently) 
 and those of Middlesborough positively, are also mentioned, 
 and occupy a space of barely nine lines. All the remainder is 
 taken up with an account of the customary services and dues, 
 for the due rendering of which the Bondi of Silfhow (the 
 modern Silpho), Suthf eld (Suffield), Dales (Harwooddale), Stoup 
 (Stoup Brow), Suth Filing, Newholm, Slectes (Sleights), Midel 
 
2 28 The ''Customs' binding on Convent Tenants 
 
 burg (Middlesborough), and Steynsekir (Stainsacre) are re- 
 sponsible. 
 
 But this is only another way of saying that the document 
 referred to gives us a great deal of information touching a 
 large number of persons holding lands and tenements of the 
 Abbey of Whitby, independently of, and in addition to, those 
 specially mentioned in the heading or title prefixed to it. In 
 point of fact, over and above the aotarii of Hackness and 
 Middlesborough (just now specified), we find at the least 150 
 tenants of the Convent's bearing quite another designation — 
 that of hondus, namely — catalogued in connection with the 
 places named just above, with detailed accounts of services, 
 dues, and money payments they were bound to render to the 
 Convent in the way of what we should nowadays call rent 
 for the lands they severally held. Besides this also, it is to 
 be observed that the said services, dues, and payments varied 
 in difi'erent places ; so that, on the whole, we have a singularly 
 instructive and interesting amount of information as to the 
 condition and circumstances in and under which the agri- 
 cultural tenants of the Abbey were spending their lives at the 
 date of the writing under notice. 
 
 But it has to be remarked at the outset that the date is 
 uncertain. The writing itself is not only without date, but 
 it is but the copy ^ of another, and necessarily an older one. 
 But there is absolutely nothing by which to fix the precise 
 date of the copy itself, and, it need hardly be said, still less 
 the date of the original. The copy is found on folios 8 and 9 
 of the Museum Chartulary volume. 
 
 There are, however, evident tokens of very considerable 
 antiquity involved in its very substance and form, and I do 
 not think it is too much to say that it is very difficult to find 
 
 ^ Quite possibly it may not be a very exact copy. There are evidences 
 of omission in it, and several matters seem to be more or less muddled or 
 confused. But the main facts and statements may, I think, be implicitly 
 depended on. 
 
True Meaning of " Bondus " 229 
 
 reason for assuming that it belongs to a period later than the 
 earlier part of the thirteenth century. It may easily belong 
 to a much earlier period. Thus, some of the services specified 
 in it are specified under names that were distinctly obsolete — 
 to judge by co-ordinate documents — in the last five-and-twenty 
 or thirty years of the century named, while some of the services 
 specially named are of a remarkably archaic character. I shall 
 have to advert to the points here raised further on, and, 
 consequently, do not dwell upon them here with the attention 
 they deserve. 
 
 What first calls for our regard is the nature of the terms 
 employed in specifying the two classes of agricultural de- 
 pendents distinctly named. These are, as already incidentally 
 mentioned, "Cotarius" and "Bondus." 
 
 It has until lately been the custom to assume that the 
 latter term should, as a matter of course, be Englished by the 
 word " bondman " ; and further, and as unconsideringly, it 
 has again been assumed that the ordinary meaning of " bond- 
 man," — of one, that is, who is personally unfree, — gives the 
 sense in which the term bondus is to be understood. 
 
 This mistake, for there can be no doubt that it is a mistake, 
 originates in overlooking the fact that the word bond or band 
 may, and does, bear another meaning besides that which is 
 suggested by the customary antithesis of the terms "bond" 
 and "free." This other meaning is well and suggestively put 
 before his readers by Professor Skeat in his account of the 
 word " husband " and its derivation. In the older phases of 
 our tongue, or what is called Middle English, the word was 
 written husbond, husebond, and its immediate connection is with 
 the Icelandic word Imshdndi, the master or goodman of the 
 house, the inhabiting head of it ; from whence comes, of course, 
 our common term "husbandman," more anciently husbond-man, 
 or even housbonde-man ; in which words the bond has not even 
 the remotest or slightest connection with the English words 
 bond, band, hind. Its absolute connection is with the Icelandic, 
 
230 The ''Customs" binding on Convent Tenants 
 
 one might correctly say the Old Danish, hdnUi, which implies 
 more than only the sense of occupying tiller of the land. 
 
 But there is something more to be remarked about this 
 term than merely its philological connection and signification, 
 and that may best be presented in Vinogradoff's own words : 
 " Another Saxon word," he says, " gehtw, has left its trace in the 
 hums and huriman of Norman records. The word does not occur 
 very often, and seems to have been applied in two different 
 ways, — to the chief villains of the township in some places, 
 and to the smaller tenantry, apparently in confusion with the 
 Norman hordarius, in some other. The very possibility of 
 such a confusion shows that it was going out of common use. 
 On the other hand, the Danish equivalent londus is widely 
 spread. It is to be found constantly in the Danish counties. 
 The original meaning is that of cultivator or 'husband,' — 
 the same, in fact, as that of gebwr and hoor. Feudal records 
 give curious testimony of the way in which the word slid 
 down into the 'bondage' of the present day. We see it 
 wavering, as it were, sometimes exchanging with servus and 
 villanus, and sometimes opposed to them." 
 
 We shall do well to bear in mind not only that Yorlishire, 
 at least great part of Yorkshire, is conspicuously the most 
 "Danish of the so well styled "Danish Counties," but that 
 Whitby and its vicinity are essentially as Danish as, if not 
 more Danish than, any other part of Danish Yorkshire. The 
 mere fact of the Whitby Thingwala is by itself enough to 
 emphasise this statement. And with the exception of the 
 cotarii, whether they were more or fewer, all the other 
 agricultural dependents or "tenentes" of the Abbey in all 
 those half-score of viUce or townships enumerated above were 
 bondi. No such term as villanus, nativus or servus, or any other 
 more or less nearly equivalent to either, is so much as men- 
 tioned or intimated. 
 
 Now let us look at the character or quality of the tene- 
 ments held by the bondi on the one side, and the nature and 
 
Quality of Returns made by Tenants 231 
 
 amount of what they have to render or yield or pay in return, 
 on the other. The lordi of Newham (Newholm), thirty-five 
 in number, hold two bovates each ; so do the hordi of Stains- 
 acre, though their number is not specified, but it certainly 
 could not be a less number than that at Newham. The hondi 
 of Silpho, Suffield, Stoup, South Fyling, Middlesborough, etc., 
 hold one bovate each ; while the extent held by the lonAi of 
 Sleights and Stainsacre is not specifically stated, although 
 perhaps there may be ground for a presumption that the 
 homdi of the place last named hold two bovates each. 
 
 But it is the character and quality of the returns they 
 make in consideration of the lands they hold which most 
 forcibly claim our regard. Each one of them pays Is. per 
 bovate, without any exception, but beyond that, the services 
 they are called upon to render, to whatever extent they may 
 vary according as the places they live in vary, are all of the 
 same general nature. They all have to grind their corn at 
 the Convent mill, paying as multure one-thirteenth part of 
 the quantity ground. Each has to render two fowls and 
 a score of eggs, the one exception being the hmdi of Stoup, 
 who have to give four fowls and a score and half of eggs at 
 Easter. One of these fowls, due at Christmas, is a galUna de 
 bosco or wood-hen,^ for the collection of which the foresters 
 
 ■^ In vol. xii. of the TorJcshire Archoeological Association's Record Series 
 is an extent of the manors held by the late Baldwin Wake. At p. 248 we 
 learn that in the manor of Eirkby Moorside there are certain tenants 
 holding tenements ' ' at the will of the lord, " who pay for each bovate of land 
 held by them 6s. 8d. a year, two strikes of nuts, and a fowl at Christmas, 
 called le WodeJwn ; and that "the nuts and fowls are paid in respect of 
 their messuage, and not in respect of the bovate of land." Again, in 
 Bransdale, a dependency of the manor of Kirkby Moorside, there are 
 sundry liondi, who besides specified works to be rendered to the lord, have 
 to give "one fowl at Christmas, which fowls are called Wodeliennes." 
 At pp. 288-290 Vinogradoff gives -^ variety of instances of payments in 
 kind — "the most archaic form of arranging the relations between a lord 
 and his subjects." Poultry, he says, "is brought almost everywhere, but 
 these prestations are very different in their origin. The most common 
 reason for giving capons is the necessity for getting the warranty of the 
 
232 The "Customs" binding on Convent Tenants 
 
 are responsible. By far the greatest number of them yield 
 " tol " and " tac " and " mercet," which means, as I believe I 
 am right in stating, that they are liable to the impost called 
 at a somewhat later date "tallage," and which, in fact, was 
 arbitrary on the lord's part as to amount, or " ad voluntatem 
 domini," and leviable once a year only. The " tac," there can 
 be no doubt from the information afforded by some of the 
 Account Eolls yet extant, is the same as the "gersome" or 
 "gressume" {gersuma) which was paid on entering on the 
 tenancy, and was equal in amount, or nearly so, to the rent 
 of a year ; while the " mercet " or " merchet " was the fine or 
 due payable to the lord on occasion of the marriage of a 
 tenant's daughter. 
 
 Besides all this, we find in almost every case that the 
 tenant is bound to give four days' ploughing, four days' 
 harrowing, four days' hoeing or weeding, and to find eight 
 men to do a day's reaping in harvest-time, or sixteen, if he holds 
 two bovates and not only one. In the majority of instances 
 the construction and maintenance of the milldam and neces- 
 sary repairs of the mill fall upon the hondi, as also does the 
 fetching or leading of the necessary millstones. Certain 
 amounts of carriage ^ — what is generally in this country called 
 
 lord ; in this sense the receipt and payment of the rent constitute an 
 acknowledgment on the part of the lord that he is bound to protect his 
 men, and on tlie part of the peasant that he is the lord's villain. ' Wood- 
 hens ' are given for licence to take a load of wood in a forest," and illus- 
 trative instances are quoted. These galliTice de Iosco, then, payable at 
 Christmas, are thus explained, and it is to be noted that the foresters, ' ' per 
 visum et liberationem " of whom the load or summa of wood would have 
 to be obtained, are the parties to whom the woodhens are payable. The 
 connection of the Christmas payment of the woodhen is noticeable. 
 
 ^ It is worth a passing remark that copious illustrations of the survival 
 of these services, or rather of the money payments made in lieu of them, 
 are to be met with in "Ministers' Accounts." Thus repeated mention of 
 " Siccleboones " is made, that is, of theprecariae due in time of harvest. 
 Particularly are the memoranda dealing with the matter of carriage, specially 
 of corn, wood, turves, and so forth, numerous enough in the pages dealing 
 with some or other of the out-townships concerned. A full comparison 
 
Stud Services incumbent in some Cases 233 
 
 " leading " — also have to be done, although this is hardly in- 
 cumbent on all the men ; some of it to be done by aid of pack 
 or sumpter horses, and the rest in the ordinary country carts 
 or wains. Aid has to be given too in reaping, mowing, the 
 making, leading, and stacking of hay and corn, as well as in the 
 leading of certain loads of wood and turf for burning. 
 
 It must not be understood, however, that in any case all 
 these duties and services fell on each, or indeed on any one 
 individual bondus. They are simply mentioned for the pur- 
 pose of showing what manner of returns these " husbandmen " 
 had to make in the way of what we should call rent for the 
 holdings, varying from 12 or 15 acres up to 30, 35, or possibly 
 in some cases 40, held by them. Not a few of them, while 
 incumbent in one place, were not so much as heard of in 
 another. Thus, for instance, in two places the bondus had to 
 furnish a "prsebenda" of nuts, the quantity understood by 
 the term " prsebenda " not being specified ; although we know 
 that in Farndale and Bransdale, in the year 1281, the prcebenda 
 amounted to two bushels. 
 
 Again, in two places a custom or due incumbent on the 
 bmdus is expressed by the phrase "ibit ad stod," or "curret 
 ad stod," the obligation implied by which was that of attend- 
 ance when the droves of practically wild mares with their 
 young were driven into the "falda" or (as it would be called 
 in some places nowadays) corral, and colts and fillies " rising 
 three " captured and taken ofi' to be " handled." Naturally 
 this service could only be incumbent in certain places, and 
 those places only few and far between, because such " stod " 
 or "stud" establishments could not be numerous. 
 
 But there is one class of service or custom (consuetudo) 
 which becomes incumbent in some form or other in divers 
 places, which ought not to be passed over without special 
 
 of the results of this kind obtainable from the document referred to, with 
 the details of the several services due in the divers townships named in 
 these Consuetudines, would by no means be lacking in interest. 
 
2 34 The "Customs" binding on Convent Tenants 
 
 notice, and that is the sort of work whicli is travestied or 
 burlesqued rather than represented by the so-called "Penny- 
 Hedge " observance ; I mean the making of fences or hedges, 
 and making them, moreover, by aid of stakes and wattle-work. 
 Thus the thirty-five honAi of Newholm and the undetermined 
 number of those at Stainsacre were severally under the obliga- 
 tion to " make the Horngarth " ; although at Sneaton and, in 
 part at least, if not entirely, at Dunsley, that obligation lay on 
 the lord of the fee. At Hackness the hanii had to make the 
 sheepfold and the walls of the Abbot's grange "de virgis" — 
 that is, of pliable rods or twigs, wattle-work, in short — which 
 eventually was covered over with tempered clay, when the 
 whole became what is still called in some places in England 
 " wattle-and-daub," and in others " post-and-pan." The Abbot, 
 however, was to provide the material, whether for this fencing 
 or walling work or for more substantial buildings, such as the 
 mill, and their repairs. 
 
 And when we begin to note the holdings of the cotarii, 
 and the customs and dues they had to render in requital, how 
 little they differ, except it be in amount, from what prevails 
 among the bondi ! The money payment the cotarim had to 
 make for *his " cotaria " or holding, of course with the cot or 
 hut-like dwelling on it, varied with the place. At Hackness 
 it was 6d., in another place 8d., and at Middlesborough Is. 
 At the place last named his cotaria embraced IJ acre. In 
 other places the extent is not specified, but I do not think it 
 was by any means uniform in all places. To be sure, in direct 
 reference to the provisions represented in or by the Eecti- 
 tudines, Andrews (Old English Manor, p. 173) says: "The 
 allowance of land which the cotsetla received from the lord 
 was 5 acres at the least ; it might be more, but it could not be 
 less." But he intimates that certainly in somewhat later 
 times, and probably at times nearer the date of the Eecti- 
 tudines, this rule was not at all like the "laws of the Medes and 
 Persians "; and he continues : " This was not, however, a fixed 
 
"Customs" under which the "Cotarius" held 235 
 
 measure, but varied in the different localities, probably accord- 
 ing to such terms as could be or had been made with the owner 
 of the land." 
 
 As to the services and customary dues the cotarius had to 
 render, they are thus specified at one place : " Each shall pay 
 for his cotaria 6d., and shall yield two fowls, a score of eggs, 
 and shall hoe (or weed) four times. He shall mow the same 
 number of times in the autumn (that is, in the harvest-field) ; 
 he shall either mow or bind thatch (rushes mainly in this part 
 of the world, reeds elsewhere perhaps, or occasionally) one day 
 in the year ; he shall help make or maintain the milldam, lead 
 the millstone, be present at the capture of the horses, supply 
 a prebend of nuts, help drive the beasts for slaughter when 
 the Abbot goes anywhere to stay. He shall yield tol and tac 
 and mercet, and also pay the accustomed multure of one part 
 in thirteen of the grist." At Middlesborough, however, the 
 terms stand thus : " A shilling yearly for his cotaria of an acre 
 and half ; providing eight men for a day's work in autumn, 
 with two meals supplied by the Abbot. Four fowls also, with 
 forty eggs, must be rendered by him, and he must execute 
 'lades and rades,' as the bondi do, besides leading turf and 
 corn, and supplying a goose." In this case no mention is 
 made of "tol and tac and mercet,'' although in the other 
 instances it is specified. 
 
 I pause for a moment in passing to draw attention to the 
 very suggestive resemblance between what I have rendered 
 by "must execute lades and rades, as the bondi do, besides 
 leading turf and corn," and the geneat's services as specified in 
 the Eectitudines and supplemented in the Dyddenham Consue- 
 tudines, and which I cite as expressed in Mr. Seebohm's book : 
 " The geneat shall ride, and carry, and lead loads, and drive 
 droves." The services specified are not only identical in the 
 several cases, but the same quaint old idioms are employed to 
 express them. In fact, the "lades and rades" of the Whitby 
 Consuetudines are explained by the old A.S. ridan and lade, 
 
236 The '"Customs" binding on Convent Tenants 
 
 just as the pack-horse-carrying (sumagia) explains the ridan 
 itself ; and the driving the beasts intended for slaughter, and 
 the leading of turf, firewood, corn, etc., explain the driving 
 of droves and the leading of loads. 
 
 But to revert : the most cursory survey of the Whitby 
 Consuetudines, or the services and dues which had to be 
 rendered by the occupants of the Abbey lands in the various 
 townships mentioned — by the bondi of those places, in short, 
 and not excluding those which had to be rendered even by the 
 cotarii — is sufficient to reveal the entire absence from among 
 those services and dues of what is customarily spoken of as 
 "week-work," which is styled by Professor Ashley {Economic 
 History, i. 19) "the most distinctive mark of villein tenure." 
 
 Certainly there is mention made of "mercet,'' the merchet 
 or merchetum, "the most odious," as Vinogradoff remarks, "of 
 all manorial exactions,'' which came to be " considered as a 
 note of servile descent," while the man " free by blood was 
 supposed to be exempted from it." But Professor Vinogradoflf 
 warns us that it would be " wrong to consider it an unfailing 
 test of status." Its history, he says, "is a complex one: not 
 even all the feudal serfs descended from Saxon slaves paid 
 merchet ; in some cases it was paid by free people : a payment 
 of this kind was exacted sometimes from free men in villainage, 
 and even from socage tenants.'' 
 
 It will be well to give attention to this last remark, as well 
 as to the following sentence or two from the same authority, 
 which is met with on the same page : " As soon as the notion 
 arose that personal servitude was implied by the payment of 
 merchet, as soon as such a notion got sanctioned by legal 
 theory, the fine was extended in practice to cases where it did 
 not apply originally. We have direct testimony to the effect 
 that feudal lords introduced it on their lands in places where 
 it had never been paid." 
 
 Now there are not many who would care to maintain that 
 the agricultural population of the places named in our Con- 
 
The Status of the Whitby '' Bondi" 237 
 
 suetudines document (places situate in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood of the most Danish part of the Danish county of 
 York) were likely to be " serfs descended from Saxon slaves,'' 
 or that in that neighbourhood the payment of merchet, if ever 
 exacted in fact and deed (of which there is no evidence), could 
 be " considered a note of servile descent." But even on the 
 assumption that the payment was actually exacted as well as 
 formally claimed in this interesting document now under 
 notice, there is a circumstance which must needs be mentioned, 
 and which may prove to be such as to merit more than merely 
 bare mention. What I mean is that in the Domesday return 
 touching Whitby, the relation between that territory and the 
 several places mentioned as in the occupation of the hondi 
 aforesaid was that of head or capital manor and soke. " Ad 
 hoc manerium," that is "Witebi et Sneton (berewica)," 
 " pertinet soca harum," specifying all the places mentioned in 
 the Consuetudines memorandum. 
 
 Now I should like to collate with this the following 
 sentences from Vinogradoff's Villainage in England : "A pheno- 
 menon well worth consideration is the existence in some parts 
 of the country of a unit of jurisdiction and management which 
 does not fall in with the manor ; it is called the sohe, and com- 
 prises free tenantry dispersed sometimes over a very wide 
 area. . . We need not go into the details of the personal 
 status of the tenants ; they clearly come under the description 
 of free sokemen ; . . . their services are triiling as compared 
 with those of the customers (custumarii) ■ what unites them to 
 the manor is evidently merely jurisdiction : . . . they are set 
 apart as forming the soke, and this shows them clearly to be 
 subjected to jurisdiction rather than anything else." Every 
 word of this applies to these Whitby sokes. 
 
 Even if I were sufficiently a lawyer to work these matters 
 or questions fully out, or even to attempt to do so, a section 
 or chapter in this book would not be the place in which to do 
 it. It would occupy far too much space and prove sadly too 
 
238 The "Customs" binding on Convent Tenants 
 
 technical. Perhaps what has been so far advanced may almost 
 appear to be of that nature, but I cannot help thinking that 
 there are many among the readers of such books as the 
 present who will accord their full forgiveness ; such, I mean, 
 as do not read for merely the same reason as they would play 
 a set at tennis, or look on at a game at cricket, simply 'pow 
 passer le temps, but in order to acquire information. That the 
 facts and considerations advanced above will tend to lead the 
 readers of Whitby history to entertain new views on some 
 points, or to see that, at the least, such views are possible, 
 can hardly be doubted. And, at all events, it will be seen 
 that some of the propositions advanced by Whitby historians 
 can by no possible means be entertained by men of reasonable 
 minds, such, for instance, as that the "villanes were a species 
 of slaves," and were " considered as a kind of cattle " (Young's 
 History, p. 275, and p. 276 note). These londi and cotmii were 
 surely not to be so described. 
 
THE CHAPELS AND HERMITAGES ATTACHED 
 TO THE ABBEY 
 
 In view of the many references that are and must be made 
 in a book of this character to the home endowments of which 
 the renascent monastery was the recipient, it will not be amiss 
 to give a brief notice of the said early endowments and matters 
 connected with them. The more so because, as regards the 
 places themselves, the lands of which constituted the main 
 part of the endowment, as well as their accessories, doubt has 
 existed, and much random guessing and corresponding error 
 and confusion have been occasioned. Some of the doubt may 
 thus be removed, some of the confusion cleared away, and 
 ascertained facts may be put in the place of error. 
 
 The best method of procedure will surely be to cite the 
 oldest specifications of the endowments and their locality, and 
 then to make a more or less careful and accurate analysis of 
 them. 
 
 Many years ago I concluded — and I have met with no 
 reason since to induce me to consider that conclusion erroneous 
 — that the earliest writing in the so-called Abbot's Book or 
 Whitby Register is not of later date than 1155-65; and 
 in that writing William de Percy, his son and heir Alan 
 de Percy uniting with him, is described as granting in frank- 
 almoign, and certainly sometime before 1090, to the Monastery 
 of Whitby "the vill and seaport of Whitby; Overby; Netherby, 
 otherwise Steinsecher (Stainsacre) ; Thingwala; Leirpel (Lar- 
 
240 Old Whitby Chapels and Hermitages 
 
 pool) ; Helredale ; Griiip, otherwise Hauchesgard (Hawsker) j 
 Normaneby ; Fieling and the other Fieling (otherwise Fyling- 
 dales) ; Bertwait ; Setwait ; Snetune (Sneaton) ; Hugelbardeby 
 (Ugglebarnby) ; Soureby ; Eisewarp (Ruswarp) ; Neuham 
 (Newholm) ; Stachesby (Stakesby) ; Baldeby ; Breccha ; Flore ; 
 Dunsleia ; the hermitages of Eschedala (Eskdale) and Mulegrif 
 (Mulgrave) ; the forests which appertain to the Church of 
 Whitby; the Church of St. Mary of the said vill, with its 
 six chapels — those, namely, of Fyling, Hawksgarth, Sneaton, 
 Ugglebarnby, Dunsley, and Aislaby, and other appurtenances; 
 Agge Mill (possibly Eigg Mill), Kocche (Cock) Mill, Euswarp 
 Mill, New Mill, and Fyling Mill; the vill of Hackness and 
 two mills there, and also St. Mary's Church at the same place, 
 besides the Church of St. Peter, where our monks used to 
 serve G-od, died, and were buried ; the Dales also (Harwood- 
 dale and lands adjacent) ; Everley ; Brocchesei (Broxa) ; 
 Northfield, with the Danegeld remitted ; Silf hou ; all Gayteley ; 
 and Suffield; the Vaccaries of Stoup, Thornley, Kesebeck, 
 and Bilroche (Billery)." 
 
 This list practically dates within the last decade of the 
 eleventh century ; the other, which I proceed to give, is from 
 the Confirmation of the grandson of the Founder, and is from 
 thirty-five to forty years later, and the chief difference observ- 
 able is in its brevity; "Whitby with its Church of St. Mary's. 
 and its sea-port, with all its liberties or franchises and appurte 
 nances ; Netherby also, and Overby ; Hawksgarth ; Normanby 
 Fyling and the other Fyling ; Stoup ; Sneaton ; Ugglebarnby 
 Sourby; Newholm ; Dunsley; Stakesby; Brecca ; Baldby 
 Flora ; Hackness, with the Church of St. Mary there, and the 
 Church of St. Peter, and all appurtenances whatsoever, so that 
 certain monks of the Convent Church at Whitby may continu- 
 ously live there, serving God and St. Hilda, and praying for 
 the souls of the Founder and his family; also Northfield, 
 Suthfield, Everley, Broxa, and Thornley." 
 
 All the places thus mentioned are of easy recognition, save 
 
Possible Localisation of certain Places 241 
 
 only Overby, Thingwala, Bertwait, Setwait, and Brekka. Of 
 these five, two, Brekka and Overby, admit of hypothetical 
 localisation, such as to present every appearance of probability. 
 But there seems to be no clue — that is, of any practical value — 
 to lead up to the positive, even satisfactory, identification of the 
 sites of the other three. Certainly the grouping leads us to 
 infer, as the circumstances of the case also do, that Thingwala 
 was within easy distance of the precincts of the Abbey ; but 
 it is not possible to say even as much as that touching Bertwait 
 and Setwait. Moreover, no mention at all of either of these 
 three places is made in the second list. Their position there- 
 fore must be left indefinite. Overby was probably what is 
 now called High Whitby, Helredale is the dale or valley which 
 debouches near Spittal Bridge, while Soureby and Brecca are 
 on the other (or Euswarp) side of the river. Priestby and 
 Soureby being associated together as belonging to the earliest 
 endowments of the monastery, and Priestby being identified 
 with absolute certainty as that part of Whitby in general which 
 was distinguished as the site of the Convent, it was assumed 
 by Charlton (an assumption acquiesced in by Young) that 
 Soureby was in near association, if not almost juxtaposition, 
 with Priestby, and the proposed localisation has been with 
 Sneaton Thorpe. However, it is absolutely certain that it 
 lay no great way out of the line between the Carrs at Euswarp 
 and the modern extension of Whitby on the western side; 
 Brecca being in the same general neighbourhood, and probably 
 indicated by the name Bracken-bank (occurring in " Ministers' 
 Accounts ") not far from Baldby Lane. The best general idea 
 of the home territory of the Abbey, however, will be obtained 
 from a glance at a fairly accurate map of the district ; even 
 the somewhat rough sketch given in the second volume of 
 Young's History being sufficient for the purpose. 
 
 It would be observed that among the other appendages of 
 the parish church of Whitby, six chapels are mentioned, 
 Sneaton being one of them. No very long time after the 
 
 R 
 
242 The Eskdale Chapel 
 
 date of Percy's munificent grant Sneaton was transferred, 
 church and manor, into the hands of a man of some local 
 importance, named Arundel ; the result of which transfer was 
 that the church of Sneaton became independent, practically, 
 of the mother church, and remains a rectory to the present 
 day. The transfer in question, however, did not take place 
 until after 1132. All the other five chapelries have experienced 
 the same fate as the parish church of Whitby itself did, and 
 have continued to maintain what might very well be called a 
 precarious existence. The tithes once belonging to the mother 
 church, as was the case throughout Cleveland proper, with 
 only a few exceptions, passed into the hands of lay, or practi- 
 cally lay, impropriators, and the livings had, in reality, to shift 
 for themselves ; it was hardly likely the chapelries would fare 
 better than the church of which they had been dependencies. 
 
 One remark should be made here, namely, that the six 
 chapels of the end of the eleventh century and beginning of 
 the twelfth had, before the expiry of the first quarter of 
 the thirteenth, become seven. In a bull of Honorius III. 
 (who became pope in 1216 and died in 1227) the chapel of 
 Eskdale is mentioned in conjunction with the other six ; and 
 the date is well worth noting, inasmuch as, with the scanty 
 architectural remains of the building still in existence, a very 
 closely approximate date is furnished for the chapel which 
 eventually was superseded by what has been for long usually 
 called Sleights Church. The ruin referred to, which stands 
 in a field a little to the right of the railway as the train 
 proceeds towards Whitby after passing Sleights Station, has 
 been identified, as I am aware, with the site of the romancing, 
 rather than romantic, fable of the Eskdale hermit. The story 
 as it is given by Young as well as Charlton (dating itself in 
 the year 1159) makes the chapel and hermitage, if not coinci- 
 dent, yet at least contiguous. This is inconsistent alike with 
 the architectural and the written testimony. From the latter 
 it is certain that no chapel of Eskdaleside existed so early as 
 
Approximate Site of Eskdale Hei'initage 243 
 
 the alleged date, but that a hermitage was extant there is 
 made equally certain. A century or so later, and there is an 
 absence of historical recognition of the hermitage and an 
 equally defined historical recognition of the chapel. The 
 inference of course is that the hermitage has given place to 
 the chapel; and it is at this point that the architectural 
 evidence becomes of interest, and indeed of value. Because 
 it unquestionably indicates the approximate time when the 
 hermitage had been superseded by the chapel ; and that is 
 early in the thirteenth century, and not very far removed 
 from the period which was marked by the building of what 
 now gladdens our eyes in the easternmost portion of the ruined 
 Abbey Church of Whitby. 
 
 This, however, by no means ascertains for us the precise 
 site of the Eskdale hermitage. It is possible, perhaps even 
 probable, that the site of the hermitage was, if not actually 
 adopted as the site of the projected chapel, yet in close prox- 
 imity to the said site. But certainly there is no assurance 
 that it was so. Seeing the place as we see it now, moreover, 
 may instigate the thought that there is a want of the solitari- 
 ness, the roughness, the ruggedness and severity which we 
 have in some way learnt to associate with the idea of the 
 ancient hermit, his abode, and his surroundings. Still, we 
 must remember that the eyes which beheld the place we are 
 thinking of eight or nine centuries ago had very different 
 scenery from the present to contemplate, and that the scenes 
 enacted were as different as the scenery. For instance, it 
 would be principally from the Eskdale forests that, some two 
 centuries later, those thirteen wolf-skins, which were tanned 
 for the Abbot, in one lot apparently, were obtained. And 
 there is rather a suggestiveness about the wolf and his haunts. 
 But if he lived and ravaged in such numbers at the end of the 
 fourteenth century, what are we to think of him and his 
 lurking-places some 200 or 300 years earlier stilU There 
 may have been then no lack of ruggedness and even savagery 
 
244 Old Whitby Chapels and Hermitages 
 
 about the site of the old Eskdale chapel at and a little before 
 the time at which our records tell us it must have taken 
 its rise. 
 
 As to the relative antiquity of the other six chapels named 
 it is perhaps idle to speculate. What evidence there is points 
 to the superior age of the chapel at Hawsker. There can be 
 little doubt, perhaps none, that the venerable pillar which still 
 stands in close vicinity to the hall, and which is assumed, and 
 rightly, by Young to have had its connection with the Hawsker 
 chapel, and indeed to indicate its presumable site, not only 
 does that, but also bears testimony to the fact that the original 
 chapel there was one of very early date. No one can look at 
 it and fail to recognise that it has been a remarkably fine 
 instance of the so-called "Anglo-Saxon" churchyard cross; 
 and as such it indicates that, in the old days of Hild's sway, 
 or those immediately succeeding them, here stood an early 
 House of Grod. Probably, or rather, it may be, certainly, it 
 continued to stand and do its original duty when the post- 
 Conquest chapel of Hauchesgard was raised by Aschetine or 
 Aschetil de Haukesgarth, and re-endowed by him between 
 the years 1140 and 1150. As to the chapel of Dunsley, we 
 are made aware by the terms of the charter of foundation of 
 the Dunsley Hermitage that the chapel of Dunsley was already 
 extant, because its rights are safeguarded by a special clause 
 in the said charter. How long it had existed or by whom it 
 had been originally erected we have nothing to tell us. But 
 inasmuch as the hermitage was founded by a grandson of the 
 founder of "Whitby Abbey, whose father was dead before 1148, 
 we may assume that the chapel, at the latest, belonged to a 
 very early period in the twelfth century, though we cannot 
 affirm that it had an Anglian prototype. Most likely the 
 Ugglebarnby and Aislaby chapels were more or less contem- 
 poraneous, as to the time of their building, with that of 
 Dunsley. 
 
 As regards the chapel of Fyling, it is to be observed that 
 
The Old Whitby Hermitages 245 
 
 special mention is made of it in a confirmation by Archbishop 
 Thurstan, which we are able to date in either 1131 or 1132. 
 The same document also names the chapel of Sneaton, so that 
 we are aware that at that early date chapels were extant at 
 both the places named. The fine and interesting Norman 
 font, still happily in being in the modern church of Sneaton, 
 although victimised by scraping or paring, would of itself be 
 sufficient to attest the early date of the elder Norman edifice. 
 But regrettably there is nothing now to suggest, and much 
 more to assure the belief that there was an earlier or Anglian 
 structure there. 
 
 In pausing to speak of these early appurtenances of the 
 mother church of Whitby, I have been led away from the 
 subject which was most in my mind — I mean the "heremitoria'' 
 or hermitages mentioned as parts of the original grant to the 
 renascent Convent, or becoming parts of its belongings no 
 long time afterwards. The two specially mentioned in the 
 grant are " Eschedale " and " Mulegrif " (Mulgrave). Of the 
 former there is no need to speak further after what has been 
 said above. Of the latter it may be otherwise. So too with 
 respect to the " heremitorium " of Godeland or Goathland, 
 which became in the time of the first Henry a part of the 
 belongings of the Abbey of Whitby. 
 
 There seems to be a considerable measure of indefiniteness 
 alike in the mention made and the conceptions formed rela- 
 tively to the hermit and the hermitage by the earlier Whitby 
 historians. Thus Young, when speaking of what he calls the 
 Grodeland Hermitage, says : " Besides the cells our Abbey had 
 several lesser dependencies called 'hermitages.' One of these 
 was in Godeland. It was granted by Henry I. to one Osmund, 
 a priest, and a few brethren who took up their habitation 
 there. . . . The hermitage seems to have been little frequented 
 for some time previous to the Dissolution, a remark which is 
 applicable to the hermitages in general, as the monks of that 
 age preferred the luxuries of the convent to the sweets of 
 
246 Old Whitby Chapels and Hermitages 
 
 retirement." And a little further on we find him writing: 
 "On the whole, it appears that all the hermitages were 
 established about one period, and that, in the course of some 
 years, the heremitical life becoming unfashionable, most of 
 them were either entirely abolished or converted into chapels.'' 
 
 One can hardly restrain a smile on reading of the un- 
 fashionableness of heremitical life, or the cessation of fre- 
 quenting hermitages. The ideas presented are so laughably 
 incongruous. 
 
 Now what are the ideas usually associated by the ordinary 
 reader with the terms " hermit " and " hermitage " % Are they 
 not somewhat vague and indistinct? Dr. Young, as we see, 
 hovers between the ideas of a retired life, a life of frequented 
 services, the life of a recluse, and a life which depended upon 
 fashion, vogue, or the feeling of the day. Then again, the 
 surmise that " all the hermitages were established about one 
 period," and that period (as appears from a sentence or two 
 preceding the reference to the general subject of the hermit- 
 ages) not very remote from that of "the establishment of the 
 abbey." Is that very much more reasonable than the others 
 which were just now adverted to ? 
 
 Let us look a little more closely at the actual meaning of 
 the words we are commenting on — "hermit," namely, and 
 "hermitage." Eremita, heremite, hermit, "a dweller in a 
 desert, one who lives in solitude '' ; such is the meaning given 
 by the etymologist, which carries us back at once to the true 
 prevailing original idea. " Ascetics," says Bingham (ii. 242), 
 "there always were in the Church; but the monastic life, 
 neither name nor thing, was known till toward the fourth 
 century. . . . The rise of it was thus. In the Decian perse- 
 cution, which was about the middle of the third century, many 
 persons in Egypt, to avoid the fury of the storm, fled to the 
 neighbouring deserts and mountains, where they not only 
 found a safe retreat, but also more time and liberty to exercise 
 themselves in acts of piety and divine contemplations ; which 
 
The trite meaning of " Hermit " 247 
 
 sort of life, though at first forced upon them by necessity, 
 became so agreeable to some of them that, when the persecu- 
 tion was over, they would not return to their ancient habita- 
 tions again, but chose rather to continue in those cottages or 
 cells which they had made themselves in the wilderness. The 
 first and most noted of these were Paul and Antonius, two 
 famous Egyptians, whom therefore St. Jerome calls 'the 
 fathers of the Christian hermits.' . . . But as yet there were 
 no bodies or communities of men embracing this life. . . . 
 TiU the year 250 there were no monks, but only ascetics in 
 the Church; from that time to the reign of Constantine 
 monachism was confined to the anchorets living in private 
 cells in the wilderness. But after monasteries had arisen in 
 Egypt, other countries followed the example. Thus there 
 were no monasteries in Italy or Rome till after 340, when 
 Athanasius taught the anchorets to live in societies, after the 
 example of the Egyptian monks." 
 
 The "etymological" meaning of "hermit" was given a 
 little above ; let us notice the same kind of meaning of the 
 two other, not equivalent but correlative, words which have 
 occurred once or oftener in these extracts from Bingham's 
 Antiquities of the Church. Professor Skeat defines anchoret 
 by the terms "a recluse, hermit," and quoting the Greek 
 original, gives the more expanded signification of "literally, 
 one who has retired from the world." About "monk" the 
 same authority writes "a religious recluse," from the Greek 
 word which signifies "solitary." In short, the leading ideas 
 in the two words severally are those of retiring or withdrawing 
 from the world, the haunts of men, and of leading a lonely or 
 solitary life, that of " hermit " being " a dweller in the wild 
 hiding-places of the wilderness or desert." 
 
 One consideration likely to suggest itself to any one thinking 
 of these things would surely be that, if anchorets, hermits, and, 
 in the earlier stages, monks also, were of such a description — 
 men retiring from society and living in private cells, or even 
 
248 Old Whitby Chapels and Hermitages 
 
 in caves or rude huts in the wilderness, and retiring, moreover, 
 either for shelter in times of persecution or for the greater 
 facility of leading religious lives — there must of necessity have 
 been a more or less complete absence of what woidd be called 
 nowadays the "clerical element" among them. Besides, as 
 Bingham remarks, the monks originally could^be "no more 
 than laymen ; for being confined to the wilderness, the 
 clerical and monastic life were upon that account incompatible 
 states; and for almost one whole age they were scarce ever 
 joined together." 
 
 Again, another consideration of the same character would 
 suggest that when (to adopt Dr. Young's phraseology) eremitism 
 became "fashionable" it would naturally happen that the 
 same "desert," "wilderness," place of isolation, whether more 
 or less wild or savage, might be or would be adopted by 
 more than one person, or perhaps by more than two or three, 
 acting under the influence of the same motives or bent upon 
 the same quest ; a thing which indeed, in point of fact, really 
 did happen, and in more instances than possibly we of this 
 nineteenth century might be inclined at first sight to allow for. 
 These groups of anchorets, or men who retired from society 
 and took to living, some of them "in private cells in the 
 wilderness," others "in caves, or little tents or cells," were all 
 called by one common name, Laura,, which differed from a 
 ccenobium or community in this, that there were in it many 
 cells divided from each other, where every solitary or monk 
 provided for himself ; but a ccenobium was but one habita- 
 tion, where the monks lived in society and had all things in 
 common. 
 
 I pause here for a moment to suggest to the reader that 
 all this receives illustration from, as well as throws light upon, 
 what we know from Adamnan and others about the monastic 
 communities or ccenobia which were established, and maintained 
 themselves, in the north of England, — in lona, let us say, or 
 Wearmouth, or Hartlepool, or even our own Whitby. When 
 
Early Idea of a religious or solitary Life 249 
 
 Reinfrid came thither, we are told, the ancient dwellers in the 
 country-side could tell of the well-nigh forty monasteria or 
 oratoria which were among the ruins left of what had been 
 Hild's hallowed foundation, their roofless walls only remaining 
 with their violated altars to attest the order which had once 
 prevailed there, and to tell something touching the fashion 
 and manner of the same. 
 
 To men and women — for there were both, be it remembered, 
 in the Streaneshalh establishment — accustomed to such grouping 
 and surroundings, the original idea of the life of the hermit, 
 the anchoret, or single monk can hardly have been a strange 
 one, and still less the idea of a group of persons who, originally 
 solitary, had, through mutual association, come to band them- 
 selves together into a regular community. That there would 
 be among them clerical members or "priests" goes without 
 saying. The idea of a "religious life" which excluded the 
 priestly order would indeed have been a strange one in those 
 days ; but it would have been stranger far to think of a 
 community of that nature — embracing religious women as well 
 as religious men — as mainly clerical, or as containing more of 
 the priestly order than were necessary for the spiritual advan- 
 tage and welfare of the community at large. 
 
 The idea of a solitary life, then, the life of a recluse or 
 hermit, as aiding in or forming the greater part of a religious 
 life, must have been' clearly familiar to the minds of the 
 religiously disposed of the Lady Hild's period and the times 
 immediately following. And I cannot therefore accept Dr. 
 Young's notion that all the Whitby hermitages were established 
 at one period, and that period distinctly subsequent to the 
 re-establishing of the monastery during the closing years of 
 the eleventh century. On the contrary, I hold that, the ideas 
 of a religious life having been what they notoriously were in 
 Anglian times in the north, and never having hardened into 
 any stricter system than that of the coenobitical life which is 
 known to have prevailed in Anglian monasteries, the origin of 
 
250 Old Whitby Chapels and Hermitages 
 
 these hermitages within or just beyond the limits of the Whitby 
 liberty must be looked for in the earlier ages of the Northern 
 Church. We might expect to find traces even of the group- 
 ing together of two or more hermits or solitaries in some 
 places, and such would almost certainly be found had we 
 but the necessary sources of information or opportunities of 
 investigation. 
 
 I was struck, when editing the Bievaulx Chartulary, at 
 finding in a charter by Roger de Mowbray, which could not 
 be dated much, if at all, later than the middle of the twelfth 
 century, distinct mention of a place whereat a hermit had 
 formerly had his abode, and of the name of the hermit himself. 
 The place could by its description be localised as in the 
 northernmost portion of Farndale. The elevation of that part 
 of Farndale is not much under 1400 feet, and its character 
 was indicated by the use of the word "saltus" in its descrip- 
 tion. The site of Rievaulx itself, fair as all there is now, had 
 been described but a few years before as "locus horroris et 
 vastse solitudinis," or "a place of dread, a waste lonely 
 wilderness"; but what must Middle-head in Farndale -head 
 have been at the same epoch ! And yet it was there that 
 "Edmund the Hermit" had once had his abode, and, wild 
 beasts and weather notwithstanding, had lived a life of pious 
 asceticism. 
 
 Next, and at a date nearly approximate, let us notice the 
 terms of the endowment of the hermitage in Dunsley Wood 
 near Mulgrave — for the hermitage is spoken of as already in 
 being. "This hermitage," says the author of the charter, 
 with the lands assigned to it as above, "I have given and 
 granted to be directed by and subject to the Church of St. 
 Peter and St. Hilda of Whitby, on condition that there shall 
 be perpetually celebrated there divine service by some priest 
 from thence, but always respecting the rights of the Chapel 
 of Dunsley." I have given this translation as exactly as 
 possible, in order that the extent of the grant may be precisely 
 
Charters touching the Hermitage of Code land 2 5 1 
 
 noted. The usual terms are, " I have given and granted Deo 
 et S. Petro et S. Hildm," but in the deed just quoted they 
 are "in obedientiam et subjectionem Ecclesise S. Petri et S. 
 Hyldse," which is an unusual form. The more usual form is 
 adopted by the benefactor's son, in his charter of confirmation, 
 vtrhich gives, grants, and confirms " Deo et S. Petro et S. Hildse 
 de Witebi," the said hermitage and all that thereto appertains. 
 
 Now take all this in connection with the fact that the 
 hermitage of Mulegrif as well as that of Eschedale is men- 
 tioned in the earliest notice we have of gifts and grants made 
 to the renascent Abbey of Whitby, and I think the inference 
 that these hermitages were extant before William de Perci, 
 the founder, made his formal grants to the Abbey becomes 
 well-nigh irresistible. 
 
 But we have still to look at the grant, and the terms of 
 grant made in respect of the Godeland hermitage. 
 
 In the first place, let us take notice of the date of the 
 documents from which our knowledge is derived. There are 
 three of them, and all three charters of grant by Henry the 
 First. This throws us back to the first thirty-five years of the 
 twelfth century. But further, they were issued during the 
 presidency of Archbishop Thomas of York, which limits the 
 date to the six years between 1108 and 1114. At some time 
 within these six years the king makes grant, using remarkable 
 phraseology in wording the grant, of a special place to certain 
 specified parties, for a special purpose. The parties were 
 Osmund the priest and the brethren of Godeland. The 
 purpose or object of the grant was " ad hospitandum pauperes " 
 ("for the purpose of treating poor people as guests"). But 
 the place is not localised specially, however apparent it may 
 be that it is within the Godeland district. It is simply spoken 
 of as " ipsum locum," "the place itself," or "the precise place.'' 
 It would take a great deal of ingenuity, when the brotherhood 
 of Godeland and the precise or special place are thus mentioned 
 together, to show that the brethren and the place had no bond 
 
252 Old Whitby Chapels and Hermitages 
 
 of connection. There is no alternative to the conclusion that 
 the place had been occupied by these " f ratres de Godelandia '' 
 in the time anterior to the king's interposition ; and I think 
 we may also infer that they had been under the direction if 
 not the headship of a priest. 
 
 We must next notice that in that which is surely the 
 second of the three charters, and which, in point of time, is 
 closely subsequent to the first, the phraseology is slightly modi- 
 fied. The charter recites that the king grants and confirms to 
 the Godeland brethren ("fratribus de Godelandia"), but without 
 special mention of Osmund the priest, " ipsum locum de Gode- 
 landia," with certain other gifts of land, pasturage, and privi- 
 leges of a valuable character as well as considerable in amount. 
 
 But if it be asked, " What had the king to do with the 
 matter, whether as regards the 'ipsum locum' or the new 
 concessions of arable land, or the pasture and other forest 
 privileges ? " the answer brings to the point other considera- 
 tions which certainly should not be ignored. 
 
 In the case of the hermitage in Farndale, where the eremite 
 Edmund had in times past had his abiding-place, it is to be 
 noticed that Roger de Mowbray was named as the grantor. 
 He was the lord of the fee which embraced the valleys or 
 dales of which Farndale constituted one, and as lord of the 
 fee he " held under " the king. At Goathland, however, there 
 was no mesne lord, or lord holding under the king. The king 
 was lord himself. In other words, Goathland was within, and 
 a dependency of, the royal manor and forest of Pickering; 
 and thus the "ipse locus" occupied in times preceding the 
 royal grant we are considering was within the wastes and 
 solitudes of the king's forest. 
 
 But that is not all. These " fratres de Godelandia " settled 
 in the wild wastes — and any one with only a moderate amount 
 of sympathetic observation may see, as he flits along the 
 railway towards Levisham on a dree or stormy winter's day, 
 what the wastes of Goathland must have been eight centuries 
 
Godeland Hermitage in the Kings Forest 253 
 
 ago — just as in the early times the anchorets, who withdrew 
 from the haunts of men to the solitudes of the desert or the 
 wilderness, had fixed their living-place, whether hut, tent, 
 den, or cave, there without any one's leave asked or given. 
 But things had altered, and were still altering greatly as 
 regards land and its belongings and privileges, when Henry, 
 the first of the name, came to the throne, and more particularly 
 when he had been some few years king, and was more than 
 beginning to consolidate his power. Consequently the " ipse 
 locus," which had been lightly entered on at first, no one 
 gainsaying or thinking of interference, needed now to be 
 assured to the holy man or men who had sought its shelter, 
 actual or possible, when it had been in the main practically 
 regarded as " no man's land." 
 
 Hence the intervention of the king, and his grant and the 
 recognition of the quasi-claim founded upon use and wont of 
 long-standing occupation. For I cannot think that the gather- 
 ing together of that band of brothers had been the work of 
 a few weeks or months only, any more than I can look upon 
 them as anything else than as a band of laymen, saving only 
 the priest Osmund, who had somehow come to be regarded 
 and treated with as their superior. He may have been the 
 originator of the movement which led to their gathering 
 together, or he may have been called in after the band had 
 been some time in process of accretion, in order to constitute 
 the band as a religious community. 
 
 As illustrative of this point we have but to recall to our 
 memory the history of the earlier stages of the movement 
 which resulted in the reconstruction of the holy house of 
 Whitby itself. Freeman {Norman Conquest, iv. 665) tells the 
 story thus : " It came into the hearts of certain monks in a 
 distant shire, who had read in Baeda how full Northumbria 
 once was of holy places, to set forth on a missionary enterprise 
 to the benighted land of the north. The leader of them was 
 Ealdwine, Prior of Winchcombe. In the neighbouring house 
 
2 54 Old Whitby Chapels and Hermitages 
 
 of Evesham he found two brethren like-minded with himself — 
 ^Ifwine, a deacon, and Eegenfrith, seemingly a lay-brother." 
 This Eegenfrith is simply our Whitby Eeinfrid with his name 
 spelt with strict accuracy, and he is mentioned by Symeon of 
 Durham in his account of the transaction as "ignarus litterarum " 
 or without learning — "unlettered,'' as we sometimes express 
 it. This is the explanation of Freeman's phrase "seemingly 
 a lay-brother," and no doubt he is right in the surmise. The 
 narrative may be very well continued from the story of the 
 foundation of the coenobium of St. Mary's at York as told 
 (professedly) by its first abbot, Stephen of Whitby. After 
 saying that in the year 1078 he assumed the habit of the 
 monkish profession, he states that at that time certain brethren 
 leading an eremitical life there — at Whitby, namely — had 
 conceived the desire and the purpose of restoring the place, 
 once so famous for the religious life of its inmates, to something 
 at least approaching to its pristine holiness. Among these 
 "fratres" Eeinfrid was principal. He had sojourned for a 
 time at a place called Jarrow, as a " solitary," employing his 
 time in divine contemplation, although no long time elapsed 
 before many, led by a longing for his converse, associated 
 themselves with him, and submitted themselves to the direction 
 of a strict rule. After a while, still mindful of his original 
 desire, he delegated his position to others, and intent as before 
 on leading the life of a solitary, came to Whitby, where again, 
 when once his repute had become known, many persons resorted 
 to him with the desire of continuing in his society. 
 
 Now, little as I trust this writer's account of what took 
 place at Whitby in connection with the government of the 
 rejuvenated religious establishment, there is no reason to doubt 
 that his representation of the circumstances of the time, as set 
 forth in such phrases as "heremiticam vitam ducentes," "divine 
 contemplationi vacans solitarius extitit," "solitariam vitam 
 ducendi gratia, Wyttebeiam venit," "sed ibi quoque, audita 
 ejus fama, plures ei sociati sunt," is substantially accurate. 
 
Possible Origin of Godeland Hermitage 255 
 
 On the contrary, it is consonant with all we know and all we 
 can picture for ourselves of the feelings and the practice of the 
 times. And it is illustrated by the general series of extracts 
 from Bingham's Christian Antiquities given a little above.^ 
 
 Regarding Eeinfrid's motives, objects, proceedings and 
 final success, from this point of view, how can we help asso- 
 ciating therewith the proceedings which eventually resulted 
 in the formation of the band of " fratres de Godelandia " 1 
 There too we may suppose that some man like-minded with 
 Reinfrid, unacquainted as he was with the learning or literature 
 of the time, and also, like Reinfrid, a layman, retired to the 
 wilderness of Godeland, attracted others to him by his asceticism 
 or the fame of his piety, joined them in a brotherhood when 
 numbers and circumstances permitted, and made it in the 
 issue — we do not know how long first — a religious brotherhood 
 indeed, by placing the community, the cmnobiwm, under the 
 spiritual direction and recognised organisation of Osmund the 
 Presbyter. 
 
 We have still to consider the meaning of the phrase 
 employed in the first of the three charters granted by King 
 Henry, namely, "ad hospitandum pauperes,'' "for the purpose 
 of treating poor folks as guests." 
 
 I do not think that special attention has been drawn to 
 this matter by any existing historian of Whitby. It is true 
 that, while Young practically ignores it altogether, Charlton 
 does in his way advert to it. He makes Henry "give to 
 Osmund the priest and his fraternity in Godeland . . . that 
 place to lodge and entertain the poor '' ; and he adds, though, 
 as usual, without a particle of authority, that " Osmund and 
 his fraternity being accordingly put in possession of Godeland, 
 erected a hermitage, built a few huts, and lived there some- 
 time ; but were so much straitened in their circumstances 
 that they found it again necessary to apply to the king, who 
 granted them another charter," etc. This paragraph, which is 
 
 1 Pp. 246, 247. 
 
256 Old Whitby Chapels and Herimtages 
 
 partly due to absolute invention and partly to misconception, 
 at least ignores the expression we are noticing. 
 
 M. Jusserand is a reader and student of old records of 
 another stamp, and in his book English Wayfaring lAfe in the 
 Fourteenth Century we find him remarking that " in the 
 convents hospitality was a religious duty; for the Order of 
 St. John of Jerusalem the first of duties. This Order had 
 establishments all over England, and it was good fortune for 
 the poor traveller to come to one of them. No doubt he was 
 treated there according to his rank, but it was much not to 
 find the door closed." A little further on he writes: "Only 
 people of high rank were admitted in the monastery itself. 
 The mass of travellers, pilgrims and others, were housed and 
 fed in the guest-house. This was a building made on purpose 
 to receive passers-by ; it usually stood by itself, and was even 
 sometimes erected outside the precincts of the monastery." And 
 yet again : " It must have been only the very poor or the very 
 rich or powerful for whom the monastery served as a hostelry. 
 Monks received the first in charity, and the second by necessity." 
 And once again, and speaking of the harbourage the wayfarer 
 might chance to fall in with in the course of his journeyings, 
 the same writer observes that over and above the roadside 
 inns or alehouses "other isolated houses that were found along 
 the road had also constant relations with travellers, those of 
 the hermits." But he continues : "In the fourteenth century 
 hermits for the most part seldom sought the solitude of deserts 
 or the depth of the woods. Such as Robert Eolle of Hampole 
 fasting, falling into ecstasies, were rare exceptions." 
 
 But even this sufiices to point to what the hermit had been 
 in the ages preceding the fourteenth century, and the custom 
 which continued of receiving charity from the passers-by 
 attests the fact that the days had been when gifts and oblations 
 had been asked and received from the wealthier or better-to- 
 do classes as they passed in their travellings, in behalf not 
 only of the hermit himself, but of those manifold others who 
 
The Godeland Hermitage near Great Roads 257 
 
 were constrained in those hard days to take to the road for 
 one reason if not another. At the present day, says the 
 French author we have quoted from, " there are but few way- 
 farers. ... It was otherwise in the Middle Ages ; many persons 
 were bound to a wandering existence, and started even from 
 infancy on their life-long journey. Some trotted their strange 
 industries in the broad sunshine, through the dust of the high- 
 roads ; others skulked in bye-lanes or even in coppices, hiding 
 their heads from the sheriflPs officer ; maybe a criminal, maybe 
 a fugitive, a 'wolf's head' that every one may cut down, 
 according to the terrible expression of an English jurist of 
 the thirteenth century. Among these were many labourers 
 who had broken the villein's bond, unhappy and oppressed in 
 their hamlets, who wandered through the country in quest of 
 work, as though flight could enfranchise them. . . . Among 
 them were pedlars laden with petty wares, pilgrims begging 
 along the roads, living by alms, and many another besides, of 
 whom and whose ways of life we can scarcely form a concep- 
 tion at the present date." Truly there would be no lack of 
 "pauperes" then for the self-devoted religious solitary, or 
 band of solitaries, to receive and deal with as guests sent by 
 Providence; and especially on or near the line of tracks or 
 ways leading from one district to another. 
 
 Now the Groathland Hermitage could not possibly be very 
 remote from more than one ancient track-way leading from 
 the parts nearer the centre of the county to places of more or 
 less customary resort. Place it (as some with whom I by no 
 means agree have sought to do) at the locality called Abbot 
 House, it is barely a mile off the route of what must have 
 been for ages a line of way or road (such as roads were so 
 many centuries ago) from the Pickering district to the Whitby 
 district. Put it nearer the church (which, assuming that the 
 church stands on or near its ancient site, I should be much 
 more inclined to do), and it is but a mile from what was, at 
 that time, by far the most important and infinitely the best 
 
 s 
 
258 Old Whitby Chapels and Hermitages 
 
 thoroughfare between Malton and the heart of the Whitby 
 district — I mean the Roman Eoad. The same holds good 
 again with the Dunsley Hermitage. Utterly scouting, as I 
 do, the idea that the Eoman Road terminated at, or anywhere 
 in the vicinity of, the village of Dunsley, and, on the contrary, 
 maintaining that it passed Dunsley some little distance on the 
 west, crossing the Mulgrave ravine, and making its course as 
 the gradients would permit under the splendidly able direction 
 of the Eoman engineers, to its terminus no great way from 
 Goldsborough, there can be no question from the indications 
 of a local nature given in de Percy's charter, vague though 
 they may be, as to the site of the hermitage in question — so 
 far as this, namely — that it was in the near neighbourhood of 
 the great military way. And it hardly need be added that 
 considerations of the same general nature are by no means 
 precluded by the assumed site of the Eskdale Hermitage. 
 
 Perhaps a few words more, touching the further history 
 of the Godeland Hermitage as we are enabled to read it in 
 King Henry's three charters, will scarcely be looked upon as 
 altogether out of place. We observed that in his first charter 
 he gave the site (" ipsum locum ") of the already existing hermit- 
 age, together with all and every right thereto appertaining, 
 to Osmund Presbiter and the brothers of Godeland. In the 
 second — it stands the third in the Abbot's Book — he confirms 
 that gift and adds besides a carucate — about 120 acres — of 
 land for ploughing, with pasture for their stock throughout 
 the Pickering pasturage, timber for their buildings, brushwood 
 for their fences, and dead wood for their hearth. The third 
 deed, however, is of a different nature. In the first place it 
 states a fact ; in the second it gives formal sanction to the act 
 specified in the mention of the fact, the deed having been done 
 with the royal approval and consent. The charter is addressed 
 to the same three notabilities as are the preceding two, — a 
 circumstance which makes it probable that no great space of 
 time was permitted to intervene between the execution of the 
 
Terms of the Kings Charters 259 
 
 first and the last. These three men of mark were the Arch- 
 bishop of York, Nigel de Albini, and Osbert, Sheriff of the 
 County of York; while Eobert de Brus attests the deed in 
 either case, although the first was executed at Windsor, the 
 next, and the last also, at York. "I do you to wit," is the 
 language of the document, " that, whereas Osmund Presbiter 
 and the brethren of Godeland, to whom I granted the site 
 (' ipsum locum '), have, with my acquiescence and consent, sur- 
 rendered themselves and the said hermitage of Godeland, with 
 all that appertains thereto, to God and the Church of Whitby 
 and the Abbot and Convent of that place, with the view of 
 being invested with the habit of Eeligion in the Chapter (and 
 chapter-house) of the monks, and of living in obedience to, and 
 according to the discipline and direction of the Abbot, and of 
 receiving the rites of burial in the monks' cemetery : I therefore 
 will and authoritatively require that the said Abbot and monks 
 do and may dispose of the said brethren according to the rule 
 of St. Benedict, and by this my charter I confirm to them the 
 aforesaid hermitage of Godeland, with all belonging to it, to 
 have and to hold fully, freely," etc. The final clause, however 
 likely to be overlooked, is notwithstanding of interest to 
 the student ; for it is : " And I desire that no man whatever 
 should presume to interfere with the said brethren of Godeland, 
 or with the hermitage in particular, or anything belonging 
 thereto, except only the Abbot of Whitby and persons duly 
 deputed by him." 
 
 The passage is interesting because it makes it entirely clear 
 that, although the Goathland brothers were to be permitted 
 to assume the Benedictine monkish habit, to have their place 
 " in choro et capitulo " precisely as the Whitby monks proper 
 had, and on their decease to be buried as the monks were and 
 in their special burying-ground, still their hermitage was to 
 remain intact, and they were still, in actual fact, to remain 
 resident "fratres de Godelandia." In other words, as I take 
 it, the duty implied in the words " ad hospitandum pauperes " 
 
26o Old Whitby Chapels and Hermitages 
 
 still remained incumbent upon them. Indeed I feel by no 
 means certain that the entire transaction may not be looked 
 upon in the light of what we customarily speak of as " a new 
 departure " taken by the king. 
 
 No one fairly conversant with the early chapters of the 
 English history but is aware of the troubles, leading to any- 
 thing rather than good domestic government, of the first half- 
 dozen years of Henry's reign, and is aware also that, whatever 
 the period may have been for the upper classes, it had been 
 one of " evil customs " for the Church, and of exactions and 
 oppressions for the lower classes. Much or most had gone 
 wrong, and the class of the " pauperes " had almost indefinitely 
 increased. But "with the victory of Tenchebray in 1106 
 Henry was free to enter on that work of administration which 
 was to make his name memorable in our history. Successful 
 as his wars had been, he was in his heart no warrior, but a 
 statesman. . . . He had little of that far-reaching originality 
 by which the Conqueror stamped himself and his will on the 
 very fabric of our history. But he had the passion for order, 
 the love of justice, the faculty of organisation, the power of 
 steady and unwavering rule, which was needed to complete 
 . the Conqueror's work. . . . Within his realm the licence 
 of the baronage was held sternly down, and justice secured 
 for all. . . . 'While he mastered the foremost counts and 
 lords and the boldest tyrants, he ever cherished and protected 
 peaceful men, and men of religion, and men of the middle 
 class.'" 
 
 Such are John Richard Green's words (or some of them) 
 touching the king whose Goathland Hermitage charters we 
 have been pausing over for a space ; and in them I think we 
 may possibly find material for some small illustration of the 
 spirit and the policy in pursuit of which he took the line his 
 charters show that he adopted, in not only recognising the 
 hermit-brotherhood and their objects, but also aiding in the 
 furtherance of the same by what was, over and above his 
 
Two other Hermitages 261 
 
 special countenance and protection, a great, almost a splendid 
 endowment. 
 
 Perhaps the general subject of the hermitages in which 
 the Convent of Whitby had an interest would be left more 
 satisfactorily if it were mentioned that, besides the hermitage 
 of Westcroft (apparently in the Hutton Bushell direction) 
 which is mentioned in the " Memorial," there was yet another 
 hermitage which came into the Convent's possession at a 
 somewhat later date. This was the hermitage of Saltbum, 
 lying, however, within the territory of Upleatham. The grantor 
 or donor in this case was a Roger de Argentum, and the grant 
 must have been made early in the thirteenth century, as Prior 
 Laurence of Guisborough was one of the parties attesting, and 
 he is known to have been prior in 1211. In this case, again, 
 the name of a former occupying hermit is given — " Brother 
 Archil." I do not think any attempt has ever been made to 
 fix the exact position of this cell. It is described as having 
 been on the bank of the Holebeck, and the chief matter of 
 interest connected with it is that de Argentum calls it "Ms 
 hermitage," dealing with it as his personal property, and 
 specifying that it had certain " easements and liberties in lands 
 and pastures and waters " attached to it, which the Convent 
 were for the future to deal with as they would. 
 
DETAILED INQUIRY TOUCHING BURGAGE 
 IN WHITBY, AND ITS TRUE IMPORT 
 
 That the Tollbooth had its site, its "local habitation," in 
 Crossgate down to the time of the Dissolution is sufficiently 
 assured by the extracts from " Ministers' Accounts " cited in a 
 preceding section. Whether it was removed thence and built 
 or rebuilt elsewhere at some time subsequent to the year 1 540 
 and previously to 1640, there is no evidence, so far as I am 
 aware, to prove, nor even data on which to found a presump- 
 tion. And certainly probability does not seem to favour the 
 supposition. As situate in Crossgate it was placed in the then 
 most closely built-upon part of the town. Crossgate, as we 
 have seen, was certainly far the shortest street in Whitby, and 
 yet upon it were built no less than one-fourth of the sum total 
 of dwelling-houses apparently existing within the limits of the 
 contemporary, town. Besides that, whatever the means of 
 transit from the old market-stede, — the centre to which con- 
 verged the three important gates or ways named Baxtergate, 
 Flowergate, and Haggleseagate ; whether such transit were 
 by ferry, by ford, or by bridge (probably the latter, with the 
 old St. Ninian's Chapel at the Baxtergate end of it),^the other 
 end could by no possibility have been many feet distant from 
 Crossgate. And last but not least is the consideration that 
 this same street must then necessarily and unavoidably have 
 been the main or principal means of access to the harbour or 
 port of Whitby; which was above the bridge, it must be 
 
The Tollbooth halt by Sir Hugh Cholmley 263 
 
 remembered. And all these considerations would continue to 
 have weight until Whitby, besides recovering from the dis- 
 turbing and damaging effects of the Dissolution, had begun to 
 thrive as a market town, and so to expand in other directions 
 as to rob Crossgate of its superior advantages and claims. It 
 is not therefore very likely that for a considerable term of 
 years there would be any call for a new tollbooth on a new 
 and more commodious site. 
 
 But this brings us to the contemplation of the fact 
 chronicled by Dr. Young (p. 589) in the following terms : 
 "The toll-booth in the Market-place was built by Sir Hugh 
 Cholmley in the year 1640 ; and his son Sir William Cholmley 
 supplied it with a town-clock about twenty years after. This 
 building becoming decayed, or being deemed unsuitable to the 
 improved state of Whitby, was taken down by the late 
 Nathanael Cholmley, Esq., who in 1788 erected instead the 
 present elegant town-hall," — the building, that is to say, which 
 we at the end of the nineteenth century have still before our 
 eyes. 
 
 Assuming the accuracy of the date given, as well as that 
 of the statement in other particulars, I think that the only 
 safe and justifiable conclusion is, that when Sir Hugh Cholmley 
 built the Tollbooth in the Market-place in 1 640, it was intended 
 to supersede the old Tolbothe which we know was standing 
 in Crossgate less than a century earlier. Of the removal of 
 this at any previous date we have no record, but it may well 
 have become decayed and too little commodious by that time, 
 so that under the altered and altering circumstances of the 
 town, a new building would meet all requirements much more 
 satisfactorily in the close vicinity, if not the very heart, of the 
 new Market-place. 
 
 But I am far from thinking that the inquiry as to the site 
 of the old Market-place or that of the mediseval "tolbothe " is 
 the only, or even chief, matter of interest suggested by the 
 mention of places or particulars connected with the economic 
 
264 Inquiry touching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 history of Old WMtby. On the contrary, I think that the 
 reference to such places and particulars suggests more than 
 one or two topics of inquiry and investigation, and of more 
 than mere passing interest. And as one case in point I would 
 refer to a document dated in 1357, and printed in the Whithy 
 Chartulary as No. 571 (vol. ii. p. 513). 
 
 The document in question purports to be a formal grant 
 and lease for two years by the Abbot and Convent of Whitby 
 to Robert de Brus, of Preston near West Ayton, and Nicholas 
 del Werk (Aldwark), York, in consideration of a sum of ready 
 money (not specified) of all the conventual forms called 
 " burghmales," tolls, customs, accruing whether by sea or by 
 land, together with tallage and all proceeds and benefits issuing 
 out of their vill of Whitby, such as had hitherto been cus- 
 tomarily received by the Convent bailiff, excepting only court 
 fees and perquisites of whatsoever kind. 
 
 Further, in an account-roll, an extract from which is printed 
 by Dr. Young (and in Whitly Chartulary, p. 625), and which 
 belongs to the year 1460, the ferm of the vill of Whitby itself 
 is put down at £6 : : 5, the tolls and customs as producing 
 £3:2:7 a year, and the " burmells " as amounting to £i 
 yearly. 
 
 In the next place, from the matters which are printed in 
 the Chartulary as Nos. 589, 590, and 591, which are copies 
 of three other account-rolls (two of them extending over an 
 approximate half year, and the third embracing a whole year), 
 it appears that the customary payment to the bursar of the 
 Convent, at a period sixty years earlier, under the head of 
 tolls and customs, was £10 for the half year; the ferm of the 
 vill of Whitby in the first of these rolls standing at £3 : 8 : 8, 
 and in the other two at £3 : 5 s. But I do not take this 
 sum as equivalent to, or inclusive of, the "burghmales" or 
 " burmells " noted in the preceding extracts, because the terms 
 of the grant to Robert de Brus and his associate are such as 
 to preclude any such conclusion being arrived at. Indeed the 
 
The meaning of ' Males" "Mails" or" Metis' 265 
 
 terms employed prove absolutely that the burghmales are not 
 included in the tolls and customs. 
 
 Now several matters are suggested for notice and considera- 
 tion in the entries or extracts thus cited. 
 
 In the first place, while we notice the evident existence at 
 the very close of the fourteenth century of the system of letting 
 out to farm divers of the sources of the Conventual revenues, 
 we have to notice also that in 1460 the united sum of 
 "burmells" and of tolls and customs only amounts to 
 £7 : 2 : 7, as against £20 in 1394-95. And this circumstance, 
 as well as what is meant by "burghmales" or "burmells," 
 may very well claim a measure of attention and inquiry at 
 our hands ; and perhaps it may be expedient to begin with 
 the last. 
 
 I remember being struck with the form and application of 
 the word when I was busily engaged with the preparation of 
 the second volume of the Chartulary, and collating with it the 
 term " brennyngmale," which I had met with in some writings 
 connected with the manor of Wilton, near Redcar. There were 
 two local sources of revenue to the lords of the said manor so 
 designated ; and as connected with another like or analogous 
 payment called "turflad " (?= turf -load or turf -leading), I had 
 no doubt it meant an impost, levied in some form or other, 
 upon fuel or material for burning. 
 
 The word " male " or " mail " has, however, practically long 
 been obsolete in this country, its only manner of survival 
 seeming to be limited to the half -technical compound "black- 
 mail." Halliwell gives this as an "archaic " word, and defines 
 it by " rent or annual payment formerly extorted by the border 
 robbers." And it seems as if it were hard to keep the ideas 
 of " rent " and " payment exacted " apart. Jamieson, in his 
 Scottish Dictionary, does so by giving the first meaning for 
 " mail " or " male " as " tribute, duty paid to a superior " ; and 
 the second and third as " rent paid for a farm or possession, 
 or for a house or anything of which one has the use." Under 
 
266 Inquiry touching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 the first, moreover, he gives the iUustration " burrowmailles, 
 duties payable within burghs." 
 
 Now it is quite clear that in " burrowmailles " we have 
 our own word " burghmales " or "burmells " reproduced, and 
 only very slightly disguised in form. 
 
 But before following this out to its corollaries or con- 
 sequences it may be desirable to bestow a little more 
 consideration on the term " mail " or " male " itself in the 
 connection it certainly once had in England (and not only 
 Northern England) at one period of England's economic 
 history. There can be little or no doubt that, in Vinogradoflf's 
 words, " etymologically there is reason to believe that the 
 term mal is of Danish origin ; and the meaning has been kept 
 in practice by the Scotch dialect.'' And there is equally little 
 doubt that its use in the way of describing certain of the 
 obligations which lay upon the holders of lands and tenements 
 towards those of whom they held — the obligation of an 
 equivalent payment, or, in one word, rent — is equally old and 
 well understood. Thus, to cite another sentence or two from 
 Vinogradoff : " Our manorial authorities often mention mol-land 
 and mol-rmn. The description of their obligations always 
 points one way; they are rent-paying tenants who may be 
 bound to some extra work, but who are very definitely dis- 
 tinguished from the ' custumarii,' the great mass of peasants 
 who render labour services. Kentish documents use 'mala' 
 or ' mal ' for a particular species of rent, and explain the term 
 as a payment in commutation of servile customs." Correlate 
 with this a sentence from Ashley's Economic History (i. 23), 
 and I think we shall have a fair show of the way in which 
 " mal " or " mala " was used and understood in the olden days : 
 "In the reign of Henry I. all the manors of the Abbot of 
 Burton were already divided between demesne, land ad opus, 
 and land ad malam " — that is, land held at rent in contradistinc- 
 tion to land held by or on condition of work-service. "The 
 tenants ad malam were free from week-work, although they 
 
The grant of Burgage made to the Convent 267 
 
 might be, and were, under obligation " (as the Iwndi and cdarii 
 of the outlying townships of Whitby were) "to lend their 
 ploughs twice a year and assist at the hay and corn harvest 
 according to the extent of their holdings " ; or, as Mr. Ashley 
 expresses it on the preceding page, " they continued to pro- 
 vide their lord with labour at those seasons when it was most 
 needed." 
 
 "Males" or "mells" then signified payments made by 
 tenants of lands or tenements to their lord of the nature of 
 what we call rent nowadays : even if we are unable to use 
 the word in its unqualified sense. 
 
 But in the case under consideration the simple word is 
 qualified by the prefix "burgh" or "burrow" set before it; 
 and this qualification imports that the payments of the nature 
 of rent were made in connection with, or depending upon, the 
 "burgh "of Whitby. 
 
 Now we observe that in Henry the Second's Charter of 
 Grant and Confirmation to the Convent of Whitby — a charter 
 apparently quite unknown to Young as well as to Charlton, 
 but which is printed now in the Whitby Chartulary as 
 No. 581 — the terms employed are : " Concedo etiam et con- 
 firmo prsedictse Ecclesiee in eadem villa de Witebi burgagium, 
 et feriam ad festum S. Hildse, cum soca et saca, et tolle et 
 team et infangenethef," etc. ("Also I concede and confirm to 
 the aforesaid Church within the said vill of Whitby, burgage, 
 and a fair on St. Hilda's day, with soc and sac," etc.) 
 
 Now this is the earliest mention of the royal concession 
 of burgage in connection with Whitby. The grant is made to 
 the Abbot and Convent, be it noted, not to the vill of Whitby 
 directly, or even at all ; and it may very well antedate, and 
 for various reasons I think that- it assuredly must and 
 does antedate the much-vexed grant by Abbot Richard de 
 Waterville. 
 
 But however that may be, it is expedient for us to obtain 
 a clear conception of what is meant by this "burgage" 
 
268 Inquiry touching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 {hwrgagium), which, whatever it meant, the Abbot just named 
 intended to grant to the men, or some of the men, of Whitby. 
 Let us first notice the terms of the grant or charter con- 
 veying it, which has been not only badly mistranslated, but 
 almost as badly misconceived and misrepresented. I will first 
 give an exact copy of the terms used in the grant itself, and 
 then append as literal a translation as can be made : " Sciant 
 omnes . . . me (Eicardum Abbatem Witebyensem), assensu 
 totius Capituli mei, dedisse et concessisse in perpetuum 
 Wytebyam in liberam burgagiam, et burgensibus ibidem 
 manentibus libertatem burgagise, et leges liberas, juraque 
 libera; quietationem etiam in Wyteby et extra Wyteby in 
 universis et de universis ad Ecclesiam S. Petri et ibidem 
 Deo servientium pertinentibus, communemque pasturam : 
 quatuor vero vias intrandi et exeundi ad burgam ^ liberam et 
 quietam de omnibus consuetudinibus, de unaquaque tofta 
 reddendo pro universis servitiis, annis singulis, v denarios." 
 (" Know all men that I (Eichard, Abbat of Whitby), with the 
 assent of my entire Chapter, have given and granted Whitby 
 into (or unto) free burgage,^ and, to the burghers there abiding, 
 liberty of burgage,^ free laws also and free rights ; quittance 
 likewise within Whitby and without in all matters, and touch- 
 
 ' It is quite obvious that here and on the next page ' ' burga " can only be 
 synonymous with " town." 
 
 ^ The expression in the original is altogether significant. It is not 
 that Whitby is "given" or "conceded" to any person or power, but the 
 town is given "into" or "unto free burgage," the idiom being exactly 
 coincident with the Scripture (and other) expressions ' ' sold into bondage," 
 "brought into bondage," "sold into slavery," and the like, where the 
 preposition expresses the object or purpose of the selling or delivering, not 
 the effect, or the mere fact. 
 
 ^ The grant of the burgage-liberty is restricted to the residents in 
 Whitby, which is another point to be attended to ; and it is by no means un- 
 important, as describing or qualifying the expression "libertas burgagise." 
 It is even possible that this phrase may be regarded as bearing a sense in- 
 tentionally inconsistent with the ideas connected mth the phrase "liber 
 burgus. " It seems exceedingly difficult to exclude the idea conveyed by the 
 use of the word " burga " as equivalent to the later English word "town." 
 
Limitation of Burgage in Whitby 269 
 
 ing all matters, appertaining to the Church of St. Peter and 
 the servitors of God therein/ and common pasture as well : 
 four roads, moreover, whereby to enter or depart from the 
 burgh free and quit of all customs : on condition of their 
 rendering from every toft 5d. yearly for and in lieu of all 
 services whatsoever.") 
 
 Charlton's (mis)translation is "that I have given and granted 
 to Whitby for ever the privilege of being a free borough 
 town " ; entirely ignoring the circumstance that Whitby itself 
 is the subject of the grant, and by no means the recipient of 
 it. In the next sentence, however, certain recipients are 
 named ; that is to say, the bv-rgenses abiding (that is, living 
 or dwelling) in Whitby — the limitation is noteworthy — to 
 whom is given liberty of burgage, free laws and free justice. 
 But what does this amount to ? More surely could hardly be 
 claimed under such terms than were claimed in the cases of 
 York and Beverley during the reign of the first Henry. In 
 either of these places the hurgenses had (what the Whitby 
 folks had not) their own hans-hus (" guildhall " of the south), the 
 direction and control of their own statuta, or the bylaws and 
 written customs of the borough; and freedom from toll 
 throughout the shire, together with free entrance and exit to 
 and from the burgh. " Further than this," says Bishop Stubbs, 
 "the charter does not go." Nor could it at Whitby, where 
 even the gild-house is not extant. 
 
 As regards the charters to boroughs granted by Henry II. 
 the same great authority says : " The grants of these charters, 
 not very profusely granted by this monarch, are not much in 
 advance of those of Henry I." 
 
 ^ It is liere that the Abbot appears to be acting in excess of his powers. 
 "What the king's charter conveys to him has to do with things temporal, 
 and things temporal only. What the Abbot would concede here trenches 
 on matters ecclesiastical. He is alienating, as far as the language em- 
 ployed goes, some of the peculiar ecclesiastical privileges conferred upon 
 the Abbey like unto those bestowed on Beverley, Ripon, and York. It is 
 therefore the weak point in his charter. 
 
270 Inquiry touching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 But let it not be forgotten that these liberties and privi- 
 leges, scanty or superficial as they may, on such examination, 
 seem to us, are still the liberties and privileges conceded at 
 the outset to "burghs" or towns, which afterwards became great 
 and important boroughs. I have, for instance, a copy of the 
 original charter of the burgh of Liverpool lying open before me, 
 and what is granted in the concession that it shall be a " liber 
 burgus " is very little in advance of what is mentioned in the 
 Whitby grant. But what is noticeable as to both Young and 
 Charlton is that they overlook the comparative unimportance, 
 or rather, gratuitously assume the comparative importance of 
 Whitby at and about the time when this much misunderstood 
 grant was made. Let me call attention to the somewhat 
 remarkable statement made in what follows, and the inference 
 deducible from it : "Although nowadays the idea of a port at 
 Coatham seems preposterous, in the Middle Ages Coatham 
 and Yarm were the only two ports in Cleveland. In 7 John 
 (1205-6) an account was rendered to the Exchequer of the 
 quindena or fifteenth part of the goods of all merchants 
 throughout the kingdom, granted to the crown. To this 
 Coatham paid 16s. lid. when Whitby only paid 4s." {Guis- 
 borough Chartulary, vol. i. p. 119 n.) 
 
 This surely is a curious picture for the contemplation of 
 those who hold that "before the year 1189 the town of 
 Whitby had become so considerable that Abbot Eichard 
 granted his charter for erecting it into a borough, with 
 privileges similar to those conceded to other boroughs about 
 that period." Would it not be as well to remember that 
 " borough " is modern English, and that even " burg," " burgh," 
 a town, is but a survival from a still older word — older both 
 in form and sense — viz. " burh '' or " borg," meaning a strong 
 or fortified place, a castle or fort ? Not that Whitby was ever 
 so much as that. 
 
 The comparison as to mercantile status between Whitby 
 and Coatham is illustrated by considerations such as are ex- 
 
Rise and Progress of ancient Boroughs 271 
 
 pressed in the following extract from Mrs. Green's -weighty 
 book on the English Town (vol. i. pp. 10, 11) : "Our modern 
 towns can almost all trace back their history into the obscurity 
 of a very distant past; but their record, as we find it in 
 Domesday, or under the Norman kings, is simply that of little 
 country hamlets, where a few agricultural labourers gathered 
 in their poor hovels, tilling by turns their lord's land and 
 their own small holdings; or of somewhat bigger villages 
 which lay at the branching of a great road, at a river ford, or 
 at a convenient meeting-place for fair or market, and thus 
 grew into some little consequence as the centres of a small 
 local trade ; while along the coast a few seaports were just 
 beginning to draw merchants with their wares to a land that 
 had long been almost forgotten by the traders of the Continent. 
 It was not till the twelfth century that our boroughs began 
 to have an independent municipal history — from the time, that 
 is, when the growth of the wool trade under Henry I. gave 
 them a new commercial life; and the organisation of local 
 government under Henry II. opened for them the way into 
 a new world of political experiment and speculation." And 
 further yet a few sentences: "The biggest boroughs could 
 probably in 1300 only make a show of 4000 or 5000 
 inhabitants, and of enfranchised burgesses a yet smaller 
 number; while the mud or wood -framed huts with gabled 
 roofs of thatch and reeds that lined their narrow lanes sheltered 
 a people who, accepting a common poverty, traded in little 
 more than the mere necessaries of life. It was not till the 
 middle of the fourteenth century that the towns, as they entered 
 on a larger industrial activity, began to free themselves from 
 the indescribable squalor and misery of the early Middle Ages ; 
 but from this time forward we begin to detect signs of stirring 
 prosperity, at first under the guise of a frugal well-being, and 
 later carrying its luxury with happy ostentation. . . . And 
 while the bigger boroughs were thus enjoying their harvest of 
 blessing and fat things, the small seaports and market-towns 
 
272 Inquiry touching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 also gathered in their share of the general good fortune by 
 which all England was enriched." Can more be said for 
 Whitby than that it was a very " small seaport," and hardly 
 a market-town ? We shall see. 
 
 In the nearly following pages the author goes on to instance 
 the cases of Colchester, Bridport, Rye, etc. For the purpose 
 of illustrating our own subject we may turn for a moment to 
 the Bridport statistics: "In 1319 Bridport, with its 180 
 burgesses, could not, at a view of arms, or muster of fighting- 
 men, produce a single burgher who bore bow and arrows, and 
 sent out its motley regiment equipped with the universal knife 
 or dagger, or, as it might chance, with staves, hatchets, pole- 
 axes, forks, or spears, while an aristocrat or two actually bore 
 a sword. Only 67 burgesses out of the 180 paid taxes, and 
 the general poverty seems to have been extreme. The richest 
 man had one cow, two hogs, two brass platters, a few hides, 
 and a little furniture — the whole worth £4 : 8s. ; and one of 
 the most respectable innkeepers of the place owned two hogs, 
 two beds, two table-cloths, two hand-napkins, a horse, a brass 
 pot, a platter, a few wooden vessels, and some malt. In 1323 
 things were a trifle better, for 80 persons were then taxed, 
 the property of some of them being valued only at 6s., and 
 this under a system in which the whole of each man's posses- 
 sions was exactly reckoned up — his cards, yarn, shoes, the 
 girths he was making or trying to sell, even his store of 
 oatmeal." 
 
 Now, as regards Whitby, its " burgenses ibidem manentes," 
 the number of them, and their comparative capacity to bear 
 taxation in 1301-2, we have a return which, while it lacks 
 the minute details afforded in the preceding extract, still 
 admits of a kind of comparison with it. This return also was 
 formulated on a precise system. While it excluded poor men 
 or women the value of whose goods did not exceed 40d., it 
 took account of all "the movable goods of those in better 
 circumstances"; and, as to time, "just after harvest was 
 
The Testimony of Personal Names 273 
 
 gathered in, inclusive of their corn crop, their plough teams, 
 sheep, cows, swine, studs, draught-horses set apart for wainage, 
 and other goods and chattels." These were to be valued by 
 sworn assessors, and the fifteenth part of their estimated value 
 was to be payable to the king on the special occasion of the 
 marriage of his daughter. 
 
 At this date, and according to this record, the goods, 
 movables, or personalty of the richest man in Whitby were 
 valued at £15 ; the next wealthiest man had goods to the value 
 of about £11 : 10s. ; then comes one of nearly £,% : 10s. ; and 
 then under a half-dozen who owned movables worth £7 to £8 
 each. Several were assessed whose property was worth 7s. 6d. 
 and up to 10s., and the great bulk are set at a little over or a 
 little under £3. The total number of persons assessed was 
 precisely 96 — probably all residents in the place, and masters 
 of households. 
 
 Assuming this to have been the case, the near approxima- 
 tion of the number of habitations in Whitby in 1301 and in 
 1540 is perhaps rather more than singular — 96 in the very 
 beginning of the fourteenth century, "well on to 100" a little 
 before the middle of the sixteenth (see p. 192). 
 
 But this coincidence is not so singular, nor even so much 
 to our purpose, as is another corollary deducible from the 
 record under notice. At hardly any period in the English 
 history did the personal names of what, without much abuse 
 of the terms, we may call the lower and incipient middle 
 classes tell their own tale with greater emphasis and distinct- 
 ness than about the beginning of the fourteenth century. This 
 memorandum of the collection of the Fifteenth in the Wapen- 
 take of Langbargh, from the record of which only we are 
 quoting, gave up no less than 1500 to 1600 personal names, 
 out of which as many as 75 were derived from the calling, 
 trade, or profession of the bearers. Many of these names 
 recurred again and again, as a matter of course ; indeed, as 
 often as the callings or trades repeated themselves in the 
 
 T 
 
2 74 Inqidry touching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 various vills of the Wapentake. Thus every vill almost — for 
 nearly all were more or less agricultural — had its "prsepositus " 
 (foreman, hind, reeve), not a few of the larger ones had two. 
 In the same way carpenters, carters (carettarius, careter, carter), 
 blacksmiths (marescalli, or shoers of horses), smiths (fabri, 
 workers in other materials as well as in iron), masons, tanners, 
 shepherds, and herds of half a score different kinds of stock, 
 and the like, abounded ; while the appellations of a vast variety 
 of workers in divers arts and crafts, long since more or less 
 obsolete, helped to swell the list ; by-names, pet-names, nick- 
 names (witty, coarse, or indecent) furnishing a very noticeable 
 contingent. 
 
 Of course, on coming to Whitby Liberty, and the vill of 
 Whitby itself, I scrutinised the list of 96 personal names 
 with considerable interest, rather than with curiosity only. I 
 expected to find the names of men connected with the secular 
 business of the Consent ; of men belonging to some branch or 
 other of the businesses connected with a sea-faring life, and 
 its manifold and multifold requirements ; of men connected 
 with commerce, trade, the minor avocations of sale, barter, 
 and purchase. But there is not a single mercator, or mar- 
 chaunde, or chapman, or mercer in the list. Neither is there 
 any master of a fishing vessel or trading vessel. There is a 
 grocer, a brewer, a barber, a fellmonger, a baker, a bricklayer, 
 a taker of toll, a porter, a cobbler, and a goldsmith. It is 
 true that, near upon one hundred years later, there were eight 
 or nine men in Whitby owning fishing vessels, and paying 
 about 30s. or up to £3 severally, as tithes of their catches, to 
 the Convent ; and this besides three smaller boats engaged in 
 lobster-fishing, and paying from 15d. up to 2s. each, on the 
 score of tithes ; but in the year 1301 there is no evidence of 
 any fishing trade deducible from the records which remain. 
 
 There is, however, in this list of names we are considering, 
 one little piece of inferential evidence as to manufacture, if 
 not trade or business, to which a measure of attention should 
 
Cloth-making Artisans in Whitby in 1301 275 
 
 be given. Among the other names I find Richard le Teler, 
 Nicholas le Teler, and Henry le Teler. I find also John le 
 Fulur, Eoger Tinctor (or dyer), Thomas Tinctor, and, besides 
 these, a John Fleming. The Telers, in plain English, were 
 websters; the Fulur was a fuller by calling; the Tinctors 
 were dyers, or, in the vernacular of the north, "litsters" ; and 
 the Fleming a man whom it would be very hard to dissociate 
 from the telers, fulur, and tinctors. In the year 1327 the 
 king issued a mandate ordering, among other things, that 
 every man and woman might make cloths as long and as 
 short as they pleased ; and that, in order to encourage people 
 to work upon cloths, he would have all men know that he will 
 grant "suitable franchise to the fullers, weavers, dyers, and 
 other cloth-workers who live mainly by this mystery, whenever 
 such franchises are asked for." But "previous experience had 
 already made it clear that for the making of the finer sorts of 
 cloth, and cloth of richer and more varied dyes. Englishmen 
 did not yet possess the necessary skill. The government of 
 Edward III. saw that if England was to do without Flemish 
 cloth, Flemish workmen must be brought over " (Ashley, Part 
 II. p. 195). Hence resulted the systematic "importation of 
 foreign skill." In other words, the Fleming was, as a matter 
 of state policy, to come to England and make his abode there, 
 bringing with him the craft and skill he had now for a length 
 of time been famous for exercising at home. 
 
 Yes, but that which in 1327 we read of as done system- 
 atically, by state authority or as a matter of national policy, 
 not only might have been done in the way of what we should 
 call "speculation" as early as the year 1300, but we know 
 actually was so done ; and earlier far than just at that date. 
 This is a fact so well known and generally recognised that it 
 hardly seems necessary to support the statement ; and it must 
 suffice to mention that a writ of Henry III. enacts that no 
 one was to make cloth in the county of York save only with 
 the consent of the weavers of that city. So early, and indeed 
 
276 Inqidry toiiching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 very much earlier yet, had it been thought expedient to bring 
 the art and mystery of wool-working within the controlling 
 limits of state enactment. 
 
 So then I do not look upon this collocation of telers, 
 tinctors, fulur, and Fleming at Whitby in 1301 as merely 
 fortuitous, or as conveying no intimation, or even distinct 
 information to the student. On the contrary, I look upon it 
 as pregnant with suggestion of at least inferential conclusions. 
 
 I am unable to forget Mrs. Green's graphic reference to 
 the actual condition of the early mediaeval town ; of the " mud 
 or wood-framed huts with gabled roofs of thatch and reeds 
 that lined their narrow lanes, which sheltered a people who, 
 accepting a common poverty, traded in little more than the 
 mere necessaries of life." For that, I take it, is a faithful 
 picture of the true condition of Whitby at the time when, 
 according to Charlton and Young, "by this charter of Abbot 
 Richard's the town was to be a free borough for ever." One 
 hundred and twenty years later it had risen, as we see, to be 
 a town with ninety-six householding people in it, the entire 
 value of whose united movable goods and chattels was estimated 
 as being under £245 ; the personalty of the wealthiest among 
 ihem not exceeding £15. With these figures and facts before 
 our eyes, it is almost as easy to suggest the answer as it is 
 to start the question, " When only such was the development 
 attained after a century and quarter of natural growth and 
 progression, what must have been the condition at the com- 
 mencement of that period ; and even on the supposition that 
 the policy of the Convent had been not (as represented by both 
 writers named — the latter especially) antagonistic and repres- 
 sive, but helpful and fostering 1 And, in reality, as I am 
 inclined to think, this latter was the line of policy adopted 
 by the Conventual body towards the as yet totally undeveloped 
 town : as indeed was but natural. 
 
 But without dwelling on the inevitable answer to the 
 query just now suggested, it may not prove an unprofitable 
 
The earlier Constitution of Whitby 277 
 
 diversion to return to the terms of the grants made by King 
 Henry the Second in the first place, and by Abbot Richard de 
 Waterville in the second. In virtue of his Royal authority 
 the king concedes to God and the Church of St. Peter and St. 
 Hild of Whitby, and to all men belonging to the said church, 
 all liberties and customs whatsoever such as are possessed by 
 the churches of St. John of Beverley and St. Wilfrid of Ripon, 
 in their lands and their men. " I grant and confirm, moreover," 
 the charter proceeds, " to the aforesaid Church in the said vill 
 of Whitby, burgage and a fair at the feast of S. Hild, together 
 with sac and soc, and toll and team and infangentheof ; and 
 that all comers to the said fair shall have my firm peace, with 
 all their goods, both coming and going." 
 
 We note that the king is the grantor ; as also that he is 
 such in virtue of his authority as king, his "regia auctoritas." 
 Here we have what Bishop Stubbs {Select Charters, p. 44) styles 
 " the power based on the doctrine that borough-privileges were 
 the gift of the crown, and their status historically that of royal 
 demesne." Next we note that the grant is not only made to 
 the Abbot and Convent, but that the said grant is of "bur- 
 gagium in villa de Witebi." No "burgagium," then, up to 
 the time when this grant took effect could have previously 
 existed in Whitby. " Its internal condition (that of the said 
 vill) was but that of any manor in the country; the reeve 
 and his companions, the leet jury, as it was afterwards called, 
 being the magistracy, and the constitution being further 
 strengthened only by the voluntary association of the local 
 guild, whose members would naturally furnish the counsellors 
 of the leet" {ibid. p. 41). 
 
 I daresay some of my readers, besides recalling the glance 
 at the group of " agricultural labourers gathered in their poor 
 hovels, tilling by turns their lord's land and their own small 
 holdings," may be reminded of the t'&ngerefan se ^e Ms eal- 
 dorman wees of the A.S. version of the Caedmon story, and 
 picture for themselves the reeve and his companions, of 
 
278 Inquiry touching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 the middle and nearer the close of the twelfth century. But 
 as to the local guild, there is a dearth of absolute information, 
 and we must be content with assuming the probability that 
 there may have been some organisation of the sort in Whitby 
 in and indeed before these early days. The history which 
 lies latent in old field and other local names reveals to us 
 the fact that there was a "gildehus" between Ellerby and 
 Hinderwell, another in or near Linthorpe, a third in Hackness, 
 a fourth in Fyling Dales, a fifth in Hutton Locros, others in. 
 Ingleby Greenhow, near Welburn, and so forth; and quite 
 possibly it might be more risky to assume that there was 
 nothing of the sort at Whitby than that there was. But that 
 is nearly all we can suppose the " internal condition " of Whitby 
 to have been when Henry II. gave "burgagium in Witebi" 
 to the Abbot and Convent some few years before the close of 
 his reign. 
 
 But, continues the authority from whom the last extracts 
 have been made, "the towns so administered were liable to 
 be called on for tallage at the will of the lord, and the towns- 
 men were in every respect, except wealth and closeness of 
 organisation, in the same condition as the villeins of an 
 ^ordinary demesne. The first step taken in the direction of 
 emancipation was the purchase by the tenants of the jirma 
 burgi — that is, the ferm of the dues payable to the lord, or to 
 the king, within the borough. . . . The grant of the ferm 
 was accompanied by, or implied, an act of emancipation from 
 villein services; and the recipients of the grant were the 
 burghers, as members of the leet or of the guild, or in both 
 capacities. The burgage -rent was apportioned among the 
 houses or the tenements of the burghers, who thus became 
 tenants in burgage, and on an equality with tenants in free 
 and common socage." 
 
 Now this, as I read it, appears to describe the condition of 
 the burgenses or burghers — I avoid the later word "burgesses" 
 — of Whitby with considerable nicety, — I mean, subsequent 
 
Seaport and its Privileges conceded 279 
 
 to and under the grant of the Abbot Richard. The burgage- 
 rent was apportioned, but evenly, among the houses or tene- 
 ments of the burghers, who thus became tenants in burgage, 
 and on an equality with tenants in free and common socage. 
 
 Only, the Abbot retained thej^rma hufcgi, the "ferm-rent," 
 in his own hands ; and it is on this, as I think, that the peculi- 
 arity of the Whitby case is found to depend. No part of the 
 jirma goes into the king's treasury, and as apportioned among 
 the houses or tenements of the burghers, it was fixed by the 
 Abbot himself, and not reapportioned among the burghers as 
 they saw fit. And I think that this is a matter, especially 
 as taken in connection with one or two other considerations 
 suggested by terms employed in these old charters and the 
 conclusions dependent on them, which requires deliberate 
 attention at our hands. 
 
 In the Foundation charter, in others reproducing it or 
 confirming it, in the " Memorial of Benefactions,'' among the 
 first or primary matters granted is "Portum maris," the seaport 
 of Whitby ; and in early royal confirmations this grant is fully 
 specified as confirmed, and (to give but one instance, taken from 
 Henry the Third's Confirmation \Chartulary, ii. p. 496]) with 
 remarkable distinctness : " Concedo etiam et confirmo prsedictse 
 Ecclesiae Portum maris cum alga per totam terram suam, cum 
 tol et theam, et cum omnibus libertatibus et consuetudinibus 
 ad portum maris pertinentibus." (" Likewise I grant and confirm 
 to the aforesaid Church the Seaport, with the seaweed, through- 
 out its territorial limits, together with toll and team, as well 
 as all liberties and customs to. a seaport appertaining.") 
 
 Yes, but toll and team, no less than harbour rights, liberties 
 or customs, presuppose some organised system of collection. 
 If there was a privileged or recognised port, important or 
 non-important, there must have been a special port-officer or 
 official, — a " port-reeve," whether designated by that title or 
 some other equivalent to it. And the terms "toll" and 
 "team" imply the same conclusion. A toll or (as Bishop 
 
28o Inquiry touching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 Stubbs interprets it) an impost or " duty on imports " would 
 be absurd were there none commissioned to levy it, while team 
 = " the right of compelling the person in whose hands stolen 
 or lost property was found to vouch to warranty, that is, to 
 name the person from whom he received it," would present 
 a more grotesque absurdity still in the absence of all judicial 
 forms or forces capable of giving it effect. 
 
 The fact, then, of the "portus maris" as antedating the 
 first endowment of the Abbey of Whitby (or before 1075) is 
 by itself sufficient to convince us that some sort of civil 
 organisation existed in Whitby as early as the Conquest, and 
 therefore, as I think is generally conceded in the sequel of 
 such conclusion, before the Conquest. That this was indeed 
 the case at Whitby in the days of Danish supremacy, the 
 simple survival of the name of the Thingwal court is quite 
 enough to assure us as regards the period covered by the 
 Danish supremacy. What modifications had resulted between 
 the days of the Danelagh and the days immediately preceding 
 the Conquest there is no evidence to show, and especially 
 with any precision. I hardly think that what Mrs. Green 
 (i. 169) characterises as "the perplexities that beset the 
 humble communities who first tried to solve the problem of 
 how a society of freemen could best rule themselves " could be 
 very operative in the experience of Old Whitby. But still, in 
 the sentences which follow the one just quoted, considerations 
 are suggested which may be greatly helpful to us in the survey 
 we are endeavoiiring to take of Whitby at and near the time 
 when Henry's grant to the Abbot and Convent of burgage in 
 Whitby, with the additional concession of sac and soc, tol, 
 team, and infangentheof, was newly made, and closely followed 
 up, as it undoubtedly was, by Eichard de Waterville's conces- 
 sion of Whitby "into burgage," and of free laws and free 
 rights to the burghers. "In the early 'communitas' of the 
 village or town out of which the later chartered borough was 
 to grow — a community which possessed common fields or 
 
Corporate character of the old Commtmity 2 8 1 
 
 customary rights of common over surrounding meadows, and 
 which had doubtless found some regular system for the 
 management of its own affairs — the obvious course was to 
 count as the responsible men of the township the land-holders 
 who had a share in the common property. . . . Those who 
 owned a house and a certain amount of land measured accord- 
 ing to the custom of the burgh formed the society of burghers, 
 and to the townspeople the definition of law was the ' will of 
 the majority of those who have the property in land.' . . . 
 But such simple conditions of life, only possible in a stationary 
 agricultural society, disappeared when industry and commerce 
 brought their revelation of new standards of prosperity." 
 
 But it is in a note on the words " had the management of 
 its own afiairs " in the foregoing extract, that the writer brings 
 out more fully the corporate character of the old rural or 
 agricultural community as it concerns us at the present place, 
 by adverting to the election and appointment by the agricul- 
 tural tenants and labourers on a manor of an official whom she 
 names the "provost,'' usually in Latin styled the "prsepositus,'' 
 but in the English of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 
 (as I am inclined to think) called the " foreman " rather than 
 " reeve " ; although " grave " was certainly of old in use in this 
 district in the sense indicated. There may be some uncertainty 
 as to the manner of his appointment, or rather as to the joint 
 nature of his induction into office ; but there can be none as 
 to his official character and authority, or the sources from 
 which the lattet was derived. He was emphatically the 
 representative of the community to the lord, as well as of the 
 lord to the community, and he owed his position and operative 
 influence to the concurrence of the two parties. But what is 
 this but saying in other words that an actual and energising 
 community was in active existence ? 
 
 Eeealling what has been set forth in the preceding para- 
 graphs, we cannot help noting that Whitby, even up to the 
 end of the thirteenth century, and much more evidently up to 
 
282 Inqtiiry tott-ching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 the last quarter of the twelfth, whatever it had been in the 
 Confessor's time, must have been a place of but little importance, 
 if we take under review the circumstances and conditions 
 which make for the eminence or distinction of any town or 
 village. It seems to have been without much in the way of 
 trade, without what is designated by business. It was of a 
 low estate as regards population, and it seems to have had 
 no stay or support, nothing to depend upon save that which 
 originated in agriculture only. And it should be noted that 
 in expressing views of this kind no such utterance of opinion 
 is ventured as is advanced by both Young and Charlton, 
 especially the latter. At the time of the Dissolution even, 
 he thinks that " the whole town, consisting of thirty or forty 
 houses, contained in it not more than 180 or 200 inhabitants" 
 (p. 288). 
 
 I do not think, then, that it could have been on account 
 of the importance, growing or grown, of Whitby, that Abbot 
 Richard de Waterville obtained the charter granted by King 
 Henry II., or availed himself unadvisedly and mistakenly, as it 
 eventually proved, of the concessions and authorisations made 
 to him and his Convent (as he appears to have assumed) in 
 yirtue of the charter in question. And if the action taken 
 was not due to or induced by the importance of the town, 
 what other considerations could there have been, influential 
 enough to induce him to take the steps he adopted, first in 
 obtaining the royal charter (which we may be quite sure was 
 not a free, unsolicited grant, nor conceded T^ithout the usual 
 acknowledgment from the grantee) ; and second, in applying 
 the powers conceded and the grant made in the way in which 
 they actually were employed by him % 
 
 The question is, I think, one of those the answer to which 
 is best suggested by a contemplation of what, in point of fact, 
 really seems to have been accomplished. 
 
 There is reason, as it will probably be considered after 
 reading the foregoing pages, for concluding that there was 
 
Early Tenure in Whitby mainly agricultural 283 
 
 some sort of town or secular organisation extant in Whitby at 
 the early date assumed, partly connected with, the port, and 
 partly with what must be inferred as the condition of the place 
 relatively to the methodised cultivation of the soil. What the 
 said organisation was precisely, it is impossible to say; the 
 data are too indefinite for a satisfactory induction. Possibly, 
 though scarcely likely, there were two independent organisa- 
 tions. Perhaps, and with more show of likelihood, one only, 
 amalgamating the interests of the two sections of the towns- 
 folks. 
 
 Certainly the fact that numerous tofts existed at the date 
 of the Abbot's charter is sufiScient to show that a large con- 
 tingent of the population had no long time since, and almost 
 certainly up to the time then present, held under arrangements 
 of an agricultural complexion, if not in direct agricultural con- 
 nection. It is not unlikely that they had held "cotaria" or 
 " bondagia," as unquestionably the tenants on the Conventual 
 estates in the outlying and dependent townships did ; and by 
 the transmutation of the old accustomed labour-services, due 
 under the ancient system, into the fixed and most' moderate 
 burgage -rent of 5d. per toft (whether cedifimtmn or nomr 
 cedificatum), which I look upon as the practical end and object 
 of de Waterville's concession of "Whitby into burgage," a 
 great change in the status of the townsmen, the " burghers " 
 in that sense, was effected for good. In some cases, no doubt, 
 whether more or fewer, some small additional acknowledgment 
 might be required. Thus Young, speaking of the burgage- 
 rent, which he says was "anciently called toft-rent," mentions 
 " two fat hens at Candlemas," which had to be rendered for a 
 toft in Whitby in addition to the stipulated sum of 5d. ; a 
 tribute which vidll immediately remind us of the fowls and 
 eggs which each tenant in the out-townships was bound to 
 supply over and above his money payment, and his "pre- 
 cationes " or " love-boons." But, at the same time, it should 
 not pass unnoted that the burgage-rent of 5d. per toft was, as 
 
284 Inquiry touching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 regarded in the light of an equivalent, or of a rent equivalent, 
 to the value of the toft, altogether inadequate ; in other words, 
 that the boon conferred on the burgher by such a concession 
 on the part of the Abbot and Convent was a very considerable 
 one indeed. This appears very conspicuously in the charters 
 numbered IX. to XIX. in the Whitby Chartulary, from which we 
 have seen above (p. 174) that even a half -toft could be and was 
 made chargeable with annual payments of 4s. or 5s. a year, 
 besides "the burgage of the Lord Abbot of Whitby"; of 
 course still leaving it very well worth the holding. 
 
 I think it will hardly be found to derogate from or weaken 
 the view taken in the foregoing paragraphs if we subject the 
 remaining part of the Abbot's charter to an examination of 
 the same kind as that which has been given to the former part. 
 After fixing the burgage-rent to be paid thereafter at 5d. per 
 toft, the document proceeds : "Si quis autem terram suam 
 vendere voluerit, primitus hoc Abbati ostendere debet et ei 
 terram si cam emere voluerit vendendam oiFerre pro tali rationa- 
 bili pretio quale alius ei pro eadem terra dare voluerit. Si 
 vero earn emere noluerit, consilio et consensu ejus eandem 
 vendat. Emptor vero terrae consuetudinem ad saisinam iv 
 4enarios dabit, et i denarium burgensibus ad beverage. Et si 
 aliqua querimonia inter burgenses oritur tribus vicibus unus 
 alium ut sibi rectum et quid juris est faciat apud domum pro- 
 priam requirere debet. Quod si sibi in tertia petitione satis- 
 facere noluerit, demum justitiam villse rationabiliter ut rectum 
 faciat quserat. Tresque in anno sint eis placitorum institu- 
 tiones : prima post Epiphaniam, secunda post Pascha, tertia 
 post festum S. Hildse. Quod si aliqua querimonia infra 
 praedictas institutiones se emerserit,. et determinari intra 
 easdem non possit, sine dilatione ad primam institutionem 
 terminetur." (" Should any one wish to sell his land, let him 
 in the first place signify the same to the Abbot, and offer the 
 land intended for sale to him, setting such a reasonable price 
 upon it as any one else would be disposed to give for it. 
 
Matters to be noted as to Sale of Tofts 285 
 
 Should the Abbot decline to become the purchaser, the vendor 
 should part with the same with the Abbot's consent and 
 advice. But the purchaser of the land, on receiving seisin of 
 it, shall make a customary payment of 4d., with Id. to the 
 burghers 'for beverage.' In the case of any cause of com- 
 plaint or grievance arising between burghers, the one must 
 consider himself bound to call upon the other, at his own 
 proper dwelling-house, to do to him what is lawful and right. 
 But should the latter, after three such requisitions, refuse to 
 give satisfaction, then finally let the first invoke the justice of 
 the vill, that right according to what is reasonable be done. 
 And there must be three special terms for pleas in the year ; 
 the first after the Epiphany, the second after Easter, the third 
 after the Feast of St. Hild. If case of question evolves itself 
 within the three terms aforesaid and cannot be settled without, 
 let it be determined without delay or postponement at the 
 first term that ensues.") 
 
 Now there are several points herein involved, neither of 
 which is such as to permit it to be ignored. And first, if any 
 one desires to part with his land — the toft or half-toft, or 
 what not, held by him — he is bound to give the Abbot the 
 refusal in the first place. Here, unless we bear in mind that 
 all the tofts, many or few, are held of the Abbot by an annual 
 burgage-rent, a misapprehension may arise at the outset. A 
 man could sell his interest in the land, toft or half-toft, but 
 not the land itself. It was not his to sell. And the Abbot 
 could become the purchaser of such interest, and part with it 
 again immediately after in the way of sale, grant, or fee-farm. 
 Illustrative instances of either kind may be seen in one or 
 other of the eleven documents referred to a little above. But 
 as to the ownership of the land itself, that remained unaffected 
 by any of these bargains or arrangements. In point of fact 
 the Abbot himself (as has been remarked in another place) was 
 not absolute owner of so much as 1 inch of the 20,000 or 
 30,000 acres of land which belonged to the "Whitby fee. He 
 
286 Inquiry touching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 held it in frank-almoigne, it is true, but he held it subject to 
 the confirmation of each successive king, to say nothing of each 
 successive heir in the great descent of the Founder's family. 
 In plain terms, he could not alienate a single foot of the patri- 
 mony of his church. The contemplated sale by the tenant or 
 occupying burgher, and the optional purchase by the Abbot, 
 must be regarded as subject to these conditions. 
 
 Another point imperatively claiming attentive considera- 
 tion is the fact that the Abbot himself prescribes the manner 
 of procedure in the case of any "querimonia" originating 
 between or among the burghers, and ordains the three 
 " institutiones placitorum," and the terms at which they were 
 to be held, — a proceeding entirely inconsistent with the idea 
 that he intended to divest himself of the authoritative juris- 
 diction in and over the vill handed over to him by the 
 founder, and confirmed to him by every king in succession 
 subsequent to the date of the foundation. He had been 
 effectually and in very deed the lord of the manor from that 
 day to the date of this special charter, and there is not a 
 phrase or a word in it tending to show that he contemplated 
 abrogating or resigning so much as a tittle of the rights and 
 powers thence accruing to him. On the contrary, the terms 
 of the charter to which reference is in these sentences made, 
 «how the absolute converse of any such intention. 
 
 But there is still another point which may by no means be 
 left without notice, for I believe it involves a conclusion of 
 no small interest in the discussion of the topics dealt ivith 
 in this Section. I refer to the expression, " unum denarium 
 burgensibus ad leverage.'' The word italicised struck me as 
 remarkable nearly thirty years ago when I was busy over 
 the first copy I took of all the documents contained in the 
 Abbot's Book, and it has never lost its interest to me as a 
 lover of old words and phrases. But its occurrence in this 
 particular charter much more than doubles the interest of that 
 sort belonging to it. Its interest from the philological point 
 
IVAai is implied in the word " Beverage " 287 
 
 of view is eclipsed by its interest as a word witli history 
 involved in it and its use. On turning to the great Philo- 
 logical Society's Dictionary just now, I find it described as now 
 a "dialect" word, and defined as "A drink, or drink-money 
 demanded on certain occasions, as, e.g., from one who for the 
 first time wears a new suit of clothes," etc. The first reference 
 as to usage is to Bailey, 1721, who gives the phrase "To pay 
 beverage, to give a treat upon the first wearing of a new suit 
 of clothes." The next is to Johnson, 1755, who gives "Bever- 
 age, a treat at first coming into prison." And the third and 
 last is to Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary, which I reproduce from 
 the book itself : " The beverage of a new piece of dress is a 
 salute given by the person who appears in it for the first time, 
 more commonly by a male to a favourite female. One is said 
 to ' gie the beverage,' or to ' get the beverage ' ; as ' She gat 
 the beverage of his braw new coat.' " 
 
 These definitions and illustrations are sufficient to give a 
 good general idea of the usage and sense, as it is commonly 
 employed, of the word we are pausing over. Let it be kept 
 in mind that by the terms of the charter the new burgher, 
 who has become so by purchase, on receiving seisin of the 
 qualifying toft bought by him, not only pays the consuetudo, 
 or customary charge of 4d., but adds the further payment, 
 made to the burghers, of Id. more on the delivery of the 
 seisin and his first entrance or institution among the body 
 he now belongs to. Put side by side with this, "The word 
 gild is also sometimes used for all the rights of membership, 
 though more frequently for the meetings _ of the society, 
 especially for the solemn gatherings once or twice a year" 
 (Ashley, i. 73) ; the note given by the author thereto being, 
 "Hence the odd phrase, 'bevre ( = boire) gilde markande'" 
 (quoting Gross's book on Gilda Mercatoria). 
 
 " The odd phrase." But to the student of Old Whitby and 
 matters thereto appertaining, the phrase is much more than 
 merely "odd" as taken in connection with the word " beverage" 
 
288 Inquiry touching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 in Abbot Richard's old-world charter. By itself alone it almost 
 furnishes an irresistible inference as to the pre- existence 
 of at least a quasi-gild, a fraternity, a society of some sort. 
 Had it been otherwise, some kind of definition or explanation 
 must of necessity have been given. From the very form and 
 fashion of the document it is absolutely certain that the term 
 itself and all that it implied was generally understanded of 
 the folks to whom the charter was addressed. 
 
 But this previous existence of some kind of executive, as 
 I have termed it in what has been written above, some govern- 
 ing or quasi-governing body, is exactly what I have tried to 
 show is distinctly deducible from due consideration of a series 
 of facts and circumstances that yet remain for our study, and 
 indeed challenge examination at our hands. Whether that 
 "executive" was simple, or whether it was composite, an 
 aggregate of Port and Vill authorities, is another matter, and, 
 as already intimated, it is by no means certain that attempted 
 investigation will end in success. But still it may be possible 
 to offer a suggestion or two. 
 
 At the time of the Norman Conquest towns were not 
 numerous in England, and it is by no means an easy thing 
 in, I believe, the majority of cases to account for their 
 existence, or indeed for the circumstances which had occa- 
 sioned their rise and progress. That, in the case of Whitby, 
 the location of Hild's Holy House had been not simply an 
 important factor, but really the principal and prevalent factor, 
 in the evolution of Whitby town, requires no elaborate setting 
 forth and detailed attempts to prove. But I think that after 
 the ruin which befell the place under the inroads of the Danish 
 hosts, its deliberate and persevering resettlement by such 
 sturdy colonists as the Danish immigrants necessarily were, 
 must not be left out of consideration, nor yet taken and 
 regarded as separate and independent of the past, or as if all 
 that Whitby had been, as well as continued to be by position 
 and natural advantages, had no connection whatever with the 
 
Early Trade and Commei'ce at Whitby 289 
 
 question. The difficulty indeed would be to regard Whitby, 
 with its historical associations and its present and prospective 
 possibilities, as other than a place at which there were the 
 possible " makings " of a future town. Indeed the single fact 
 of the extant port would warrant as much as that. 
 
 But it is entirely necessary for us to bear in mind that 
 such primitive towns as are thus assumed, antedating the 
 Conquest, as Whitby for one undoubtedly did,^ must neces- 
 sarily have "become centres of what little trade there was. 
 For although agriculture long remained one of the principal 
 employments of the townsmen, yet it must early have been 
 necessary for supplies of food to be brought from the country 
 around. This is the most primitive and essential form of 
 trade " (Ashley, i. 69). 
 
 Yes, but there is commerce to be thought of, as well as 
 the tiny beginnings of an incipient home-trade. The author 
 just quoted remarks that London and the Kentish ports were 
 by no means in these early days strangers to commerce ; 
 that Chester and . Bristol on the west coast were engaged in 
 commerce of a sort in the tenth and eleventh centuries ; while 
 " the connection with the Scandinavian kingdoms caused by 
 Canute's conquest, brought York, Grimsby, Lincoln, Norwich, 
 Ipswich, and many other ports along the eastern coast, into 
 active commercial communication with the Baltic countries." 
 It would be hard as well as gratuitous to exclude Whitby 
 altogether from the same category with the "many other 
 ports on the eastern coast," and to assert that the old town 
 had nothing to do with such matters, she being what we know 
 she was by reason of her Thingwal. But conceding the possi- 
 bility of Whitby's share in this early traffic, one wants no 
 
 ' The Domesday notice of the status and condition of Whitby in the 
 time of King Edward the Confessor's time, on which an argmnent is founded 
 at a former page (pp. 99-101), is more than suflacient to justify this 
 assertion. The immediate effects of the Conquest, and what followed in 
 speedy succession, can have been nothing short of disastrous to the town, 
 its inhabitants, and its interests. 
 
 U 
 
290 Inquiry touching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 further explanation of the ascertained actual existence of the 
 early port. 
 
 There is no difficulty, however, in conceiving, the circum- 
 stances being such, that there might be a "society formed 
 primarily for the purpose of maintaining the privilege of 
 carrying on trade — a privilege which implied the possession 
 of a monopoly of trade in each town by the brethren as 
 against all other inhabitants. . . . The exact character of the 
 monopoly might probably vary somewhat from place to place. 
 Everywhere apparently non- members would be left free to 
 buy and sell victuals." Now there is no doubt that societies 
 of this sort had existed before the Conquest with religious 
 and social objects, church-gilds and frith-gilds ; and it is quite 
 " possible that similar societies for the purposes of trade may 
 have been formed equally early. . . . Such gilds may have 
 been in existence for some time before being recognised by 
 charter. ... In spite of the paucity of evidence, the existence 
 of a merchant gild can be definitely proved in 92 towns out 
 of 160 represented at one time or other in the parliaments 
 of Edward I. ... It is impossible not to conclude that every 
 town, down to those that were not much more than villages, 
 had its merchant gild," or what, under the circumstances, I 
 should prefer to call the equivalent which afterwards bloomed 
 out into the gild-merchant. 
 
 Some independent reasons for coming to some conclusion 
 of this sort in connection with this part of the North Eiding 
 have been adverted to at a previous page, and it is hard indeed, 
 even for a moment, to entertain the idea that Old Whitby 
 would be one of the not very numerous exceptions. 
 
 But there is still a consideration which has not been noted, 
 or sufficiently weighed in any real measure; and it is one 
 which cannot be hghtly left altogether on one side. I mean 
 the consideration which is involved in the following sentence 
 from the writer just quoted, "as to the persons who were 
 eligible for membership," and which, he says, "it is impossible 
 
Practical connection of the term '^Beverage " 291 
 
 with certainty to determine." It is, I believe, clear that when 
 merchant gilds became common the association was not either 
 necessarily or usually one embracing a comparatively small 
 number of persons. Even in small towns 200 and upwards 
 might be enrolled. It is also clear that merchants from 
 other towns were admitted. "But clearly the bulk of the 
 members belonged to the town itself; and there are strong 
 reasons for supposing that, of the inhabitants, only such 
 were admitted to membership as held land within the town 
 boundaries." 
 
 This should be specially noted, as of much importance at 
 the stage we have now arrived at ; for in the concluding part 
 of the sentence the writer goes on with the explanatory words, 
 "the Imrgage tenants, burgenses, the burghers or townsmen ^ar 
 excellence, who alone were fully qualified members of the town 
 assembly.'' Cautioning his readers against assuming that these 
 members were all merchants, he goes on with the pertinent 
 reminder that, "in most towns, agriculture was still one of 
 the main occupations of the burgenses "; but that most holders 
 of land would find it "desirable to sell at any rate their 
 surplus produce. The articles mentioned usually in gild 
 documents show that the trade consisted almost entirely in 
 the sale and purchase of the raw products of agriculture." 
 
 I think this and what has been previously alleged or 
 suggested supplies a sufficiently plausible hypothesis as to the 
 composition and nature of the fraternity, brotherhood, associa- 
 tion — whether we term it " gild " or not — among whom the 
 phrase " one penny for beverage " was familiar enough to be 
 fully understood, and the practice implied as customary as the 
 phrase. 
 
 Speaking generally, the men who held the tofts were the 
 members of the fraternity. No doubt, up to the date of the 
 Abbot's charter they had held the tofts (together with the 
 customarily associated lands in the common fields) as tofts 
 were held throughout the rest of the district of which "Whitby 
 
292 Inquiry touching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 was a part, and that is in agricultural tenure. As to their 
 social condition, their personal status, I simply and entirely 
 disbelieve that it was, or perhaps ever had been, "servile." 
 That they had held originally by labour-rents, but later, and 
 distinctly before the date of this burgage-giving charter, by 
 the payment of money-rents in part, and in part by the 
 rendering of occasional labour services of the "precaria" or 
 boonday description, when called for at busy times by the 
 lord of the vill (all such payments and renderings dating back 
 probably to the period of the consummated Danish colonisa- 
 tion), there can, I suppose, be little doubt; and that there 
 were differences of circumstance rather than of nominal condi- 
 tion among them is almost equally certain. But as to social 
 and actual personal condition, it is, I think, ascertained that a 
 " cotarius " who held his cot and possibly single acre, or, as 
 it might be, his five or six acres, a " bondus " who held his 
 one bovate, or his fellow " bondus " who held his two bovates, 
 or perhaps another who held in excess of two, all seem to have 
 stood on the same platform of personal freedom and social 
 equality. 
 
 But this is very far from postulating, or even from insinuat- 
 ing, that there was not another element, and an important 
 element, in the population of the vill, the nascent town or 
 "burgh" of the period in question. On the contrary, it is 
 impossible not to assume the existence of a noticeable, if not 
 considerable, body of operarii, or work-people of various sorts, 
 as well as of a class analogous to that the members of which 
 were not to be assessed because they were too poor to have 
 movables to the value of 40d. ; and besides these, yet again 
 others who maintained a possibly precarious existence by 
 casual labour, whether in the busier times of any fishery 
 there was, or in any other available species of periodical or 
 fortuitous employment. 
 
 It would be perhaps superfluous to advert at all to what 
 is so obvious, were it not for the fact that in the Old French 
 
The Whitby Commonalte or " Communitas'' 293 
 
 deed recording the settlement of a dispute between the Abbot 
 and Convent and the inhabitants of Whitby (dated in 1351) 
 mention is made of a number of the burgage -holders of 
 Whitby, and as concerned with them, of "la commonalte de 
 la vile et burgh de Whiteby " ; and again, in a second French 
 deed of the same nature dating in 1386-87, "les burgeoises et 
 inhabitant^ la dite vile de Whiteby " are specifically named 
 as parties concerned. 
 
 This is quite sufiB.cient to prove that in the middle and in 
 the last quarter of the fourteenth century a class of persons 
 quite distinct from the "burgenses," burghers, or burgage- 
 holders in Whitby, spoken of as "les inhabitants," or "la 
 commonalte [de] la vile et burgh de Whiteby," the "communitas" 
 in the more usual Latin phrase, was not only existing but was 
 a formally recognised constituent among the people of the 
 place. That at least the germs of this "communitas," and 
 possibly more, were in existence at the date of de Water- 
 ville's charter, is hardly a matter of mere surmise. How far it 
 was composed of such as held no land in contradistinction to 
 those who were only not free tenants ; or how far their numbers 
 may have been augmented by " francigense " or foreigners 
 who flocked into England as one of the consequences of the 
 ISTorman Conquest, and especially into places like Whitby 
 with a port and at least rudimentary trade ; or how far other 
 causes may have contributed to its being or its increase, there 
 is really nothing on which to base a probable supposition. 
 All that can be alleged is that it was there because it must 
 have been there. 
 
 Touching this charter of Abbot Richard's there are still 
 a few words to be said relatively to its date, its history, and 
 its effect. At p. 477 we find Young writing, after having 
 previously stated that "the precise year in which it .was 
 granted cannot be ascertained," but that " Charlton dates it 
 in 1185": "The privileges thus conferred on the town of 
 Whitby were soon after confirmed by a royal charter ; and 
 
294 Inquiry touching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 had no unfair means been employed to set them aside, Whitby 
 might now have been a royal borough. . . . But the monks, 
 jealous of their rights, repented of their liberality to the town ; 
 and Peter, the next Abbot, procured from the venal court of 
 King John a repeal of the charter. It was in the first year of 
 King John, in 1189 or early in 1200, that the Abbot attempted 
 to divest the town of its newly-acquired rights. He made 
 request to the king ' that the burgesses of Whitebi should not 
 be allowed to use the liberties granted to them by the Abbot 
 and Convent of Whitebi, and confirmed by the charter of our 
 lord the king, till it was determined in the king's court 
 whether the Abbot and Convent had power to give them 
 those liberties.' " Only pausing to say that the request does 
 not seem to be very unreasonable, it is necessary to add that 
 mistake and misrepresentation are equally conspicuous through- 
 out the paragraph quoted. De Waterville's charter was not 
 soon after confirmed by a royal charter. The charter of Henry 
 II., which conveyed the grant of burgage in Whitby to the 
 Abbot and Convent, was issued between the years 1174 and 
 1178, as is positively ascertained from circumstances and 
 dates connected with two of the witnesses. This at once shows 
 that if Charlton's guess — for it is no more — as to the date of 
 the Abbot's charter had any even probable foundation of 
 verisimilitude, the said charter could not very well be confirmed 
 by a royal charter antedating it by eight to ten years at least. 
 But, what is more to the point still, it is the royal charter to 
 the Abbot, and not that of the Abbot to the burgenses, which 
 is confirmed by Henry the Second's successor on the throne, 
 Eichard I. The document referred to, or Eichard's confirma- 
 tion, is printed as No. 187 in the Wliithy Chartulary, and, after 
 repeating the terms of grant of privileges such as those enjoyed 
 by Eipon and Beverley, it proceeds in these precise terms : 
 " Also we concede and confirm to the aforesaid Church burgage 
 in the said vill of Whitby, and a fair at the feast of S. Hilda, 
 together with soc and sac," etc., exactly as in the original 
 
The Charters and their Dates 295 
 
 grant. In the next reign, however, or in January 1201, a 
 confirmation of the Abbot's charter was really obtained from 
 the king, and it was doubtless in connection with this that 
 the steps taken by the Abbot Peter, and of which such a 
 garbled and misleading account is given by the Whitby 
 historian in the passage quoted above, and in the note on the 
 following page, were initiated. 
 
 Sixteen months later a second charter was granted by the 
 same king (printed as No. 586 in the Ghartulary), which reads 
 as follows : "Know that we have conceded to Peter, Abbot 
 of Whitby, and his successors, and the Convent of Whitby, 
 that the charter of Eichard de Waterville, formerly Abbot of 
 Whitby and the Convent there, which the burgenses of Whitby 
 have, and which is inconsistent with {contra) the dignity of the 
 Church of Whitby, as is affirmed, shall not be confirmed by 
 us j but we issue our mandate, and straitly command that the 
 aforesaid burgenses do to the said Abbot what they are bound 
 to do in his case in all particulars as they have hitherto fully 
 done and were bound to do, and as well to his successors as 
 to Abbot Peter himself." 
 
 In plain English, the question whether the Abbot and 
 Convent of Whitby had the power to give such liberties to 
 the burgenses of Whitby ("potuerunt dare hujusmodi libertates 
 burgensibus de Whiteby ") had been argued in the Court of 
 King's Bench, and the judgment given had been that no such 
 power belonged to them. It was not competent to them to 
 set aside existing royal charters and confirmations. 
 
 A little attention to dates will possibly help the due con- 
 sideration of facts and probabilities. Henry's charter was 
 granted between 1174 and 1179. Richard de Waterville 
 became Abbot between 1175 and 1177, most likely in 1176. 
 The inference is that the grant was made shortly after Richard's 
 accession to the Abbacy, as also, I think, that the Abbot did 
 not suffer the new privilege conceded to him to remain very 
 long in abeyance ; that, in other words, his charter would be 
 
296 Inquiry totiching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 given soon after he got his authorisation from the king. He 
 makes way, however, for Abbot Peter — whether by death or 
 cession is not knovm — before 1190, and King Eichard, in 
 the first year of his reign (23rd April 1190), confirms his 
 father's grant to the Abbot and Convent ; and it is not until 
 ten years later still, that we hear of the attempt to get de 
 Waterville's grant to the burgenses confirmed, and then with, 
 to all appearance, and as, certainly, it was in the King's Bench 
 decided to be, a forced interpretation put upon it. To say 
 the least, it seems not a little strange that fully twenty years 
 actually pass away before symptoms of misunderstanding 
 appear to manifest themselves, and action of a hostile character 
 is taken by the inhabitants of the vill or burgh of Whitby. 
 For it is to be observed that it is not merely the burgenses 
 who move in the matter : the parties acting expressly state 
 that they are acting "pro se et tota villa ta de Whitebi" 
 (on their own behalf and on behalf of all the people of 
 Whitby). 
 
 "With a forced interpretation put upon it," I said a 
 moment since ; for that, as I cannot help thinking, is a true 
 and accurate account of the proceedings. Because, setting 
 aside the " quietatio " in matters ecclesiastical, which it was 
 decided the Abbot and Convent had no power to give, what 
 was granted to the burgenses resident in Whitby was " liber- 
 tatem burgagige, et leges liberas, liberaque jura." 
 
 That "libertatem burgagiee " was, in after times, asserted 
 by the burgenses and commonalty of Whitby to be equivalent 
 to "free borough'' or "liber burgus" in its fullest sense, is 
 fairly obvious at the first glance, and is proved beyond question 
 by the language of the French deed of 1351, wherein the 
 claims of the burgesses and others as to this particular are 
 thus stated : " They allege that, according to what is said in 
 a charter made by a certain Abbot time out of mind since, 
 he, with the assent of his Convent, had given and granted to 
 the burgesses of Whitby the vill of Whitby to hold as a free 
 
Nature of a "Liber burgus" 297 
 
 borough (f raunkburgii) " ; and this is the only place in which 
 any equivalent for "liber burgus" is to be found. 
 
 Without entering upon any discussion — which indeed 
 might seem hardly necessary — as to whether "libertas burgagise " 
 is equivalent or approximately equivalent to " fraunkburgh " or 
 " liber burgus," the present inquiry will hardly be prejudiced 
 by an attempt to obtain as clear a conception as is possible of 
 what was implied by the use of the term "liber burgus." And 
 for this purpose I think the following extracts from Dr. Gross's 
 recent book on "The Gild Merchant" will be more than 
 a little helpful: "Pre-eminent among the privileges and 
 immunities enumerated in the charters of the twelfth and 
 thirteenth centuries is the grant of a free borough ('liber 
 burgus ' ), a term difi&cult to define, because it was a variable 
 generic conception. It comprised a vague aggregate of fran- 
 chises, whose number was gradually increased in the thirteenth 
 and fourteenth centuries. A community might lack some of 
 them, possessed by more powerful towns, and yet be called a 
 free borough, while, on the other hand, a simple village might 
 enjoy certain of these liberties without being able to arrogate 
 to itseK the title, independence, and dignity of a borough." 
 
 The writer then goes on to specify the " chief among the 
 privileges comprehended in the notion of a free borough, and 
 often granted side by side with it," namely, " an independent 
 judiciary," which the burgenses of Whitby never possessed ; 
 the courts there being not "under the control of officers chosen 
 by the burgesses, but of bailiffs appointed by the lord " ; that 
 is, the Abbot. Next is noted "the fee-farm rent ('firma 
 burgi') or commutation of tolls, court perquisites, and other 
 town dues, belonging to the king or mesne lord, for a fixed 
 sum of money " ; these tolls, perquisites, and dues, however, 
 always remained with the Abbot. Further, " exemptions from 
 toll throughout the realm," which was not the case at Whitby. 
 Again, " the right to hold markets and fairs " ; a right conceded 
 exclusively to the Abbot and Convent. "The election of 
 
298 Inquiry touching Burgage in Whitby 
 
 town officers by the burgesses " ; such officers, however, were 
 invariably appointed by the Abbot. "The gild merchant"; 
 of the existence of which at Whitby there is not only no 
 certain proof, but no proof of any kind — only a bare presump- 
 tion. " The return of all writs ; and ultimately the complete 
 exclusion of the sheriffs and other royal bailiffs from all inter- 
 ference in the affairs of the borough " ; which last two rights 
 or privileges also belonged exclusively to the Abbot and 
 Convent and not to the burgenses. 
 
 There is then added in a note the following rather pregnant 
 sentence : " To these privileges may be added the right to hold 
 lands and tenements by burgage tenure, which is generally 
 mentioned only in the charters of small baronial towns, its 
 existence being taken for granted in other cases." But this is 
 Whitby's case exactly. It had originally been a "baronial 
 town " as well as a " small town." Now, by gift of the baron, 
 and confirmation by the king, it had become an "abbatical 
 town," and one which followed the rule "of most of the 
 episcopal, baronial, and abbatical towns " (Gross, i. 90). 
 
 I do not know that anything more is needed to explain 
 the entire process of affairs connected with this much mis- 
 understood and misrepresented charter of the Abbot Richard's, 
 and to demonstrate the erroneous view of the same taken by 
 Dr. Young and others. We see the grant of burgage in Whitby 
 by the king to the Abbot, and then the admission of Whitby 
 into burgage by the Abbot. But we see at the same time the 
 retention by the Abbot of jurisdiction which the king had 
 given him equally with the right of burgage, the retention 
 also of the right and the power to nominate his various officers 
 and officials, and certainly no cession of the rights of lordship 
 derived from the founder's original grant. We see the charter 
 to the Abbot confirmed by the succeeding monarch, and then, 
 at the very beginning of John's reign we see, and as if it were 
 sudddenly sprung on the Convent authorities, the royal con- 
 firmation of the charter to the burgenses, but under what we 
 
Disputes referred to Earl of Northumberland 299 
 
 are driven to call a very forced interpretation of its terms and 
 general tenor. 
 
 This mode of procedure is twice repeated in the course of 
 the fourteenth century, and in hoth cases would appear to 
 have been baffled in the same kind of way; namely, by a 
 reference of the matters in dispute to arbitration in either 
 case, purely private as it would seem in the first instance, 
 but with somewhat more of apparent officiality in the latter 
 case. Indeed it might very fairly be described as referred to 
 arbitration, the Earl of Northumberland, de facto representative, 
 and described as heir, of the Founder (with his son and heir, and 
 a younger son also) acting as the referee. 
 
 Copies of both of these curious and interesting documents 
 will be found in the Appendix. ^ 
 
 ' See Appendix B. 
 
THE ENCLOSUEE OF THE ABBEY PEECINCTS 
 AND ITS GATEHOUSE 
 
 In a previous Section I have noticed the circumstance that, 
 with some readers, it is by no means absolutely recognised 
 that the monasteries of the old days were jealously guarded, 
 and that access to their inmates, and the liberty of going out 
 or entering in at will, were rigidly limited, and I referred to 
 the high wall of enclosure and the strictly-kept gateway. I 
 might have added that the same was true of some writers, as 
 well as of a certain class of readers ; for, in point of fact, the 
 remark was suggested partly by the tenor of Mr. Charlton's 
 comments on the connection between the removal of the 
 market, as he assumed, from the place now called the Abbey 
 Plain, and the "dissolution of the fraternity of monks," and 
 partly by what appears to be the conception underlying many 
 passages in both Charlton and Young's Histories, and which is 
 certainly not based on any realised idea of the seclusion of the 
 monkish fraternities, or their enforced abstinence from general 
 participation in secular matters. As a matter of fact, we find 
 Dr. Young expressing himself as follows in one place (p. 571) : 
 " It was our monks' policy to keep the people at a respectful 
 distance ; and if, when the Abbey began to prosper, a parish 
 church was built for the laity, that they might not come into 
 the Abbey church, it was very unlikely that the people would 
 be suffered to hold markets," etc. 
 
 The curious medley of mistake and misconception involved 
 in this short extract is enough to amaze one. For the writer 
 
Essential meaning of ' ' Monk, " " Monastery " 301 
 
 certainly knew, and as a fact that admitted of no sort of doubt, 
 that the church of St. Mary of Whitby, the "parish church," 
 with its half-dozen outlying district-chapels, formed a most 
 important part of the original grant made on the refounding 
 of the Abbey ; or, in other words, that the parish church was 
 a recognised building intended and made use of for the public 
 worship of the inhabitants long before a stone of the existing 
 Abbey church itself was so much as quarried ; and the most 
 elementary knowledge of the principles and practice of monach- 
 ism, the most cursory consideration of what a monk was, of 
 what the term itself meant, would have been, one would have 
 thought, amply suflScient to dispel the wild idea that the " laity 
 were ever wont to enter the Abbey church" as among the 
 stated worshippers therein. Such phrases as "retiring from 
 the world," entering upon "the seclusion of the cloister," are 
 familiar enough as applied to a person who entered a monastery 
 or became a monk ; but where would have been the seclusion, 
 and where the retiring, if the laity, they who were in the 
 world and of the world still, entered at will, and even into 
 the holiest place, and took part in whatsoever went on there ? 
 The "monk's" very name meant that he lived alone, apart, 
 separate from the world ; and the " monastery " was the place 
 wherein a party of such persons took up their abode and 
 pursued the calling they had adopted; silence, seclusion, 
 obedience, poverty, labour, devotion, regularity, most or all, 
 being the things they bound themselves to by the vows they 
 took on entering the convent. Among the Carthusians indeed 
 the silence and seclusion were so strict and so complete that 
 the inmates of the monastery neither saw one another save, it 
 might be, in the church, nor spoke to any one, nor ever saw a 
 person of or from the outside world. Yet all this is overlooked 
 by the writers to whom reference was made a few lines above, 
 and still more among at least a portion of the reading public. 
 
 But, to revert more particularly, and for a reason, to the 
 subject of strong walls of enclosure and the guarded entrance 
 
302 Enclosure of Abbey Precincts 
 
 of the ancient monastery. This is what one of the authorities 
 I have at hand has to say upon matters of this sort : " The 
 great enclosure (varying of course in extent vidth the wealth 
 and importance of the monastery) was surrounded by a wall, 
 the principal entrance being through a gateway to the west or 
 north-west. The gateway was a considerable building, and 
 often contained a chapel, with its altar, besides the necessary 
 accommodation for the porter. The almery, or place where 
 alms were distributed, stood not far within the great gate, and 
 generally a little to the right hand: There too was often a 
 chapel with its altar." 
 
 Now I do not propose to follow this descriptive account, 
 given by Dean Hook in his Church Dictionary, any further here. 
 What I have so far extracted is sufficient for the present 
 purpose. 
 
 I cannot help thinking it a little remarkable that in no 
 history, or sketch even of the history, of Whitby Abbey, so far 
 as I am acquainted with such productions, has there ever been 
 reference made to either the fact of the wall enclosing the 
 Abbey precincts, to any of its characteristics, to the line which 
 was taken by it, or, consequently, to the extent of the area 
 enclosed by it. Neither — and quite naturally, the enclosure 
 itself being left without notice — have I ever heard of, or seen 
 the least reference made to the probable site of the great gate- 
 way ; and my very object in writing these lines is to direct 
 attention to what must be, to any one interested in the local 
 archaeology of Whitby, the very interesting nature of the 
 inquiry which is involved in the circumstance I refer to, as 
 well as to the inquiry itself. 
 
 A part of that inquiry is, " Where was the great gateway, 
 and what was the line of the enclosing wall or other delimitat- 
 ing barrier which shut oflf the precincts of the Church of St. 
 Peter and St. Hild, hardly less from the rest of the parish 
 than from the rest of the world ? " 
 
 " The principal entrance," we read just now, " was through 
 
Site of the Whitby Almarium 303 
 
 a gateway to the west or north-west ; and the almery stood 
 not far within the great gate, and generally a little to the 
 right hand." Probably any one interested enough in the 
 subject to take down his Charlton, and look at the "Plan of 
 the Town and Harbour of Whitby," which serves as the 
 frontispiece, and is dated in 1778, will also look at the building 
 marked as "Stables, formerly Almshouses," with an almost 
 earnest desire if not to read "almery" instead of "alms- 
 houses," yet at least to hope to be satisfied that if almshouses 
 really were there, the ancient conventual " almery '' furnished 
 at least the locns quo, if not the actual building out of which, 
 or in which, the almshouses in question found their origin and 
 being. Passing by Mr. Charltpn's quaint mistake of turning 
 the almarium into a person — " probably not the almoner but 
 the chantor, or the person supplying the necessary books " — 
 we note that while the late F. K. Eobinson and Charlton both 
 speak of the almshouses as if of several. Dr. Young, more 
 advisedly, uses the singular number, and speaks of the alms- 
 house, and speaks of it, moreover, as being " on the west side, 
 and standing where Mrs. Cholmley's stables now are." And 
 from the traces of ancient mason-work still quite evidently dis- 
 cernible in the said stables, there can be little doubt that here 
 actually stood the " almarium " of the convent ; and coupling 
 that probability with what is known of the relative positions 
 of the conventual gateway and the almery, according to the 
 general rule, the identification of the site of the one leads on 
 to at least a reasonable conjecture as to the approximate 
 position of the other. 
 
 It is true it is but the approximate position, but it is the 
 approximate position of what had a very real entity in the 
 early part of the seventeenth century, and continued to main- 
 tain it during the greater part of that epoch, even if not con- 
 siderably later yet. In the privately printed Memoirs of Sir 
 Hugh Cholmley repeated reference is made to this building. 
 In one place the autobiographer writes : "About May 1626 I 
 
304 Enclosure of Abbey Precincts 
 
 undertook this business, . . . and resolving to live in the 
 Gatehouse at Whitby, which was then inhabitable, so that 
 then I began to be first a builder, or rather a repairer ; for 
 what I did was most within-doors, the outside fabric being 
 much as it is this day." But the "this day'' was certainly 
 as late as 1636; for he was still living in the Gatehouse in 
 1628; and in 1634 he speaks of himself as having removed 
 from Fyling Hall — a house he had not long since built for his 
 own residence, but had afterwards sold to Sir John Hotham — 
 and taking up his abode again in " the Gatehouse at Whitby, 
 where I remained till my house was repaired and habitable." 
 The house thus spoken of is of course what is known as the 
 Abbey House, and its condition previously to the repairs just 
 mentioned is thus described : " Which then was very ruinous 
 and all unhandsome, the wall being only of timber and plaster, 
 and ill-contrived within. And besides the repairs, or rather 
 re-edifying the house, I built the stable and barn, I heightened 
 the out-walls of the court double of what they were, and made 
 all the wall round about the paddock. . . . The court levels, 
 which laid upon a hanging ground, unhandsomely, very ill- 
 watered, having only the low well, which is in the Almsers-close 
 (Almshouse-close), which I covered ; and also discovered and 
 erected the other adjoining conduit and the well in the court- 
 yard, from whence I conveyed by leaden pipes water into the 
 house, brew-house, and wash-house." 
 
 Any visitor to the ruins of the Abbey church, who pauses 
 for a moment in front of the west end of the old building, 
 standing before what once was the magnificent west entrance 
 to the sacred pile, and looks down into the court below, will 
 see enough in the most momentary glance to assure him of 
 the sweeping change of levels and other radical alterations 
 which have had place there. Indeed, it is a question which 
 I have heard propounded by visitors times without number, 
 " But how was access obtained to the church \ Was it by a 
 great flight of steps ? " That sentence, " The court levels, which 
 
Site of the Conventual Gatehouse 305 
 
 laid upon a hanging ground, unhandsomely " answers the 
 question. We see the steeply -sloping bank broken up into 
 different roughly-lying levels, each of them indicating one of 
 the orderly terraces severally reached from the one belovir by a 
 succession of easy stone steps. One may see it for himself still 
 in the flights of steps, and the platforms they lead to, as he 
 climbs the weary " church stairs." So too had it been in the 
 rear of the existing lodge and gateway. The plundering 
 utilitarian builder or constructor had reft away the broad 
 flags and the well-ordered stone steps ; and then the repairing, 
 reconstructing lord of the manor had cut away the levels that 
 were left, "unhandsome" as they were, and substituted for 
 them the sudden level that does not now please the eye, but 
 does excite the oft^springing question referred to above. 
 
 But this very consideration, it is nearly certain, will be 
 anything but unhelpful in dealing with the question, " Where 
 was the Conventual Gateway, or, as Sir Hugh Cholmley calls 
 it, the 'Gatehouse'?" a building, be it remembered, large 
 enough to accommodate the family and attendants of a gentle- 
 man who, when he removed from the Gatehouse into his house 
 at Whitby (the Abbey House) in 1636, had "between thirty 
 and forty in his ordinary family." 
 
 Allowing for the approaches to the main entrance to the 
 Abbey church, and the space they must necessarily have 
 occupied, and remembering that the "King's Highway" ran 
 up the narrow steep defile now called Church Lane, and of 
 course gave an approximate north frontage to any entrance- 
 building of the kind we are thinking of, we can only place 
 the building between the existing lodge and the end of the 
 stables built on the site of the ancient Conventual Almery. 
 As a matter of course, admission would be through a wide 
 vaulted archway, and on one side would be the smaller gate 
 permitting ingress and egress to foot passengers. Within 
 were rooms for the accommodation of the porter; and in 
 this particular case of the Whitby Gatehouse it is fully 
 
 X 
 
3o6 Enclosure of Abbey Precincts 
 
 evident that there must have been much available space 
 besides. 
 
 As to the line taken by the enclosing walls or other boundary 
 fences, the matter is to a great extent much more hypothetical 
 than that of the approximate position of the Gatehouse. But 
 still we are not left in total obscurity, or to the uncertain 
 guidance of mere surmise or supposition. Ancient trackways, 
 especially when marked by such abiding indications as the 
 flagged causeways, known in this district as " Pannier-man's- 
 Causeys,'' seem, in multitudes of instances, to preserve an 
 undying being as well as memory. As a case in point, there 
 are the old flags of the old-world road from Whitby to Hawsker 
 side by side with the modern macadamised highway, and these 
 flags, as one came from Hawsker to Whitby Churchyard no 
 long time since, even if it were not so still, retained their 
 position and their significance between the upper end of the 
 road called the Green Lane, and were continued to the very 
 point of turning in towards the Abbey House Lodge. That 
 road must have run in its straitness — and all these old country 
 highways were strait indeed : witness the Church Lane itself 
 — outside the Abbey precincts. The line of this road then 
 gives, within a foot or two on either side, the line of the wall 
 enclosing the Abbey precincts from the head of the Green 
 Lane to the open space on to which the Gatehouse opened, 
 and into which on its other side the Church Lane debouched. 
 On the other side of this strait roadway lay, beyond any 
 reasonable doubt, the cemetery appertaining to the Church of 
 St. Mary — the parochial churchyard, in briefest phrase. And 
 those who could find a market cross in the fine old graveyard 
 memorial that deserves more reverent treatment than it meets 
 with in the miscalled and much-abused Abbey Plain, were not 
 much blinder than the more recent Uhminati who detected a 
 village green in such a locality as that. Space for a very 
 narrow highway, as highways were narrow in those old days ; 
 on the one side of it the strictly isolated Abbey precincts, 
 
The southern limits of the Abbey Precincts 307 
 
 and on the other what should have been permitted to remain 
 at least the quiet, if not the hallowed resting-place of all that 
 was mortal of previous generations of Whitby folks : this is 
 what must have been the absolute condition of things up 
 to, and no doubt long after the Dissolution of the Monastery. 
 What led to, and who originated or permitted or perpetrated 
 the misappropriation and consequent desecration of the once 
 hallowed ground — God's Acre or God's Earth, as it was wont 
 to be called- — it is no part of my purpose to inquire. 
 
 Although we have been on very safe ground so far in the 
 attempt to delimitate the area hitherto spoken of as the Abbey 
 precincts, and although we may with much safety assume 
 further that the edge of the cliff on the west side and the line of 
 the Hawsker road on the other side unquestionably indicated 
 the boundary lines to some very considerable extent, still, the 
 limiting of that extent is not a thing to be done off-hand. It is 
 quite true that taking the line of the Hawsker road as far as the 
 opening of the Green Lane upon it, and then following the 
 Green Lane down the hill to the point where its line and the 
 general line of the edge of the cliff converge, would form a 
 very compendious and equally convenient mode of solving the 
 difficulty, if not the doubt. But, apart from the fact that there 
 is nothing that I am aware of to justify the notion, there are 
 certain reasons which seem to militate strongly against it. 
 One of these, and a weighty one, is that the space thus as- 
 sumed to be enclosed would be greatly in excess of what was 
 usual, and as much so of what was either necessary, expedient, 
 or otherwise than burdensome to a mere monastic community. 
 Thus the corresponding enclosure at Eievaulx can scarcely 
 have been more than one-half or one-third of that so sug- 
 gested at Whitby, and that at Byland hardly larger than that 
 at Eievaulx. Eight acres was the extent enclosed by the 
 boundary wall at New Abbey near Dumfries, and the area at 
 Mount Grace did not much, if at all, exceed five acres. The area 
 at Whitby enclosed by the Church Lane, Hawsker Lane, the 
 
3o8 Enclosure of Abbey Precincts 
 
 G-reen Lane, and the edge of the cliff can scarcely be less than 
 forty to fifty acres in extent. 
 
 But if it be conceded that such an extent as this is im- 
 probable, a hypothetical division must be suggested, even if 
 only in order to invite criticism. For myself, I should be 
 inclined for divers reasons to assume a line of demarcation as 
 possibly running from somewhere not far from the turnstile 
 near the north end of the Eopery, to some point not far removed 
 from the place where the Green Lane debouches on the road 
 to Euswarp ; and I should choose those two points because, on 
 the one hand, the easiest way of access to the Abbey from the 
 available part of the harbour as it was then would be by what 
 is now called Boulby Bank, and along the old trackway that 
 certainly existed along the line crossed by the said turnstile, 
 and on the other, an existing stone wall may possibly suggest 
 the approximate site of a still earlier and immensely higher 
 and stronger one — perhaps even, if duly questioned, might reveal 
 the present places of some constituents of such predecessor. 
 Indeed it is scarcely possible but that the predecessor existed 
 somewhere in that vicinity. ^ 
 
 It might probably be regarded as an omission if no notice 
 were taken of the remarkable testimony which was afforded, 
 now a good many years ago, to the fact that the Almshouse 
 Close was originally included within the limits of the Anglo- 
 Saxon Monastery. Occasion arose for the rebuilding and 
 enlargement of a jet-worker's shop not very far from the 
 foot of the cliff, in a yard off Church Street between the Black 
 Horse Yard and the foot of the Church Stairs. This led to 
 certain digging of foundations and collateral excavation ; and 
 although the length of the new building was not much in 
 excess of twenty feet, with a considerably less breadth, yet the 
 astonishing quantity of upwards of four tons of animal bones, 
 still in a condition to be saleable for manurial purposes, were 
 taken out of the excavations made. The same character 
 ' See Appendix A. 
 
Kitchen Midding-heap of the A.S. Monasteiy 309 
 
 appertained to the entire mass ; they were bones that resulted 
 from the preparation of the flesh which had originally clothed 
 them for human food. The bones of the ox were there in the 
 greatest abundance, and as far as the observation I gave on 
 several different occasions extended, they all seemed to have 
 belonged to the same species of animal, namely, the Celtic 
 Short-horn. I should think that, first and last, I observed 
 nearly two dozen of these horns, some of them still adherent 
 to the skull they had grown from; and in no one single 
 instance did I meet with a horn that had not belonged to the 
 species named. Besides the ox, the sheep, two species of deer 
 (a larger and a smaller ; no doubt the red deer and the roe), 
 the goat, and especially the pig, were fully represented. I 
 picked out, I should say, on one single visit not less than a 
 dozen or fifteen boar's tusks. None of these were of large 
 size, and several of them I thought distinctly small. But 
 there could be no question that the other animals mentioned, 
 and particularly the oxen, were well-grown and well-thriven 
 animals. There were also oyster-shells, with those of the 
 mussel, cockle, whelk, periwinkle, and another or two of the 
 corresponding species ; and even a few limpet shells might be 
 noted among the rest of like constituents of this remarkable 
 kitchen-midden-heap. 
 
 There was one question, however, connected with the 
 deposit which it was not easy to settle off-hand; namely, 
 whether the accumulation at the foot of the bank which had 
 been dug upon in the way I have mentioned depended upon 
 the bones, etc., having been thrown down the cliff-bank, or 
 whether they had fallen down in. consequence of the crumbling 
 away of the cliff on or near the edge of which they had origin- 
 ally been deposited. I was unable to discard this latter sup- 
 position summarily, because I had on divers occasions remarked 
 matters of the same general character as still discoverable in 
 parts of the crumbling edge of the cliff and by the side of the 
 footpath along its verge. And one day, when I was in company 
 
3IO Enclosure of Abbey Precincts 
 
 with the late F. K. Kobinson, we had both noticed a variety 
 of bones of small size, and of the shells of shell-fish, and other 
 matters, among which was what remained of a wooden comb. 
 Still the large quantity of bones all lying together, and none 
 of them appearing to have been subjected to much atmospheric 
 action — as must have been the case had they fallen from the 
 top through the slow action of disintegration of the upper 
 part of the cliff — led me to think that these matters had been 
 deliberately, and as a rule, cast away from near the then brae, 
 and had accumulated in the immense mass discovered at the 
 foot of the same. And this was a conclusion by no means 
 without its bearing upon the question as to where during the 
 two centuries and upwards immediately preceding the Danish 
 conquest and subsequent occupancy, the bulk of the Whitby 
 non-monastic population dwelt. Certainly it could not have 
 been in the immediate vicinity of the midden-heap of the 
 ancient monastery. 
 
THE PARISH CHUECH, ITS APPROXIMATE 
 DATE AND SALIENT FEATURES 
 
 In the "Memorial of Benefactions," after cataloguing in the 
 succinctest way possible the lands about Whitby given to the 
 newly reconstituted monastery, and mentioning the two 
 hermitages of Eskdale and Mulgrave, the writer goes on in 
 the sixth line from the beginning to name " the Church of St. 
 Mary of Whitby, with its six chapels, and all its appendages 
 whatsoever." The date of the Memorial is about 1160, and 
 the date of the Benefaction specified from in or about 1080-95. 
 And yet, as noticed in the last section. Dr. Young makes the 
 extraordinary oversight involved in writing, "If, when the 
 Abbey began to prosper, a parish church was built for the 
 laity, that they might not come into the Abbey church," etc. 
 etc. 
 
 The misconception is amazing enough, but the oversight 
 is more astounding still, because it needs but the merest glance 
 at the architectural details discernible about the parish church 
 to become aware that the entire original church is older by 
 the greater part of a century than the earliest part of the 
 ruined Abbey church. 
 
 There are notices of the " Church of St. Mary '' — I can 
 hardly call them architectural, or even structural — in the pages 
 of both Young and Robinson, and neither of them can be 
 looked upon as really accurate. Young introduces the subject 
 thus : " In the Saxon period there was but one church at 
 Streoneshalh (though it was surrounded by a number of 
 
312 The Parish Church, its approximate Date 
 
 oratories or chapels) ; for in those days of simplicity the people 
 of the town, and of the country around, worshipped under 
 the same roof with the monks and nuns ; but some years after 
 the Conquest, when religious pride became more general, the 
 monks would have thought themselves degraded by such an 
 intermixture. The church of the convent was appropriated 
 to themselves, and to such friends as they chose to admit; 
 while a meaner structure was erected for the use of the vulgar." 
 
 Some half-dozen allegations are ventured here, of which, 
 while all of them may be characterised as baseless, two or 
 three are certainly untrue, and among them the statements 
 made or implied in the last period. "The meaner structure, 
 erected for the use of the vulgar," was the "Church of St. 
 Mary," which he says in the following sentence "was erected 
 in the time of the Abbot William de Percy at Whitby for the 
 inhabitants of that town and neighbourhood. Though this 
 church, which was erected about sixty years prior to the oldest 
 part of the present Abbey church, has undergone many altera- 
 tions, enough of the ancient structure still remains to point 
 out its original form and workmanship. It is a specimen of 
 the early Norman architecture, which intervened between the 
 Saxon and the Gothic." 
 
 I demur to the expression " meaner structure " as abso- 
 lutely misleading, and indeed contradictory of the facts ; and 
 I cannot consent to the chronology. That the church was 
 built during the time of Abbot William de Percy, that is, 
 between 1100 and c. 1125, is possible, but it admits of doubt.i 
 I do not think the style of the architecture quite justifies such 
 a conclusion. It is early Norman certainly, though I should 
 hardly think it all so early as that. The corbel-table to the 
 
 1 In Parker's Glossary of Gothic Architecture, Plate XXVIII. (edition of 
 1846), I see a drawing of a "capital" in "Whitby parish church, the date 
 appended to which is 1100. This is a circumstance which must not be 
 lightly overlooked. I have always thought there was a difference as to 
 time between what remains on and about the chancel and the architectural 
 features met with nearer the west end. 
 
The Statement of tJie ''Memorial" 313 
 
 parapet of the ehancel is certainly very ancient, but the 
 remnants that are left nearer the west end hardly bespeak the 
 same early date. 
 
 But admitting that the church was built during William 
 de Percy's abbacy, or within the first twenty-five years of the 
 twelfth century, still, inasmuch as we seem to be fully justified 
 in assuming the abbacy of Abbot Eoger to be the period in 
 which the earliest work of the Abbey church, as we see it, will 
 have been done, or about 1220 onwards, Dr. Young's " sixty 
 years " must be stretched to one hundred. 
 
 It is in a note that this authority gives his reasons for 
 " placing the erection of this church in the time of the Abbot 
 William," and it will be seen that the architectural character- 
 istics of the building itself have no influence or bearing on the 
 opinion. He arrives at the conclusions stated "because it 
 (the parish church) is not named in the first charter of Alan 
 de Percy granted to that Abbot nor in any former charter, 
 but is included in Alan's second charter." I cannot follow 
 the Doctor's line of thought when he proceeds to state his 
 disbelief that " any church was built here by King Edwin," 
 or when he thinks it " necessary to remind the reader that 
 Charlton's account of the rebuilding of that supposed ancient 
 church, the transferring of the title of St. Peter's from that to 
 the conventual church, etc., are mere fictions." I dissent from 
 his conclusions as founded on the absence of mention of Whitby 
 church in Alan de Percy's charters. I prefer to rest upon the 
 positive statement made in the early part of the " Memorial of 
 Benefactions " that William de Percy, styled at the head of his 
 own charter (No. XXVII. in the Chartulary) "Primus Fundator," 
 on the marked " increase of the number of monks, when his 
 brother Serb de Perci became a monk there, gave vills, lands, 
 churches, and tithes in frankalmoigne, with the full and con- 
 firmatory concurrence of Emma de Port, his wife, and Alan 
 de Perci, their son " and his heir ; and consequently to assume 
 that when these " Ecclesise " were given, the most important 
 
314 The Parish Church, its approximate Date 
 
 of all, and the most essential to the completeness of the gift, 
 namely, the parish church of Whitby itself, would be the last 
 to be omitted. Besides this, in what is a very important 
 charter,^ although not noticed by either of the Whitby writers 
 as such, — I mean the charter by Hugh, Earl of Chester, which 
 can only be regarded as the charter which gave full validity 
 to William de Percy's original grant, — the grant specified is 
 of "Ecclesia S. Petri Whitby ensis," with all things thereto 
 appertaining; and further still, the church of Middlesburg, 
 " cum omnibus decimis Francigenis et Anglis " : and how the 
 old church at Whitby is to be excluded from the comprehen- 
 siveness of the phrase " et omnia quae ad eam pertinent " I do 
 not see. 
 
 Moreover, Dr. Young's more than implied conclusion — and 
 he is more of a partisan in the matter than he usually permits 
 himself to be, except when under the influence of his "No 
 Popery " spirit — that there was no previous or Anglo-Saxon 
 church, to be rebuilt at Whitby, is one which is surely irre- 
 concilable with well-known facts. It is not only that such 
 instances as those of Brompton, Crathorne, Kirk Levington, 
 Arncliff, attest the existence of even elaborate Anglian churches 
 in that part of the Cleveland district, but the like evidences 
 'afforded in abundance at Easington, Hinderwell (or rather 
 Seaton in Hinderwell), Hackness, Hawsker, etc., which bring 
 home to us the conviction that "Anglo-Saxon" churches in 
 the Whitby district were the reverse of rare, and that it would 
 have been a strange and unaccountable thing indeed if Streones- 
 halh — the foster-mother of the Anglian church in that 
 country at large — should have been herself the one to lack a 
 
 1 This charter is printed as No. XXV. in the Chartulary, and detailed 
 examination of it and its import will be found at p. xlv. et seq. of the 
 Introductory Chapters. There cannot be any doubt of any sort that the 
 name Fleinesburgh is a mistake made by the copyist for that of Mideles- 
 burgh ; and this conclusion carries with it the farther conclusion stated 
 in the text, and is itself corroborated by other matters adverted to in 
 Introductory Chapters just cited. 
 
Features of the original Church 315 
 
 church of the period. I cannot assent to such a doctrine, and 
 I make no doubt at all that there was an early parish church 
 at Whitby, and that when Abbot William (as it may be) 
 began his work of rebuilding, he was doing precisely what the 
 church-building or restoring lords of lands and manors were 
 doing at and about the same period throughout the said district 
 as a whole. 
 
 Continuing the extract from Dr. Young's book from the 
 point at which the last quotation closed, we find him writing : 
 " The church had neither tower nor transepts, but was a plain 
 oblong building, with a chancel at its eastern extremity. It 
 had no aisles ; and the windows, of which there was but one 
 row, were very small, each being only 20 inches broad, and 
 about 4 feet 6 inches high." Young's further description 
 of these windows is so halting and defective that it is better 
 to turn to Eobinson's somewhat more intelligible account. 
 They " are splayed internally, having capped columns at the 
 sides, supporting semicircular heads with zigzag mouldings.'' 
 In truth these windows, one of which may still be satisfactorily 
 inspected by going up a staircase to the gallery immediately 
 on the right as one enters the church from the porch, were by 
 themselves alone sufficient to discredit the idea involved in the 
 expression " a meaner structure." The chancel arch, moreover, 
 blocked, hidden, misused as it is by reason of the Cholmley 
 pew which is built right across it, bears its most distinct 
 testimony that this early Norman church was no contemptible 
 specimen of what a Norman church as it came from its builders' 
 hands actually was. These features, from the extraordinary 
 and indeed inconceivable way in which the caprices of modern 
 innovation have been permitted to have an utterly free hand, 
 have to be looked for and are seen under circumstances of 
 much difficulty. But the Norman buttresses and corbel-table 
 on the outside, and the window details yet spared on the 
 inside, are enough to help a moderately instructed observer to 
 recall the main characters of the original church. 
 
3 1 6 The Parish Chui'ch, its approximate Date 
 
 It may be added that very cursory observation will be 
 sufficient to reveal the circumstance that the church, as origin- 
 ally completed, was without a tower. If the visitor penetrates 
 within the door at the west end of the nave he will see at once 
 that the wall which separates between himself and the church 
 was built as an outside wall. The plinth, a foot or two above 
 the ground line, utters no uncertain sound as to that fact. 
 That the gable above terminated in a bell-gable, like as in the 
 Cleveland churches in general in the first instance, there can 
 be no doubt. But it is equally certain that no long time was 
 suffered to elapse before a tower was appended at the west 
 end. Divers churches in Cleveland remain, or have remained 
 until recently, notably Yarm, Upleatham, Whorlton, to show 
 how in late ages the tower was lamely set to stride over the 
 west end of the church, appropriating to its own uses more or 
 less of the original gable and bell-gable. But at Whitby it 
 was otherwise. The tower, and less than three-quarters of a 
 century later, was (so to speak) affixed to the west front or 
 wall of the church. 
 
 Speaking of this. Dr. Young says : " The present tower was 
 erected at the west end long after the church was built. Of 
 this there can be no doubt ; for, besides the difference in the 
 style of architecture, and the obvious junction of the tower to 
 the wall of the church, we see within the tower the tablets 
 or bands " (he means the plinth just referred to and the string- 
 courses), " which run along the south wall, continued in that 
 part of the west wall which the tower has enclosed. For some 
 time after its erection the tower has served as a porch to the 
 church, the main entrance being still at that end; but that 
 entrance through the tower has now been shut up for several 
 ages." Here Robinson and Young are at variance; for the 
 former writes : " Originally Norman in nave and chancel, with 
 the entrance on the south side of the former, the tower at the 
 west end, as well as the transepts, are after additions. The 
 entrance, round-arched, with a pair of 'cushion -capped' 
 
Transepts of the Parish Chttrch 3 1 7 
 
 columns on either hand, was destroyed in 1825 to make the 
 principal porch nearer the tower, where it now is." But I 
 think Dr. Young is right, and that the principal entrance was 
 beyond doubt at the west end. That there was a south entrance 
 besides, as well as the priest's door in the south wall of the 
 chancel, is I daresay also certain. Such seems to have been 
 the rule in the early or Norman Cleveland churches, in which, 
 or at least in not a few of them, a door in the north wall of 
 the nave is not an unusual feature. But in nearly all of them 
 the entrance at the west end was marked out as the principal 
 one by its elaborate architectural details ; arches of three 
 orders, with careful and often beautiful mouldings and char- 
 acteristic carving, having been far from infrequent. 
 
 At a somewhat later date still than that of the tower, 
 transepts were thrown out, and, it would appear, on the north 
 as well as the south side. From what can be still gathered 
 from what remains, that on the north side was during the 
 continuance of the Early English style or period, as is attested 
 by the lancet windows and more than one of the mouldings. 
 "The front of the south transept," says Eobinson, "which 
 comprises one spacious window, originally filled with stone 
 mulHons and tracery, may date about 1380." It is hard to 
 say anything decisive about it. What is left is too poor and 
 meagre to help one much in an attempt to describe, or even to 
 seek for indications such as to inspire any sort or degree of 
 coniidence. 
 
 As to later innovations, or whatever else the insertions in 
 Whitby church may be called, there is surely no need to 
 occupy space in a book about " Old Whitby " to speak about 
 them. 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 Note to Page 308 
 
 When I had newly written the paragrajih referred to, a some- 
 what curious speculation suggested itself to my mind, in connection 
 with the time-out-of-mind-accredited site of the "planting of the 
 Penny Hedge." It is to be observed that neither Charlton nor Young 
 makes any doubt that the Penny Hedge is a survival of the Horn- 
 garth. The language of the latter is very explicit- Speaking of 
 an entry on what he terms "an imperfect leaf at the beginning of 
 the Register" or Abbot's Book, he says, "From this document 
 we learn that the horngarth service is the very same with what is 
 now called the planting of the penny hedge." Assurriing this to be 
 so — as indeed I have never doubted — it occurred to me to speculate 
 as to whether there might not be some possible connection between 
 the old-established site of the Hedge and the ancient enclosure of 
 the Abbatial precincts, or, at least, some of the accidents connected 
 therewith ; and still, although I know now that the suggestion 
 referred to had no actual basis, I am by no means sure that the 
 connection I was almost ready to assume is one which ought to be 
 summarily dismissed. 
 
 On the face of the Penny Hedge legend and the observance 
 itself, it is even obtrusively apparent that the making of a fence 
 avowedly only strong enough to stand three tides, and with no 
 continuation of it in any direction, either attempted or even possible, 
 can never have had any real or practical purpose, end, or object. 
 And besides, there can be no possible reason why only Fylingdales 
 homagers (and indeed only one of them) should be summoned and 
 held to the performance of such a farcical, objectless ceremony. 
 The proceeding itself is so nonsensical — considered simply in the 
 light of a "service" — that one is almost constrained to think 
 that the explanation must be, if not nonsensical also, yet surely 
 arbitrary, or simply formal. 
 
Surmises as to connection of Penny Hedge 319 
 
 Still, putting that part of the matter on one side, it is self- 
 evident that there must have been a reason for making the Penny- 
 Hedge just at the particular place marked out, by tradition or 
 otherwise, for the observance of the ceremony ; and the speculation 
 referred to is something of this sort : " Had the site named any- 
 thing to do, not so much with the actual enclosure of the Abbey 
 precincts, as with the means of approach, whether by pack-way or 
 road, to the Abbey and its offices themselves % " 
 
 There is no question that the Abbey and Convent had their 
 own wharf, pier, staith, or by whatever other appellation the 
 accommodation in question was distinguished : the clause touching 
 " plankage," and the specific mention of the " Abbot's plank " in 
 the second of the French deeds, translations of which are printed 
 just below, are quite sufficient to establish that point. That 
 easy access — at least as easy as access could be with such a hill 
 intervening — to the Abbey premises from this wharfage was a sine 
 qua non cannot but be postulated. And would not the way from 
 the Abbot's wharf to the Convent be likely to be, in part or in 
 whole, what we term a " private road " 1 That there was an ancient 
 road or way leading into, if not through, what is now called the 
 Almshouse Close, tending towards the upper part of the Church 
 Lane, is a conclusion which rests safely on the fact that such a way, 
 and some part of it still paved with cobble-stones, still exists, and 
 leads thither from the vicinity of Boulby Bank. This, as a way 
 at all, must, from the point at which it entered the Abbey precincts, 
 have been a strictly private way. The idea that occurred to me 
 was that it was in no way impossible that the setting of the Penny 
 Hedge, which never could have had any absolute economic use, or 
 any continuation landwards from that particular site, might have 
 originated in some quasi-fence or hedge bounding the Abbot's right 
 of way. One can certainly imagine the commutation of the Horn- 
 garth service, when the progress of enclosure had rendered the 
 actual making of the strong fence thereby implied altogether super- 
 erogatory, into some practically gratuitous observance, such as the 
 " yearly rent or acknowledgment to be paid if demanded " men- 
 tioned by Young (p. 501), which might be " three peppercorns," or 
 a single silken garter, or one of a pair of gloves, " a rose in the 
 time of roses," or any other trifling recognition of obsolete depend- 
 ence. That the planting of the Penny Hedge may or must have, 
 so far as the idea of it is concerned, sprung out of the old Horn- 
 garth, is more than possible, perhaps more than even likely ; but that 
 it sprung thence in the way above imagined is I daresay only barely 
 supposable. Certainly it is not accounted for in the legend which 
 professes to describe it and the manner of the doing of it. 
 
3 2 o Appendices 
 
 My reason for saying, as I did a little above, that the suggestion 
 I referred to "had no actual basis" was as follows. I believe that 
 no one has hitherto noticed that the ignorance which prevails as to 
 the reason why the Penny Hedge was and is planted at the particular 
 spot set apart by prescription for the purpose, depends simply upon 
 a trifling miscopying and mispunctuation. The Abbot's Book 
 or Whitby Register notice of the " Hornegarth service " closes 
 thus : " So comminge to the water at the towne end they maid the 
 hedg which should stand three tydes, and then the officer did blow 
 ' Owte upon they.' " Charlton and Young, and their confiding 
 copyists, give this as follows : " Comminge to the water at the 
 towne, and they maid the hedg which," etc. But there is a great 
 difference between " the water at the towne end they maid the 
 hedg" and "the water at the towne, and maid the hedg." "The 
 water at the towne " conveys no definite idea. " The water at the 
 towne end," on the contrary, does, but only because the towne-end 
 is itself a perfectly definite mark or limit. The plain English of it 
 is that the town came to an end above the bridge, just short of 
 the extant site of the Penny Hedge. There were no buildings to 
 the south of that line when the memorandum in the Abbot's Book 
 just referred to was made. 
 
 Any reader who will take the trouble to refer back to the 
 section dealing with the grouping of Whitby just after the Dissolu- 
 tion (p. 181 d seq.), wiU be struck with the remarkable confirmation 
 of this Statement which is afi'orded by the fact that in Southgate, 
 which began where the short bit of street called Crossgate ended, there 
 were but six houses, or cottages really, in all. The " end of the town " 
 was almost reached when one got to the termination of Crossgate. 
 
 It was in the ancient Crossgate that the old " tolbothe " stood, 
 as we remember. That the toUbooth was at no great distance from 
 the principal landing-stages, wharves, or staiths of the day, there 
 can be no doubt ; and it is probable that the staiths of the merchants 
 would be nearer the custom-house or toUbooth than the Abbot's 
 wharf or staith. But, in that case, we have the Abbot's landing- 
 place thrust down to very nearly the site of the Penny Hedge ; a 
 conclusion which by no means militates against the idea that there 
 may have been a way, possibly even a private way, from what was 
 then the end of the staith or make-shift wharf, up by way of the 
 Boulby Bank slope to the ofiSces of the monastery. It is obvious 
 that there must have been such a way from the port or harbour, 
 and it is difficult to select any place from which it could have been 
 readier or easier. Given such a way, it is at least an admissible 
 supposition that its commencement and the site of the Penny Hedge 
 may not have been totally unconnected. 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 i. This indenture made between the Abbot and Convent of Whitby, 
 Lords of the said Vill, of the one part, and William Page, Richard 
 Here, John Redhead, John Laxman, Robert Cobbe, Bartholomew 
 Chapman, Richard del Ostery, Peter Page, William de Stokesley, 
 John Scott, John Smith, William Hersand, T^drew Cragger, 
 William Webster, WiUiam son of John Page, Alan Penok, Benett 
 de Malton, John Barker, Robert de Rotherham, Robert de Staynton, 
 Alan del Celer, Nicholas Conynge, John de Lealholm, William 
 Darell, and the Commonalty of the vill and burgh of Whitby, of 
 the other part. Testifies that, inasmuch as debate and strife have 
 been moved between the aforesaid Abbot and Convent, who claim 
 lordship and franchises within the said vill and burgh by the title 
 of uninterrupted prescription, that is to say, that the whole of the 
 said vUl is held entirely of them and as of their fee, that is to say, 
 every toft by the services of 5d. a year and fealty ; and that they 
 have within the said vill cognisance of all pleas, to hold the same 
 by their bailiff of the said vill, that is to say, a Court-merchant 
 to be held from day to day (de jour en altre), and their great Court 
 of Common Pleas to be held three times a year, concerning tenures 
 in the said vill, and trespass, contracts, covenants, therewith con- 
 nected, to which Courts all residents within the said vill are bound 
 to come before the Abbot's officials (ministres) that justice may be 
 done there and that which right demands be dealt ; and also Sherifl"s 
 Tourn, to be held twice a year, to which Tourn all residents, on 
 being warned, are bound to come, and present matters meet for 
 presentation, before the Abbot's Officials : And also the amends of 
 assise of ale broken there, the gauging of measures therein, and 
 infangthef, at the delivery of which all residents within the said 
 vill are bound to come, and fulfil that which belongs to such a 
 delivery : And also a fair and market therein, and the profits thence 
 arising ; and that no burgess of the said -v-ill be made save by the 
 Abbot alone and with his assent and approbation : And that all 
 widows in the said vill do swear not to remarry save with his 
 
 y 
 
32 2 Appendices 
 
 permission and approbation : And that tlie Commonalty {Gom,- 
 munite) of the said vill have no power to make any Bailiff or other 
 Officer (ministre) in the said vill, but the Abbot is to create them, 
 removable at his discretion ; As also that they of the said vill have 
 no power of themselves, without the consent of the Abbot and his 
 successors, to make ordinances, customs, nor anything else by the 
 means of which either aliens or home-dwellers might be placed 
 beyond the reach of common law. And also the aforesaid Abbot 
 and Convent claim to have all the same franchises within the said 
 vill as the vills or Churches of Eipon or Beverley have and claim to 
 have : Also that, at every seisin which shall be delivered in the 
 said vill [there shall be received] 4d., and Id. for beverage, by 
 their bailiffs ; and that, as to any tenement which shall be offered 
 for sale in the said vill, it shall first of all be offered to the Abbot, 
 and if he be disposed to purchase, he shall have the precedence over 
 all others : And that the Abbot and Convent, in regard of any kind 
 of provisions which shall be exposed for sale in the said vill, shall 
 have the first bid in priority of all others. And also they claim 
 to have all the wastes within the said vill, and the penalties for all 
 purprestures therein made or effected ; and also tolls and customs 
 on all vendibles, and on all merchandise bought and sold, as well 
 by land as by water, within the said vill, or on the sea adjacent 
 called the Roadstead, and all other franchises and customs hitherto 
 used and enjoyed by themselves and their predecessors in the said 
 vill. And also the aforesaid Abbot and Convent claim to have and 
 possess in severalty all the fields (or cam.pi, chaimipes) of Stakesby, 
 Newholm, Larpool, Whitby Lathes, Lathegarth, and all that is 
 contained within the Acredike in the said vills, so that no tenant 
 in the said vill of Whitby ought by any means to pasture or have 
 common right there at any season of the year. 
 
 And the aforesaid William Page and the others named above 
 have gainsaid and counterpleaded* on the other hand, and do now 
 formally deny the justice of the assertion by the said Abbot and 
 Convent of the lordship and franchises claimed by them, as is above 
 said, by reason of (par colour) an ancient charter made before 
 memory of man by a certain Abbot Eichard at that time living, 
 as they say, in which charter, as is alleged, is contained the affirma- 
 tion that the Abbot who then was, with the consent of his Convent, 
 assuredly gave and granted to the burgesses of Whitby the vill of 
 Whitby to hold as a Free burgh, and free laws and free rights, and 
 quittance in Whitby and out of Whitby, in all places and of all 
 places appertaining to the Church of St. Peter of Whitby, in virtue 
 of which charter, notwithstanding its not having been actually put 
 in force, the Abbot and Convent, as it appears to them, were ex- 
 
Agreement of the sevei'al Parties 323 
 
 eluded from the lordship of the said vill, and the franchises 
 thereof : And also by reason of a certain clause contained in the 
 said ancient charter, which they say they have, under the seal of 
 the said Richard and the Convent, which however was not produced, 
 which shows that he must needs have granted to the said burgesses 
 common of pasture without limiting where or in which place or 
 vill ; so they claim right of common in the places above named 
 which the Abbot and Convent have held and claimed as their 
 severalty, as is aforesaid. 
 
 Finally, these matters having been discussed and debated by 
 the counsel on the one side and on the other, and it being taken 
 into consideration that the Abbot and his predecessors had at all 
 times been seised of the lordship of the said vill of Whitby, and 
 of all the franchises and customs above named, as the right of their 
 Church of St. Peter of Whitby ; and on the other hand, that the 
 said ancient charter, made before time of memory, if it be such as 
 is supposed, cannot be of weight or take effect except according to 
 what has hitherto been the use and custom : So the parties have 
 come to an agreement as follows : That is to say, the above-named 
 William Page and the others as above, and the said Commonalty, 
 acknowledge the aforesaid Abbot and Convent to be sole Lords 
 {Seigneurs ewtierment) of the said vill of Whitby, and to have the 
 lordship and all the franchises, as is above claimed by them, in the 
 said viU of Whitby : And also they acknowledge that the said fields 
 (ehaumpes) of Stakesby, Newholm, Larpool, Whitby-lathes, Lathe- 
 garthe, and whatsoever there is within the Acredike in the said 
 fields, are the severalties of the said Abbot and Convent, and for 
 all time have been such of right, and they release from themselves, 
 their heirs and successors, all manner of right or claim which they 
 have in the said localities and places to the said Abbot and Convent 
 and their successors, and that henceforward they will be of aid to 
 none, either privily or openly, who shall purpose to infringe or assail 
 the said lordships or franchises in any particular, but in all possible 
 ways they honestly can, will maintain and make them good in all 
 points. And in assurance of loyally holding and fulfilling this, 
 they concede for themselves, their heirs and their successors, that 
 whosoever of them or of the said Commonalty of Whitby shall 
 impugn, or counsel, aid, or favour the impugnment of the aforesaid 
 lordships or franchises in form aforesaid, and shall be convicted of 
 the same that he or they who shall be inculpated in this particular 
 shall be held by these presents bound to the said Abbot and 
 Convent for each offence, in the sum of ten pounds. And for the 
 greater assurance or confirmation of this agreement, each of the 
 parties mutually release and acquit, the one to the other, all manner 
 
324 Appendices 
 
 of actions for trespass up to the present time [conmienced] by the 
 one against the other. And the aforesaid Abbot and Convent, for 
 themselves and their successors, on their own special behalf have 
 granted to the aforesaid William Page and the others above named 
 and to the said Community, burgesses of the said vill, their heirs 
 and successors, common of pasture for all manner of live stock, 
 save only pigs and goats, in the Carrs, with right of way thither 
 by the highway through Euswarp, at all seasons of the year, and 
 in the Spoutcliff from the Spout, and in Ellerdale Thickets as 
 far as to the head of Ellerdale, and in Crosskeldsyke as far as 
 the high street which stretches from Whitby, and all the way 
 to Hawsker, from the Feast of All Saints to the Feast of St. 
 Peter in cathedra, reserving also to them their common of pasture 
 on the high moors, and in Raythwait and Lasoough, accordingly 
 as they, their ancestors and predecessors, have in all time been 
 seised as appertaining to their free tenement in Whitby. In testi- 
 mony of which, etc. 
 
 Dated at Whitby on the Feast of St. Bartholomew, the year of 
 Grace, 1351, before these witnesses: Mons. Peter de Mauley the 
 Fifth, Lord of Mulgrave. Mons. Peter de Mauley his son. Thomas 
 de Seton. John de Moubray. Thomas de Ingleby. John de 
 Fulthorpe. John de Midelton. Thomas Qreathead : and others. 
 
 ii. To all who shall see or hear these presents be it known that 
 whereas great strife and debate have been moved between the 
 Abbot and Convent of Whitby, of the one part, and the Burgesses 
 tenant and resident in the vill of Whitby, of the other part : WE, 
 Henry de Percy, Earl of Northumberland, heir of William de 
 Percy, Founder of the said Abbey, out of our affection for the 
 same and of our grief over the dilapidation of the property alike 
 of the said Abbot and of the good folks of the vill, have induced 
 them to come to terms in a friendly manner, so as to eschew the 
 heavy expenses arising from litigation touching such matters of 
 debate : Wherefore the said Abbot and Convent, Lords of Whitby, 
 of the one part, and William del Hall, John Scott, and John 
 Smyth the younger, on behalf of all the people of Whitby, on 
 the other, came before us, the Earl aforesaid, the Feast of the 
 Translation of St. Hild, that is to say, the 25th day of August, 
 the tenth year of the reign of King Richard II., and of their own 
 good will and free consent submitted to our decision and judgment 
 as to all the matters between them debateable, which here follow : 
 namely, of the amends of the assise of ale broken in the said 
 vill, at the said Abbot's Tourn twice in the year : Also, of plankage 
 in the Port of Whitby : Also, of taking earth and stones in the 
 
Decision of the Referees 325 
 
 wastes of the said Abbot and Convent : Also, touching right of 
 common within the Aoredyke of the said Abbot and Convent : 
 Also of the fines for the remarriage of widows and the creation 
 of burgesses in the said vill : Also of the spredeles of nets : Also 
 of the interpretation to be put upon an ancient charter made in 
 the time of Abbot Eichard : — Which matters having been heard, 
 WE, the aforesaid Henry, consented to take upon ourselves the 
 consideration and judgment submitted to us, and hereupon directed 
 the aforesaid Abbot and Convent, and the Burgesses and folks of 
 the said viU, to see to the attendance of their Proctors before us 
 on behaK of each of the said parties, in London, at Michaelmas 
 Term next ensuing. Whereupon, at the term named, Thomas de 
 Hawkesgarth, Prior of Middlesbrough, Walter de Clopton, Robert 
 Charleton, William Thirnyng, John Markham, John Lockton, and 
 William Penrose, Sergeants, Thomas de Skelton, William Gascon, 
 William Lambert, John de Burgh, and Eoger Wandesford, Appren- 
 tices, of the Counsel for the said Abbot and Convent collectively ; 
 and William del Hall, John Scott, John Smith the younger, with 
 William Piokhill and John Wadham, Sergeants, John Preston, 
 John Woodrove, John Conyers, and Hugh de Ardern, Appren- 
 tices, of their Counsel, as well for the Abbot and Convent of the 
 one part, as for the Burgesses and inhabitants of the said vill, of 
 the other part, came to Westminster on divers days, before US the 
 aforesaid Earl, and Mons. Robert Belknap, at that time Chief Justice 
 of the Common Bench, Mons. William Btirgh, another Justice of 
 the same, and other prudent and learned men of our counsel, that 
 consideration and judgment should be duly had. And the said 
 debateable points having been fully investigated on the one side 
 and on the other, and the opinion of the Justices and other men 
 of wisdom taken upon the same. We assigned a day to the parties 
 aforesaid to appear before US at Seamer in the County of York, 
 viz. Monday the 7 th of January then next ensuing. On which 
 day the said Abbot, with the assent of his Convent, came thither 
 in person, and William del Hall, John Scott, and John Smyth 
 the younger, appointed by all the men of the vill of Whitby, 
 came thither in like manner, whereupon WE, the aforesaid Earl, 
 declared to them our decision and judgment, under the opinion 
 of the Justices and others as is stated above, in the presence of 
 our eldest son, Henry de Percy, of Ealph de Percy, our younger 
 son, Brian de Stapylton junior. Knights ; John Dask, Robert 
 Cumberworth, William de Newsome, John de Lockton, Walter 
 Euddestain, Thomas Lovell, and others, in manner following : — WE 
 adjudge and decide that the Abbot and Convent do have and hold, 
 as of their right, the entire lordship of their vill of Whitby ; and 
 
326 Appendices 
 
 the amends of assise of ale brokea, within the same, twice in the 
 year, as is usual in Sheriflf's Tourns throughout the realm : Also 
 that the said Abbot and Convent do have plankage, that is to say, 
 4d. for their plank from strangers ; and for the vessels of the 
 burgesses themselves the burgesses are to have their own proper 
 planks free, or if not, the Abbot's plank without the payment of 
 anything for it : And as to the wastes of the vill, inasmuch as 
 they are appurtenant, by reason of the lordship, to the said Abbot 
 and Convent, no one is to intrude for to take thence stones or 
 earth, save with the assent and special permission of the said Abbot, 
 except it be stones and sand within tide-mark. And more especi- 
 ally, no one shall take either so as to be a damage to the port or 
 an injury to the Cliff of the Church of Whitby above named : Also, 
 as to right of Common within the Acredyke, it should be used 
 according to what is specified in the Convention sometime since 
 made by the Abbot and Convent of the one part, and William Page 
 and the burgesses of the vill, of the other part : Also, that it is 
 perfectly lawful for the said Abbot and Convent to impose and 
 levy fines for the remarriage of widows and the creation of bur- 
 gesses, without challenge, as it is found they have been in the 
 habit of doing at all times past : Also, as to the sprideles, no one 
 else has any right to them save the Abbot and Convent only, accord- 
 ing to the quantity and quality of the portion of their free tene- 
 ment which may be occupied : Also, as regards the ancient charter 
 of the Abbot Richard, that ought to be interpreted in no other way 
 but as is set forth in the Composition of William Page and his 
 associates previously referred to. And in testimony of this our 
 de(rision, to these Indentures tripartite, WE, the aforesaid Henry 
 de Percy, Earl of Northumberland, have set our seal, at Seamer 
 the 7 th day of January before specified. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbey, access to, from wharf, 319 
 architectural details of, 129, 130, 
 
 134-155 
 beauty of the, 118, 126, 147 
 blank in the history of, 94 
 date of, 124, 129-131 
 dimensions of, 151-163 
 early engravings of, 136-140 
 endowments of, 74, 75, 112, 113, 
 
 116, 117, 239, 245, 251, 314 
 extent of Hild's, 120 
 founded by Hild, 90-93 
 grant made by the, 114, 115 
 history of, 102 
 
 importance of Hild's, 91-93, 120 
 insertions and alterations in, 132, 
 
 134, 135 
 laid waste by Norwegians, 124 
 peculiarities in plan of, 147-149 
 precincts, extent of, 305-308 
 process of construction of, 124, 126- 
 
 133 
 restoration of, 102-104, 113, 119, 
 
 123-127 
 revenues of, 198, 264, 265 
 royal grants to, 117, 170, 171, 251- 
 
 263, 267, 277, 279 
 Abbey House, see Gatehouse 
 Abbot of Whitby, charter granted by 
 
 Richard de Waterville, 169, 173, 
 
 175, 177, 267, 268, 277, 280, 282, 
 
 284, 285, 295 
 date of charter of, 294, 295 
 grant by, to Robert de Brus, 264 
 grants Dunsley to William de Percy, 
 
 50 
 th? lord of the manor, 208, 286 
 not the absolute owner of the church 
 
 lands, 286 
 rights of the, 42, 47, 172, 173, 224, 
 
 231, 285, 321-326 I 
 
 Abbot of Whitby, services due to, 41, 
 44, 50, 51, 225, 227, 231 
 and Sir Alexander de Percy, articles 
 
 of agreement between, 198, 199 
 and Sir Alexander de Percy, disputes 
 between, 44, 46, 47, 215, 216, 218 
 Abbot's Book, 3, 39, 39 n., 102, 109, 
 173, 258 
 date of, 39, 102 
 value of, 40 n. 
 Abbots of Whitby, names of — 
 Benedict, 35, 50 
 John de Steyngrave, 129 
 Peter, 296, 296 
 
 Richard de Waterville, 50, 169, 173, 
 176, 177, 267, 268, 277, 280, 282, 
 284, 285, 295 
 Roger de Scardeburgh, 129 
 Thomas de Haukesgarth, 131 
 Thomas de Malton, 131, 198, 222 
 William de Kirkham, 222 
 William de Percy, 50, 108, 311 
 Aocount-roUs, 264 
 Acregarth, meaning of 43 
 Almery, site of the, 303 305 
 Anglo-Saxon boors, condition of the, 9, 
 
 10, 21, 24, 30 
 Assessment of the inhabitant sof Whitby, 
 in 1301-2, 272, 273 
 
 Baeda, credulity of, 5, 7, 8 
 the first English scholar, 5 
 his honesty, 7, 8 
 his interpretation of Streoneshalh, 78, 
 
 83, 87 
 J. R. Green's account of, 3, 4 
 his version of the story of Caedmon, 
 11 
 Barrows in Cleveland and their contents, 
 
 60-62, 65 
 Baxtergate, 166, 181, 189, 190, 262 
 
328 
 
 Memorials of Old Whitby 
 
 Bondiis, condition of tlie, 238, 292 
 
 duties of the, 55, 231-234 
 Bones, animal, discovered at the foot of 
 
 the cliff, 308, 309 
 Boon-work, 50, 174, 232-235, 265, 295 
 Booths, description of, 209, 210 
 Borough towns, 269-272, 297 
 Bridge built in 1609, 184, 185 
 
 site of the old, 184, 185 
 Bridges, and chapels built in proximity 
 
 to them, 185, 186 
 Brief, Episcopal, in aid of Abbey Fabric 
 
 Fund, 131, 132 
 Bronze implements found in barrows in 
 
 Cleveland, 62 
 Brus, Robert de, 74 
 
 of Preston, 264 
 Burgage grant, 169-171, 173, 267, 277, 
 298, Appendix B 
 
 confirmation of, 295, 298 
 
 interpretation of, 268, 269, 283, 298 
 Burgage rent or toft rent, 283, 284 
 Burghers, condition of, 279 
 Burghmales granted by the Abbot, 264 
 
 signification of, 265-267 
 
 Cabdmon, Charlton's account of, 12, 
 13 ». 
 elements of historical truth in his 
 
 story, 23, 24 
 his inspiration real, 25, 34 
 his name and its origin, 33, 34 
 Professor Morley's account of, 19 
 his social condition, 11-13, 20, 56 
 story of, 2, 3, 11-34 
 usefulness of his gift, 26, 28-30 
 Camp of refuge near Coatham, 73 
 Chapels appertaining to Whitby, 240, 
 
 242-245 
 Ghartulwry, The Whitby, referred to, 46, 
 55, 104, 110, 114, 170, 174, 182, 
 194 m., 205, 211, 227, 263, 267, 
 284, 295 
 Chester, Hugh, Earl of, 218 
 charter of, 314 
 Whitby allotted to, 74, 116 
 Cholmley, Sir Hugh, 207, 263, 305 
 Memoirs of, 303 
 Nathaniel, 263 
 Sir William, 263 
 Church, the parish, antiquity of, 301, 
 311-313, 315 
 architectural features of, 313, 315, 
 316 
 
 Church tower, the, a late addition, 316 
 Churches, early, rude construction of, 90, 
 
 91, 95, 122 
 Cleveland, Anglian names in, 79 
 Anglo-Saxon churches in, 314 
 condition of, in Roman times, 65, 66 
 conquered by the Danes, 70, 73, 95, 
 
 96 
 defensive works in, 61 
 exposed state of, 66, 67 
 laid waste by the conqueror, 74 
 the name of, 69, 60, 70, 73 
 numbers of barrows in, 60, 61 
 occupied by Anglians, 67, 69, 70 
 population in ancient British times, 
 
 60, 62 
 prevalence of Danish names in, 68, 
 
 71,72 
 rarity of Roman remains in, 63 
 Roman road in, 60, 63, 66 
 various colonists of, 68-70, 73 
 Cliffs, wasting of the, 81, 96, 97, 164, 
 165 
 rate of, 164 
 Coatham, an important seaport in the 
 
 Middle Ages, 270 
 Coldingham, early monastery at, 121 
 Commerce, beginnings of, at Whitby, 289 
 Common of pasture, the Abbot's right 
 
 to, disputed, 42 
 Convents, entrance to and egress from, 
 
 197 
 Conventual life, conditions of, 197, 198, 
 
 249, 300, 301 
 CoiTcction-house at Whitby, 204 
 order for erection of, 206, 207 
 Cottages, rents of, 186, 189, 234, 235 
 Cottar, cotarius, services due by the, 
 52, 53, 227, 235 
 social condition of, 238, 292 
 Courts held at the Abbot's manor-house, 
 
 212 
 Cross, ancient, outside the churchyard, 
 
 120, 193, 193 «., 306 
 Crossgate, 180, 187, 188, 192, 262, 263 
 Cures, stories of marvellous, 7 
 Cuthbert, St., his missionary experi- 
 ences, 16, 17 
 
 Danbgeld, Whitby's payments to the, 
 
 100, 101, 161, 163 
 Danes in Cleveland, traces of the, 69- 
 
 73, 98, 179, 230 
 Derivation of names, remark on, 76-78 
 
Index 
 
 329 
 
 Dues paid by cottars, 231, 231 •«., 234 
 Dunsley Chapel, 244, 250 
 Hermitage, 250, 251, 311 
 near the highroad, 258 
 Manor, extent of, 36 
 
 granted to William de Percy, 35 
 a royal demesne, 74 
 uncertainty about its transition 
 into the hands of the Founder, 36 
 
 Elfleda succeeded Hild as Abbess of 
 
 Streoneshalh, 93 
 Emaldus, the haya or hedge of, 54 n. 
 Eskdale Chapel, 242, 243 
 forest, wolves in, 243 
 Hermitage, 242, 251, 311 
 site of, uncertain, 243 
 Eston Nab, earthwork at, 61 
 Everley, William de, gi-ant of Uggle- 
 barnby to, 50 
 
 Faibs, right of holding, 171, 277, 297, 
 
 298 
 Farndale Hermitage, 260, 252 
 Fences, the making of, 43, 52, 63, 54 «., 
 
 56, 234 
 Field-names of Scandinavian derivation, 
 
 71, 72 
 Flowergate, 185, 189, 190, 192, 262 
 Forest rights of Whitby conceded to the 
 
 king, 114, 115 
 FyUng Chapel, 245 
 
 lands in, Horngarth service incumbent 
 
 on, 49 
 
 Gaeth, meaning of the word, 43 
 Gatehouse, the abode of Sir Hugh 
 
 Cholmley, 304, 305 
 Gateway of the Monastery, site of, 302, 
 
 305 
 Gebdr or husbandman, duties of the, 13, 
 
 14, 52 
 Gilds, qualifications of members of, 291 
 Goathland brotherhood, 251, 255 
 
 origin of, 255 
 
 royal charters to, 258, 259 
 Hermitage, 245, 251 
 
 a lodging-place for travellers, 265, 
 257, 259 
 
 near the great roads, 257, 258 
 within the royal forest, 262 
 Godfrey, architect of the Abbey, 119, 
 
 123, 124 
 Greffergate, 191 
 
 Guisborough Priory, 125, 197 
 
 Haokkbss, a cell of Whitby, 74, 105, 
 123 
 cottars, services due by, 227 
 retirement of Whitby monks to, 108, 
 123 
 Haggersgate, 81, 82, 168 
 Hallbiom, the Scandinavian poet, re- 
 semblance between his story and 
 Caedmon's, 23 
 Halmote Court, 211 
 Hawsker, ancient cross at, 120, 244 
 
 Chapel, antiquity of, 244 
 Helle, situation of, 186, 189, 192 
 Hermit, meaning of the word, 246, 247 
 Hermitages appertaining to Whitby, 
 245, 249-261 
 lodging-places for travellers, 266 
 origin of, 246, 247, 260 
 Hermits, the life of, 248, 249, 256 
 Highgate or High Street, 180-184, 188 
 Highway, the ancient, 182 
 
 inhabitants of Whitby presented for 
 not repairing the, 183 
 Hild, character of, 27, 29, 93 
 V difficulties of her work, 26, 27 
 - early monastery founded by, 89, 91 ; 
 ' construction of the, 91, 94, 95 ; 
 extent of, 120, 121 ; importance of, 
 92, 93, 120 ; laid desolate by the 
 , Danes, 94, 95 
 lord of the manor, 14, 15, 28, 55 
 materials for her history scanty, 89, 
 102 
 ' her treatment of Caedmon, 11, 16, 25, 
 
 29, 30 
 Horngarth, Charlton's account of, 37, 
 38, 43, 44 
 conveyed right of wardship, 48, 224, 
 
 225 
 entry in Abbot's Book touching, 40 n. 
 
 41 ; date of, 41, 42 
 legend, antiquity of, 2, 3 
 meaning of the word, 51 
 nature of the, 43, 46 
 origin of, 35, 49, 51, 56 
 possible reason for making, 319, 320 
 service of the, 35, 45, 49, 50, 55, 225, 
 234 
 antiquity of, 50 
 a survival, 55, 56 
 Hospitality a duty of religious estab- 
 lishments, 256, 256 
 
32,9 
 
 Memorials of Old Whitby 
 
 Hue and cry, 40 »., 41 
 
 Inhabitants and the Abbot, dispute 
 between, 293, 296, Appendix B 
 distinct from burghers, 293 
 lona, early monastery at, 121 
 
 Legend, a, always has a real founda- 
 tion, 2 
 
 the, of Caedmon, 12, 19 
 Legends, additions to, 2, 3, 21, 22 
 
 connected with Whitby, 2 
 
 localised by professional story-tellers, 
 
 Manor, constitution of the, 16, 49, 237, 
 
 280, 281 
 Market-place, site of the, 196, 200, 202 
 Market-stede House, 201 
 Memorabilia between the Abbot and Sir 
 
 Alexander de Percy, 44-46, 215, 217 
 "Memorial of Benefactions," 102, 110, 
 
 120, 158, 279, 311, 313 
 Mercet, payment of, 232, 234-237 
 Middlesbrough, a cell of Whitby, 74, 105 
 Ministers' Accounts, light thrown on 
 
 Whitby history by, 182, 187-191, 
 
 205, 232 
 Minstrels and singers, 24, 27 
 Myth, definition of, 1, 2, 22 
 
 Names, personal, derived from trades, 
 273-276 
 
 Osmund the priest, 251-253, 255, 258, 
 
 259 
 Oxherd and geb&r, duties of the, 14 
 
 Page, William, on behalf of the towns- 
 folks, contested the Abbot's right of 
 exclusive pasturage, 42 
 and the Abbot, agreement between, 
 175, 176, Appendix B 
 Panuierman's Causeway, 182, 306 
 Penny Hedge, see Horngarth 
 de Percy, Alan, 116, 170, 221, 239 
 Henry, Earl of Northumberland, 
 mediator between Abbot and in- 
 habitants, 176, 299, Appendix B 
 Richard, 35, 50 
 Serlo, Prior of Whitby, 107 
 
 his retirement to York, 108-111 
 William, founder of the Abbey, 170, 
 216, 239, 313 
 
 de Percy, William, became a crusader, 
 108, 112, 113 
 his grants to Whitby, 35-37, 74, 
 
 107, 111-113, 115, 239, 240 
 nephew of the Founder, iirst Abbot, 
 
 108, 110 
 
 of Kildale, history of the family of, 
 219 
 Sir Alexander, a ward of the Abbot's, 
 
 216, 217, 222 
 Sir Alexander and the Abbot, agree- 
 ment between, 44, 198, 215, 224 
 Ernald, 113, 218-220 
 William, lord of Ormesby, 219 
 possessor of Sneaton, 220, 221 
 "Poet's gift," the, 25, 29 
 Port, early, at Whitby, 163, 168, 290 
 granted to the Abbey, 279 
 
 Reeve of Whitby, 15, 56, 277 
 Eeinfrid of Evesham comes to Whitby, 
 103, 104, 112 
 Prior of Whitby, 105, 106, 112, 122, 
 249, 254, 255 
 Rents of cottages, 187, 189 
 Roads or tracks, ancient, 306 
 Roman road in Cleveland, 60, 63, 66, 
 258 
 direction of, 63, 64, 258 
 purpose of, 63-67 
 jmans in Cleveland, 
 Russell Lands, 189-191 
 
 Saint-Hild-keld, spring called, 193 
 St. Ninian's Chapel, site of the original, 
 
 185, 262 
 Saltbum Hermitage the property of the 
 
 Abbey, 261 
 Scrope, Simon, concedes land to the 
 
 Abbot, 49 
 Services due by cottars, 227 
 feudal, 41, 44, 48-55, 57, 171, 173, 
 174, 225, 226 
 Sneaton Chapel, 241, 245 
 Manor, 215 
 
 held of the Abbot and Convent, 225 
 property of the Arundel family, 221 
 property of Sir William de Percy 
 of Kildale, 218 
 Norman font at, 245 
 rector of, Nyghtyngale, John, 194 
 rector of, Stevenson, John, 193, 194 n. 
 rectors of, buried at Whitby, 193 
 194 ». 
 
Index 
 
 331 
 
 Soke, 237 
 
 Southgate, 187, 188, 192 
 
 Stephen of Whitby, 10, 105-107, 254 
 
 Abbot of St. Mary's, York, 106 
 
 his withdrawal from Whitby, 106, 
 107 
 Storms, supposed power of witches over, 
 
 5, 6 
 Street, meaning of, 179 
 Streoneshalh, the name, 76-87 
 
 King Edwin buried at, 91 
 
 ravaged by the Danes, 94 
 
 Synod at, 26, 84, 92 
 Superstition in Caedmon's time, 10 
 
 Tanored the Fleming, 49, 75 
 Teutonic settlement at Boulby, 67, 68 
 Thegn, services due by the, 52, 53 
 Thingwala at Whitby, 69, 97-99 
 
 significance of, 69, 73, 98, 162, 230, 
 
 280, 289 
 site of, 73, 97, 241 
 Toft rents, 172-175, 283, 284 
 Tofts, conditions of holding, 284, 285, 
 
 292, 293 
 ToUbooth built by Sir Hugh Cholmley, 
 263 
 later meaning of the word, 213 
 original meaning of the word, 209 
 position of, 206, 214, 262, 320 
 purpose of, 208, 211 
 "Tol" and "team," 279, 280 
 Trade gilds, 290 
 Travelling in the Middle Ages, 256, 
 
 257 
 Trumwine, Bishop, an inmate of Streones- 
 halh, 93, 94 
 
 Wall enclosing the Abbey, line of the, 
 
 306, 308 
 Wardship, right of, 47 
 
 conveyed by Homgarth service, 48, 
 224, 225 
 Ways or gates in Whitby, 177, 178, 180 
 Weaving at Whitby, 275, 276 
 
 laws made touching, 275, 276 
 Whitby Abbey laid waste, 124 
 ancient name of, 76, 78, 159 
 area of old, 157-160, 168, 180, 183- 
 
 193 
 condition of the town in the Middle 
 
 Ages, 274, 276-278, 282 
 forest, at one time a royal forest, 39, 
 114, 115 
 
 Whitby forest, concession of, made by 
 the Abbey, 114, 115 
 importance of the town, 68, 59, 100, 
 
 162 
 meaning of the name, 77, 78 
 monastery founded by Hild, 90-93 
 extent of, 120 
 materials for early history of, 102- 
 
 104 
 refounded as a Priory, 104, 105 
 old and ancient, distinction between, 
 
 157 
 payment by, to Danegeld, 99-101, 161, 
 
 163 
 de Percy, William, first Abbot of, 108- 
 
 111 
 Priory converted into an Abbey, 108, 
 112-114 
 laid waste by Danes, 123 
 the property of the Earl of Chester, 
 
 74 
 Register or Abbot's Book, 40, 69, 109, 
 
 173, 258 
 Reinfrid, Prior of, 105, 122 
 Serlo, Prior of, 106, 107 
 his retirement, 108-111 
 site of Old, 163-169, 181 
 successive Abbey churches at, 90, 91 , 
 
 119-124 
 the town did not lie desolate for two 
 centuries, 101, 160, 161, 168 
 Wills, old, a source of information, 193 
 Witches, belief in, 5, 6 
 Wolves in Eskdale forest, 243 
 Words or names of interest — 
 Acregarth, 43 
 acres, 69 
 
 Aislaby, Hazelby, Hesselby, 76, 77 
 beverage, 286, 287 
 bondus, 229 
 booths, 209 
 
 burghmales, burrowmailles, 265, 267 
 Caedmon, 33, 34 
 Cleveland, 59 
 fotheringstead, 203 
 garth, 43, 45, 51 
 gate, 179, 182 
 gebeorscipe, 23 
 geiAr, 13, 52 »., 230 
 Haggersgate, Haggerlyth, 81 
 halmote, 211, 212 
 haugh, heugh, 79-81 
 hermit, 246, 247 
 horn, 51 
 
332 
 
 Memorials of Old Whitby 
 
 Words or names of interest — 
 Horngarth, .43, 51 
 husband, husbandman, 229, 230 
 mail, male, 265-267 
 
 mere, mar, 69 
 myth, 1 
 Seamer, 69 
 stede, 202, 203 
 street, 179, 182 
 
 Words or names of interest — 
 Streoneshalh, 78-82 
 team, 280 
 toft, 172 
 tol, 280 
 
 toUbooth, 209, 210 
 Whitby, 77, 78 
 
 Yakm, a port, 270 
 
 York, Thomas, Archbishop of, 251 
 
 THE END 
 
 Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh 
 
Ujt^