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THE STORY 
 
 OF 
 
 SOME ENGLISH SHIRES 
 


 HE STORY of 
 
 SOME ENGLISH 
 
 SHIRES 9 9 9 
 
 By the late 
 
 Mandell Creighton, d.d. 
 
 Lord Bishop of London, 
 
 Author of ‘ Queen Elizabeth,’ 1 A History of the Papacy,’ 
 
 etc., etc. 
 
 C. 
 
 9 
 
 268ia 
 
 LONDON 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 56 PATERNOSTER ROW and 65 ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BV WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND 
 EDITION 
 
 ? / ^ 
 i. 9/^ 
 
 The present volume, the ‘ Story of Some English 
 Shires,’ was originally published by the Religious 
 Tract Society in the year 1897. It then appeared 
 in two forms, as an Edition de Luxe, and as a 
 handsome illustrated volume in royal quarto. Both 
 of these editions were sold out immediately after 
 publication, and the book has long been out of 
 print. But there is a strong feeling that, since the 
 work is of permanent literary and historical value, 
 and is from the pen of one of the recognized 
 masters of English history, it should be issued 
 again in permanent library form. 
 
 In order to meet this suggestion the book has 
 been reprinted as the reader now has it. The 
 contents are the same as the previous issue, 
 except that a chapter on the county of Cambridge 
 has been added. It was Dr. Creighton’s purpose 
 to tell in like manner the story of all the English 
 Shires; but unhappily the manifold duties of his 
 great position prevented him from doing more, since 
 1897, the way of completing his great plan than 
 the writing of this one new chapter. 
 
 20 
 
AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE 
 FIRST EDITION 
 
 The following chapters originally appeared in the 
 Leisiire Hour , and were written at the request of 
 the Editor. They were written in intervals of 
 leisure, and were the result of impressions produced 
 by rambles in various parts of England. 
 
 Places have characters of their own as much as 
 individual men. They owe their distinctive features 
 to the same causes as do men—to their ancestry 
 in the past. England is united into one country, 
 just in the same way as all Englishmen form part 
 of one race. But though England forms one 
 country, its districts differ greatly from one another. 
 A North Country man finds it hard to understand 
 what is said by a dweller in the South. Habits of 
 life, manners, customs, all have strong marks of 
 peculiarity. Year by year these peculiarities are 
 growing less strong, as people move about more 
 freely, and do not always live and die in the place 
 where they were born. But the differences them¬ 
 selves exist, because the folk came of rather dif¬ 
 ferent stocks, and because the nature of the country 
 they lived in, and the things that happened many 
 years ago, caused their lives to take different shapes. 
 
Preface 
 
 There is much to be learned from trying to see 
 how these local peculiarities arose. They generally 
 follow the lines of the divisions of the shires, which 
 carry us back to times when there were many 
 kingdoms, and each managed its own affairs. 
 Though the shires are now only divisions of the 
 English kingdom, they still keep the traces of their 
 independent life, and each of them has much that 
 is peculiar to itself. Though they have all shared 
 in the history and the fortunes of England as a 
 whole, yet each has had a history and a fortune of 
 its own, which has left its mark upon it. 
 
 These are the points which I have tried to 
 illustrate in the following pages. Increasing occu¬ 
 pation has prevented me from finishing the series; 
 but I still sometimes hope that I may succeed in 
 doing so. 
 
 M. LONDIN. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Northumberland 
 Durham " . 
 Yorkshire . 
 Cumberland 
 Westmoreland . 
 Lancashire 
 Cheshire 
 Shropshire 
 Stafford . 
 Derby . 
 Worcester . 
 Gloucester 
 Hereford . 
 Warwick 
 Leicester . 
 Northampton . 
 Huntingdon 
 Cambridge . 
 
 •AGE 
 
 17 
 
 50 
 
 84 
 
 131 
 
 149 
 
 163 
 
 l8l 
 
 193 
 
 210 
 
 225 
 
 239 
 
 236 
 
 273 
 
 290 
 
 319 
 
 337 
 
 35i 
 
 365 
 
THE STORY OF 
 
 SOME ENGLISH SHIRES 
 
 NORTHUMBERLAND 
 
 I T is my purpose to tell some of the leading 
 events of the history of the chief English 
 shires, and I begin with Northumberland, which 
 has perhaps had the most striking history of any of 
 them. 
 
 The leading feature of the counties of North¬ 
 umberland and Cumberland is that they are Border¬ 
 lands. They remind us that it was hard to bring 
 the whole of our island under one rule, and that 
 this difficulty was felt in the earliest recorded times. 
 When the Romans conquered Britain, they were 
 driven, as all colonists always are driven, to extend 
 their boundaries in self-defence. They did not wish 
 to penetrate into country which they could not 
 easily hold, and which was not profitable to them. 
 So after some experiments they resolved to draw a 
 line, extending from east to west, where the island 
 was narrowest. It was to be a boundary between 
 peaceful civilisation and barbarism, and was to be 
 
 17 B 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 so strong that it could not be passed by savage 
 raiders. For this purpose they built a stone wall, 
 defended by a ditch and an earthwork, from the 
 Solway to the Tyne. This wall, with its fortresses 
 and castles, was a stupendous work, the remains of 
 which excite our admiration, and are a testimony to 
 the thoroughness of Roman workmanship. The 
 line of the wall was garrisoned by ten thousand 
 soldiers, and must have been the busiest part of 
 Roman Britain. It is a striking witness to the 
 prowess of the northern tribes that such a work 
 of defence should have been deemed necessary, and 
 that it should not have served its purpose. For 
 its ruins show clearly enough that it sometimes 
 suffered from invasion, and was the scene of many 
 a conflict. The power of Rome decayed, and its 
 civilisation passed away; but it would seem as 
 though early associations remained, claiming the 
 Borderlands in later days as a scene of perpetual 
 strife. 
 
 We are not, however, concerned with the 
 Borders, but with Northumberland. Its very 
 name takes us at once a long way back—it takes 
 us to the time when all the land along the east 
 coast, from the Humber to the Firth of Forth, 
 was one kingdom. Our English forefathers came 
 as invaders, in their long boats, from the land that 
 is now called Sleswig. Numbers of them pressed 
 up the River Tweed and drove away the native 
 Britons. Presently their scattered tribes were 
 united under a king, Ida, called the Flame-bearer 
 by the trembling Britons; and Ida fixed his royal 
 residence on the basalt crag of Bamburgh, which 
 
 18 
 
N orthumberland 
 
 rises steep above sea and land alike. Ida’s rule 
 soon reached from the Forth to the Tees, and 
 another kingdom was similarly formed between 
 the Tees and the Humber by another English 
 chieftain. These kingdoms—Bernicia and Deira, 
 as they were called—were at first engaged in 
 constant warfare. Then they were long united 
 under powerful rulers, and formed the great 
 kingdom of Northumberland. After a time the 
 Danes conquered the southern kingdom of Deira 
 and settled there. The land between the Tees 
 and Tyne was given to the great Church of 
 Durham, and formed a county by itself. The 
 land between the Tweed and the Forth was 
 handed over to the Scottish king because he could 
 govern it most easily. So it came to pass that, 
 after all these losses, the land between the Tyne 
 and the Tweed was left sole heir to the title of 
 the great kingdom of Northumberland, which had 
 more than once seemed likely to bring the rest of 
 England under its sway. 
 
 The present county of Northumberland, then, 
 is the central part of an old English kingdom, 
 from which it takes its name. That old kingdom 
 did great things in early times. Above all else, 
 the Story of its conversion to Christianity shows 
 us what the Church did for English civilisation, 
 and how rapid was the progress of our forefathers 
 in the days of old. At first, these little kingdoms 
 of the English were engaged in constant war with 
 the Britons, and their fortunes rose and fell with 
 great rapidity. In 635 the Northumbrian kingdom 
 was invaded by the Welsh, and was helpless before 
 
 19 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 them. It had no king, and sent for one of the 
 royal line who had been driven into exile. Oswald 
 had taken refuge amongst the Piets, and found a 
 home in the Monastery of Iona, which had been 
 founded by missionaries from Ireland. There 
 Oswald learnt Christianity, and when he went 
 back to Northumberland he advanced to meet the 
 Welsh army full of trust in God. He met the foe 
 near Hexham, and before the battle called his 
 people together and told them of his belief that 
 God would be on their side if they too would 
 believe in Him. The people agreed that, if they 
 won the day, they would become Christians. Then 
 Oswald made a wooden cross as a standard for 
 his army. Round it he fought, till the Welsh 
 invaders were completely defeated. He called the 
 place of his battle Heavenfield, and sent at once 
 to Iona for priests to teach his people. 
 
 The first missionaries went back to Iona dis¬ 
 pirited ; they could make no impression on the 
 stubborn and barbarous folk. The monks listened 
 sadly to their tale, till Aidan spoke out, ‘ Were you 
 not too severe for this unlearned people ? Did you 
 not give them strong meat, when you should have 
 fed them with the milk of the Word ? ’ Then all 
 exclaimed, ‘ Aidan shall go! ’ Aidan went to 
 Northumberland and laboured with gentleness and 
 kindness. He could not speak the English tongue, 
 and for some time King Oswald interpreted his 
 words as he preached to the lords of his court. 
 Aidan’s teaching carried conviction. Churches of 
 wood were built, and monasteries were endowed by 
 the king, to be the homes of the new preachers ; 
 
 20 
 
N orthumberland 
 
 they wandered through the scantily-peopled land, 
 and men flocked on all sides to hear them. Aidan, 
 as bishop, set up his seat at the little island of 
 Lindisfarne, since called Holy Island, which lies off 
 the coast just north of Bamburgh. It was a bleak 
 but quiet spot, which served to remind him of his 
 old home of Iona, which he had left with sorrow. 
 King Oswald and Bishop Aidan worked lovingly 
 together. Oswald died in battle against the heathen, 
 and his last words were, ‘ Lord, have mercy on their 
 souls ! ’ Aidan, as he felt his end approaching, was 
 carried to the church of Bamburgh, and died in 
 prayer holding to a beam of the church wall. 
 
 Christian Northumberland helped to spread 
 Christianity among the neighbouring kingdoms. 
 Its people learned from the monks the beginnings 
 of a settled life. The monkish missionaries built 
 their monasteries along the river valleys in con¬ 
 venient spots. They cleared away the trees and 
 tilled the land. They lived simply, and gave ready 
 hospitality to all who came to visit them. They set 
 up schools and sent forth preachers on all sides. 
 The monasteries were the only homes of peace 
 amid the tumult of ceaseless war. But a great 
 question soon arose about the position of the Church 
 of England. Southern England received its Chris¬ 
 tianity from missionaries who came from Rome; 
 Northern England had been converted by mission¬ 
 aries from Ireland. The Irish Church had not 
 followed quite the same lines as the Roman Church. 
 There were differences in the time of keeping Easter, 
 and in other points of ritual and organisation. The 
 organisation of the Roman Church was stronger 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 than that of the Irish Church, and many men in 
 Northumberland preferred it. Quarrels arose 
 between the two Churches, till at last the Northum¬ 
 brian king Oswy called his Wise Men together at 
 Whitby in 664 to discuss what was to be done. He 
 decided that it was better to follow the customs of 
 the great majority of Christian people. Many of the 
 Irish missionaries went away. Those who remained 
 submitted to the rules of the Church of Rome. 
 
 But the work of the Irish missionaries was 
 carried on by a Northumbrian who had been trained 
 in their ways. A shepherd lad, by name Cuthbert, 
 was feeding his sheep on the Lammermoor hills on 
 the night that Aidan died. He saw meteors fall 
 through the sky, and when he heard of Aidan’s 
 death he said that he had seen the angels who had 
 come to carry Aidan’s soul to heaven. He resolved 
 to give himself to God’s service, and entered the 
 nearest monastery at Melrose. The labours of 
 Cuthbert, his holy and his simple life, enabled him 
 to win all hearts. The former missionaries had 
 been strangers: Cuthbert was a Northumbrian 
 peasant, who knew how to speak to all manner of 
 men. After much work for others, he withdrew to 
 live as a hermit on one of the Fame Islands, which 
 lie off Bamburgh. Birds and beasts are said to 
 have loved him and listened to his words. He 
 could not be left in quiet, for all men wished him to 
 be bishop. Cuthbert refused, till King Egfrith 
 himself sailed to his island and compelled him to 
 take the office. For three years Cuthbert wandered 
 on foot through his diocese, preaching and confirm¬ 
 ing. Then he went back to his island cell to die in 
 
 22 
 
N orthumberland 
 
 peace. Men loved and honoured him ; Lindisfarne 
 became famous because it was the resting-place of 
 Cuthbert’s bones. St. Cuthbert was taken by the 
 men of the North for their patron saint. 
 
 Meanwhile, the union with the Roman Church 
 brought greater civilisation to Northumberland. 
 Pilgrimages to Rome were frequent, and the know¬ 
 ledge of many things was brought back by the 
 pilgrims. Two Northumbrians of noble birth, 
 Wilfrid and Benedict Biscop, made Northumberland 
 famous throughout Europe. Benedict Biscop 
 founded monasteries at Wearmouth andjarrow, and 
 built there churches of stone, such as he had seen 
 at Rome. Hitherto, the buildings of the English 
 had been of turf, wattles, or wood. A church made 
 of oaken beams was regarded as magnificent. 
 Benedict Biscop set the example of building in 
 stone. He brought also glass-makers, adorned his 
 church with pictures, and even allured from Rome 
 the chief singer of the pope’s chapel, that he might 
 teach the English the use of sacred song. Benedict 
 Biscop’s example was followed by Wilfrid, who 
 founded monasteries and built churches at Ripon 
 and at Hexham. 
 
 Benedict Biscop did still more good by bringing 
 books to his monastery at Wearmouth. He founded 
 there a library, and set up what was really a great 
 university. The monastery of Jarrow produced the 
 earliest, and one of the greatest, of English scholars. 
 Bede was a native of Wearmouth, who at the age of 
 seven was committed to Benedict’s care. His whole 
 life was spent in study. He taught and wrote on 
 all the subjects that were known in his days— 
 
 23 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 philosophy, arithmetic, poetry ; above all, theology. 
 But his great work was an Ecclesiastical History of 
 the English Nation , a book which makes us love 
 the writer and admire the force and nobility of the 
 times about which it tells. Bede’s history is a 
 splendid memorial of the power of Christianity to 
 civilise and exalt the lives of men. Bede died in 
 735, and on his death-bed continued to teach his 
 scholars. He was busied with the translation of 
 St. John’s Gospel, and went on dictating as long as 
 he could. With difficulty he reached the last 
 chapter. ‘ There is still one sentence unwritten,’ 
 said his scribe. ‘Write quickly,’ said Bede, as he 
 dictated it. ‘ It’s done,’ said the boy, joyfully. 
 ‘You speak the truth,’ answered Bede; ‘it is 
 finished. Turn me to the place where I used to 
 pray.’ Then, on the floor of his cell, he sang the 
 Gloria , and breathed his last. Literature can give 
 no more touching picture of the life and death of a 
 devoted student. 
 
 Bede lived long enough to see the approaching 
 end of the greatness of the Northumbrian kingdom. 
 There were disputes about the succession to the 
 throne ; the nobles grew powerful, and promoted 
 discord. Even the monasteries lost their original 
 purity. The monastic life had become fashionable, 
 and monasteries were unduly multiplied. Men 
 entered them for the purpose of living a quiet life 
 and escaping trouble, rather than from any higher 
 motive. There were signs of disorganisation on 
 every side; and when the ships of the Norse pirates 
 began to attack the eastern coast, Northumberland 
 could offer little resistance. The heathen Northmen 
 
 24 
 
N orthumberland 
 
 were tempted by the treasures of the monasteries, 
 which were mostly built along the coast. Lindis- 
 farne and Jarrow both were sacked. The civilisation 
 of Northumberland began to wane, and its force 
 declined. In 822 the great Northern kingdom 
 submitted to the over-lordship of Egbert, the West 
 Saxon king. 
 
 The ravages of the Danes almost swept away 
 the traces of Benedict Biscop, of Wilfrid, and of 
 Bede. The Danes settled in the southern part of 
 the Northumbrian kingdom, which is now called 
 Yorkshire. The northern part was left under its 
 own rulers, but was made tributary. Its people 
 were left unchanged by any mixture of Danish 
 blood; and the men who dwell between the Tyne 
 and the Forth may still claim to be of purer English 
 race than any other dwellers in our island. The 
 Danish parts of England were gradually won back 
 by the West Saxon kings, and Northumberland 
 made submission to Edward the Elder in 924. But 
 the men of the North were lawless, and hard to 
 reduce to order. Northumberland ceased to be a 
 kingdom, but was ruled by an earl chosen from its 
 old royal line. The life of Earl Uhtred may serve 
 as an example of the wild spirit which had grown 
 up amongst the Northumbrian folk. Uhtred had 
 covenanted to marry the daughter of a wealthy 
 citizen, on condition that he slew an enemy of her 
 father. This projected marriage was given up in 
 favour of a nobler bride, the daughter of King 
 Ethelred. But the man whom he had sworn to kill 
 could not forgive him for his promise. He waited 
 for years till Uhtred’s fortunes had waned, and then 
 
 25 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 slew him in the presence of King Cnut. Uhtred’s 
 son slew the slayer of his father, and the slain man’s 
 son vowed revenge in turn. The two enemies lived 
 in constant terror of one another, till their friends 
 came between them and exhorted them to forgive¬ 
 ness. The two men met and vowed friendship : to 
 make their vows sure, they undertook a pilgrimage 
 to Rome. When they reached the coast, the sea 
 was stormy, and they returned. On their way back 
 the old passion for revenge, which had been freed 
 from any religious obligation, suddenly broke forth, 
 and one slew his unsuspecting fellow as they rode 
 together through a wood. We see from this story 
 how law and order had ceased to prevail in North¬ 
 umberland, and the personal duty of revenging 
 blood had taken the place of justice. 
 
 When William the Norman became King of 
 England, and set up a stronger government, he 
 found it hard to bring into obedience the unruly 
 North. The earls whom he sent to govern it met 
 with violent ends. At length he made the Bishop 
 of Durham, Walcher, Earl of Northumberland. 
 Walcher did not please the Northumbrians, and he 
 summoned them to a conference at Gateshead to 
 talk over their grievances. As he spoke a cry 
 was raised in the crowd, ‘ Short rede, good rede: 
 slay ye the bishop ! ’ and Walcher was slaughtered 
 at the chapel door. The king resolved to crush the 
 spirit of this turbulent folk. Northumberland was 
 harried by his troops, and the king’s son Robert 
 laid the foundations of a strong castle on the bank 
 of the Tyne opposite the spot where Walcher was 
 slain. The castle was called the New Castle, 
 
 26 
 
N orthumberland 
 
 because an old Roman camp stood near its site. 
 Round this castle houses were built, which grew 
 into the great city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the 
 centre of the industrial life of Northern England. 
 
 It would seem that lawlessness was in the air 
 of Northumberland. The Norman Earl, Robert 
 Mowbray, who was sent to govern it, did good 
 service by killing in battle, near Alnwick, Malcolm, 
 King of Scotland, who invaded the land. But 
 Mowbray engaged in rebellion against William 
 Rufus, and held the castle of Bamburgh against 
 the royal troops. Sieges were difficult in those 
 days, and all that Rufus could do was to erect 
 opposite Bamburgh a wooden castle of his own, 
 which was called by the appropriate name of 
 Malvoisin, the Evil Neighbour. The siege went 
 on slowly, till Mowbray was led to leave his fortress 
 by the promise that Newcastle would open its gates 
 to him. By night he stole from Bamburgh with 
 only thirty men, and was pursued by the garrison 
 of Malvoisin. When he reached Newcastle, he 
 found that he was disappointed of his welcome. 
 He was made prisoner and taken back to Bamburgh. 
 Then he was led to the gate, and his wife was 
 summoned to surrender, unless she was prepared 
 to see her husband’s eyes put out there and then. 
 The threat was more than her courage could bear. 
 Bamburgh was given up to the king, and William 
 Rufus determined to appoint no more earls to 
 govern Northumberland. The last remains of 
 its old independence were swept away, and the 
 Earldom of Northumberland was vested in the 
 English Crown. 
 
 2 7 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 It was, however, still a question whether it was 
 worth the while of the English king to keep such a 
 possession as Northumberland. The weak king 
 Stephen gave it to the Scottish king for the sake 
 of peace, and for some years Northumberland was 
 under Scottish rule. But Henry II. swept away 
 all the traces of Stephen’s misgovernment, and 
 reclaimed Northumberland as English ground. 
 William the Lion, King of Scotland, took advan¬ 
 tage of Henry II.’s difficulties after Becket’s murder 
 and ravaged Northumberland. He met with so 
 little resistance that his army dispersed to plunder. 
 A thick fog came on, during which the Scottish 
 king rode at random. The fog suddenly cleared 
 away, and William found himself close to Alnwick 
 Castle, with only sixty horsemen. He was attacked 
 and taken prisoner by a body of English knights; 
 and after that Northumberland had peace for a 
 time. But Scotland was always watching for an 
 opportunity to attack the English Border, and 
 Edward I.’s attempt to reduce the Scottish kingdom 
 to subjection to England opened up a long period of 
 almost constant warfare between the two countries. 
 
 The brunt of this warfare fell upon the Border 
 lands ; and the chief features of Northumberland at 
 the present day tell a tale of constant struggles. 
 The villages and towns in the northern part of the 
 county strike the stranger as singularly cold and 
 bare. There are no picturesque houses of any 
 antiquity. The architecture is severe, simple, and 
 solid. There are scanty traces of ornament even in 
 the few ancient churches which have any pretensions 
 to architectural beauty. The reason is, that for 
 
 28 
 
N orthumberland 
 
 centuries the dwellers in Northumberland encamped 
 rather than dwelt on their land. The villages are 
 small, and at long distances from one another. 
 North of the mining district, in the south of the 
 county, Morpeth, with a population of 4000, and 
 Alnwick, with a population of 7000, are the only 
 important places for forty miles. The farmsteads, 
 each with its row of houses for the farm labourers, 
 are all modern buildings, erected for the convenience 
 of the farm holding. The old villages did not 
 possess houses fit for the labourers to dwell in. 
 Northumberland of to-day, for all purposes of daily 
 life, bears a most modern look, and has been 
 arranged for the convenience of modern needs. 
 On the other hand, Northumberland is full of 
 castles, some in ruins, some fitted up for residence ; 
 and many of its country houses have been built 
 round ancient towers. 
 
 This is easily explained, if we consider the 
 conditions of life which the constant warfare on 
 the Borders naturally produced. The king built 
 castles for the defence of the country against the 
 Scots, such as Norham on the Tweed, Bamburgh 
 on the coast, and Newcastle on the Tyne. The 
 lords who held lands in Northumberland followed 
 his example, and their castles, or the sites of their 
 castles, may be seen at Wark on the Tweed, 
 Etal, Ford, and Chillingham along the Till, Dun- 
 stanborough on the coast, Alnwick on the Ain, 
 Warkworth and Harbottle on the Coquet, Bothal, 
 Morpeth, and Mitford on the Wansbeck, and 
 Prudhoe on the Tyne. These castles were strong¬ 
 holds, situated in a large courtyard, which was 
 
 29 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 surrounded by a wall, strengthened here and there 
 by towers. They could hold garrisons and stand a 
 long siege. Besides the more important castles, a 
 number of towers, called peel towers, were scattered 
 over the country. Some of these were large and 
 some were small, according as they belonged to a 
 more or less important person. Their principle, 
 however, was in every case the same. The tower 
 was of strong and solid masonry, and its entrance 
 was generally from the first floor, by means of a 
 plank, which could easily be withdrawn. It was 
 surrounded by a strong palisade of wood. These 
 towers were places of refuge when a raid was made 
 by plundering Scots. The people drove their cattle 
 hastily inside the palisade, and then mounted up 
 into the tower. If the Scots were only making a 
 rapid dash for booty, they drove away the cattle 
 which they found unprotected, but did not waste 
 time in attacking a guarded post. If the Scots 
 meant more serious business, they could, of course, 
 force the palisade and carry off the cattle, but the 
 men and their movable goods escaped. Often, 
 however, these peel towers had to stand a siege, 
 when their assailants first drove the garrison by 
 their arrows from the loopholes in the tower, and 
 then piled wet straw round the walls, and set it on 
 fire, so as to smoke them out. 
 
 The peel towers were of varying sizes. Some 
 were fairly comfortable dwellings in ordinary times ; 
 some were mere places of refuge in out-of-the-way 
 spots. Some, again, were the dwellings of the 
 clergy, who gave shelter to their neighbours in time 
 of need. At Corbridge, on the Tyne, stands such a 
 
 30 
 
N orthumberland 
 
 one, close to the church. We still can trace a stone 
 slab by the side of the narrow window, which was so 
 placed as to form a desk for the priest’s book, that he 
 might get all the light he could for his reading. In 
 some cases the tower of the church was built on the 
 model of a peel, standing square and massive, that 
 it might receive in the time of need those who dwelt 
 beneath its shadow. In other cases, farmhouses 
 seem to have been built upon the same model. The 
 ground floor was a vaulted stable for the cattle, 
 which might be reached from the dwelling-room 
 above by means of a trap-door. 
 
 These defences, however, only served for a 
 portion of the dwellers in Northumberland. In 
 1465 there were thirty-seven castles and seventy- 
 eight towers. The castles mostly contained small 
 garrisons of soldiers ; the towers were the residences 
 of the well-to-do folk. The mass of the people lived 
 in villages, within reach of a castle or a tower, if 
 possible. It was not worth while building houses, 
 which would be in constant danger of destruction. 
 Poverty was the best defence against pillage. A 
 man who had often to flee for his life did not care to 
 encumber himself with baggage. The ordinary 
 houses were built of mud, turf, or wooden beams. 
 The floor was hollowed out, and the roof was 
 supported by a beam rising from the centre. The 
 cattle often shared the houses with their masters. 
 There was no furniture save of the rudest kind. 
 Weapons for war were the most precious possessions 
 of the Borderer. Yet the prevailing insecurity 
 did not destroy agricultural life. Men were accus¬ 
 tomed to the daily risks they ran, and only 
 
 3i 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 grew more sturdy and vigorous through their hard 
 training. 
 
 The defence of the Borders was committed at 
 the end of the thirteenth century to officials appointed 
 by the Crown, who were called Lords Wardens. 
 The English Border was divided into three 
 marches—east, middle, and west—each of which 
 had a warden. At first the office was held by the 
 chief lords in the district—generally the Earls of 
 Northumberland, who had their strong castle at 
 Alnwick. The Castle of Harbottle was the seat of 
 the warden of the middle marches, and the castle of 
 Carlisle was held by the warden of the eastern 
 march. These wardens had to arrange with the 
 other lords of lands within their district how many 
 men each was to have in readiness for war. Each 
 village had to supply its contingent; and, from the 
 records of the number of men capable of bearing 
 arms at different times, we see that the agricultural 
 parts of Northumberland maintained a larger 
 population in early times than they do at the present 
 day. 
 
 The long war between England and Scotland 
 had some periods of truce, but these did not much 
 affect the Borderers, who lived in a state of perpetual 
 warfare, and had a code of honour of their own. 
 They delighted in deeds of daring, and were proud 
 of their doings. Nowhere were minstrels more 
 frequent than on their borders ; no part of England 
 has so large a store of martial ballads. Most famous 
 of these is the Ballad of Chevy Chase , of which Sir 
 Philip Sidney wrote that ‘ it stirred his blood like the 
 sound of a trumpet.’ It owed its origin to the 
 
 32 
 
N orthumberland 
 
 Battle of Otterburn in 1388, which may be taken as 
 a sample of the nature of Border warfare. The 
 Scots, taking advantage of the disturbed state of 
 England, ravaged the country round Carlisle, and 
 carried off three hundred prisoners, besides much 
 cattle. Encouraged by their success, an army led by 
 the Earl of Douglas entered Northumberland, wasted 
 part of Durham, threatened Newcastle, and then 
 retired leisurely along the Reed Valley, laden with 
 booty. Henry, Lord Percy, who won the name of 
 Hotspur by his prowess, pursued them and attacked 
 their camp at Otterburn, where they had halted for 
 the night. A desperate battle was fought in the 
 moonlight, with varying fortunes. Earl Douglas was 
 slain; Henry Percy and his brother were taken 
 prisoners. Both sides claimed the victory ; but the 
 Scots returned home with the greater part of their 
 booty. 
 
 How serious were the results of this devastating 
 war may be gathered from the fact that in 1380 we 
 are told the Scots carried off from England forty 
 thousand head of cattle. It is no wonder that an 
 Italian traveller through Northumberland in the 
 year 1435 regarded it as sunk in hopeless barbarism. 
 Only in Newcastle did he seem to be in a world 
 which he knew. The rest of the land was ‘ unin¬ 
 habitable, uncultivated, horrible.’ 
 
 The difficulty of keeping order on the Borders 
 of England and Scotland was great, and exceptional 
 means were used for the purpose. Besides the 
 ordinary law of the land, by which all English and 
 Scottish subjects were bound, there was also a system 
 of international law which was set up by common 
 
 33 c 
 
Some English S hires 
 
 agreement. As early as 1249 English and Scottish 
 commissioners met, and according to custom called 
 to their aid juries of twelve English knights and 
 twelve Scottish knights, whose business it was to 
 reduce to writing the customs which had gradually 
 grown up for self-preservation. These customs grew 
 into a code of laws, which it was the duty of the 
 wardens on both sides to administer in time of peace. 
 They met with large bands of followers on some 
 neutral ground on the moorlands, and there held 
 their court. All who had complaints of robbery or 
 other wrongs brought forward their claims. If the 
 warden was convinced of the innocence of the 
 accused person, he might clear him by pledging his 
 honour. If he found that he was mistaken, he was 
 bound to withdraw his protection. Cases in which 
 the wardens did not interfere were submitted to a 
 jury. The decisions of the jury were written on 
 the statements of claim, and the wardens were 
 bound to see that redress was given accordingly. 
 The system was excellent; but, as might be 
 expected, it gave rise to many disputes between the 
 wardens, who did not find their duties easy, and 
 were not always diligent in performing them. 
 
 The need of constant warfare on the Borders 
 necessarily made the Border lords men of great 
 importance. They were the military leaders of the 
 people, and such order as was kept was enforced by 
 their strong arm. Chief amongst them were the 
 Percy Lords of Alnwick, who by marriages added 
 to their lands till they were the greatest landowners 
 in England. Henry Percy was made Earl of 
 Northumberland in 1377, and it was greatly owing 
 
 34 
 
N orthumberland 
 
 to his influence that Richard II. was deposed from 
 the throne of England and Henry IV. reigned in 
 his stead. But the Percys had grown too powerful 
 to be obedient subjects. Hotspur quarrelled with 
 the king, made common cause with the Welsh 
 rebels, and led the Northumbrians to take part in 
 civil war. Luckily, he was defeated and slain at 
 Shrewsbury, and the power of the Percys was 
 broken. 
 
 Henry V. restored their confiscated lands, and 
 Northumberland was faithful to the fortunes of the 
 House of Lancaster. Henry VI. and his Queen 
 Margaret made their last stand in Northumberland, 
 where Henry VI. dwelt for some years, king of little 
 else save the Castle of Bamburgh. In Northum¬ 
 berland were fought, in 1464, two battles of the 
 Wars of the Roses. At Hedgeley Moor, near the 
 base of the Cheviots, Lord Montague cut off a large 
 body of troops who were marching to join the 
 Lancastrian forces. Most of the leaders fled, but 
 Sir Ralph Percy rallied his men to meet the foe. 
 He fell mortally wounded, and as he died exclaimed, 
 
 ‘ I have saved the bird in my heart! ’ meaning that 
 he had kept his honour and died with a clear 
 conscience. Encouraged by this success, Lord 
 Montague marched against the main body of the 
 Lancastrians, and defeated them at Hexham. 
 Queen Margaret fled with her young son into the 
 woods which fringe the Devil’s Water, where, 
 hidden among the larch-trees in a deep glen, a cave 
 is still shown which tradition points out as the 
 queen’s refuge. There it was that she is said one 
 day to have encountered a band of Border robbers, 
 
 35 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 who stripped her of all she possessed, till she threw 
 herself on the generosity of one, in whose hand she 
 placed the hand of her boy, and said, * Save the son 
 of your king.’ The Borderers soon found means to 
 further her escape to Scotland, whence she made 
 her way to Flanders. 
 
 When the Wars of the Roses were ended, the 
 Tudor kings began a more peaceful policy towards 
 Scotland. Europe was forming into strong nations, 
 which were bound together by a system of alliances. 
 The object of Henry VII. was to detach Scotland 
 from her old alliance with France, which she had 
 formed through hostility to England. He wished 
 to unite her with England in the way of peace, and 
 gave his sister Margaret in marriage to the Scottish 
 king. But the old disagreement did not rapidly 
 cease, and causes of ill-will went on growing. 
 In 1513, Henry VIII., was at war with France, and 
 the Scottish king determined to strike a decisive 
 blow against England. James IV. crossed the 
 borders with an army of 40,000 men. The royal 
 castles fell into his hands. The English king, with 
 the greater part of his forces, was away in France. 
 But the men of the North rose in defence of their 
 homes, and the Earl of Surrey was soon able to 
 muster an army equal to that of the Scots. He 
 marched into Northumberland, where James IV. 
 was encamped on the hill of Flodden, between the 
 Tweed and the Till. His position was hard to 
 attack. Surrey advanced on the opposite side of 
 the Till, and sent his artillery and one division of 
 his army northward, to cross the Till by the bridge 
 at Twizel, near its confluence with the Tweed. 
 
 3 6 
 
N orthumberland 
 
 The rest of his army crossed by a ford nearly 
 opposite the Scottish camp. The battle began at 
 four o’clock on a September afternoon, and raged 
 till darkness fell. 
 
 The various divisions fought with varying 
 success over the low range of hills, and no one 
 knew who was the victor. The battle was bloody, 
 and the loss of the Scots was enormous. King 
 James IV. fell upon the field. Though Surrey was 
 conqueror, his forces were so weakened that he did 
 not pursue his campaign farther. Scotland was 
 entirely crushed by the defeat; there were few 
 families that had not to lament some loss. 
 
 After this the English Government seemed to 
 have resolved to weaken Scotland by all means in 
 their power, and force her to abandon her alliance 
 with France. The wardens of the marches became 
 generals of skirmishing troops, constantly waiting 
 for an opportunity to inflict damage on their foe. 
 Border warfare was no longer the plundering raids 
 of lawless and adventurous folk; it was organised 
 into a system of destruction and havock. Records 
 were kept of the mischief wrought, and accounts 
 were rendered from time to time to the Privy 
 Council. They contain a dismal story of villages 
 burned, land thrown out of cultivation, cattle carried 
 away, men slain or made prisoners. The lovely 
 abbeys which rose along the Tweed were not 
 spared. Nothing was respected, nothing was safe. 
 The Borders became a scene of deliberate savagery, 
 while little was accomplished towards the purpose 
 which Henry VIII. had in view. 
 
 This state of destructive warfare lasted, with a 
 
 37 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 few interruptions, till peace was made in 1550. 
 After that time the English Government took 
 in hand the work of strengthening the Border 
 defences and maintaining better order. The 
 castles and towers were repaired. Each village 
 had to furnish a certain number of men, who were 
 to keep watch every night at certain places. 
 When a band of plundering Scots came in view, 
 a beacon fire was kindled, which was repeated by 
 the next watch, till the news had been spread on 
 all sides. Every man who saw the signal was 
 bound on pain of death to mount his horse and 
 follow the fray with hue and cry until the stolen 
 goods were recovered. Those who recovered them 
 received a good payment for their service. More¬ 
 over, men were ordered to keep bloodhounds, to 
 help them in the pursuit of the robbers. At the 
 same time, to make the country less accessible, 
 fords were strictly watched; the passes in the hills 
 were staked; the villages near the Border were 
 enclosed by high hedges or deep ditches. The 
 wardens’ courts were carefully revived, and every 
 old custom that tended to the defence of the land 
 was strictly enforced. The wardens were no longer 
 the chief lords of the county, but were royal officials, 
 appointed for their skill and discretion. Under 
 Elizabeth especially there was a marked improve¬ 
 ment in the public service. Men who wished to make 
 their reputation were sent to the Borders, and were 
 kept for a long time, in spite of their entreaties, 
 at their difficult and thankless work. They had to 
 see that every landlord and freeholder was properly 
 armed, that every tenant had land enough on which 
 
 38 
 
N orthumberland 
 
 to keep a horse and maintain himself in sufficient 
 arms to follow the fray, and that no land was left 
 unoccupied by some sturdy family. Every one 
 who had suffered losses from plunder was to make 
 known his loss to the warden, and the warden’s 
 books, in which he kept account of such complaints, 
 were to be made up every month, and submitted to 
 the Scottish warden with a request for redress. 
 
 Though the Reformation had severed Scotland 
 from France, and though the policy of Elizabeth did 
 much to bring England and Scotland nearer together, 
 yet it was hard for the Borderers to live in peace. 
 It needed a long course of steady persistency on the 
 part of the wardens to introduce even the rudiments 
 of order. The last outbreak, that threatened to 
 bring about a renewal of war between the two 
 nations, was the raid of Redeswire in 1574. A 
 warden’s court was held on the moorland above the 
 valley of the Jed, when a sudden fray arose between 
 the followers of the two wardens. The English 
 warden, Sir John Forster, tried to keep the peace ; 
 but the only result of his endeavours was that a 
 Northumbrian knight, Sir George Heron, was 
 killed, and that Sir John Forster himself, and many 
 English gentlemen, were taken prisoners. Elizabeth 
 was exceedingly angry at this outrage, and wrote 
 threatening letters to the Scottish Government, 
 which was driven to make ample amends. The 
 queen’s attitude on this occasion forced Scotland 
 to be more zealous in putting down disorder on 
 the Borders. The English wardens were kept up 
 to their duty. It is said of Henry Carey, Lord 
 Hunsdon, who was for many years Governor of 
 
 39 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Berwick, that ‘ he took as great pleasure in hanging 
 thieves, as other men in hunting or hawking.’ It 
 was by such men that Northumberland was brought 
 back to something resembling orderly and civilised 
 life. Nowhere do we find a clearer testimony to 
 the good government of Elizabeth than in the 
 records of Border affairs. 
 
 With the accession of James I. the crowns of 
 England and Scotland were united. There was 
 no longer any question of war between the tw r o 
 countries, and the Border land now ceased to be a 
 scene of military strife. The office of Lord Warden 
 was abolished, and the men of the Borders were 
 answerable only to the laws of their country, like 
 other men. But the long period of warfare had 
 created roving habits. The Cheviot valleys were 
 inhabited by clans who had been trained in ancestral 
 feuds, and who were accustomed to live by adven¬ 
 turous plunder rather than settled industry. They 
 still carried on their ancient enmities; they still 
 gloried in the perils of a life of hazard. But their 
 position fell into increasing disrepute. They were 
 no longer irregular soldiers, but were mere lawless 
 thieves, who enjoyed the more honourable title of 
 ‘ moss-troopers.’ The duty of dealing with these 
 moss-troopers and reducing them to order fell upon 
 the gentlemen of the Border in their office as 
 justices of the peace. Everything depended upon 
 their zeal and activity in carrying out the laws. 
 Sometimes they were rigorous, and put down 
 disorder. Sometimes they were careless, and their 
 officers shared the plunder of the thieves and over¬ 
 looked their misdeeds. Sometimes even the clergy 
 
 40 
 
N orthumberland 
 
 joined with their flocks in plundering raids. It was 
 long before a stern administration of justice suc¬ 
 ceeded in bringing back the wild people to orderly 
 ways. In the open country it was easier; but the 
 valleys of the North Tyne and the Rede long 
 continued to harbour bands of lawless plunderers. 
 Now and then a raid was made, and the most 
 notorious moss-troopers were transported with their 
 families to Ireland. All that could be done was to 
 keep down their numbers; their habits of life could 
 not be changed. 
 
 Hitherto we have been considering mainly the 
 fortunes of the northern part of the country. In 
 the south, where the frontier of the Cheviot hills 
 gave way to the large plain which broadens round 
 the mouth of the Tyne, the town of Newcastle 
 was gradually increasing in importance. Its position 
 as a fortified place in a disturbed territory early 
 attracted a considerable population, and its harbour 
 at the mouth of the Tyne made it a centre of 
 export trade to Flanders. It early had customs 
 of its own for the arrangement of its affairs, and 
 obtained from Henry II. a charter which gave it 
 some powers of self-government. In the reign of 
 John a guild of Merchant Adventurers was formed 
 for the regulation of trade. Newcastle exported 
 wool and hides, and the skins of foxes, sables, and 
 beavers. This mention of beavers shows us that 
 the country must have consisted largely of marshy 
 lands, uncultivated and little trodden ; for the 
 beaver has long ceased to be found in England, 
 and has disappeared before the advance of man’s 
 industry. Besides these articles of export was lead 
 
 4i 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 from the mines in Allendale, which were early 
 disclosed by the making of a Roman road, and 
 which were worked so far as there was any means 
 for sending off their produce. But these early 
 exports were in time surpassed by coal, which is 
 especially connected in our own time with the name 
 of Newcastle. 
 
 Coal was known to the Romans, and there are 
 traces in some of their buildings in Northumberland 
 that they used it for fuel. But in old days the 
 forests supplied plenty of wood; there was little 
 demand for fires for the purpose of manufactures ; 
 houses were small, and men did not need so much 
 warming as they do at present; chimneys to carry 
 off the smoke were almost unknown, and coal was 
 not very greatly in demand. It began, however, 
 to be sent to London, where it was gradually used 
 by smiths and brewers, who needed fires for their 
 trade. In 1305 Parliament complained to Edward I. 
 that the burning of coal corrupted the air by its 
 smoke and harmful vapours. An order was made 
 that those who used coal should be punished and 
 their furnaces destroyed. However, coal was still 
 used in spite of this order, and gradually became 
 more common. In the sixteenth century the popu¬ 
 lation of the South of England greatly increased; 
 trade rapidly developed ; the woods had gradually 
 been cleared away, and fuel became more difficult 
 to get. In the reign of Elizabeth coal crept from 
 the forge to the kitchen and the hall. Houses 
 were larger and better built; chimneys were 
 common, whereas formerly not more than two or 
 three were to be seen in ordinary towns. The 
 
 42 
 
N orthumberland 
 
 coal trade along the Tyne became brisk, and in 
 1615 four hundred ships were employed in carrying 
 coals from the harbour of Newcastle. 
 
 The greatest part of the labour was not that of 
 the miners who dug the coal, nor of the sailors 
 employed in carrying it away, but of those who 
 conveyed it from the mines to the ships. It was 
 drawn in waggons to the nearest landing-place 
 on the river bank, which was called by the old 
 name of staithe. Here it was put on barges, still 
 called by the old name of keels , and was carried 
 by them to the ships, which were anchored in deep 
 water. The keels were manned by two men, 
 who shoved their boat down stream by means 
 of two heavy poles. It was severe work, and 
 needed a race of stalwart men — who lived by 
 themselves and had strongly marked characteristics 
 of their own. The song, ‘Weel may the keel 
 row,’ still carries their memory over every part 
 of England. 
 
 The growing trade of Newcastle naturally 
 helped to spread order in the neighbouring parts; 
 but even Newcastle found it necessary to protect 
 itself from contamination by the lawless folk 
 who had been trained to plunder. In 1564 the 
 Merchant Adventurers passed a bye-law forbidding 
 any one to take as an apprentice a native of 
 Tynedale or Redesdale, on the ground that they 
 ‘commit frequent thefts and felonies,’ and that no 
 good can ‘ proceed from such lewd and wicked 
 progenitors.’ 
 
 Free from disturbances, Newcastle flourished, 
 and its trade increased rapidly. Early in the 
 
 43 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 seventeenth century one coal merchant employed 
 between five hundred and a thousand men. But 
 trade, even in early days, when competition was 
 less keen than now, was uncertain. For this 
 merchant, * for all his labour, care, and cost, could 
 scarce live off his trade; many others have con¬ 
 sumed and spent great estates and died beggars.’ 
 The spirit of enterprise soon grew up. A south 
 country gentleman adventured with thirty thousand 
 pounds—a very large sum in those days—into the 
 Northumbrian mines. He brought many engines 
 hitherto unknown to drain the pits, and invented 
 boring with iron rods to discover the thickness of 
 the seams. But his inventions brought no good 
 to himself. He consumed all his money, ‘and 
 rode home on a light horse.’ 
 
 The prosperity of Newcastle was disturbed by 
 the great struggle of the reign of Charles I. 
 Northumberland was loyal to the king, and bore 
 the brunt of the first outbreak of hostilities. Again 
 a Scottish army crossed the Tweed in 1640 ; but 
 the Scots did not come to plunder, they came in 
 defence of their constitutional liberty. They issued 
 a proclamation that they would not take from the 
 people a chicken or a pot of ale without paying for 
 it. They brought with them sheep and oxen for 
 their food. The king’s troops vainly endeavoured 
 to hold Newcastle, whose fortifications had fallen 
 into ruins. The Scots crossed the Tyne at New- 
 bum, routed the Royalists, and occupied Newcastle, 
 which was the first victim of the Great Rebellion. 
 The trade of Newcastle was stopped, and its 
 population dwindled. No town in England suffered 
 
 44 
 
N orthumberland 
 
 more severely from the Civil War. It was held for 
 the king by the Marquis of Newcastle, and in 1644 
 was again besieged by the Scots. The Marquis of 
 Newcastle proposed to fire the coal mines, so as to 
 drive back the enemy, and this destructive step was 
 only prevented by General Lesly’s capture of the 
 boats on the Tyne. The men of Newcastle were 
 proud of the tower of their church, which is 
 surmounted by flying buttresses, which form a 
 crown on the top. Lesly ordered his guns to be 
 directed against this ornament, whereon the Mayor 
 of Newcastle commanded that the chief of the 
 Scottish prisoners should be bound with ropes to 
 the buttresses, that they might share the ruin. 
 The church was saved, but Newcastle was driven 
 to surrender. To Newcastle Charles I. fled in 
 1646, when he placed himself in the hands of 
 the Scots. Next year the Scots gave up the 
 king to Parliament, and withdrew from England. 
 Newcastle was held by the Parliament to be the 
 chief of the malignant towns, and was treated 
 accordingly. It did not resume its peaceful 
 ways till the Restoration. 
 
 On the accession of the House of Hanover, 
 Northumberland was strongly Jacobite, and in 
 Northumberland the ill-fated rising of 1715 was 
 devised. Mr. Forster, of Bamburgh, and Lord 
 Derwentwater placed themselves at the head of the 
 gentlemen of the county and raised forces which 
 were to join with the Scots. At Warkworth, 
 James III. was proclaimed King of England, and 
 a troop of three hundred horsemen was gathered to 
 accomplish this revolution. As Newcastle would not 
 
 45 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 open its gates, the rebels withdrew towards Scotland. 
 But the Scots and English could not agree on a plan 
 for the campaign. The Scots wished to fight in 
 Scotland ; the English wished to fight in England. 
 By way of a compromise, they spent a few days 
 in wandering along the Cheviot Hills, and then 
 entered Lancashire. At Preston the little army 
 was surrounded, and all the gentlemen were made 
 prisoners. Lord Derwentwater was impeached and 
 executed for high treason. He was a man of 
 spotless life and character, universally beloved, and 
 his untimely end created universal pity. In 
 Northumberland especially he was long venerated 
 as a martyr, and the ruins of his castle at Dilston, 
 near Hexham, are still thought to be haunted by 
 the wailing spirit of his wife, who vainly pleaded 
 for his pardon. 
 
 Once again Northumberland was disturbed by 
 military preparations, when, in 1745, General Wade 
 made his headquarters at Newcastle, to prevent the 
 coal mines from falling into the hands of the 
 Jacobite rebels. So dependent had London now 
 become upon Newcastle for its supply of fuel, that 
 it seemed necessary above all things to avert the 
 chance of a coal famine. The Jacobite invasion, 
 however, was directed against the western counties, 
 and General Wade’s forces were only needed as a 
 precaution. So bad were the roads at this time 
 that General Wade could not drag his artillery from 
 Newcastle to Carlisle, and was too late to save 
 Carlisle from falling into the hands of the rebels. 
 After this he made a high-road between Newcastle 
 and Carlisle—a road which followed the line of the 
 
 46 
 
N orthumberland 
 
 old barrier wall which the Romans had built. 
 Much of the remains of this wall was destroyed, and 
 the stones used for road-making. It is strange to 
 think that not till 1747 were the means of civilisa¬ 
 tion in Northern England made as good as they 
 had been in the days of the Roman rule. Equally 
 strange is it to note that General Wade’s road is 
 now grass-grown and deserted, for the railway runs 
 in the valley below, and all traffic follows it. 
 
 The railway itself is a product of the Northum¬ 
 brian coal trade, whose greatest difficulty was the 
 carrying of its heavy products. First the pack- 
 horse, then the cart, slowly bore the coal from the 
 pit’s mouth to the shipping-place on the Tyne. 
 Next, wooden bars were laid along the road for the 
 wheels to run upon, and so a four-wheeled waggon 
 took the place of the two-wheeled cart. Then came 
 iron tramways, with flanges on each side of the rail 
 to keep the waggon wheels in their place. This 
 was improved by transferring the flange from the 
 rail to the wheel, which was a great saving of cost, 
 and enabled railways to be largely used. Meanwhile 
 the chief use made of the steam-engine, after its 
 invention in 1710, was for draining water from the 
 mines. It was easy to use it also for raising coals 
 to the surface. Most of the improvements which 
 were made in the steam-engine proceeded from 
 Northumberland. It was left for a Northumbrian, 
 George Stephenson, to combine the steam-engine 
 and the railway by the invention of the locomotive. 
 The son of an engine fireman at Wylam, on the 
 Tyne, he went to work with his father at an early 
 age. He loved his engine, and studied it with care. 
 
 47 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 He worked twelve hours a day, and yet had time 
 to spend his nights at school, that he might learn 
 the rudiments of knowledge. He was famous for 
 his mechanical skill, and in 1812 was made engine- 
 wright at the Killingworth Colliery, with a salary 
 of ;£ioo a year. There, with rude instruments and 
 unskilled workmen, he made his first locomotive, 
 which was tried with success in 1814. The loco¬ 
 motive of George Stephenson was soon used for 
 other purposes than dragging coals from the pit to 
 the river bank. Stephenson lived long enough to 
 see the tokens of the great change in social life 
 which his invention had begun. 
 
 Meanwhile the rural districts of the North had 
 been keeping pace with the advance of Newcastle. 
 The lands which had been held in common by the 
 men of the township were divided. Small holders 
 found it to their advantage to sell their lands, which 
 passed into the hands of wealthy landlords. The 
 sturdy peasants went to make their fortunes in 
 the coal mines. The men of the Tyne and the 
 Rede were converted into farm-labourers like their 
 neighbours. Small landowners almost entirely dis¬ 
 appeared, and agriculture was carried on by large 
 tenant farmers. In no part of England has 
 agriculture been pursued with more capital or 
 more science. The adventurous spirit of the moss¬ 
 trooper has been turned into a more productive 
 channel. Instead of its old appearance of desola¬ 
 tion, Northumberland everywhere bears traces of 
 comfort and prosperity. The farm-labourers do 
 not live in villages, but in substantial cottages, built 
 near the homestead. But at the beginning of this 
 
 48 
 
N orthumberland 
 
 century their houses were little better than the rude 
 clay huts which their ancestors had inhabited a 
 thousand years ago. Four earthen walls, with a 
 thatched roof, a hole for a chimney and a hole for 
 a window, were all that a labourer found for a house 
 fifty years ago. His chief article of furniture was a 
 box-bed—that is, a bed arranged so as to fit into 
 a wooden partition which went across the dwelling. 
 In one half the family lived, in the other half stood 
 the cow. All this has been changed within the 
 memory of many who are still alive. Northumber¬ 
 land, which was for centuries a scene of violence 
 and pillage, is now peaceful and contented. Its 
 people are hard-working, intelligent, orderly, and 
 well educated. The farm-labourer in Northumber¬ 
 land is better off than in any other part of England. 
 He is hired for the year, and receives his wages 
 like a domestic servant, whether he is able to work 
 or not. His weekly wage at present is fifteen 
 shillings, besides a house rent-free, and a large 
 allowance of potatoes grown on the farm, making a 
 total of about a pound a week. The Northumbrian 
 hind , as he is still called, does not envy the artisan 
 whose work is uncertain. The Northumbrian 
 miners are foremost among their class, and their 
 representative, Mr. Burt, M.P. for Morpeth, has 
 long given worthy expression to their political aims. 
 One of the most encouraging signs of the present 
 day is the interest taken by the Northumbrian 
 miners in their own education. 
 
 49 
 
 D 
 
DURHAM 
 
 T HE name of the county of Durham shows that 
 it has a history peculiar to itself. It is never 
 called a shire, and in this is like many other 
 counties. But all the other counties which are not 
 called shires are remains of old kingdoms, or mark 
 old tribal settlements. When the old kingdoms were 
 divided for administrative purposes the divisions 
 were called shires , because they were sheared, or cut 
 off, from an older unit. Thus, when we speak of 
 Leicestershire, we go back to a time when the 
 district round Leicester was, from reasons of con¬ 
 venience, made into a province or department of 
 the English kingdom. Now Durham was a part 
 of the old kingdom of Northumberland, but it does 
 not mark any tribal settlement. It came to be a 
 separate division of England in a way of its own. 
 In the middle of the Northumbrian kingdom a large 
 tract of land was divided from the rest for special 
 reasons, and its peculiar existence was convenient 
 in so many ways that it was allowed to remain in 
 its old fashion till quite recent times. 
 
 The county of Durham was in old days called 
 ‘ The Bishopric,’ and its people were known as ‘ the 
 men of the Bishopric.’ It was the land belonging 
 
 50 
 
Durham 
 
 to the great Church of Durham. It was the patri¬ 
 mony of St. Cuthbert, in the same way as the 
 country near Rome was known as the patrimony 
 of St. Peter. It is not strange that in early times 
 lands should have been given to a church. Large 
 tracts of land lay unoccupied and well-nigh waste. 
 It was better that they should be inhabited, and the 
 clergy were more likely to bring them into order 
 than were other lords. So when the missionary 
 bishop Aidan came from Iona and set up his church 
 at Lindisfarne, it was quite natural that King Oswald 
 should give the church the lands that lay between 
 Lindisfarne and the Tweed. There, in 830, a 
 Bishop of Lindisfarne built a church in the Tweed 
 valley, at a spot where he meant to make a settle¬ 
 ment in the north, and which changed its name in 
 consequence to Norham. The possessions of the 
 see of Lindisfarne were in after times divided into 
 two parts, known by the names of Norhamshire and 
 Islandshire, the districts round Norham and Holy 
 Island. These long remained part of the Bishopric, 
 and went by the name of North Durham. They 
 were not annexed to the county of Northumberland 
 till 1844. 
 
 The Church of Lindisfarne received its impor¬ 
 tance from the love and reverence which men felt 
 for its holy bishop Cuthbert. His tomb was visited 
 by many pilgrims, and a splendid shrine was raised 
 over it. St. Cuthbert became the patron saint of 
 Northern England, and the place where his glory 
 rested was famous throughout Christendom. But 
 evil days came upon Northumberland. The pirates 
 of the North Sea, in their long boats, ravaged the 
 
 5i 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 English shore, and in 793 laid waste and pillaged 
 the Monastery of Lindisfarne. The monks were 
 scattered, but presently ventured back and built 
 again their ruined home. They were not long 
 allowed to dwell in peace. Again the Northmen 
 returned, but this time they came as a conquering 
 host. In 875 Bishop Eardulf and his monks 
 resolved to flee from Lindisfarne, and seek a place 
 where they might dwell in safety. Taking with 
 them the remains of St. Cuthbert, they set forth on 
 their pilgrimage. Seven years they wandered, but 
 peace was nowhere to be found. Once they resolved 
 to seek refuge in Ireland; but scarce was their boat 
 put out to sea before a violent storm arose and drove 
 them back to the shore. Eardulf took this as a sign 
 that St. Cuthbert did not wish to leave his native 
 land. Again he commenced his wanderings, and 
 finally settled at Craike, in Yorkshire, a village 
 which also formed part of the patrimony of St. 
 Cuthbert. 
 
 The first check to the successes of the heathen 
 Danes was given by the West Saxon king, Alfred, 
 in 872. The Danish king made peace, and became 
 a Christian. The Danish raids began to give way 
 to peaceful settlement. When the monks of 
 Lindisfarne at last fixed their abode at Craike, they 
 hoped that the rule of heathendom was past, and 
 that the Danes would look with reverence on their 
 sacred calling. Their hopes were fulfilled beyond 
 their expectation. Just at that time the Northern 
 host of the Danes had lost their leader, Halfdene, 
 and a disputed succession seemed likely to lead to a 
 civil war. This prospect was unwelcome alike to 
 
 52 
 
Durham 
 
 the Danish chiefs in the North, to their brethren in 
 the South, and to King Alfred, who wished for a time 
 of quiet in which to reorganise his power in Wessex. 
 They all combined to bring about a peaceful 
 settlement, and used for this purpose the good offices 
 of the monks at Craike, who were already looked 
 upon with respect by the common folk. The story 
 runs that the Abbot of Lindisfarne came before the 
 Danish leaders and told them that St. Cuthbert had 
 appeared to him in a dream, saying that a youth, by 
 name Guthred, son of a former chieftain, who had 
 been sold into slavery, should be redeemed, and be 
 taken as the Danish king. Most probably the choice 
 of Guthred was a compromise acceptable to the other 
 claimants. Guthred had been sold to a widow 
 woman who dwelt at Whittingham, near the foot of 
 the Cheviot Hills. There he had been taught the 
 doctrines of Christ, and had learned to reverence 
 St. Cuthbert and his followers. When he became 
 king he was grateful to the monks for what they had 
 done, and by King Alfred’s advice granted to them 
 all the land between the Wear and the Tyne. This 
 grant of Guthred to St. Cuthbert’s monks was the 
 origin of the Bishopric, or the county of Durham. 
 It was a grant which cost the Danes little. They 
 did not need the northern lands for their settlements, 
 which were mostly made in the southern part of 
 the Northumbrian kingdom, which is now called 
 Yorkshire. The district between the Wear and the 
 Tyne was not particularly attractive to the settler ; 
 it mainly consisted of moorland, forest, and marsh. 
 The Danes found it convenient to have a neutral 
 land between their own settlements and the lawless 
 
 53 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 North, where the old Northumbrian princes still 
 ruled their wasted territory as tributaries to the 
 Danish kingdom. To make the lands of St. 
 Cuthbert still more sacred, the right of sanctuary 
 for thirty-seven days was given to any one who fled 
 for refuge to St. Cuthbert’s tomb. 
 
 The monks of Lindisfarne chose as their resting- 
 place in their new territory, Chester-le-Street, the 
 site of a Roman camp on an old Roman road. There 
 they built a little wooden church, which was for a 
 hundred years the seat of the Bishopric. But 
 Denmark and Norway were still dangerous 
 neighbours to England. Their population grew, 
 and was adventurous. The armies of the Danes 
 and Norsemen again landed upon the English 
 coast, bent upon conquest. Northumberland was 
 harried, and England was without a leader. Again, 
 in 995, the monks of St. Cuthbert carried away the 
 body of their patron saint, and fled from Chester-le- 
 Street to Ripon. In a few months they recovered 
 from their panic, and resolved to seek again the 
 home which they had left. As they journeyed 
 back, the oxen which drew the waggon that bore 
 St. Cuthbert’s body suddenly stood still. Nothing 
 could make them move ; no force could stir the 
 waggon. Bishop Aldhun bade his brethren fast and 
 pray, that the meaning of this portent might be 
 revealed. On the third night — so runs the 
 tradition—St. Cuthbert in a dream bade one of the 
 monks take his body to Dunhelm. They had much 
 difficulty in finding out what spot was meant. At 
 last a woman milking a cow told them that Dunhelm 
 was the name of a hill by the side of the Wear. 
 
 54 
 
Durham 
 
 Dunhelm, which was softened into Durham, means 
 the hill fortress. It is a bold cliff round which the 
 Wear circles on three sides, so as almost to make it 
 an island. It was a strong position for defence, 
 and a lovely site for a monastery. The men of the 
 Tyne and the Coquet lent their aid to clear away 
 the trees from the rough hill-top. A chapel of 
 boughs was rudely built as a resting-place for St. 
 Cuthbert’s body. Even Uhtred, the son of the 
 Northumbrian earl, came to help the monks in their 
 buildings, which rapidly rose. In 1004 Durham 
 was a place of sufficient importance to be besieged 
 by the Scots. But Uhtred gathered forces and 
 came to its aid. The Scots were defeated, and 
 Uhtred celebrated his victory in barbaric fashion. 
 The heads of the handsomest among the fallen were 
 cut off and fixed on the walls of Durham. Four 
 women were employed to wash these ghastly 
 trophies and plait their long hair. Each received 
 a cow as wages for her work. 
 
 After its establishment at Durham the Church 
 of St. Cuthbert rapidly grew in importance. Its 
 possessions gradually extended by gifts at different 
 times, till almost all the land between the Wear and 
 Tees depended also on the Bishopric. Its privileges 
 were observed and grew venerable by prescription. 
 
 When the Norman William made good by the 
 sword his claim to the English throne, the old 
 Northumbrian kingdom stood aloof. Bishop 
 Egelwin, it is true, made submission to the Con¬ 
 queror ; but the men of the North were not 
 prepared to obey. In 1069 King William exercised 
 his sovereignty by appointing one of his followers, 
 
 55 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Robert of Comines, Earl of Northumberland. 
 Robert, with a small body of troops, advanced in 
 the depth of winter, plundering and slaughtering as 
 though he were in an enemy’s land. Bishop 
 Egelwin went out to meet him, and warned him of 
 the risk which he was running. Robert made light 
 of the warning, and entered Durham, where he was 
 the bishop’s guest. In the night the men of 
 Northumberland gathered to take vengeance on 
 the spoiler. They burst open the city gates, slew 
 the Norman soldiers, and set fire to the bishop’s 
 house, which Robert tried to hold. The Normans 
 were all slain; but the men of the Bishopric saw 
 with horror that the flames were spreading from 
 the bishop’s house to the adjoining Church of St. 
 Cuthbert. Terrified, they fell on their knees and 
 prayed. The wind changed, and the western tower 
 of the church was saved from its danger. 
 
 William’s answer to the rebellious North was 
 sharp and stern. He wrought such havoc in the 
 land round about that Bishop Egelwin again fled 
 with St. Cuthbert’s body, and sought shelter at 
 Lindisfarne. Most of his flock followed his example, 
 and made for the hills. When William crossed the 
 Tees, he found a land well-nigh deserted, but he 
 did not on that account stay his hand. Houses 
 were burnt, even churches were not spared. The 
 Church of Durham alone was not destroyed, and it 
 became the refuge of the sick and dying. When 
 Egelwdn returned to his wasted see, he gathered 
 together such treasures as he could find, and quitted 
 the scene of desolation. 
 
 King William appointed the next Bishop of 
 
 56 
 
Durham 
 
 Durham. He saw the use of the ecclesiastical 
 organisation as a means of bringing the country into 
 order. He sent to Durham a priest of Lorraine, 
 Walcher by name, and for him he built by the side 
 of St. Cuthbert’s Church a strong castle, after the 
 Norman fashion. There Walcher might be in 
 safety amongst his rebellious flock. During his 
 stay at Durham in 1072 King William confirmed all 
 the rights and privileges of the patrimony of St. 
 Cuthbert. He had no motive for changing the old 
 state of things. The land of England must be 
 committed to lords who would hold it under the 
 king, and who were responsible for keeping order 
 and raising troops in time of need. For these 
 purposes a bishop was more useful than a lay lord. 
 Durham lay close to the Scottish border, and was 
 a place of great importance. The lands and power 
 of a lord passed on from father to son; bishops had 
 no heirs to succeed them. On every vacancy the 
 king could exercise his influence on the election, 
 and so could in some degree secure a man whom 
 he could trust. William I. was content to leave 
 undisturbed the lands of the Bishopric. 
 
 The rights and privileges of the Bishopric were 
 vague and indefinite in the old English days. The 
 Normans were skilled in organisation; they were 
 precise and legal. In their legal language the 
 patrimony of St. Cuthbert ranked as a County 
 Palatine. The bishop was its earl, with special 
 powers conferred on him by the king. He had, 
 within his county, all the power of the king. 
 
 ‘ Whatever the king has outside the county of 
 Durham the bishop has inside it,’ was the legal 
 
 57 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 maxim which defined the bishop’s power. Hence 
 the Bishop of Durham had his own courts of justice, 
 and appointed his own officers. Writs ran in his 
 name, and he had the right of giving pardon for 
 offences. He coined his own money, and granted 
 charters at his will. He held councils of the nature 
 of parliaments, and created barons of the Palatinate 
 by summons to his councils. In fact, he was a little 
 king, surrounded by a little court of his own. 
 
 These powers can have meant little to Bishop 
 Walcher when first he came into his wasted lands, 
 where little peace awaited him. The last of the 
 old English lords, Waltheof, was made Earl of 
 Northumberland, but was accused of plotting against 
 the king, and was executed in 1075. Bishop Walcher 
 was appointed earl in his stead, and had enough to 
 do in trying to defend his earldom from the ravages 
 of the Scots and in quieting an unruly people. 
 This last task proved impossible. The men of 
 Northumberland took offence at some action of the 
 bishop, and slew him and his men at Gateshead, 
 whither he had summoned them to meet him. The 
 rioters tried to seize the Castle of Durham, but the 
 stout building of the Normans was too strong for 
 them. Again Northumberland was harried, and 
 peace was restored by a strong hand. 
 
 King William chose as Walcher’s successor 
 William, Prior of the Monastery of St. Carilef, in 
 Maine. William of St. Carilef gave to the city of 
 Durham the features which have distinguished it 
 since his time. He built the chief part of the great 
 cathedral which rises over the Wear, and which is 
 one of the noblest buildings that England possesses. 
 
 53 
 
Durham 
 
 Moreover, he arranged the monks of St. Cuthbert 
 according to a new plan, which had many important 
 results. 
 
 The old monastic system which had been estab¬ 
 lished at Lindisfarne had long since died away 
 before the ravages of the Danes. The monasteries 
 were burnt, and the monks were scattered. Those 
 who followed St. Cuthbert’s body had ceased to 
 observe any monastic rules. They were priests 
 who lived together and mixed with others as they 
 pleased. Many of them were married. They were 
 simply the body of clergy attached to a great 
 church. But in the days of Bishop Walcher there 
 had been a monastic revival. Three monks in the 
 southern abbeys of Winchcombe and Evesham had 
 read in the history of Bede the great doings of 
 Northumbrian monasteries in the olden times. They 
 put their little luggage on the back of a donkey, 
 and set out to revive the spirit that had decayed. 
 After a long journey they reached Wearmouth and 
 Jarrow, which they found in ruins. Bishop Walcher 
 befriended them, and gave them Jarrow and its 
 land. Their teaching and example found many 
 followers. Jarrow, Wearmouth, Whitby, and Mel¬ 
 rose again became centres of monastic life. Bishop 
 Walcher thought of setting up a monastery at 
 Durham, and Bishop William carried out his plan. 
 The clergy of the Church of Durham were bidden 
 to choose whether they would become monks 
 or retire. A monastery was built adjoining the 
 cathedral, and because there was not enough money 
 to maintain more than one great monastery, Jarrow 
 and Wearmouth were made small dependencies. 
 
 59 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 The monks of Durham were ordered to live accord¬ 
 ing to the rule of St. Benedict, the great founder of 
 monasteries in the West. The bishop ranked as 
 abbot of the monastery, which was governed under 
 him by a prior elected by the monks. 
 
 This system of a cathedral and a monastery 
 joined together, this union of the duties of a bishop 
 and abbot, is peculiar to England, where it was 
 largely introduced after the Norman Conquest. It 
 led to many curious results. Monasteries became 
 powerful corporations, and obtained from the pope 
 privileges which they pleaded against the power of 
 the bishop. The prior, who was always there, 
 became the real head of the monastery rather than 
 the bishop, who was frequently absent on business 
 of State. The monastery grew more and more 
 independent and powerful. There were constant 
 quarrels between the prior and the bishop. Some¬ 
 times these disputes led to scenes of violence and 
 bloodshed. They always led to endless law-suits, 
 appeals to the king, and appeals to the pope. The 
 townsmen sometimes took part with one side and 
 sometimes with another. The whole neighbourhood 
 was divided into parties. Ecclesiastical rule was 
 not much more peaceful than secular rule. It 
 afforded ample scope for turbulent spirits. It is 
 the custom nowadays to speak of the dulness of 
 cathedral cities. They were by no means wanting 
 in excitement in former days. 
 
 It would be long to tell the tale of all the prince- 
 bishops of Durham and their doings. Some, how¬ 
 ever, were men of great mark in the history of 
 England, notably Ralf Flambard, who succeeded 
 
 60 
 
Durham 
 
 William of St. [Carilef in 1099. Flambard is 
 notorious as the unscrupulous minister of the 
 rapacious King William Rufus, whom he helped 
 in his tyrannical exactions, and from whom he 
 received the Bishopric as a reward. He was so 
 generally hated that Henry I., on his accession, 
 imprisoned him at London in the Tower. The 
 bishop, however, managed to have a rope sent to 
 him in a flagon of wine. He regaled his guards 
 with the wine till they fell asleep; then he escaped 
 from the window of his cell by the help of the rope. 
 His friends were waiting for him, and he escaped 
 to Normandy, where the king’s brother Robert 
 took him under his protection. When Robert 
 invaded England, Flambard came with him, and 
 one of the terms of peace between Robert and 
 Henry I. was Flambard’s restoration to his see. 
 Flambard came back to Durham a better man. 
 He set to work at building the cathedral, and 
 almost finished it. He also built the great Castle 
 of Norham, on the Tweed, to be a defence against 
 the Scots. He was a man of restless energy, which 
 must find some sort of employment. As he grew 
 old he became more bountiful towards the poor 
 and needy, and died a penitent for his early 
 misdeeds. 
 
 The history of Durham gives us a vivid picture 
 of the anarchy and confusion of the reign of Stephen. 
 On a vacancy of the Bishopric, a Scot, William 
 Comyn, seized on the Castle of Durham, and strove 
 to have himself elected bishop by the monks. The 
 Scottish king helped him, for he wished to join the 
 Bishopric to Scotland. Stephen was helpless, and 
 
 61 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 only the constancy of the monks saved Durham 
 from its danger. The monks for three years refused 
 to elect, and were kept closely guarded by Comyn 
 within their monastery walls. At last a few of them 
 managed to escape to York, where they elected as 
 their bishop William of St. Barbara, Dean of York. 
 Still, it was nearly two years before Bishop William 
 could gain admittance into his church ; only by force 
 of arms was Comyn reduced to submission. 
 
 The successor of William of St. Barbara was 
 Hugh de Puiset, a young man of noble birth, who 
 held the see for forty-four years. Hugh de Puiset 
 was the first bishop who showed the grandeur of 
 the office of a prince-palatine. He was an am¬ 
 bitious politician, always engaged in State affairs, 
 and generally quarrelling with his monks. When 
 Richard I. went on his crusade, Hugh de Puiset 
 bought for a large sum of money the dignity of 
 Earl of Northumberland for life, and the Manor of 
 Sadberge for the Church of Durham. This was 
 the last addition made to the lands of St. Cuthbert. 
 Puiset bought also the office of justiciar, which left 
 him chief minister of the kingdom during Richard’s 
 absence. But Puiset’s haughtiness offended many 
 of the English barons, who made common cause 
 with the chancellor, who was the second great 
 English bishop, the Bishop of Ely. Puiset was 
 for a time imprisoned in the Tower of London, 
 and was obliged to confine his authority to the 
 North of England, where he ruled in princely 
 fashion. 
 
 Though the bishop was ruler of the county- 
 palatine of Durham, much land within it was held 
 
 62 
 
Durham 
 
 by powerful barons. The great families in the 
 Bishopric were the Bruces, who built their castle 
 at Hartlepool, the Baliols at Barnard Castle, and 
 the Nevilles at Brancepeth and Raby. The bishop, 
 besides his castle at Durham, had also castles at 
 Stockton and Auckland. There were many smaller 
 castles scattered through the land, and many peel 
 towers; though Durham was not so much exposed 
 to the attacks of the Scots as were Northumberland 
 and Cumberland. Naturally the bishops were great 
 builders of churches, and their example was followed 
 by their barons. Magnificent churches remain at 
 Chester-le-Street, Auckland, Darlington, Lanchester, 
 Jarrow, Houghton-le-Spring, and many other places. 
 At many of these churches bodies of canons were 
 established, and prosperous towns sprang up around 
 them. The bishops were also careful for works of 
 Christian charity. Flambard built a hospital at 
 Kepyer, and Puiset founded one for lepers at 
 Sherburn. It is noticeable that, in 1181, when he 
 founded his hospital, leprosy was so common that 
 he made provision for sixty-five inmates. In 1429 
 leprosy had disappeared from England, and the 
 hospital was turned into an almshouse. Another 
 hospital was founded in 1272 by the bishop at 
 Greatham. The circumstances of its foundation 
 are a curious illustration of the bishop’s authority. 
 After the defeat of the barons in their rising against 
 Henry III., the lands of the De Montfort family 
 were forfeited to the Crown. Some of these lands 
 were at Greatham, and the king granted them to 
 one of his favourites. The Bishop of Durham 
 thereupon instituted a suit against the king, on 
 
 63 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 the ground that forfeitures within the Bishopric 
 belonged to him as count-palatine, and not to the 
 Crown. The cause was decided in the bishop’s 
 favour, and he founded a hospital on the lands 
 which he had thus gained. Other public works 
 which the bishops undertook were bridges, which 
 were works of great usefulness to the neighbour¬ 
 hood, and made communications easier. Under the 
 rule of their bishops the men of the Bishopric led a 
 more civilised and prosperous life than their neigh¬ 
 bours. They enjoyed special privileges, and bore 
 the special name of Haliwerfolc , or men for the 
 defence of the saint. They were the body-guard 
 reserved for the protection of the abode of St. 
 Cuthbert, and were not liable to military service 
 outside the limits of St. Cuthbert’s territory. 
 
 It is remarkable that in the dispute about the 
 succession to the Scottish Crown both claimants, 
 Bruce and Baliol, were barons of the palatinate. 
 Each of these Norman families had married ladies 
 of the royal line in Scotland, and held lands in 
 Scotland and England alike. The long war between 
 England and Scotland which followed on Edward I.’s 
 interference in Scottish affairs made the Bishop of 
 Durham a man of great political importance. He 
 had to gather troops and lead his men to battle; he 
 had to be a soldier as well as a bishop. Chief of 
 these warrior-bishops was Antony Bek, in the days 
 of Edward I. Bek never rode abroad without a 
 following of one hundred and forty mounted knights. 
 His wealth and magnificence knew no bounds. One 
 day, in London, a merchant had a piece of cloth 
 which he said was too dear even for the Bishop of 
 
 64 
 
Durham 
 
 Durham. Bek bought it at once, and ordered that 
 it should be cut up for horsecloths. 
 
 The reign of Edward III. showed the need of 
 military capacity in the ruler of the palatinate. In 
 1346 Edward III. was warring in France, where he 
 won the great battle of Cressy. King David of 
 Scotland thought that England was now bereft of 
 her soldiers, and might be easily attacked. With a 
 strong army he advanced through Cumberland into 
 the Bishopric, plundering as he went. Bishop 
 Hatfield, the Archbishop of York, Lord Neville, 
 Lord Percy, and other barons, gathered their troops, 
 determined to withstand the progress of the Scots. 
 The battle was fought on the Red Hills, close to 
 Durham. The city trembled for the issue of the 
 day. Many of the monks mounted the great tower 
 of the cathedral, that they might pray in sight of 
 the combatants. Others of them went out bearing a 
 holy relic of St. Cuthbert, and stood upon a hill still 
 nearer the scene of battle. The fight was long and 
 furious, and victory wavered. At last a charge of 
 the English cavalry on the flank of the Scots threw 
 them into confusion. The slaughter was terrible. 
 The chief barons of Scotland were cut down as 
 they fought desperately round their king. King 
 David was made prisoner ; and England saw the 
 Kings of France and Scotland captured in the same 
 year by the valour of her soldiers. The Battle of 
 the Red Hills is generally known as the Battle of 
 Neville’s Cross, for on the hill where it was fought 
 an old cross stood, erected by a Neville as a mark 
 for pilgrims on their way to St. Cuthbert’s shrine. 
 It was commemorated by the monks of Durham as 
 
 65 E 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 a testimony to the power of their patron saint. 
 Every year, on the anniversary of the fight, a hymn 
 of thanksgiving was chanted on the top of the 
 cathedral tower. The custom still continues, though 
 the date has been changed from October 17 to 
 May 29. Still every year the cathedral choir ascend 
 the tower at sunrise, and with songs of praise com¬ 
 memorate the great deliverance wrought for their 
 city in the days of old. 
 
 The Bishops of Durham were warriors and 
 statesmen, but many of them were more than that. 
 Bishop Richard de Bury (1333-1345) was a great 
 scholar, and delighted to surround himself with 
 books and learned men. It is said that wherever 
 he went the floor of his room was so littered with 
 books that it was hard to find a passage by which 
 to reach him. He left his library to Durham College 
 at Oxford, which was attached to the monastery of 
 Durham, and has now passed away. He wrote a 
 book in praise of learning, and few books that have 
 been written show more simply the delights of a 
 student’s life. 
 
 The careers of these prince-bishops offer a 
 striking contrast to that of St. Cuthbert, whose 
 successors they were. There was a great difference 
 between the cell of the hermit of the Fame Island 
 and the splendid castle of the Bishop of Durham, 
 surrounded by his guard of knights and busied with 
 the affairs of State. Churchmen had drifted far 
 away from the simplicity to which they owed the 
 reverence of men. Still, even in its days of worldly 
 splendour, the Church kept alive the memory of 
 better things. The Bishops of Durham were little 
 
 66 
 
Durham 
 
 else than great lords, but they were better than 
 those who would have been in their place if they had 
 not been there. They were wealthy, but they were 
 bountiful. They spent much money on works of 
 public usefulness. Their people were prosperous, 
 and were not oppressed. Several of these bishops 
 were themselves sprung from the people, and were 
 not ashamed of their origin. Bishop Robert de 
 Insula (1274-1283) was a poor lad born in Holy 
 Island. He often said that he was by birth unfit to 
 live like a lord. He set up his mother in a little 
 house of her own ; but the good lady complained 
 that she had so many servants to do things for her 
 that she could find no occupation, and her servants 
 did everything so well that she had not even an 
 excuse for scolding them. Though the position of 
 Bishop of Durham was one of the most dignified in 
 England, it was in reach of the poor and low-born. 
 
 It was natural that the shock of the great social 
 changes wrought by the Reformation should be 
 especially felt in a district whose organisation was 
 so specially ecclesiastical as was that of the 
 Bishopric. The dissolution of the smaller monas¬ 
 teries in 1536 left the monastery of Durham shorn 
 of all its dependants, and deprived the country 
 districts of establishments which, in spite of their 
 shortcomings, had done much to lighten the load of 
 poverty. In the North of England the religious 
 changes were bitterly resented, and Durham took 
 part in the popular rising known as ‘ the Pilgrimage 
 of Grace.’ The rebels had no settled plan, and 
 dispersed before promises to redress their grievances. 
 On the suppression of this rising, Henry VIII. 
 
 67 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 proceeded to lessen the power of the Bishop of 
 Durham. The privileges of the Bishopric were 
 greatly diminished. The bishop no longer was the 
 king’s representative ; the writs ran in the king’s 
 name; the bishop no more appointed justices of 
 the peace, nor had the right of pardon. The royal 
 jurisdiction was established, and Durham was hence¬ 
 forth governed directly by the king. The Bishop 
 of Durham was, however, still left with his posses¬ 
 sions untouched and with a position of great dignity. 
 
 The suppression of the greater monasteries in 
 1540 put an end to the great monastery of Durham. 
 The Royal Commissioners visited the cathedral, and 
 stripped St. Cuthbert’s shrine of its jewels and gold. 
 A blacksmith mounted a ladder, and with a hammer 
 broke open the coffin of the saint. ‘ Fling down 
 his bones! ’ said one of the commissioners from 
 below. In vain the man struggled ; the limbs of 
 the saint still held together, and his body, uninjured, 
 was decently interred. It was scarcely to be ex¬ 
 pected that such scenes as this could fail to shock 
 many who had looked with reverence upon the 
 resting-place of the saint. It was ill done to enforce 
 enlightenment by acts of rude violence. 
 
 The church of Durham, like the bishop, was left 
 with much of its possessions, and the monastery 
 made way for a dean and twelve canons. The 
 position, however, of the Bishop of Durham marked 
 him out for further attack. In the reign of Edward 
 VI., Bishop Tunstal was accused of treason, on no 
 definite grounds, and was deprived of his see. An 
 Act of Parliament in 1551 dissolved the Bishopric, 
 and professed to found in its stead two insignificant 
 
 68 
 
Durham 
 
 sees at Durham and Newcastle. The death of 
 Edward VI., and the accession of Mary, saved the 
 Bishopric from destruction. Tunstal was restored ; 
 his lands were given back, and the Bishopric re¬ 
 mained as it had been left by Henry VIII. 
 
 These rapid ecclesiastical changes produced bad 
 results amongst a population where the Church had 
 been important. Much was taken away, and 
 nothing was put in its place. The monasteries 
 were gone; the number of clergy was largely 
 diminished ; the clergy who remained were poor 
 and ignorant. Laymen, who had succeeded the 
 monasteries as patrons of benefices, made poor 
 provision for filling benefices. ‘ A thousand pulpits 
 in England,’ said Bernard Gilpin, ‘are covered with 
 dust; some have not had four sermons these fifteen 
 or sixteen years, since the friars left their limita¬ 
 tions.’ Civilisation fell back in Northern England. 
 The people were discontented, and clung to the old 
 faith. ‘ The people are sullen and churlish,’ said 
 Bishop Barnes in 1577 ; ‘ the custom of their lives, 
 as their country is, is truly savage.’ The man who 
 laboured most earnestly for their improvement was 
 Bernard Gilpin, Rector of Hough ton-le-Spring 
 ( 1 557— 1 584), who, in the true spirit of Christian 
 charity, lived and taught amongst the common folk. 
 He rambled through the wild dales of the Rede and 
 the Tyne, and exhorted all men to lead better lives. 
 The story goes that in the Church of Rothbury he 
 found one day a glove hung up as a sign of defiance 
 of one foe to another. Taking it down, he used it 
 as a text, and preached a sermon upon the blessings 
 of peace. So much was he beloved, that when one 
 
 69 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 day a moss-trooper stole his horse from a servant, 
 the thief was seized with horror when he found 
 whose horse it was, and hastened to restore it and 
 ask pardon for the crime. Gilpin established a 
 grammar school at Houghton, and his example was 
 followed by Bishop Pilkington. He deserves the 
 name which is given him, ‘ the Apostle of the 
 North.’ His life and teaching did much to restore 
 order in a desolate land. 
 
 The Bishopric was indeed made desolate by the 
 rising of 1569, when the Earls of Northumberland 
 and Westmoreland took arms in behalf of Mary 
 Queen of Scots and the old religion. They carried 
 with them the favour not only of the common people, 
 but also of the gentry. ‘ There are not,’ wrote a 
 contemporary, ‘in all this country ten gentlemen 
 that do favour and allow of her Majesty’s proceedings 
 in the cause of religion.’ Yet Elizabeth had wise 
 counsellors and trusty friends. The plans of the 
 Northern earls were known betimes at Westminster. 
 Before they were ready to rise they were summoned 
 before the council, and so were driven to declare 
 themselves before their preparations were made. 
 Troops rapidly gathered round their standard. 
 They marched to Durham, took possession of the 
 cathedral, destroyed the Prayer-books and the 
 English Bibles, and, amidst the joy of the people, 
 restored the altar and celebrated mass. But they 
 had no real plan of operations, and their counsels 
 were divided. They marched southwards, and then 
 retired to the Earl of Westmoreland’s castle of 
 Raby. They wreaked their vengeance on Sir 
 George Bowes, who in Barnard Castle kept loyal 
 
 70 
 
Durham 
 
 watch on the Queen’s behalf. Barnard Castle was 
 besieged and taken ; but that was the last triumph 
 of the rebels. The royal forces advanced under 
 the Earl of Sussex, and the rebel army melted away 
 before the news. The Earls of Northumberland 
 and Westmoreland fled, and Sir George Bowes was 
 left to inflict punishment which should strike general 
 terror. Some six hundred men were executed, and 
 the land was reduced to sullen silence. 
 
 Large forfeitures followed, and the great family 
 of the Nevilles, who had been the chief of the 
 barons of the palatinate, was swept away, as a 
 punishment of the treason of the Earl of West¬ 
 moreland. Bishop Pilkington in vain pleaded that 
 the forfeitures belonged to the bishop, who still 
 possessed that right of the palatinate. The claim 
 was not denied; but the Queen declared that her 
 expenses in putting down the rebellion had been so 
 great that she would keep the lands for a time. 
 They were never given up; the power of the Bishop 
 of Durham had really gone, and the Bishopric 
 existed only in name. 
 
 In these unquiet times the people of the Bishopric 
 suffered much. The Reformation destroyed the 
 monasteries and lessened the resources of the 
 bishop. The rising of 1569 overthrew most of the 
 nobles of the palatinate. The prosperity of the 
 common people suffered. The towns fell out of 
 repair. Hartlepool was allowed to fall before the 
 advance of the sea. When James I. visited 
 Darlington, he looked out of his iron window and 
 asked what the place was called. When he was 
 told, he said, * Darneton, Darneton ! I think it’s 
 
 7i 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Darneton in the Dirt! ’ In every part of the 
 Bishopric there were signs of poverty, disorder, and 
 decay. The government of the Crown was not at 
 first so good as the government of the bishop ; yet 
 the sphere of the bishop’s authority was gradually 
 diminished. In 1603 the outlying possessions of the 
 see—Norham Castle, Norhamshire, and Islandshire 
 —were handed over to King James I. The union 
 of the crowns of England and Scotland made 
 exceptional measures for the defence of the Border 
 no longer necessary. 
 
 The increase of the coal trade brought . back 
 some signs of prosperity to the Bishopric ; though 
 the port of Newcastle was so much better than that 
 of Sunderland that Northumberland was far in 
 advance of Durham. The outbreak of the Great 
 Rebellion again destroyed the peace of the North. 
 Durham, which held to the king’s cause, was, after 
 the Battle of Newburn, in 1640, occupied by the 
 army of the Scots, and ordered to pay a fine of 
 ,£350 a day so long as the troops remained. Before 
 this heavy exaction the people fled in dismay, so 
 that not one house in ten was occupied. The 
 country suffered equally from the ravages of the 
 Scots, and from the attempts of the Royalists to 
 prevent them from obtaining food. An order was 
 made that the upper millstones were to be taken 
 away and buried, so that the Scots might not be 
 able to grind their corn. The land was made 
 almost uninhabitable ; and when the Scots withdrew 
 their forces, the Bishopric was saddled with a 
 payment of ,£25,600—to them a very large sum in 
 those days. 
 
 72 
 
Durham 
 
 The Bishop of Durham in these days, Thomas 
 Morton, was a man of genuine piety, simple, 
 generous, kindly, and self-sacrificing. He went to 
 London to attend Parliament in 1641, and shared 
 the unpopularity of his order. As he was driving 
 to the House the mob cried, ‘ Pull him out of his 
 coach!’ ‘Nay,’ said others, ‘he is a good man.’ 
 ‘ For all that, he is a bishop!’ was the reply, and 
 Morton was hustled with the rest. The bishops 
 indiscreetly signed a protest against the validity of 
 any of the proceedings of Parliament, while they 
 were prevented by popular violence from taking 
 part in them. It was impossible that such a 
 challenge could be allowed to pass unnoticed. The 
 bishops who signed it, amongst them the Bishop of 
 Durham, were charged by the House of Commons 
 with high treason, and were imprisoned. Events 
 rapidly passed far beyond their control, and, in 1646, 
 episcopacy was declared by Parliament to be 
 abolished, and the bishops’ lands were sold. Bishop 
 Morton stubbornly refused to acknowledge this Act, 
 and would not give up the seal of the palatinate. 
 He was again imprisoned; but his great age and 
 high character won the respect even of his opponents. 
 An allowance of ^800 a year was made him for life ; 
 but no provision was made for its payment. He 
 received at last ^1000, with which he paid his debts 
 and bought an annuity of ^200. He lived peaceably 
 with kind friends who admired him. One day, as he 
 was journeying to London, a staunch adherent of the 
 Parliament, Sir Christopher Yelverton, overtook him 
 on the road. After some talk, he inquired his name. 
 
 ‘ I am that old man, the Bishop of Durham, in spite 
 
 73 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 of all your votes ! ’ was Morton’s answer. ‘ Where 
 are you going?’ was the next question. ‘To 
 London ; to live a little while, and then to die.’ Sir 
 Christopher was so touched that he took the old 
 man to his own house, where the bishop acted as 
 tutor to his son till he died in 1659, at the age of 
 ninety-five. 
 
 The period of the Commonwealth saw great 
 changes in the Bishopric. The bishop’s lands were 
 sold, and the bishop’s courts were abolished. The 
 Castle of Durham was sold to the Lord Mayor of 
 London ; the bishop’s manors were occupied by 
 strange landlords. Sir Arthur Haselrigg bought so 
 much land that he was called laughingly ‘ the Bishop 
 of Durham.’ Amongst other places he bought the 
 Castle of Auckland, which he destroyed to make 
 way for a dwelling-house, which he intended to 
 inhabit. The Castle of Stockton was dismantled 
 by order of Parliament. Almost all the castles in 
 the Bishopric suffered from sieges, and were left in 
 ruins. The traces of mediaeval times were largely 
 swept away in the period of warfare and confusion. 
 There arose, however, a desire to make some 
 worthy use of the great memories which still 
 centred round St. Cuthbert’s Church. In 1650 
 a petition was sent to the Lord Protector, asking 
 that the houses of the dean and canons, which were 
 falling into decay, might be turned into a college 
 for the instruction of youth. Cromwell welcomed 
 a plan which, as he said, ‘ might conduce to the 
 promotion of learning and piety in these poor, rude, 
 and ignorant parts.’ In 1657 Cromwell issued a 
 scheme for the erection of this college. It is a 
 
 74 
 
Durham 
 
 document which shows his practical capacity, and 
 was excellently adapted to the needs and possibilities 
 of the time. It was not, however, carried out. 
 The Restoration restored the lands of the Bishop 
 of Durham, and schemes which had been framed 
 during the time of confiscation were not likely to 
 meet with favour. 
 
 The restoration of the Bishopric fell into the 
 hands of one well fitted for the task—Bishop Cosin. 
 He was a great builder, as well as an organiser. 
 He repaired the castles of Durham and Auckland. 
 Characteristically enough, he refused to live in the 
 part which Sir Arthur Haselrigg had built, because 
 it was in great part constructed out of the stones 
 of the old chapel which he had pulled down. Cosin 
 built the beautiful chapel which at present stands 
 at Bishop Auckland. He built at Durham a library, 
 which he furnished with books, close by the castle 
 gate. He restored the canons’ houses, which had 
 fallen into ruins, and also the cathedral, which had 
 greatly suffered. After the Battle of Dunbar, 
 Cromwell sent three thousand Scottish prisoners 
 to Durham. They were shut up in the cathedral, 
 and whiled away their time by defacing the interior 
 as far as they could reach, destroying the woodwork 
 for fuel, and disfiguring the monuments for amuse¬ 
 ment. Bishop Cosin had much work to do in 
 restoring the dignity of the Bishopric. He did 
 it zealously and w r ell. Schools and hospitals were 
 repaired as well as churches, and the county rapidly 
 began to recover from the desolation in which it 
 had been plunged. 
 
 The Commonwealth, however, left traces which 
 
 75 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 were not to be effaced. However much a restora¬ 
 tion might be desired, it was impossible to bring 
 back the past. The forms of feudalism which 
 remained were felt to be irksome, and Charles II. 
 consented to the abolition of the old rights of the 
 Crown in return for a money payment. Land- 
 owners were freed from the dues which before they 
 had paid, and from an interference which they 
 resented. The Crown did not lose by the bargain ; 
 but the Bishop of Durham, who had similar rights 
 within his palatinate, received no compensation in 
 return for their abolition. The position of the 
 bishop, as a temporal lord, was gradually passing 
 away. It was, indeed, a needless survival of a 
 past state of things, yet Bishop Cosin strove to 
 retain as much as he could. In old days the 
 Bishopric sent no members to Parliament, as the 
 bishop held a parliament of his own. Cromwell, 
 however, had treated Durham like any other county, 
 and had summoned members from it. After the 
 Restoration, they ceased to be summoned; but, 
 as Parliament was now important, the men of the 
 palatinate naturally resented their exclusion from 
 the national council. Cosin opposed their petition 
 that they should be allowed to send members to 
 Parliament, and was unpopular in consequence; 
 but in 1673, after his death, an Act was passed 
 enfranchising the Bishopric, which from that time 
 became still more like an ordinary county. 
 
 When the troubled times were over, the north¬ 
 eastern part of England settled down to a steady 
 course of increasing prosperity. Coal mines were 
 diligently worked along the coast, and lead mines 
 
 76 
 
Durham 
 
 among the western hills. The trade of glass-making 
 was established on the Tyne by some refugees from 
 Lorraine in the reign of Elizabeth, and became a 
 considerable industry. The northern parts of the 
 Bishopric shared in the commercial growth of New¬ 
 castle ; but those parts which could not easily reach 
 the Tyne were hampered by the want of means 
 for carrying away their products. The harbours of 
 the Wear and the Tees were not so accessible as 
 was the harbour of the Tyne. It was not till the 
 present century that the harbours of Sunderland and 
 Hartlepool made Durham superior to Northumber¬ 
 land as a centre of trade. The south of Durham 
 was a meeting-place for coal and iron ore, the towns 
 sprung up with astonishing rapidity round the dreary 
 tract of sand through which the waters of the Tees 
 reached the sea. 
 
 The great transformation, which was to convert 
 the old county-palatine of Durham from being an 
 outpost of the English kingdom into a centre of 
 English industry, proceeded steadily through the 
 eighteenth century. Palatine bishops succeeded 
 one another, and distinguished their reigns by 
 acts of princely beneficence. Twelve canons still 
 cared for the services of St. Cuthbert’s Church, 
 and the rich stalls of Durham Cathedral were 
 counted as the prizes of an ecclesiastical career. 
 Coal mines multiplied on the estates of the bishop 
 and of the chapter, and their revenues increased 
 accordingly. Long leases were taken of lands 
 which had minerals below the surface ; capital was 
 largely invested, and population steadily grew. 
 The records of colliery accidents are painful 
 
 77 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 enough at the present day; they were much 
 more frequent a century and a half ago, and the 
 miners met with little consideration from their 
 employers. In 1767 a Newcastle newspaper wrote : 
 ‘ As so many deplorable accidents have lately 
 happened in collieries, it certainly claims the 
 attention of coalowners to make a provision for 
 the distressed widows and fatherless children 
 occasioned by these mines, as the catastrophe 
 from foul air becomes more common than ever. 
 Yet, as we have been requested to take no 
 particular notice of these things, which, in fact, 
 could have little good tendency, we drop the 
 further mentioning of it.’ Accidents in those days 
 were hushed up ; little care was taken to discover 
 their causes and prevent their occurrence ; little was 
 done to console or provide for those who were left 
 distressed and destitute. The newspapers were 
 gagged ; publicity was avoided ; every one felt that 
 the mention of these things ‘ could have little good 
 tendency.’ There was no notion of taking common 
 counsel for the avoidance or mitigation of a great evil. 
 
 The miners looked after their own interests. 
 Strikes and riots were by no means uncommon 
 when they banded together to protect themselves. 
 At first the miners were hired for the year at a fixed 
 wage. There were disputes about the days on 
 which the working year began and ended, about the 
 hours of work, and the rate of annual wages. As 
 coal mining became a more important industry, 
 disputes increased; as the miners realised the power 
 of combination they obtained a hearing. If the 
 miners of Durham were the first to combine for 
 
 78 
 
Durham 
 
 the purpose of redressing their grievances, the 
 present day has shown them to be amongst the 
 first who were willing to submit their claims to 
 peaceful settlement by means of arbitration. The 
 records of the struggle between capital and labour 
 may compare honourably with the records of any 
 constitutional contest. All struggles are costly, and 
 seem to bystanders to involve needless waste; but 
 it must be admitted in all fairness that the industrial 
 struggles of our own days have been so conducted 
 as to lead to a better understanding between the 
 contending parties. The records of the arbitration 
 system which is in operation in the county of Durham 
 show that employers and employed are reasonable 
 in their demands, and respect one another. Both 
 parties are equally anxious to avoid a contest which 
 is disastrous to both alike. 
 
 The growth of modern industry completely 
 changed the county of Durham. It was still an 
 ecclesiastical principality; but the conditions of life 
 were entirely altered since the days when the bishop 
 was a great military leader and governor of his 
 people. The Bishops of Durham were relieved of 
 many of their ancient duties, and prospered as their 
 lands, owing to their mineral wealth, increased in 
 value. 
 
 Their munificence was largely shown in providing 
 for the spiritual needs of a growing population. But 
 the spirit of reform, which was victorious in 1832, 
 was opposed to all extraordinary positions, and aimed 
 at the systematic organisation of the country. The 
 Ecclesiastical Commission in 1833 made provisions 
 for equalising the distribution of the possessions of 
 
 79 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 the Church. The Bishop of Durham was no longer 
 left as a great landowner, but received a fixed salary, 
 and his surplus revenues were distributed to endow 
 new’ benefices. The Church of Durham was shorn 
 of its ancient splendour. Its canons were reduced 
 from twelve to six, and their incomes were sorely 
 diminished. The last act of the old body was to 
 devote a portion of their revenues to carry out the 
 plan which had been projected in the days of the 
 Commonwealth, and found a university at Durham. 
 It had a noble home in the old castle of the prince 
 bishops, next to the cathedral, overlooking the Wear. 
 Its keep no longer bristles with soldiers, but provides 
 rooms for students. Its banqueting-hall, the finest 
 in England, is no longer thronged with retainers, 
 but is the dining-room of black-gowned scholars. 
 Learning could find no more pleasant seat, and 
 could inhabit no spot more full of memories of 
 past greatness. Unfortunately for the University 
 of Durham, it was founded at a time when railways 
 began to make communication easy. It did not 
 become a rival to Oxford or Cambridge, but it 
 pursued a career of usefulness with small numbers. 
 In our own days the desire for education has largely 
 increased, and the University of Durham occupies 
 an honourable position among the colleges which 
 have sprung up in great centres of population. Its 
 neighbourhood to Newcastle has enabled it to supply 
 the educational needs of the North of England. The 
 cathedral and the university together make Durham 
 still a monument of all that was noblest and best in 
 its historic past. 
 
 The Ecclesiastical Commission led to the 
 
 80 
 
Durham 
 
 destruction of the palatine authority of the bishop. 
 On the death of Bishop Van Mildert in 1836, the 
 palatinate was annexed to the Crown. The name 
 of ‘the Bishopric’ departed, and Durham became 
 like any other county. The Bishop of Durham 
 has no sign of his old greatness except a dignified 
 position amongst the other bishops. The county 
 of Durham was left to its industrial pursuits without 
 any mark of its ancient organisation. 
 
 In Durham invention prospered, and from the 
 enterprise which its industry fostered sprang the 
 greatest change of modern times. When George 
 Stephenson applied his locomotive engine to drag 
 the coals from the pit mouth of a Northumbrian 
 colliery, Durham fostered the expansion of this 
 invention into the railway system which we now 
 know so well. Mr. Edward Pease, of Darlington, 
 wished to construct a railway to carry goods from 
 Darlington to Stockton. He applied to Stephenson, 
 who did not doubt that a locomotive engine could 
 be used to traverse a distance of twenty miles. He 
 set to work, and in 1825 the railway was opened in 
 the presence of a vast crowd of people, who saw 
 with amazement an engine drag a load of ninety 
 tons, and marvelled that it accomplished a distance 
 of eight miles in sixty-five minutes. It was soon 
 found that adventurous passengers were ready to 
 risk their lives by being dragged along the lines by 
 an engine in preference to a horse. From this time 
 the railway system rapidly grew, and with its growth 
 came the disappearance of many local traits and 
 characteristics which it is the object of these pages 
 to recall. 
 
 81 
 
 F 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 The growth of the railway system led to the full 
 development of the coal-fields of Durham. Before 
 the invention of railways the growth of the industrial 
 population had been slow; afterwards it became 
 rapid. Villages were suddenly turned into towns ; 
 agricultural districts were invaded by miners. The 
 relics of the past on all sides disappeared. Wear- 
 mouth and Jarrow, the seats of Northern monasticism, 
 are now mere names for portions of a densely- 
 inhabited district which extends almost continuously 
 along the coast. The city of Durham alone remains 
 to tell of the past. Even round Durham the tall 
 chimneys rise and pour out their smoke, while the 
 water of the Wear runs black with coal-dust. 
 
 Perhaps no part of England speaks out so clearly 
 as does the county of Durham the deep pathos of 
 industrial life. In the west of the county the 
 uplands slope to the moors, and we see the quiet 
 of agricultural life. The lower tract that runs some 
 twenty miles along the coast is given over to coal 
 mines. Rows of houses have rapidly sprung up, 
 built in long lines with dreary uniformity. Heaps 
 of black refuse mark the neighbourhood of the pit. 
 The very roads are black, and the paths are made 
 of small coal. The inhabitants themselves have 
 owned their fate with good-humoured mockery ; 
 one village goes by the name of ‘ Pity-me.’ Yet 
 the miners have striven manfully against their 
 untoward surroundings. They are genial, kindly, 
 and intelligent; their lives are by no means unhappy. 
 It was but natural that the first beginnings of a coal¬ 
 pit should bring together a number of men from 
 different parts who had few bonds of sympathy. A 
 
 82 
 
Durham 
 
 settled population and continuous industry quickly 
 supplied common interests. The miners are proud 
 of their work, and have learned how to use their 
 leisure to as good purpose as other folk. A little 
 poem written by a working miner, Mr. Skipsey, 
 tells with touching simplicity the story of peaceful 
 home-life and daily display of unconscious heroism:— 
 
 * “ Get up,” the caller 1 calls, “ get up ” : 
 
 And in the middle of the night, 
 
 To earn my babes their bite and sup, 
 
 I rise a weary wight. 
 
 My flannel dudden donned, thrice o’er 
 I kiss my birds, and then 
 I with a whistle close the door 
 I ne’er may ope again.’ 
 
 1 The ‘caller’ is the man whose business it is to summon the 
 miners to their shifts. 
 
YORKSHIRE 
 
 Y ORKSHIRE is the largest of the English 
 shires, and its size corresponds to its ancient 
 greatness. It is the chief part of the ancient 
 kingdom of Northumberland, though the name has 
 passed to the more northern shire, which gave up 
 much of its old possessions to make the richest part 
 of the Scottish kingdom. A second part went to 
 St. Cuthbert’s Church, and formed a principality- 
 ruled over by the Bishop of Durham. What 
 remained was called Yorkshire, from the name 
 of its chief town, one of the most memorable of 
 English cities. 
 
 In the days when the Romans ruled in Britain, 
 Eboracum, as York was then called, was the seat of 
 government, though London, from its position, was 
 the chief port and the centre of commerce. It was 
 natural that this should be, for the Roman conquerors 
 aimed at establishing order, and were long doubtful 
 how far northwards it was useful and profitable for 
 them to extend their sway. They held South Britain; 
 they kept Wales in check ; they occupied the fertile 
 plains and river valleys, and they saw that the vale 
 of York was well worth possessing. Beyond it the 
 land between the Tees and the Tyne was of little 
 
 84 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 value, but the valleys of the Tyne, the Irthing, and 
 the Eden again attracted them. North of this they 
 were doubtful about the expediency of extending 
 their occupation. Finally, they resolved to hold 
 fast by the frontier line between the Solway and 
 the Tyne, and they fortified this frontier by building 
 a massive wall, along which were stationed nearly 
 ten thousand soldiers. Beyond this boundary they 
 made roads and established camps in the district 
 between the Tyne and the Frith of Forth, between 
 the Solway and the Clyde. This second boundary 
 between the Forth and the Clyde was also held by 
 an earthen fortification. The Romans seem to 
 have resolved that south of the Tyne the order 
 and the law of Rome should thoroughly prevail. 
 North of that district was a debatable land, which 
 miorht in time be brought within the civilisation of 
 Rome. 
 
 With such a policy it was natural to choose 
 Eboracum as the capital of the province of Britain. 
 There dwelt the governor of the province and his 
 court; there converged many of the roads which 
 the Romans were so skilled in making; thence 
 went forth the troops who were to keep in order 
 the turbulent barbarians of the North. Thither 
 came the Emperor Hadrian, and there, in 211 , died 
 the Emperor Severus, who wasted the strength of 
 Rome in a useless attempt to brave the difficulties 
 of climate and of territory in a march against the 
 Caledonians. Later, when the Roman Empire was 
 divided, Ebor&cum became an imperial city, as the 
 dwelling-place of the Caesar Constantius, and on his 
 death, in 306, his more famous son Constantine was 
 
 85 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 hailed in Eboracum as his father’s successor. From 
 Britain Constantine went forth to win for himself the 
 mastery of the Roman world. But Rome’s power 
 was even then sinking into decay. Another century 
 saw the Roman legions withdrawn, and the British 
 people, enervated by Rome’s civilisation, were left a 
 prey to the incursions of the Piets and Scots from 
 the North, and more dangerous attacks of the 
 English and Saxon pirates along their coasts. 
 
 We can only guess at the course of the English 
 conquest of Deira, as the southern part of the 
 Northumbrian kingdom was called. Probably the 
 first band of conquerors settled on the promontory 
 at the mouth of the Humber, to which they gave 
 the name of Holderness. Thence they spread 
 along the valley of the Derwent till they occupied 
 the district now called the East Riding, which 
 perhaps is a surviving record of the first kingdom 
 of the new-comers. Soon they advanced along the 
 fertile valley of the Ouse, sacked Eboracum, and 
 drove the Britons into the waste moorland on the 
 west. Then they pursued the valley northwards, 
 settling on such spots as attracted them, till they 
 reached the Cleveland hills and the valley of the 
 Tees. The territory which they occupied on this 
 second advance corresponds to the existing division 
 of the North Riding. The land of the West Riding, 
 the rough ground that rises beyond the vale of York, 
 was left for some time in the hands of the fugitive 
 Britons. 
 
 Meanwhile another English kingdom had been 
 formed, with its seat on the rock of Bamborough, 
 the kingdom of Bernicia, which spread southward 
 
 86 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 till it bordered upon the lands of the men of Deira. 
 Dissensions arose between these bands of kindred 
 race, and /Ella, the Deiran king, waged war against 
 Bernicia, and brought it under his sway. So little 
 were the English conscious of their unity of race 
 that captives taken in their raids upon one another 
 found their way into the slave market of Rome. 
 There a Roman priest was struck by a group of 
 boys. ‘ Of what race are these lads ? ’ he asked. 
 ‘ They are Angles,’ was the answer. ‘ Not Angles, 
 but angels,’ said Gregory. ‘ F rom what land are 
 they ? ’ ‘ Deira,’ said the merchant. * De ira,’ he 
 
 repeated ; ‘ saved from the wrath of God. Who is 
 their king ? ’ ‘ /Ella,’ was the answer. ‘ Then shall 
 
 “Alleluia” be sung in /Ella’s land!’ The priest 
 lived to be Pope Gregory I. He did not forget his 
 promise, and sent a band of Roman missionaries to 
 spread the gospel in that far-off land. 
 
 The mission of Augustine did not, however, 
 reach Deira for some time. King /Ella died, and 
 on his death Bernicia overran Deira, and King 
 Ethelfrith united the two kingdoms into one. He 
 was a great conqueror, and dealt a crushing blow at 
 the Britons by marching along the valley of the 
 Ribble against Deva, or Chester. There he over¬ 
 threw the Britons in 613, and extended his rule 
 from sea to sea. But Ethelfrith was angered that 
 one of the sons of /Ella had escaped the sword, and 
 lived in exile at the court of the East Anglian king. 
 He sent to demand his surrender, and King Red- 
 wald doubted if he should give up his guest. The 
 exiled Edwin sat despairing of his safety on a stone 
 outside the courtyard, when in the gathering darkness 
 
 37 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 of the night there stood before him a stranger, 
 who bade him be of good cheer. ‘ You will not 
 only escape your present danger,’ he said, * you will 
 live to become a mighty king. If he who tells you 
 this can give you good advice for life and soul, will 
 you listen to him?’ Edwin said ‘Yes,’ and the 
 stranger laid his hand upon his head, saying, ‘ When 
 this sign is given, you remember your promise.’ So 
 he passed away. 
 
 His words came true. Redwald not only 
 refused to give up Edwin, but warred against 
 Ethelfrith on his behalf. Ethelfrith fell in battle, 
 and Edwin succeeded him on the Northumbrian 
 throne. In his exile he had married the daughter 
 of the King of Kent, who had learned the gospel 
 from the Roman missioners. She brought with her 
 one of them, Paulinus, and urged on her husband 
 that he also should accept the faith of Christ. But 
 Edwin hesitated, till Paulinus laid his hand upon his 
 head and reminded him of the promise which he had 
 made to the stranger. ‘ By God’s help,’ he said, 
 
 ‘ you have escaped your enemies and have gained a 
 kingdom: see that you break not your promise; 
 see that you deserve His future mercies.’ Then 
 Edwin delayed no longer, but accepted the faith of 
 Christ, and called his Wise Men together to one of 
 his country houses near York, that they might give 
 their counsel. Very characteristic of the reasonable 
 and thoughtful minds of our forefathers is the 
 account of their meeting. ‘ Man’s life,’ said one, ‘ is 
 like a sparrow that flies through the hall: from 
 darkness it comes, and into darkness it goes—it 
 stays but for a moment in the light and heat. So 
 
 88 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 mans life stays here for a while, but whence it 
 came and whither it goes we know not. If this new 
 teaching tells us anything certain of these, let us 
 follow it.’ Then rose Coifi, the priest of the idols. 
 ‘ No one,’ said he, ‘ has worshipped the gods more 
 than I, yet they have not shown favour to me.’ All 
 agreed to listen to the new teachers ; and Coifi, 
 mounting on horseback, rode to the idol’s temple at 
 Godmunham, and profaned it by casting his spear. 
 When no harm befell him for his impiety, men said 
 that their gods were naught, and pulled down the 
 temple, and burned the idols with fire. 
 
 Edwin reigned in York, and brought such order 
 into his land as men had never known before. He 
 subdued the British kingdom of Elmet, or Loidis 
 (Leeds), which had been left hitherto undisturbed 
 amidst its woods and moors. This conquest brought 
 into the Northumbrian kingdom the district which 
 we now call the West Riding, and so the different 
 parts of Yorkshire were united, though the traces of 
 the old divisions still remain. But Edwin’s great¬ 
 ness was not confined to this extension of his own 
 dominions. There was already in England a 
 tendency to national unity. The scattered bands of 
 the original settlers early formed themselves into 
 three great groups — the northern kingdom of 
 Northumberland, the central kingdom of Mercia, 
 and the southern kingdom, in which the West 
 Saxons gradually took the chief place. But Edwin 
 carried this process a step farther : his supremacy 
 was owned by all the English folk except the 
 kingdom of Kent. It seemed likely in his days 
 that York would keep her ancient place, and would 
 
 89 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 become the capital of England, as she had been the 
 capital of the Roman province of Britain. 
 
 This, however, was not to be. Edwin fell in 
 battle against the Mercians, and the rule over 
 Northumberland passed to the Bernician royal house 
 in 633. Oswy overthrew the Mercians in 655, and 
 the supremacy of Northumberland again seemed 
 possible. Oswy was anxious for unity within his 
 dominions, and removed one source of discord. 
 Deira owed its Christianity to Paulinus ; Bernicia 
 had been converted by missionaries from Iona. 
 The story has already been told how Oswy called 
 a council at Streoneshalh, as Whitby was then 
 called, in 634, at which the king decided in favour 
 of the Roman use, and England from that time 
 was one with Western Christendom in its religious 
 organisation. 
 
 The results of this were soon seen in the 
 appointment by the Pope of Theodore, a monk of 
 Tarsus, as Archbishop of Canterbury, and Theodore 
 organised the English Church in a way that gave 
 additional unity to the English nation. The ancient 
 dioceses of England were such as he planned. The 
 greatness of Northumberland was testified by the 
 fact that York was made the ecclesiastical capital 
 of the second province. Canterbury, the seat of 
 Augustine, remained the head of the southern 
 province, and to the province of York was assigned 
 the north of the island. It is true that the sees in 
 the province of York are not so numerous as those 
 in the province of Canterbury. But in the days of 
 Archbishop Theodore the independent existence of 
 Scotland was not reckoned probable. The scheme 
 
 90 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 was that the northern bishops should all be suffra¬ 
 gans of the province of York. Not till the defeat 
 of the Northumbrian king Egfrith at Nechtansmere 
 near Fife, in 685, did the Northumbrian advance 
 northwards receive a decisive check. 
 
 From this time the chances of the supremacy 
 of Northumberland were at an end. But 
 Northumberland was the centre of the learning 
 and the religious zeal of England. Monasteries, 
 after the fashion of that which the monks of Iona 
 had founded at Lindisfarne, spread over the land. 
 Chief amongst them was that of Streoneshalh (or 
 Whitby), which was ruled over by Hild, a 
 descendant of the great King Edwin. There on 
 the lonely cliff above the sea were heard the first 
 strains of the first English poet in the land which 
 the English had made their own. One of the 
 servants, Caedmon, now advanced in years, felt 
 shame that he could not sing at the feasts when his 
 turn came, and when the harp was passed round 
 the table he would rise and go away. One night 
 he went to the stable, as it was his turn to take 
 care of the cattle. As he slept, he saw One who 
 bade him sing. ‘ I cannot sing,’ he said, ‘ and 
 therefore am I here.’ ‘ Yet sing of Me,’ was the 
 answer. ‘What shall I sing?’ asked Caedmon. 
 ‘ Sing,’ replied He, ‘ of the beginning of created 
 things.’ Then Caedmon sang in his sleep, and 
 when he awoke he repeated the verses he had 
 made. The brethren marvelled, and read and 
 expounded to Caedmon a portion of Holy Writ. 
 Next morning he brought them his verses, and 
 the first of English singers went on his way, 
 
 9i 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 singing lovingly and sweetly of God’s ways with 
 men. 
 
 Moreover York grew into a great centre of 
 ecclesiastical life and learning. Paulinus induced 
 King Edwin to begin the building of a stone 
 church, which was finished by Bishop Wilfrid, 
 famous for his architectural zeal. Under Archbishop 
 Egbert (735-766) the school of York was famous 
 throughout Europe, and sent forth Alcuin, who 
 became the great scholar at the court of the 
 Emperor Charles the Great. The library of York 
 was one of the best in Europe. Though 
 Northumberland had lost its political supremacy 
 over England, it was the centre of English 
 civilisation. 
 
 The advance of Northumberland had been too 
 rapid, and was followed by a period of decay. 
 Political discord and anarchy wasted its strength. 
 Archbishop Egbert was driven by increasing 
 disorder to abandon his school, and ended his days 
 in the retirement of a monastery. The greatness 
 of the Northumbrian kingdom came to an end, and 
 in 829 Northumberland submitted to the over¬ 
 lordship of Egbert, King of Wessex. 
 
 It was not long before England was plunged 
 into confusion by the coming of the Danes. In 
 867‘they conquered Northumberland and settled at 
 York. Before their advance the traces of previous 
 civilisation were swept away. Monasteries, churches, 
 and libraries all disappeared. The house of Hild 
 at Streoneshalh was so completely ruined that when 
 its neighbourhood was occupied by the conquerors 
 they gave it their own name of Whitby. Deira was 
 
 92 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 the chief seat of the Danes, and York was their 
 capital. For the third time York seemed likely to 
 become the chief town in England. But the West 
 Saxon kings fought bravely against the invaders, 
 and by their constancy secured to Wessex the rule 
 over England, which the fight against the Danes 
 united more firmly than it had been united before. 
 
 It was during the period of the Danish rule that 
 Yorkshire assumed its definite form. The Danes 
 settled in Deira; they left Bernicia tributory under 
 its own rulers. The district in which the Danish 
 conquerors mainly dwelt was marked off distinctly 
 from the rest of the Northumbrian kingdom. The 
 terminations, by, thwaite, and dale serve to distinguish 
 the Danish settlements from the hams and tons of 
 the English. A glance at the map shows us that 
 the Danes clustered thickest in the district of 
 Cleveland, where they had easy access to the sea, 
 while the vale of York attracted those who had a 
 turn for agricultural pursuits. Now for the first 
 time were old local differences recognised, and made 
 the basis of local administration. The division into 
 three Trithings, or Ridings, though already marked 
 out, was the work of the Danes, and these Ridings 
 all converged in York as the centre of government. 
 
 The Danes, however, did not become the rulers 
 of England, but slowly fell back before the arms of 
 the West Saxon kings. In 926 Ethelstan, King of 
 Wessex, was recognised as King of Northumberland; 
 but this extension of the royal power was premature, 
 and Ethelstan found it better to give the northern 
 kingdom a separate but dependent ruler. There 
 were constant rebellions and constant warfare till, in 
 
 93 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 954, the kingdom of Northumberland was reduced 
 to an earldom, and was ruled by an English earl 
 appointed by the West Saxon king. Northumberland 
 still stood apart from the rest of England. The 
 mixture of Danish blood seems to have increased 
 the lawlessness which had already begun to prevail. 
 The history of the Earls of Northumberland is a 
 chronicle of deeds of treachery, bloodshed, and 
 savagery. Their untamed nature may be seen in 
 the story of the death of Siward, the Danish earl, 
 who had himself clad in full armour and died 
 standing on his feet. ‘It is a shame,’ he said, ‘ for 
 a warrior to die like a cow.’ 
 
 After Siward’s death, in 1055, a step was taken 
 to bring Northumberland closer to the rest of 
 England. Siward’s son Waltheof was a boy; the 
 Northumbrian earldom was given to Tostig, brother 
 of Harold, and a West Saxon ruled over a people 
 who still were proud of their independence. Tostig 
 was unpopular, Northumberland rebelled, and 
 Harold was not strong enough to uphold his 
 brother. Tostig, in wrath, left England, and stirred 
 up Harold Hardrada, King of Norway, to espouse 
 his cause. The Norwegian ships sailed up the 
 Humber and captured York. King Harold rapidly 
 gathered troops and marched against the invader, 
 whom he met and routed at Stamford Bridge. 
 Then he hastened southwards to meet a more 
 formidable invader, William of Normandy, before 
 whom Harold fell. 
 
 From this great conflict for the English crown 
 the Northumbrians stood aloof. Morcar, the Earl 
 of Northumberland, did not lead the forces of the 
 
 94 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 North to Harold’s aid. The men of the North still 
 clung to their old position of independence. It 
 mattered little to them who wore the West Saxon 
 crown. They had long since ceased to strive for 
 Northumbrian supremacy, but they hoped for a 
 separate Northumbrian kingdom. A change of 
 ruler in the southern kingdom would make their 
 plans easier of execution. But they had reckoned 
 ill, and William I. soon showed that he meant to 
 exercise to the full all the rights of the old English 
 kings. The North was sullen; and William, in 
 1068, marched to York, where he built a castle on 
 the land between the Ouse and the Foss. Next 
 year the North rose in revolt, and William returned 
 in wrath, punished the men of York, and built 
 another castle on the right bank of the river. 
 Scarcely was he gone before the rebellious folk, 
 helped by reinforcements from Denmark, again 
 rose, took York, slew the Norman garrisons, and 
 overthrew the hateful castles. This time William 
 I.’s answer was terrible. The men of the North 
 could rise in revolt, but they had no power of 
 organisation or sense of discipline. They fled 
 before William’s advance; he ordered his castles 
 to be rebuilt at York, and then proceeded to lay 
 waste with fire and sword the land between York 
 and Durham. So thoroughly was this done that 
 Yorkshire was reduced to a wilderness. Great part 
 of its people died from hunger; for years the land 
 was left untilled. Villages and towns alike were 
 laid in ashes ; the traces of the old greatness of the 
 land were swept away. Not till the development 
 of modern trade did Yorkshire recover her old 
 
 95 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 position. The vengeance of King William I. dealt 
 her a deadly blow. 
 
 The restoration of Yorkshire was the work of 
 the Norman barons, of the churchmen and the 
 monks. Chief amongst the barons who have left 
 their traces on the land was Alan of Brittany, who, 
 on the height above the rocky bed of the Swale, 
 built a castle, to which he gave the name of 
 Richmond. Around it grew a town, which throve 
 and became important, till it gave its name to a 
 local division known as Richmondshire. In like 
 manner Ilbert de Lacy built his castle near the 
 bank of the Aire, at a spot where William I., on 
 his journey north, had found the bridge broken 
 down. On this account Lacy gave to it the name 
 of Pontefract. Another Norman baron, William de 
 Percy, built castles at Topcliffe and Spofforth ; but 
 these did not become centres of municipal life. 
 
 The churchmen also did what they could. The 
 first Norman archbishop, Thomas of Bayeux, rebuilt 
 the ruined church of York. Monastic life had 
 decayed of itself, and Williams ruthless harrying 
 had swept away its traces, save at Beverley, whose 
 sainted founder John is said to have stricken down 
 the leader of the band which came to profane his 
 church. There were, however, signs of the revival 
 of monasticism. A monk of St. Germain’s monastery 
 at Auxerre was warned by the saint in a dream to 
 flee away. He came to England, and settled as a 
 hermit at Selby on the Ouse. There he was 
 accidentally seen by the sheriff, who took him under 
 his protection, and a little band of monks gathered 
 round the hermit’s cell, till they grew rich enough 
 
 96 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 to build the mighty minster which stands to this 
 day. From the southern monasteries of Evesham 
 and Winchcombe came three brethren anxious to 
 restore the holy places of which they read in Bede. 
 Their zeal spread from Durham into Yorkshire, and 
 the monasteries of Whitby and St. Mary’s, York, 
 again rose into being. Nor was it long before 
 Archbishop Thomas began the restoration of 
 Wilfrid’s monastery at Ripon, and established it 
 as a house of Augustinian canons. 
 
 In the next century came from a foreign source 
 the impulse to monasticism which brought back 
 civilisation into the wasted and untilled lands of 
 Yorkshire. But though the impulse came from 
 abroad, its origin was English. Stephen Harding, 
 a native of Sherborne in Dorset, had sought rest 
 from the troubles of a hard and reckless world in 
 the monastery of Molesme in Burgundy. He was, 
 however, dissatisfied with the want of austerity that 
 there prevailed, and led away a few who were 
 zealous like himself to seek a simpler and quieter 
 life in a more secluded spot which he chose at 
 Citeaux, not far from Dijon. There he and his 
 comrades lived an ascetic life, divided between 
 devotion and labouring in the fields. To Citeaux 
 came a man who, in time, made his influence felt 
 throughout Europe—Bernard, generally known as 
 St. Bernard of Clairvaux, from the name of the 
 monastery which he founded, and of which he was 
 abbot. Bernard carried on the work which Stephen 
 had begun, and made himself a missionary of the 
 new monastic order, which was called Cistercian, 
 from the name of its first monastery. In 1128 
 
 97 g 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Bernard sent some Cistercian monks to England 
 with a letter to Thurstan, Archbishop of York. 
 Thurstan commended the new-comers to Walter 
 Espec, Lord of Helmsley, whose mind had been 
 weaned from the world by a sore misfortune. He 
 lost his only son by a fall from a horse, and in his 
 grief at the loss vowed he would * make Christ heir 
 of part of his lands.’ Already he had fulfilled his 
 vow by founding in the vale of the Derwent, not far 
 from Malton, the Abbey of Kirkham, which he 
 filled with Augustinian canons. But the greater 
 severity of the Cistercian rule attracted him, and he 
 built a second abbey for the Cistercian monks in 
 the valley of the Rye, not far from Helmsley. 
 From its situation in the Rye valley the monastery 
 was called Rievaulx, and its site was then reckoned 
 one of ‘ terrible solitude and trembling.’ So much 
 was Walter Espec attracted by the monks of 
 Rievaulx, that when his warrior days were over 
 he withdrew to their monastery, and died there in 
 peace. The rough, rude life of that age had little 
 charm even for those who were foremost in its 
 doings. All finer minds wearied of the restless 
 activity and stern deeds of warfare among which 
 their life was passed. There was no choice between 
 that and the quiet of the monastic cell, to which 
 many looked forward as their one escape. 
 
 The example of the monks of Rievaulx was 
 soon fruitful. In 1132 some brethren of the 
 Benedictine monastery of St. Mary’s, York, grew 
 discontented with the laxity of life that there 
 prevailed. They complained to Archbishop Thur¬ 
 stan, and he attempted to restore greater order. 
 
 98 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 But the monks of St. Mary’s would not hear the 
 archbishop ; they rose and threatened the brethren 
 who had drawn upon them his rebuke. With 
 difficulty Thurstan rescued them from violence. 
 He took them with him to Ripon, and bestowed on 
 them a place for retreat in the rough valley of the 
 Skell. Their abbey was called Fountains, from the 
 springs which flowed forth in its neighbourhood. 
 For some time the monks of Fountains fought 
 desperately against poverty and want. One day a 
 traveller, exhausted with hunger, asked for food. 
 The prior, hearing that the store of the house was 
 only two loaves and a half, still ordered one to be 
 given to the stranger, saying, ‘ The Lord will 
 provide.’ His faith and charity were recompensed, 
 for just afterwards a supply of food was sent to the 
 monastery by a neighbouring lord. It was not long 
 before the good works of the monks of Fountains 
 were recognised, and they were enabled to begin 
 the building of their beautiful monastery, the 
 plans of which came from St. Bernard’s Abbey of 
 Clairvaux. 
 
 It were long to tell of the foundation of the 
 many monasteries which were founded in the York¬ 
 shire vales. The waste lands of the West Riding 
 were a fit place for monks to dwell in, and the 
 Norman names of many of the Yorkshire abbeys 
 tell the tale of their foundation. Sawley rose 
 amongst the willows that clad the banks of the 
 Ribble. Jervaulx, in the wild valley of the Ure, 
 corresponded to Rievaulx on the Rye. Kirkstall 
 tells how the monastery church rose in the place of 
 the foresters’ stall or lodge in the wild woods that 
 
 99 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 covered the upper valley of the Aire. Roche 
 Abbey rose on a spot where some hermits had 
 settled because they had discovered on the steep 
 face of the limestone rock what seemed to them to 
 be the rude outline of a crucifix. In the barren 
 marshes of Holderness was planted the Abbey of 
 Meaux, so called after the name of the birthplace of 
 the first Norman lord of that land. By the roaring 
 waters of the imprisoned Wharfe rose the Augus- 
 tinian Priory of Bolton, and at the foot of the 
 Cleveland hills nestled the Priory of Guisborough. 
 
 These are but some of the more important of 
 the monastic settlements which spread civilisation 
 through the Yorkshire wilds. Where the sword of 
 the conqueror had wrought havoc, the labours of the 
 monks restored civilised life. The Cistercians set 
 an example of toiling in the fields; all the monastic 
 orders organised agriculture. The monks settled 
 in remote valleys, cleared the rough ground, and 
 gradually brought the land under cultivation. The 
 monasteries scattered here and there throughout 
 the land opened up communications and afforded 
 ready hospitality to travellers. It is not without 
 reason that Yorkshire is famed for its monastic 
 remains. Even in their ruins they tell of the 
 workers who, in an age of warfare, upheld the 
 dignity of labour, and set forth by their example 
 the blessings of peace. 
 
 Though Yorkshire lay far within the English 
 border, it nevertheless suffered from its neighbour¬ 
 hood to Scotland, and was better fitted than the 
 more northern shires to afford battle-fields for 
 the more serious hostilities of the Scots. The 
 
 ioo 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 troubles of the reign of Stephen gave the Scots 
 an opportunity to plunder the English land, under 
 colour of maintaining the cause of Matilda as the 
 rightful heiress of the English Crown. The Scots 
 ravaged the northern shires, burning, slaying, and 
 plundering. The newly-founded monasteries were 
 in many cases reduced to ruins; the people were 
 plunged in despair, and King Stephen did nothing 
 to help them. At last, in 1138, the aged Arch¬ 
 bishop Thurstan stirred up the northern barons to 
 undertake their own defence against the Scots, 
 who, after ravaging Northumberland and Durham, 
 had entered Yorkshire, and were advancing south¬ 
 wards. The barons listened to the words of the 
 archbishop, who sent them a standard round which 
 to fight. It was the mast of a vessel erected in a 
 waggon ; on it hung a silver crucifix and the holy 
 banners of St. Peter of York, St. John of Beverley, 
 and St. Wilfred of Ripon, the three patron saints 
 of Yorkshire. Advancing with this standard, the 
 barons met the Scottish army near Northallerton, 
 and prepared for battle. The representative of the 
 old archbishop, who was too ill to come himself, 
 addressed the soldiers and prayed for their success. 
 The Scottish attack was begun by a charge of the 
 men of Galloway, the wildest and most barbarous 
 of the Scottish race, but they were repulsed by the 
 steadiness of the English, who fought round their 
 standard, and thought it cowardly to move and 
 leave it to the enemy. The men of Galloway fell 
 back, and threw the rest of the Scottish army into 
 confusion. King David fled in dismay, and many 
 of the Scots fell in the retreat. The men of 
 
 101 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Yorkshire by themselves fought the battle for 
 England, and routed the foe. The Battle of the 
 Standard shows how Yorkshire had recovered its 
 old spirit, and how the influence of the Church 
 was powerful for national organisation. 
 
 The city of York soon rose again to its early 
 importance as capital of the North, and obtained 
 from Henry I. a charter of liberties which enabled 
 its citizens to manage their own affairs. A similar 
 charter was granted by Archbishop Thurstan to 
 Beverley, which, from its position on the Hull river, 
 became a port, and was the earliest centre of the 
 woollen trade in Yorkshire. How rapidly York 
 advanced in commercial importance we may gather 
 from the number of Jews who lived there, and lent 
 money to the needy barons and merchants who 
 were in want of capital. One of the most terrible 
 stories of mediaeval times attaches to the Jews of 
 York in the reign of Richard I. Crusading zeal 
 had stirred men’s hearts into abhorrence of all 
 enemies of the Christian faith, and at the same 
 time many who purposed to follow the king to the 
 Holy Land were driven to raise money for their 
 equipment at usurious rates. The Jews in York 
 were numerous and powerful. They used the 
 opportunity of the crusading spirit to drive hard 
 bargains, till they awakened a feeling of sullen 
 wrath. No sooner had Richard I. crossed the 
 sea than an attack was made upon the Jews in 
 York. Five hundred of them fled into the castle, 
 carrying with them their wealth, which they held 
 under the protection of the king. It so happened 
 that the governor of the castle was away. When 
 
 102 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 he returned, the Jews, terrified by the massacre of 
 their friends outside, and doubtful of the governor’s 
 goodwill, refused to admit him inside the castle. 
 The townsmen rejoiced at this act, which gave 
 an opportunity for vengeance. The castle was 
 besieged, and priests and monks joined the ranks 
 of the besiegers. After some days a breach was 
 made in the wall, and the Jews could resist no 
 longer. The night before they expected the final 
 onslaught, an old rabbi rose and spoke : ‘ God has 
 called us to die for His law. Let us choose death 
 rather than apostacy ; let us freely give our lives to 
 Him who gave them.’ The greater part hearkened 
 to his words. They set fire to the castle and cast 
 all their wealth into the flames. They slew with 
 their own hands their wives and children, then they 
 leapt into the flames and perished. Those who 
 were not brave enough to follow their example 
 tried to make terms with the enemy, but when the 
 gates were opened all were put to the sword. The 
 victorious rabble rushed to the cathedral and seized 
 the chest in which were kept the registers of the 
 money lent by the Jews, which they burned in the 
 nave of the church. 
 
 Such outbursts of disorder were not common, 
 and Richard I. ordered the men of York to be 
 punished for their doings. But the story shows 
 how York was growing in wealth, and illustrates 
 the difficulties which beset the development of 
 trade and industry. Money was almost entirely 
 in the hands of the Jews, and could only be borrowed 
 at a ruinous rate of interest. The Jews shared their 
 profits with the king, who in return took them 
 
 103 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 under his protection and allowed no one to plunder 
 them save himself. The nobles were spendthrift; 
 trade was carried on without much capital, and its 
 returns were uncertain. Men were only too glad 
 of any opportunity of wiping out old scores and 
 freeing themselves from the bondage of the money¬ 
 lender. 
 
 We soon find a more striking instance of the 
 renewed importance of the northern shires. The 
 training which the northern barons obtained in their 
 defence of the Borders made them vigorous and 
 clear-sighted politicians. They took the lead in 
 the opposition to the tyranny of King John, and 
 were the first to begin that breach with the Crown 
 which was only healed by the grant of the Great 
 Charter. Men of the families of Mowbray, Lacy, 
 Percy, Bruce, and the like, were the first who 
 banded themselves together in defence of the 
 ancient liberties of England, and set an example 
 which was readily followed by those of the South. 
 Even then the severer life of the North seems to 
 have favoured the growth of sturdy resolution and 
 clear decision in the conduct of affairs. 
 
 Thus Yorkshire prospered while the barons built 
 their castles and the monks reclaimed to cultivation 
 its waste lands. Agriculture flourished and popula¬ 
 tion increased. The civilisation of Yorkshire was 
 restored by the barons, the Church, and the monks, 
 during two centuries of comparative peace, till the 
 failure of Edward I.’s plan for the conquest of 
 Scotland again exposed Yorkshire to invasion. 
 After Edward I I.’s defeat at Bannockburn the 
 Scots acted on the aggressive, and again penetrated 
 
 104 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 into Yorkshire. So formidable were they that the 
 Prior of Bolton fled into Lancashire in 1316, and 
 the monks took refuge in Skipton Castle. Again 
 the Archbishop of York strove to organise the 
 defence of the country, but he was not so successful 
 as Thurstan had been. The best soldiers were all 
 absent with the king, and the army of ten thousand 
 men which the archbishop succeeded in collecting 
 fled almost without striking a blow before the Scots, 
 who were posted at Myton on the Swale, not far 
 from Knaresborough. So many monks and clergy 
 were present at this battle that the Scots called it in 
 derision ‘ The Chapter of Myton.’ 
 
 A few years later, in 1322, King Edward II. had 
 a narrow escape from falling into the hands of the 
 Scots. He was sitting at dinner at Rievaulx Abbey 
 when a Scottish army suddenly swooped down across 
 the moors. Two monks guided the king to York, 
 but his treasures fell into the enemy’s hands, and 
 the monastery was stripped of all that it contained. 
 
 Nor was it only the invasion of the Scots that 
 disturbed the peace of Yorkshire. The unbusiness¬ 
 like qualities of Edward II. made him an incapable 
 king, and threw him into the hands of favourites, 
 who awakened the envy and anger of the English 
 barons. The baronage opposed the Crown, not as 
 before, in behalf of the nation at large, but by 
 asserting their own influence against the growing 
 power of the courtiers who immediately surrounded 
 the king. Their leader was the king’s cousin, 
 Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, Leicester, and Derby, 
 who had married the heiress of the Lacys, and was 
 lord of their lands at Pontefract. The strength of 
 
 105 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 the castle at Pontefract, which commanded the 
 passes of the Aire, made Yorkshire the scene of 
 the baronial conflict against Edward II. Thomas 
 of Lancaster was violent, and determined to assert 
 his power. Edward II. vainly strove to save his 
 favourite, Gaveston, who took refuge in the castle of 
 Scarborough. The castle was taken, and Gaveston 
 was carried away to execution. For a time the king 
 was powerless; but Earl Thomas had no wish to see 
 him freed from his troubles with the Scots. He lent 
 no help to the men of Yorkshire in their efforts to 
 resist the Scottish invasions, and was suspected of 
 helping the Scots, as a means of embarrassing the 
 king. At last, in 1322, Edward II. was ready to 
 take his revenge. Earl Thomas advanced north¬ 
 wards from Pontefract, hoping that he might be 
 aided by the Scots. At Boroughbridge he found 
 the governors of York and Carlisle with their forces 
 ready to oppose his progress. He was compelled 
 to surrender, and was taken as a prisoner to his 
 castle of Pontefract. There King Edward II. 
 passed sentence upon his relative. He would not 
 forgive the man who had so long thwarted him and 
 who had wrought the death of Gaveston. Regard¬ 
 less of his rank, Edward II. condemned him to die 
 a traitor’s death, and the great baron was led to a 
 mound outside his own castle. His face was turned 
 to the north, that he might look towards his friends 
 the Scots; then, as he knelt, the executioner cleft 
 off his head by a stroke of a heavy sword. After 
 his death men saw in his opposition to the king’s 
 folly something noble that we do not find in the 
 brutal character of Thomas. The people flocked 
 
 106 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 to his tomb in the priory of Pontefract, and miracles 
 were said to be wrought by his relics. He was 
 called by many Saint Thomas of Lancaster, as 
 though he had been a martyr for the liberties of 
 the people. 
 
 In the reign of Edward III. Yorkshire was 
 better protected from the raids of the Scots, and 
 Archbishop Zouche sent a contingent to the defence 
 of Durham, which redeemed the Yorkshiremen from 
 the disgrace of their defeat at Myton. Again the 
 country applied itself to the arts of peace. The 
 monasteries set the example of manufacturing 
 woollen cloths, not, however, of the finest sort, 
 nor of much reputation for the purposes of export. 
 Edward III. induced many Flemings to settle in 
 England and teach the people better ways of 
 manufacturing cloth. Some of these Flemings 
 came to Leeds, but Yorkshire was not yet adapted 
 for a great manufacturing centre. Its harbour at 
 the mouth of the Humber was only struggling into 
 existence. The old village of Wyke-on-the-Hull 
 was brought into new life by Edward I., who on his 
 return from Scotland in 1299 happened to light upon 
 the hamlet while on a hunting expedition. He 
 bought the site from the Abbot of Meaux, caused 
 a new town to be laid out, and gave privileges to 
 all who settled there. He gave it the new name of 
 Kingstown, and may claim to be its real founder. 
 The eye of Edward I. was keen enough to see the 
 advantages of its position as the only possible harbour 
 for the Yorkshire coast. The flats of Holderness 
 made the harbourage of the Humber uncertain. 
 The earlier ports have passed away. Hedon, with 
 
 107 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 its mighty church that tells of early greatness, is 
 now a little hamlet two miles from the sea, and its 
 ancient harbour is a shallow creek. Ravenspurg, 
 where Henry of Lancaster landed when he came to 
 claim his heritage, no longer exists. Spurn Head 
 offers some resistance to the waves, which avenge 
 themselves by capricious encroachments on the low- 
 lying land within the estuary. Kingston-upon-Hull 
 alone held its place, and grew in importance as its 
 rivals declined. 
 
 Yorkshire was deeply involved in the struggles 
 between the baronial parties which mark the history 
 of the fifteenth century in England. The balance 
 of the strength of the baronage lay in the North. 
 The northern barons were foremost in expressing 
 their discontent with the weak government which 
 the pressure of untoward circumstances alone made 
 possible to Henry IV. The Percys rose in revolt, 
 and were with difficulty put down in 1403. But the 
 discontent of the northern barons still continued, 
 and in 1405 Archbishop Scrope of York joined 
 with the Earl of Northumberland and Lord 
 Mowbray in demanding a free parliament for the 
 redress of grievances. Eight thousand men 
 assembled in arms at Skipton, near York ; but on 
 the arrival of the Earl of Westmoreland with a 
 message from the king, they disbanded, and agreed 
 to leave their matters to the king’s decision. 
 Archbishop Scrope and Mowbray were taken 
 prisoners to Pontefract. Thence they were led to 
 the archbishop’s palace of Bishopsthorpe, and were 
 condemned to death. It was an unheard-of thing 
 to put an archbishop to death, and the chief justice 
 
 108 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 refused to pass sentence upon him. A more 
 obedient judge was found, and Archbishop Scrope 
 was executed in a meadow outside his house. The 
 men of Yorkshire were filled with indignation at the 
 murder—for so they called it—of a man who was 
 beloved by all. He was reverenced as a saint, and 
 crowds hastened to make their offerings at his tomb 
 in York Cathedral. 
 
 When war broke out between the houses of 
 York and Lancaster, the northern barons were 
 mostly ranged on the Lancastrian side, and 
 supported Queen Margaret in her gallant efforts to 
 uphold the rights of her young son. She would 
 not agree to the compromise by which the Duke of 
 York should succeed on Henry VI.’s death, and 
 gathered troops in Yorkshire. The Duke of York 
 advanced against her to Wakefield, where, on the 
 meadow between his Castle of Sendai and the 
 town, he was hemmed in and slain, together with 
 the greater part of his army, December 30, 1460. 
 But his son Edward was undeterred by his father’s 
 fate, and renewed the war with vigour. Margaret 
 was repulsed in an attempt to march on London, 
 and retired into Yorkshire. Thither Edward 
 followed, and made his headquarters at the royal 
 castle of Pontefract. Both sides were eager for 
 battle, and there was a skirmish at Ferrybridge for 
 the passage of the Aire. On March 29, 1461, the 
 two armies met between the villages of Townton 
 and Saxton. The fight began in a heavy fall of 
 snow, which drove in the faces of the Lancastrians, 
 and prevented them from calculating the distance 
 for their arrows. The battle raged for ten hours, 
 
 109 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 and was a desperate hand-to-hand encounter, in 
 which no quarter was given. When at last victory 
 declared for the Yorkists, the number of slain 
 exceeded 30,000. Half the Lancastrians were 
 killed, and Edward IV. only won the crown at the 
 cost of terrible bloodshed. 
 
 The Battle of Towton marks the beginning of 
 a period which exercised great influence on the 
 fortunes of Yorkshire—the period of the decline of 
 the baronage. Nowhere in England were the 
 barons more numerous or more powerful than in 
 Yorkshire. The ruins of their mighty castles are 
 still dotted over the land, and tell of a time when 
 the lords in their fortified houses kept great retinues 
 of servants, and were attended by many officials 
 who regulated the administration of their lands. 
 They did justice within their territory, levied 
 soldiers, and kept in their pay bands of trained 
 soldiers. Their houses were schools for the sons 
 of neighbouring knights and squires ; their service 
 was a source of profit to farmers in the country and 
 tradesmen in the towns. They were popular 
 through their wealth and munificence, and men 
 were glad to be dependent on them. It was thus 
 that Richard Neville rose to his position as the 
 Kingmaker, and when he died his possessions in 
 Yorkshire, chief of which was the Castle of 
 Middleham, was given by Edward IV. to his 
 brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Richard 
 lived at Middleham, and showed great energy in 
 organising the defence of the North against the 
 Scots. His popularity in the North helped him in 
 his schemes to raise himself to the throne, and the 
 
 110 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 treacherous conduct of Richard III. did not shake 
 the allegiance of the Yorkshiremen. Even after 
 his fall it was said that ‘ his memory was so strong 
 in the North that it lay like lees in the bottom of 
 men’s hearts, and if the vessel was but stirred it 
 would rise.’ 
 
 Thus it was that Henry VII. was not popular 
 in Yorkshire, which supported the pretender, 
 Lambert Simnel, and was ever ready to rise against 
 the king. In 1489 the Yorkshiremen refused to 
 pay the land-tax, and when the Earl of Northum¬ 
 berland addressed them in the king’s name, and 
 ordered their obedience, they rose in arms, seized 
 the great earl in his manor house at Topcliffe, and 
 beheaded him. The insurrection was soon put 
 down, and its leaders were executed ; but it shows 
 the existence in the North of the old spirit of 
 independence which it took long to quell. The 
 men of the North did not follow the lead of the 
 men of the South; even their great nobles could 
 not lead them as they were wont to do. They 
 resented change, and were loyal to old names and 
 expiring causes. 
 
 The Wars of the Roses had seen the destruction 
 of the power of the great baronial houses, and 
 Henry VII. was resolved that they should not regain 
 their former place. He favoured the growth of the 
 middle-class, and fostered commerce. He invited 
 foreign workmen to England, and new settlements 
 of Flemings at Halifax and Wakefield gave a fresh 
 impulse to the manufacture of cloth. Halifax had 
 only thirty houses in 1443, but rapidly began to 
 spread, while Wakefield became a market town for 
 
 111 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 the sale of coarse drapery. Besides his care of the 
 middle-class, Henry VII. was also persistent in 
 his endeavours to reduce the power of the nobles, 
 and make them obedient to the laws. They were 
 not allowed to keep a body of retainers, ready at all 
 times to espouse their quarrels, and numerous enough 
 to prevent any hope of redress against their caprice 
 by legal means. Even after all that Henry VII. 
 could do, the position of a great noble remained 
 almost equal to that of the king. We have an 
 account, written in 1511, of the household of Henry 
 Percy, Earl of Northumberland, in his Yorkshire 
 castles of Wressel and Leckonfield. The number 
 of attendants who lived permanently in the house 
 was 166, besides those who were employed outside. 
 Amongst them were officials of every sort, including 
 eleven chaplains, and a complete choir to sing the 
 service daily. The daily occupations of each were 
 minutely regulated, and the system of accounts was 
 carefully prescribed. The various articles of 
 provision for this vast household were estimated for 
 the year to amount to 2116 quarters of wheat, 124 
 bullocks, 677 sheep, ten tuns of Gascon wine, and 
 so on in proportion. The meat was generally eaten 
 salted, and needed 160 gallons of mustard to make 
 it palatable. Of course the number of the household 
 does not include guests. Every day something like 
 three hundred must have been fed at the castle. 
 At six o’clock all attended service in the chapel, 
 after which they breakfasted off beef and ale. At 
 ten o’clock came dinner, at four supper, and at nine 
 o’clock all retired to rest. The household of a great 
 noble gave a training in business habits, in which 
 
 112 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 
 our forefathers were as proficient as men of the 
 present day. In fact, their ordinary occupations 
 were so few that they gave great attention to the 
 regulation of the minor matters of daily life. 
 
 The Earl of Northumberland, however, was one 
 amongst a few in the greatness of his establishment 
 and in his magnificence. Even he had few comforts, 
 as we should reckon ; and when he moved from one 
 of his castles to another, all his furniture was carried 
 with him. The rough walls were hung with tapestry, 
 which was suspended from hooks. Food, though 
 plentiful, was coarse, and furniture was plain. There 
 was little privacy in the grim fortresses which the 
 great inhabited. Two or three rooms were set apart 
 for the use of the family and their guests; the rest 
 were small chambers for holding stores and 
 providing sleeping room for the host of attendants. 
 
 Meanwhile the towns were growing in proportion 
 as the nobles declined. Their organisation became 
 more complete, and covered all things relating to 
 their various industries. Each trade was regulated 
 by its guild, a corporation originally instituted for 
 religious purposes, but rapidly gaining importance 
 as it gained wealth. Every guild regulated matters 
 concerning its trade, admitted apprentices, and 
 prescribed the conditions of their service. Round 
 the guilds the social life of the mediaeval towns 
 chiefly centred. Thus York had its guild of the 
 Lord’s Prayer, which was instituted to keep up a 
 yearly play ‘ setting forth the goodness of the Lord’s 
 Prayer, in which all manner of vices and sins were 
 held up to scorn, and the virtues were held up to 
 praise.’ At Beverley was a guild of St. Helen, which 
 
 H 
 
 TI 3 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 represented the discovery of the cross. There, too, 
 in the church of St. Mary, are traces of the pious 
 work of the different classes of the community, each 
 of whom contributed a pillar to the building of the 
 church. One bears the inscription, ‘ Thys pyllor 
 made the meynestrells,’ and round its capital are the 
 figures of a harper, a drummer, a piper, and a violin- 
 player. Two other pillars bear a record that they 
 were the gift of the ‘ good wives ’ of Beverley. Civic 
 feeling and civic energy found in Yorkshire a rapid 
 development. 
 
 The decline of the power of the nobles under 
 the Tudor kings greatly affected one of the two 
 great powers round which English civilisation had 
 hitherto centred. The other was suddenly swept 
 away by the progress of the Reformation movement. 
 The dissolution of the monasteries was a great 
 social change everywhere; in Yorkshire it was 
 almost a revolution. No part of England was so 
 thickly covered with large and important foundations, 
 which discharged manifold duties. The children of 
 the peasants were educated in monastery schools. 
 The alms of the monasteries provided for the poor 
 and aged. Impoverished gentlemen wandered from 
 one monastery to another, and lived on monastic 
 hospitality. The monasteries were the inns to 
 which travellers resorted, and were the chief 
 employers of labour, being more constant and 
 permanent than the barons. This great system 
 fell all at once, amidst general bewilderment. The 
 monastery lands passed into the hands of new 
 landlords, men who wished to make the utmost 
 profit. Much that had made life tolerable for the 
 
 114 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 poor was swept away. The popular discontent 
 gathered in strength till it broke out into rebellion 
 in 1536. The rebels were happy in finding an able 
 leader in Robert Aske, a lawyer, whom they forced 
 to stand at their head. They captured York, 
 Pontefract, and Kingston-upon-Hull ; then they 
 laid siege to Skipton Castle. Most of the great 
 families of the North joined them in their purpose 
 to march on London in a pilgrimage, and demand 
 from the king that he should put away his low-born 
 counsellors and call back the old nobles; that he 
 should make restitution to the Church for the 
 wrongs done to it, and restore the commons to 
 what they used to be. The insurgents marched 
 under the banner of St. Cuthbert, and called their 
 expedition the ‘ Pilgrimage of Grace.’ At Doncaster 
 they met the royal forces under the Duke of Norfolk, 
 and so sure were they of their good intentions, and 
 of their numerical superiority, that instead of fighting 
 they listened to proposals for peace. Envoys were 
 sent to lay the grievances of the insurgents before 
 the king, who used the delay to detach many from 
 their opposition. Meanwhile the monks were 
 restored to their monasteries and the rebel army 
 began to disband, thinking that it had gained its 
 point. Aske was summoned to London for a 
 conference with the king, who, however, granted 
 nothing more than a general pardon to all who had 
 been concerned in the rebellion. On his return 
 the popular disappointment found expression in a 
 renewed rising, but the royal forces had now been 
 gathered together, and the Duke of Norfolk was 
 enabled to put down the rebels. Aske, who had 
 
 1 15 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 been guilty of nothing more than trusting in the 
 king’s word, was executed at York. 
 
 When the rebellion had been put down, and 
 many of the rebels punished, Henry VIII. took 
 steps to keep in order the discontented spirit 
 of the northern counties. For this purpose he 
 established a Council of the North, a branch of 
 the King’s Privy Council, which sat at York, and 
 exercised jurisdiction over the five northern counties. 
 This extraordinary council was one of the chief 
 means by which the authority of the Tudor rulers 
 was established. Strengthened by the suppression 
 of the rebellion, Henry VIII. proceeded with the 
 dissolution of the monasteries. His visitors scoured 
 the country, and the terrified monks were driven 
 to surrender their possessions into the king’s hands. 
 By the end of 1540 the great monasteries of 
 Yorkshire were untenanted, and many of them lay 
 in ruins. The causes of the discontent created by 
 the dissolution of the smaller monasteries were now 
 ten times more powerful ; but the peasants were 
 reduced to silence, and the wealthy men of the 
 middle class were glad to get a share of the 
 monastery lands. 
 
 The reign of Elizabeth saw the overthrow of 
 the great northern families, the Nevilles and the 
 Percys. The ‘Rising of the North’ in favour of 
 Mary Queen of Scots, in 1569, was the last attempt' 
 made by the old baronial families to assert their 
 political power. The Earls of Northumberland and 
 Westmoreland showed themselves incapable leaders. 
 They meant to have rescued Mary from her prison 
 at Tutbury, and when she was removed out of 
 
 116 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 their reach they marched back from Tadcaster 
 northwards, and were easily overthrown. Knights 
 and men of smaller name who had been trained 
 in affairs were able to thwart the projects of the 
 great nobles, and the Nevilles and Percys were 
 overmatched by Sir George Bowes, of Streatham. 
 The day of the great nobles was past, and the time 
 had come in which power really rested with the 
 capable and diligent man who applied himself solely 
 to affairs. The official class had supplanted the 
 nobles, and the official class attracted to itself men 
 of capacity and ambition from every rank of life. 
 The political training of the reign of Elizabeth 
 raised up the men who, in the next generation, 
 resisted the power of the Crown and brought clearly 
 forward the power of the middle-class. If Yorkshire 
 tells the story of baronial and monastic civilisation 
 in its remains, its present aspect no less clearly 
 tells the tale of the energy and enterprise which 
 the middle class developed, and which changed the 
 face of the land as completely as it had been changed 
 by the labours of the monks and the castles of the 
 barons. 
 
 It is interesting to notice the attitude of the men 
 of the North towards the great questions of English 
 politics. In early days the northern barons had 
 been foremost in their opposition to the Crown. 
 They were the first to set on foot the movement 
 which led to the Great Charter, and helped to carry 
 on the struggle which made the written clauses of 
 the Charter a reality in the government of England. 
 But in the fourteenth century the North took little 
 part in the intrigues and struggles of baronial parties 
 
 11 7 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 which were constantly disturbing public peace. The 
 people were as a rule contented, and were slow in 
 changing their allegiance. They were not forward 
 to welcome the accession of the House of Lancaster ; 
 but when it was established they were loyal to it, 
 and grudged to transfer their allegiance to the 
 House of York. In like manner they looked with 
 disapproval on the accession of the House of Tudor. 
 Dynastic quarrels did not affect them, and they were 
 slow to change their ways. The Reformation was 
 unpopular in Yorkshire; the old religion lingered 
 in many parts, and the most serious risings in its 
 favour had their strength in the North. But this 
 feeling died away in its turn, and again Yorkshire 
 was conspicuous for its loyalty to Charles I., when 
 the Great Rebellion divided England into opposite 
 parties. 
 
 Much of the history of the Civil War is con¬ 
 nected with Yorkshire. York was the headquarters 
 of Charles I. in 1639, when he contemplated a 
 march into Scotland to reduce a people whom his 
 misgovernment had stirred to take steps to protect 
 themselves. But Charles’s army was ill prepared, 
 and he had to resign his military plans. When the 
 Scots invaded England next year, Charles I. went 
 to York as the post of honour. Thither he called 
 the peers to a great council, which was his last 
 desperate expedient to avoid the summons of a 
 parliament—the memorable Long Parliament, as 
 it was afterwards called. When it was seen that 
 agreement between the king and parliament was 
 impossible, both parties wished to obtain possession 
 of Hull. There were stored all the munitions that 
 
 118 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 had been provided for the Scottish war, and it was 
 an important place for Charles I., who hoped to 
 bring Danish soldiers to fight against the Scots. 
 The Civil War practically began when Sir John 
 Hotham, Governor of Hull, refused to admit the 
 king within its walls. It would have been well for 
 Hotham if he had remained steadfast to his first 
 resolution. Later he changed his mind, and devised 
 a scheme for surrendering Hull to the king. His 
 plan was discovered, and he and his son were 
 executed in London as traitors by order of the 
 Parliament. 
 
 Hull, however, stood almost alone amongst 
 the Yorkshire towns in its adherence to the 
 parliamentary side. Strange as it may seem, York 
 was indignant because Parliament had demanded 
 the suppression of the Council of the North. Even 
 that exceptional tribunal had become dear to the 
 minds of Yorkshiremen, and seemed to them to 
 assert the old claims of their shire to a position of 
 semi-independence. York itself resented the loss 
 of importance which it thereby suffered. It was 
 natural that in the struggle between Charles I. 
 and the Parliament both sides should attach great 
 weight to the possession of Hull. Twice it was 
 besieged by the royal forces; twice it was saved by 
 cutting the dykes, which kept out the waters of the 
 Hull and the Humber from the low-lying land. 
 These heroic measures involved great loss of 
 property. The town of Hull was impoverished, 
 and its trade was for a long while destroyed. 
 
 Encouraged by his success in defending Hull, 
 Lord Fairfax marched against York, which was 
 
 1 19 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 held by the Marquis of Newcastle. The danger 
 of the loss of York was so great—for Fairfax was 
 aided in his siege by the Scottish army—that 
 Prince Rupert marched to its relief. The parlia¬ 
 mentary army raised the siege, and took up their 
 position on Marston Moor, where Rupert followed 
 them. The battle was won for the Parliament by 
 the skill of Oliver Cromwell, who there secured his 
 military reputation, and inflicted on the royal cause 
 a blow from which it could not recover. York was 
 driven to surrender, and the power of Charles I. in 
 the North was broken. After this the Yorkshire 
 castles which held for the king were besieged and 
 taken after a long resistance. At the siege of 
 Knaresborough Castle a story is told of a son, who 
 every night scaled the sides of the dry moat and 
 carried food to his father, who was one of the 
 garrison. The father stood ready to receive these 
 gifts through a hole which he had made in the wall. 
 At last the pious fraud was discovered, and the 
 young man was condemned to death as a traitor. 
 But the republican general was kinder than his 
 sentence. The youth was respited, and, on the 
 surrender of the castle, was allowed to join his 
 father, for whom he had ventured his life. The 
 castle of Scarborough held out so long that its 
 surrender in 1645 was celebrated by the proclama¬ 
 tion of a general thanksgiving. During the siege 
 the cannon of the besieging army destroyed the 
 choir of the neighbouring church of St. Mary, 
 which is still in ruins. But three years afterwards 
 Scarborough again declared for the king, and had 
 to be reduced a second time. Pontefract Castle 
 
 120 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 was also reduced with difficulty, and was again 
 recaptured by a stratagem. A man named Morris, 
 who professed to be a Roundhead, gained the 
 confidence of the governor. Knowing that supplies 
 were expected, he drove into the castle some 
 waggons escorted by soldiers disguised as peasants. 
 He sent some of the guard to buy drink, over¬ 
 powered the rest, and opened the gates to his 
 confederates, who were concealed outside. Though 
 Charles I.’s cause was hopeless, the garrison of 
 Pontefract still held out, and on the king’s death 
 proclaimed Charles II. So strong was the castle, 
 and so well were their measures taken to provision 
 the place, that they continued to hold out, though 
 their numbers were reduced from five hundred 
 to one hundred. At length thev were forced to 
 surrender, and Morris was executed at York. 
 
 The lesson taught by these desperate efforts to 
 uphold a ruined cause was rapidly learned by 
 Parliament, and the Yorkshire castles were ordered 
 to be dismantled, so that they could be no longer 
 centres of disaffection. As the Reformation, by 
 sweeping away the monasteries, wrought one great 
 change in the aspect of Yorkshire, so the Civil War 
 wrought another. The strongholds of the barons 
 shared the fate of the houses of the monks, and the 
 ruins of Yorkshire castles and Yorkshire monasteries 
 equally tell the tale that institutions pass away when 
 they have served their purpose. By the side of the 
 ruined monasteries of Rievaulx, Fountains, Jervaulx, 
 Kirkstall, Bolton, Easby, Guisborough, and the rest, 
 we must set the ruined castles of Wressel, Scar¬ 
 borough, Pickering, Helmsley, Knaresborough, 
 
 I 2 I 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Bolton, Skipton, Spofforth, Tickhill, and Pontefract. Utrrxe 
 The monks passed away altogether, because they 
 had outlived their usefulness, and men needed them 
 no more. The barons were bidden to lay aside 
 their old character of military leaders, and become 
 peaceful gentry living amongst the people. The 
 troubles of the Civil War told of the beginning of 
 a new state of things that was rich with the promise 
 of a peaceful and prosperous future. 
 
 From this time forward the records of war 
 disappear from our story, and we have to see 
 how industry grew and flourished, making still 
 greater changes on the face of the land than 
 had been wrought by monks or barons of old. 
 
 It was some time before Yorkshire recovered 
 from its losses during the Civil War, and the city 
 of York never afterwards rose to the importance 
 which it had hitherto held. Its citizens mourned 
 over the suppression of the Council of the North ; 
 but the increasing consolidation of England made a 
 secondary 7 capital needless, and the government of 
 England was carried on from one centre. York 
 petitioned that it might be made the seat of a 
 university; but Durham was preferred, though the 
 design was not then carried out. After this York 
 sank to a quiet city, which was a winter residence 
 of the neighbouring gentry and was a centre of local 
 amusement and gaiety. Not till the introduction of 
 railways was York again brought back into close 
 connection with English life and progress. 
 
 The new era of industry, which began in the 
 eighteenth century, did not find its home in the vale 
 of York or in the moorlands of the North Riding or 
 
 122 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 along the coast of the East Riding, but in the valleys 
 of what was long the least civilised west. Wool was 
 of course plentiful in Yorkshire, and had long been 
 manufactured into coarse cloth, principally sold in 
 the neighbourhood. The short wool was used for 
 this manufacture; the more skilful process of weaving 
 the longer and finer wool into worsted was confined 
 to Norfolk, which was the earliest manufacturing 
 centre of England. But early in the eighteenth 
 century we find the manufacture of worsted begun 
 in Bradford; and from that time forward the West 
 Riding of Yorkshire steadily rose in importance. 
 At first the worsted yarn of Yorkshire was sent to 
 the Norwich market, there to be dyed and woven 
 into fine stuffs, but gradually the Yorkshire workman 
 proved himself equal to his East Anglian master, 
 and then outstripped him in the race. 
 
 The chief cause which transferred the worsted 
 trade to the North of England was the greater 
 cheapness of labour. The workmen of Norwich 
 presumed on their superior skill, demanded high 
 wages, and were often troublesome to their 
 employers. The Yorkshire weaver lived princi¬ 
 pally on oatmeal porridge, oaten cake, and milk. 
 He was industrious and thrifty, and could be 
 depended on more than the workman of the 
 South. Gradually the worsted trade passed from 
 its old home at Norwich and settled in the regions 
 of the West Riding, where natural advantages 
 favoured its growth. 
 
 One who nowadays looks on the tall chimneys that 
 surround Halifax, Bradford, or Leeds, can scarcely 
 carry back his mind to the simple conditions of an 
 
 123 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 earlier time. The Yorkshire manufacturers were 
 originally farmers living in the valleys. They used 
 their own wool, and travelled round the country on 
 horseback to buy more if they needed it. The finer 
 kinds were at first brought from Lincolnshire, but 
 gradually a desire for fine wool led to improved 
 methods of breeding and feeding sheep. The wool 
 that they gathered was cleaned and sorted at home. 
 It was partly spun by their own wives and daughters, 
 was partly distributed amongst neighbouring work¬ 
 men, and partly sent to shopkeepers in little villages, 
 that they might dispose of it amongst those who 
 wished to earn the wages of a spinner. The wages 
 were not high ; but the work was neither hard nor 
 unpleasant. Women and children would be seen 
 in fine weather seated out of doors, and keeping up 
 a merry chatter above the hum of their wheels. 11 
 was work that could be put aside and taken up at 
 any moment. 
 
 When the wool was spun it had to be again 
 distributed amongst weavers, and then carried 
 to the fulling mills, which were erected by the 
 waterside, so as to use the water power. It was 
 the number of streams running through the vales 
 of the West Riding that made it so fit a place for 
 industry, and provided one great requisite for 
 labour. When the cloth had passed through the 
 fulling mills it was taken away to the market to 
 be sold. Sometimes the merchant laded his wares 
 on pack-horses, and went to the different fairs and 
 market towns in England, selling wholesale to the 
 shops. This method of sale, however, was found 
 to be troublesome, and middle-men rapidly arose. 
 
 124 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 Markets were organised on a greater scale, and 
 methods needed by the development of trade rapidly 
 came into use. 
 
 It is interesting to trace the market at Leeds. 
 First the trade was done on the spacious bridge 
 which crossed the Aire, and, * therefore,’ De Foe 
 tells us, writing about 1720, ‘the refreshment given 
 to the clothiers by the innkeepers (being a pot of 
 ale, a noggin of pottage, and a trencher of boiled or 
 roast beef for two pence) is called the Brigg-shot 
 to this day.’ Dinners were simple, copious, and 
 cheap, if the bridge were somewhat crowded and 
 incommodious. Soon the growth of trade required 
 that the markets should be held in the more roomy 
 street, which still bears the name of Briggate, till a 
 sort of building was erected which gave place in 
 1758 to what is now known as the Mixed Cloth 
 Hall. An account of the Leeds market about 
 1730 is worth quoting:— 
 
 ‘ The clothiers came early in the morning with 
 their cloth ; and as few bring more than one piece, 
 the market days being so frequent, they go into the 
 inns and public-houses with it, and there set it 
 down. At about six o’clock in the summer, and 
 about seven in the winter, the clothiers being all 
 come by that time, the market bell at the old chapel 
 by the bridge rings, upon which it would surprise a 
 stranger to see in how few minutes, without hurry, 
 noise, or the least disorder, the whole market is 
 filled, all the benches covered with cloth, each 
 proprietor standing behind his own piece, who form 
 a mercantile regiment as it were, drawn up in a 
 double line, in as great order as a military one. As 
 
 125 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 soon as the bell has ceased ringing, the factors and 
 buyers of all sorts enter the hall and walk up and 
 down between the rows. Most of them have 
 papers with patterns sealed on them, in their hands, 
 the colours of which they match by holding them to 
 the cloths they think they agree to. When they 
 have pitched upon their cloth they lean over to the 
 clothier, and, by a whisper in the fewest words 
 imaginable, the price is stated: one asks, the other 
 bids ; and they agree or disagree in a moment. In 
 little more than an hour all the business is done. 
 In less than half an hour you will perceive the cloth 
 begin to move off, the clothier taking it upon his 
 shoulder to carry it to the merchant’s house. At 
 about half an hour after eight the market bell rings 
 again, upon which the buyers immediately disappear, 
 and the cloth which remains unsold is carried back 
 to the inn.’ 
 
 This simple system was natural in early days, 
 when manufactures were rather an appendage to 
 rural life than a pursuit that stood by itself. The 
 clothier was a farmer who manufactured wool; the 
 spinners were the wives and children of husbandmen; 
 only the weavers were a separate class. But it was 
 obvious, as the manufacture grew, that it could be 
 carried on more profitably if all its processes were 
 brought together and its workers lived in one place. 
 The waste of time in carrying the wool to the 
 spinners, from them to the weavers, and so on, was 
 great, and the cost was still greater. It was natural 
 to bring the spinners and weavers to live by the 
 waterside where the fulling mill was at work. The 
 system under which each one worked at home 
 
 126 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 gradually gave way to the factory system, where all 
 worked in a common building. The change was 
 slow in coming about universally. Yorkshiremen 
 still liked to hold by their old-fashioned ways. Not 
 till the end of last century did factories become 
 common. At first few were wealthy or adventurous 
 enough to raise factories alone ; they were the result 
 of co-operation on the part of separate manufacturers, 
 who used a building and machinery in common. It 
 is easy to see how such a system developed into the 
 great trading companies with which we are now 
 familiar. 
 
 The worsted trade in Yorkshire was slow in 
 making or in welcoming improvements. The 
 factory system was unpopular, and only gradually 
 made its way. The inventions which, towards the 
 end of last century, revolutionised industry, did 
 not spring from Yorkshire. New machinery was 
 discovered and applied to the manufacture of 
 cotton, while worsted was woven according to the 
 traditional system. Even the use of the steam- 
 engine was looked on with dislike, and the first 
 attempt to set up a steam factory in Bradford in 
 1793 had to be abandoned before the threats of the 
 chief employers in the town. Only the impossibility 
 of obtaining sufficient yarn from the common wheel 
 led to the introduction of Arkwright’s machinery 
 in 1794, and not till 1800 was steam used as a 
 motive-power. It was long before machinery was 
 understood by the working classes, and it was not 
 unnatural that those who found themselves thrown 
 out of employment by its use should feel aggrieved. 
 Especially when steam frames were used for weaving 
 
 127 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 there was an outcry of the handloom weavers, who 
 could not be expected to see the great increase of 
 employment which must rapidly ensue. There 
 were frequent riots and attempts to destroy the 
 new machinery, which lasted down to the year 
 1848, though they were not so serious in Yorkshire 
 as in the neighbouring counties. 
 
 Only with the introduction of machinery did the 
 West Riding fully realise its natural advantages. 
 Its numerous rivers and streams had supplied it 
 with water-power, and also furnished means of 
 carriage, which were improved by the formation of 
 canals. The introduction of the steam-engine was 
 equally favourable to its prosperity; for iron in 
 plenty was found in its hills, and the coalfields, 
 which reach to Derby and Nottingham, supplied 
 the third great requisite for industrial prosperity. 
 The ironstone of the Cleveland Hills has called 
 into existence the busy town of Middlesborough, at 
 the mouth of the Tees, which in the memory of 
 many living men has sprung from a fishing village 
 into a great centre of commercial life. 
 
 The ancient town of Sheffield has always been 
 noted as the chief seat of English cutlery, but it 
 was long before it could compete with the superior 
 workmanship of Italy, the Netherlands, or Spain. 
 But Sheffield also made great strides during the 
 eighteenth century, till it distanced its foreign 
 rivals. 
 
 It would take long to tell the progress of the 
 manufacturing energy of Yorkshire. Our purpose 
 only is to show how it has affected the face of the 
 country and the life of its inhabitants. The great 
 
 128 
 
Yorkshire 
 
 county of Yorkshire may claim to contain within it 
 almost all that is most interesting in the past and 
 the present of English life. It even contains almost 
 all the characteristic features of English landscape. 
 Its coast is surpassed in grandeur only by Devon 
 and Cornwall. The Cleveland Hills are excelled 
 only by the range of Malvern. The vale of York 
 is a sample of the agricultural quietude of England. 
 The moorlands of the West are rich in the beauty 
 which is most peculiar to our scenery. Clustering 
 in the valleys of the West lie the great manufactur¬ 
 ing towns, many of them in spots which only the 
 labour of man has made habitable. Amidst them 
 are the memorials of England’s past; as where the 
 ruined abbey of Kirkstall stands, blackened by the 
 smoke of Leeds. Nowhere are more worthy testi¬ 
 monies to be found of the efforts of our own age to 
 face its altered problems and supply its altered 
 needs. From ruined abbeys and ruined castles we 
 may turn to the town of Saltaire, and see in it an 
 expression of modern achievement. Planned all at 
 once, and adapted to its object, Saltaire rose into 
 being as a symbol of our own day. By the side of 
 the Aire rises a great factory, which employs five 
 thousand hands, and sloping up the hill behind is 
 laid out the town in which the workpeople dwell. 
 Church, reading-room, dining-room, all are provided, 
 as well as gardens, and even pigsties, for those who 
 wish to employ their leisure in practical pursuits. 
 It is impossible not to find in such a scene sugges¬ 
 tions of the difference between the past and the 
 present. The monastery church was wrought with 
 careful and loving hands as a token of God’s abiding 
 
 o o 
 
 129 I 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 presence amongst men. The baronial castle rose 
 in haughty strength and gloomy grandeur as a 
 token of the power of man’s arm to protect in time 
 of need. But round monastery and castle alike 
 clustered only the mud hovels of the peasants, who 
 clung to them for shelter. Our own day may be 
 less imaginative, less picturesque; but it is eager in 
 a sober way to distribute to the best of its power the 
 advantages which it reaps by organising labour, and 
 employing the skill of all for the service of all. 
 Much remains to be done in the future, but the 
 past shows us how man can mould his surroundings 
 to his needs. 
 
 130 
 
CUMBERLAND 
 
 C UMBERLAND, like its eastern neighbour 
 Northumberland, is the remnant of an old 
 kingdom. But there is this great difference 
 between the two, that whereas Northumberland was 
 an English kingdom, Cumberland was British; 
 whereas the early history of Northumberland tells 
 us the story of English civilisation, the early history 
 of Cumberland is hidden in obscurity. We know 
 that in the days of the Romans the northern part of 
 the land now called Cumberland was important as a 
 border land against the tribes of the North; and 
 Lugubalia (Carlisle) was a military town on the 
 line of the wall which the Romans built to guard 
 their northern frontier. But it may be doubted 
 if the Roman occupation brought the Celts of 
 Cumberland into close relations with their Romanised 
 brethren of the South. When the Roman arms 
 were withdrawn, the little clans of the North seem 
 to have combined to withstand their common 
 enemies. Later times found a legendary hero in 
 King Arthur, who with his knights long fought 
 a desperate battle against heathen barbarism. 
 Whether there was such a king or no, we can¬ 
 not say; but if the legend is to be accepted as 
 
 131 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 containing any germ of truth, the names of places 
 mentioned in the story can be identified in the 
 district round Caerlluel, the modern Carlisle, with 
 even greater definiteness than in Caerlleon by 
 the Usk. 
 
 However this may be, the ‘heathen swarming 
 o’er the northern sea’ succeeded in making good 
 their conquest on the eastern shores, and drove 
 the trembling Britons farther and farther into the 
 western hills. There they formed a closer con¬ 
 federacy, till the little States that stretched from 
 the Derwent to Dumbarton were gathered into a 
 kingdom of Strathclyde, which rose as a counterpoise 
 to the English kingdom of Northumberland. 
 
 The Britons of Strathclyde were not at first a 
 match for the English of Northumberland. In 603 
 they were defeated in a bloody battle, and the 
 English settlers advanced into the central plain of 
 modern Cumberland, the only part which attracted 
 them as fit for settlement. Some time about 670 
 the Northumbrians carried their arms farther, and 
 conquered the district between the Ribble and the 
 Solway. It would seem that their conquest did 
 not much affect the British people, who were left 
 tributary, and lived as they had done before. But 
 Cumberland was brought into connection with the 
 Northumbrian Church, and thereby shared in the 
 strong ecclesiastical civilisation which is expressed 
 in the person of St. Cuthbert. Carlisle and the 
 region round it were given to the See of Lindisfarne, 
 and formed part of St. Cuthbert’s patrimony. There 
 is none of the towns in England which has such an 
 unbroken history as Carlisle. Its municipal life 
 
 132 
 
Cumberland 
 
 never ceased. It was a town in the days of the 
 Romans, and it continued to be inhabited as a 
 British town. In Cuthbert’s days it had a monastery; 
 and when Cuthbert visited it in 685, the people 
 showed him, as historical curiosities, the Roman 
 walls and. the fountain which the Romans had made. 
 Cuthbert, moreover, had friends who followed his 
 example in spreading the Gospel in the wilder 
 parts of the west. We find him writing a letter of 
 encouragement to the hermit who gave his name to 
 the island on which he built his cell in the midst of 
 Derwentwater, St. Herbert’s Isle. 
 
 The year 685 saw the downfall of the North¬ 
 umbrian power. Though Cumberland still remained 
 in nominal subjection to Northumberland, it was 
 only a few great landholders and the influence of 
 the Church which affected it. The Northumbrian 
 power was feeble, and little by little its conquests 
 were torn from its grasp. In this dark time 
 Cumberland fell a prey to Norse pirates, whose 
 boats sailed along the Irish Channel. Of their 
 settlement we know nothing in written records ; but 
 the Norse endings of place-names in Cumberland, 
 gill, thwaite , haugh , fell , and the like, survive to 
 this day, and tell how the Norsemen settled in the 
 valleys of the Lake district. Scarce had the land 
 recovered from this invasion before it suffered from 
 the armies of the Danes, who conquered Southern 
 England, and, in 875, destroyed Carlisle in their 
 career of plunder. After this Cumberland was 
 conquered by the Britons of the North, who seem 
 to have been so proud of the acquisition that 
 the old name of Strathclyde disappeared, and the 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 land from the Duddon to the Tay was known as 
 Cumberland, or the land of the Cymri. 
 
 The task of recovering England from the Danes 
 and again uniting it into a kingdom was undertaken 
 by the Kings of Wessex. One great difficulty in 
 their way was the help given to the Danes by the 
 Scots and the Britons of Cumberland, who formed 
 a loose confederacy in time of need. This con¬ 
 federacy was overthrown by Athelstan at the battle 
 of Brunanburh, in 937; and his successor, Edmund, 
 invaded Cumberland in 945, and slew its king, 
 Dunmail, whose name is celebrated in the hill of 
 Dunmail Raise, where tradition says that he fell 
 in battle. But Edmund did not try to keep his 
 conquest as part of his own dominions. He used 
 it as a means of strengthening the connection 
 between himself and the Scottish king. He granted 
 Cumberland to Malcolm, on condition that he should 
 be his * fellow-worker by land and sea.’ By this 
 grant the North was quieted, the Danes were 
 separated from their Scottish allies, and the English 
 kingdom could proceed peaceably towards union. 
 
 For more than a century Cumberland was held 
 by the Scottish king as a dependency of England. 
 But as the English power waned weak before the 
 renewed invasion of the Danes, this dependency 
 was forgotten, and the Scottish king regarded 
 Cumberland as part of his own dominion. For a 
 long while it was doubtful where the boundary 
 between England and Scotland should be fixed. 
 The Norman kings were organisers above all 
 things, and required definiteness in their arrange¬ 
 ments. In the reign of William the Conqueror 
 
 134 
 
Cumberland 
 
 the part of modern Cumberland north of the 
 Derwent was held by the Scottish king, while 
 the part south of the Derwent belonged to the 
 Northumbrian kingdom, and was reckoned as 
 Yorkshire. 
 
 It would seem that the Northumbrian earls had 
 made further conquests in the dominions of the 
 Scottish king, who probably found it difficult to 
 keep order in his wasted lands. At all events, he 
 permitted Dolfin, son of the Northumbrian earl 
 Gospatric, to hold Carlisle and the district round it. 
 The territory so marked out was seen by William 
 Rufus to be of use in fixing the borders of the 
 English kingdom, and enabling him to curb his 
 Scottish neighbour. In 1092 he marched north¬ 
 wards, drove Dolfin out of Carlisle, rebuilt the city, 
 erected a castle, and filled it with his own soldiers. 
 Carlisle, which for two centuries had been well-nigh 
 desolate, again became a strong town, and was 
 claimed as part of England. 
 
 Moreover, as the land was scantily peopled, new 
 colonists were brought from the South, with their 
 wives and cattle. It has been supposed that they 
 were some of the luckless folk whose homesteads 
 William II. destroyed that he might extend the 
 limits of the New Forest, to satisfy his love of the 
 chase. Anyhow, this new population filled up 
 the measure of different races whose mixture has 
 given the folk of North-western England a character 
 of their own. Britons, English, Piets, Norwegians, 
 Danes, and Saxons, there met and mingled. 
 
 William II. kept his new possession in his 
 own hands, but Henry I. made it an earldom—the 
 
 135 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 earldom of Carlisle. Moreover, as its ecclesiastical 
 allegiance was disputed by the sees of Durham, 
 York, and Glasgow, Henry I. took a further step 
 towards uniting it to England by making it the seat 
 of an independent see. In 1133 the first Bishop of 
 Carlisle was appointed, and Carlisle was the last 
 English diocese created till the reign of Henry 
 VIII. The church, which had been already begun 
 as the seat of a college of secular priests, was, on 
 the foundation of the see, given over to the Augus- 
 tinian canons. The appearance of the cathedral at 
 the present day tells of the difficulties which befell 
 the men of Carlisle. Only a fragment of the old 
 Norman nave remains ; and the choir, which was 
 begun in the middle of the thirteenth century, took 
 more than a hundred years to build. The canons 
 of Carlisle never had the opportunity of carrying out 
 their plans by welding together the old building and 
 the new ; and the devastations of later times swept 
 much of their work away. Enough remains to show 
 us that the architectural taste of the canons of 
 Carlisle was as fine as that of their more fortunate 
 brethren of the South; but sterner work than 
 church-building was laid upon the men of the city. 
 They did what they could; but the convenient 
 season for perfecting their plans never came. 
 
 The first Earl of Carlisle had a thankless task 
 before him, and was lord of an unprofitable domain. 
 He portioned oft' three baronies, Gilsland and 
 Lyddale to defend its northern boundaries by land, 
 and Burgh to guard the coast of the Solway Firth. 
 Perhaps he was not sorry when, in 1120, he 
 inherited the earldom of Chester, and gave back 
 
 136 
 
Cumberland 
 
 Carlisle to the Crown. Henry I. kept it in his own 
 hands, and so Cumberland did not become the seat 
 of a great territorial jurisdiction. The barony of 
 Appleby was severed from the earldom of Carlisle, 
 and went to make the county of Westmoreland. 
 The remainder was granted out in five smaller 
 baronies, while the king kept for himself the city of 
 Carlisle and the most fertile lands of the interior, 
 the forest of Inglewood. 
 
 But Henry Ids sagacious arrangements were all 
 overthrown by the feebleness of Stephen, who, in 
 his desire to be safe from Scotland in his struggle 
 against Matilda, gave back Northumberland and 
 Cumberland to the Scottish king. The strong hand 
 of Henry II. claimed their restoration, and Scotland 
 dared not say him nay. But Scotland brooded over 
 its loss, and was ever ready to make a dash across 
 the Border. The Scottish king- would not resign 
 his claims, which were the subject of endless 
 negotiations and much warfare. At length, in 1242, 
 it was agreed that the Scottish king should with¬ 
 draw his claims in return for a grant of lands within 
 the counties which he claimed. Six manors were 
 consequently given him ; and it is noticeable that 
 all of them lay in Cumberland, which was thus 
 recognised as being most closely connected with 
 Scotland. 
 
 While this quarrel went on, Carlisle was exposed 
 to several sieges, and its lands were harried by the 
 Scots. In 1174 the capture of the Scottish king, 
 William the Lion, at Alnwick, brought peace for a 
 time, and Henry II. used it for a permanent 
 organisation of his northern dominions. In 1177 
 
 137 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 the modern county of Cumberland was definitely 
 determined with its present boundaries. The old 
 name of the Cambrian kingdom was kept by that 
 portion of it which fell to the share of England, 
 though even that was rearranged to suit the needs 
 of administration. The barony of Appleby was 
 taken to make the county of Westmoreland, and a 
 portion of the West Riding of Yorkshire was further 
 distributed between the two counties. 
 
 Thus Cumberland was amongst the latest of 
 English counties, and was left to be a bulwark 
 against Scotland. The English barons who held it 
 did something to bring in the civilising agency of 
 the castle and the monastery, though seldom on a 
 great scale. Abbeys arose at Wetheral, Calder, and 
 Lanercost; Henry of Scotland founded a monastery 
 at Holme Cuttram ; and the ancient house of St. 
 Bega, an early abbess, was refounded, and gave its 
 name to St. Bees. Castles were built at Brougham, 
 Egremont, Cockermouth, Rose, Penrith, Newcastle, 
 Greystock, and elsewhere; but at first they seemed 
 only fortified posts held in an enemy’s land. 
 Cumberland was not an attractive dwelling-place for 
 great lords; it did not invite the display of feudal 
 magnificence. The barons who held it had to trust 
 always to their sword, and were always ready for 
 active service. They had no leisure for interest in 
 general politics. It was long before they could 
 venture to amass large holdings or aspire to great 
 estate. 
 
 Still the De Vaux lords of Gilsland were men of 
 some importance, as were their successors the De 
 Multons. Cumberland was advancing in prosperity 
 
 138 
 
Cumberland 
 
 and gaining greater security when Edward I. made 
 his attempt to bring Scotland into dependence on 
 the English Crown. 
 
 The reign of Edward I. was a stirring time along 
 the Borders, and Carlisle became one of the most 
 important cities in the kingdom. It paid dearly, 
 however, for its short-lived advancement. After 
 the battle of Stirling, the hordes of Wallace ravaged 
 Cumberland, sparing neither person nor place ; 
 churches were destroyed and monasteries were 
 pillaged. But Edward I. was resolute in following 
 out his plans. In Carlisle he held his last parliament 
 in 1307, and from Carlisle the dying king was carried 
 in his litter to make his last invasion of Scotland. 
 He only advanced a few miles beyond the city, and 
 died at Burgh-by-the-Sands, where on the marsh 
 that fronts the Solway stands a pillar to mark the 
 spot where the great Edward died. 
 
 His death was followed by a time of confusion, 
 which the defeat of Edward II. at Bannockburn 
 almost turned to panic. The Scottish king had 
 been deprived by Edward I. of his manors in 
 Cumberland, and on Cumberland the weight of his 
 resentment fell. A strenuous soldier, Andrew de 
 Hartcla, was made governor of Carlisle Castle, and 
 in 1322 was made Earl of Carlisle, a dignity which 
 had slept for two centuries. But the new earl seems 
 to have despaired of holding his possessions by his 
 own power, and knew that he could expect little 
 help from Edward II. He judged it wiser to make 
 terms with the Scottish king and hold Cumberland 
 as his ally. But feeble as was Edward II., he could 
 still punish treason; and Earl Andrew does not 
 
 139 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 seem to have carried his men with him in his attempt 
 to sever Carlisle from England. No one stirred in 
 his behalf when he was made prisoner in his own 
 castle and executed as a traitor. The attempt to 
 provide for the safety of Cumberland by giving it a 
 lord with large powers was proved to be a failure. 
 Henceforth the Castle of Carlisle was held by a 
 royal governor, and the Warden of the West 
 Marches was responsible for organising the defence 
 of the Border. 
 
 Carlisle is eminently the Border city, and 
 Cumberland the Border county. A glance at the 
 map will show why this was so. The frontier 
 between England and Scotland was well defined on 
 the eastern side by the Tweed and the Cheviot 
 Hills, which almost reach to the bank of the river. 
 The level space between was guarded by the strong 
 castles of Wark, Norham, and Berwick, and, for 
 more security, Roxburgh Castle was generally in 
 English hands. But on the western side the 
 Cheviot range is lower, and fades into the plain 
 some ten miles before the River Eden and the 
 Solway Firth afford another natural barrier. In this 
 plain, the valleys of the Liddel and the Esk attracted 
 population on the Scottish side, and supplied a road 
 for the advance of marauders. There were few places 
 of natural strength on the English side till Carlisle 
 was reached, with its castle on a hill ensconced behind 
 the Eden River. Farther west was Naworth, with 
 its outlying castle at Bewcastle. Between Carlisle 
 and Naworth, and north of them again, were a 
 series of peel towers, which could afford a refuge 
 against a marauding raid, though they could not 
 
 140 
 
Cumberland 
 
 stand a protracted siege. The district so marked 
 out was for centuries a battle ground between 
 English and Scots. Whatever might be the political 
 relations between the two countries as a whole, the 
 Border clans lived in continual warfare. 
 
 The general character of life on the Borders has 
 been described in speaking of Northumberland ; but 
 the Cumbrian border had some characteristics of its 
 own. The nearness of the Scots and English to 
 one another brought about a strange condition of 
 social life. The Borderers on both sides were 
 organised in clans, and their relations towards one 
 another were a curious mixture of intimacy and 
 hostility. A tract of land lying near the confluence 
 of the Esk and the Liddel was in dispute between 
 England and Scotland, and was known as the 
 Debatable Land. Scots and English alike pastured 
 their cattle on it between sun-rising and sun-setting; 
 but anything left there during the night was fair 
 booty for him who seized it. It may be imagined 
 that few who could avoid it ventured into this 
 district of strife. The Border clans grew up, with 
 their own customs and their own ways of managing 
 their business. The whole population of the 
 Western Border belonged to a few independent 
 clans. On the Scottish side, the Armstrongs and 
 Eliotts were the chief; on the English side, the 
 Grames. Outside authority had little power over 
 any of them; and there was little law, save of their 
 own making, in the lands where they dwelt. If 
 they unduly disturbed or pillaged their more 
 peaceful neighbours, the lords wardens interfered 
 when they were able; but in the quarrels of 
 
 141 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Armstrongs and Grames no one took part who 
 could avoid it. 
 
 So warfare and plunder prevailed on the Border, 
 and the Captain of Carlisle did what he could to 
 prevent the disorder spreading southwards, where 
 the folk pursued, as well as they were able, a quiet 
 pastoral life. The reign of Henry VIII. introduced 
 much more barbarity into Border warfare. The 
 times seemed favourable for England to extend its 
 influence in Scotland; but Henry VIII. could not 
 go to war openly with Scotland, which was in 
 alliance with France. Accordingly, he devised a 
 scheme of harassing and weakening Scotland by 
 fanning the flame of discord on the Borders, and 
 then wreaking savage revenge for injuries. Chief 
 in carrying out this policy was Thomas Dacre, Lord 
 of Gilsland, and his son William. Thomas Dacre 
 sent to the king’s council regular accounts of his 
 labours, from which we can gather the deliberate 
 savagery of this Border warfare. At one time 
 he writes that the land which once was tilled by 
 550 ploughs has, by his praiseworthy activity, 
 been turned into a desert. Another time he 
 records an expedition which drove off 1800 cattle, 
 and burned the houses on the frontier. Of 
 course the Scots retaliated when they were able, 
 and life upon the Border became more and more 
 barbarous. 
 
 The Reformation and the events that followed 
 detached Scotland from its alliance with France 
 and brought it into closer connection with England. 
 The downfall of Queen Mary was the last blow 
 to those in Scotland who desired to restore the 
 
 142 
 
Cumberland 
 
 old state of things. When Mary fled before her 
 rebellious subjects, she landed unexpectedly in 
 Workington Bay, and was conducted for greater 
 safety to Carlisle Castle. There she spent two 
 months before it was decided whether she was a 
 guest or a prisoner. Her spirits had not sunk 
 before her disgrace. She would look on for hours 
 as her followers played football in the meadows by 
 the castle, and went out to hunt the hare, riding 
 so fast that the English who went with her were 
 astonished at her recklessness. From Carlisle she 
 was removed to Bolton Castle, where the dreary 
 time of her captivity was to begin, and her hopes 
 were slowly to fade away. But at first she was 
 dangerous to the peace of England, and the great 
 barons of the North rose in her favour. The 
 story of the ill-planned rising of the Earls of 
 Northumberland and Westmoreland has already 
 been told. One of their associates was Leonard 
 Dacre, who held the Castle of Naworth, and 
 gathered round him the ‘ rank riders of the 
 Borders.’ Elizabeth ordered him to be appre¬ 
 hended, and Lord Hunsdon set out from Berwick 
 to join Lord Scroop at Carlisle, that with their 
 combined forces they might attack Naworth. 
 But Leonard Dacre attempted to surprise Lord 
 Hunsdon on his way, by the little stream of the 
 Gelt. It was but a skirmish, in which Dacre 
 was defeated, and fled, but it saved the allegiance 
 of the North for Queen Elizabeth, and dealt a 
 decisive blow at the rebellion. 
 
 When peace was established between England 
 and Scotland, both countries wished to put down 
 
 143 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 the disorders of the Borderland. But the long- 
 warfare had begotten lawless habits, which were 
 hard to subdue. There were family feuds of long 
 standing, and the adventurous life of plunder would 
 not be converted into one of humdrum industry. 
 The Borderer could not understand that, through the 
 change of circumstances, his immemorial customs 
 were reckoned merely as the doings of ordinary 
 thieves. Matters were made worse when the old 
 Border laws fell into disuse, and no method of 
 settling international disputes was put in their stead. 
 Every man felt himself justified in redressing his 
 own wrongs as he thought best. For a long time the 
 administration of the Borders taxed to the utmost 
 the skill of the officials to whom it was entrusted. 
 In 1600 an heroic measure was undertaken—the 
 transportation of the Grames to Ireland. Many of 
 them were shipped across the Channel, but many 
 of them still remained, and the plan was again 
 repeated in 1604. 
 
 The man who is renowned for putting down 
 the moss-troopers was the new lord of Naworth, 
 Lord William Howard. Legend knows him as 
 ‘ Belted Will,’ who administered high-handed justice 
 by hanging all the moss-troopers whom he could 
 catch upon the nearest tree. In fact, however, 
 Lord William Howard is the highest type of the 
 English country gentleman. He lived in simple, 
 patriarchal fashion in his castle of Naworth, with 
 his ten children. He was a scholar and a student, 
 rejoicing above all else in his library, which still 
 remains as he left it. But his sense of public duty 
 made him an excellent man of business, and he 
 
 144 
 
Cumberland 
 
 showed all the capacity of a statesman in his 
 labours for the good of the district where he lived. 
 He encouraged industry ; he was fertile of plans 
 for the public benefit; he demanded that the law 
 should be carefully administered, and was unsparing 
 in exposing abuses and denouncing indolence and 
 jobbery. Too often those to whom the administra¬ 
 tion of justice was entrusted made common cause 
 with the wrong-doers, and disorder flourished 
 because it was not condemned by enlightened 
 opinion. Lord William Howard raised a standard 
 of obedience to the law, and his whole life was 
 devoted to the task of * reducing these parts into 
 civilitie and quietness.’ The legend does not 
 over-estimate his influence in putting down the 
 moss-troopers ; it only misrepresents the way in 
 which that influence was applied. 
 
 Besides its troubles from the moss-troopers, 
 Cumberland suffered severely in the Civil War. 
 In 1645 Carlisle was surrendered to the Scots 
 under Lesly, and in 1648 was made a centre of 
 the intrigues of the Duke of Hamilton, who tried 
 to raise a combined force of Scots and English to 
 help the king. Cumberland was plundered by 
 the Scottish generals; and after the failure of 
 their expedition Carlisle was surrendered to the 
 Parliament, by whom it was plundered again. It 
 may be doubted if Carlisle had recovered from 
 these calamities when it received a still more 
 serious blow by the union between England and 
 Scotland in 1704, which robbed it of its old 
 importance as a frontier town. No longer a 
 military station, Carlisle was left as the centre of 
 
 145 k 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 a scattered agricultural district, and soon dwindled 
 down to a population of some 4000. 
 
 Yet Cumberland by this time was thoroughly 
 English, and had no sympathy with the Jacobite 
 rising of 1715. Indeed, the posse comitatus was 
 called out to withstand the invaders, and 15,000 
 men assembled at Penrith. But the farmers were 
 ill supplied with arms, and fled before the Scottish 
 forces, scarcely striking a blow. More serious was 
 the Jacobite rising of 1745, when Carlisle was 
 besieged by the Young Pretender, and its citizen 
 militia was found unable to maintain the long line 
 of ruined fortifications. On November 18 Prince 
 Charles entered Carlisle on a white steed, amid the 
 strains of a hundred bagpipes; on December 19 he 
 returned a fugitive. Still, he left a garrison, wholly 
 unable to withstand a siege; it was soon driven to 
 surrender to the Duke of Cumberland. When the 
 rebellion was over, the punishment of the rebels 
 began. There were so many prisoners awaiting 
 their trial for treason at Carlisle that it was hopeless 
 to go through the formalities of a separate trial for 
 each. They were divided into batches of twenty, 
 out of whom one was chosen by lot to stand his 
 trial; the other nineteen were transported. Even 
 with this diminution of judicial labour, a hundred 
 and twenty-seven prisoners were tried, and Carlisle 
 saw for many weeks the brutalities of the execution 
 of traitors. 
 
 This is the last historic event that happened in 
 Cumberland. The rest of its history is the tale 
 of peaceful progress. Gradually the moss-troopers 
 disappeared, though the moor of Bewcastle was 
 
 146 
 
Cumberland 
 
 famous as their last resort, and a journey in that 
 district at the end of last century is vividly 
 described in Scott’s Guy Mannering. The end of 
 the moss-troopers was that they degenerated into 
 sheep-stealers, and met with the punishment of 
 the law. A story is told of a stranger who 
 visited the church at Bewcastle and read the 
 epitaphs on the gravestones in the churchyard. 
 Turning to the woman who acted as his guide, he 
 said, ‘ I see that almost all these stones are for 
 women ; where are the men ? ’ * Ah, sir,’ was the 
 
 answer, ‘ they’re a’ buried at that weary Carell.’ 
 For generations the male population of the district 
 had been hanged for sheep-stealing at Carlisle, and 
 were buried at the foot of the gallows. 
 
 Cumberland, after the Union, was left a poor 
 county, as may be seen in its churches, of which few 
 have much pretension to architectural grandeur. 
 The country houses in Cumberland also are mostly 
 modern buildings ; those of older date have become 
 farmhouses, and so have luckily preserved the 
 characteristic features of many of the old towers of 
 defence. When a more peaceable time began along 
 the Border, the greater part of the land was common, 
 and much was waste. The nature of the country 
 was such that feudal lords were content to leave it 
 in the hands of freeholders, who would defend it 
 with their sword. It was the industry of small 
 freeholders which brought the land under cultivation, 
 and in the last century Cumberland became a 
 prosperous agricultural district, divided into small 
 farms, which were tilled by a sturdy and independent 
 class of yeomen. Carlisle renewed its prosperity as 
 
 147 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 the market of a rich agricultural district. It became 
 a small capital, where the families of the substantial 
 yeomen often went to spend the winter months in 
 social gatherings. Education was valued by them, 
 and Cumberland can boast a considerable literature, 
 which is racy of the soil, and bears the marks of a 
 strong provincial life. Of the characteristics of this 
 class of ‘statesmen,’ as they were called, we will 
 speak in describing the neighbouring county of 
 Westmoreland. 
 
 Cumberland does not possess the natural 
 resources requisite to develop industrial life on a 
 large scale. In the west Sir John Lowther 
 discovered coal on the lands which he acquired 
 from the old monastery of St. Bees, and Whitehaven 
 and Workington are busy towns in consequence of 
 this discovery. Carlisle, early in the present century, 
 established cotton manufactures, and its position as 
 a railway centre makes it a place of considerable 
 importance. But Cumberland, as a whole, has not 
 been changed by the spirit of modern industry. 
 
 It keeps more clearly than any part of England 
 the traces of old times. Its people are stalwart, 
 sturdy, and independent. The sense of personal 
 dignity is strong, and secures a genuine social 
 equality. The Cumbrians pride themselves on 
 being kindly, homely, and outspoken. Even a 
 passing traveller through the county will feel that 
 he is amongst a folk who have their roots in an 
 historic past. 
 
 148 
 
WESTMORELAND 
 
 T HE district now called Westmoreland lay in 
 early days in that part of the British 
 kingdom of Strathclyde which bore the 
 name of Cumbria, which is now inherited by the 
 neighbouring county of Cumberland. In fact, 
 Westmoreland, the land of the western moors, is a 
 slice of that portion of the old Cumbrian kingdom 
 which fell to the share of England, and which was 
 for some time a troublesome and profitless possession 
 to the Norman kings. In dealing with Cumberland 
 we saw that William II., by his conquest of Carlisle, 
 fixed the boundary of the English border on the 
 west. The circumstances of the formation of 
 Westmoreland into a shire may serve to illustrate 
 the growth of the system of administration under 
 the Norman kings. 
 
 William II. kept Carlisle in his own hands; but 
 Henry I. formed it into an earldom and gave it to 
 one of his barons, Ranulph de Meschines. Ranulph 
 was apparently a careful man, and married a lady 
 who was a great heiress, being possessed of all the 
 district known as Amounderness, which took in the 
 south-western corner of modern Cumberland, the 
 south of Westmoreland, all Lancashire north of the 
 
 149 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Ribble, and a piece of Yorkshire as well. But vast 
 as was the extent of these lands, they were not very 
 profitable, and in 1118 Ranulph exchanged them 
 with the Crown for the earldom of Chester. After 
 this exchange the king resolved to have no Earl of 
 Carlisle in the future, but to manage these lands by 
 means of the sheriffs. Accordingly he gave the 
 southern portions of them to smaller barons, and 
 divided the rest into two counties, Cumberland and 
 Westmoreland. The county of Westmoreland was 
 formed out of the barony of Appleby, which had 
 belonged to the earldom of Carlisle, and the barony 
 of Kendal, which had formed part of Amounderness. 
 It is because these divisions of existing baronies 
 were followed that the boundaries of Westmoreland 
 seem so arbitrary ; thus the district of Furness is 
 not included in it, as would seem natural, but forms 
 part of Lancashire. 
 
 It is unnecessary to dwell on the baronial history 
 of Westmoreland, though the ruined castles at 
 Appleby and Kendal still tell us how these towns 
 grew up under their shelter. The position of the 
 county and its physical features prevented it from 
 playing any very distinct part in the affairs of 
 England, nor did its barons rise to great importance. 
 The barony of Kendal was divided in the reign of 
 Henry III.; the barony of Appleby, especially in 
 the days of the Clifford lords, was more distinguished. 
 But the district was poor and inaccessible ; there 
 were few monasteries, that of Shap being the only 
 one of any size : and the poverty of the country in 
 mediaeval times is still further shown by the rarity 
 of ancient churches. Moreover, poor as the county 
 
 150 
 
Westmoreland 
 
 was, it was not free from the raids of the Scots, who 
 passed through it on their way to richer spoils 
 beyond. Yet, in spite of these disadvantages, it was 
 not devoid of enterprise ; for in the southern part 
 of the county, where the hills began to slope into 
 the plain and the land was more fertile, Kendal 
 became the centre of a manufacture of woollen 
 homespuns, the memory of which survives in the 
 ‘ knaves in Kendal green,’ whose exploits Shake¬ 
 speare has immortalised in the mouth of Falstaff. 
 
 The interest of Westmoreland, however, does 
 not lie in the great events which there took place, 
 nor in the prominent part which its inhabitants 
 played in the political or industrial history of 
 England, but in the character and lives of its 
 people themselves. The ‘ dalesmen,’ as they are 
 called, have a history of their own; and though 
 many of their characteristics belong also to the 
 men who lived amongst the hills of Cumberland, 
 Northumberland, and Yorkshire, yet Westmoreland 
 may be considered as the dalesmen’s special home. 
 The nature of the country, with its rough wooded hills 
 and narrow valleys, shut it off from much communi¬ 
 cation with the outer world ; agriculture was carried 
 on with difficulty, and the pursuits of the people 
 were almost entirely pastoral. In these remote 
 parts the power of the feudal lord was little felt, 
 and there was nothing which made it worth his 
 while to interfere. Provided that men were furnished 
 for military service, he was content; and it was the 
 interest of the peasants themselves that some of 
 their number should be always in readiness to drive 
 back the Scottish plunderers and intercept them 
 
 I 5 I 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 in their devastating track. The obligations of 
 vassalage were slight, and serfdom early ceased to 
 have any definite meaning. The little communities 
 distributed tenements amongst themselves; and 
 the name ‘ dalesmen ’ comes from the old word 
 ‘ delen,’ to divide, not from the dells in which men 
 dwelt. 
 
 Each man had his pasture ground marked out, 
 and fenced it round with the rough stones which 
 the hillside plentifully supplied. The hills are now 
 mostly cleared of their forests ; but it is probable 
 that the stone walls which still run along them were 
 erected in old days to prevent the flocks from 
 straying, and protect them in some measure against 
 wild beasts. 
 
 These scattered peasants lived an isolated life, 
 which fostered habits of sturdy independence. They 
 performed their military service, and otherwise were 
 left to themselves. In the broad expanses below 
 the hills were a few manor-houses, of which Kent- 
 mere may be taken as a sample ; but even these 
 were few. The county as a whole was left to the 
 industrious peasant, and offered few attractions for 
 the class of smaller gentry who gathered round the 
 great barons. Yet Westmoreland was not wholly 
 neglected, and the chief of its benefactors was 
 Robert of Eaglesfield, Rector of Brough-under- 
 Stainmore, who was made chaplain to Philippa, 
 Queen of Edward III. He did not forget his 
 county when things prospered with him, but founded, 
 in the University of Oxford, Queen’s College, named 
 after his patroness, with special endowments for the 
 natives of Westmoreland and Cumberland. The 
 
 152 
 
Westmoreland 
 
 link thus formed grew stronger as years went 
 on, and a traditional connection was established 
 between the northern counties and the universities, 
 so that for several centuries they supplied a 
 number of students far beyond the average of their 
 population. 
 
 The stirring times of English history did not 
 much affect Westmoreland, though Catharine Parr, 
 the last wife of Henry VIII., was lady of Kendal 
 Castle. Moreover, one who has a greater claim on 
 our respect, Bernard Gilpin, the Apostle of the 
 North, as he was called, was born at Kentmere 
 Hall, and testifies to the religious fervour as well 
 as the sturdy character which Westmoreland could 
 produce. It may be doubted if Westmoreland was 
 benefited by the peace between England and 
 Scotland which followed on the union of the two 
 crowns. The cessation of Border warfare only 
 completed its isolation, and removed one of the 
 causes which broke the monotony of a sluggish 
 pastoral life. What the need of military organi¬ 
 sation had done for the men of Westmoreland is 
 shown by their resolute action against James I. 
 The needy king thought that his good services 
 in pacifying the Borders by his accession to the 
 English Crown deserved some recognition from 
 those who were benefited. His lawyers were 
 perplexed by the anomalous tenure of land by the 
 small owners of the Border country; and James I. 
 claimed to be lord of these estates, on the ground 
 that the states?nen (as the dalesmen were also 
 called) were vassals of the Crown. The menaced 
 statesmen took prompt measures in their own 
 
 1 53 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 defence: they met to the number of two thousand 
 near Kendal, and resolved ‘ that they had kept 
 their lands by the sword, and were able to defend 
 them by the same.’ The royal claims were with¬ 
 drawn before this resolute opposition. 
 
 In the troubles of the Great Rebellion, West¬ 
 moreland did not escape its share of disquiet. 
 The Clifford Castle of Appleby was taken by the 
 Parliamentary forces, and was dismantled, like its 
 Yorkshire neighbours. In 1745 the listlessness of 
 Westmoreland was again disturbed by the march 
 of the Pretender, and the Westmoreland Militia 
 did not show the spirit of former days in checking 
 his advance. The county, however, was little 
 moved by his apparent successes; and on his 
 retreat in a brief time a sober native watched the 
 Scottish troops march by with the caustic remark, 
 
 ‘ Yes, there they go, and never a wise man among 
 them.’ 
 
 It was during this period of quiet which followed 
 upon the union of England and Scotland that the 
 dalesmen, or statesmen, developed those character¬ 
 istics which still partly remain, and which constitute 
 the chief historic interest of the shire. They lived an 
 industrious and independent life, supporting them¬ 
 selves and their families according to a traditional 
 fashion, contented with their own ways, and seeking 
 nothing beyond what they themselves could supply. 
 Each little farm grew a small quantity of barley, 
 oats, and flax ; the sheep pastured on the hills ; the 
 pigs were fed on mast or acorns, and a few cows 
 supplied milk. The ordinary food of the family 
 was oatmeal-porridge and milk, with bacon, and 
 
 154 
 
Westmoreland 
 
 occasionally meat, which was generally cooked in 
 slices under a covering of potatoes, and was known 
 as a potato-pot. A story is told in recent days of a 
 traveller who was invited to share the midday meal 
 in a statesman’s household. All, including servants, 
 sat down together at the table, and the potato-pot 
 was passed round, each helping himself on the way. 
 Seeing that the guest looked somewhat perplexed, 
 his host encouraged him by exclaiming, ‘ Now help 
 yersel and howk (dig) in; there’s plenty of meat at 
 bottom, but it's reyther het.’ 
 
 The houses of the statesmen were mostly built 
 of a rough framework of wood and stone, filled in 
 with wickerwork, daubed with clay, and smeared 
 with cow-dung. The chief room served as kitchen, 
 dining-room, and sitting-room for the family; the 
 principal object which it contained was a huge 
 oaken closet or press, with panels adorned with 
 simple carving, which made a handsome piece of 
 furniture, and passed on from one generation to 
 another. On one side of this room was a pantry, 
 on the other the bower , or bedroom, where the 
 master and mistress slept. The upper storey was 
 a loft, without ceiling, where slept the children and 
 servants ; it was divided by a compartment between 
 males and females. The arrangements of life were 
 thrifty even to niggardliness ; and there was, as a 
 rule, nothing save the firelight to cheer the family 
 through the long winter evenings. It is recorded 
 of one careful housewife that when it was time for 
 supper she lit a candle, to enable her to put the 
 food on the table, and when all were seated round 
 the bowls of porridge and milk, armed with spoons 
 
 155 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 and ready to attack the common store, the candle 
 was extinguished with the remark, ‘Now you can 
 see wi’ the fireleet to hit yer own mouths.’ This 
 parsimony seemed excessive to the servant-man, 
 who, taking a spoonful of hot porridge, not cooled 
 in milk, slipped it into his master’s mouth, and then 
 cried out, ‘ Oh, mistress, bring a leet. I miss’d my 
 oon mooth and hit t’ maister’s wid a speunful o’ het 
 poddish, an’ I doubt I’ve scoudit him.’ 
 
 In this simple fashion the household lived and 
 laboured. It was self-supporting, and its wants 
 were few. Every one was busy in some work upon 
 the little farm, and the manufacture of the wool into 
 rough homespuns afforded an occupation for all 
 spare time. The clothes of the family, even the 
 linen, were made at home, and whatever could be 
 woven in excess of the needs of the household was 
 carried at intervals to market and sold. Except on 
 the rare occasions of these market days, the dales¬ 
 men seldom wandered far from home. The only 
 visitant from the outer world who penetrated their 
 valleys was the ‘ butter-badger,’ who came to relieve 
 them of their superfluous stock of butter, for which 
 he paid a small price, and made a considerable profit 
 by retailing it in the towns. The life was monoto¬ 
 nous and isolated, and the dalesmen rather prided 
 themselves on not having many acquaintances. A 
 traveller who asked for direction about his way was 
 directed by a dalesman standing at his own door to 
 cross the hill, at the other side of which he would 
 find a house ; ‘ I don’t knaw the man,’ he said, ‘ but 
 our sheep meet on the hilltop, and I dare say he is 
 a canny man.’ 
 
 i5 6 
 
Westmoreland 
 
 These conditions of life produced a sturdy 
 character, whose characteristic virtues are well 
 represented by the Rev. Robert Walker, often 
 known by the epithet of ‘ the Wonderful.' The 
 son of a dalesman, he left his home in search of 
 learning, and returned to hold the little living of 
 Seathwaite. His benefice was at first of the yearly 
 value of ^*5, and never exceeded £50. On this 
 Robert Walker lived, brought up a family of twelve 
 children, and at his death had saved ^2000. It is 
 true that he married a heiress, a lady possessed of 
 £40 a year of her own. Their household was an 
 example of thrift and hospitality. The little chapel 
 of Seathwaite was on week days used as a school ; 
 and there Walker sat, with one foot turning a 
 spinning-wheel, which gave employment to his 
 hands, with the other rocking a cradle, an occupa¬ 
 tion from which the rapid increase of his family 
 rarely gave him much relief. Round him were 
 grouped the school children, who came from many 
 miles around. Besides these occupations, Walker 
 had a few fields of his own, and was always ready 
 to help a neighbour who needed an extra hand. 
 He was, moreover, the lawyer and doctor of the 
 neighbourhood, and transacted all its business. On 
 Sundays his congregation were invited to join his 
 midday meal, and on that day only was there any 
 sign of luxury on his table. For sixty-seven years 
 did Walker afford this admirable example of a 
 simple Christian life to his parishioners, till he died, 
 a few months after his wife, at the age of ninety- 
 two, in 1802. 
 
 Walker shows the good qualities engendered by 
 157 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 this simple life ; but the course of events gradually 
 rendered this life impossible to those who had not 
 Walker’s virtues. This patriarchal fashion, attractive 
 as it seems in some ways, was sadly unprogressive. 
 There was no increase in agricultural skill, no change 
 in the traditional methods of cultivation. Ploughing 
 was still carried on by three horses and three men to 
 every plough : one man drove the team, another held 
 the plough down in the ground, the third guided it. 
 The plough itself was roughly hewn from a tree. 
 Few of the dalesmen cared to be better educated 
 than their great-grandfathers, and their clinging to 
 old habits tended to make them surly ; they scorned 
 to be courteous, lest it might seem that they wished 
 to set up for being gentlefolk. 
 
 But though the dalesmen refused to change, the 
 world changed around them. Roads were made, 
 communications were opened up, greater inter¬ 
 course prevailed ; there were more markets, and 
 the produce of the dalesmen was no longer 
 absolutely necessary to the nearest towns. They 
 found that others passed judgment on their pro¬ 
 cesses, and were indignant. A traveller remarked 
 on their breed of sheep, and suggested an improve¬ 
 ment. ‘ Sir,’ he was answered, ‘ they are sic as God 
 set upon the earth ; we never change them.’ When 
 a few of the more adventurous tried to move with 
 the times they found it difficult to do so. A farmer 
 sent his servant to bring some lime. On the journey 
 there was a shower, and the bags began to smoke. 
 The man, in alarm, brought water from a stream 
 and threw it on them, only to increase the volume 
 of the smoke which caused his terror. At last in 
 
 158 
 
Westmoreland 
 
 despair, he threw them into the stream, and came 
 home well satisfied that he was rid of a source of 
 mischief. Perhaps the following tale is a caricature, 
 but it contains the germs of truth. A dalesman 
 going to market was struck by the unwonted sight 
 of a pair of stirrups. He bought them to aid him 
 in his homeward ride, but, in the course of a gallop, 
 stuck his feet so firmly into them that when he 
 reached home he could not draw them out. After 
 unavailing attempts on the part of the family, the 
 horse was led into the stable with his master still 
 seated on his back. In two days’ time it was 
 suggested that it might be more lively if the horse 
 was turned to graze in its accustomed field. Luckily, 
 on the third day a younger son returned home from 
 the theological college of St. Bees. He considered 
 his father’s unfortunate plight, and suggested that 
 the saddle should be unfastened and carried with its 
 burden into the house. There further meditation 
 led to the suggestion of unloosing the prisoner’s 
 boots. When this was done, and the father was set 
 free, he recognised with thankfulness the inestimable 
 benefit of having a son who was a scholar. 
 
 It was, however, the development of machinery 
 which especially hastened the decline of the small 
 farmers. So long as wool could be spun at home, 
 a family could keep together and earn enough for 
 their joint needs. But the home-made cloth of 
 the dalesmen could not hold its own against the 
 machine-made fabrics which crowded the markets. 
 Competition, which had been gradually telling 
 against their agriculture, suddenly destroyed their 
 manufactures ; and they had not the qualities which 
 
 1 59 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 enabled them readily to adjust themselves to a new 
 state of things. Families could no longer hold 
 together, and the younger sons went to the towns 
 to try their fortunes. Those who remained suffered 
 from their vain endeavours to make head against 
 the social changes which threatened them. They 
 were involved in debts, and contracted mortgages 
 on their lands, which soon passed out of their 
 hands. Moreover, temperance had never been 
 their characteristic virtue, and the despair which 
 followed on fruitless expeditions to markets, with 
 wares which they could not sell at a profit, drove 
 many of them to reckless courses, which made their 
 ruin more rapid. Their numbers steadily decreased 
 owing to these causes combined, though the class is 
 by no means extinct. Many learned to adapt them¬ 
 selves to the new state of things, employed improved 
 means of agriculture, and retained their ancestral 
 holdings. There is still a sufficient number to give 
 Westmoreland marked characteristics of its own, 
 and impress upon its people an old-world type of 
 patriarchal simplicity. 
 
 Another powerful cause of the transformation 
 of Westmoreland was the discovery of the Lakes, 
 and the consequent flow of tourists, which has been 
 steadily increasing. The love of wild scenery was 
 indeed a discovery for the average Englishman at 
 the end of last century. Before that time taste 
 demanded trimness and neatness, or at least the 
 appearance of sylvan or pastoral scenes. The 
 general impression left on travellers in the Lake 
 country was one of discomfort; and the badness of 
 the roads and general inaccessibility of the country 
 
 160 
 
Westmoreland 
 
 did not invite many visitors. The first who brought 
 its charms to public notice was a Roman Catholic 
 priest of the name of West, who published in 1779 
 a Guide to the Lakes , the first of an infinite 
 series which succeed one another every year. It 
 required the affluence, as well as the bustle, of an 
 industrial civilisation to create the taste for travel¬ 
 ling in out-of-the-way places. Our forefathers did 
 not find the need, which is now so universal, of 
 change of air and scene. The transaction of their 
 ordinary business gave them enough experience of 
 the discomforts of a journey in those days of diffi¬ 
 cult locomotion ; and when they travelled they did 
 not wish to seek unfrequented spots, but preferred 
 those where they mixed with men of different 
 pursuits from their own. Perhaps none of the 
 smaller changes which have been wrought in the 
 present century is more remarkable than the custom 
 of taking yearly holidays, which in our own day 
 peoples the hillsides of the Lake District with 
 conscientious tourists bent upon seeing all they can. 
 
 It is needless to speak of the glory shed over 
 the Lake Country by the pen of Wordsworth, who 
 gave an abiding expression to the influence which 
 the varying moods of Nature could exercise over 
 the mind which frankly lent itself to their charm. 
 But, besides his descriptions of natural scenery, 
 Wordsworth has also caught the historic character 
 of the people, and has left a series of sketches of 
 the homely virtues which were produced by a 
 simple and independent life. Yet his pen tended 
 to sweep away their last remains—he made the 
 Lakes a place of fashionable resort, and thereby 
 
 161 l 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 drew them from their primitive isolation and 
 made them part and parcel of the world around. 
 As villas arose, the old farmers disappeared; their 
 land became valuable for building sites ; they sold 
 it, and disappeared from their ancestral homes. 
 When the poet Gray visited Grassmere, he found 
 it inhabited by twenty-six dalesmen. It may be 
 doubted if at the present day more than two or 
 three survive. 
 
 162 
 
LANCASHIRE 
 
 F EW shires at the present day can boast of 
 stronger local patriotism than can Lancashire ; 
 but the causes of this strength of local feeling 
 are not to be found in the influences of race or in 
 the strong impress left by early history ; they arise 
 from the unity of interest given by the commercial 
 and industrial life of recent times. Lancashire owes 
 its teeming population and its political importance 
 to its great port of Liverpool, and to the manu¬ 
 factures for which its position offers conspicuous- 
 advantages ; not to any great part which it played 
 in the history of our land. 
 
 Yet the county which is contained in the 
 Lancashire of to-day has much to tell about the 
 past. When first we hear of Britain in the days 
 of Roman rule, we find that, as soon as the Romans 
 were masters of Central Britain, they sought a spot 
 where they could keep watch on the wild tribes 
 who occupied the hills of Westmoreland and 
 Lancashire, and found such a position in Chester. 
 There they could command the valleys of the Dee 
 and the Mersey. Thence they made their roads and 
 opened up communications northwards, establishing 
 their castra or camps, as the names still show, at 
 
 163 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Manchester, Ribchester, and Lancaster. By these 
 they commanded the valleys of the Ribble and the 
 Lune; and they further provided for the military 
 occupation of the land by military stations on 
 the sites where now stand Warrington, Wigan, 
 Blackburn, Clitheroe, and Preston. That such 
 precautions were deemed necessary is a proof of 
 the sturdy vigour of these northern tribes. Rome 
 had no profit to gain from their territory, which 
 was desolate and unproductive; but she wished to 
 preserve from their depredations the more fertile 
 lands in the South, and to cut off the tribes of 
 Wales from the tribes of the Lake District. So the 
 Romans made their roads, whose lines can still be 
 traced, and marked out for their camps places which 
 have now grown into thriving towns. The Britons 
 retired to the hills and watched their foes, inflicting 
 on them from time to time such damage as they 
 could. 
 
 The Romans withdrew, and the British tribes 
 were soon exposed to still more formidable foes. 
 The pressure of the English invaders from the east 
 forced the western tribes into a sort of union, which 
 afterwards constituted the kingdom of Cumberland. 
 The men who dwelt in the south of this Cumbrian 
 land were harassed from two sides at once. The 
 Northumbrians pinched them on the east, and the 
 Mercians pinched them on the south ; but they had 
 the moors of Ribblesdale as a barrier on one side, 
 and the impenetrable forest of Cannock Chase on 
 the other. At length, in 613, the Northumbrian 
 king, Ethelfrith, broke through the fastness of 
 Ribblesdale and marched upon Chester. The 
 
 164 
 
Lancashire 
 
 Britons were defeated, and the land between the 
 Dee and the Ribble was added to Northumbrian 
 territory. The land north of the Ribble remained 
 to the Britons of Cumberland, till, in 670, the 
 Northumbrian king, Egfrith, made another invasion, 
 and drove the Britons from the district between the 
 Ribble and the Duddon. Much of this new conquest 
 he gave to the church of York, by which the Britons 
 were not dispossessed of their lands, but remained 
 as tributaries. There was little to invite the English 
 to settle, as the land, save along the valleys of the 
 Lune and the Ribble, was given up to forests, 
 moors, and marshes. 
 
 Towards the end of the ninth century this deso¬ 
 late region was reinforced by a new and sturdy 
 population. The Norsemen sailed down the Irish 
 Channel and made settlements along the western 
 coasts, as the Danes did on the east. The place- 
 names of Northern Lancashire bear the Norse end¬ 
 ings which are borne in the Lake District, and tell 
 how new elements of life were given to a remote 
 and unheeded country. While these Norsemen 
 were settling on the northern part of the Lancashire 
 of to-day, the Danes were pressing into its southern 
 lands. It was the reconquest of England from the 
 Danes by the kings of the house of Alfred that 
 again recalled in Lancashire the traces of the civili¬ 
 sation of Rome. Edward, the son of Alfred, found 
 it necessary to deal with the Danes as the Romans 
 had dealt with the Britons—he cut them off from 
 the Welsh by a line of forts between the Dee and 
 the Mersey. He rebuilt Chester, and re-established 
 the fortress at Mancunium, the modern Manchester. 
 
 165 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 From his time till the Norman Conquest the land 
 between the Mersey and the Ribble was Crown 
 land, held under the king by a number of small 
 holders, who were bound to keep in repair the 
 royal buildings, and whose patient industry must 
 have done much to make the country habitable. 
 
 Thus it came about that at the time of the 
 Domesday survey there was no county of Lan¬ 
 cashire, but the three portions which the county 
 now contains lay scattered. The district of Cart- 
 mell had been detached from Cumberland, and, 
 together with Amounderness, formed part of York¬ 
 shire. The southern lands were held by the 
 Crown, and tended to form part of the great earl¬ 
 dom of Chester. It would be wearisome to tell of 
 all the lords to whom they were granted; it is 
 enough to say that Stephen, before his accession to 
 the Crown, held a great part of them, and deserves 
 to be remembered for his foundation, in 1127, of the 
 Cistercian monastery of Furness. There the monks 
 carried on the work of clearing the land and pro¬ 
 moting agriculture; and their civilising influence 
 spread far and wide over the desert region that lay 
 north of Morecambe Bay. 
 
 The grant of lands to some lord was the only 
 means of securing the maintenance of law and order 
 within them; and the tendency had been to grant 
 the lands which make up Lancashire to the same 
 lord to govern. Hence Henry II., in his reorgani¬ 
 sation of Northern England after the disasters of 
 Stephen’s reign, recognised Lancaster as the head 
 of a county, and conferred its earldom on his son 
 John. Again, it would be tedious to trace the 
 
 166 
 
Lancashire 
 
 fortunes of the earldom, which passed from one lord 
 to another, till, in the reign of Henry III., it was 
 a second time granted to one of royal house, the 
 king’s second son, Edmund. Before this period the 
 earldom of Lancaster had been of little note, and its 
 holders preferred to bear the names of other earl¬ 
 doms which they held together with it. But from 
 the days of Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, Leicester, 
 and Derby, Lancaster stands first among the pos¬ 
 sessions of its lords, and does not again lose its 
 pre-eminence. 
 
 It is not difficult to account for the slight esti¬ 
 mation in which the earldom of Lancaster had been 
 held by its previous possessors. It cannot have 
 been profitable; for it probably was the most 
 sparsely populated district of England, as scarcely 
 a fifth of its surface was cleared and cultivated. Its 
 situation was unfortunate, as it was liable to suffer 
 from the disorders on the Welsh and on the Scottish 
 borders alike ; while its coast was exposed to the 
 plundering raids of the Scandinavians who held the 
 Isle of Man. Its inhabitants were liable to military 
 service against both Welsh and Scots; and when 
 expeditions were fitted out against Ireland a third 
 obligation was laid upon them. The earldom of 
 Lancaster was obviously not a great prize to its 
 holder, and it was generally conferred on the Earl 
 of Chester or of Derby. When Henry III. granted 
 it to his son he made it more worthy of his accept¬ 
 ance by adding to it the castle of Lancaster and the 
 royal rights within the shire. This made it more 
 important than other earldoms, and gave it a titular, 
 if not a real, value. 
 
 16 ; 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 The attempt of Henry III. to enrich his second 
 son was the cause of much trouble to his grandson 
 Edward II. The powerful Earl Thomas of Lan¬ 
 caster headed the opposition to Edward II.’s mis- 
 government, and lost his head in consequence. But 
 his brother Henry received the forfeited lands ; and 
 Edward III. was not deterred by what had gone 
 before from attempting to set up as leaders of the 
 English barons the members of the royal house. In 
 1352 he introduced a new title of nobility, borrowed 
 from the Continent, and made Lancashire the seat 
 of a Duchy. He did this because his fourth son, 
 John of Gaunt, had wedded the daughter and 
 heiress of Earl Henry, and so was the successor to 
 his vast estates. For the same reason he raised 
 the county of Lancaster to the dignity of a county 
 palatine ; so that its duke had within his domains 
 all the royal rights, including that of appointing a 
 separate chancellor and judges. Thus the county 
 formed a little kingdom by itself, like its neighbours, 
 Chester and Durham. 
 
 John of Gaunt’s son, Henry of Bolingbroke, 
 being deprived of his inheritance by Richard II., 
 came from his exile to assert his rights. This he 
 did so effectively that he not only recovered his 
 lands, but dispossessed Richard II. of the throne and 
 succeeded him as Henry IV. He was of a cautious 
 temper, and would not have his hereditary posses¬ 
 sions merged in the lands of the Crown, but kept 
 the Duchy of Lancaster separate, and conferred it 
 on his eldest son. This admirable arrangement, 
 however, somewhat broke down when Henry VI. 
 had no son, and the country was hard put to it to 
 
 168 
 
Lancashire 
 
 pay the taxes necessary for a feeble government. 
 The voice of Parliament made itself heard in 
 regulating the royal expenditure, and allotted the 
 revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster to the main¬ 
 tenance of the royal household. For this purpose 
 they were ample, as the proceeds of the various 
 lands and rights within the county were consider¬ 
 able, though much of them went to officials who 
 performed the work of supervision. 
 
 In fact, it was obvious that the Duke of Lan¬ 
 caster, as King of England, was merely an absentee 
 landlord, whose influence was least felt in his own 
 lands. The chief nobles of the shire were the 
 Stanleys, who put themselves at the head of the 
 smaller gentry. Hence it came to pass that when 
 the Wars of the Roses broke out, Lancashire followed 
 the lead of the Stanleys, and paid little heed to its 
 royal duke, but took the Yorkist side. When 
 Edward IV. came to the throne he seized upon 
 the Duchy of Lancaster as forfeit. From this time 
 forward the hereditary right of the Lancastrian 
 dukes was merged in the person of the king, 
 and the Duchy of Lancaster has remained a 
 possession of the English Crown. 
 
 It would seem, however, that Lancashire was 
 long faithful to its Yorkist allegiance; for, when an 
 attempt was made to upset the throne of Henry VII. 
 by means of the pretender, Lambert Simnel, it was 
 in the Bay of Furness that the invading army of 
 English exiles and German and Irish troops made 
 their landing. Their leader, Martin Schwartz, raised 
 his standard on the moor near Ulverstone, which 
 bears the name of Schwartz Moor to this day. But 
 
 169 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 the men of Lancashire did not show any eagerness 
 to rise, and the rebellion was a failure. After this 
 Lancashire enjoyed a time of quietness, in which it 
 began to advance in an unpretending way towards 
 greater prosperity than its unpromising beginnings 
 had hitherto allowed. 
 
 Lancashire, in fact, lacked any definite unity or 
 purpose amongst its people. It was late in coming 
 into existence as a shire, and was a collection of 
 three different districts only loosely connected. The 
 northern part looked towards Cumberland and the 
 Scottish border ; the southern part looked towards 
 the earldom of Chester and the Welsh marshes. 
 The earldom of Lancaster went to great lords with 
 many other possessions, and finally was annexed to 
 the Crown. This prevented the shire from finding 
 its unity under a great baronial family, as Lancaster 
 was never the chief seat of its earl. It is true that 
 a mighty castle was raised on the site of the old 
 Roman fort, and the position of Lancaster explains 
 its name—the castle on the Lune. But Lancaster 
 was a military outpost, not the seat of a baronial 
 family. And what had happened to the earldom 
 itself happened also to much of the land of the shire, 
 which was held by lords whose chief possessions 
 were elsewhere. Thus the De Lacys, Earls of 
 Lincoln, were Barons of Clitheroe, and built the 
 castle that guarded the pass across the Yorkshire 
 moors. It was not the great barons, but the smaller 
 holders, who did the work of bringing the land 
 under cultivation. They gradually made clearings 
 in the forest, retaining each of them enough of 
 woodland round their dwellings to provide a 
 
 170 
 
Lancashire 
 
 hunting-ground, where they might chase the boar. 
 Nor did the monasteries do as much in Lancashire 
 as in the neighbouring shire of York. Though 
 tolerably numerous, they were small and unim¬ 
 portant, with the exception of Furness and Whalley. 
 Towns in Lancashire were not populous, though 
 dwellers gathered round Preston, from its situation 
 on the Ribble ; round the castle of Manchester ; 
 and at Liverpool, which struggled into existence in 
 the reign of King John, as a port for Ireland. 
 
 In a district not much given to industrial pur¬ 
 suits, and chiefly depending on agriculture for the 
 supply of its needs, the suppression of the religious 
 houses by Henry VIII. was bitterly resented. The 
 movement known as the * Pilgrimage of Grace ’ 
 spread to Lancashire, but was put down by the 
 Earl of Derby ; and the last Abbot of Whalley was 
 hanged in front of his abbey. It was long before 
 Lancashire was reconciled to the Reformation, and 
 it continued to be a stronghold of the Roman 
 Catholics. In 1612 it was the scene of one of those 
 popular delusions which came like epidemics. An 
 outcry was raised against witches in the district of 
 Pendle Forest; and when men’s minds were filled 
 with suspicions, evidence of the most monstrous 
 kind was forthcoming. The ‘ Lancashire Witches ’ 
 have become famous, because more than thirty, 
 mostly illiterate, women suffered as victims of the 
 ravings of hysteria, generated by superstitious 
 terror. 
 
 Lancashire, however, was prospering. The cause 
 which had kept it back in earlier times, the absence 
 of great lords, was now a cause of its advance. 
 
 171 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 When the Scots were restrained within their own 
 borders, Lancashire was the first of the northern 
 counties to reap the benefit. The land between 
 the Yorkshire hills and the sea was a stretch of 
 undulating country, sloping to the plain which 
 reaches to the coast. It was well watered, and 
 repaid cultivation. Under the Tudors the smaller 
 barons began to be converted into country gentle¬ 
 men, such as we know at present; and Lancashire 
 had a number of such men, who lived at home and 
 improved their lands. In 1617 King James I. 
 passed through Lancashire on his way to Scotland, 
 and was royally entertained by his new baronets— 
 a dignity which he created for the purpose of filling 
 the royal coffers, which he had a ready knack of 
 emptying. The traditions of King James’s visit 
 still linger in Lancashire, and their long continuance 
 shows the deep impression which the event pro¬ 
 duced. Lancashire, by this insignificant incident, 
 seems to have awakened to a consciousness of its 
 importance. It would seem that King James’s visit 
 drew it together, and kindled local patriotism, which 
 had hitherto been faint. 
 
 Still, King James’s visit showed that Lancashire 
 was far from being unanimous. Religious differences 
 were profound. If many of the chief families 
 adhered to the old Church, their opponents, through 
 antagonism, were intensely Protestant. The 
 Puritans insisted on a strict observance of Sunday ; 
 and many magistrates in Lancashire tried to enforce 
 their own views by putting down all festive gather¬ 
 ings, which were generally held on Sunday after¬ 
 noons. Complaints were made to the king, and he 
 
 172 
 
Lancashire 
 
 decided that men should please themselves about 
 such matters. But he went further than this, and 
 ordered all the clergy throughout England to read 
 from the pulpit this declaration, which primarily 
 concerned only a district where opinion was sharply 
 divided, and by so doing raised a storm before 
 which he had to give way. 
 
 The reigns of James I. and Charles I. had a 
 further influence on Lancashire, because these kings, 
 in their pressing necessities, sold many of the Crown 
 lands in the duchy, and greatly reduced the revenues 
 which the Crown derived from this source. This 
 was no bad thing for the county, as it increased 
 the number of landlords, who had an interest in 
 developing its resources. But the outbreak of the 
 Civil War checked the growing prosperity of the 
 shire. Political parties followed close upon religious 
 differences, and Lancashire was very evenly divided. 
 Its chief town of Manchester held for the Parlia¬ 
 ment ; its chief noble, the Earl of Derby, raised 
 forces for the king. Rival lord-lieutenants disputed 
 men’s allegiance. Armies were raised on both 
 sides, and in few parts of England was the contest 
 more severe. 
 
 It is needless to tell in detail the incidents of 
 this struggle, in the course of which the chief towns 
 —Manchester, Liverpool, Wigan, Lancaster, and 
 Preston—all suffered sieges. In May, 1643, the 
 Royalists, under the Earl of Derby, were dispersed 
 by the Parliamentarians, and retired to their houses, 
 which they fortified. The result was a series of 
 sieges, in which the castles of Lancashire were 
 mostly destroyed, and the manor-houses were to a 
 
 173 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 great extent ruined. Famous in the annals of the 
 warfare of that time was the brave resistance made 
 by the Countess of Derby in Lathom House, which, 
 with a garrison of three hundred men, she held for 
 three months against a vigorous siege, which was 
 at last abandoned before the news of Prince Rupert’s 
 advance to its relief. After the battle of Marston 
 Moor the siege was again resumed, and the garrison 
 surrendered on honourable terms. It was said at 
 the time that ‘ the best man may be conquered, and 
 so was Lady Derby.’ 
 
 Lancashire had suffered severely in this struggle, 
 but was destined to suffer still more. When, in 
 1648, the Scots rose against the English Parliament, 
 it was from the strong Presbyterian feeling of 
 Lancashire that they looked for support. They 
 marched through Lancashire, and at Preston was 
 fought the battle in which Cromwell overthrew them. 
 After this the militia of Lancashire were disbanded, 
 and men sullenly turned to contemplate the havoc 
 which war had wrought. ‘ The three-corded scourge 
 of sword, pestilence, and famine all afflicted the land 
 at once.’ Nor was it given rest even then. In 
 1651 the Scots who supported Charles II. marched 
 through Lancashire, and a battle was fought at 
 Warrington before they could force their way. The 
 Earl of Derby raised forces in Lancashire, but was 
 defeated at Wigan. He was taken prisoner, and was 
 sentenced to be beheaded; and as a lesson to the 
 men of Lancashire the sentence on their great leader 
 was executed at Bolton. 
 
 When peace was at length established, Lancaster 
 could return to its industrial pursuits, in which it had 
 
 174 
 
Lancashire 
 
 already begun to make considerable progress. In 
 the reign of Henry VIII. Manchester had become 
 a town of some importance, as the centre of the 
 cloth trade of Lancashire, and it speedily rivalled 
 its neighbour Halifax. The advance of Manchester 
 was marked by the foundation in 15 24 of a grammar 
 school by Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter; and 
 his example was followed in 1657 by Humphrey 
 Chetham, who established a hospital for educating 
 and apprenticing poor boys. Still, in spite of these 
 signs of progress, Lancashire was poor in comparison 
 with the southern counties, and first made a decided 
 start when the trade with the West Indies and the 
 American Colonies was opened up. At an early 
 time cotton had been imported in small quantities 
 from the Levant ; but more was obtained from the 
 West Indies, and the special industry of Lancashire 
 came into vigorous life. Liverpool grew into a 
 thriving port, though at first it could not hope to 
 rival Bristol and London. Still, there was a large 
 influx of industrial population into the manufacturing 
 towns of Lancashire, which by the end of the seven¬ 
 teenth century had ceased to be a purely agricultural 
 county, and was already indebted to the south for 
 its food supply. 
 
 Lancashire was still destined to be a battle-field ; 
 for in the ill-considered rising of the Jacobites in 
 1715 its leaders had hopes that the men of Lan¬ 
 cashire would furnish numerous recruits. They 
 advanced to Preston, but were only joined by some 
 three hundred men—a convincing proof that busy 
 and industrious men desired only quietness, and 
 were not likely to take part in an enterprise which 
 
 175 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 would cause confusion. The plan of the king’s 
 generals was to hem in the rebels at Preston. This 
 was done, and they were made prisoners. A tale is 
 told at this time of the Vicar of Preston, the Rev. 
 Samuel Peplow, who, while the town was occupied 
 by the rebels, read the service daily, and prayed for 
 King George. One day a Jacobite soldier drew his 
 sword and threatened to kill him if he prayed for the 
 usurper. Fearlessly he said, ‘Soldier, do your 
 duty, and I will do mine,’ and continued the service. 
 His life was spared ; and when George I. heard the 
 tale he said in his broken English, ‘ Peplow, Peplow ; 
 he shall peep high and be a bishop; ’ and the Vicar 
 of Preston in due time became Bishop of Chester. 
 
 In the peace which marked Sir Robert Walpole’s 
 administration capital accumulated, and the means of 
 carrying on industrial pursuits were greatly improved. 
 The roads of Lancashire were very bad, and during 
 the war with France, when the sea was unsafe for 
 coasting vessels, it was difficult to find a market for 
 manufactured goods, owing to the cost of transport 
 by waggons on roads which were scarcely passable 
 in summer, and were entirely impassable in winter. 
 The first mode of establishing communications was 
 to deepen the estuary of the Mersey, and make the 
 rivers navigable for barges. Thus, along the Irwell 
 and the Mersey there was a good means of transit 
 between Manchester and Liverpool ; and along the 
 Douglas and the Ribble the coal of Wigan could be 
 carried to the sea. The harbour of Liverpool was 
 improved, and the first wet dock in England was 
 constructed on the Mersey in 1719. 
 
 The great stride, however, in the development 
 176 
 
Lancashire 
 
 of the commerce of Lancashire was made by the 
 genius of James Brindley, a self-educated man, who 
 worked with his own hands and developed a bold¬ 
 ness of invention which ranks him amongst the 
 greatest of engineers. Brindley was fortunate in 
 finding a patron who understood him in Francis, 
 Duke of Bridgewater. The beginning of Brindley’s 
 fame was owing to a wish of the Duke of Bridge- 
 water to find a ready market for the coal from his 
 mines at Worsley by sending it to Manchester. 
 This Brindley did by forming a canal, in construct¬ 
 ing which he overcame the difficulties caused by the 
 irregularities of the ground. Taking his idea from 
 the means which had been adopted to make rivers 
 navigable, he constructed artificial rivers, and by 
 a system of locks raised barges from one level to 
 another. Moreover, he devised navigable canals 
 underground, by which the produce of the Worsley 
 coal-field was brought out in boats into the open 
 canal. When this great work had been done for a 
 small distance, the Duke of Bridgewater was ready 
 to extend his operations and make a new waterway 
 between Manchester and Liverpool. The cost was 
 great, and the risk was considerable; but the Duke 
 of Bridgewater staked his entire fortune on the 
 success of the undertaking, and Brindley worked 
 for the wages of an ordinary mechanic. The work 
 was done; and men long wondered at the boldness 
 of the great aqueduct at Barton, which formed part 
 of the undertaking. Canals were now established ; 
 and the next thing was to provide Lancashire with 
 an outlet to the rest of England by the Grand 
 Trunk Canal, which connected the Mersey and the 
 
 1 77 m 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Trent. From this time water-carriage was rapidly 
 developed. Rivers were used as far as possible, 
 and were connected with one another by canals. A 
 great system was devised and extended over the 
 most populous parts of England. The stimulus 
 given to industry by the invention of canals was as 
 great as that given by the invention of the loco¬ 
 motive ; but the one followed so rapidly on the 
 other that the fame of Brindley has paled before 
 that of Stephenson. We look upon canals as relics 
 of a primitive past; we have no opportunity of 
 looking on the rough tracks called highways, which 
 rendered the carriage of goods a difficult and 
 perilous task before canals made water-carriage 
 almost universal. 
 
 The history of Lancashire since 1760 is a record 
 of continuous inventiveness in mechanism. The 
 raw cotton imported from America had to be sub¬ 
 jected, roughly speaking, to three processes: one, 
 for preparing the cotton that it should be fit for 
 spinning; the second, spinning the cotton into 
 thread; the third, weaving the thread into cloth. 
 Carding machines were first invented by John 
 Wyatt* of Birmingham, in 1742 ; the spinning- 
 jenny was invented almost simultaneously, about 
 177°, by James Hargreaves, of Blackburn, and 
 Richard Arkwright, of Preston. It was not un¬ 
 natural that when a problem was occupying men’s 
 minds more than one should arrive at its solution. 
 But Hargreaves was a poor weaver ; his invention 
 seemed to his brother craftsmen to be destructive 
 of the wages of labour; his house was attacked, his 
 machine was destroyed, and he was driven to flee 
 
 178 
 
Lancashire 
 
 from Blackburn to Nottingham. Arkwright also 
 had the same fate, but was fortunate in finding 
 a manufacturer, Mr. Strutt, who adopted his inven¬ 
 tion. So Arkwright became a rich and famous 
 man, while Hargreaves died in poverty. 
 
 The history of Lancashire more and more 
 expands into a history of the cotton trade and the 
 inventions which it produced. It is worthy of note 
 that these inventions were the result of a plentiful 
 supply of raw material. The growth of cotton was 
 introduced into the Southern States of America in 
 the eighteenth century. After this, cotton was 
 brought in greater quantities to Liverpool, and was 
 manufactured at Manchester and the neighbouring 
 towns. Invention kept pace with the supply; and 
 the fears of the workmen that machinery would 
 lessen the demand for labour occasioned many riots 
 and disturbances at first, till it became obvious that 
 machinery increased the demand for labour by 
 increasing its productiveness. Lancashire has con¬ 
 sequently been the field of constant emigration 
 from other parts of England, chiefly the North; 
 and the characteristics of the people of Lancashire 
 may best be described as an amalgamation of all 
 the qualities of the northern folk, modified by the 
 nature of their industrial occupations. Mrs. Gas- 
 kell’s tales, North and South and Mary Barton , are 
 vivid sketches of Lancashire life. 
 
 Lancashire still retains the marks of its historic 
 past. It is still divided into three districts. The 
 northern district round Furness is an outlying spur 
 of the Lake country, but wears a manufacturing 
 appearance, owing to its iron mines and its great 
 
 179 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 steel works at Barrow. The central district of 
 Lancashire is still mainly agricultural, and partakes 
 of the characteristics of Westmoreland. The 
 northern portion of this central district, including 
 Lancaster, wears the severe and stern appearance 
 of the Borderland ; the southern portion tells of the 
 beginning of a comfortable country life in the days 
 of the Tudors; and nowhere can a more typical 
 example of an English country house of the six¬ 
 teenth century be found than at Hoghton Tower. 
 The southern district of the county is entirely given 
 up to manufactures, resembling in this the West 
 Riding of Yorkshire, to which it formerly belonged. 
 
 180 
 
CHESHIRE 
 
 T HE city of Chester is renowned for its 
 picturesque antiquity, and its past history 
 amply justifies its fame. In the earliest 
 times of our annals the situation of Chester marked 
 it out as an important place. The Romans, in 
 securing their hold of Southern Britain, were led 
 to pursue the hardy tribes of the North to their 
 mountain fastnesses ; and the plain formed by the 
 estuary of the Dee and the Mersey lay between the 
 Welsh hills on one side and the Yorkshire hills on 
 the other. The plain was fertile, and access to it 
 from the south was easy. It was marked out by 
 natural advantages as the seat of a Roman town, 
 which should be the headquarters of the military 
 work of Rome. So on the sandstone cliff over¬ 
 hanging the Dee, not far from its mouth, was built 
 the city of Deva, more often known as Castra 
 Legionum, a name which it still retains par 
 excellence. For though many places in England 
 bear the marks of their origin as sites of Roman 
 garrisons in the termination Chester or caster , the 
 Camp on the Dee bears only the name of Chester, 
 as though it were so clearly the chief station of the 
 Roman army that no other could equal it in 
 
 181 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 importance. It still bears the marks of its Roman 
 origin in the regularity and precision of its four 
 chief streets, which intersect one another at equal 
 distances from the old gates, and lead straight from 
 one gate to another. 
 
 Five Roman roads converged at Chester, and 
 along them the Roman arms steadily pursued their 
 way, till the northern boundary of the Roman 
 province was extended to the line between the 
 Solway and the Tyne. Chester, originally merely 
 a military post, became a flourishing town; its old 
 extent is marked by its walls, some two miles 
 round, which seem to have followed pretty closely 
 the lines of the old Roman work. It was the 
 capital of a pleasant and fruitful region, and 
 mining industry was carried on along the valley of 
 the Dee. 
 
 When the Roman legionaries withdrew, after 
 occupying Chester for over three hundred years, its 
 glory departed, and the district round it became a 
 prey to confusion. The advent of the English 
 invaders drove the tribes of Wales into a closer 
 union, and Cheshire formed part of the kingdom of 
 Gwynedd, as North Wales was then called. But 
 in 613 the Northumbrian king Ethelfrith burst 
 through the barrier of the Yorkshire hills and 
 attacked Chester. The British army marched to 
 its protection, accompanied by a thousand monks 
 from a neighbouring monastery. Seeing these 
 monks standing apart, with arms outstretched in 
 prayer, the heathen Ethelfrith bade that they 
 should be killed, saying, ‘ Whether they bear arms 
 or not, they fight against us by crying to their 
 
 182 
 
Cheshire 
 
 God.’ The victory, after a stubborn fight, fell to 
 the Northumbrians, and the British monks were 
 slain. Later times saw in their death the fulfilment 
 of a prophecy of the Roman missionary Augustine, 
 whose authority the British Christians had refused 
 to acknowledge. 
 
 The conquest of Chester united the lands 
 between the Dee and the Mersey to Northumber¬ 
 land, and so broke the British power by separating 
 the Britons of Wales from their brethren in 
 Cumberland. More than this, it brought into close 
 contact the two great English kingdoms of North¬ 
 umberland and Mercia, between which hitherto 
 the Britons had in some degree formed a barrier. 
 In those days contact meant collision; and the 
 fortunes of the fight varied between heathen 
 Mercia and Christian Northumberland, till in the 
 middle of the seventh century the Mercian king 
 Wulfhere wrested from Northumberland the district 
 south of the Mersey, containing the modern Cheshire. 
 Wulfhere was the first Christian King of Mercia; 
 and his daughter, Werburgh, became Mercia’s 
 patron saint. 
 
 From this time the district now comprised in 
 Cheshire formed part of Mercia, and shared the 
 fortunes of the Mercian kingdom, which in 82S 
 bowed to the superiority of Wessex. But the West 
 Saxon power was broken by the invasions of the 
 Danes, who, after conquering Eastern and Central 
 England, carried their victorious arms to the Dee. 
 Their settlements, however, were not numerous in 
 Cheshire, which was remote from their main power ; 
 and, on the revival of Wessex under Alfred, the 
 
 183 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 boundary-line between the Danish possessions and 
 those of the West Saxon king was drawn along the 
 old Roman road of Wading Street, which ran from 
 London to Chester. Thus the northern part of 
 Cheshire was rescued from the Danes, and was 
 committed to the charge of Ethelred, who married 
 Ethelfled, Alfred’s sister, and ruled as earldorman, 
 no longer king, over the remnants of the Mercian 
 kingdom. Chester, which had fallen into ruins, was 
 again important as a frontier town ; and its old 
 walls were still strong enough to defend a body of 
 Danish invaders in 894, whom Ethelred could only 
 drive from their stronghold by a siege carried on 
 through the winter. In Ethelred’s hands Chester 
 became a military position to cut off the Danes 
 from the Welsh, and also from the Irish Channel. 
 So in 907 Ethelred renewed its defences, and, to 
 attract more people to the town, founded a house 
 of secular canons named after the Mercian saint, 
 Werburgh. Perhaps at this time also the custom 
 was established to which we owe the existence of 
 the walls of Chester—that the owners of land in the 
 shire were bound to repair its walls and bridge. 
 At all events, about this time the old Mercian 
 kingdom was divided into shires, for convenience of 
 administration; and the fortress of Chester was 
 important enough to become the centre of a district 
 to which it gave its name. From Chester a t series 
 of fortresses extended to Manchester, and as a 
 supporting station was built the fort upon Eddisbury 
 Hill. 
 
 This district was in these days wild and poor, a 
 vast tract of pasture land thinly populated. But 
 
 184 
 
Cheshire 
 
 Chester itself grew as a centre of trade, being a spot 
 where the Danes of Ireland, the Welsh, and the 
 Cumbrians could all meet to barter their wares. 
 Tradition makes it the place of Edgar’s triumph, 
 when eight vassal kings rowed him upon the River 
 Dee. However imaginative may be the details of 
 this glorification of the great English king, the 
 choice of Chester as its scene marks the importance 
 of the growing town. 
 
 The prosperity of Chester was checked by the 
 Norman Conquest. Chester had by this time 
 become the stronghold of Mercia, and was the last 
 town in England that recognised the Conqueror’s 
 sway. The North of England was hard to conquer, 
 and clung to its local leaders till William the Con¬ 
 queror, in 1070, gave it a terrible lesson by his 
 harrying of the North. After laying waste the land 
 between Durham and York, he marched upon 
 Chester, and spread devastation far and wide. The 
 homeless fugitives of the neighbourhood fled, in the 
 depths of winter, and found no refuge till they 
 reached the Abbey of Evesham. Chester was 
 taken, and on the mound where Ethelred had raised 
 his fort was built a Norman keep, whose garrison 
 should keep a watchful eye on the rebellious folk. 
 Moreover, Chester was necessarily the border 
 fortress on the marshes of North Wales, and became 
 the seat of an earldom, whose holder had exceptional 
 privileges. All the land in the shire, save that 
 belonging to the Church, was given to him, and was 
 held directly under him ; so that he exercised 
 within his earldom all the power which the king 
 exercised over his kingdom. This important office 
 
 185 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 was first conferred on a Fleming, Gerbod ; but he 
 went abroad, and was unfortunate in war, so that his 
 place was taken by Hugh of Avranches, surnamed 
 from his ferocity Hugh the Wolf, William I.’s 
 nephew. Under him and his retainers the shire 
 was reduced to order; strongholds were built 
 wherever there was a passage through the morass 
 which reached towards Wales. Chief amongst 
 these were the castles of Beeston, Hal ton, and 
 Hawarden, but there were smaller forts at places 
 of lesser importance, such as Dodleston, Alford, 
 Pulford, Holt, and Shotwick. Cheshire became the 
 seat of war against Wales, and its civilisation 
 depended on its barons and their castles. But with 
 them came also the increased influence of the 
 Church ; Earl Hugh converted the secular canons 
 of St. Werburgh into monks, and for a short time 
 the seat of the Mercian bishopric was transferred 
 from Lichfield to the old Church of St. John, in 
 Chester, whence it was speedily removed to 
 Coventry. 
 
 In the days of the Norman and Angevin kings 
 the Earls of Chester were the most important men 
 in the kingdom, and exercised a decisive influence 
 on affairs. As a rule they were loyal; thus Ranulf, 
 Earl of Chester, opposed King Stephen in behalf 
 of Matilda, whom he held as the rightful ruler, 
 and it was largely owing to his aid that Henry II. 
 succeeded to the throne. On the other hand, his 
 successor in the earldom rose against Henry II. 
 when he felt that the baronial privileges were in 
 danger from the strong hand of the Crown. But 
 the great earldom of Chester passed away, through 
 
 186 
 
Cheshire 
 
 want of male heirs, into the hands of the Crown, 
 and was, by Henry III., in 1238, appropriated as 
 a provision for his eldest son, Edward. When 
 Edward I. ascended the English throne, one of his 
 first undertakings was the reduction of Wales. At 
 Chester in 1277, and again in 1283, were gathered 
 the forces which Edward I. summoned to his 
 Welsh expeditions; and with the conquest of 
 Wales Chester lost its importance as a border 
 town. Edward I. settled the earldom of Chester 
 on the heirs-apparent of the Crown, who from that 
 time forward have borne amongst their other titles 
 that of Earl of Chester. Nor were the men of 
 Cheshire regardless of the territorial claims upon 
 their loyalty; to the last they upheld the cause of 
 Richard II., even when patriotism might have led 
 them to distrust his tyrannical doings. However, 
 the men of Chester were in turn loyal to Henry IV., 
 and it was due to their help that in the battle of 
 Shrewsbury he was victorious over the rebels of 
 Wales and Northumberland. From the good 
 service rendered at the time dates the rise of the 
 family of Stanley, which grew in possessions in 
 Cheshire and Lancashire alike, and exercised the 
 chief influence upon the politics of these two 
 counties, which from that time forward were to a 
 considerable degree united, and became still more 
 united by identity of commercial interests. 
 
 However, through the period of the Middle 
 Ages Cheshire and Lancashire were poor and 
 insignificant. It is true that Chester was a military 
 station, and also a port of great importance, com¬ 
 manding alike the Welsh frontier and the navigation 
 
 187 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 to Ireland. But the greater part of the land within 
 the shire was uncultivated. Much was marshy and 
 unprofitable, and three great forests covered much 
 of the surface of the ground. From Chester to the 
 sea stretched the forest of the Wirral, from the 
 Mersey to the Dee extended the forest of Dela- 
 mere, and the forest of Macclesfield formed an 
 impenetrable barrier between Cheshire and Derby¬ 
 shire. There was so little agriculture that the men 
 of Cheshire and Staffordshire used to leave their 
 homes and serve as harvesters in districts where 
 corn was grown, in the same way as did Irish 
 labourers in our own days. So long as Chester 
 was a place of arms, so long as its plains were liable 
 to invasion from Wales, there was little to tempt 
 men to undertake their careful cultivation. Nor 
 were monasteries frequent, though the monks of 
 Birkenhead made a clearing in the forest, and cared 
 for the ferry between Liverpool and their shore, 
 whence ran a road to Chester. On the banks of 
 the Weaver nestled the Abbey of Vale Royal, 
 founded by Edward I., and near Runcorn was the 
 Priory of Norton. 
 
 Yet Cheshire had natural advantages of its own, 
 which were discovered in the time of the Roman 
 occupation. In the stratified rocks of the old red 
 sandstone which runs through the country is a 
 deposit of salt, which, mixing with the water, found 
 its way to the surface in springs of brine. The 
 salt-field of Cheshire is about thirty miles long and 
 ten or fifteen broad, and lies principally along the 
 valley of the Weaver. The Old English word for 
 a salt-rock was ‘wych,’ and the names of Northwich, 
 
 188 
 
Cheshire 
 
 Middlewich, and Nantwich tell by their termina¬ 
 tions what was their industry in the time when 
 these names were given. At the time when the 
 Domesday survey was made, the right of using 
 these salt works was one for which dues had to be 
 paid to the king and to the Mercian earl. The 
 method of extracting salt from the brine was simple, 
 and consisted in raising its temperature till crystals 
 were formed and deposited themselves at the bottom. 
 The manufacture of salt at the present day is an 
 important industry, and the salt works of Cheshire 
 count as the chiefest of its natural advantages. But 
 the great demand for salt comes from the need of 
 it as an ingredient in chemicals used in manu¬ 
 factures. In early times, when it was wanted only 
 for domestic purposes, and when communication 
 with other parts of the country was difficult, the 
 salt works of Cheshire could not grow into an 
 industry which was of sufficient importance to affect 
 the general character of the country. 
 
 Chester still remained its centre, and eave a 
 
 o 
 
 significant token of vigorous life. The monastery 
 of St. Werburgh produced the last of the great 
 mediaeval historians, of whom England ought justly 
 to be proud. Writing as they did in different 
 monasteries, they show signs of local feeling and 
 ecclesiastical prejudices ; but they were men who 
 spoke the thoughts of a strong people, with whose 
 aims they sympathised, and whose progress they 
 understood. This series of monastic historians ends 
 in Ralph Higden, a monk of St. Werburgh, whose 
 Polychronicon is a universal history of the world, 
 schemed with a completeness never known before, 
 
 189 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 and forming an encyclopaedia of historical and 
 geographical knowledge. Higden died in 1363, 
 and his book enjoyed an unexampled popularity. 
 It was written in Latin, but was soon translated into 
 English by a Cornishman, John Trevisa, Vicar of 
 Berkeley, in Gloucestershire ; and when, more than 
 a hundred years later, the printing-press brought 
 books within the reach of more readers, amongst 
 the earliest works which Caxton published were an 
 epitome of the Polychronicon and Trevisa’s trans¬ 
 lation of it. 
 
 It is worth noticing that Higden was the last of 
 our monkish historians, for that fact tells us that 
 monasticism was on the wane. The monks ceased 
 to be at one with the people, and monasteries 
 ceased to be the houses of learning. More than 
 that, England, during the Wars of the Roses, passed 
 through a period of unrest, in which old things 
 unconsciously passed away. The reigns of the 
 Tudors saw the growth of a middle class, intent 
 upon trade and sympathising little with the aims of 
 monastic life, as it was then set before their eyes. 
 The monks were regarded as ignorant and idle, but 
 the process of the transformation of the monasteries 
 into some more useful institutions was delayed till 
 it came in the shape of destruction. In the sweeping 
 changes wrought by Henry VIII., Cheshire at least 
 had some gain to set against its losses. Though its 
 monasteries were overthrown, the church of St. 
 Werburgh was raised to be the seat of a bishop, and 
 the vast Mercian see of Lichfield was reduced to 
 more manageable dimensions. But such has been 
 the growth of population in the north-west of 
 
 190 
 
Cheshire 
 
 England that in this century the diocese of Chester, 
 as it was established in the reign of Henry VIII., 
 has furnished more than sufficient work for the two 
 new sees of Manchester and Liverpool, besides 
 contributing some of its extent to the see of 
 Ripon. 
 
 The growth of English commerce did not much 
 affect Cheshire in the days of the Tudors. The 
 country was poor, as may be seen from the first 
 assessment for Ship Money under Charles I., when 
 ^ioo was demanded from Chester, and only ^200 
 from all the rest of the shire. The same assessment 
 shows that Chester was still the chief port on the 
 Irish Channel, for Liverpool’s contribution is only 
 set down at ^15. 
 
 The Civil War wrought greater havoc in 
 Cheshire than in any other part of the country. 
 Soon after its outbreak Charles I. visited Chester, 
 and inspired its people with unflinching loyalty to 
 his cause. In 1643 Chester was besieged by Sir 
 William Brereton, but its walls were proof against 
 all assault. The Royalist troops from Ireland 
 landed in the port of Chester, and by their help 
 Brereton was defeated at Middlewich. Beeston 
 Castle was taken, and Nantwich alone held out for 
 the Parliament. It was besieged, but Sir Thomas 
 Fairfax came to its succour; the Royalists were 
 defeated and driven back to Chester, which was 
 blockaded. The siege was raised by the advance 
 of Prince Rupert, but after his defeat at Marston 
 Moor the position of Chester was desperate. It 
 still held out for eighteen months, hoping against 
 hope, and enduring famine and pestilence. In 
 
 191 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 September, 1645, Charles I. came there on his 
 march to Scotland, and from the Phoenix Tower 
 upon the wall had the mortification of seeing the 
 rout of the last army which he could hope to raise 
 in England. He fled to Raglan Castle, and the 
 siege of Chester was resumed with fresh vigour. 
 Still, it held out bravely till February, 1646, when it 
 surrendered, having suffered more than any other 
 city for the royal cause. Nor did it suffer alone; 
 Northwich, Middlewich, and Nantwich were equally 
 devastated. The end of the Civil War left Cheshire 
 exhausted and desolate. 
 
 At this time we cannot compute the population 
 of Chester at more than 7000, and no other town 
 in the county at more than 2000 inhabitants. Still, 
 the county soon advanced in riches, owing to the 
 goodness of its soil, which had now been brought 
 into cultivation and supplied cattle and dairy 
 produce, while Chester was a centre both for fishing 
 and for trade with Ireland. Moreover, its mines 
 supplied salt, slate, and millstones. Nor was 
 Cheshire to be allured into disquiet by the wiles of 
 its bishop, Thomas Cartwright, who was James II.’s 
 agent for carrying out his policy of a restoration 
 of Roman Catholicism. It was to no purpose that 
 James II. honoured Chester by a visit; when the 
 Revolution broke out, no one in Cheshire moved 
 in James’s favour, and Bishop Cartwright had to 
 follow his royal master into exile. 
 
 From this time onward Cheshire has enjoyed 
 peace and prosperity. Her industrial development 
 has been overshadowed by that of Lancashire, 
 and much that was said about Lancashire applies 
 
 192 
 
Cheshire 
 
 to the neighbouring county of Cheshire. Chester 
 sank in importance as a port before its rival, 
 Liverpool; for the estuary of the Mersey afforded 
 better harbourage than that of the Dee. The 
 entrance to the Dee is wider, but the channel 
 soon grows shallow, and is silted up with sand ; 
 whereas the water is shallow in the entrance to 
 the Mersey, but deepens into a spacious harbour. 
 Many efforts were made to improve the port of 
 Chester, and a new channel was dug at a great 
 cost in 1733 ; but the work was useless, as Chester 
 never became a harbour for large vessels. 
 
 Thus, with the loss of its port, the trade of 
 Cheshire became an appendage to the trade of 
 Lancashire. The eastern side of the county forms 
 part of the same geological formation as Lancashire 
 and Yorkshire, and shares their natural advantages 
 —coal, iron ore, and water-power. The western 
 side of Cheshire is the great plain that reaches 
 to the Dee, and is still mainly an agricultural 
 county, save for its salt works. In it, too, is a 
 distinctive product of our own time, the great town 
 of Crewe, which owes its importance solely to its 
 position as a junction for many lines of railway, 
 and consequently is a convenient centre for the 
 great workshops which the manufacture of loco¬ 
 motives, carriages, and the like necessarily require. 
 
 Thus Cheshire has a peculiar interest as being 
 a county which combines, more distinctly than any 
 other, the traces of the most ancient and of the 
 most modern history of England. The journey 
 from the old walls of Chester to the mills of 
 Macclesfield is but a short one, yet in the course 
 
 193 N 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 of it the traveller can mark almost all the phases 
 through which English life has passed. Chester 
 itself contains almost an epitome of English history. 
 Its prospect over the hills of Wales and the Irish 
 Channel tells of the problems of the earliest rulers 
 of the land, and Chester was the position whose 
 possession helped to their solution. Within its 
 walls are the survivals of every phase of civic life, 
 Castle, Church, Guildhall, and the like. Its archi¬ 
 tecture recalls the time when English life under 
 the Tudors began to assume a settled aspect. Its 
 quaint ‘ rows ’ tell of the business of a mediaeval 
 city, and perhaps call up a reminiscence of the 
 porticos which the Romans, accustomed to a 
 southern sun, introduced into our northern clime. 
 In like manner the country round about abounds 
 in manor-houses which show the growing comfort 
 of English life, till it reached its highest point in 
 the magnificence of Eaton Hall. The salt works 
 along the Weaver represent one of the oldest 
 industries of our land. The Weaver itself passes 
 on into the canals of Brindley and the district which 
 is busy with the hum of modern machinery and 
 filled with the dense population which modern 
 manufactures bring together in places favourable 
 for production on a large scale. 
 
 194 
 
SHROPSHIRE 
 
 S HROPSHIRE is one of the most picturesque, 
 as it is one of the most interesting, of English 
 counties, possessing an interest of its own, as 
 being the border-land between England and Wales, 
 and associated with all the scenes of their unequal 
 contest. It owes its picturesqueness and its his¬ 
 torical interest to the same causes; it is the district 
 where the Welsh mountains die away gradually into 
 the broad valley of the Severn. It was early 
 decided that the lands which lay eastward of the 
 Severn should be English ; it was long a matter of 
 dispute how much of the hilly district which stretched 
 westward should count as English soil. 
 
 In the days of the Romans the need was felt of 
 guarding the passes of the Severn and the line of 
 the great road which led to Chester. So, at the 
 base of Wrekin, the last spur thrown out by the 
 Cambrian range before it disappears in the Severn 
 valley, the Roman town of Uriconium (Wroxeter) 
 was planted as a witness of the Roman rule. It 
 would seem that the situation was attractive, for the 
 remains of Uriconium show a larger enclosure than 
 can be traced in any other Roman town in our 
 island, while the width of its streets and the 
 spaciousness of its public buildings lead to the 
 
 195 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 conclusion that the outskirts of the western hills 
 were the fashionable resort of the wealthy Roman. 
 
 After the departure of the Romans, Wroxeter 
 became the capital of the Princes of Powis, and it 
 was some time before the English conquerors of the 
 east made their way so far westwards. But the 
 defeat of the Britons by the West Saxon King, 
 Ceawlin, at Deorham, in 577, incited the conqueror 
 to penetrate farther up the Severn, and in 583 he 
 made his way through the forest to Uriconium, and 
 took it. The ruins of the town show how com¬ 
 pletely it was plundered and burned, so completely 
 that it was practically swept away, and was left 
 a heap of ruins. From the smoking ruins of the 
 Roman Uriconium Ceawlin advanced to the British 
 town of Pengwyrn (Shrewsbury), which he also 
 destroyed, and then pressed onwards towards 
 Chester. But the Britons of the North gathered 
 their forces and routed the West Saxon host at 
 Faddiley, not far from Nantwich. After this defeat 
 the West Saxons fell back, and the Britons rebuilt 
 their town at Pengwyrn, which then became the 
 capital of the Land of Powis. Uriconium was too 
 hopelessly destroyed to be again restored. 
 
 It was nearly two centuries before the borders 
 of the Britons were again invaded. The Kings of 
 Mercia were engaged in warring against their 
 English neighbours, and felt no inclination to pene¬ 
 trate the forest which led to the Upper Severn. 
 But in 780 the great Mercian King Offa turned his 
 arms against the Britons, claimed Pengwyrn as an 
 English town, and, in token of his claim, gave it an 
 English name. Its new name was the English 
 
 196 
 
Shropshire 
 
 equivalent of its British name ; Pengwyrn, which 
 means ‘ the head of the alder wood,’ gave place to 
 Scrobsbyryg, ‘ the town in the scrub.’ Moreover, 
 Offa carried the Mercian border westward, and 
 marked out its limits by an earthwork, which is still 
 known as Offa’s Dyke, running from the mouth of 
 the Wye to the mouth of the Dee. Englishmen 
 now settled for the first time in the land between 
 this Dyke and the Severn ; but the old inhabitants 
 were not disturbed, and the two races peaceably 
 mingled with one another. 
 
 Thus the lands along the Upper Severn were 
 made part of the Mercian kingdom, and shared its 
 fortunes, in which they did not play a very con¬ 
 spicuous part. When the Danish invasion had 
 been rolled back by the Kings of Wessex, the 
 Mercian kingdom was politically extinct, and was 
 divided into districts corresponding to old local 
 divisions. Most of these districts took their 
 names from the towns round which they centred, 
 as Gloucestershire and Worcestershire; but there 
 was no centre of sufficient importance to give its 
 name to this district, which was called Scrobshire— 
 the shire formed out of the bush (or scrub) region. 
 But the cognate town of Shrewsbury began to show 
 signs of life, and monks found a home in the secluded 
 valley which lay below Wenlock Edge, though the 
 Danish invaders penetrated even to this remote 
 corner of England, and swept the monastery away. 
 In the days of Ethelred the king took refuge at 
 Shrewsbury, and there held meetings of his wise 
 men ; and in the days of Edward the Confessor the 
 ruined monastery of Wenlock was again restored. 
 
 197 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 After the Norman Conquest the men of the 
 West were loth to submit to the rule of the invader. 
 It would seem that some Norman barons pressed 
 onwards to the West, and were so struck by the 
 position of Shrewsbury, rising above the river 
 which winds round it, so as to make it a peninsula, 
 that they held for William the highest point, and 
 began the building of a castle. When the men of 
 the West rose against William in 1069, the town 
 of Shrewsbury was burned, but its fortress still 
 held out; and after the suppression of the rising 
 William bestowed on his trusty follower, Roger of 
 Montgomery, the earldom of Shrewsbury. In this 
 uncleared land were very few landholders, so 
 that almost the whole district was directly in 
 the hands of its earl, whose power was great. 
 Earl Roger built the castle, which dominated the 
 town of Shrewsbury, and put down disorder with a 
 strong hand. But here, in this remote part of 
 England, we have the first evidence of the power 
 of the English race to overcome their conquerors. 
 Amongst the followers of Earl Roger was a priest 
 of Orleans, Odelenis, who was the earl’s chaplain 
 and confessor. He married an English wife—for 
 clerical celibacy was not yet strictly enforced—and 
 his eldest son Orderic was brought up at Shrewsbury, 
 and learned the English tongue. At the age of ten 
 Orderic was devoted to a monastic life, and went 
 across the sea to the monastery of St. Evroul in 
 Normandy. There he abode the rest of his days, 
 paying at least one visit to England. He wrote an 
 Ecclesiastical History of Normandy and England ' 
 and the name which he chose for himself, ‘ Orderic 
 
 198 
 
Shropshire 
 
 the Englishman,’ shows how English and Normans 
 began to combine without much sense of difference. 
 
 Moreover, Orderic’s father, Odelenis, was the 
 adviser of Earl Roger, and urged him to found a 
 monastery at Shrewsbury. For this purpose the 
 church which Odelenis served outside the walls 
 was chosen as the site, and in the Forgate of 
 Shrewsbury rose the stately monastery of St. Mary. 
 Further, the decayed house at Wenlock was founded 
 anew, and care was taken for the religious instruction 
 of a district which, by its position, was still marked 
 out as the seat of border warfare. Earl Roger aimed 
 at making Shrewsbury the seat of government, and 
 built a castle of defence amongst the western hills, 
 which he called by his own name of Montgomery. 
 In later times Earl Roger’s castle, and the town 
 which gathered round it, gave the name to a Welsh 
 county. 
 
 The Welsh war of William II. drove back the 
 Welsh, and carried farther into their territory the 
 ring of Norman castles which pent them in, and 
 drove them to submit. The Earl of Shrewsbury, 
 lord also of Arundel and Chichester, secure in his 
 own domains by the castles of Shrewsbury and 
 Bridgnorth, was almost too powerful a subject. 
 After the death of William II., Robert de Belesme, 
 who held these lands, in addition to many more 
 across the sea in Normandy, rose against Henry I. 
 on behalf of his elder brother Robert’s claim to the 
 English Crown. Robert de Belesme is typical of 
 the evil features of the character of the Norman 
 barons. Violent, cruel, and oppressive, he was a 
 man of craft and cunning, so that he was the terror 
 
 199 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 of his neighbours, great and small alike, and tales of 
 his savagery were rife on every side. He manned 
 his castle of Bridgnorth, and called the Welsh to his 
 help; but Henry I. quickly marched against it, and 
 the Welsh gave way before English gold. Robert 
 de Belesme was forced to submit, to resign to the 
 king all his lands in England, and confine himself to 
 Normandy. There he was the head of opposition 
 to the king, who was not secure till, in 1106, he 
 defeated the Norman barons at Tinchebrai, and 
 consigned Robert de Belesme to prison, where he 
 lingered out his life. From this time onward the 
 earldom of Shrewsbury was vested in the Crown. 
 There also, as at Chester, it was found dangerous 
 to allow such great power to pass from father 
 to son. 
 
 In the anarchy of Stephen’s reign Shrewsbury 
 Castle was held by William Fitzalan for Matilda. 
 It was besieged by Stephen, and William Fitzalan 
 himself fled away, leaving his garrison to hold 
 out by themselves. Stephen’s method of reducing 
 them was at least peculiar. He filled the ditch 
 around it with wood, and set it on fire, so that 
 the garrison was smoked out. When Henry II.’s 
 accession again brought order into the land, the 
 powerful barons of the West refused to surrender 
 the royal castles which they held. Hugh of 
 Mortimer held Bridgnorth, Cleobury, and Wig- 
 more. All were besieged and taken, and Hugh 
 was driven to make submission to the king outside 
 the walls of Bridgnorth in 1157. 
 
 Thus the leading influence for civilisation in 
 Shropshire was that of the barons. Shropshire 
 
 200 
 
Shropshire 
 
 was a land of castles, equalled only by its neighbour, 
 Herefordshire ; it was a land of great lords. The 
 only counterpoise to the military civilisation of the 
 barons was to be found in the peaceful life of the 
 monks ; and the new orders which brought monastic 
 life more into connection with the people—the 
 Austin canons and the Cistercians—both found 
 early homes in Shropshire, the first at Haughmont 
 and Lilleshall, the second at Buildwas. 
 
 However, the time had not yet come when 
 Shropshire could enjoy the blessings of peace. 
 Wales had been acquired by the energy of Norman 
 barons, who each conquered for himself and ruled 
 as a little king in the lands which his sword had 
 won. These lands were known as the Lordship 
 Marches, and the extension of the marches at the 
 expense of the Welsh was steady and persistent till 
 the conquest of Ireland opened out a new field 
 for the enterprise of Norman adventure. After this, 
 the native rulers of Wales had time to raise their 
 heads. At the end of the twelfth century the 
 Prince of Gwynedd (North Wales), Llewelyn ap 
 Iorweth, was of so much importance that King 
 John gave him in marriage a natural daughter as 
 a means of binding him to his side. Llewelyn took 
 part in English affairs, but it was against his father- 
 in-law. He stood by the barons who demanded 
 the signing of the Great Charter, and helped to 
 reduce John to comply with their demands by 
 occupying Shrewsbury in 1215, and only reluctantly 
 restored the places which he had seized in 1218. 
 But Llewelyn was powerful, and Henry III.’s 
 government was weak. In 1225 an expedition 
 
 201 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 against Llewelyn was a failure, and till his death, 
 in 1240, he made head against the Lords Marchers 
 and kept up a constant warfare, in which Shropshire 
 suffered, but Shrewsbury grew in importance as a 
 great centre of military strength. Under Llewelyn 
 ap Gwffydd this Celtic revival became still stronger. 
 He ruled the Principality of Gwynedd with a strong 
 hand, and the land lay open to him from Chester to 
 the Bristol Channel. Henry III. was miserably 
 poor, and bestowed on his son Edward the revenues 
 derived from Wales. But the Welshmen rose, on 
 the grounds that Edward dealt with them not 
 according to their customs, and Edward’s attempt 
 to reduce them by force of arms in 1257 was a 
 failure. The second Llewelyn entered, like his 
 predecessor, into English politics, and took part 
 with Simon de Montfort and the barons against 
 Henry III., while the Lords of the Welsh Marches 
 held for the king. It was their perseverance that 
 finally turned the stream against Earl Simon. The 
 loss of the castles which commanded the Severn— 
 Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Ludlow, and Gloucester— 
 cut him off from his friends in Wales, and left him 
 helpless at Evesham, where he fell before Edward, 
 whose troops had been drawn from the domains of 
 the Lords Marchers. 
 
 Edward I. had learned enough before he came 
 to the throne to make him feel that the reduction 
 of the Principality of Gwynedd, and the destruction 
 of the independent power of its ruler, was a matter of 
 the first importance. He systematically attacked the 
 lands of Llewelyn, whom he slew in battle. The 
 remaining claimant of the old line of kings was 
 
 202 
 
Shropshire 
 
 David, who had received many favours from 
 Edward, had done him homage, and then had con¬ 
 spired against his lord. David was handed over to 
 Edward as a prisoner, and Edward, determined to 
 make an example of him, summoned to Shrewsbury 
 a representative assembly of the laity of the realm, 
 by whom David was tried and condemned to death 
 (1283). His sentence was carried out in Shrews¬ 
 bury. Edward, meanwhile, used the assembly for 
 other than judicial purposes. He dwelt in the 
 castle of his former tutor, Robert Brunell, then 
 Bishop of Bath and Wells, at Acton Brunell, where 
 was framed the Statute of Merchants, one of the 
 most important measures for regulating commerce, 
 by providing for the recovery of debts. The ruins 
 of the castle bring strongly before the mind the 
 memory of the leading features of the age, when 
 commerce was rising into importance, when a great 
 king was striving to bring under one law all the 
 lands that were girt by the same sea. 
 
 Wales, though conquered, was not absorbed into 
 England. The Principality was united to the 
 English Crown, and the eldest son of the king was 
 invested with the dignity of Prince of Wales; but 
 the Lords Marchers still exercised their independent 
 jurisdictions. The Principality was not pacified, 
 in spite of the castles wherewith Edward I. kept it 
 in subjection. There were frequent risings which, 
 added to the wild disorder which prevailed amongst 
 the Lordship Marches, kept the western part of 
 Shropshire in perpetual alarm, and prevented it 
 from settling down to regular industry. In the 
 fourteenth century things gradually improved, till 
 
 203 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 in 1400 Welsh national feeling again awoke under 
 Owen Glendower, and was powerful. Glendower, 
 who owned lands in Merioneth, was aggrieved by 
 his neighbour Lord Grey de Ruthin, and took up 
 arms. Claiming descent from Llewelyn, he rallied 
 the Welsh around him, took the title of Prince of 
 Wales, destroyed Oswestry, and overthrew many 
 castles. In vain Henry IV., insecurely seated on 
 his throne, led his troops against him. The capture 
 of Sir Edmund Mortimer, and Henry’s refusal to 
 ransom him, only gave Glendower an ally amongst 
 the English, who opened up negotiations with the 
 discontented Percys of the North. This dangerous 
 combination was checked by the promptitude of 
 Henry IV., who succeeded in overtaking the 
 Northumbrian forces of Percy and the Scots under 
 Douglas at Hately Field, near Shrewsbury, before 
 Glendower had time to join his troops with theirs. 
 There, on July 4, 1403, was fought a stubborn battle, 
 which was only ended in Henry’s favour by the 
 death of Percy; it was so hardly fought that half 
 the combatants on either side were left dead upon 
 the field. Again Shrewsbury saw the execution of 
 traitors, who were treated with all the barbarity 
 which was the fate of the last of the Welsh princes. 
 But though Henry IV. had overcome his English 
 rebels, he could not succeed in vanquishing Glen¬ 
 dower, who, till his death, in 1415, continued to hold 
 his own and devastate the lands of the Lordship 
 Marches. 
 
 His death was followed by the reconquest of 
 Wales and the enactment of severe laws against the 
 Welsh, which only had the result of driving them 
 
 204 
 
Shropshire 
 
 to form organised bands of robbers, whose raids 
 disturbed the law. To stop these disorders, in 1478 
 a special Court was erected, the Court of the Presi¬ 
 dent and Council of the Marches of Wales, with 
 summary jurisdiction over the disturbers of the public 
 peace. The headquarters of this Council were fixed 
 at Ludlow Castle by Edward IV., who had himself 
 been brought up there in his youth. This measure 
 was in some degree successful ; but the descent of 
 Henry VII. from Owen Tudor was still more suc¬ 
 cessful in gratifying the national sentiment of the 
 Welsh, and making them loyal to the English 
 Crown. To humour this national feeling, Arthur, 
 the eldest son of Henry VII., took up his abode 
 at Ludlow, after his marriage with Catherine of 
 Aragon, with a view of residing there as ruler of 
 the Principality. He died at Ludlow three months 
 after his settlement there, but from that time onward 
 Ludlow Castle was the seat of the President of the 
 Council of Wales. Henry VIII. made this office 
 of less importance in 1536, when Wales was incor¬ 
 porated with England, and the lands of the Lords 
 Marchers were formed into shires, with English 
 principles of self-government and representation in 
 the English Parliament. It was at this time that 
 the boundaries of Shropshire were definitely fixed. 
 
 From this time onwards the prosperity of 
 Shropshire steadily increased, as it was freed from 
 its former causes of disquiet. On the dissolution 
 of the monasteries there was a proposal for a Bishop 
 of Shrewsbury, but it was not carried out. The 
 Council of Wales took the place of the Council of 
 the Lords Marchers, who, from a crowd of little 
 
 205 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 princes, sank into the position of quiet country 
 gentlemen. As times became more quiet the trade 
 of Shrewsbury flourished; it was the great market 
 for the cloth trade with Wales, and was one of the 
 chief commercial centres of England. It is to the 
 sudden growth of its commerce in the Tudor reigns 
 that Shrewsbury owes much of its picturesqueness 
 at the present day. Substantial dwelling-houses 
 were built by substantial merchants, and there has 
 been in later times no sufficient expansion of trade 
 or increase of population to sweep away these 
 memorials of the past. The school founded by 
 Edward VI. erected its buildings, and counted 
 amongst its early pupils Sir Philip Sidney. His 
 father, Sir Henry Sidney, was President of Wales 
 from 1559 to 1586, and did much to bring the land 
 into order and develop its industry. 
 
 A still more famous President was the Earl of 
 Bridgewater, famous, not for himself, but for an 
 accident which has given to Ludlow Castle imperish¬ 
 able memories. Shortly after Lord Bridgewater’s 
 arrival there, his daughter, Lady Alice Egerton, 
 and her two brothers, were benighted in the Hay 
 Wood, near Richard’s Castle, some three miles 
 distant, where they had gone for a ramble. This 
 incident gave Milton the motive for his masque of 
 Comus, which was set to music, and was played in 
 Ludlow Castle, by those whose adventure had called 
 it forth, in 1634. 
 
 In the great Civil War, Shropshire, like most of 
 the West of England, held for the king. It was 
 not, however, the scene of great engagements, 
 though it was often visited by the king, and its 
 
 206 
 
Shropshire 
 
 castles were besieged by the Parliamentary generals 
 after the Battle of Naseby. Bridgnorth Castle was 
 entirely destroyed, and most of the town was burnt; 
 Shrewsbury and Ludlow both suffered sieges ; most 
 of the Shropshire castles were dismantled and swept 
 away. But after the Restoration Ludlow Castle 
 was repaired, and again became the seat of the 
 President of Wales. There, in a chamber over the 
 gateway, Samuel Butler, steward of the Earl of 
 Carbery, wrote his Hiidibras, the work which 
 expresses most clearly in imaginative form the 
 powerful reaction against Puritanism which caused 
 the Restoration. But Ludlow, which had been the 
 home of two great poets, was not long to enjoy its 
 proud distinction. After the Revolution of 1688, 
 the Court of Wales was swept away, and the 
 historical importance of Shropshire as an inde¬ 
 pendent seat of government finally disappeared. 
 The castle of Ludlow fell into decay, and survives 
 only as a stately ruin; but the ruin tells a tale of 
 the continuous history of England. The massive 
 walls of the Norman keep, and the lovely round 
 chapel, with its Norman doorway, are attached to 
 buildings which were constantly being changed in 
 accordance with the changes of English social life. 
 We can see how the military fortress of an early 
 age grew into the stately house of an Elizabethan 
 gentleman, for whom convenience of daily life was 
 more important than safety from invasion. In the 
 ruins of Ludlow Castle we can find traces of the 
 domestic architecture of almost every period between 
 1100 and 1700. It is an epitome of the social 
 history of England. 
 
 207 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 In fact, Shropshire altogether is full of records 
 of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the time 
 when the shire recovered from the ravages of the 
 Welsh wars, and enjoyed an exceptional prosperity. 
 The land was fertile, and Shrewsbury was the 
 natural market for Wales, whose produce, par¬ 
 ticularly cloths, was carried on the backs of 
 mountain ponies to Shrewsbury market, which was 
 a great centre of commercial activity. Moreover, 
 Shrewsbury was a provincial capital in the days 
 before increased rapidity and ease of travelling 
 destroyed all local sentiment, and made London 
 the capital of England in a way which had been 
 impossible in early days. It is this quiet period 
 of England’s prosperity, before the changes wrought 
 by steam and machinery, which Shropshire specially 
 illustrates. The county is not particularly rich in 
 minerals, and no great manufactures have sprung 
 up, save at Coalbrook Dale, on its south-eastern 
 border. It still is mainly a pastoral country, with 
 rich pasture-lands and flocks of sheep. It is pros¬ 
 perous ; but its prosperity is of the same kind as 
 that which it enjoyed in former days, and has taken 
 no new development which has swept away the 
 traces of its past. It is still a land rich in old 
 remains, in the timbered houses of the sixteenth 
 century, in the seats of country gentlemen, in all 
 that tells of life well cared for, and prosperity which 
 has not overshot its limits or grown suddenly beyond 
 the capacities of men to keep pace with its demands. 
 Shropshire, with its neighbours north and south, 
 has many interesting characteristics. It shows the 
 growth of agricultural prosperity in a fertile district, 
 
 208 
 
Shropshire 
 
 which became prosperous as soon as it was freed 
 from disorder. It shows how the baronial civili¬ 
 sation of early times gave way before the changed 
 conditions of country which began in the reigns of 
 the Tudor kings. It still bears on its surface the 
 traces of the gradual progress of English society in 
 a region where local life was strong, and where its 
 course has been but slightly affected by the develop¬ 
 ment of modern industry, which in other counties 
 has nearly obliterated the records of the past. 
 
 209 
 
 o 
 
STAFFORD 
 
 \ 
 
 T HE district contained within the county of 
 Stafford, like that which forms the neigh¬ 
 bouring counties of Warwick and Worcester, 
 was, in old times, little known and scantily peopled. 
 On the north, the moorlands of the Peak made way 
 for a fringe of woodland, which broadened into the 
 Forest of Needwood, reaching to the valley of the 
 Trent. Westward of this rose a bleak upland, 
 known later as Cannock Chase, which stretched 
 almost to the Forest of Arden. There was little in 
 such a district to attract the Roman colonists, 
 though the Roman road from Leicester to Chester 
 skirted the Forest of Needwood, and was held by 
 a station at Uttoxeter; while another Roman road 
 made its way between Cannock Chase and the 
 Forest of Arden. It is not here, however, that we 
 need stop to gather together traces of the Roman 
 occupation of Britain. The real history of the 
 district begins with the coming of the English, who 
 followed the basin of the Trent, and made their 
 settlements along its course. One band of adven¬ 
 turers penetrated to its junction with the Tame, 
 and spread along the open country by its banks. 
 There, where the ground rises by the spot where 
 
 210 
 
Stafford 
 
 the Tame receives the waters of the Anker, they 
 made their first settlement, and called it Tamworth. 
 They next made themselves masters of the country 
 which lay below the moorland of Cannock Chase ; 
 and the name of Lichfield, ‘ the field of corpses,’ is 
 said to mark the site of the battle in which they 
 overcame the Britons who gathered to resist the 
 inroads of the invader. After this battle, those 
 English of the West skirted the bleak tract of 
 Cannock Chase by following the Roman road of 
 Watling Street, and then passing the valley of the 
 Penk; while others went northwards and struck 
 the valley of the Sow. Near the junction of the 
 Penk and the Sow they made another settlement 
 at Stafford, or the ford over the broadening stream, 
 which could be crossed by the help of a staff. 
 Further northwards they did not penetrate for two 
 centuries, but were content with guarding against 
 the Welsh the territory which they had gained, and 
 so were known by the name of the Mercians, or 
 Men of the March. 
 
 At first these Marchmen were scattered tribes, 
 inhabiting the basin of the Trent. They seem, 
 however, soon to have drawn together into a 
 kingdom, and under their king, Penda (526-655), 
 began a career of conquest at the expense of their 
 neighbours. Discord amongst the West Saxon 
 tribes enabled Penda to extend his sway over the 
 Hwiccas, who dwelt in the modern shires of 
 Worcester and Gloucester, and the Hecanas of 
 Herefordshire. Then he attacked the Eastern 
 English and the English of Northumberland, and 
 for a time was successful. Penda was a heathen, 
 
 211 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 stern and savage, who wrought much havoc 
 wherever he went on his plundering raids ; but at 
 the last he fell in battle against the Northumbrians, 
 and on his fall the Mercian power was broken. 
 Penda’s son, Peada, became a Christian, and was 
 in subjection to the Northumbrian king. This 
 subjection did not last long; for, under Wulfhere, 
 in 659, Mercia again was free, and began a new 
 career of conquest. We need not follow the ups 
 and downs of its successes as the great military 
 power in England. Its people were still fierce and 
 rugged, for Christianity had made little progress 
 amongst them. It was left for the archbishop, who 
 was sent from Rome, Theodore of Tarsus, to 
 organise the work of the Church in England ; and 
 nowhere did it need more organisation than in 
 Mercia. There, in 669, Theodore set up a bishop 
 at Lichfield, and chose for that office Ceadda, or 
 Chad, a monk of Lastingham, who, in Wilfrid’s long 
 absence on the Continent, had been made Bishop 
 of York in his stead. Chad’s simple piety so 
 impressed those that saw him that they held him in 
 great honour, and after his death, in 672, men took 
 him for a saint, so that the Church of St. Chad still 
 marks the spot where he lived and laboured. Soon 
 after his death, Archbishop Theodore carried further 
 the organisation of the Mercian Church by setting 
 up bishops at Worcester, Hereford, and Leicester; 
 so that the see of Lichfield contained the district of 
 the Mercians proper, and their annexations by 
 conquest received the recognition of ecclesiastical 
 independence. The district contained within the 
 modern county of Stafford was the heart of the 
 
 212 
 
Stafford 
 
 original Mercian kingdom. Its king dwelt at 
 Tamworth; its bishop at Lichfield. The district 
 began to increase in importance. The settlement 
 of Wolverhampton, in the middle of the forest, tells 
 by its name of the ravages made by the wild 
 wolves on the flocks of its first inhabitants. Along 
 the valley of the Trent a monastery was planted at 
 Burton, which became a centre of agricultural life. 
 
 The eighth century saw Mercia, under its king, 
 Ethelbald, supreme over Britain south of the 
 Humber ; but at the battle of Burford, in 754, the 
 West Saxons won a victory which secured their 
 independence, and they never lost it again. For a 
 time it seemed that England was to be permanently 
 divided into three kingdoms—Northumberland, 
 Mercia, and Wessex. The Mercian king, Offa, 
 sought to extend his dominions by warring against 
 the Welsh, and carried his arms to the Wye, where 
 he fixed his frontier by the earthwork, Offa’s Dyke, 
 which joined the Wye and the Dee. Offa designed 
 to make his kingdom as important as were North¬ 
 umberland and Wessex, and for this purpose 
 obtained the Pope’s permission, in 786, to raise the 
 see of Lichfield to an archbishopric. Northumber¬ 
 land had raised the see of York to an archbishopric, 
 and Offa desired a like dignity for Mercia. So 
 for a time there was an Archbishop of Lichfield, 
 with the bishops of Mercia and East Anglia for his 
 suffragans. But this project, which would have had 
 a strong influence in keeping England divided, 
 scarcely survived its designer. Offa’s successor, 
 beset by difficulties, gained an ally in the Arch¬ 
 bishop of Canterbury, by suppressing the Mercian 
 
 213 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 archbishopric in 803. Soon after that, Mercia was 
 distracted by civil war. Its glory passed rapidly 
 away, and in 828 it submitted to the West Saxon 
 Egbert. Indeed, the power of Mercia rested solely 
 on the sword, and depended upon the character of 
 its kings. It had no organisation, and no great 
 centre of national life. Tamworth was only the 
 residence of its king, and Lichfield of its bishop. It 
 showed no intellectual activity, and had no strongly 
 marked characteristics. It was a loose confederacy 
 rather than a regulated kingdom. When once it 
 had fallen, there was no point round which patriotism 
 could gather. 
 
 When the Danes invaded Mercia in 874, they 
 met with little resistance. It was left to the West 
 Saxon King Alfred to check their ravages, and when 
 he made peace with them, in 878, Mercia was 
 divided, and the western part only was left in 
 English hands. Thus it came about that there is a 
 strong Danish element in the neighbouring counties 
 of Derby and Leicester, while Staffordshire shows 
 little trace of their presence. This division com¬ 
 pleted the destruction of the national feeling of 
 Mercia. Over the part that remained English 
 Alfred set a Mercian ruler, Ethelred, and gave 
 him his sister Ethelfled to wife. Ethelred died in 
 912, and Ethelfled, ‘the Lady of the Mercians,’ as 
 she was called, began a work for the protection of 
 her frontier, which was of great importance in the 
 future. She fortified the line of the Roman road of 
 Watling Street, and erected a mound crowned by a 
 fortress at Tamworth, and another at Stafford. By 
 this means she occupied the strongest positions in 
 
 214 
 
Stafford 
 
 Central England, and was able in a few years to 
 drive out the Danes from the entire valley of the 
 Trent. King Althelstan often held his court at 
 Tamworth ; and before 930 the power of the Danes 
 had been broken, and England was united under 
 the West Saxon king. The old kingdom of 
 Mercia had entirely passed away, and its domains 
 were portioned out into shires for the convenience of 
 government. Even the central part kept no trace 
 of its old name, but was grouped round the fortress 
 of Stafford, and took the name of Staffordshire. 
 
 This union of England was premature, and the 
 central power was not able to hold the country 
 together. A separate ruler for Mercia was soon 
 needed, and in the years before the Norman Con¬ 
 quest the Mercian earl was an important person. 
 But when William the Norman claimed to sit upon 
 the English throne, those who had done nothing to 
 prevent his conquest were foremost to rebel against 
 him. In 1069 Staffordshire rose in revolt, and was 
 visited by William with the punishment which he 
 never failed to mete out to resistance. The lands 
 of the shire were laid waste; the English owners 
 were driven out; Normans were set in their stead, 
 and a castle was built at Stafford to keep rebellious 
 spirits in awe. Further, Staffordshire seemed likely 
 to lose its ecclesiastical position ; for Lichfield did 
 not seem to the Norman love of organisation a fit 
 place for a bishop’s church. The English sees had 
 been founded for tribes, and sometimes had their 
 seats in villages. The Normans were accustomed 
 to the sight of a cathedral rising in stately grandeur 
 over a populous town. Lichfield was merely a 
 
 215 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 village which gathered round a church; so William 
 I. ordered that the see should be transferred to 
 Chester. The next Norman bishop, however, looked 
 with longing eyes on the minster of Coventry, and 
 took that as the chief church of his diocese. But 
 the fame of St. Chad could not be entirely forgotten, 
 and the see was known as the diocese of Coventry 
 and Lichfield, by which title it existed till the disso¬ 
 lution of the monasteries swept away the monastery 
 of Coventry, and restored Lichfield to its original 
 dignity. 
 
 The county of Stafford was not a very attractive 
 place of residence, and William the Conqueror 
 granted much of its western part to Hugh of Mont¬ 
 gomery, Earl of Arundel, whose main possessions 
 lay elsewhere. The rest was chiefly held by the 
 lords of the castles of Stafford, Tamworth, and 
 Tutbury. The only important monastery was Bur¬ 
 ton, though there were collegiate churches at Stafford 
 and Tamworth. Other castles were built and 
 monasteries were founded as time went on. But the 
 mediaeval history of Staffordshire is not important. 
 Its bishop, elected by the monks of Lichfield and 
 Coventry together, passed from one place to another, 
 and the disputes concerning his election between the 
 rival bodies of electors fill a large part of the annals 
 of the see. We do not even know from any records 
 the history of the building of the graceful cathedral, 
 whose three fair spires, rising behind the Minster 
 Pool, are now the chief architectural glory of the 
 county. We can only say that the church was built 
 gradually between the years 1200 and 1350, and 
 that the elegant disposition of the west front shows 
 
 216 
 
Stafford 
 
 that it was the work of men who had no niggard 
 spirit. History has most to say of wars and tumults ; 
 and we have no written trace of the gradual process 
 by which the limits of the forest were gradually 
 diminished and the plough of the husbandman 
 pressed on into the waste. For the most part, 
 Staffordshire was left in tolerable peace. Its castles 
 were not in very strong positions, and their lords 
 either held other castles elsewhere, or were not men 
 of great importance. Even the barons’ war against 
 Henry III. did not much affect Staffordshire, though 
 it led to the forfeiture of the estates of Henry Ferrars, 
 Earl of Derby, after which the Castle of Tutbury 
 was conferred on Edward, the king’s son, and be¬ 
 came a part of the possessions of the great earldom 
 of Lancaster. Edmund’s son, Thomas, headed the 
 baronial opposition against the feeble Edward II., 
 and fortified his castle of Tutbury. In 1322 Edward 
 marched against him, and gathered his forces at 
 Lichfield. Earl Thomas manned the bridge of 
 Burton to prevent the king’s passage, but his 
 attempt was vain. He dared not defend Tutbury, 
 but fled into Yorkshire, where he was defeated and 
 put to death. In this war the abbey of Burton 
 suffered great loss, and the town was laid waste. 
 Tutbury Castle followed the fortunes of the house 
 of Lancaster, and on the accession of Henry IV. was 
 joined to the Crown, and now forms part of the 
 possessions of the Duchy of Lancaster. 
 
 In 1459 the Wars of the Roses disturbed the 
 peace of Staffordshire, and a battle was fought upon 
 the western border of the county. It was during 
 a period of hollow reconciliation between the two 
 
 217 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 parties, when Queen Margaret was in Chester 
 endeavouring to gather troops from Wales. She 
 had enrolled a body of 10,000 men, who were put 
 under the command of Lord Audley, when news 
 was brought that the Earl of Salisbury was march¬ 
 ing with 5000 men to join the Duke of York at 
 Ludlow. Lord Audley was sent to cut him off, and 
 the two forces met on Bloreheath. Salisbury took 
 up a position on the bank of a little stream, which 
 was not broad, but deep, and with steep banks. 
 When the evening advanced, he pretended to be 
 struck with panic, and withdrew. This encouraged 
 the royalists to press on into the stream, abandoning 
 their military order. As soon as they were con¬ 
 fused by scrambling up the bank, Salisbury returned 
 and fell upon them. A desperate fight ensued, in 
 which Salisbury was victor, despite the disadvantage 
 of numbers. Audley was slain, and 2400 of his 
 soldiers were left corpses on the field. Queen 
 Margaret fled to Eccleshall Castle, and Salisbury 
 joined the Duke of York at Ludlow, where he was 
 soon afterwards defeated by Henry VI., and driven 
 to flee to Calais. 
 
 There is not much to tell that is especially 
 characteristic of the history of Staffordshire in the 
 period that followed. Its monasteries disappeared, 
 and have left few traces. Its towns were not im¬ 
 portant, and its manufactories were insignificant. 
 The chief industry carried on was the making of 
 woollen caps, and even that began to fail in the 
 middle of the sixteenth century, when greater habits 
 of luxury began to prevail. The trade of England 
 passed to the east and south, and the western and 
 
 218 
 
Stafford 
 
 midland shires declined in importance. In 1575 
 Queen Elizabeth paid a visit to Stafford, which 
 tried to do honour to its royal visitor. * Each man’s 
 house was new painted, and the streets were 
 gravelled.’ The mayor presented the Queen with 
 a gold cup ; but Elizabeth saw at a glance the signs 
 of unmistakable poverty. ‘ Alas, poor souls,’ she 
 said, ‘ other towns give us of their plenty, but you 
 give us of your want.’ She attempted to revive 
 the decaying industry of the West by an Act of 
 Parliament, which imposed a fine on any one under 
 a certain rank who presumed to wear a felt hat 
 instead of the old-fashioned woollen cap—an Act 
 which was no more successful than other like 
 attempts to stem the tide of fashion. 
 
 During the reign of Elizabeth the Castle of 
 Tutbury was a place of some importance as the 
 prison, at several periods of her captivity, of the 
 luckless Mary Queen of Scots. Elizabeth knew 
 how to make her nobles useful, and she saddled the 
 Earl of Shrewsbury with the duty of acting as 
 gaoler to the Scottish Queen. Shrewsbury was 
 chosen for this purpose because his houses were 
 many, and all were situated in secure and unfre¬ 
 quented parts of the middle of England, so as to be 
 safe from all attempts at a surprise. The dilapi¬ 
 dated Castle of Tutbury was held by Shrewsbury 
 on lease from the Crown, and was the strongest 
 but the most uncomfortable of his dwellings. It 
 was damp, gloomy, and difficult of access ; more 
 like a prison than a house. Thither Mary was 
 taken for security from the rising of the North in 
 1 5^9 _ 1 570 ; thither again she was removed in 1584, 
 
 219 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 and thence was transferred to the neighbouring 
 manor house of Chartley, which belonged to the 
 Earl of Essex, in order that evidence of her plots 
 might more easily be obtained. Already the ale of 
 Burton was celebrated, and a brewer of Burton, 
 who supplied Mary with ale, devised a means of 
 carrying out her letters in the empty casks. This 
 brewer, however, was a spy of Walsingham’s, and 
 Mary’s letters were all copied before they were 
 delivered. The correspondence was allowed to go 
 on till enough evidence was obtained to justify 
 a charge against Mary of plotting against Eliza¬ 
 beth’s life. Then Chartley Manor had served its 
 purpose of a trap, and Mary was removed to Tix- 
 hall, while her rooms at Chartley were diligently 
 searched. 
 
 When the great Civil War broke out, the gentry 
 of Staffordshire ranged themselves on the king’s 
 side, and Tam worth, Lichfield, and Stafford were 
 garrisoned by the royal troops. In 1643, Lord 
 Brook, the owner of Warwick Castle, was sent by 
 Parliament to break up this line of fortresses, which 
 secured to Charles I. free communications with the 
 North. He marched against Lichfield, a place of 
 not more than a thousand inhabitants, where the 
 Royalists turned the cathedral and the close into 
 a fortress. Standing on high ground, surrounded 
 by water, it was a strong position, and Lord Brook 
 gave orders to open fire against the cathedral 
 buildings. As he stood in the street watching 
 the gunner who was aiming his cannon, a shot 
 was fired from the cathedral battlements, which 
 entered his eye and penetrated his brain, so that 
 
 220 
 
Stafford 
 
 he fell dead. The siege, however, was continued, 
 and the garrison of the close were soon compelled to 
 surrender on March 4. The Parliamentary forces 
 were in some measure excusable for treating- the 
 cathedral as a captured fortress: they manned the 
 close, plundered the cathedral, and wrought great 
 havoc of its monuments and ornaments; but on 
 April 10 Prince Rupert appeared before Lichfield, 
 and, after another siege, which lasted ten days, the 
 cathedral was recovered by the Loyalists, who held 
 it till 1646. It is probable that the soldiers of 
 both sides had a share in the havoc which was 
 made of the sacred building. After the Restora¬ 
 tion, when Bishop Hacket went to take possession 
 of the See of Lichfield, he found his cathedral 
 encumbered with rubbish, battered by cannon-balls, 
 its western tower in ruins. On the morning after 
 his arrival, he roused his servants at daybreak, and 
 set them to work with all his horses to begin the 
 restoration, which he assiduously continued for 
 eight years. The great architect, Christopher 
 Wren, repaired the fallen spires, and in 1669 
 Bishop Hacket could celebrate its restoration for 
 public worship. Nor was Lichfield the only place 
 that was the seat of war in Staffordshire. On 
 March 19, 1642, the Earl of Northampton, who 
 was marching to the recovery of Lichfield, was 
 met at Hopton Heath, near Stafford, by the 
 Parliamentary forces, and fell in an indecisive battle. 
 At the end of 1643 Parliament ordered the Castle 
 of Stafford to be demolished ; and before the war 
 was ended all the strongholds in the county had 
 been destroyed. 
 
 221 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Staffordshire was the scene of the beoflnninor of 
 
 o o 
 
 Charles II.’s romantic adventures after the battle 
 of Worcester in 1651. He fled from Worcester in 
 company with the Earl of Derby, who advised him 
 to seek refuge in the house of Boscobel, on the 
 borders of Staffordshire, which had been adopted 
 as a hiding-place for Roman priests. In the 
 woods between Boscobel and Whiteladies, Charles, 
 disguised as a woodcutter, was concealed by the 
 devotion of four labourers of the name of Pendrell. 
 There, when the pursuit was hottest, Charles was 
 hidden in an old oak, whose top had been polled 
 and sent forth a dense covert of young branches. 
 Thence he escaped by night to the house of another 
 friend at Morley, and thence to Burtley Hall, near 
 Walsall. Its owner, Colonel Lane, had obtained 
 a pass for his sister and a servant to go to Bristol 
 on a visit to a relative. Charles took the servant’s 
 place, and rode before Miss Lane on her journey. 
 The story is one which gives a high sense of the 
 sturdy resoluteness and uprightness of the Stafford¬ 
 shire folk. 
 
 The end of the seventeenth century saw Stafford¬ 
 shire a poor county, with a diminished population, 
 and scanty resources. Its revival came not from 
 its old historic centres, but from the cold and clayey 
 district which lay almost neglected in the north of 
 the shire. There from early times a small manu¬ 
 facture of pottery had been carried on, but it was 
 not till the beginning of the eighteenth century 
 that it became of any importance. Then the 
 growth of comfort created a demand for something 
 better than wooden or pewter trenchers, and the 
 
 222 
 
Stafford 
 
 importation of pottery from Holland and from the 
 East gave a model for native workmen. Two 
 Germans, of the name of Elers, settled near Burslem 
 about 1690, because they found that the red clay 
 of the neighbourhood was well suited to produce 
 imitations of the red-ware of Japan. They intro¬ 
 duced the process of glazing with salt, and kept 
 their methods a profound secret, till a clever 
 mechanic, John Astbury, by feigning himself an 
 idiot, contrived to get admission to their works and 
 discover their operations. The accidental observa¬ 
 tion of an ostler’s remedy for sore eyes in a horse, 
 by burning a flint and blowing its powdered ashes 
 into the eye, led Astbury to discover the use of 
 calcined flint as a material for mixing with clay in 
 the manufacture of pottery. When inventiveness 
 was once stimulated, it rapidly progressed, and little 
 by little the material was made harder and finer, its 
 colour was improved, and, above all, new methods 
 of glazing were discovered. It was reserved for 
 Josiah Wedgwood, sprung from a family of Staf¬ 
 fordshire potters, to give an artistic value to the 
 products of English pottery. By a series of 
 laborious experiments he succeeded in carrying 
 the manufacture to a pitch of perfection in which 
 it could compete with the produce of any other 
 country. The Potteries rapidly became one of the 
 busiest parts of England, and all that was needed 
 for its growth was better means of conveying the 
 ware to the great markets. The success of 
 Brindley’s canal between Manchester and Liver¬ 
 pool suggested the extension of a system of water- 
 carriage to Staffordshire, and a canal which should 
 
 223 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 join the Mersey with the Trent was projected in 
 1765. This Grand Trunk Canal was a great work, 
 and the tunnel through which it entered Stafford¬ 
 shire at Harecastle was a memorable step in 
 English engineering. It was 2880 yards long, but 
 was made so low and narrow that barges had to be 
 propelled through it by men pushing with their legs 
 against the roof. The traffic was so great that this 
 had to be amended, and a second tunnel, broad 
 enough for horses, was afterwards constructed by 
 Telford. 
 
 While the north of the county was thus pro¬ 
 gressing in industry, the southern part was sharing 
 in the activity which centred in Birmingham. 
 The district which contains Walsall, Wednesbury, 
 Dudley, and Wolverhampton forms part of the 
 ‘ Black Country,’ and is now busied with manu¬ 
 factories of many kinds. But between the Potteries 
 and the ‘ Black Country ’ lies the moorland and 
 forest region of Central Staffordshire, which still 
 pursues purely agricultural pursuits. Nowhere in 
 England is greater peace than on the uplands 
 of Needwood Forest or of Cannock Chase. If 
 Staffordshire in early days was neglected by its 
 landowners, who preferred more cultivated spots, 
 modern times have redressed the grievance, and 
 few parts of England are more attractive for the 
 enjoyment of country life. The great houses of 
 Trentham, Alton Towers, and Beaudesert are only 
 foremost in the list of mansions which are scattered 
 through the woodland ; while the trim villages 
 which gather in their neighbourhood possess the 
 charm which English villages alone can claim. 
 
 224 
 
DERBY 
 
 I F the district contained in the county of Stafford 
 was wild and uninhabitable in early days, still 
 wilder was the land which lies within the 
 Derbyshire of to-day. It was, indeed, isolated on 
 every side. On the north lay the bleak uplands of 
 the Peak ; on the west, the Forest of Need wood 
 and Cannock Chase; on the south, the great Forest 
 of Arden ; and on the east stretched the Forest of 
 Sherwood, closely followed by that of Charnwood. 
 Only along the valley of the Trent was access 
 possible, and it would seem that a tribe of English 
 settlers in quest of a home rambled northwards 
 from the Trent Valley, following the Derwent and 
 the Dove, till they were stopped by the moorlands 
 of the Peak. They stayed by themselves in their 
 inhospitable home, and went by the name of the 
 Pec-setan, or dwellers by the Peak. Their chief 
 settlement lay in the valley of the Derwent, and 
 they called it by the name of Northweorthig. 
 
 The Pec-setan did not long enjoy the doubtful 
 boon of isolation, but were soon absorbed by their 
 kindred of the West, and formed part of the great 
 kingdom of Middle England, which was brought 
 together by the Mercian Penda in 626. In fact, 
 
 225 p 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Staffordshire and Derbyshire together may be con¬ 
 sidered as the original seat of this kingdom, which 
 afterwards was widely extended. However much 
 its boundaries changed, the lands which make up 
 these two shires were never severed from one 
 another. Ecclesiastical divisions are more per¬ 
 manent than civil divisions, and the modern district 
 of Derbyshire always in old times formed part of 
 the Mercian see of Lichfield. 
 
 We need not trace again the fortunes of the 
 Mercian kingdom. It is enough to say that the 
 invasion of the Danes completed its overthrow, and 
 rendered its revival impossible. In 877 an army of 
 the Danes entered Mercia, and took possession of 
 the eastern part of the old kingdom. It was their 
 conquest which drew the line of separation between 
 Staffordshire and Derbyshire; and it was their 
 settlement which gave the name of Derby, or 
 Deoraby, to the old English village of North- 
 weorthig. The name they gave, meaning ‘the 
 place of the deer,’ shows that the village lay in 
 the midst of a waste land, where the chase of wild 
 animals provided the chief means of subsistence. 
 Under the Danish rule Derby became a place of 
 greater importance, chiefly as a military centre. 
 The Danish territory in Middle England was 
 known as the district of the Five Boroughs, because 
 it centred round the towns of Derby, Leicester, 
 Stamford, Nottingham, and Lincoln. The Danes did 
 not, however, find the district round Derby very 
 favourable for their settlements, and the traces left 
 of their presence by the suffix by to the names of 
 places are not so numerous as they are further east. 
 
 226 
 
Derby 
 
 Still, Derby became a place of importance, and 
 when the English power began to revive under the 
 West Saxon King Alfred, his daughter Ethelfled, 
 ‘ the Lady of the Mercians,’ undertook the conquest 
 of the Five Boroughs. Derby was the first to fall 
 in 917, and it was not long before the Danish 
 supremacy over Middle England had disappeared. 
 In the re-organisation that followed upon this 
 conquest the Mercian kingdom was divided into 
 shires, and the district round Derby represented 
 the northern part of the original settlement of the 
 Mercians. 
 
 The Danish invasion destroyed such signs of 
 civilisation as the district had possessed. In the 
 days of the Mercian kingdom Repton had shared 
 with Tamworth the dignity of being the residence 
 of the king, and was the seat of a great monastery, 
 which the Danes swept away. The old renown of 
 Repton led to the building of a church in the tenth 
 century, of which the crypt remains, and its spiral 
 pillars are still among the most noticeable relics of 
 Saxon architecture. Other traces of old churches 
 scattered along the river valleys show that in the 
 tenth century population was steadily increasing in 
 Derbyshire, and that the amalgamation of the 
 Danes made the district of greater importance than 
 before. Still, Derbyshire remained somewhat isolated 
 amidst its forests, and after the Norman Conquest 
 required no special measures for its reduction. The 
 greater part of its lands was given by William the 
 Conqueror to Henry de Ferrers, whose grandson 
 was created Earl of Derby. But Henry built his 
 chief castle at Tutbury, just beyond the limits of the 
 
 227 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 shire. The earliest of the castle-builders in Derby¬ 
 shire was William Peveril, a natural son of the king, 
 who built a castle on a tongue of land projecting 
 from the hill of the Peak, at a place which took the 
 name of Castleton ; and further south he guarded 
 his domains by another castle on the hill of 
 Bolsover. The only monastic landowner in Derby¬ 
 shire at the time of the Doomsday Survey was the 
 Abbot of Burton, and the old monastic orders did 
 not choose this district for their seat. The order of 
 the Austin canons, who came to England in the 
 reign of Henry I., were the first who made settle¬ 
 ments in Derbyshire. They built their houses at 
 Derby and Dale, also at Calle, whence they trans¬ 
 ferred themselves to Repton, which was founded 
 anew by their efforts. But the monastic houses of 
 Derbyshire were not of great importance, and were 
 not of a kind to contribute much to the development 
 of the uncleared country or the improvement of 
 agriculture. 
 
 Derbyshire remained throughout the Middle 
 Ages scantily peopled, save in the south. It was 
 a land of forests ; the Peak was kept well stocked 
 with deer for the royal hunting, and fifty-four smaller 
 forests could be counted in the rest of the shire. 
 Its men were a race of sturdy warriors, who went 
 forth at times to war against the Scots. Indeed, it 
 would seem that the barrier of the Peak was con¬ 
 sidered to be the only safeguard against the Scottish 
 raids; for the Bishop of Carlisle, who received the 
 church of Melbourn from Henry I. as part of the 
 endowment of his see, built himself a palace there, 
 and used to hold ordinations in the church when 
 
 228 
 
Derby 
 
 the Scottish invasions rendered his Border city 
 an unsafe place of abode. 
 
 Sometimes the military prowess of the men of 
 Derbyshire was revived in behalf of the rebellious 
 schemes of their chief lord, the Earl of Derby. In 
 the reign of Henry II., Robert de Ferrers was one 
 of those who rose against the king, and a century 
 later his descendant took advantage of the general 
 discontent against the weak government of Henry 
 III. to try and gain something for himself. He 
 was regarded as faithful neither to the king nor to 
 the barons, and only strove to get royal castles into 
 his own hands. For this he was imprisoned by 
 Simon de Montfort in 1264, and after Simon’s fall 
 was called to account by the king. He put himself 
 at the head of the men of Derbyshire, who gathered 
 round their leader with the personal loyalty which 
 comes from a secluded life; but his levies were 
 defeated at Chesterfield. He fled into the church 
 for refuge, and would have escaped the notice of his 
 pursuers had not a girl, whose lover he had forced 
 to join his troops, given a sign of his hiding-place. 
 He was dragged forth, was taken prisoner to 
 London, was made to pay a fine of seven years’ 
 income and surrender his castles, and finally was 
 deprived of his earldom, which was conferred on 
 the king’s second son, Edmund, who became Earl 
 of Lancaster, Leicester, and Derby. Thenceforth 
 the possessions of the earldom of Derby followed 
 the fortunes of those of Lancaster, and with the 
 accession of Henry IV. passed to the Crown. 
 
 Derbyshire did not play an important part in 
 English history, and was not the scene of important 
 
 229 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 events. Its growth came from the slow progress 
 of agriculture, the clearing of the forests, and the 
 steady industry of its people. Like other parts of 
 England, its main commerce was in wool, and 
 Derby in the thirteenth century did a little trade 
 in dyeing woollen cloth. The district of the Peak 
 was known in early times to possess lead mines, 
 which had been worked by the Romans, and a rude 
 race of miners formed there a class of themselves. 
 As early as 1287 they were empowered to empanel 
 a jury which should declare their customs and draw 
 up a rough code of laws for a settlement of their 
 disputes. But in those days of bad roads there was 
 little means for the development of mineral wealth, 
 owing to the difficulty of carriage. The gradual 
 growth of a body of country gentry during the 
 fourteenth century, owing to the division of large 
 estates, seems to have afforded the chief inducement 
 to bring the land into cultivation and foster agri¬ 
 culture. Still, in 1377, the population of the county 
 is only estimated at a little more than twenty-four 
 thousand. 
 
 The great changes of the sixteenth century did 
 not materially affect Derbyshire. The fall of the 
 monasteries made perhaps less difference than in 
 any other part of England, and did not much 
 change the habits of the people. But new ideas 
 did not rapidly penetrate into Derbyshire. Many 
 of the old families remained firm in their allegiance 
 to the old form of religion. The wild district of 
 the Peak afforded a natural refuge to those who, in 
 the reign of Elizabeth, fled from the penal laws 
 directed against the Roman Catholics. From time 
 
Derby 
 
 to time raids were made upon the recusants, and 
 Derby Gaol was frequently full of prisoners whose 
 only crime was that they remained true to the 
 opinions of their fathers. 
 
 The sixteenth century was a time of the growth 
 of new families, who added field to field and 
 gained in wealth and position. The old nobility 
 passed away, and a new nobility took their place. 
 Those of the old nobles who still remained were 
 obliged to fit themselves into the new state of 
 things. There is no more conspicuous instance 
 of the change which came over England than 
 is the history of George Talbot, sixth Earl of 
 Shrewsbury. His possessions lay in Derbyshire 
 and the neighbouring shires. His chief seat was 
 at Sheffield; but he held on lease from the Crown 
 the Manor of Wingfield and the Hall of Buxton in 
 Derbyshire, the Manor of Worksop and the Abbey 
 of Rufford in Nottinghamshire, and the Castle of 
 Tutbury in Staffordshire. All those outlying pos¬ 
 sessions were on the borders of Derbyshire, which 
 was thus the centre of his greatness. He further 
 increased his estates by marrying for his second 
 wife a great Derbyshire heiress, who had increased 
 her fortunes by a series of marriages. Elizabeth 
 Hardwick, heiress of Hardwick Hall, near Chester¬ 
 field, belonged to the class of the smaller gentry, 
 and raised herself to a high position by her 
 numerous marriages. At the age of twelve she 
 married a neighbouring squire, and was a widow 
 at thirteen—having inherited from her husband. 
 She was then an eligible match, and married a 
 Suffolk knight, Sir William Cavendish, by whom 
 
 231 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 she had a large family. At the age of thirty-seven 
 she was again a widow, and married a still wealthier 
 knight, who left her his sole heir. At the age of 
 forty-eight she could add rank to her wealth by 
 marrying the Earl of Shrewsbury, to whom she 
 brought two other houses in Derbyshire, Hardwick 
 and Chatsworth. As a condition of her marriage 
 she demanded that her eldest son, Henry Caven¬ 
 dish, should marry one of the Earl of Shrewsbury’s 
 daughters. He, however, died without issue, 
 and her second son, William, succeeded to her 
 possessions and those of his elder brother. He 
 was very wealthy, and in 1618 bought the title of 
 Earl of Devonshire from James I. for £ io,ooo, and 
 was the founder of the great family which has its 
 seat at Chatsworth—a house on which Elizabeth 
 Hardwick is said to have spent ,£80,000. 
 
 Though this worthy lady’s schemes prospered 
 in the long run, they did not add to her happiness 
 or to that of her husband in the immediate present. 
 Queen Elizabeth was a far-sighted ruler, and knew 
 how to make her nobles useful. The very fact that 
 the Earl of Shrewsbury was possessed of so many 
 houses in the middle of England suggested a way 
 in which he might be employed. When Mary 
 Queen of Scots took refuge in England she caused 
 great embarrassment to Elizabeth. It was not safe 
 to let her go, and it was not decent to make her a 
 prisoner. It was hard to find a place where she 
 would be in safe custody, out of the way of her 
 adherents and difficult to be reached by foreigners 
 landing on the coast. The Earl of Shrewsbury, 
 with his many houses, all in sure places which could 
 
Derby 
 
 be easily guarded against surprise, was obviously 
 the man for Elizabeth’s purpose. Mary Queen of 
 Scots was committed to his charge, and for fifteen 
 years one of the greatest nobles in England was 
 saddled against his will with the duties of a gaoler. 
 Tutbury, Wingfield, Chatsworth, Sheffield Castle, 
 and Sheffield Lodge were in turns the prisons in 
 which Mary was confined. The Earl of Shrews¬ 
 bury was carefully watched by the suspicious Queen 
 Elizabeth, and if he absented himself for a day 
 without permission was sharply reprimanded. His 
 wife alternately interfered in behalf of Mary, and 
 was jealous of her. Shrewsbury, heartily striving to 
 do his duty to Elizabeth, was exposed to continual 
 annoyance from these suspicious women, and 
 experienced no gratitude. He was at last one of 
 the commissioners appointed to try Queen Mary, 
 and was further sent to superintend her execution. 
 He died in 1590, worn out before his time by the 
 troubles which he had undergone. 
 
 The Cavendish family, however, prospered, and 
 its members became the natural chiefs of Derby¬ 
 shire. The charms of the country as a place of 
 residence were discovered, and its delightful dales 
 were gradually filled with interesting houses. The 
 Hall of Hardwick was enlarged, and remains as 
 an excellent sample of an Elizabethan house. 
 Haddon Hall, which was begun in 1420, when the 
 castle was giving way to the manor house, received 
 its present shape in the middle of the next century, 
 and still tells us of the new spirit of mingled dignity 
 and comfort which marked the sixteenth century. 
 Men felt that country life was an enjoyable thing. 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 They lived on their estates; they interested them¬ 
 selves in local government; they were keen to 
 develop the full value of their lands. Derbyshire, 
 which had been behind the rest of England in the 
 civilisation which sprung from monks and feudal 
 lords, rapidly rose under the influence of the gentry. 
 It is true that the Peakland was left for some time 
 in its isolation, but the rest of the county prospered. 
 
 At the beginning of the great Civil War Derby¬ 
 shire lay on the dividing line between the Royalist 
 and Parliamentarian districts. In fact, throughout 
 its history it was doubtful if Derbyshire belonged to 
 Northern or Southern England. At first Charles I. 
 marched to Derby in 1642, and seemed to claim the 
 allegiance of the county for himself. But Sir John 
 Cell challenged this claim on the Parliamentary 
 side, and though Derbyshire was not the scene of 
 any great battle, it was disturbed by perpetual 
 skirmishes and sieges. For a time the two parties 
 were equally balanced, but Sir John Gell slowly 
 won his way. Many of the fortified houses in the 
 county were at this time reduced to ruins. Chief 
 amongst them in picturesque interest at present is 
 the manor house of South Wingfield, one of the 
 houses of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and one of the 
 prisons of Queen Mary. First it was garrisoned 
 by Gell, then it was taken by the Royalists ; again 
 Gell attacked it, and its governor was killed in the 
 storm. Finally it was dismantled by order of 
 Parliament in 1646, and fell into the ruins which 
 may still be seen. The fortunes of the castles of 
 Welbeck, Bolsover, and Tickhill were all similar, 
 and many other strong places disappeared. In fact, 
 
 234 
 
Derby 
 
 the Civil War was as important in the social history 
 of England as was the dissolution of the monasteries. 
 The one swept away the houses of the monks, 
 which had grown out of all proportion to the needs 
 of the country; the other swept away the strong¬ 
 holds which were likely to give the country gentry 
 an undue power in the State. It destroyed the last 
 semblance of military rule, and left England frankly 
 an agricultural and industrial country. 
 
 Only once again was Derbyshire disturbed by 
 the din of arms. In 1745 Prince Charles Edward 
 Stuart undertook his ill-fated expedition into Eng¬ 
 land, and marched with his Highland supporters 
 towards London. He reached Manchester at the 
 end of November, and by a pretence of marching 
 upon Lichfield drew the Duke of Cumberland, who 
 was guarding the road to London, to leave his 
 position at Newcastle-under-Lyne. Then the prince 
 suddenly altered his march and passed through 
 Leek and Ashburn to Derby, which he reached on 
 December 5. The Highlanders were eager for 
 battle, and thronged to the cutlers’ shops to sharpen 
 their broadswords. But their leaders were dis¬ 
 appointed at the small signs of popular enthusiasm 
 which were awakened by their presence. The 
 people were interested and curious; they thronged 
 to look at the Highlanders, and talked with 
 them in a friendly way, but they did not join 
 in their enterprise. Only three recruits were 
 gained in Derby. The prince was anxious to 
 push on towards London, but his generals were 
 doubtful. The Duke of Cumberland, they argued, 
 would make his way southward, and could meet 
 
 235 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 them before they could reach London. Supposing 
 they conquered in the fight, they would find another 
 army on Finchley Common, drawn up for the 
 defence of London, and they feared to fight a 
 second battle with diminished numbers. If they 
 were overcome, the country people would at once 
 rise against them, and not one of the fugitives 
 would escape alive. They had trusted to a rising 
 of the English people, or to the effects of a sudden 
 panic. As their expectations had been disappointed, 
 there was no course open save a retreat. By such 
 reasoning the prince was overborne, sorely against 
 his will, and on December 6 the Scottish army left 
 Derby, and began to retrace their steps homewards. 
 The spirit of Charles Edward was broken by this 
 failure, and the field of Culloden saw the overthrow 
 of all his hopes. So far as England was concerned, 
 his march to Derby had been little else than a 
 pageant. 
 
 Meanwhile, Derbyshire was advancing in in¬ 
 dustry. The lead mines of the Peak were worked 
 with better effect, though the methods of mining 
 were very rude, before the discovery of the steam- 
 engine. The miners made their way into the mine 
 by narrow openings, down which they slid, and up 
 which they dragged with difficulty the ore which 
 they had won. They were clad in leather, and 
 wore leathern caps, to protect them as much as 
 possible against the knocks to which they were 
 exposed. They were a rough people, semi-bar¬ 
 barous in their manner of life, and living apart from 
 the agricultural folk around. But in the south of 
 the county Derby became the seat of an important 
 
 236 
 
Derby 
 
 industry — the weaving of silk. The reign of 
 Charles II. was a time of great growth of luxury 
 in England. Woollen cloth had hitherto been the 
 material of which English dress was made; but the 
 taste sprung up for silks, which were imported 
 partly from France and partly from India. The 
 weaving trade consequently suffered great de¬ 
 pression, till an attempt was made to weave silken 
 fabrics in England. The most successful of these 
 endeavours was that of Thomas Lombe, who in 
 1717 erected a silk-mill at Derby, which rapidly 
 prospered, and round it grew up a trade of weaving 
 silk stockings. When machinery was invented, the 
 water-power supplied by the rapid streams of the 
 Derbyshire valleys made them favourable places 
 for industry. Thus, when Arkwright had finished 
 the invention of the spinning-frame, he went into 
 partnership with Strutt, of Derby, and they set up 
 their works at Cromford, in a valley near the 
 Derwent, where was a spring of warm water, which 
 prevented the neighbouring stream from freezing, 
 even in the severest winter. The industrial growth 
 of Derbyshire has steadily progressed, without, 
 however, reaching such a height as to interfere with 
 the natural beauty of the county. 
 
 Thus Derbyshire remains with many charms. 
 Its distinctive features, its dales, and streams, and 
 moorlands, are those which in early days made it 
 savage and wild, and kept it apart from the rest of 
 England. Now they attract the tourist, who is 
 further taught to see in the great historic houses for 
 which Derby is famous the means whereby the 
 niggard gifts of Nature were developed into a 
 
 2 37 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 source of wealth ; and the charm which comes from 
 the sense of human care adds a grace of its own. 
 It is the valleys of the central part of the county, 
 the great houses of Chatsworth and Haddon Hall, 
 and the natural curiosities of the Peak, which make 
 Derbyshire a place of resort to the dwellers in the 
 manufacturing districts by which it is surrounded. 
 The varied industries of the rest of the county are 
 allied to those of the neighbouring shires. Derbyshire 
 is exceptionally fortunate in the happy mixture which 
 it presents of natural beauty, historic memories, and 
 varied industrial activity. Within a short distance 
 it is possible to turn to almost all the sources of 
 England’s greatness. 
 
WORCESTER 
 
 T HE county of Worcester cannot claim equal 
 importance with its neighbours Shropshire, 
 Hereford, or Gloucester in the earliest 
 period of its history. The Romans, when they 
 held Britain, did not regard this district as one from 
 which much was to be gained. A great part of its 
 surface was covered with forests, through which 
 ran the Severn, draining sluggishly the low-lying 
 marsh land along its course. Neglecting this use¬ 
 less territory, the Romans sought the high plain of 
 the Cotswolds and the fertile valley of Gloucester. 
 Their great military roads ran between Gloucester 
 and Chester, so as to guard against the tribes of 
 Wales. The Britons, who were thus cut off from 
 their allies, took refuge on the hills of Malvern, 
 which are rich in their camps. The Romans do 
 not seem to have pursued them there, but con¬ 
 tented themselves Avith taking precautions to pre¬ 
 vent them from crossing the Severn. The British 
 town of Cair Guorangon, situated on a little 
 eminence above the Severn and protected by hills 
 behind, was occupied by the Romans as a military 
 station on a small scale. When they had gone, the 
 name of the place was gradually shortened from 
 
 239 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Gorangonceastre to Wigorncester till it reached 
 our modern form of Worcester. 
 
 After the departure of the Romans, the Britons 
 along the Severn were for some time independent, 
 till the West Saxons spread their conquering arms 
 northwards, and in 577 took Bath and Gloucester 
 from the Britons. Soon after this Worcester also 
 fell before them, and the land from Bath to Bewdley 
 was known as the land of the Hwiccas, and was 
 a province of the West Saxon kingdom. But the 
 English settlers on the Welsh March grew strong, 
 and warred against Wessex. The first conquest 
 that they made was the Severn valley, so that Wor¬ 
 cester passed from Wessex to Mercia, and was 
 ruled by the Mercian king, whose chief residence 
 was at Tamworth. 
 
 After the Northumbrian King Oswy slew Penda 
 at Winwed in the plains of Yorkshire, in 655, and 
 Penda s son became a Christian, Mercia became the 
 seat of a bishop, who built his church at Lichfield. 
 When the great kingdom of Mercia felt the need 
 of more bishops besides the Bishop of Lichfield, a 
 new ecclesiastical division followed the lines of the 
 existing political divisions. The land of the Hwiccas 
 was ruled by an under-king, who had his abode at 
 Worcester. In 679 there was set by his side a 
 bishop of the Hwiccas, who took up his abode in 
 Worcester likewise. With the foundation of the 
 Hwiccian see we have the beginning of a civilised 
 life in what was then the most secluded part of 
 England. 
 
 Under the protection of the bishops, monasteries 
 sprang up in desolate places, and became centres of 
 
 240 
 
Worcester 
 
 activity. How they rose we see in the case of 
 Evesham. One day a herdsman of the bishop, 
 named Eoves, came to his master with a tale that 
 as he was tending his swine in the forest by the 
 banks of the Avon, a beautiful lady had appeared to 
 him, brighter than the sun, singing heavenly songs. 
 It was easy to identify this lady with the Virgin ; 
 and in 709 a monastery arose on the spot, which 
 was known as Eovesholm, or Evesham. The 
 example soon spread, and it was not long before 
 the banks of the Avon were dotted with monasteries 
 at Fladbury, Pershore, and Bredon, whose inmates 
 set an example of useful work or no less useful 
 study. Much of the land was given to the bishops 
 and the monks by the Mercian kings, who saw that 
 by their means this wild district could best be ruled. 
 
 The Mercian power fell in its turn before the 
 advance of Wessex; but scarcely had Egbert 
 entered upon his rule before England was invaded 
 by the Danes, whose boats passed up the Severn 
 and the Avon, while their savage crews ravaged and 
 burnt the monasteries. The heathen Danes espe¬ 
 cially wreaked their rage on priests, and the monas¬ 
 teries were tempting prizes to their greed. The 
 trembling inhabitants could offer little resistance ; 
 though the door of the cathedral of Worcester was 
 long adorned with a piece of the skin of a Dane 
 who stayed behind his departing comrades to pilfer 
 in the church, and fell a victim to the popular wrath. 
 In those dark days everything fell into confusion, 
 *ill Alfred, when the Danes had been converted to 
 Christianity and civilisation, sought to repair the 
 havoc which the Danes had wrought. His sister, 
 
 241 Q 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Ethelfled, was married to Ethelred, the Ealdoman of 
 Mercia, who rebuilt the ruined walls of Worcester. 
 
 One form of this restoration of order was the 
 introduction of a stricter rule of monasticism than 
 had prevailed before, and an extension of the 
 monastic system. Oswald, who became Bishop of 
 Worcester in 961, introduced monks into his cathe¬ 
 dral, and carried on the reforms inaugurated by 
 Dunstan. But, in spite of all attempts at closer 
 organisation, the power of Wessex grew feebler, 
 and England could with difficulty be held together. 
 We have a sign of this in the fact that the bishopric 
 of Worcester was, by four bishops in succession, 
 held together with the archbishopric of York. The 
 English kings endeavoured, by joining together 
 these two ecclesiastical offices, to have one official 
 interested in preserving the connection between 
 Northern and Southern England. It was in this 
 period which followed the repulse of the Danes that 
 Worcester was made into a county. Old divisions 
 were swept away by disorder. The Hwiccian pro¬ 
 vince no longer had a meaning. Its boundaries 
 remained, indeed, ecclesiastically in the diocese of 
 Worcester; but for civil purposes it was divided 
 into shires—artificial divisions of the lands which 
 lay near the towns of Worcester, Gloucester, and 
 W arwick. 
 
 In spite of all efforts made to restore the English 
 national spirit, it had suffered beyond redemption 
 from the devastations of the Danes. The time was 
 lawless, and force alone prevailed. In 1041 the 
 men of Worcester refused to pay the tax imposed 
 by King Harthacnut, and slew two of his officers 
 
 242 
 
Worcester 
 
 who attempted to collect it. The king sent an 
 army to punish this revolt. Worcester was 
 plundered and burnt to the ground ; its people fled, 
 its church was destroyed. Again a bishop under¬ 
 took the work of restoration, and Wulfstan, the 
 saint of Worcester, revived the ruined town. He 
 was beloved by Edward the Confessor and by 
 Harold, whom he accompanied in his campaign in 
 the North before the landing of the Normans. But 
 Wulfstan saw that after the death of Harold William 
 the Norman was master of England, and he was 
 one of the first to make submission to him. He 
 was the only English bishop who retained his 
 office and his influence through the changes which 
 William I. and his great adviser, Lanfranc, wrought 
 in England. His high character, his loyalty and 
 wisdom, won him universal esteem, and Lanfranc 
 took him for his friend and counsellor. Worcester 
 sent forth the man who was the link between the 
 old and the new in the greatest crisis that England 
 ever passed through. 
 
 Two monuments remain of Bishop Wulfstan’s 
 activity ; one was the foundation of Malvern Priory, 
 the other the foundation of the existing cathedral of 
 Worcester. Both were characteristic of the time. 
 The side of the Malvern hills was naturally the 
 seat of hermitages ; but Wulfstan had the sagacity 
 to see that an organised monastery would do more 
 useful work. One of these hermits, Aldwin, came 
 to him and asked permission to go on a pilgrimage 
 to the Holy Sepulchre; but Wulfstan sent him 
 back, saying, ‘ God will do great things at Malvern.’ 
 It was not long before thirty brethren gathered 
 
 243 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 round Aldwin, and the priory of Malvern began to 
 grow into being. In the building of the cathedral 
 of Worcester, Wulfstan shows the aptness of the 
 English to learn all that was best in the superior 
 civilisation of the Normans. Englishman as he was, 
 he adopted the Norman style of architecture, and 
 devised a building which in scale and magnificence 
 might vie with other efforts of the time. The under¬ 
 croft of Wulfstan’s church alone remains, but the 
 fame of Wulfstan went on through the Middle Ages 
 as that of no other of the older stock of Englishmen, 
 save Cuthbert of Lindisfarne. 
 
 The loyalty and wisdom of Wulfstan rendered it 
 needless for William I. to take any measures for the 
 military occupation of Worcester. There was a 
 castle held by the sheriff, to which office a Norman, 
 Urso d’Abitot, seems to have been appointed by 
 Edward the Confessor. The castle was enlarged, 
 and, being near the site of the cathedral, encroached 
 upon the ground of the monks. But William I. was 
 content to be represented by a sheriff, and appointed 
 no Earl of Worcester, but left the chief power in the 
 hands of the bishop. The civilisation of the shire 
 was ecclesiastical, and not baronial. Monasteries 
 were abundant in the south and east, though the 
 north-west was singularly destitute, and seems to 
 have been left as unpromising. The manors of the 
 bishop at Alvechurch, Blockley, Hampton, Kempsey, 
 and Droitwich, and his castle at Hartlebury, were 
 the other main centres of activity. 
 
 The weakness of the reign of Stephen was seen 
 in his willingness to increase the power of the 
 barons, and in Worcester he set up an earl, Waleran 
 
 244 
 
Worcester 
 
 de Beaumont, in the hopes that he might resist 
 Robert, Earl of Gloucester, half-brother of Stephen’s 
 rival, Matilda. All England suffered in this civil 
 war, from the licence which it gave to baronial 
 oppression; but no part suffered more than Wor¬ 
 cestershire, which was the scene of perpetual fighting, 
 in which Earl Waleran gave the rein to his barbarity. 
 Worcester was twice besieged, and once was set on 
 fire. Doubtless it was weary of its earl, and was 
 glad to be rid of him when Henry II. on his 
 accession deprived of their offices all those who had 
 risen to power in the evil days of Stephen. 
 
 So Worcestershire continued to be mainly under 
 the protection of the Church. It had no great lords 
 resident within its borders, though the neighbouring 
 Earls of Gloucester and the Beauchamps of Warwick 
 held lands within it. Still, the greater part of the 
 cultivated lands belonged to the bishop, or to the 
 abbots of the great monasteries. For Worcester¬ 
 shire in early times was mainly composed of the four 
 great forests of Feckenham, Ombersley, Horewell, 
 and Malvern, over which the Crown had the rights 
 of chase. These forests were under officials of their 
 own, and the lands within them were subject to 
 many complicated customs. The only industry 
 which existed within the shire was the working of 
 salt at Droitwich. The shire was not so situated as 
 to be of great importance in the general history of 
 England. It owned its dignity chiefly to the 
 sanctity of its church, hallowed by the memories of 
 Oswald and Wulfstan, who rose in popular esteem 
 throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 
 In Worcester Cathedral, in 1157, Henry II. and his 
 
 245 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 queen laid their royal crowns as an offering on the 
 high altar, and vowed never to wear them more. It 
 was not, perhaps, so much religious enthusiasm as a 
 dislike for ceremony which led Henry II. to take 
 this step ; but he thought it well to throw a religious 
 pretext over his breach of the old custom of wearing 
 the crown on three solemn occasions every year, a 
 custom which had come down from the days of the 
 Conqueror. Worcester was also a favourite resort 
 of King John, who believed in the power of the 
 Worcester saints so firmly that when he died at 
 Newark he asked that his body should be buried in 
 the church of Worcester, between the shrines of 
 Oswald and Wulfstan. Time has swept away the 
 tombs of the saints, but the monument of the 
 wickedest and worst of English kings still stands 
 before the high altar. The monks of Worcester, 
 thus royally favoured, obtained a settlement of their 
 long dispute with the governors of the royal castle. 
 Its outer ward was granted to them in 1217, and 
 from this time Worcester Castle was merely a 
 fortress, and not a residence fit for any powerful 
 noble. 
 
 Though Worcestershire had not taken any 
 prominent part in English affairs, its strongly eccle¬ 
 siastical character had made it eminently national 
 and patriotic. The monastery of Worcester was 
 the home of the traditions of English life, and 
 preserved the English Chronicle , which recorded in 
 the national tongue the doings of the English folk. 
 But the history of England needed to be told to an 
 audience which could not read the English tongue ; 
 and, in the beginning of the twelfth century, 
 
 246 
 
W orcester 
 
 Florence, a monk of Worcester, turned the English 
 Chronicle into Latin, and edited it afresh with 
 a spirit of true though narrow patriotism. His 
 example was followed by others of greater literary 
 power and wider judgment; but Worcester may 
 claim to be the source of that great line of Latin 
 chroniclers to whom we owe our knowledge of 
 England of the Middle Ages. Moreover, it was 
 a man of the shire of Worcester who, in the begin¬ 
 ning of the thirteenth century, revived the old 
 English tongue, and marked the beginning of a 
 new epoch in the annals of England, when England, 
 no longer part of the scattered dominions of its 
 kings, but a nation self-contained and conscious of 
 its future, was to advance to the settlement of its 
 own difficulties. A monk, Layamon, who dwelt at 
 Arley, ‘ a noble church by Severn’s banks,’ read 
 books, ‘ till it came into his mind that he would tell 
 the noble deeds of Englishmen.’ So he wrote in 
 the English tongue, in 1206, a poem of some thirty 
 thousand lines, called the Brut , which was the 
 literary expression of that national spirit which ten 
 years later compelled King John to sign the Great 
 Charter. 
 
 It was, however, easier to compel the king to 
 sign the Great Charter than to make him keep it; 
 and the reign of Henry III. saw the increasing 
 determination of the English people that it should 
 be kept. Amongst the patriotic leaders who strove 
 against the king, one of the wisest was the Bishop 
 of Worcester, Walter de Cantilupe. He tried to 
 mediate, so long as there was any hope of peace; 
 when hope was useless, he joined Simon de 
 
 247 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Montfort, and aided him by his wisdom. Earl Simon 
 was successful in the field of Lewes, and Henry III., 
 in 1264, was a helpless prisoner in his hands. But 
 the office of a dictator was not one which English¬ 
 men could endure, and soon became impossible. 
 Edward, the king’s eldest son, escaped as Earl 
 Simon was warring on the Welsh Marches. Simon 
 retired into the safe quarters provided by the 
 bishopric of Worcester, and at Evesham awaited 
 reinforcements, which were surprised on the way. 
 On August 4, 1265, Edward’s forces came upon 
 the unsuspecting earl, who thought that they were 
 the forces of his son, defiling down the hill above the 
 peninsula of Evesham girt by the waters of the Avon. 
 When he learned the truth, he saw that he was 
 lost. ‘ God have mercy on our souls,’ he said, ‘ our 
 bodies are our foes’! ’ Bishop Cantilupe prayed 
 with his host. Then Simon advanced to meet his 
 enemies, and fought desperately till he was outdone 
 by superior numbers. Some of his mangled remains 
 were buried at Evesham, and people flocked to his 
 shrine. He became an uncanonised saint, and 
 miracles were wrought by the relics of ‘ Simon the 
 Righteous.’ 
 
 Bishop Cantilupe was almost the last of the 
 patriotic bishops who won England’s liberties. 
 When Edward I. recognised Parliament as the 
 king’s adviser, the need of great ecclesiastical 
 statesmen was practically at an end. The State 
 began to train its own officials, and the people had 
 a means of obtaining some sort of redress for their 
 wrongs. The Church was no longer so powerful 
 politically, and the best work of monasteries had 
 
 248 
 
Worcester 
 
 been done. Worcester obtained a charter from 
 Henry III., and the citizens began to manage their 
 own affairs. The bishop was still a benefactor to 
 the town, and in 1281 Bishop Giffard laid the first 
 stone of a pavement for the streets at a time when 
 few towns in England could boast of such a luxury. 
 Bridges were built across the Severn and the Teme. 
 There was greater prosperity, and the lines of pack- 
 horses moved more throngly along the ‘ salt ways ’ 
 which passed through Droitwich towards north and 
 south. Droitwich and Worcester were the only 
 places which could boast any trade ; Droitwich in its 
 salt, and Worcester as a fruit market for the neigh¬ 
 bourhood, and the centre of an industry in woollen 
 goods. 
 
 Curiously enough, one of the earliest utterances 
 of the popular discontent which heralded the 
 break-up of mediaeval society was connected with 
 Worcestershire. The poem of Langland, The 
 Vision of Piers the Plowman, chooses for its scene 
 the hills of Malvern, where, ‘In a sumer season, 
 when softe was the sonne,’ the singer fell asleep ; 
 but save this mention there is nothing in the poem 
 which brings it home to any special place. It tells 
 of the miseries of the common folk, and laments the 
 decay of morals, the want of spirituality in religion. 
 It shows us an ecclesiastical system estranged from 
 the life of the people, and forgetful, amongst its 
 secular business, that the Church is for the people, 
 and not the people for the Church. What energy 
 was shown by bishops and abbots was mostly shown 
 in outward matters; they founded hospitals, made 
 roads, repaired bridges, and did much to improve 
 
 249 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 the good condition of the country. But men felt 
 that these things could be done as well by others. 
 The power, the riches, and the pomp of ecclesiastics 
 seemed excessive to men who were beginning to 
 be more self-dependent and industrious. Worcester¬ 
 shire was a home of Lollardism, and although the 
 Lollard movement died away it left its traces behind. 
 The men of Worcester had sufficient grounds for 
 seeing that the unwieldy Church of the Middle 
 Ages was no longer identified with the life of the 
 people. From 1497 till 1535 the bishopric of 
 Worcester was held in succession by four Italian 
 priests, who rarely visited their diocese, but were 
 paid by its revenue for the political services which 
 they rendered to the king at the Roman Court. 
 The bishops had ceased to be leaders of the people, 
 and sunk to be royal officials; so entirely was this 
 the case, that it mattered not if they were foreigners. 
 
 The monks in like manner lived the lives of 
 country gentlemen. They dispensed hospitality, 
 built splendid buildings, and were kindly to the 
 poor. Their lives were probably no worse than 
 those of their neighbours; but they were regarded 
 with an envious eye by the smaller gentry, whom 
 the growing quiet and order of the country had 
 turned from soldiers into landlords. The dissolution 
 of the monasteries was as much the result of the 
 social change as of the religious change which 
 passed over England in the sixteenth century. 
 The Church had not so many social and political 
 duties to perform as in the past, and her tenure of 
 land was excessive. It was because every one, 
 even the monks themselves, recognised this fact, 
 
 250 
 
Worcester 
 
 that so many monasteries quietly surrendered their 
 possessions into the king’s hands. Few, however, 
 expected that Henry VIII. would work the whole¬ 
 sale devastation which he did, or that the revenues 
 of the monasteries, instead of being devoted to 
 some useful purposes, would pass into the pockets 
 of the king and his favourites. 
 
 Needful as the dissolution of the monasteries 
 might be, it was carried out with entire recklessness, 
 and caused much misery. At Evesham, Abbot 
 Lichfield had just finished his beautiful gateway- 
 tower, when he was called upon to surrender, and 
 died of a broken heart. The abbey buildings were 
 almost entirely swept away, but the men of Evesham 
 bought the tower from the spoilers, and it still 
 remains as a memorial of what had been. So, too, 
 at Pershore, the monastery disappeared ; but, as the 
 inhabitants had the right of using the nave of the 
 monastic church as their parish church, the nave 
 was spared, whilst the choir was ordered to be 
 pulled down. The parishioners managed to ex¬ 
 change the nave for the choir; but the western 
 half of the splendid church has entirely vanished. 
 The Bishop of Worcester at the time (Hugh 
 Latimer) was a pronounced Reformer, but he shrank 
 before Cromwell’s measures, and wrote to plead 
 that the priory of Great Malvern should be spared 
 for the good of the poor. He writes : ‘ The prior 
 is old, a good housekeeper, feedeth many, and that 
 daily, for the country is poor and full of penury. 
 And, alas! my good lord, shall we not see two or 
 three in every shire charged to such remedy ? ’ 
 
 Malvern was not spared, in spite of Latimer’s 
 
 251 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 entreaties. Everything was swept away by degrees ; 
 even the guilds, or benefit societies, of Worcester 
 suffered, because part of their revenues were devoted 
 to religious purposes. The only amends which 
 Henry VIII. made was the division of the diocese 
 of Worcester by the foundation of a see of 
 Gloucester. In Edward VI.’s reign this was found 
 to be too expensive, and the two sees were united 
 in Hooper, who was an honest and upright man, 
 and suffered death under the cruel persecution of 
 Mary. 
 
 It was long before Worcestershire recovered 
 from the shock of the dissolution of the monasteries. 
 Gradually the number of resident gentry increased, 
 country houses were built, agriculture improved, 
 and the growth of trade in Bristol found more 
 occupation for the people. The Severn had always 
 been a highway for carrying trade, and the settle¬ 
 ment of Wales by Henry VIII. gradually made it 
 more important. Bewdley, the capital of the 
 Forest of Wyre, was at that time made part of 
 Worcestershire, and added to the industries of the 
 county a considerable trade in clothing for the 
 seamen of Bristol. Worcestershire was slowly 
 restoring its prosperity when Elizabeth visited it 
 in 1575, and received those signs of loyalty which 
 Worcester was always proud to show. Under 
 James I. Evesham was incorporated as a borough, 
 and Kidderminster under Charles I. 
 
 The loyalty of Worcester brought on it many 
 sufferings in the course of the Great Rebellion. 
 Worcester held for the king, and was besieged in 
 1642, when Prince Rupert advanced into a meadow 
 
 252 
 
Worcester 
 
 outside the walls and defied the Parliamentary 
 army. The battle was engaged, but Rupert was 
 obliged to fly before reinforcements which arrived 
 under the Earl of Essex, and Worcester was taken 
 and pillaged. However, the spirit of the men of 
 Worcester was not broken, and in 1646 they again 
 hoisted the royal standard and endured another 
 siege, only surrendering when they heard that 
 Charles’s fortunes were hopeless. 
 
 When, in 1651, Charles II. attempted to win 
 back his father’s crown, he made for Worcester, as 
 a gathering place of his adherents. Cromwell 
 marched from London against him, and, in spite 
 of the attempts of the Royalists to prevent him, 
 succeeded in gaining a position on both sides of the 
 Severn, and besieged the city. Charles, thinking 
 that Cromwell’s forces were weakened by the 
 withdrawal of a detachment across the river, 
 marched out to attack the main besieging force, 
 which was posted on the hill above the city. The 
 battle was keenly contested, till fresh supplies were 
 sent from the other side of the Severn, and the 
 Royalists were driven in disorder down the hill 
 into the city. The gates were stormed, and Charles 
 II. was driven to begin his romantic flight, in which 
 he turned the spit in a village kitchen and hid in 
 the oak-tree of Boscobel Woods. 
 
 Worcestershire suffered severely during this 
 time of war, and was long in recovering its 
 national or moral well-being. Its moral restora¬ 
 tion was begun by Richard Baxter, Vicar of 
 Kidderminster, whose ministry was unhappily cut 
 short by his refusal to conform in 1662. It was 
 
 253 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 at Kidderminster that he wrote The Saint's Ever¬ 
 lasting Rest, a book which still holds a high place 
 in our devotional literature. The material prosperity 
 of Worcestershire was to some extent affected by the 
 want of honesty and intelligence among its people. 
 The chief industry was the manufacture of cloth ; 
 but Worcestershire broadcloth lost the market owing 
 to the dishonesty of the merchants, who did not give 
 fair measure, and the obstinacy of the workmen, who 
 would persist in weaving a thicker and heavier cloth 
 than was in request. However, it would seem that 
 the lesson once learned was of abiding use, as the 
 craftsmen of Worcestershire have since then been 
 famous for their versatility. Kidderminster replaced 
 its woollen manufactures by that of carpet, which it 
 still retains. Worcester turned to gloves, and 
 afterwards porcelain, manufactures which have 
 made it famous. The fact that the district 
 possessed no natural advantages for trade, having 
 neither coal nor iron, made it dependent upon its 
 skill. The waterway of the Severn was also an 
 advantage, and the development of the canal 
 system called Stourport into existence, and seemed 
 likely to make Worcester an important place. The 
 rapid growth of railways has since almost equalised 
 the routes of commerce. 
 
 Compared with such a commercial centre as 
 Birmingham, Worcestershire must rank as an 
 agricultural county. Bewdley has sunk into a 
 quiet country town, but Worcester still holds a 
 remarkable position as a centre of many industries 
 which are independent of any special locality, and 
 only need skilled workmen. Thus the porcelain of 
 
 254 
 
W orcester 
 
 Worcester has long been famous, but everything 
 needed for the manufacture has to be brought from 
 elsewhere. Kidderminster, in like manner, keeps 
 its old reputation for carpet-making, and Redditch, 
 on the western border, is renowned for needles. 
 
 Worcestershire perhaps combines within itself 
 more of the elements of English life than any other 
 county. On the west the hills roll down to the 
 Severn valley, whence the rich plain extends till it 
 is checked by the decided form of the volcanic range 
 which rises behind Malvern. The fertile valley of 
 the Avon broadens into the rich meadows which 
 skirt the banks of the Severn and the Teme. 
 Worcestershire has long been known as ‘ the 
 garden of England,’ and so long back as the 
 twelfth century was famous for its fruit. It is 
 studded with country houses, many of them old 
 manor-houses, which tell of the continuous growth 
 of ease and comfort. Every feature in the land¬ 
 scape tells of the care and attention which past 
 generations have given to the work which was 
 necessary to create the smiling England of to-day. 
 
 255 
 
GLOUCESTER 
 
 F EW parts of England are more full of interest 
 to one who searches for relics of the past 
 than is the lower valley of the Severn and 
 the downs of the Cotswold range, which make up 
 the county which has Gloucester for its capital. 
 In the earliest times that we can trace, the folks 
 who lived in Britain saw the advantages of this 
 reach of high-lying country, which looked on one 
 side to the valley where flowed the Severn, fast 
 broadening into the sea, and on the other side 
 looked over the rich valley in which the Thames 
 was beginning its course. There the Britons made 
 their settlements, and thither the Romans followed 
 them. This region, moreover, the Romans learned 
 to look on as the most enjoyable in Britain; and no 
 towns, save London, York, and Colchester, were so 
 important as was Corinium (Cirencester), the capital 
 of the Cotswolds. The present town does not cover 
 one-third of the space which was occupied by the 
 Roman town; and the remains of Roman work 
 which are collected in its Museum show that its 
 Roman inhabitants were rich and cultivated. No¬ 
 where can the traces of Roman life be more clearly 
 seen than in Cirencester and its neighbourhood. 
 Four great roads centred in it, and connected it 
 
 256 
 
Gloucester 
 
 with Glevum (Gloucester), on one side, and with 
 Aquae Solis (Bath), already a fashionable watering- 
 place, on the other. Along these roads were 
 country houses and farms, of which Woodchester 
 can still give us some idea. There, in a little 
 village, south of Stroud, can be traced the ground- 
 plan of a mansion which covered nearly four 
 hundred square feet. Its buildings were arranged 
 round two courts, and remains of its rich tesselated 
 pavements bear witness to the completeness of its 
 adornment. 
 
 When the Romans withdrew, the dwellers in 
 their towns enjoyed greater peace than fell to the 
 lot of the rest of the Britons. But the West Saxons 
 came and conquered in the south till they pressed 
 upward from Wiltshire in 577, and on the little hill 
 of Deorham (Dyrham) fought the battle in which 
 the Britons were defeated, and the Severn valley 
 was opened to the new-comers. There they settled 
 and took the name of Hwiccas, so that the old 
 Hwiccian land contained the modern shires of 
 Gloucester, Worcester, and the southern part of 
 Warwick. 
 
 The Hwiccas, however, rose against their king, 
 Ceawlin, when he was defeated by the Britons at 
 Faddiley, in his attempt to carry his conquering 
 arms as far as Chester. After this rising, the power 
 of the West Saxons was for a time broken, and the 
 Hwiccas were separated from the rest of their 
 kinsfolk. They were too few to remain, and fell 
 before the rising power of the Mercians on the 
 north, and before 650 the land of the Hwiccas 
 formed part of the Mercian kingdom. When 
 
 257 R 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Archbishop Theodore was engaged in ordering 
 the affairs of the Church, he saw that Mercia was 
 too large for one bishop to superintend. So, in 
 673, he set over the Hwiccas a bishop who built 
 his church at Worcester, and until the Reformation 
 Gloucester formed part of the diocese of Worcester. 
 The land of the Hwiccas long held together in its 
 ecclesiastical organisation, though for its civil organi¬ 
 sation the land which gathered round the town of 
 Gloucester was divided from that which gathered 
 round the town of Worcester. 
 
 The reason of this was the fall of the Mercian 
 power before Wessex, under Egbert, which was 
 rapidly followed by the invasion of the Danes, who 
 settled in the eastern part of Mercia, but only 
 pillaged its western part. The result of their 
 ravages, however, was the weakening of old local 
 sentiment and the wiping out of old distinctions. 
 The Mercian kingdom, as a whole, was dismem¬ 
 bered ; even the Hwiccas were divided into two 
 parts. 
 
 During this period, however, the town of 
 Gloucester was slowly recovering some of the 
 importance which it had in Roman times. The 
 fisheries of the Severn were valuable, and popula¬ 
 tion gathered in the town, where was established in 
 time a Benedictine monastery. Still Gloucester 
 could not rank with Worcester in early times, though 
 its importance rapidly increased; and in the reign 
 of Edward the Confessor we find it a place whither 
 the king summoned his wise men to counsel. 
 Moreover, in many parts of the shire rose monas¬ 
 teries, as at Tewkesbury and Winchcombe; while 
 
 258 
 
Gloucester 
 
 the church of Deerhurst near Tewkesbury still 
 shows some of the most important remains of Saxon 
 architecture which have come down to us. Further, 
 it was natural that the estuary of the Severn should 
 have a port, and a spot was chosen on the Avon, 
 which grew into the great city of Bristol. It was 
 not, however, till the times of the Danes that 
 Bristol came into being; for it was the settlement of 
 the Danes in Ireland which first caused commercial 
 intercourse between the two islands. In its begin¬ 
 nings the Irish trade was of an evil sort, for the 
 Bristol ships carried to Ireland cargoes of slaves, 
 who were sold by the Danes in different parts of 
 Europe. These slaves were prisoners taken in war 
 against the Welsh, or men whose freedom had been 
 forfeited to the law, or sometimes we cannot doubt 
 that they were kidnapped. It was in vain that the 
 Church forbade this infamous traffic. The holy 
 Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester took up his abode in 
 Bristol, and employed all the influence of Christian 
 teaching to check it. While he remained, men 
 listened and were ashamed ; after he was gone, they 
 fell back into their evil ways. 
 
 Gloucestershire seems to have submitted willingly 
 to William the Conqueror, and Gloucester grew in 
 importance under him and his sons. Its position, 
 commanding the Severn valley, made it a centre 
 for the Norman barons who were engaged in making 
 settlements in South Wales. A castle was built, 
 and Gloucester counted as one of the three places 
 in England where the king held royal state on the 
 great festivals of the Church, wearing his crown at 
 Gloucester on Christmas, and at Winchester and 
 
 259 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Westminster at Easter and Pentecost. It was at 
 Gloucester that William Rufus was seized with 
 sickness in 1093, an d lay at the point of death. 
 Wishing to make amends before he died for his 
 evil deed in keeping vacant the Archbishopric of 
 Canterbury and seizing its revenues, he sent for 
 Anselm, abbot of the Norman monastery of Bee, 
 who was in England on a visit, and named him 
 archbishop. Anselm vainly refused the office. The 
 lords who stood by seized the old man, forced a 
 pastoral staff into his reluctant hands, and with 
 shouts of joy bore him off, with tears streaming 
 down his cheeks, to the abbey church, that they 
 might give thanks for having an archbishop. 
 
 Gloucestershire was so closely associated with 
 the political life of England that Henry I. conferred 
 upon his natural son, Robert, the earldom of 
 Gloucester. Robert rebuilt the castle of Bristol, 
 and was one of the most powerful of English lords. 
 On Henry I.’s death Robert espoused the cause of 
 his sister Matilda against Stephen ; and, as a con¬ 
 sequence, Gloucestershire bore the brunt of the civil 
 war that followed. Milo, the governor of Gloucester 
 Castle, was equally vigorous with Robert in uphold¬ 
 ing Matilda’s cause; and to Gloucester Matilda 
 fled for refuge when all seemed to go against her in 
 1141. Gloucester and Bristol alike suffered siege ; 
 though it may be doubted if, after all, Gloucester¬ 
 shire had more misery to record than the rest of 
 England. It was a time of anarchy, in which those 
 who were inactive had as much to endure as those 
 who were foremost in the struggle. 
 
 The civilisation of Gloucestershire was chiefly 
 260 
 
Gloucester 
 
 baronial. The county was dependent on its earl, 
 and on the Earl of Hereford, who held much land 
 within its bounds. Next to these in importance 
 were the lords of Berkeley, whose castle, dating in 
 part from the twelfth century, still stands as a rare 
 instance of a baronial fortress which has been 
 adapted to the needs of modern life, and is still 
 inhabited. But, besides the barons, the monks were 
 also busy. It was from the monasteries on the 
 borders of the counties of Worcester and Gloucester 
 that the first signs of the monastic revival of the 
 eleventh century had gone forth. From Evesham 
 and Winchcombe went the three brethren who did 
 so much for monasticism in Northern England. As 
 they read the pages of Bede’s history they grieved 
 that the places where he had lived and taught 
 should lie in the ruins to which the heathen Dane 
 had reduced them. So, putting all their worldly 
 goods on the back of a donkey, they went forth on 
 a pilgrimage which had for its object the rebuilding 
 of the monasteries of Jarrow and Wearmouth. 
 What was thus given was also received. The 
 abbeys of Gloucestershire flourished and waxed 
 great, especially that of Gloucester, which grew 
 with the importance of the town till the Abbot 
 of Gloucester ranked as one of the chief political 
 personages in England. King Henry I. founded a 
 house of Austin canons at Cirencester ; and Roger, 
 Earl of Hereford, set up the Cistercians at Flaxley, 
 on the spot where his father had been killed by an 
 arrow while hunting. Curious also is the history of 
 the priory of New Llanthony, which stands on what 
 is now a suburb of Gloucester. Its site was given 
 
 261 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 by Milo, Earl of Hereford, as a place of refuge to 
 the monks of Llanthony, in the vale of Ewais, at a 
 time when the lawless peasantry were constantly 
 plundering their possessions, so that it was difficult 
 to be sure of food. The place of refuge proved 
 more attractive than the original settlement, and the 
 greater part of the brethren moved away from their 
 old home till, in the fifteenth century, the priory of 
 New Llanthony was united to the abbey of 
 Gloucester, which undertook to maintain a prior 
 and four others in the old seat of the order in 
 Wales. 
 
 Gloucestershire took part in the renewal of pros¬ 
 perity which came with the accession of Henry II., 
 and Bristol in particular received an accession to 
 its commerce. Already it was famous for its trade 
 in soap ; but the marriage of Henry II. with Eleanor 
 of Guienne brought England into closer connection 
 with Gascony, and introduced a taste for Gascon 
 wines, which increased Bristol’s carrying trade. 
 Bristol showed all the signs of commercial growth, 
 chief amongst which was the presence of a colony 
 of Jews, who were the objects of popular hatred 
 in a time when usury was regarded as making profit 
 out of the misfortunes of another, but who were 
 protected by the king, as a source of revenue to 
 the Crown. The Jews of Bristol were among the 
 wealthiest in England, and when King John was 
 in need of money he applied to them for a loan. 
 His application took the form of demands from 
 individuals, and the chief of the Jews resisted the 
 demands as excessive. By John’s orders he was 
 imprisoned, and every day that he refused to pay 
 
 262 
 
Gloucester 
 
 had one of his teeth torn out of his jaw. For eight 
 days the unhappy man held out; on the ninth he 
 could endure no longer, and paid what the king 
 asked. His fellows, terrified by this example, sub¬ 
 mitted in their turn. 
 
 John’s death left England plunged in civil war ; 
 and those of the barons who were in favour of 
 preserving the existing dynasty assembled hastily 
 at Gloucester for the coronation of the young king, 
 Henry III. He was but a child of nine years, and 
 the royal crown could not be brought from West¬ 
 minster for the ceremony. A plain circlet of gold 
 was prepared, and the Bishop of Worcester set it 
 on the boy’s head. The cause of Henry III. 
 prevailed, owing to the wisdom and prudence of 
 William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, who acted as 
 his representative. When he grew up and governed 
 for himself, Henry III. loved Gloucester, and often 
 took up his abode there. For some years it was 
 his necessary headquarters in a war against the son 
 of his early friend, William Marshall, who rebelled 
 against the feeble king, and gave him much trouble 
 on the Welsh Marches. But there were worse 
 troubles in store for a king who promised, and was 
 too feeble to keep his word ; who swore to the 
 provisions of the Great Charter of England’s 
 liberties, and then held not to his oath. His barons 
 long endured his doings, for they had no leader till 
 a man of alien birth, Simon de Montfort, Earl of 
 Leicester, set an example of constitutional resistance. 
 In this he was followed by Richard de Clare, Earl 
 of Gloucester, who shared with Earl Simon the 
 leadership of the baronial party, which strove to 
 
 263 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 mend the misgovernment of Henry III. But Earl 
 Richard withdrew from the task before it was 
 finished, and Earl Simon left England till Richard’s 
 death, in 1262. The young Earl of Gloucester 
 joined Simon heart and soul, and fought at Lewes; 
 but he, too, like his father, quarrelled with Simon, 
 and by his quarrel broke up the baronial party. 
 Gloucester, which was garrisoned for Earl Simon, 
 was taken by Edward, the king’s son, who, by the 
 help of the Earl of Gloucester, escaped from his 
 captivity. The loss of Gloucester made it im¬ 
 possible for Simon to put down the rising against 
 him, and led to his fall in the battle of Evesham. 
 
 The dealings of Edward I. with Gloucestershire 
 mark the progress of those reforms by which he 
 slowly accepted the principles of the English Con¬ 
 stitution, and expressed them in his administrative 
 work. At Gloucester he held a parliament in 1278, 
 which passed a statute for inquiring into the powers 
 exercised by the great lords within their lands. 
 Moreover, he increased the importance of Bristol 
 by committing to its ships the care of the Irish 
 Channel. Bristol had grown to be a considerable 
 place, with a vigorous civil life. It passed through 
 all the phases which mark the growth of municipal 
 government, and was engaged in disputes about 
 its rights of toll with the lords of Berkeley. Its 
 government had become oligarchical, and was in 
 the hands of fourteen of the chief merchants, who 
 had engrossed all the power. A toll imposed on 
 fish led to a dispute, and royal commissioners were 
 sent, in 1314, to decide the quarrel. Their conduct 
 did not give satisfaction, and the townsfolk rose 
 
 264 
 
Gloucester 
 
 against them. Such an affront could not be over¬ 
 looked. Bristol was besieged by the royal forces, 
 and on its capture was reduced to order. 
 
 Edward II. was more given to his amusements 
 than to the business of state, and his reign was a 
 long series of disasters. Deserted at last by all, he 
 was taken prisoner and brought to Berkeley Castle, 
 where he was put to death with horrible cruelty. 
 Then his corpse was exposed to the view of the 
 burghers of Bristol, that all men might be sure that 
 the deposed king was really dead. 
 
 The fifteenth century saw Gloucestershire 
 generally in a very prosperous condition, owing 
 to the natural advantages of its soil. The high- 
 lying land of the Cotswolds was well fitted for 
 pasturing, and no trade in England was more 
 profitable than the wool trade, which went on 
 developing throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth 
 centuries. Trade in the modern sense has now 
 left the once thriving towns which nestle on the 
 edge of the Cotswolds, but the traces of ancient 
 prosperity still lend them a singular interest. At 
 Fairford is a fine Perpendicular church, rebuilt in 
 1500 by a wealthy merchant, John Tame, that it 
 might contain the stained glass which he had 
 brought back from his trading voyages to the 
 Netherlands. The twenty-eight windows which he 
 then set up remain amongst the finest examples of 
 stained glass in England. In like manner the little 
 town of Chipping Camden contains in its splendid 
 church the brasses which mark the tombs of its 
 great merchants of the fifteenth century. It is 
 strange to read in that quiet spot of William 
 
 265 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Grevel, who died in 1407, and was ‘ flos mercatorum 
 lanarum totius Angliae’ (the flower of wool mer¬ 
 chants in all England). 
 
 Scarcely less prosperous, though in another way, 
 was the region which lay on the other bank of the 
 Severn, the Forest of Dean. There the Romans 
 had worked iron, and their work was resumed as 
 times became more settled. The Forest district 
 was under laws of its own, and depended directly 
 on the king, who maintained a whole army of 
 officials to guard the royal rights. The Steward of 
 the Forest had his castle at St. Briavel, overlooking 
 the windings of the Wye. Grants were made 
 of the right to erect a forge, sometimes stationary, 
 sometimes movable, and the dues to be paid to the 
 king were regulated. A mining population sprang 
 up, with manners and customs of its own, who were 
 known as the Free-miners of the Forest. They 
 dug the iron, and smelted it with fires of the wood 
 of forest-trees; then they carried the produce of 
 their toil to the Severn, whence it went by water 
 to the port of Bristol. 
 
 The central part of Gloucestershire, the valley 
 of the Severn, was famous for its corn and its fruit, 
 its cheese and its cider. The shire was renowned 
 through England for its fertility, and was envied for 
 its facilities of transport. The merchants of Bristol 
 flourished. Chiefest among them stood William 
 Canynges, who had nine merchantmen afloat at 
 once, and employed 800 seamen. He gave his 
 townsmen a share of all he gained by building the 
 church of St. Mary Redcliffe, which is still the chief 
 ornament of Bristol. As he grew old he withdrew 
 
 266 
 
Gloucester 
 
 from business, and retired to the collegiate church 
 at Westbury-on-Trym, which had been founded by 
 his friend, Bishop Carpenter, of Worcester. There 
 he donned the frock of a priest, and died in 1474* 
 at the age of seventy-six. 
 
 Men engaged in commerce wish for order and 
 strong government. So it was that in the Wars 
 of the Roses the burghers of Bristol favoured the 
 House of York, and helped to bring about the 
 accession of Edward IV. When an attempt was 
 made to renew the war, it was the attachment of 
 Gloucester to the Yorkist cause which barred 
 the passage of the Severn and cut off Queen 
 Margaret from her friends in Wales. So it was 
 that Edward IV. came upon the queen’s forces at 
 Tewkesbury, and there, in the meadow between 
 the abbey and the river, was fought the bloodiest 
 battle that was ever fought on English soil, the 
 battle that decided the fortunes of the House of 
 Lancaster. The young son of Henry VI. was 
 taken in the fray, and when Edward asked him 
 what brought him to England, answered, ‘To 
 preserve my father’s crown and my own inheritance.’ 
 Edward brutally struck the defenceless lad in the 
 face with his gauntlet, and the Dukes of Clarence 
 and Gloucester despatched him with their swords. 
 It was a barbarous ending of the male line of the 
 Lancastrian House. 
 
 The great change which passed over England 
 in the sixteenth century caused less discontent in 
 Gloucester than in most parts of England; for 
 Gloucestershire was a centre of the prosperous 
 middle class who were the chief gainers by the 
 
 267 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 spoiling of the Church. Its abbeys were mostly 
 swept away ; Winchcombe, for instance, has entirely 
 disappeared, because a new church had been built 
 for the parishioners shortly before the dissolution, 
 and no one had an interest in preserving the 
 magnificent church of the monastery. At Tewkes¬ 
 bury the burghers bought the abbey church for 
 their parish, and Tewkesbury abbey church remains 
 as a rare example of the continuous labours of a great 
 monastery in perfecting its buildings. Gloucester¬ 
 shire, moreover, affords an example of the original 
 intentions of Henry VIII. when the dissolution of 
 the monasteries was begun. The great abbey 
 church of Gloucester was made the seat of a bishop, 
 and a new diocese was framed for the shire, which 
 was severed from the see of Worcester. Further, 
 the church of the house of Augustinian canons at 
 Bristol was made the seat of another bishopric, 
 which took in the counties of Bristol and Dorset. 
 It is a striking testimony to the importance of this 
 part of England in that age, that two of the six 
 sees which were then erected should have fallen to 
 its share. Its promise of increasing importance was 
 not fulfilled. Trade has migrated to the northern 
 counties, and in 1836 the dioceses of Gloucester 
 and Bristol were united under one bishop. 
 
 In the period of religious strife, Gloucestershire, 
 as the home of the middle class, was strongly 
 Protestant; and in the reign of Mary, Bishop 
 Hooper was sent to Gloucester to be burned, that 
 his death might be a warning to the stubborn folk. 
 But the persecutions of Mary’s reign were speedily 
 at an end. In the growth of English seamanship, 
 
 268 
 
Gloucester 
 
 which marked the reign of Elizabeth, Bristol bore 
 its share. Already Sebastian Cabot had sailed from 
 Bristol on his famous voyage to the West, in which 
 he discovered Newfoundland; and Bristol long kept 
 its connection with the Newfoundland fishing trade. 
 Further, the trade with the West Indies at first 
 passed exclusively through Bristol, which so became 
 the centre of the manufactures connected with sugar 
 and tobacco. 
 
 It was the mercantile classes whom Charles I. 
 especially offended, and in the Great Rebellion 
 Gloucestershire, unlike its neighbour Worcester¬ 
 shire, held for the Parliament. Bristol was aggrieved 
 by the imposition of ship-money, and by a royal 
 grant of a monopoly to a London society of soap- 
 makers. It was a stronghold of Puritans, and in 
 this was followed by Gloucester, where Laud began 
 his career as dean, and irritated the citizens by his 
 high-handed way of working reforms in the services 
 of the cathedral. The loss of the command of the 
 Severn meant the severing of the king’s communi¬ 
 cation with the West, so, in 1643, Bristol was 
 besieged by Prince Rupert, and was taken after 
 assault, with great slaughter on both sides. Its 
 loss was a great blow to the Parliament, and when 
 Charles I. besieged Gloucester also, it was felt 
 that a desperate effort must be made for its relief. 
 The Earl of Essex marched westwards with troops 
 drawn largely from the apprentices of London, and 
 by forced marches reached Gloucester in time to 
 save it from surrender, and the Royalist army was 
 compelled to withdraw. After this the garrisons of 
 Bristol and Gloucester were left to watch one 
 
 269 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 another till, in 1645, Prince Rupert was driven to 
 surrender Bristol to Fairfax and Cromwell. Though 
 this surrender was inevitable, it was a deadly blow 
 to the hopes of Charles, who showed his resentment 
 by dismissing Rupert from his service. 
 
 Gloucestershire suffered severely in the Civil 
 War. Bristol was fired in three places before it 
 was surrendered, and all the suburbs of Gloucester 
 were burned down during the siege. 
 
 After the Restoration, Charles II. ordered 
 Gloucester to be dismantled and its castle de¬ 
 stroyed. But to the chief port of England, as 
 Bristol was, prosperity rapidly returned. At the 
 end of the seventeenth century Pepys was surprised 
 by its size and its splendour. He measured its 
 size by the fact that when he looked about him he 
 saw nothing but houses. Its splendour was con¬ 
 fined to its churches, for its streets were so narrow 
 that they were scarcely accessible to coaches or 
 waggons, and all the traffic was carried on trucks 
 drawn by dogs. The merchants of Bristol, in their 
 eagerness to grow rich, did not much heed the 
 source from whence their wealth came; and trade 
 with the West Indies revived the old habit of kid¬ 
 napping men and sending them away to slavery. 
 This was so notorious that the cruel Judge Jeffreys, 
 in his ‘Bloody Assize’ of 1685, did one act that 
 was creditable. He ordered the Mayor of Bristol 
 to leave the bench where he was sitting and take 
 his place in the dock ; there he poured forth upon 
 the astonished magistrate a torrent of coarse 
 eloquence, in which he denounced the iniquity of 
 the Bristol traffic in the bodies of men. It is 
 
 270 
 
Gloucester 
 
 noticeable how the old associations lingered ; when 
 the movement for the abolition of the slave trade 
 was set afloat, Bristol was the centre of the most 
 determined opposition to that act of national 
 morality. 
 
 The end of the eighteenth century saw the com¬ 
 parative decline in the greatness of Gloucestershire 
 as the centre of English commerce and industry. 
 The woollen manufacture migrated northward to 
 Yorkshire. The Forest of Dean lost its monopoly 
 of iron working; indeed, by the middle of the 
 seventeenth century, the trees of the forest had 
 almost all been cut down and used for fuel to the 
 smelting furnaces. The discovery that iron could 
 be better smelted by coal caused a complete change 
 in the conditions of the iron trade, and the Bristol 
 coalfield was small compared with those of Wales. 
 The general direction of trade shifted northwards, 
 and the old towns of Gloucestershire, which once 
 resounded with the click of the shuttles of the hand- 
 loom—towns of which Stroud may stand as an 
 example—have now sunk into insignificance before 
 the great collection of factories which form the 
 towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire. 
 
 Bristol is no longer the chief seaport for English 
 commerce; yet its population is ten times what it 
 was in its most palmy days, and the size of its docks, 
 and the number of vessels which enter them, far 
 exceed the measure of what was necessary for the 
 trade of all England at the end of the seventeenth 
 century. Gloucestershire has actually increased in 
 all its trade and manufactures during the last cen¬ 
 tury and a half; it has only comparatively declined. 
 
 271 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 This fact gives it its special interest among the 
 shires of England. None tells so well the history 
 of the continuous growth and progress of England’s 
 industries. Gloucestershire keeps the records of 
 England’s normal growth, and enables us to judge 
 what England would have been without the great 
 invention of machinery and means of transport 
 which have given a new turn to modern industrial 
 and social life. 
 
 There are those who nowadays, as they ramble 
 along the Cotswold Hills and drop down upon the 
 stately old towns that fringe their base, linger over 
 the memories of the lesser England of the past, and 
 wonder if things are always great in proportion to 
 their size, or if life is always useful in proportion to 
 its bustle. 
 
 272 
 
HEREFORD 
 
 T HE fertile land that makes up the Hereford¬ 
 shire of to-day was in old times wild and 
 desolate enough. Pent in between the 
 Forests of Dean and Wyre on the one side, and 
 the Welsh mountains on the other, the Wye 
 worked its way through brushwood and forest 
 down to the estuary of the Severn, and only here 
 and there along its course attracted settlers. The 
 Romans advanced as far as Gloucester, where a 
 strong station of soldiers commanded the Severn ; 
 and not until the river opened out into the plain 
 by Wroxeter did they again form settlements 
 along its banks. From Wroxeter, however, they 
 penetrated westward and made military roads, 
 commanded by a few stations, which might suffice 
 to keep the Britons in awe. There was a British 
 town on the site where Hereford now stands, with 
 the name of Caerfawdd, the town in the beech- 
 wood. Hard by it the village of Kenchester still 
 tells of the existence of a Roman station on the 
 road that ran between Wroxeter and the mouth of 
 the Usk. The Romans, however, seem to have 
 left the country between the Usk and the Severn 
 to the hardy tribes of the Silurians, taking 
 
 273 s 
 
 care 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 only that they should not leave these limits, but 
 remain within their thickets. Hence it comes that 
 Herefordshire is rich in British camps, which crown 
 the tops of many hills, and tell of a people who 
 lived in constant watchfulness against their foes. 
 There is no spot in England which brings back 
 a remote past more vividly than does the scene 
 which opens from the top of the Herefordshire 
 Beacon. The summit of the hill, which is the 
 loftiest point of the Malvern range, is terraced and 
 entrenched, so that its natural form is lost, and a 
 large level enclosure, safe behind its fortress of 
 earth, has converted the steep hilltop into an 
 abode of men. The next summit westward has 
 been treated in like manner, and most of the 
 hilltops which are in view bear the marks of 
 human habitation. The scene carries us back to 
 a time when the rich valleys of Herefordshire were 
 impassable jungles, and the hills were inhabited by 
 warlike tribes, whose settlements occupied the 
 highest ground, which their spades transformed 
 according to their needs. 
 
 So the Britons lived until the coming of the 
 English brought them foes more dangerous than the 
 Romans. Doubtless the dwellers on the Malvern 
 Hills heard rumours of the advance of these 
 strangers from the coast; but it was long before 
 they themselves were troubled in their fortresses, 
 nor can we clearly trace the steps of the English 
 conquest of this district. The conquest, however, 
 was the work of a definite tribe ; and the boundaries 
 of Herefordshire were determined by the fact that it 
 contained the people of the Hecanas, who, under 
 
 274 
 
Hereford 
 
 a ruler of their own, formed part of the Mercian 
 kingdom. No doubt their settlements were sparse, 
 and they mingled with the British people. But 
 they had an importance, remote as they were; and 
 this importance was first recognised in the sphere 
 of ecclesiastical organisation. The bishoprics at 
 first followed the kingdoms, and the vast Mercian 
 kingdom was under the supervision of the Bishop 
 of Lichfield, till the great Archbishop of Canter¬ 
 bury, Theodore, somewhere about 680, broke up 
 the unwieldy diocese, and set a bishop at Hereford 
 over the Hecanas. This is the first established 
 fact in the history of Herefordshire. It shows 
 us a definite people established within certain 
 boundaries, sufficiently important to need special 
 supervision; and it tells us that the old British 
 town of Caerfydd had changed its name into 
 Hereford, which perhaps may mean the ford of 
 the army, but which, anyhow, was the centre 
 of the district, and was an outpost against the 
 Britons. 
 
 The western boundary of the Hecanas can only 
 have been dimly defined, and they probably spent 
 their time in border warfare, till the great Mercian 
 ruler, OfTa, led his army across the Severn in 779, 
 pushed back the Welsh, and raised his dyke, a huge 
 earthwork which runs from the mouth of the Wye 
 to the Dee, which was to form the boundary between 
 the Mercians and the Welsh. This was the last 
 great deed of the Mercian kingdom. From that 
 time it fell back, until the ravages of the Danes 
 completed its downfall. When the Danes were 
 finally driven back by the West Saxon kings, the 
 
 275 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 older divisions of the Mercian kingdoms reappear 
 in the shape of shires, and Herefordshire, the old 
 sub-kingdom of the Hecanas and the seat of a 
 bishopric, came definitely into existence as a 
 recognised part of the English kingdom. 
 
 During the Danish invasion the Welsh had been 
 pressing hard on their English neighbours, and the 
 West Saxon Ethelstan in 925 had to make an 
 agreement with them. He summoned to Hereford 
 the chiefs of the North Welsh, and compelled them 
 to accept the Wye once more as the boundary of 
 the English kingdom. There was no longer any 
 further idea of English conquest; the only desire 
 was that the two peoples should live side by side in 
 peace. But Hereford was of importance for the 
 maintenance of peace; and we find that under 
 Edward the Confessor it was committed to the 
 care of earls of its own. 
 
 Moreover, the reign of Edward the Confessor 
 gives us a glimpse into the condition of Hereford¬ 
 shire, a condition which throughout the Middle 
 Ages continued to be its chief characteristic. 
 Edward had spent his youth in Normandy, and 
 on his accession to the English throne many 
 Norman adventurers flocked to England as to a 
 land of promise. It was natural for the king to 
 provide for them upon the Welsh frontier, an 
 unsettled district, where Welsh and English dwelt 
 side by side, and where the rights of landowners 
 were ill-defined. Amongst these Norman adven¬ 
 turers was one, Richard, the son of Scrob, who took 
 possession of lands which the king granted him, and 
 showed that he was determined to hold them against 
 
 276 
 
H ereford 
 
 all comers. He built a castle, which has long since 
 disappeared ; but Richard’s Castle still survives as 
 the name of a quiet country town. The name bears 
 witness to the terror which Richard’s proceedings 
 inspired in men’s minds. They could understand 
 the fortification of a town, or the erection of a 
 fortress to defend the abodes of men ; but Richard 
 built a castle for himself, that he might overawe his 
 neighbours, and support his own claims to whatever 
 he chose to demand. It is the earliest instance of 
 these ‘adulterine castles,’ which were centres of 
 violence and oppression in Stephen’s reign, and 
 filled Englishmen with the deepest dread. They 
 called them ‘ adulterine,’ because they saw no 
 legitimate connection of them either with national 
 or local defence; they represented nothing save the 
 self-will and arbitrary power of a domineering 
 landowner. 
 
 The lands of Herefordshire needed constant 
 defence, and special local customs for that purpose 
 prevailed in many districts. But they were power¬ 
 less to save the land from an invasion of the Welsh 
 King Griffith in 1055. He ravaged the borderland 
 and advanced to Hereford, where he routed Earl 
 Ralph and reduced the city to ruins. Its church 
 was burned, its citizens were slain or led into 
 captivity, and for a time the land lay waste. But 
 King Edward sent Earl Harold with an army, 
 before which the Welsh king retreated; then 
 Harold rebuilt the ruined town, and may be 
 regarded as the second founder of Hereford. 
 Before his time it seems to have been unfortified; 
 Harold surrounded it with a wall, and safe under 
 
 277 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 his care the church and houses of the citizens rose 
 again. However, Harold’s protection was not long 
 enjoyed. His downfall and the accession of the 
 Norman William roused the spirits of the untamed 
 dwellers on the border. The most powerful 
 Englishman in those parts, Edric the Wild, 
 refused to submit to William, despite the fact 
 that Richard’s Castle, under its Norman lord, 
 warmly upheld the cause of the Conqueror. But 
 Edric found ready allies in the Welsh kings, and in 
 1067 their combined forces ravaged Herefordshire, 
 and again laid it waste. The walls and castle of 
 Hereford saved it from being burned a second time, 
 but the land as far as the River Lugg was reduced 
 to desolation. 
 
 Perhaps this onslaught was a protest against 
 William I.’s government. He had made Hereford 
 a county palatine, and had conferred the earldom 
 on his most trusted friend, William Fitz-Osborn, 
 whom the English looked upon as their great 
 oppressor. Earl William was indeed a stern man, 
 whose first object was to carry out the conquest of 
 England and reduce the land to submission. He 
 warred against the Welsh and overcame their chief 
 king, but his early death in 1071 prevented him 
 from brinounof Edric to entire submission. His 
 earldom went to his son Roger, who, strangely 
 unlike his father, rose in rebellion against William I. 
 He was prevented from crossing the Severn by 
 Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester, was made prisoner, 
 and was kept in prison till his death. After this 
 treachery of a powerful lord, William I. did not 
 think it wise to set another earl over Hereford, 
 
 278 
 
Hereford 
 
 which was guarded by officers dependent directly 
 on the king. 
 
 Earl William had set on foot the practice of 
 castle-building, and one of the new castles, that 
 of Wigmore, was given to Ralph Mortimer, who 
 founded a family which was of great importance in 
 the annals of England. At first, however, the 
 family rose in importance by steadily acquiring the 
 castles on the Welsh border, and it was the reign 
 of William Rufus which introduced the policy of 
 subduing South Wales by constantly building castles 
 as outposts against the foe, and so continually 
 pushing forward the line of the English border and 
 pushing back the Welsh. It was the pursuance 
 of this system that made Herefordshire, like its 
 neighbour Shropshire, a district of great lords and 
 strong castles. It represented the inner circle of 
 English defences, and its lords were the natural 
 leaders of confederacies of the smaller barons, who 
 had won their lands from the Welsh and held them 
 by their arms. 
 
 Hereford, however, was not of so much 
 importance as Gloucester, whose earl, Robert, led 
 the western shires to declare against Stephen and 
 espouse the cause of Matilda. Geoffrey Talbot 
 seized the castle of Hereford in Matilda’s name, 
 whereupon Stephen besieged and reduced the 
 castles of Hereford and Weobley. Matilda, when 
 she came to power In 1141, revived the earldom of 
 Hereford and bestowed it upon Milo, the Constable 
 of Gloucester. A second time the earldom of 
 Hereford was short-lived, for the same reason as 
 before. Milo’s son Roger joined with his neighbour, 
 
 279 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Hugh of Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore, to resist the 
 measures which Henry II. took that he might 
 reduce the overweening power of the castle-building 
 barons whom the weakness of Stephen’s reign had 
 fostered and encouraged. Henry II. marched 
 against the rebels, but he did not need to draw 
 sword against Earl Roger, for the Bishop of 
 Hereford, Gilbert Foliot, convinced him of his 
 error, and he made submission to the king. The 
 Church interposed to keep the peace, and the end 
 of Earl Robert gives another testimony to the 
 power of the Church to sway men’s minds. The 
 penitent earl retired to the abbey of Gloucester, 
 where he took the monastic vows, and ended his 
 days in 1154. In like manner Hugh Mortimer 
 betook himself to the building of an abbey at 
 Wigmore, and died a canon of it in 1185. 
 
 The earldom of Hereford was again revived in 
 1199 for Henry de Bohun, who was already a 
 powerful man, Hereditary Constable of England. 
 The castle was not, however, entrusted to his 
 keeping, but was retained as a royal castle, having 
 a governor of its own, generally the sheriff of the 
 county. In the struggle against John and Henry 
 III. the barons of the West were generally on the 
 side of liberty and withstood the king. Nowhere 
 did the weakness of Henry III. produce more 
 disastrous results than on the Welsh borders. The 
 Princes of Gwynedd (North Wales) began to 
 meddle in English politics, and took advantage of 
 the discontent felt by the barons against the 
 Crown. There was a great Celtic revival, which 
 Henry III. was unable to cope with, though he 
 
 280 
 
H ereford 
 
 often made Hereford his headquarters, and built up 
 the castle so that it became a considerable fortress. 
 Moreover, Henry III. set up as Bishop of Hereford 
 one of the numerous tribe of Savoyards whom he 
 delighted to favour, Peter of Aigueblanche, an 
 unscrupulous and tricky man, who was universally 
 detested. There was great disquiet among the 
 Lords Marchers all along the Welsh borders, and 
 when war broke out between the reforming barons 
 and the king, party quarrels caused great dissension 
 among them. Simon de Montfort, the leader of 
 the baronial party, aggrieved the Earl of Gloucester, 
 and was suspected of being on too friendly terms 
 with the Welsh. The Earl of Hereford withdrew 
 from the baronial party, and there was civil war 
 in Herefordshire. Peter de Montfort, Simon’s 
 brother, was the commander on the barons’ side ; 
 he captured Hereford in 1263, and drove out its 
 hated bishop. In 1264 Simon was victorious in the 
 battle of Lewes, and the king and his son were 
 prisoners in his hand. But the Lords Marchers 
 refused to submit to this usurpation, and their 
 loyalty waxed stronger as their king’s fortunes 
 declined. Earl Simon found that he must on in 
 
 o 
 
 person to deal with the disturbed state of affairs in 
 the West. He made his headquarters at Hereford, 
 where he took with him the captive king and the 
 young Edward. But the royalist reaction grew 
 stronger and Simon’s difficulties increased, till at 
 Hereford occurred an event which wrought his 
 ruin. Edward, though a prisoner, was treated with 
 the honour due to his rank, and went out riding 
 every day, with a few guardians, in Widemarsh, as 
 
 281 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 the meadow was called which stretches below the 
 walks of Hereford Castle. The loyalist Marchers 
 found means of communicating with him, and laid 
 their plan for his escape. They had contrived to 
 provide him with a horse of great swiftness, and 
 one evening (May 28, 1265) Edward proposed to 
 his unconscious guards that they should make 
 trial of their horses. When they had tired out 
 their horses in the contest, a rider was seen on the 
 distant hill to wave his hat. At this signal Edward 
 leapt upon his horse, which was yet untried, and 
 saluting his guard with sarcastic politeness, rode off 
 with one or two of his friends who were in the 
 secret and disappeared in the forest. Pursuit was 
 vain, and Edward was soon among his friends, a 
 centre of enthusiastic loyalty, in the castle of the 
 loyalist, Roger Mortimer, at Wigmore. Earl Simon 
 felt that the county was rising against him, and 
 made an alliance with Llewelyn, the Prince of 
 Gwynedd, which was regarded as monstrous by 
 those who looked on the Welsh as their hereditary 
 foes. He waited at Hereford for succours, which 
 never came, till at last he was forced to cross the 
 Severn, and withdrew to Worcestershire, where, on 
 August 4, he fell in the battle of Evesham. 
 
 These events secured the power of the family of 
 Mortimer. Roger and his son Edward were the 
 chief leaders of the troops who, under Edmund I., 
 conquered North Wales. This conquest was the 
 result of Edward’s early experiences at Hereford, 
 where he learned that the West of England would 
 never be free from disorder till the disturbing 
 element of the Welsh Principality was removed. 
 
 282 
 
Hereford 
 
 After Edward I.’s conquest of North Wales, the 
 importance of Hereford as a military post declined, 
 and the county became more prosperous. It had 
 long been famous as the best grazing land in 
 England, and Herefordshire wool had a reputation 
 throughout Europe. Leominster grew in importance 
 as the centre of the western wool trade, and the 
 market to which was brought the produce of the 
 district. Ledbury and Kington were inhabited by 
 clothiers. In the beginning of the fourteenth cen¬ 
 tury Herefordshire was one of the most favoured 
 counties of England, having a well-to-do population, 
 and being filled with small gentry, whose houses 
 studded the plains. 
 
 Amongst these the family of Mortimer held the 
 chief place, and it was Roger Mortimer who, in the 
 reign of Edward II., roused the western barons 
 against the king. He had little difficulty in so 
 doing, for their jealousy was stirred by the rise of the 
 Despencers in the royal favour. Hugh Despencer 
 married the heiress of the Earl of Gloucester, and 
 thereby became lord of almost the whole county 
 of Glamorgan. He claimed some lands to which 
 both Mortimer and Mowbray thought- they had a 
 better right, and personal motives led them to 
 oppose the royal favourite. At first the king was 
 successful, and reduced Hereford and the Marches 
 in 1322. Mortimer fled to France ; his friend, 
 Adam Orlton, Bishop of Hereford, was only saved 
 from being tried for high treason by the intervention 
 of the Archbishop of Canterbury. But Mortimer 
 and Bishop Orlton waited for their opportunity. 
 Edward II. was in difficulties with the French king, 
 
 283 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 and sent his wife, Isabella of France, and his son 
 Edward, to arrange matters at the French Court. 
 There Isabella was captivated by Mortimer, and 
 loudly complained of her husband’s ill-treatment. A 
 plot was quickly formed against the English king, 
 and Bishop Orlton managed, with much dexterity, 
 to organise a party in England. When Isabella 
 landed in England, no one was left to stand by the 
 unhappy king. Isabella and Mortimer advanced in 
 triumph to Hereford, where they made their head¬ 
 quarters ; and Bishop Orlton carried through Par¬ 
 liament the deposition of Edward II. and the 
 accession of Edward III. Mortimer was practically 
 ruler of England, and repaid himself for his villainies 
 by the Earldom of March. But men soon grew 
 weary of his shameful rule, and Edward III., after 
 three years, handed him over to his enemies, from 
 whom he met with a felon’s death. 
 
 The French wars of Edward III. were so far 
 advantageous that they provided an occupation for 
 many of the adventurous gentry of the Welsh 
 Marches, and thereby promoted peace and order at 
 home. But at the same time Edward III. sowed the 
 seeds of future dissension by the marriage of his sons 
 to great heiresses, whereby the blood royal entered 
 into many of the chief families of England, and 
 encouraged ambitious schemes which were fatal to 
 the peace of England. John of Gaunt married 
 Blanche, heiress of the House of Lancaster; their 
 son Henry married Mary Bohun, and added to 
 his other dignities the title of Earl of Hereford. 
 Before him Richard II. fell, as Edward II. had 
 fallen before the intrigues of Mortimer; but Henry 
 
 284 
 
Hereford 
 
 of Bolingbroke could furbish up a title to the Crown 
 and reigned in his own name. Still, as Henry IV., 
 he was weak upon the throne, and his weakness 
 coincided with a period of revival of Welsh 
 patriotism. Owen Glendower rose in arms, and 
 Sir Edward Mortimer led against him the knights 
 of Herefordshire, only to be defeated at Kington, 
 and fall a captive into Glendower’s hands. Henry 
 IV. delayed to ransom the prisoner, whose loyalty 
 was so weak that Glendower won him to his side, 
 and gave him his daughter to wife. Again the 
 importance of great English families was felt in 
 English politics; for the head of the House of 
 Mortimer, the young Earl of March, was, through 
 his grandmother, descended from Lionel, Duke of 
 Clarence, and many men said that he ought to be 
 king instead of Henry. 
 
 The battle of Shrewsbury put an end to the 
 hopes of the confederacy against Henry IV., but 
 did not restore quiet in Herefordshire. The young 
 Earl of March was kept in prison, and there were 
 perpetual plots for his delivery. Under Henry V. 
 he was released, and served in the French wars as 
 a loyal subject of the king ; but the untimely death 
 of Henry V. was rapidly followed by the untimely 
 death of the Earl of March in 1424. He died 
 childless, and the dignities of the House of Mortimer 
 passed to the son of his sister Anne, who had 
 married Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York. 
 
 It was owing to this accession of importance that 
 the House of York became so formidable a rival of 
 the reigning House of Lancaster, and through its 
 connection with the Mortimer family, Herefordshire 
 
 285 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 was involved in the struggle of the Rose Wars. 
 Wigmore was often the headquarters of Richard, 
 Duke of York, and thither his son Edward fled for 
 refuge when he heard the news of his father’s death 
 in the battle of Wakefield. He was pursued by 
 Owen Tudor, who, by his marriage with the widow 
 of Henry V., had carried the sentiment of the Welsh 
 to the Lancastrian side. There it was that the 
 young Edward began his career of arms which bore 
 him to the English throne. Gathering his vassals, 
 he met his pursuers at a spot not far from his castle, 
 where the piety of his ancestors had reared a cross 
 which bore their name. In the battle of Mortimer’s 
 Cross four thousand men were slain, and the 
 victorious Edward of York sent his prisoners, 
 amongst them Owen Tudor, to Hereford, for 
 execution, in retaliation for his father’s death. 
 
 When Edward IV. ascended the throne, he 
 carried the castle of Wigmore into the possession 
 of the Crown, and it gradually ceased to be a 
 baronial fortress. The accession of the Tudors 
 brought peace to England generally, and especially 
 into the Welsh Marches. Under Henry VIII. in 
 1536 Wales was finally incorporated with England, 
 and the lands of the Lords Marchers were formed 
 into shires, and received the ordinary organisation of 
 English counties. At this time Hereford received its 
 present form, as thirteen townships were added to 
 it, and its boundaries on the west were finally settled. 
 
 With the pacification of Wales the stirring times 
 of the history of Herefordshire came to an end. 
 It throve, owing to its natural fertility and mild 
 climate, so that the proverb ran— 
 
 286 
 
Hereford 
 
 ‘ Blessed is the eye 
 Between Severn and Wye.’ 
 
 The taste for cider made its way in England 
 during the sixteenth century, and Herefordshire 
 was well adapted for apple-trees. In all matters 
 that concerned agriculture it showed great activity, 
 and was the home of a well-to-do class of county 
 gentlefolk, who lived amongst their tenants. 
 
 The great baronial families passed away in the 
 Wars of the Roses, and a new nobility began to 
 take their place. This new nobility was, in many 
 cases, formed out of families which had long been 
 overshadowed by the greater lords. We may trace 
 the process in the fortunes of the castles of Here¬ 
 fordshire. First, Hereford Castle ceased to be the 
 seat of an earl and fell into the hands of the Crown, 
 which slowly allowed it to fall out of repair. Its 
 place was taken by the castle of Wigmore, till the 
 lords of Wigmore were absorbed into a royal house, 
 which rose to the throne and abandoned Wigmore 
 to ruin. No sooner was this done than the lords of 
 Weobley began a career of official life, which raised 
 them to a commanding position in the annals of 
 England. Walter Devereux, of Weobley Castle, 
 fell fighting for Richard III. on Bosworth Field. 
 His descendant, another Walter Devereux, was 
 made Earl of Essex by Elizabeth, and was sent to 
 reduce Ireland to order. He died of a broken 
 heart because he was so ill supported at home ; and 
 his brilliant son, Robert, after shining as the chief 
 ornament of Elizabeth’s Court, found in Ireland the 
 ruin of his reputation. Not less significant is it of 
 the change that came over England’s nobility that 
 
 287 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 his son, Robert, was general of the Parliament in 
 the Civil War, and prepared the way for Cromwell, 
 the representative of the smaller gentry, who had 
 again become the mainstay of English life. 
 
 In the Civil War Herefordshire was on the 
 Royalist side, and suffered accordingly. Hereford 
 underwent three sieges; its castle was finally dis¬ 
 mantled, and now has almost entirely disappeared. 
 The other castles in Herefordshire were at 'this 
 time reduced to ruins, to which Time has given 
 picturesqueness. Chief amongst them for beauty 
 of situation and architectural interest is the castle 
 of Goodrich, which crowns the summit of a red 
 sandstone cliff that rises abruptly above the Wye, 
 where, after manifold windings through the cliffs, 
 which may be seen from Symond’s Yat, the river 
 broadens in the plain that opens towards Ross. Its 
 massive Norman keep tells of its origin as a strong¬ 
 hold ; its noble dining-hall opening into a graceful 
 drawing-room tells of the growth of the fortress into 
 a mansion. Castle and mansion, alike in ruins, are 
 dominated by a comfortable country house, which 
 rises on the wooded heights behind. In front the 
 Wye makes its way through rich meadows, where 
 the drowsy cattle are peacefully feeding, and cottages 
 rise along the high-road, no longer needing the 
 protection of the fortress. The whole scene is 
 instinct with the country life of England in the past 
 and in the present alike. 
 
 A short walk only has to be taken from Goodrich 
 Castle to Ross, and we are reminded of the growth 
 of that motive, which we must hope is destined to 
 replace in the future the manifold activities of the 
 
 288 
 
Hereford 
 
 past as a principle of human progress. We need 
 not stop to consider whether it was more than a 
 lucky accident that has made the name of ‘ the Man 
 of Ross ’ a symbol of the quiet and unobtrusive 
 philanthropy on which must depend our social well¬ 
 being in the future. We may be content to take 
 him as the type of the duty which modern society 
 lays upon all its thoughtful members, of the work 
 which is no longer left to baron or monk, but which 
 he who can must do. John Kyrle was a man of 
 small means, which he devoted to charity and the 
 promotion of works of general usefulness. No 
 doubt there were many others who laboured like 
 himself; but Pope, when on a visit to Holm Lacey, 
 was struck by Kyrle’s beneficence, and immortalised 
 him in his verse : 
 
 ‘ Whose causeway parts the vale with shady rows ? 
 
 Whose seats the weary traveller repose ? 
 
 Who taught that heaven-directed spire to rise? 
 
 “ The Man of Ross,” each lisping babe replies. 
 
 Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans blest, 
 
 The young who labour, and the old who rest.’ 
 
 289 
 
 T 
 
WARWICK 
 
 W ARWICKSHIRE has many claims to be 
 considered as the most typically English 
 of the English shires. In position it lies 
 almost in the middle of England, and so was 
 unaffected by the special conditions which gave a 
 peculiar character to the shires which lay along the 
 Scottish and the Welsh marches, or those along the 
 coast, which were exposed to foreign influences. 
 Moreover, amongst the inland shires it always held 
 a foremost place, and was connected with almost 
 all the great movements in English history. The 
 tongue which its people spoke is that which became 
 the literary language of England, and the shire 
 which produced Shakespeare can claim a com¬ 
 manding position in the history of the civilised 
 world. Further, the district was favourably situated 
 alike for the pursuits of agriculture and of industry'. 
 All the influences to which English civilisation is 
 due are conspicuously represented in Warwickshire. 
 Its three great towns—Warwick, Coventry', and 
 Birmingham—are monuments of the work of the 
 barons, the Church, and the manufacturer, and tell 
 in an unmistakable way of the achievements alike 
 of the past and of the present. 
 
 290 
 
W arwick 
 
 The district contained within the county of 
 Warwick was in early days a huge forest, known 
 in later times as the Forest of Arden, which occupied 
 almost the whole of the triangle lying between the 
 valleys of the Severn and the Avon. This forest 
 district was left untouched by the Romans. Three 
 of their roads enclosed it—the Fosse Way on 
 the east, the Watling Street on the north, and 
 the Ikenild Street, which, skirting the Cotswolds, 
 penetrated a portion of the forest on the west, 
 and ran through the district where now stands 
 Birmingham. On this last road was the military 
 station of Alcester, which seems to have been 
 established for the purpose of guarding it where 
 it had to traverse the forest. East of the Avon 
 valley it is probable that there were a few settle¬ 
 ments of the Roman colonists, but they were not 
 of much importance till the line of Edgehill had 
 been passed. Stratford still marks the place where 
 the Romans passed the Avon on a paved road 
 which could always be forded. 
 
 When the Romans had gone, and the English 
 invaded Britain from the east, they found little to 
 attract them in this forest region, which seems to 
 have formed a barrier preventing the English from 
 pressing farther west. It was the West Saxons 
 who, after the battle of Deorham in 577, left to 
 the tribe of the Hwiccas the Severn valley, whence 
 the Hwiccas slowly penetrated to the Avon, and 
 thence extended their settlements. It was natural 
 for them to occupy the ruined walls of the Roman 
 Alcester; but it was the western plain which chiefly 
 attracted them. There the tribe of the Wearingas 
 
 291 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 took up their abode on the spot to which they gave 
 their name of Warwick, and they had neighbours 
 at Leamington and Kenilworth. 
 
 The outlying tribe of the Hwiccas did not long 
 remain united to their West Saxon brethren, but 
 were conquered by the men of the great middle 
 kingdom of Mercia, and fell back into heathenism; 
 till in 660 the Mercian king became a Christian, and 
 a bishop was set up in Lichfield. Soon afterwards 
 it was found necessary to divide the great see of 
 Mercia, and Worcester was chosen as the seat of a 
 bishop of the Hwiccas. Bishop Egwin tried to 
 carry the message of the Gospel to the scattered 
 dwellers along the outskirts of the Forest of Arden ; 
 and we catch a glimpse of their life in a story which 
 tells us how, when the good bishop went to preach 
 at Alcester, the demons who dwelt in the forest 
 tried to drown his voice with the din of their 
 hammers. But soon the monastery of Evesham 
 rose on the bank of the Avon, and spread its 
 influence northwards, bringing the forest dwellers 
 into connection with civilised life. 
 
 We know little about the fortunes of this rude 
 people till the resistance of Alfred to the Danes 
 made their district of importance as a frontier. By 
 the Peace of Wedmore, in 878, the Danes agreed 
 to leave to Alfred all the lands that lay westward 
 of the line of Watling Street. The Mercian king¬ 
 dom had come to an end in the Danish invasion, 
 and Mercia was treated by Alfred as a dependent 
 state. It still kept its own ealdorman, Ethelred, to 
 whom Alfred gave his sister, Ethelfled, to wife. 
 Ethelred died in 912, and Ethelfled, ‘the Lady of 
 
 292 
 
Warwick 
 
 the Mercians,’ to protect the centre of Mercia, 
 erected a fortress to guard the Fosse Way, and 
 chose as its site the place where the Wearingas 
 had made their settlement on the Avon. There 
 she raised a mound where the ground rose from the 
 river, and on the spot which she then chose stands 
 the stately castle of Warwick. Ethelfled lived 
 almost long enough to succeed in driving out the 
 Danes from Mercia. When Mercia was divided 
 into shires, one of them received its name as the 
 district which gathered round Ethelfled’s fortress 
 of Warwick. 
 
 Such is what history has to tell us; but legend 
 has been exceptionally busy with Warwickshire, and 
 speaks of a fabulous hero—Guy, Earl of Warwick, 
 who went to the Holy Land on a pilgrimage, and 
 signalised himself after his return by slaying in 
 single combat a gigantic champion of the Danes. 
 Then he returned to his castle, not as its lord, for 
 he had laid all earthly vanity aside, but that he 
 might have the satisfaction of beholding his wife, 
 whom he dearly loved. On the bank of the Avon 
 he scooped out in the rock an hermitage at a place 
 which bears the name of Guy’s Cliff. Thence he 
 came in hermit’s attire to receive a daily dole of 
 bread from his wife’s hands at the door of his own 
 castle. Not till he was on his death-bed did he 
 make himself known to his wife, whom he had 
 so long contemplated from afar. So runs the 
 legend; but later times converted Guy himself 
 into a giant, and romantically-minded visitors to 
 Warwick Castle may still see the mighty weapons 
 and huge vessels which belong to Guy, though the 
 
 293 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 sceptical may wonder how a man of such prodigious 
 size could manage to conceal himself so effectually 
 as to escape the suspicion even of his wife. 
 
 Legend has been equally busy with the rise of 
 another of the towns of Warwickshire. The facts 
 are that the attempt to centralise the Government 
 of England was premature, and that the end of 
 the tenth century saw the rise of earldoms which 
 corresponded in some respects to the old divisions 
 of the kingdom. The Mercian earl, Leofric, in the 
 reign of Edward the Confessor, under the influence 
 of his pious wife, Godiva, was a great benefactor of 
 the Church. Amongst other monasteries which he 
 endowed in his dominions he set up a home for 
 monks on the waters of the Anker, at a place which 
 took its name of Coventry from the convent round 
 which it gathered. At this favourite foundation of 
 his bounty Leofric was buried, and his widow, who 
 long survived her husband, bestowed upon it many 
 marks of her affection for her husband’s memory. 
 On this basis of fact local tradition built up the 
 story of Godiva’s compassion for the townsmen, 
 who groaned under the oppressive taxation of their 
 lord. To her entreaties on their behalf Leofric 
 answered that he would free them from all exactions 
 if she was ready to put her interest in their welfare 
 to the rude test of riding naked through the streets. 
 Godiva did so; and the citizens made her sacrifice 
 an easy one, by having the streets deserted during 
 her ride—all the citizens save one, who, peeping 
 through his window-shutter, paid the penalty of his 
 bad faith by the instant loss of sight. Unfortunately 
 for the legend, Coventry in Leofric’s day had scarcely 
 
 294 
 
Warwick 
 
 begun to be a town ; it was only a monastery rising 
 from the waste, and the growth of the town came 
 in later days. 
 
 The Norman Conquest increased the impor¬ 
 tance of Warwickshire. When William I., in 1068, 
 began his conquest of the North, he marched first 
 to Warwick, where the English sheriff and his son 
 Thurkill were on his side. Many of the smaller 
 landowners had fought against the Conqueror, and 
 their lands passed into the hands of the submissive 
 Thurkill. The fortress of Warwick was surrendered 
 to the king, who resolved to use it as a means of 
 holding the Mercian earldom by a strong castle 
 built after the Norman fashion. So on the mighty 
 mound which Ethelfled had reared he raised a 
 massive keep, which has long since been swept 
 away to make room for more modern buildings. 
 Over this castle he set one of his Norman followers, 
 Henry, son of Roger of Beaumont, and he gave 
 large lands in the shire to Henry’s elder brother, 
 Robert, Count of Melent. Thus Warwickshire 
 was left with its English sheriff, a great English 
 landowner, side by side with a Norman, and a 
 Norman garrison to secure its fidelity, that the old 
 and the new elements in England might work 
 towards a settlement. 
 
 Further, many smaller men made Warwickshire 
 their home. In the north of the county, Robert 
 Marmion built a castle on Ethelfled’s mound at 
 Tamworth, and in the reign of Henry I., Geoffrey 
 de Clinton occupied a similar site at Kenilworth. 
 He was one of the class of officials of mean extrac¬ 
 tion whom Henry I. raised up as a counterpoise to 
 
 295 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 the great barons, and the castle of Kenilworth, per¬ 
 haps, was meant to act as a check upon the lord of 
 Warwick. Thus it came about that the central 
 part of the county took the lead under its barons, 
 and in the steps of the barons followed the estab¬ 
 lishments of the monks. At Coventry, the town 
 which gathered round Leofric’s priory flourished 
 under the protection of the Earl of Chester. The 
 Cistercians made their settlements at Combe on the 
 Sow, at Stoneleigh on the Avon, and Merivale in 
 the north of the shire. Many religious houses were 
 gradually dotted over the county, though it was 
 some time before they penetrated into the present 
 district of Arden, where, however, the Benedictine 
 monastery of Wroxall was founded in 1141. Along 
 the fertile valley of the Avon and the pleasant 
 pastoral lands that lay east of it, rural life waxed 
 strong and vigorous, and we can trace the spread of 
 population by the large number of churches which 
 still retain the traces of the work of architects in the 
 Norman style. We see the growing importance of 
 this part of England in the discontent with which 
 the Norman bishops viewed the seat of the old 
 Mercian bishopric at Lichfield. First Lichfield was 
 abandoned for Chester, then the church of the 
 Abbey of Coventry was chosen in 1124, as a more 
 convenient place to be associated with Lichfield as 
 the second head of a diocese which covered a large 
 part of Middle England. In things ecclesiastical 
 as well as civil, the life of the Midlands began to 
 centre in Warwickshire. 
 
 The monks of Coventry, however, did not 
 appreciate the advantage of their bishop’s presence. 
 
 296 
 
Warwick 
 
 There were many disputes, which were at last 
 ended in 1190 by the forcible expulsion of the 
 monks and the substitution in their stead of secular 
 priests. But this measure was felt to be too severe, 
 and the monks, on appealing to the pope, were 
 restored in 1198. The event is worth noticing, for 
 it was by quarrels such as these, and the constant 
 reference of disputes to the pope, that the papal 
 jurisdiction was extended. 
 
 It is not, however, in the church so much as in 
 the baronage that the interest of the history of 
 Warwickshire lies. The line of the lords of Kenil¬ 
 worth came to an end in the twelfth century, and 
 the castle passed into the hands of the Crown. In 
 the reign of Henry III. it became an important 
 place; for after the marriage of Simon de Montfort 
 to the king’s sister, he was made Constable of 
 Kenilworth Castle, where he did much to strengthen 
 the defences, and made it into one of the strongest 
 castles in England. When the barons rose against 
 Henry III.’s misgovernment, Kenilworth was one 
 of their chief strongholds. After the battle of 
 Lewes in 1264, Simon de Montfort was practically 
 master of England, as the king and his son Edward 
 were both prisoners in his hands. But Edward 
 succeeded in escaping from Hereford Castle, and 
 Earl Simon had some difficulty in crossing the 
 Severn in pursuit. He looked to his son Simon to 
 come to his help, so that they might shut in the 
 royalist army in the neighbourhood of Worcester. 
 But Edward saw the necessity of preventing the 
 junction of his foes, and marched against the 
 younger Simon, who was loitering at Kenilworth. 
 
 297 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Despite the knowledge that Edward was not far 
 distant, young Simon took no precautions. His 
 troops were scattered about the village, and he 
 himself preferred to sleep outside the safe defence 
 of the castle Avails. Early in the morning of 
 August i, 1265, Edward marched upon the village 
 and aroused the sleepers with the cry of ‘ Get up ! get 
 up ! ye traitors, or ye are all undone!’ No resist¬ 
 ance could be offered, and the chiefs of the baronial 
 army were made prisoners. Young Simon managed 
 to escape into the castle, which was too strong to 
 be taken. But the victorious Edward marched to 
 Evesham, where he caught Earl Simon in a trap 
 from which there was no escape, and the great earl 
 fell fighting on the field. Though the hopes of the 
 baronial party were now destroyed, Kenilworth 
 Castle, with a garrison of a thousand men, still held 
 out, and proved too strong for its assailants. Before 
 the castle would surrender, terms of a general 
 pacification were agreed upon, and the Dictum 
 (agreement) of Kenilworth was the ending of a 
 long period of civil strife. After this the castle 
 of Kenilworth Avas given to Edmund, Earl of 
 Leicester, the king’s second son; and the next 
 thing Ave hear of it is that it was the scene of a 
 splendid tournament in 1279, Avhere a hundred 
 knights jousted against one another in the presence 
 of a hundred ladies, and feasted at a round table, 
 so as to avoid any difficulties of precedence. 
 
 While this was the fate of Kenilworth, the 
 neighbouring castle of Warwick had changed hands 
 likewise, and by the failure of the male line of its 
 first earls had passed, in 1268, to the family of 
 
 298 
 
Warwick 
 
 Beauchamp of Elmley in Worcestershire. The first 
 Beauchamp lord had to repair his castle, which the 
 rebels from Kenilworth had attacked and dismantled, 
 that it might not be a support to their assailants. 
 This was soon done, and William Beauchamp was 
 a faithful follower of Edward I. in his expedition 
 against Wales, while his son Guy was a great 
 captain in the Scottish wars. The misgovernment 
 of Edward II. was a sore trial to the English 
 nobles, and none were more resolute in opposing 
 it than were the lords of Warwick and Kenilworth. 
 Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, headed the baronial 
 opposition to his unworthy cousin, stung, it is said, 
 by the insolence of the royal favourite, Piers 
 Gaveston, who laughed at the old nobles, and 
 nicknamed the Earl of Warwick ‘ the Black Dog 
 of Arden.’ The barons demanded Gaveston’s 
 banishment, but he was soon recalled, and was as 
 offensive as before. In 1312 the barons rose in 
 arms, besieged Gaveston in Scarborough Castle, and 
 took him prisoner, under promise to spare his life. 
 But the Earl of Warwick was determined to wreak 
 his vengeance ; he carried off Gaveston from his 
 captors and hurried him away to Warwick Castle. 
 There he summoned the Earl of Lancaster and others 
 of his friends to hold a council. As they deliberated, 
 some one exclaimed, ‘ You have now caught the fox ; 
 if you let him go, you will have to hunt him again.’ 
 Gaveston in terror flung himself at the feet of 
 Lancaster, who spurned him away. He was carried 
 to Blacklow Hill, close to Guy’s Cliff, where he was 
 beheaded—‘ in life and death a memorable instance 
 of misrule,’ as the inscription which marks the spot 
 
 299 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 records. His enemies paid the penalty of their 
 lawless deed; for Thomas of Lancaster was be¬ 
 headed at Pontefract, and after the death of Guy 
 of Warwick in 1315 Edward II. razed Warwick 
 Castle to the ground during the minority of its 
 infant heir. Nor was this the end of the sad story 
 of retribution. In 1327 Edward II. was seized by 
 Henry, Earl of Lancaster (brother of the slaughtered 
 Thomas), and kept prisoner in Kenilworth Castle, 
 where he was forced to sign his abdication of the 
 Crown before he was carried off to meet his death 
 at Berkeley. 
 
 After these bloody deeds the French wars of 
 Edward III. provided employment, in which the 
 memories of such feuds might die away before 
 the consciousness of a national enterprise. In the 
 French wars the Beauchamps were famous captains. 
 The line of Lancaster ended in a daughter, whom 
 Edward III. gave in marriage to his fourth son, 
 John of Gaunt, in pursuance of his scheme of 
 absorbing the great baronial possessions into the 
 royal house. This policy, however, only carried 
 the old rivalries of the great barons among the 
 princes of the blood-royal, and the overweening 
 power of John of Gaunt disturbed the beginning of 
 the reign of Richard II. John’s son, Henry, was 
 regarded in his father’s old age as the natural leader 
 of the opposition to the attempts of Richard II. to 
 exercise arbitrary rule; and few stories in English 
 history are more strange than that of the way in 
 which the king rid himself of his too powerful 
 cousin. He laid his hands upon several dis¬ 
 contented lords, and the Earl of Warwick was 
 
 300 
 
Warwick 
 
 one who was kept in prison. There was general 
 mistrust; and Henry, then Duke of Hereford, 
 and Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, felt that they 
 were insecure. In a chance meeting on the high 
 road they talked about the state of affairs, and 
 some one told the king of their meeting. He 
 examined them each separately as to what had 
 occurred, and each accused the other of counselling 
 treason, and appealed to the wager of battle to 
 decide between them. The day was fixed for the 
 duel, September 16, 1398, and Gosford Green, near 
 Coventry, was the place. Thither came the king 
 with a large armed force to keep the peace, while 
 the two lords were accompanied by their friends. 
 The lists were ready, and at the appointed time the 
 king took his seat as judge of the combat, while 
 thousands of eager spectators thronged around. 
 The formalities were all concluded; the herald 
 summoned the combatants, and gave the signal 
 for the fight. Norfolk exclaimed, ‘God defend 
 the right! ’ and awaited his adversary’s charge. 
 Hereford made the sign of the cross, raised his 
 shield, and set his lance for a charge, but had only 
 advanced a few paces when the king threw down 
 his warder and cried ‘ Stop ! ’ For two hours the 
 champions were left opposite one another while 
 the king consulted with his counsellors. Then a 
 proclamation was made condemning both Norfolk 
 and Hereford to go into exile. 
 
 It was a strange and arbitrary proceeding, and 
 his hostility to Hereford cost Richard II. his 
 crown. On the death of John of Gaunt Richard 
 refused to give up his lands to his son, and Henry 
 
 301 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 of Bolingbroke came back from exile to claim 
 his heritage, but used that claim as a means of 
 ousting Richard from his throne. With Henry 
 IV.’s accession, Kenilworth Castle, which had been 
 built up by its Lancastrian lords, passed to the 
 Crown, and lost its importance for a time. 
 
 We have been following the fortunes of the 
 barons, but all this time there had been going on 
 a growth of civic life at Coventry, which, on the 
 failure of the line of the Earls of Chester, fell to 
 the Crown, and received many marks of favour 
 from Edward III. It was a populous place because 
 it was a convenient centre for weaving woollen 
 cloths, and its ecclesiastical character marked it out 
 as a place of peace. Its trade guilds of cappers, 
 tailors, smiths, cardmakers, and the like, show the 
 manifold activity of its townsmen ; and it is com¬ 
 puted that in 1377 only London, York, Bristol, 
 and Norwich, had a larger population. It still 
 maintained, however, its ecclesiastical character, 
 and welcomed within its walls the Carthusians, the 
 Carmelites, and the Franciscans. Moreover, the 
 men of Coventry resolved to make their town 
 famous for its buildings, and in the middle of the 
 fourteenth century the two great churches, which 
 are the distinguishing features of Coventry of to-day, 
 were begun and rapidly completed. Its civic life 
 showed itself in the festivals wherewith our fore¬ 
 fathers delighted to relieve the monotony of life. 
 Probably the Grey Friars set the example by 
 instituting a Mystery Play as a means of teaching 
 the people. The guild brethren followed, and 
 Coventry was renowned for its pageants, wherein 
 
 302 
 
Warwick 
 
 the guilds, after a long procession through the town, 
 assembled in the market-place and witnessed a play 
 which was performed on a raised platform. Each 
 guild kept a store of appliances and costumes for 
 this purpose, and some of the ‘Coventry Mysteries’ 
 still survive to tell us of the way in which popular 
 education was conducted in the past. 
 
 It is not remarkable that in 1454 Henry IV. 
 summoned Parliament to meet at Coventry, to grant 
 him supplies for putting down the Welsh rebellion. 
 This Parliament is known as ‘ the Illiterate Parlia¬ 
 ment,’ because lawyers were excluded from it, and 
 distinguished itself by an attack upon the excessive 
 lands held by the Church. But Henry IV. was 
 not in a position to quarrel with the Church, and 
 Archbishop Arundel won an easy victory over the 
 discontented Commons. The troubled times which 
 rapidly followed put all questions of reform into the 
 background, and the Wars of the Roses profoundly 
 affected the fortunes of Warwickshire. The last of 
 the Beauchamp Earls of Warwick died in 1446, and 
 his sister and heiress married Richard Neville, son 
 of the Earl of Salisbury. The Beauchamps, how¬ 
 ever, left their traces in Warwick in the two great 
 towers of the castle, in the beautiful choir of St. 
 Mary’s Church, and still more in the Beauchamp 
 Chapel, which was founded in 1439 to be a burial- 
 place. The tomb of Thomas Beauchamp (d. 1369) 
 in the choir of St. Mary’s, and of Richard Beau¬ 
 champ (d. 1439) in the chapel, rank amongst the 
 finest examples of English sculpture and decorative 
 art in the Middle Ages. 
 
 The doings of Richard, Earl of Warwick—‘the 
 303 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Kingmaker,’ as he was called—form too great a part 
 of English history to need telling again. When he 
 fell at Barnet in 1471 he carried with him to his 
 grave not only the fortunes of the great earldom of 
 Warwick, but those of the English baronage. The 
 Wars of the Roses left the great families exhausted ; 
 their chiefs were slain ; they had lost their hold 
 upon the people; they were regarded as the selfish 
 authors of a century of disturbance. Of the two 
 daughters whom Richard Neville left behind him, 
 one was married to the Duke of Clarence ; the other 
 was the wife of Richard III. The hapless son of 
 Clarence perished in the Tower, and all traces of 
 the old greatness of the Beauchamps and Nevilles 
 alike were swept away when England, under the 
 Tudor kings, entered upon a new career. But this 
 new career was only possible because the forces 
 which had moulded the past were so far weakened 
 that they were practically useless. The baronage 
 was all but destroyed; the Church had ceased to 
 represent the people. When the sixteenth century 
 dawned the king and the middle classes were the 
 only powers in the English State. 
 
 The dissolution of the monasteries must have 
 produced a great effect in the rural parts of 
 Warwickshire, though the prevalence of commercial 
 interests in the towns seems to have been sufficiently 
 vigorous to check popular discontent. In Coventry, 
 the Benedictine monastery, with its cathedral church, 
 was swept away, and the houses of the friars were 
 reduced to ruins; but the reforming party was 
 strong among the trading class of the town, and the 
 townsmen felt themselves freer when the monasteries 
 
 304 
 
Warwick 
 
 fell. Perhaps they were reminded that there was 
 another side to the question when, under Edward 
 VI., guilds were also abolished as being for 
 superstitious purposes. All the Coventry pageants 
 were swept away, and much money that had been 
 devoted to charitable purposes was confiscated. 
 The fine Guildhall of Coventry, which is the most 
 interesting survival of the greatness of these 
 mediaeval associations, was bought by the townsmen, 
 and forms part of the civic buildings. There, and 
 in other remains scattered through the town, it is 
 still possible to recall the splendour of common, as 
 apart from private, life which characterised the 
 civilisation of the Middle Ages. In the same way, 
 Warwick contains an interesting example of the 
 activity of the guild brethren. Their possessions 
 were given to Robert Dudley, who showed an 
 unwonted conscientiousness in devoting part of his 
 spoils to the establishment of an hospital for old 
 soldiers. His foundation still remains, and 
 Leicester’s Hospital, as it is called, has preserved 
 the hall of the guild brethren, and also a chapel, 
 which abutted on one of the gates of the town. 
 
 The rise of the Dudley family into the place 
 once occupied by the Beauchamps, shows the 
 change that came over England in the sixteenth 
 century. The place of the old barons was taken 
 by a new class of officials, dependent for their 
 position on royal favour, and rapidly developing a 
 spirit of political adventure. Henry VII. chose, 
 as an instrument of his policy, a clever lawyer, 
 Edmund Dudley, who was connected with the line of 
 the barons of Dudley, and Dudley showed himself 
 
 305 u 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 a master of the art of legal chicane. He filled 
 the royal coffers by pursuing every form of royal 
 right and establishing every royal claim, so that on 
 Henry VII.’s death a storm of popular indignation 
 broke upon his head. The young Henry VIII. 
 grasped at once the fact that the sacrifice of an 
 unpopular minister was a cheap way of maintaining 
 the popularity of the Crown. So Edmund Dudley 
 was tried for treason, and was condemned to death. 
 His place was soon filled by Thomas Wolsey, who 
 was even more heartlessly abandoned when he had 
 done his work; and the subsequent fate of Thomas 
 Cromwell showed a still further advance in royal 
 ingratitude and tyranny. But though Henry VIII. 
 put Edmund Dudley to death, he favoured his son 
 John, who distinguished himself by knightly accom¬ 
 plishments, was made Viscount Lisle, and was 
 appointed one of the executors of the king’s will. 
 The minority of Edward VI. afforded a splendid 
 opportunity for political adventurers. Dudley 
 helped the Duke of Somerset to the position of 
 Protector, and received in return the earldom 
 of Warwick. How Warwick managed to over¬ 
 throw Somerset and make himself ruler of 
 England; how he schemed to retain his power 
 by transferring the succession to the Lady Jane 
 Grey, whom he married to his son; how his 
 attempt failed, and he paid the penalty of his 
 audacity on the scaffold—these things are told in 
 all histories. But in spite of his downfall the 
 fortunes of his family did not decline. His eldest 
 son, Ambrose, became Earl of Warwick, and under 
 Elizabeth was general of the English forces in 
 
 306 
 
Warwick 
 
 France. He was a man of fervent piety, beloved 
 by the Puritans, and was known as ‘ the good Earl 
 of Warwick.’ His tomb in the Beauchamp Chapel 
 at Warwick may serve to show the change in 
 artistic taste which came over England in the 
 sixteenth century. 
 
 The greatness, however, of the Dudley family 
 was shown in the case of Lord Robert of Dudley, 
 the fifth son of John, who reveals another form of 
 political adventure which was possible in Elizabeth’s 
 reign. Robert Dudley had nothing to recommend 
 him save his agreeable manners and his handsome 
 person; but these were enough to secure him the 
 first place in Elizabeth’s affections. For a time she 
 thought of marrying him ; but when the unwisdom 
 of this course became clear on reflection, she con¬ 
 tented herself with heaping on him honours and 
 wealth. He was made Earl of Leicester, and 
 received, amongst many other gifts, the Manor 
 and Castle of Kenilworth. Leicester rebuilt the 
 ruined parts of the castle, and added a spacious 
 wing, to convert what was originally a fortress into 
 the residence of a great nobleman. It is said that 
 he spent ,£60,000 over his works, a sum which 
 represents at least ,£500,000 of our money to-day. 
 Kenilworth was the most magnificent house in 
 England, and the account of the splendid enter¬ 
 tainment of Elizabeth when she came on a visit in 
 1 575 gives a most vivid picture of the life of the 
 times. The castle stood in an enclosure of seven 
 acres, surrounded by a wall; on two sides was a 
 moat, which on the other two sides broadened 
 into a lake, mostly artificial, which has now been 
 
 307 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 drained away; beyond the lake was a large park 
 full of deer and game for the purposes of the chase. 
 Elizabeth entered by a bridge specially raised over 
 the lake, that she might traverse a way hitherto 
 untrodden by the foot of man, and all along the 
 bridge were trophies and pageants, nymphs and 
 monsters, who recited verses in her praise, so that 
 the journey must have been long and tedious. For 
 seventeen days Elizabeth stayed in the castle, 
 and every day a new entertainment was provided. 
 When she went hunting, ‘ wild men of the woods ’ 
 emerged from the covert and did homage to their 
 lady; when she rowed upon the lake the ‘ Lady of 
 the Lake’ appeared on a floating island with her 
 tribute of poetry ready made; nay Arion himself 
 drew nigh on a huge dolphin, which carried an 
 orchestra concealed in its belly. The country-folks 
 came to amuse the queen, and showed her the 
 festivities of a rustic wedding, and exhibited their 
 skill in running at the quintain. The men of 
 Coventry, whose taste for pageants survived the 
 suppression of their ‘ mysteries,’ represented a mock 
 fight, in which they commemorated the defence of 
 their city against the Danes in olden times. 
 Elizabeth, with Leicester by her side, entered with 
 zest into all these amusements, and won the heart 
 of her subjects by her quick sympathy with all their 
 pursuits. 
 
 It may be that a boy of eleven years, William 
 Shakespeare went with his father from the neigh¬ 
 bouring town of Stratford to see the grand doings 
 at Kenilworth. That boy grew up to give a splen¬ 
 dour to Elizabeth’s reign which far surpassed all 
 
 308 
 
Warwick 
 
 that statesmen or soldiers could confer. Warwick¬ 
 shire is known all the world over as Shakespeare’s 
 Country, and is visited for that reason by thousands 
 to whom the Beauchamps and Dudleys are names 
 without a meaning. The main objects of a pilgrim¬ 
 age to Warwickshire are the house of the burgher 
 of Stratford, where William Shakespeare first saw 
 the light, the old school-house where he first learned 
 to read, and the stately church by the side of the 
 Avon where his bones were laid. More memorable 
 than the Beauchamp tombs at Warwick is the 
 simple bust of the great poet. The sure verdict 
 of Time proclaims that thought is greater than 
 action, and that he who can reveal the workings 
 of the human heart, and can express the aspirations 
 of the human soul, is the real enricher of the ages, 
 whose work survives when that of the statesman 
 and the warrior has passed away into oblivion. 
 
 It was not accidental that Warwickshire pro¬ 
 duced the greatest of Englishmen. ‘ The heart of 
 England,’ as the county has been called, summed 
 up all that was most purely English in its scenery 
 and its associations. The quiet beauty of the wind¬ 
 ing Avon is still the same as when Shakespeare 
 wandered along its banks. The neighbouring 
 country had, in a still greater degree than now, 
 the charm of English woodland ; for the region of 
 Arden, which Shakespeare has immortalised, had 
 not been enclosed, though the clearings were fre¬ 
 quent enough to rob it of its old wildness, and 
 make it a conspicuous example of all that is most 
 charming in rural life. The one fact that stands 
 out clearly in the scanty records of Shakespeare’s 
 
 309 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 doings is that he loved his native place. The 
 attractions of London could not hold him there ; 
 he saved his money and bought land in Stratford, 
 where he came to spend in quietness the last years 
 of his life. Shakespeare’s genius, in true English 
 fashion, was combined with homely common sense. 
 
 Much might be said of the changes which came 
 over Warwickshire in the sixteenth century. One 
 noticeable feature is the decay of the cloth manu¬ 
 factures of Coventry; for the course of trade 
 migrated eastward, and Coventry did not recover 
 its ancient importance. But with this decay of 
 town life went a great increase of country life. 
 The aspect of rural England ceased to be military, 
 and the castles of barons made way for the comfort¬ 
 able houses of squires. This process was greatly 
 helped by the dissolution of the monasteries; and 
 Combe, Stoneleigh, Merivale, and many other 
 abbeys, became the seats of country gentlemen. 
 One of the most interesting houses in England is 
 Compton Winyates, dating from the time of Henry 
 VIII. Its architecture shows how the fortress 
 passed into the dwelling-house. It is built in a 
 quadrangle, and one wing was adapted to hold 
 soldiers; but this part of the house is cut off from 
 the rest, having a separate entrance, so that the 
 military retainers led a life apart from the family 
 and the household. The Comptons were an old 
 Warwickshire family, who had been steadily rising 
 in importance and gaining lands by marriage with 
 heiresses. The final step in their advance was 
 made by Lord Compton, who in 1600 succeeded 
 in marrying the heiress of the wealthiest of the 
 
 310 
 
Warwick 
 
 merchants in London, Sir John Spenser, a great 
 clothworker, who lived at Islington. Spenser had 
 an only daughter, Elizabeth, whom he destined for 
 a substantial merchant like himself; but Lord 
 Compton managed to enter the house disguised as 
 a bakers boy, and carried away his lady-love hidden 
 in a basket. The father threatened to disinherit 
 his disobedient daughter, but Queen Elizabeth 
 reconciled him to the young couple, and the wealth 
 of Elizabeth Spenser raised Lord Compton to the 
 dignity of Earl of Northampton. We see how the 
 wealthy traders passed into the ranks of the nobility, 
 and how the old ranks of English society were 
 established upon a new basis. 
 
 With the end of the reign of Elizabeth many 
 of the old glories of Warwickshire passed away, 
 the line of the Dudley Earls of Warwick came to 
 an end, and Warwick Castle, which had fallen into 
 entire disrepair, was granted to Sir Fulke Greville, 
 afterwards Lord Brooke, who spent a large sum of 
 money upon it, and brought it substantially into 
 the condition in which it now is. The title was 
 bestowed on Lord Rich, and did not come back 
 to the owner of the castle till 1759. Kenilworth 
 Castle fared still worse; it was claimed by a son 
 of Leicester who was of doubtful legitimacy, and 
 ultimately reverted to the Crown in 1617, after 
 which time it fell gradually into ruins. 
 
 Elizabeth had held England together while she 
 lived, but many questions arose for settlement in 
 the next reign. The Roman Catholics looked for 
 some favour from the new king, and when their 
 hopes were disappointed betook themselves to 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 desperate plots. One of their leaders, Robert 
 Catesby, was a Warwickshire squire, and the 
 intrigues which led to the Gunpowder Plot had 
 their centre in Warwickshire. Those who were in 
 the secret of Guy Fawkes’s attempt assembled, 
 under pretence of a hunt, at Dunchurch. Their 
 object was to head a rising of the Romanists in the 
 Midlands; seize the king’s daughter, the Princess 
 Elizabeth, who was being educated at Combe 
 Abbey under the care of Lady Harrington, and 
 march upon London. The news, however, which 
 reached them on their meeting was that of 
 Fawkes’s failure, and they dispersed in terror. 
 Their complicity was soon known, and they were 
 captured at Holbeach in Staffordshire. They were 
 executed, their estates were confiscated, and passed 
 into the hands of new landlords, who began to 
 enclose lands which had hitherto been pastured in 
 common. This led, in 1607, to a series of riots, in 
 which bodies of Levellers, as they called themselves, 
 tore down the hedges. Their rioting was put down 
 by calling out soldiers, and the poor rustics were 
 punished with merciless severity. This was one of 
 the last protests raised against the new system of 
 landholding, which had more and more prevailed 
 since the dissolution of the monasteries—a system 
 which swept away old customary rights, and made 
 farming on a small scale more and more 
 impossible. 
 
 On the outbreak of the great Civil War 
 Warwickshire was more divided than most counties, 
 for it lay just along the line that separated the 
 Royalist West from the Parliamentarian East. On 
 
 312 
 
Warwick 
 
 the whole it was on the Parliamentary side, for the 
 Puritan spirit was strong in its towns ; and in 
 Warwick Lord Brooke was well known as a zealous 
 Puritan. When war broke out he headed the 
 Parliamentary forces, and Lord Northampton was 
 general of the Royalists. Charles I.’s plan was to 
 gather forces in the West and march as quickly as 
 possible upon London, and it was in Warwickshire 
 that the Parliamentary army, under the Earl of 
 Essex, met him to check his advance. Charles 
 occupied the summit of the steep hill which rises 
 over the plain of Warwickshire at Edgehill, and 
 thence descended into the plain between Kineton 
 and Rodway to meet Essex. The battle that 
 followed was not decided in favour of either side. 
 The Royalist horse under Prince Rupert routed 
 the forces opposed to them and followed in pursuit; 
 the Parliamentary foot who remained pressed hard 
 upon the Royalists, who were deserted by their 
 cavalry, till night fell upon the weary soldiers, and 
 neither side renewed the battle. After the battle 
 the king’s prospects in Warwickshire were at an 
 end. It is said that the phrase of ‘sending a man 
 to Coventry ’ took its rise from the imprisonment 
 of straggling Royalists in that great centre of 
 Parliamentary influence. When the war was over 
 Kenilworth Castle was dismantled by Cromwell’s 
 orders ; its moat and lake were drained, the timber 
 in its park was felled, and it was rapidly reduced to 
 the ruin which now remains to tell of its former 
 glories. 
 
 Warwickshire does not only tell us of the decay 
 of the Middle Ages, but also shows us the growth of 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 the modern spirit. If its monasteries were turned 
 into dwelling-houses and its guilds swept away, other 
 institutions began to take their place. None was 
 more characteristic, or has been more successful than 
 the school which Lawrence Sheriff, a grocer, of 
 London, founded in 1569, near his native place, at 
 Rugby, for the education of poor children. It was 
 nearly a hundred years before the school entered 
 fully upon its endowment, and not till the present 
 century did it become famous as one of the great 
 schools of England. But its foundation showed the 
 way in which men’s minds were turning, and testi¬ 
 fied to a belief in England’s capacity to enter upon 
 a new course with a new conception of national 
 progress. 
 
 Moreover, while feudal society had been running 
 its course at Warwick and Kenilworth, a small 
 community was gradually growing up in the north¬ 
 west corner of the shire, whose little settlement, all 
 unheeded in the Middle Ages, was to become the 
 centre of the commercial life of the Midlands. The 
 township of the sons of Beorm, by the side of a little 
 brook, was insignificant in early times ; and after 
 the Norman Conquest the lords of the manor of 
 Birmingham played little part in English affairs. In 
 the beginning of the sixteenth century their small 
 domain excited the cupidity of a powerful neighbour, 
 and in 1537 John Dudley formed a villainous plot 
 for adding it to his own possessions. Sir Edward 
 de Birmingham, riding along the road one day, was 
 joined by another traveller, and the two rode on 
 together. Suddenly a body of armed men sprang 
 upon them, robbed the unknown traveller of a large 
 
 3H 
 
Warwick 
 
 sum of money, and made away. The men were all 
 in Dudley's employ, and Sir Edward de Birming¬ 
 ham was accused of having lured the unsuspecting 
 traveller into an ambush, and of having organised 
 the robbery. To escape from this charge he re¬ 
 signed his estates to the Crown, whereupon they 
 were presently granted to Dudley, who did not long 
 enjoy his ill-gotten gains. After his execution 
 they were granted to another small holder, and 
 the old family of the Birminghams passed away 
 for ever. 
 
 The first mention that we have of the beginnings 
 of industrial life in Birmingham is the description 
 given by the antiquary Leland in the reign of 
 Henry VIII. He says: ‘I found Birmingham a 
 good market town of one street going up along 
 almost the left bank of the brook, up a mean hill, by 
 the length of a quarter of a mile. I saw but one 
 parish church in the town. There be many smiths 
 that make knives and all manner of cutting tools, 
 and many loriners that make bits, and a great many 
 nailors ; so that a great part of the town is main¬ 
 tained by smiths, who have their iron and sea coal 
 out of Staffordshire.’ The causes which Leland 
 noticed have operated with increasing force ever since 
 his days. Birmingham, standing in the verge of the 
 iron and coal district, has been the great centre of the 
 many industries which were thus made possible to 
 its inhabitants. Moreover, Birmingham was greatly 
 helped in its growth by the very fact of its early 
 insignificance. It was under the power of no great 
 lord; it had no corporation and no guilds, but was 
 open to all comers to settle in, and had no officials 
 
 3i5 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 more dignified than the bailiff, the constables, and 
 tasters appointed in the manorial court. Thus its 
 industrial activity was free from the restrictions 
 which crippled older towns. At the time of the 
 Civil War, Birmingham sided zealously with Par¬ 
 liament, whose forces it supplied with 15,000 sword- 
 blades. It suffered for this in 1643, when it was 
 taken and plundered by Prince Rupert; and in 
 1665 ^ was almost depopulated by a plague. But 
 after the Restoration, increasing luxury among the 
 gentry produced a demand for elegant trifles in 
 gilt metal, which Birmingham hastened to supply, 
 and in the reign of William III. gun-making was 
 established as another industry. 
 
 From this time onwards the prosperity of Bir¬ 
 mingham steadily increased. Its freedom from 
 municipal restrictions made it attractive to artisans 
 of every kind, and almost every kind of ingenious 
 manufacture found there a home. Before the middle 
 of the eighteenth century John Taylor commenced 
 the japanning of snuff-boxes, and John Baskerville, 
 a poor schoolmaster, carried the art to larger articles. 
 Baskerville, however, is best known as a typefounder 
 and a printer, though his business was maintained 
 only by his own enthusiasm, and came to an end 
 on his death. More important was Matthew 
 Boulton, who, in 1762, opened the famous works 
 at Soho, and set himself to improve the artistic 
 quality of his goods. A canal was cut in 1772 to 
 the Severn, and by it coals could easily be brought 
 and goods exported. The factory at Soho occupied 
 a thousand workmen in 1778, and need was felt of 
 some motive power more abundant than that 
 
 316 
 
Warwick 
 
 supplied by water. Then it was that Boulton 
 invited James Watt to enter into partnership and 
 work out the application of the steam-engine which 
 Watt was trying to perfect. This partnership was 
 in the long run successful, for Boulton supplied 
 the energy while Watt brought his mechanical 
 skill. In 1787 the steam-engine became profitable, 
 but not until the expenses attending its first 
 construction had brought Boulton to the verge 
 of bankruptcy. 
 
 From this time forward the manufactures of 
 Birmingham increased with bewildering rapidity. 
 Burke called it ‘the toy-shop of Europe,’ meaning 
 by toys all the ingenious trifles which add to the 
 elegance of life. Perhaps no place has been the 
 home of so much inventiveness and industrial enter¬ 
 prise. The qualities so formed have expressed 
 themselves in civic life, and Birmingham has been 
 famous as the headquarters of movements for social 
 and political reform. It can, indeed, claim more 
 than any other English town, to have made itself, 
 and to owe its prosperity to the energy of its 
 citizens. 
 
 Warwickshire, ‘the heart of England,’ is in a 
 special sense an epitome of the characteristics 
 which have made England what she is. The Roman 
 roads which traverse the county tell of the beginning 
 of civilisation. The castles of Warwick and Kenil¬ 
 worth rank as the greatest memorials of the achieve¬ 
 ments of the barons, while Coventry bears testimony 
 to the influence of the Church in furthering civic 
 life. The banks of the Avon and the glades of 
 Arden inspired the greatest poet of all time. The 
 
 3i7 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 factories of Soho and Handsworth, and the busy- 
 streets of Birmingham, are instinct with the qualities 
 which are most prized in England of to-day. Times 
 have changed; but Warwickshire has showed a 
 power of changing with them, and has always been 
 in the forefront of English endeavour. 
 
 318 
 
LEICESTER 
 
 T HE position of the district which forms the 
 modern county of Leicester gave it import¬ 
 ance in early days. The moorlands of the 
 Peak joined the forests of Cannock Chase, Need- 
 wood, and Arden. This impenetrable barrier 
 stretched in an almost unbroken line across the 
 centre of Britain, and offered few temptations to 
 the Roman settlers. Eastward, the last spur of the 
 high land was clothed with the trees of Charnwood 
 Forest; and then along the banks of the Soar lay 
 a tract of fertile uplands. Along the outskirts of 
 the inhospitable region the Romans carried one of 
 their great lines of communication. The Fosse 
 Way, which traversed Britain from south-west to 
 north-east, went almost in a straight line from 
 Cirencester on the Cotswolds to the station on the 
 Soar, which the Romans called Ratae, but was after¬ 
 wards named Leg-ceaster, or Leicester. Ratae still 
 shows, as few other towns in England can show, 
 the signs of its early greatness. A piece of its 
 Roman masonry still remains standing; and the 
 pavement of a Roman house, carefully preserved 
 by the zeal of local antiquaries, gives fuller meaning 
 to the many remnants of Roman civilisation which 
 
 3 T 9 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 have been found in the neighbourhood. The 
 Roman Ratse was the chief town of Central Britain 
 more decidedly than its successor of to-day. Four 
 great roads met at its gates, and the bustle of civil 
 and military life never ceased within its walls. 
 
 But the time came when Ratse was deserted by 
 its Roman lords, and in the hands of the Britons 
 kept only a vague memory of its former life. Nor 
 were its walls sufficient to protect their inhabitants 
 from the sword of the conquering English. Follow¬ 
 ing the lines of the Fosse Way from the north, a 
 band of invaders laid Ratee in ruins, and scattered 
 their settlements over the adjacent lands. This 
 little tribe of the Middle English did not long retain 
 political independence, but was absorbed into the 
 Mercian kingdom, and shared its fortunes. It is 
 a sign of growing life that the ruins of the Roman 
 Ratae were again inhabited, and received a name 
 which recognised the traces of past greatness— 
 Legoracester, Legecester, or Leicester. A mound 
 was raised by the banks of the Soar to strengthen 
 the defences of the new town. In later times this 
 mound was reinforced by a castle; but the old 
 earthwork has proved more lasting than the stone 
 walls which girt it round, and is still a noticeable 
 feature in the Leicester of to-day. 
 
 When the Mercian kingdom was, after some 
 difficulty, converted to Christianity, we can trace the 
 importance of the district of the Middle English 
 by the place assigned to it in ecclesiastical organisa¬ 
 tion. At first one bishop sufficed for the whole of 
 Mercia; but in 679 an attempt was made to divide 
 this unwieldy diocese. Leicester became the seat 
 
 320 
 
Leicester 
 
 of a bishop of the Middle English, though the 
 succession of its bishops was not clearly established 
 till 737. Nor did the see of Leicester long con¬ 
 tinue ; for the time soon came when the great 
 Mercian kingdom was dismembered, and its old 
 divisions were in a great measure swept away. In 
 no part of England did the Danish invasion work 
 greater changes. At first the Mercian king drove 
 back the invaders; but in 874 he quailed before 
 the stories of their prowess in other parts of England 
 and fled over the sea, leaving his people at their 
 mercy. It was the energy of the West Saxon Alfred 
 that prevented England from becoming a Scandi¬ 
 navian province. In 878 he compelled the Danes 
 to agree to a partition, and the Peace of Wedmore 
 divided England into two parts. The line of 
 division ran through the Mercian kingdom, and 
 severed it so that it was never again united. The 
 part of Mercia which passed under the rule of the 
 Danes received the name of ‘ the district of the five 
 boroughs,’ because it gathered round the towns of 
 Leicester, Derby, Lincoln, Stamford, and Notting¬ 
 ham. This Danish conquest of the Middle English 
 led to the transference of the bishop’s seat to 
 Dorchester, where it remained till William the 
 Norman removed it from that obscure village to 
 the important town of Lincoln. Leicester never 
 recovered its ecclesiastical greatness. It is true 
 that Henry VIII., in his first outburst of generosity 
 with the spoils of the Church, contemplated erecting 
 a diocese of Leicester, for Leicestershire and 
 Rutland; but the money slipped through his fingers 
 before his good intentions were executed. The 
 
 321 
 
 x 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Abbot of Peterborough proved himself a more 
 useful man than did the Abbot of Leicester; so a 
 bishopric was founded at Peterborough, and Leices¬ 
 tershire was joined with Northamptonshire for 
 ecclesiastical purposes. 
 
 Of the Danish settlement and its influence we 
 have but scanty records. The testimony, however, 
 of the survival of Danish names of places, especially 
 the termination by , enables us in some degree to 
 determine the area which the Danes occupied ; and 
 the names of villages show that they loved the 
 North and East more than the Midlands. In 
 Lincolnshire their settlements were thickest; and 
 thence they spread downwards into Leicestershire, 
 where a hundred place-names bear record to their 
 presence. 
 
 The English, however, soon began the work of 
 reconquest. Alfred’s sister Ethelfled, ‘ the Lady 
 of Mercians,’ in a series of well-planned campaigns 
 slowly drove back the border of the Danelaw. In 
 918 she won Leicester, and when the work of 
 conquest was done that of organisation succeeded. 
 The Mercian kingdom was divided into shires, and 
 Leicestershire probably represents the land occupied 
 by its original settlers, the tribe of the Middle 
 English. Henceforth the Mercian kingdom dis¬ 
 appeared, though it was soon found necessary to 
 set up an ealdorman of Mercia, who gave a 
 dangerous vitality to the traditions of past inde¬ 
 pendence. The union of England under the West 
 Saxon kings was premature, and weakness led to 
 a new Danish conquest. The Mercian dominions 
 were gradually broken up, and new officers, with 
 
 322 
 
Leicester 
 
 the new title of earls, were set over various portions. 
 It is noticeable that the old divisions were still 
 followed; and Leicester in the reign of Edward 
 the Confessor was the seat of an earldom of the 
 Middle English. 
 
 It was the Norman Conquest, however, which 
 united England under the stern pressure of mis¬ 
 fortune, and Leicester seems to have felt the 
 heaviness of the Conqueror’s hand. It had been 
 fortified by Ethelfled, and doubtless was a place of 
 considerable strength. We do not know how it 
 ventured to oppose the Norman Conqueror ; but 
 the record of Domesday shows that the lands of 
 the shire had passed by confiscation into the hands 
 of foreigners, and no English freeholders were left 
 in Leicester itself. For some reason or another 
 William made sure of the loyalty of this part of 
 England in his own effective manner. A castle 
 was built, by the king’s orders, with a strong square 
 keep of stone such as the Normans loved ; and its 
 custody was given to a trusty man, Hugh of Grant- 
 mesnil, who as sheriff collected the royal dues. 
 Under these conditions Leicestershire remained 
 peaceful, and reaped the advantages of a stronger 
 government. But the old difficulty soon made 
 itself felt; the king might rule, but it was hard for 
 him to govern all parts of his dominions. Offices 
 passed from father to son; and sons were not 
 always as trustworthy as their fathers. The son 
 of Hugh of Grantmesnil gave William II. a great 
 deal of trouble, but at last found it better to give 
 way. He sold his rights over Leicester to Robert 
 of Beaumont, who succeeded in getting into his 
 
 323 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 hands the rights of the Bishop of Lincoln, and the 
 Earl of Northampton as well. Then he was created 
 Earl of Leicester in 1107. Earl Robert showed 
 his care of his new possession by founding inside 
 his castle a college of canons, for whom he built 
 a church, which still remains as the kernel of the 
 more imposing fabric which rose around it as time 
 passed on. Few churches in England afford a 
 better example than does St. Mary’s, Leicester, 
 of the process by which small buildings were 
 gradually enlarged, and of the boldness and freedom 
 with which mediaeval builders dealt with the work 
 of their predecessors. 
 
 It would seem that monasticism had not made 
 much impression on Leicestershire in early times ; 
 but the great movement of the twelfth century soon 
 made its influence felt. The abbey of Leicester was 
 founded by its earl for Augustinian canons in 1137; 
 the abbeys of Osulveston and Launde and several 
 priories soon followed. The Cistercians had an 
 abbey at Garendon, and an Augustinian nunnery 
 was founded at Grace Dieu. But, upon the whole, 
 monasticism did not much affect the development 
 of the county, which owed more to its lay lords than 
 to its monks. Even so, its earls were by no means 
 always fortunate in their interference in politics, and 
 the people had to pay for the mistakes of their 
 superiors. Thus in 1175 Earl Robert of Beaumont 
 was so ill-advised as to rise against Henry II. 
 He was defeated and imprisoned; his castles of 
 Leicester and Groby were laid in ruins, and the 
 rising prosperity of the town of Leicester was 
 destroyed. Its citizens, however, made haste to 
 
 3 2 4 
 
Leicester 
 
 repair their desolate houses; and in 1201 Leicester 
 was sufficiently flourishing to receive a charter at 
 the hands of King John. 
 
 In the thirteenth century the name of Leicester 
 was made famous in history in the persons of its 
 two earls. A poor Norman lord, Simon de Mont- 
 fort, was lucky enough to marry the sister of the 
 last of the Beaumont earls of Leicester; and the 
 two Montfort earls who sprang from this alliance 
 were men who left their mark upon the world. The 
 first Earl Simon was the ruthless leader of the 
 crusade against the heretics of Provence. The 
 second Earl Simon came to England as a needy 
 adventurer, secretly married the sister of King 
 Henry III., and seemed likely to join the ranks of 
 foreign favourites who grew fat at the expense of 
 native Englishmen. But Earl Simon learned to 
 love the land of his adoption, and to understand 
 the meaning of her ancient liberties. Little by 
 little he put himself at the head of the barons 
 who opposed the king’s misgovernment. The 
 town of Leicester in 1264 again suffered for the 
 political activity of its earl, and was besieged and 
 taken by Henry III. But this was the king’s 
 last triumph. In the battle of Lewes he fell 
 into the hands of the barons, and Simon became 
 virtually governor of England. His position was 
 so anomalous that we cannot regret his fall at 
 Evesham before the king’s son Edward, who 
 learned from the experience of adversity all the 
 lessons which Simon’s success could teach a future 
 king. But ‘ Simon the Righteous,’ as men loved 
 to call him, was venerated as a saint after his death, 
 
 325 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 and his memory was powerful to quicken all that 
 was best in England’s aspirations. In Leicester 
 itself he did much to favour the rising settlements 
 of the friars, Dominicans and Franciscans, who in 
 their first enthusiasm brought a higher standard of 
 life and knowledge, and did much to relieve human 
 misery. From this time onwards Leicester was 
 well supplied with all the existing materials of 
 civilisation. 
 
 On Earl Simon’s fall at Evesham, the earldom 
 of Leicester was given into the safe keeping of the 
 king’s second son, Edward, who soon received as 
 well the earldom of Lancaster. It is as Earls of 
 Lancaster, and not of Leicester, that Edward and 
 his descendants are known in English history. 
 It was no bad thing for the prosperity of the shire 
 that it was relieved of the habitual presence of a 
 great lord. It was enough that his officers collected 
 their master’s rents and his soldiers garrisoned the 
 castle. Free from undue interference, the burghers 
 pursued a quiet course of civic prosperity; the 
 farmers cleared the forest which covered the banks 
 of the Soar, and gradually encroached upon the 
 boundaries of Charnwood Forest. The smaller 
 lords within the shire were not men of great 
 importance. The castle of Belvoir in the north, 
 whose name bears witness to its Norman origin, 
 passed by marriage from the family of its founder, 
 the Albini, to the barons Ros of Hamlake, in 
 Yorkshire. The castle of Mountsorrel had been 
 demolished in 1217 by the citizens of Leicester, 
 and was not rebuilt. Groby was severed from the 
 earldom, and was in the hands of the barons 
 
 326 
 
Leicester 
 
 Ferrers. The Norman family which gave its 
 appendage to the old Danish settlement of Ashby, 
 the Zouches, did not rise to great estate. Leicester¬ 
 shire was not the seat of a powerful baronage, and 
 was left to develop its own resources. Its lands 
 were fertile, and well fitted for grazing sheep; so 
 Leicester became the centre of a considerable trade 
 in wool ; and the other towns in the shire, Lough¬ 
 borough, Ashby, Market Bosworth, Lutterworth, 
 and Melton Mowbray, were centres of prosperous 
 districts. 
 
 The last half of the fourteenth century found 
 Leicester again connected with English politics in 
 the person of its earl ; and the contrast between 
 Simon of Montfort and John of Gaunt shows the 
 difference between a time of lofty aspiration and 
 a time of national uncertainty. Simon understood 
 the great ideas of his age, and strove to give them 
 practical expression. John of Gaunt allied himself 
 with the uncertain efforts for reform, which took an 
 intellectual shape in the teaching of an Oxford 
 student, John Wycliffe, and tried to use them for 
 the purposes of his own ambition. So long as 
 Wycliffe’s learning supplied Edward III. with 
 weapons for resisting the Papal claims for money, 
 Wycliffe enjoyed the royal favour. He was pre¬ 
 sented to the living of Lutterworth, where he strove 
 to revive the office of preaching, and undertook his 
 great work of translating the Bible into English. 
 His zeal led him to attack the secular lives of the 
 wealthy ecclesiastics, and to call in question their 
 right to endowments which they did not administer 
 for the good of the Church. It was Wycliffe’s 
 
 327 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 misfortune that John of Gaunt saw in him an instru- 
 ment for raising an anti-clerical party ; and Wycliffe’s 
 teaching suffered from being brought into connection 
 with current politics and social discontent. Wycliffe 
 was accused of heresy, and John of Gaunt appeared 
 as his protector. Resistance to the shifty politics 
 of the one was confused with the objection to the 
 teaching of the other; and the Lollard movement 
 suffered almost at its beginning from its political 
 and social complexion. Englishmen, however, were 
 in that age averse to religious persecution, and 
 Wycliffe died peaceably at Lutterworth in 1384. 
 His influence in Leicestershire was naturally strong, 
 and the town of Leicester had the reputation of 
 being a centre of Lollardy. But Wycliffe’s followers 
 had not clear enough opinions to stand against 
 repression. In 1389 Archbishop Courtenay visited 
 Leicester, and the Lollard teachers confessed their 
 errors, and were absolved. Lollardy was put down, 
 as being a political movement. Wycliffe’s teaching, 
 carried to Bohemia, became more powerful there 
 in the mouth of John Hus than it was in the land 
 which had given it birth. 
 
 The accession of John of Gaunt’s son to the 
 throne united the earldom of Leicester to the 
 Crown ; and in consequence of this Leicester became 
 the seat of Parliament, when it was not expedient 
 that it should sit at Westminster. In 1414, 1426, 
 and 1450, Parliamentary sessions were held in the 
 hall of the Grey Friars at Leicester. In 1414 
 London was disturbed by a rising of the Lollards, 
 and Parliament passed repressive statutes against 
 them, while at the same time it gave Henry V. the 
 
 328 
 
Leicester 
 
 possessions of alien priories to help him in his war 
 against France. The alien priories were small 
 monastic houses in England which depended on 
 monasteries abroad, chiefly in France ; and it 
 seemed unwise that money should be drawn from 
 England to go into the pockets of the king’s 
 enemies. But though the motives of the suppres¬ 
 sion of the alien priories were purely political, the 
 act itself was significant of the decay of monastic 
 institutions. They were too numerous, and had 
 lost their original meaning. Much of their useful¬ 
 ness had passed away, and the Leicester Parliament 
 of 1414 created a precedent for future use. The 
 Leicester Parliament of 1426 marks the beginning 
 of civil strife in England. London was disturbed 
 by the quarrels of the two uncles of the young 
 Henry VI. (the Dukes of Gloucester and of Bed¬ 
 ford), and Parliament was summoned to Leicester 
 that it might make peace in a quiet place. The 
 hopes of peace, however, were doomed to disap¬ 
 pointment ; and this Parliament is known as the 
 ‘ Parliament of Bats,’ because its members came 
 with ‘bats, or bludgeons,’in their hands. The next 
 Parliament — of 1450 — met at Leicester, when 
 Henry VI.’s helplessness was most pronounced, 
 when Jack Cade’s rebellion had broken out in 
 Kent, and all was in confusion. 
 
 In the Wars of the Roses Leicestershire does 
 not seem to have shown much loyalty to the 
 Lancastrian house. After the death of John of 
 Gaunt the castle of Leicester was suffered to fall 
 into ruins, and Leicester was not a place of arms. 
 The leading man in the shire, Sir William Hastings, 
 
 3 2 9 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 was a staunch partisan of the Yorkists, and had his 
 reward from Edward IV. in 1461, when he was 
 created Baron Hastings of Ashby, where he built 
 a castle. There was a similar revival of another 
 Leicestershire family. The estates of the Ferrers 
 of Groby passed to the Greys, who were at first 
 faithful to the Lancastrian cause. Sir John Grey 
 of Bradgate fell in the battle of St. Albans, and his 
 widow and children were dispossessed of his lands in 
 the sweeping forfeiture which followed the accession 
 of Edward IV. Elizabeth Grey, a young and 
 beautiful woman, found an occasion of pleading her 
 cause before the king while he was on a country 
 visit, and Edward was so melted by her pleas that 
 he married her in 1465. In the troubled state of 
 England this marriage with a Yorkist of no great 
 position was sure to create many heartburnings ; 
 and Edward’s liberality towards his wife’s kinsfolk 
 aroused general discontent, and was the principal 
 cause of Edward’s discomfiture by the Earl of 
 Warwick in 1470. Edward fled over the sea, but 
 returned next year, and on his way from Ravenspur 
 stayed at Leicester, where Lord Hastings joined 
 him with four thousand men of the shire, who 
 fought in the bloody battle of Barnet. 
 
 Edward’s victory led to further favours for the 
 queen’s relatives. Her son, Thomas Grey of Groby, 
 was created Marquis of Dorset. But on Edward’s 
 death, in 1483, his brother Richard took advantage 
 of the ill-will towards the queen’s kindred, and 
 accused them of conspiring to seize the government 
 for themselves. The Marquis of Dorset managed 
 to escape from England. Lord Hastings, who had 
 
 330 
 
Leicester 
 
 helped Richard against the queen’s party, showed an 
 unwillingness to help him to set aside the youthful 
 king. Richard gave him short time for hesitation, 
 for he suddenly accused him of high treason in 
 the council chamber, and before noon on the same 
 day Hastings was executed on Tower Green. The 
 chiefs of Leicestershire were thus suddenly swept 
 away, and Richard III. won the crown by violence 
 and bloodshed. 
 
 In the events which led to the downfall of 
 Richard III. the Marquis of Dorset played rather 
 an ignoble part. At first in his exile he was a 
 warm adherent of Henry of Richmond ; but just as 
 Henry was starting for England, Dorset fell a 
 victim to Richard’s blandishments, and prepared to 
 desert. His plan, however, was discovered, and he 
 was left in safe custody in Paris when Richmond 
 sailed for Milford Haven. Richard III. was at 
 Nottingham when he heard the news of Rich¬ 
 mond’s advance across the Severn to Lichfield, and 
 he prepared at once to intercept him on his way 
 towards London. On August 19 he entered 
 Leicester, ‘ with a stern countenance,’ in martial 
 pomp. He slept at the Blue Boar Inn, and brought 
 with him his own bedstead, which he never returned 
 to claim. A century later it was discovered that in 
 a false bottom of the bedstead was hidden a hoard 
 of ^300—a sum which in those days was worth 
 fifteen times as much as it is now. Neither side 
 wished to delay the decisive battle, and on August 21 
 Richard marched out of Leicester to meet his foe, 
 who had advanced close to Market Bosworth. The 
 battle next day was decided by the desertion of 
 
 33i 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Lord Stanley; and Richard, seeing himself be¬ 
 trayed, rode desperately against his rival, who was 
 with difficulty saved from his furious attack. 
 Though urged to flee, Richard exclaimed, ‘ I will 
 die King of England ! ’ and he fought with his 
 crown upon his head until he fell, covered with 
 wounds. His body, stripped naked, with a halter 
 round the neck, was thrown across a horse and 
 taken to Leicester, where it was carelessly buried 
 in the church of the Grey Friars. 
 
 It was no long time before Leicester received 
 the bones of a still more illustrious man, whose 
 death was the prelude of the greatest change which 
 England ever experienced. On November 26, 
 1530, the dying Wolsey was brought as a prisoner 
 on his last journey to repose in Leicester Abbey. 
 ‘Father abbot,’ he said, ‘I am come to leave my 
 bones among you ; ’ and he spoke the truth. Three 
 days afterwards he died, saying, * If I had served 
 my God as I have served my king, He would not 
 have deserted me in my grey hairs.’ Wolsey’s 
 fall was a signal instance of royal ingratitude, and 
 Wolsey’s death released Henry VIII. from the last 
 restraint upon his imperious temper. The great 
 cardinal was buried unlamented in the Lady Chapel 
 of Leicester Abbey; and Henry VIII. entered 
 upon a course of action which did not stop till all 
 the abbeys of England were swept away, and the 
 tombs of the mighty dead shared in the general 
 destruction. 
 
 It does not seem that Leicestershire was much 
 affected by the dissolution of the monasteries. 
 Perhaps the burghers of Leicester were not sorry to 
 
 33 2 
 
Leicester 
 
 be rid of a body of men who, to the growing spirit 
 of commerce and industrial life, seemed drones in a 
 busy hive. Moreover, Leicestershire was carefully 
 watched and guarded during the time of this great 
 social revolution. Under the Tudor kings its new 
 nobility had thriven, and the chief men of the shire 
 were gainers by the transference of monastic pro¬ 
 perty. Under Henry VII. the Marquis of Dorset 
 had been restored to his possessions ; the Hastings 
 family resumed their place at Ashby; and the Man¬ 
 ners family grew powerful in the north of the shire. 
 The members of these families all stood by Henry 
 VIII. in his great measures of social and religious 
 change, and reaped the rewards of their loyalty. In 
 1525 Thomas Manners was created Earl of Rut¬ 
 land, and rebuilt the ruined castle of Belvoir as a 
 magnificent residence. In 1529, George Hastings 
 was created Earl of Huntingdon, and kept great 
 state at Ashby. Henry, second Marquis of Dorset, 
 was the chief general of the early part of the reign 
 of Henry VIII.; his son married Henry VIII.’s 
 niece, and succeeded to her father’s title of Duke of 
 Suffolk in 1551. His royal connection led Suffolk 
 to his ruin ; and he sacrificed to his ambition his 
 luckless daughter, the Lady Jane Grey, who was 
 used by unscrupulous men as a claimant to the 
 throne. In early youth she had consoled herself 
 for the harshness of her father by reading Plato in 
 the park of Bradgate. When her father announced 
 to her that she was queen, she burst into tears. 
 When the scheme failed, her father tore down the 
 ensign above her seat, and told her that it no more 
 befitted her estate. For her nine days’ reign she 
 
 333 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 perished on the block, and little pity was felt for 
 her father when he was condemned to the like 
 punishment. 
 
 The Grey family never rose to the position 
 which it had before enjoyed ; but during the reign 
 of Elizabeth the Earls of Huntingdon and of Rut¬ 
 land did good service in maintaining order in the 
 Midlands. Leicestershire steadily grew in pros¬ 
 perity, which was broken by the great Civil War. 
 Leicestershire was almost unanimously on the side 
 of Parliament, and in 1645 Leicester underwent a 
 siege from the Royalist army, commanded by the 
 king. It was taken and sacked, and suffered so 
 severely that it was long before it recovered from 
 its losses. In Leicestershire, as elsewhere, the 
 result of the Civil War was to sweep away the 
 fortified houses. The castle of Ashby was dis¬ 
 mantled, and the Earls of Huntingdon did not 
 repair it, but fixed their new abode at Castle Don- 
 nington, hard by. 
 
 After the Restoration, Leicestershire rapidly 
 developed its industry, and began to assume the 
 appearance which it wears to-day. Its rich grass¬ 
 land had always been favourable for sheep ; and the 
 long hair of the Leicestershire sheep was found to 
 be excellent for the finer woollen goods. In early 
 times wool was only woven into cloth, and stock¬ 
 ings were made of cloth stitched together. In the 
 sixteenth century woollen stockings were articles of 
 luxury, but the taste for them soon spread. Hand¬ 
 knitting was, however, a laborious process, and the 
 invention of the ‘ stocking-frame ’ gave a great im¬ 
 petus to the manufacture of hosiery. This invention 
 
 334 
 
Leicester 
 
 was due to a Northamptonshire clergyman, William 
 Lea. The story goes that he found himself 
 hindered in his bashful courtship by the excessive 
 industry of his mistress, whose eyes were always 
 bent upon her knitting. The inventiveness of 
 a lover, it is said, at last succeeded in devising 
 a machine which might be worked without such 
 exclusive attention. But Lea’s invention, which 
 was made in 1589, did not come into general use 
 for some time. By the middle of the seventeenth 
 century it was well established, and from that time 
 onward Leicestershire has been the seat of the 
 manufacture of English hosiery. 
 
 The stocking-frame could easily be worked by 
 hand, and the industry was carried on at home. 
 The result of this was that the manufacture was 
 spread over the whole district, and was not only 
 carried on in great centres. The wool merchant 
 bought from the farmers; and middlemen distributed 
 the raw material and supplied the machinery at a 
 rent. Families of artisans lived in the villages, and 
 pursued their occupation as they thought fit. The 
 factory system did not prevail in Leicestershire, and 
 industrial life was mixed with the life of agriculture. 
 Population was equally distributed, and there was 
 a happy blending of the old and the new, which is 
 still a conspicuous feature of Leicestershire. For 
 a long time the invention of steam did not alter 
 these conditions, and handicraft could compete with 
 more elaborate machinery on fairly equal terms. 
 But machinery has slowly encroached on hand 
 labour, and large factories are on the increase. 
 Leicester has grown into a large manufacturing 
 
 335 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 town, and the other towns have not grown in 
 proportion. It has become more difficult for 
 work to be carried on at home, and the economic 
 conditions of Leicestershire are slowly changing. 
 
 The county, however, still keeps as its cha¬ 
 racteristic this mixture of agricultural and industrial 
 life. Its natural features do not give it any con¬ 
 spicuous interest; but the rich meadows which are 
 spread on every side tell the tale of England’s 
 prosperity in the past; while nearly everywhere 
 may be seen in the distance the tall chimney 
 sending forth its smoke, a sign of the new activity 
 which has created modern England. 
 
 33 6 
 
NORTHAMPTON 
 
 I N early times the rich meadows of Northampton¬ 
 shire were covered with brushwood, and the 
 whole district was a tract of inaccessible upland 
 rising above the sluggish waters of the Wash. 
 Its two extremities were traversed by roads of 
 communication which the Romans raised. On the 
 eastern side, the Ermine Street coasted by the side 
 of the Wash, and crossed the narrow strip between 
 the valleys of the Nen and the Welland. In the 
 Nen valley, the experienced eye of the Roman 
 found clay which was suited for making pottery, 
 and the station of Castor became the seat of an 
 industry whence blue and grey earthenware were 
 exported to various parts of Britain. Similarly, 
 on the western side, the Roman road of Watling 
 Street traversed the district on its way to Chester, 
 and the Romans left the marks of their presence 
 in the name of their station on the river Tow, 
 now called Towcester. Between these lines of 
 communication lay the forests of Holdenby, Rock¬ 
 ingham, and Yardley Chase. 
 
 When the English invaders began to make 
 their settlements, the upland that rose above the 
 Wash was exposed to the invasion of the Gyrwas, 
 
 337 v 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 who sought a home along its inhospitable shore. 
 Another body of English, who had mounted the 
 valley of the Soar, sent out an offshoot who made 
 their way along the Watling Street to the valley 
 of the Nen. There, on a spot where the ground 
 was somewhat cleared, they set up the ‘ home 
 town’ of their tribe, which in later days was called 
 Northampton, to distinguish it from the other 
 Hampton on the Solent. Thence they pushed 
 their settlements along the valley of the Nen till 
 they reached the land occupied by the Gyrwas on 
 the coast. 
 
 These little tribes were soon absorbed into the 
 great Mercian kingdom. The great warrior king 
 of Mercia, Penda, was a heathen, but on his death, 
 in 655, his sons embraced Christianity, and showed 
 their piety by founding on a tract of meadow-land, 
 which rose above the neighbouring fen, the abbey 
 of Medeshamstead, on which they conferred large 
 domains. The abbey, which was dedicated to St. 
 Peter, was known from its size as the Borough, 
 whence came the modern name of the city, 
 Peterborough. This abbey, with its neighbours 
 of Crowland, Thorney, and Ramsey, was the great 
 means of introducing agriculture into this waste 
 district. Hard by, at Barnack, was a quarry of 
 excellent stone, which had been worked by the 
 Romans. This the monks soon learned to use for 
 their own buildings; and it is this fact which has 
 given to Northampton its chief distinction amongst 
 English shires. Nowhere in England are so many 
 stately churches to be found as along the valley 
 of the Nen. The monks gave the impulse to 
 
 338 
 
Northampton 
 
 church building; the stone was near at hand; and 
 carriage by water was comparatively easy. 
 
 But it was long before church building on any 
 large scale was possible to the little settlements 
 along the Nen, though the example of Medesham- 
 stead soon led to the formation of other monastic 
 houses along its banks. Bishop Wilfrid founded a 
 monastery at Oundle, where, in 709, he finished his 
 adventurous career. Round the monasteries there 
 was a slow growth of agricultural life and prosperity, 
 which in the ninth century was checked by the 
 horrors of the Danish invasion. Then it was the 
 wealth of the monasteries which marked them out 
 as the prey of the heathen plunderers. At the end 
 of 869, a Danish army marched from York, burned 
 down Medeshamstead and slew all the monks. The 
 eastern district was again reduced to a waste, but on 
 the western side the Danes occupied Northampton, 
 and planted settlements in the lands which lay 
 around it. 
 
 When the West Saxon King Edward undertook 
 the recovery of Central England from the Danes, 
 he began a series of campaigns in which he slowly 
 drove them northwards. In 919 he was master of 
 the valley of the Ouse. He next seized and fortified 
 the site of the old Roman station at Towcester. 
 The Danes of Northampton summoned their 
 brethren to drive out the invader, but they were 
 beaten back from the palisade which protected it, 
 till Edward secured his new town by building a wall 
 of stone. Then he advanced against Northampton, 
 which surrendered in 921. It was after this recovery 
 that the Mercian kingdom disappeared, and its 
 
 339 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 lands were divided into shires. The country round 
 Northampton, corresponding to the old settlements 
 along the Nen, was made into a shire by itself, and 
 strove to bring back its old life as it was before the 
 Danish invasion overthrew it. 
 
 The sign of this restoration was the revival of 
 the abbey of Medeshamstead after it had lain 
 desolate for a hundred years. Ethelwold, Bishop of 
 Winchester, was a great promoter of monasticism, 
 and begged of King Edgar that he would give him 
 all the minsters which the heathen had destroyed. 
 At Medeshamstead he found only ruined walls and 
 wild woods, but he obtained from the king a grant 
 of lands ‘ to Christ and to St. Peter,’ and the revived 
 abbey took the name of Peterborough. We can 
 still see the influence of this revival in the 
 architecture of the churches of Brixworth, Brigstock, 
 Earls Barton, Barnack, and Whittering, which can 
 all show work that dates before the Norman 
 Conquest. 
 
 In the days of Edward the Confessor Northamp¬ 
 tonshire, together with the neighbouring county 
 of Huntingdon, were given to the earldom of 
 Northumberland, but were soon separated and con¬ 
 ferred on Waltheof, the last great Englishman 
 under William the Conqueror. Waltheof died on 
 the scaffold, and his Norman successor, Simon of 
 Senlis, built a castle at Northampton, and founded 
 the convent of St. Andrew in the town. 
 
 This shows one way in which the Norman 
 occupation of England was carried out. The 
 fortunes of the abbey of Peterborough show no 
 less clearly how William the Conqueror employed 
 
 340 
 
Northampton 
 
 the power of the Church to secure his hold of 
 England. In 1069 he set a new abbot in Peter¬ 
 borough, Turold, a Frenchman, chosen for his 
 military skill. The rebellious English of the east, 
 aided by the Danes, hearing of Turold’s coming, 
 attacked Peterborough under the leadership of 
 Hereward. They sacked and burned the monastery, 
 and dispersed the monks, so that Abbot Turold, 
 when he arrived with his troops, found only one 
 man left sick in the infirmary. Turold fortified 
 his monastery by building a castle, and led a life 
 of much quarrelling with his monks. Other mis¬ 
 fortunes soon befel the abbey. The church, the 
 monastery, and all the town caught fire and were 
 burned down in 1116, and to the rebuilding, which 
 was then undertaken, is due the massive Norman 
 architecture which distinguishes the cathedral 
 church. 
 
 In the northern part of the shire was built the 
 royal castle of Rockingham, on the brow of the hill 
 which rises above the valley of the Welland; 
 behind it stretched the dense woodland of the 
 great forest which sloped towards the Nen. In 
 the reign of William Rufus Rockingham Castle 
 was the scene of one of the most notable events of 
 English history. 
 
 William II. carried to its furthest point the 
 royal power, and used it to gather money from 
 every source. He disdained restraint, especially 
 that of religion and morality, and on the death of 
 Archbishop Lanfranc refused to nominate another 
 archbishop in his place. For five years the English 
 Church was without a primate, and William took 
 
 34 1 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 to himself the revenues of the vacant sees. At 
 length a serious illness brought him to death’s 
 door, and he was urged to make reparation for 
 his ill-doings by making an archbishop. Anselm, 
 Abbot of Bee in Normandy, famous alike for learn¬ 
 ing and piety, was then in England, and the nobles 
 urged him upon the king. Sorely against Anselm’s 
 will the office was thrust upon him, for he was a 
 quiet man who did not wish to struggle against the 
 violence of the king. When William recovered 
 from his illness he wished to be rid of Anselm, and 
 sought every means of annoying him. At last he 
 charged him with disloyalty, and summoned a 
 Council at Rockingham. Anselm was deserted by 
 the other bishops through fear of the king, and at 
 last appealed to the Pope, as the only power which 
 could place a check upon the tyrannous use of the 
 royal power. It was in this way that the custom 
 of appealing to the Pope grew up. In an age of 
 lawlessness and violence it was thought necessary 
 that there should be some appeal to the public 
 opinion of Europe, which only the Pope could 
 express. There was no other way to curb a king 
 who threatened to crush men’s liberties by force. 
 Anselm was fighting single-handed for the cause 
 of rioditeousness and order. 
 
 o 
 
 But the appeal to Rome against royal decisions 
 was a custom which might work well or ill, and 
 was by no means to be trusted. Its dangers were 
 shown when Archbishop Thomas Becket upheld 
 against Henry II.’s wise legislation the exclusive 
 privileges of the clergy to be tried only in ecclesi¬ 
 astical courts. If the Council of Rockingham 
 
 34 2 
 
Northampton 
 
 showed the power of the Church to oppose tyranny, 
 the Council of Northampton showed how it might 
 interfere to prevent useful reforms. There Arch¬ 
 bishop Thomas appeared, carrying his own cross, 
 in sign that he expected a personal attack to be 
 made upon him. ‘ A fool he always was, and 
 always will be,’ was the remark of the Bishop of 
 London, on seeing this needless striving after 
 dramatic effect. The archbishop appealed from the 
 king to the Pope, and solaced himself under the 
 disapproval of his peers by the acclamations of 
 the people gathered outside the castle. He made 
 his bed in the church of St. Andrew, but in the 
 night fled away, and escaped abroad, where he 
 spent six years in exile, and only returned to 
 England to meet a violent death. 
 
 These were episodes in the history of the shire, 
 which continued to prosper. In 1184, the line of 
 its earls of the family of Senlis came to an end, 
 and the earldom was not renewed. The position 
 of Northampton made it important; and it still 
 keeps a memorial of its importance in the cross 
 which Edward I. erected over the resting-place of 
 the body of his queen, Eleanor, when it was borne 
 from Lincoln to London for burial. It was this 
 central position that gave Northampton its trade 
 of shoemaking, which is of very long standing. 
 The town was well situated as a centre for distri¬ 
 bution of an article which was universally needed, 
 and hides could easily be obtained from the rich 
 grazing meadows which surrounded the town on 
 every side. It was an old saying that ‘ Northamp¬ 
 ton stood on other men’s legs.’ 
 
 343 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 The same cause seemed likely for a time to 
 give Northampton another claim to fame. In 
 1260, there was a quarrel between the University 
 of Oxford and the town, which led to a secession 
 of the students, many of whom fixed on Northamp¬ 
 ton as their new abode. But it was not thought 
 well in those days that seats of learning should be 
 multiplied. The king interposed to heal the quarrel 
 at Oxford, and the students were bidden to return 
 thither. The infant university of Northampton 
 was rudely crushed. There were political motives 
 also in this suppression, for in the stormy days of 
 Henry III. the students of Oxford were eager for 
 reform, and sided with the barons in opposing the 
 king. Northampton Castle was held by Simon de 
 Montfort, and was attacked and taken, in 1264, by 
 Henry III. The king gained entrance into the 
 town by the help of the Prior of St. Andrew’s, 
 whose convent garden joined the town walls, which 
 the monks secretly undermined, supporting it by 
 wooden props. 
 
 Like other midland counties, Northampton did 
 not take a conspicuous part in the history of 
 England during the Middle Ages. Its people were 
 mainly employed in agriculture, and in the gradual 
 clearing of the ground which spread northwards 
 from the valley of the Nen, a process which can be 
 gradually traced by the dates revealed by a study 
 of the architecture of the parish churches. At the 
 beginning of the fifteenth century Edmund of 
 Langley, Duke of York, founded a collegiate church 
 at Fotheringhay, where he rebuilt the castle. His 
 grandson, Richard, claimed the crown of England 
 
 344 
 
Northampton 
 
 against Henry VI., and so caused the Wars of the 
 Roses, which laid England waste and destroyed 
 the old nobility. In 1460, Henry VI. was defeated 
 and made prisoner by the Earl of Warwick in a 
 bloody battle fought just outside the walls of 
 Northampton, and the capture of the king led to 
 the assertion of the Duke of York’s right to the 
 English crown. York’s triumph was short, for 
 next year he fell at Wakefield. Fotheringhay was 
 made the burial-place of the Yorkist line, and 
 Edward IV. there celebrated the obsequies of his 
 ancestors, and made the castle his headquarters 
 against his northern foes. 
 
 The restoration of peace by the Tudors was the 
 beginning of the making of a new England. Few 
 counties show more traces of this process than does 
 Northampton. The grave of the luckless Katharine 
 of Aragon in Peterborough Cathedral tells how 
 Henry VIII. condemned his discarded wife to lead 
 a life of solitude and neglect at Kimbolton, whence 
 she was carried for burial to the nearest abbey. 
 The bones of Katharine were the last relics which 
 the monks of Peterborough were to receive. The 
 great abbey was dissolved, its treasures went to the 
 king’s coffers, its buildings were handed over to 
 the destroyer. Yet Peterborough was lucky above 
 most of its neighbours; and Northamptonshire was 
 one of the few counties which could boast that at 
 least a portion of the monastic plunder had been 
 converted to the public good. The abbey church 
 was spared that it might become a cathedral, and 
 the two shires of Leicester and Northampton were 
 cut off from the unwieldy diocese of Lincoln, and 
 
 345 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 received a bishop of their own. It is, however, 
 worth noticing that the last abbot was made the 
 first bishop, apparently without much consideration 
 of fitness, that the king might be spared the 
 expense of granting him a pension. 
 
 Still more important was it for the prosperity of 
 the shire that its fair meadows attracted the men 
 who w T ere replacing the old order of the feudal 
 nobles which had been almost swept away in the 
 Wars of the Roses. The new nobility sprang from 
 the class of gentry who served the Crown as 
 officials, and used the opportunities offered by the 
 social changes which were passing over England to 
 pick up eligible manors and add field to field. The 
 great revolution of the sixteenth century was largely 
 founded on economic causes. The central govern¬ 
 ment had grown powerful enough to rule England 
 without being dependent for help on local magnates. 
 The days of the barons, who were strong through 
 the castles they possessed and the number of 
 retainers whom they could lead into the field, had 
 passed away. The day had come for a new order 
 of nobles, who were important through their large 
 estates and long rent-rolls. The feudal lord made 
 way for the landholder, the fortified castle for 
 the stately mansion. So the fertile meadows of 
 Northamptonshire largely passed into the hands 
 of four families which steadily rose in wealth and 
 importance. The Spencers settled at Althorp ; the 
 Comptons at Castle Ashby; the Hattons built 
 the splendid piles of Holdenby and Kirby; and 
 Elizabeth’s great minister, William Cecil, erected 
 in the east of the shire the mighty pile of Burghley 
 
 34 6 
 
N orthampton 
 
 House, which is still the greatest architectural 
 memorial of the great aspirations of the Elizabethan 
 age. Perhaps few incidents bring before us more 
 clearly the change which passed over England in 
 the sixteenth century than does a quarrel which 
 broke out in the reign of James I. between the 
 Earl of Arundel, who represented faintly the old 
 traditions, and Lord Spencer, who did not shrink 
 from making himself spokesman of the new order. 
 In the House of Lords Spencer appealed to the 
 memories of the past as a motive for present 
 action: ‘My lord,’ cried Arundel, ‘when these 
 things were doing your ancestors were keeping 
 sheep.’ Spencer’s reply was quick: ‘ When my 
 ancestors, as you say, were keeping sheep, your 
 ancestors were plotting treason.’ 
 
 However, Northampton was not left so peace¬ 
 ably under the care of her new landlords as not to 
 be reminded of the dangers through which England 
 passed before she could ensure her new prosperity. 
 Fotheringhay Castle, lying as it did among the 
 lands of men bound by their own interest to support 
 Elizabeth’s throne, was chosen as a secure place for 
 Mary Stuart’s trial and execution. Burleigh drew 
 out with his own hand a plan of the arrangements 
 of the hall for that memorable trial. By the fire¬ 
 place in the hall the scaffold was erected on which 
 Mary met her doom, and her body was buried in 
 Peterborough Cathedral by the side of that other 
 ill-fated queen, Katharine of Aragon. There it 
 reposed till James I. transferred his mother’s 
 remains to the royal burying-place at Westminster. 
 Fotheringhay Castle was allowed to fall into ruins, 
 
 347 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 and nothing save the mound, below which flow the 
 waters of the Nen amid its peaceful meadows, 
 is left as a memorial of the saddest tragedy in 
 England’s history. 
 
 In the Great Civil War, Northamptonshire was 
 the scene of the memorable battle of Naseby, which 
 at once overthrew the cause of Charles I. and estab¬ 
 lished the military greatness of Cromwell. Charles, 
 who had taken Leicester in 1645, was marching 
 thence westward, when news was brought that the 
 Roundheads under Fairfax were advancing to meet 
 him. He took up a strong position near Market 
 Harborough, while Fairfax occupied the rising 
 ground near Naseby. The impetuosity of the 
 Cavaliers moved Charles to leave his vantage 
 ground and attack. The same impetuosity led 
 Prince Rupert to neglect military prudence and 
 pursue the enemy whom he routed, while Cromwell 
 used the opportunity to fall upon the rear of the 
 body commanded by the king. The Royalist losses 
 were great and Cromwell’s victory was complete. 
 Charles took refuge with the Scots, only to be sold 
 to the Parliament, by whom he was permitted to live 
 in peace in his house at Holdenby, a little north of 
 Northampton, a house which had been built by 
 Elizabeth’s favourite, Sir Christopher Hatton. 
 However, Parliament was no longer supreme in 
 England, and the management of affairs had passed 
 into the hands of the army. 
 
 One day at Holdenby, Cornet Joyce, with his 
 hat on his head and a pistol in hand, broke into 
 Charles’s bedroom and ordered him to prepare for 
 a journey. ‘ Whither ? ’ asked the king, and was 
 
 348 
 
Northampton 
 
 answered, ‘ To the army.’ * By what authority do 
 you come ? ’ Joyce pointed to his pistol and 
 answered, ‘ By this ! Make haste.’ Charles could 
 not hide from himself that it was the beginning of 
 the end. 
 
 This is the last picturesque episode which the 
 annals of Northamptonshire have to record. We 
 need not regret the quiet days which followed, when 
 daily toil and steady industry took the place of 
 battles and executions. The growth of agriculture 
 and the development of industry is a gradual process 
 wrought out with as much heroism as are the 
 exploits of a soldier in the battlefield; but the 
 heroism which it demands is daily and constant, 
 and rarely admits of relation. We may be content 
 that in the eighteenth century political questions 
 were settled by elections rather than by civil wars, 
 and that great families fought for political influence 
 by the less heroic means of bribing constituencies. 
 Of this warfare of the eighteenth century, North¬ 
 ampton was a conspicuous instance. In 1768 
 especially there was a triangular duel between Lord 
 Northampton, Lord Halifax, and Lord Spencer, 
 which should have the honour of nominating the 
 member for Northampton. The electors were 
 entertained free of expense. When they had drunk 
 all the champagne at Althorp and were served with 
 claret, they rejected the ‘ sour stuff,’ and removed to 
 Castle Ashby to try the cellars there. The poll 
 showed the remarkable result that, though there were 
 only 930 electors, 1149 votes had been recorded. 
 A petition naturally followed, and the struggle was 
 renewed on a larger scale before a Parliamentary 
 
 349 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 committee, with the result that the question was 
 finally decided by tossing up. It is said that the 
 election cost each of the noblemen who were 
 engaged in it considerably over ,£100,000. 
 
 Those days also have passed away. At present 
 the traveller in Northamptonshire is chiefly reminded 
 of the continuous care by which modern England 
 has been created. The smiling meadows with their 
 flocks and herds, the ancient villages which nestle 
 round their beautiful churches, the stately mansions 
 of which the shire is proud, make it one of the most 
 interesting of English counties. 
 
 350 
 
HUNTINGDON 
 
 I T seems strange to look upon Huntingdonshire 
 of to-day as a seaside county ; but such almost 
 was the original position of its eastern border. 
 The Ouse ran sluggishly into a huge tract of fenland 
 which faded imperceptibly into the waters of the 
 sea; and what we now call the Wash reached, with 
 scattered islands here and there, in a shallow flood, 
 to the rising ground on which stands the town of 
 Huntingdon. The Roman road, the Ermine Street, 
 which ran from London to Lincoln, skirted the 
 border of the Fenland ; and what was in early times 
 the mouth of the Ouse was guarded by the Roman 
 station of Durolipons. Southwards, the Cam was 
 guarded in like manner by a station at Camboritum, 
 the modern Cambridge; and between Camboritum 
 and Durolipons ran another road, the Via Devana. 
 These roads and stations were erected for the 
 defence of the eastern coast, which was an object 
 of great care to the Romans ; for the long-boats of 
 the Saxon pirates penetrated the shallow waters, 
 and the marauders could choose their own landing- 
 place. They came at first as man-hunters, carrying 
 off men, women, and children, whom they sold as 
 slaves. It was the duty of a special officer, ‘the 
 
 35i 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Count of the Saxon Shore,’ to provide for the 
 safety of the eastern and southern coast of Britain. 
 Moreover, the Romans saw the need of protecting 
 the Fenland from the damage wrought by floods, 
 and set the example of those great drainage works 
 by which the lands and the Wash have been 
 reclaimed. At Ramsey there are still traces of 
 a Roman drain, to catch the rainfall and so protect 
 the higher ground from the encroachment of the 
 water. 
 
 When the Romans withdrew from Britain their 
 works were abandoned ; and the pirates gradually 
 began to come as settlers, first taking possession of 
 the islands in the Fens. The body of English who 
 chose this district for their prey were called the 
 Gyrwas. One division of them, the North Gyrwas, 
 directed their efforts against the valley of the 
 Witham; another division, the South Gyrwas, 
 were at work along the line of the Ouse and the 
 Cam. For some time the Britons successfully 
 withstood them, and they were confined to the 
 islands of the Fenland. Gradually they succeeded 
 in occupying the lines of the Roman road, and 
 destroyed its stations, reducing Durolipons to a 
 heap of ruins. Then they formed a kingdom of 
 the South Gyrwas, which embraced the district 
 of Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire. The 
 kingdom was short-lived, but it left its traces 
 on subsequent history, for till the seventeenth 
 century there was but one sheriff for the two 
 counties, and he was chosen in alternate years 
 from Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, and the 
 Isle of Ely. We need not follow the struggles 
 
 352 
 
Huntingdon 
 
 for supremacy among the English kingdoms. It 
 is enough to say that early in the seventh century 
 the lands of the Gyrwas formed part of the 
 Mercian kingdom which extended over the whole 
 of Mid-Britain. 
 
 The district in itself was not of great value for 
 settlers, as the rising ground around the Wash 
 was covered with a dense forest; and as soon as 
 Christianity prevailed in the Mercian kingdom, it 
 was natural that the country should be handed 
 over to the care of missionary monks, whose 
 houses were established in the seventh century 
 at Medesham, which afterwards took the name 
 of Peterborough, at Ely, and soon afterwards at 
 Crowland. The story of the activity of these 
 early monks is told elsewhere, for none of their 
 houses lay within the boundary of Huntingdonshire. 
 But we see traces of their influence in the name 
 of Godmanchester, which was given to the town 
 which rose upon the ruins of the Roman station 
 of Durolipons; while we recognise the ordinary 
 pursuits of the inhabitants in the name given to 
 the settlement on the opposite bank of the Ouse, 
 the Hunter’s Down, or Huntingdon. 
 
 But monks and people were alike overwhelmed 
 in a common calamity when in 870 the heathen 
 Danes bore downwards from the north. The 
 monks were slain, and their monasteries were 
 reduced to ashes. The whole of Eastern England 
 passed under the Danish yoke. Still, the country 
 south of the Nen did not attract the conquerors to 
 make many settlements, and probably their rule 
 did not much affect the dwellers in the southern 
 
 353 
 
 z 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 part of their dominion. For military purposes they 
 raised a mound at Huntingdon, and set in it soldiers 
 to guard the line of the Ouse. But the English 
 power slowly reasserted itself under Edward, son 
 of Alfred the Great, who made his way along the 
 valley of the Ouse, and in 921 succeeded in cap¬ 
 turing Huntingdon and wresting the Fenland from 
 the Danes. Edward still further strengthened the 
 defences of Huntingdon, and the earthwork which 
 still rises above the river was his work. In the 
 reorganisation which followed upon the reconquest 
 of the Mercian kingdom, the district which lay 
 around the royal castle of Huntingdon was made 
 into a shire, and took its name from its chief town. 
 
 Side by side with this reorganisation went the 
 restoration of old institutions. The monasteries 
 of Peterborough, Ely, and Crowland were rebuilt, 
 and again filled with monks. The tenth century 
 was a time of monastic revival in England, and 
 Huntingdonshire for the first time received a 
 monastery of its own. At the suggestion of Oswald, 
 Bishop of Worcester, a lord named Ethelwin 
 founded in 967 a religious house on an island 
 which lay just on the verge of the Fenland. It 
 was called Ramsey, or ‘the Ram’s Island,’ from 
 a solitary ram which was found there. The island, 
 about two miles long, and not quite so wide, was 
 covered by a mass of tangled brushwood, amidst 
 which rose the monastic buildings and the church. 
 The monks soon cleared their little domain, and 
 set an example of useful industry in agriculture. 
 Benefactions soon flowed in upon them, and they 
 found means to attract popular attention. On one 
 
 354 
 
Huntingdon 
 
 of their manors, at a place called Slepe, a few miles 
 below Huntingdon on the Ouse, one of their villeins 
 while ploughing turned up a skeleton. The monks 
 of Ramsey identified it as the body of Ivo, a Persian 
 bishop, who in the early part of the seventh century 
 had come as a missionary to England. The relics 
 were carried to Ramsey, and a priory was built 
 upon the spot where they had been discovered. 
 The growing town which clustered round the 
 priory changed its old name of Slepe into St. Ives. 
 Nor was this the only change of name which showed 
 the force of the influence of the Church in the shire. 
 Higher up the Ouse the town which bore the name 
 of Enolfsbury, in remembrance of its original settler, 
 received the bones of a Cornish hermit, and changed 
 its old name into St. Neots. The treasure, how¬ 
 ever, was regarded as too precious for so small a 
 church, and the relics were translated to Crowland. 
 
 But though it was the mission of the Church 
 to civilise, it remained for the State to govern ; 
 and the difficulties which were experienced in this 
 task, when national unity was imperfect, led to the 
 setting up of ealdormen over different portions. 
 At the end of the tenth century Huntingdonshire 
 was part of the ealdormanry of East Anglia, and 
 its history is interesting as showing the growth of 
 territorial lordships. The new office of earl was 
 introduced under Canute, and in the reign of 
 Edward the Confessor the earldom of Huntingdon 
 was given to Siward, Earl of Northumberland, 
 for the purpose of maintaining an equal balance 
 between the northern earls and the house of 
 Godwin. Si ward’s son, Waltheof, was the one great 
 
 355 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Englishman who kept his lands and office after the 
 Norman Conquest, and to make sure of his loyalty 
 William gave him the hand of his niece Judith. 
 But Waltheof listened to the talk of some of the 
 Norman barons who wished to rid themselves of 
 William’s strong hand over them; and though 
 Waltheof repented, William did not forgive him. 
 The last great English earl was beheaded in 1076, 
 and the earldom of Huntingdon passed to his wife 
 Judith. William ordered her to marry one of his 
 trusty followers, Simon of Senlis; but he was lame, 
 and she refused. But William would not alter his 
 plans to suit a woman’s whim, so he gave Judith’s 
 daughter Matilda to Simon, who became Earl of 
 Huntingdon by right of his wife. Moreover, 
 after Simon’s death, his widow married David of 
 Scotland, son of the Scottish king ; and through 
 this marriage the earldom of Huntingdon passed to 
 the royal house of Scotland. It would be a long 
 matter to trace in detail the various incidents of 
 this connexion. It is enough to say that the 
 Scottish king thereby became an English baron, 
 and drew a considerable revenue from his English 
 estates; while the English king was not sorry to 
 count him amongst his vassals, and have a hold 
 over lands situated in the middle of England which 
 he could regard as a pledge of the Scottish king’s 
 good behaviour. Thus Stephen confiscated the 
 earldom, and bestowed it on the son of Simon of 
 Senlis. It was again restored and again taken 
 away, till it finally reverted to the Crown on 
 the death of its last Scottish holder without issue, 
 in 1237. However, one result of this policy was 
 
 356 
 
Huntingdon 
 
 that the castle of Huntingdon was alternately held 
 in the name of the Senlis family and in the name 
 of the Scottish king. The adherents of the dis¬ 
 possessed party were constantly on the alert, and 
 the condition of Huntingdon and its neighbourhood 
 cannot have been very peaceful. The English 
 king did not wish that the Scots should hold a 
 fortress in the heart of his kingdom, and the castle 
 was destroyed in the reign of Henry II. Its stones 
 rapidly disappeared, and nothing remains but the 
 original earthwork of the days of Edward the Elder. 
 
 The earldom of Huntingdon was long kept in 
 abeyance, and when it was revived in the middle of 
 the fourteenth century, it did not bring a resident 
 noble into the shire. The county was not connected 
 with any stirring events in English history, and 
 profited by its lack of notoriety. The Abbot of 
 Ramsey was the most influential personage, and 
 had to maintain the rights of his house against the 
 aggressions both of his lay and his monastic neigh¬ 
 bours. Dykes and causeways were erected across 
 the fens ; but no regular scheme of drainage was 
 carried out, and Huntingdonshire was at the mercy 
 of those who dwelt nearer the Wash. If they 
 neglected to clear their drains, the country was 
 flooded. However, in spite of difficulties, the 
 county flourished. Its forests were cleared, and 
 the need for timber in the Fenland provided a 
 ready market for the wood, which could easily be 
 carried by water. The cleared land was soon 
 converted into excellent pasturage, and the sheep 
 of Huntingdonshire were almost as famous as those 
 of Leicestershire. 
 
 357 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 This peaceful state of things came to an end 
 with the dissolution of the monasteries ; and the 
 monks of Ramsey seem to have felt that they had 
 done their work, and their presence was no longer 
 needed. They were good, quiet men, of whom 
 no one had much harm to say; and the report of 
 the commissioner sent to examine into their doings 
 was that ‘ they live as uprightly as any other, after 
 the best sort of living that hath been among 
 religious folk this many years ; that is to say, more 
 given to ceremonies than is necessary.’ That was 
 precisely the objection felt against the existence 
 of the monasteries. In early days they had dis¬ 
 charged many useful offices, and had fostered 
 civilisation in many ways. Their religious life was 
 the background to a life of practical beneficence. 
 They had set the example of peaceful industry, and 
 had afforded a refuge to the folk who dwelt around 
 them. But times had changed, and the monks of 
 Ramsey were no longer pioneers. Their lands were 
 tilled for them, and they were a body of kindly 
 landlords who lived a harmless but not a very 
 elevated life. The Abbot of Ramsey saw no good 
 reason why his monastery should continue to exist, 
 but declared himself ‘ conformable to everything 
 that shall be at this time put in use.’ He took 
 care, however, to make a good bargain for himself, 
 for he was pensioned off with ^230 a year, worth 
 at least ten times as much in our money, besides a 
 house for his use, a hundred loads of wood, and a 
 mark of swans every year. A ‘ mark of swans ’ 
 meant the right of pasturing swans on the fens ; as 
 they fed in common, each owner distinguished his 
 
 358 
 
Huntingdon 
 
 flock by a mark which was cut upon the bill of the 
 bird. 
 
 The fall of the monasteries was closely con¬ 
 nected with the fate of Henry VIII.’s unhappy 
 queen, Katharine, who ended her days in Hunting¬ 
 donshire. At first, upon her exclusion from Court, 
 she was sent to a manor-house of the Bishop of 
 Lincoln at Buckden, and thence to the royal manor 
 of Kimbolton, which formed part of her jointure, 
 where she died, greatly to her husband’s relief, 
 early in 1536. Kimbolton was granted by the 
 king, after her death, to an official who had done 
 him good service, Sir Richard Wingfield, from 
 whose family it passed by sale to Henry Montagu, 
 who in 1603 was created Earl of Manchester. The 
 fall of the monasteries led more directly to the rise 
 of another family, whose connexion with Hunting¬ 
 donshire must always form the chief feature in the 
 county’s history. Morgan Williams, a Welshman 
 from Glamorganshire, married a sister of Thomas 
 Cromwell, who was Henry VIII.’s great agent in 
 carrying out the business of the monastic suppres¬ 
 sion. Morgan’s son, Richard, rose in fortunes by 
 Cromwell’s protection, and was rewarded for his 
 services to the king by some of the monastic lands 
 in Huntingdonshire, amongst others the sites of 
 Ramsey Abbey, and of Hinchinbrook Priory, a 
 Benedictine nunnery which rose on a slight 
 eminence outside the town of Huntingdon. His 
 eldest son, Henry, built a noble mansion at Hinchin¬ 
 brook, where he entertained Queen Elizabeth in 
 1564, and became one of the chief men of the shire, 
 where, from his liberality, he was known as ‘The 
 
 359 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 Golden Knight.’ This taste for lavish expenditure 
 was inherited by his son, Sir Oliver, who distin¬ 
 guished himself by a magnificent entertainment 
 given to James I. in 1603. But he pursued his 
 taste for magnificence till he sorely crippled his 
 resources, and in 1627 sold Hinchinbrook to a 
 younger brother of the Earl of Manchester; and 
 thus the chief place in the shire passed to the 
 Montagus. 
 
 However, the Cromwell stock was sturdy, and 
 many of the younger sons lived in the Eastern 
 counties farming their estates. A brother of Sir 
 Oliver, Robert Cromwell, inherited a small estate 
 near Huntingdon, where he lived. There was born 
 his son, Oliver, who was to play so large a part in 
 English history ; and there he was educated in the 
 little grammar school, held in the buildings which 
 had once belonged to the Hospital of St. John. 
 In 1628 Oliver Cromwell first entered upon public 
 life as Member for the borough of Huntingdon. 
 In 1631 he sold his estate at Huntingdon and 
 removed to St. Ives, where he farmed as a tenant 
 farmer. Thus it was the Protestant associations, 
 the Puritan education, and the quiet life of Hunting¬ 
 donshire which formed the resolute character of 
 him who, at a crisis of his country’s fate, showed 
 that he possessed the seeing eye and the strong 
 grasp of principle which enabled him to act with 
 decision. 
 
 But if the quiet of Huntingdonshire was favour¬ 
 able to the development of a strong man, it equally 
 afforded a retreat to another who sought to with¬ 
 draw from the perplexities of active life. Few 
 
 360 
 
Huntingdon 
 
 episodes in the life of England during the seven 
 teenth century are more interesting than is the 
 settlement of Nicolas Ferrar at Little Gidding. 
 Ferrar was a man of cultivated mind, the son of a 
 wealthy London merchant, who had at his command 
 a distinguished career both in commerce and in 
 politics. But his fastidious nature shrank from the 
 antagonisms which he saw on every side. He 
 withdrew from politics, wound up his business, and 
 bought the manor of Little Gidding as a fit place for 
 retirement to one who wished to spend his life in 
 meditation and the practices of devotion. He found 
 there in 1624 a ruined manor-house, a shepherd’s 
 hut, and a church used as a barn. Before he would 
 repair his house he rescued the church from dese¬ 
 cration, and was ordained deacon, that he might 
 officiate. His mother, his brother, his brother-in- 
 law and their families accompanied him ; and a 
 family life was organised on the basis of simple 
 piety and devotion. The children were carefully 
 educated, and neighbouring children were welcome 
 to share in their education. Daily services were 
 said in the church, and a strict rule of useful occu¬ 
 pation and devotional observances was established. 
 Men thought that the old days of monasticism were 
 being revived, and mocked at this ‘ Protestant 
 nunnery,’ but Ferrar had no design of founding an 
 order, and did not aim at being a leader of men. 
 Ferrar died in 1637, but the family community 
 still continued, and in 1642 Charles I. solaced him¬ 
 self by a hurried visit. The storm of the Civil 
 War swept it away in 1647, and not till our own 
 times did the memories of Ferrar again begin to 
 
 36 1 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 cluster round the church which he had so carefully- 
 restored. 
 
 When the Civil War broke out Huntingdonshire 
 joined the Association of the Eastern Counties, 
 which was formed for the purpose of keeping the 
 war outside their borders, and of raising troops for 
 Parliament. Oliver Cromwell was the heart and 
 soul of this organisation, which he converted into 
 the mainstay of the Parliamentary cause. But 
 Oliver had much to do before he could reduce to 
 obedience many of his old friends and kinsfolk. 
 He visited his uncle Sir Oliver at Ramsey, and 
 begged his blessing, but he took the precaution of 
 carrying off the arms and plate of the old man, who 
 remained a Royalist till the end. But with both 
 Cromwell and the Earl of Manchester on the side 
 of Parliament, the allegiance of Huntingdonshire 
 was secure, and the county was not disturbed by 
 warfare within its borders. 
 
 The family of Cromwell was not perpetuated in 
 Huntingdonshire ; but the Montagus, both those of 
 Kimbolton and those of Hinchinbrook, took a great 
 part in forwarding the Restoration. Sir Edward 
 Montagu of Hinchinbrook was created Earl of 
 Sandwich in 1660, and was a famous admiral, 
 dying at sea in an engagement with the Dutch. 
 The Montagus played a considerable part in Eng¬ 
 lish history, and in Huntingdonshire did much to 
 further agriculture. For from this period onward 
 the records of the county have little to tell save 
 a steady progress in good farming. The drainage 
 of the Fenland, which was seriously undertaken in 
 the end of the seventeenth century, greatly changed 
 
 362 
 
Huntingdon 
 
 the whole aspect of the shire. In the first place, it 
 meant that the Wash retreated; and consequently 
 Huntingdon lost its communication with the sea, 
 and ceased to be a place for the import and distri¬ 
 bution of commodities. This led to a gradual 
 decline in the importance of the town; and Hunt¬ 
 ingdon, which in old times had fifteen parish 
 churches, now only possesses three. At the same 
 time the lands of the county did not gain so much 
 advantage from the drainage as did those which 
 were newly reclaimed. For the new works were 
 calculated for the benefit of the low-lying tract 
 round the Wash, and it was some time before the 
 connecting drains from the more inland districts 
 were adjusted to the new conditions. When this 
 was done Huntingdonshire could claim to be the 
 best grazing land in England. Early in the 
 eighteenth century Defoe wrote of it, ‘ Here are 
 the most beautiful meadows on the banks of the 
 River Ouse that I think are to be seen in England : 
 which, in the summer season, are covered with 
 innumerable herds of cattle and flocks of sheep.’ 
 
 Defoe’s description is still characteristic of the 
 great charm of Huntingdonshire. It is a county 
 wholly given over to pastoral life. There are no 
 great towns and few traces of industrial occupa¬ 
 tions. Huntingdon, St. Ives, and St. Neots are 
 simply centres of the agriculture of the neighbour¬ 
 hood, and breathe an air of quietness and peace. 
 Population is distributed over many villages, which 
 nestle among the trees and break the monotony of 
 the rich meadows which surround them on every 
 side. The causeways on which many of the high 
 
 363 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 roads still run remind us of the days, not very far 
 distant, when the land was still exposed to floods, 
 and the bridges at Huntingdon and St. Ives rank 
 high as examples of the achitecture of the past. 
 The bridge at St. Ives still retains the old bridge 
 chapel, now converted into a house, which testifies to 
 the sense of our ancestors of the perils of a journey. 
 Everywhere there are traces of old-world life. The 
 traveller feels that he is in Cromwell’s country, in 
 the land where a sober discharge of daily duties 
 taught one of England’s greatest heroes to under¬ 
 stand the spirit of the nation’s past, and form a clear 
 conception of its future mission. 
 
 364 
 
CAMBRIDGE 
 
 T HE determining feature in the history of the 
 Eastern Counties is the vast swamp which 
 ran nearly from Lincoln to Cambridge, known 
 by the name of the Fenland. It was a waste of 
 water receiving the rainfall of Central England, 
 where sluggish streams deposited their slime, and 
 forced their way through with difficulty into the 
 Wash. This desolate country was in winter an 
 expanse of water, with a few islands rising here and 
 there ; in summer it was a marsh, covered with 
 reeds and coarse grass, the haunt of innumerable 
 wildfowl. The Romans carried their roads on the 
 outskirts of this unattractive region. On one of 
 these roads, the Via Devana, they built a fort by 
 the river Granta, or Cam, at a place first known 
 as Camboritum, then Grantbridge, and finally 
 Cambridge. Close at hand was another Roman 
 station which bears the name of Grantchester. 
 These were held as military posts; for on the low 
 chalk hills which rise beyond Cambridge are traces 
 of much occupation by the Britons, and the British 
 camp at Wandlebury seems to point to a strong 
 British settlement. 
 
 When the Romans had departed, Britain became 
 
 365 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 the prey of the invading English. A sturdy tribe 
 brought their little ships into the Wash, and pushed 
 along the Ouse and the Cam. They were known 
 as the Gyrwas, or Fenlanders, taking their name 
 from the territory which they occupied. Camboritum 
 was reduced to a heap of ruins, and the invaders 
 settled where they chose. In time, as civilisation 
 progressed, the old Roman site was reoccupied, and 
 in the beginning of the tenth century Cambridge 
 was a place of sufficient importance to give its 
 name to a division of the Mercian kingdom. 
 
 The Gyrwas, however, were first connected with 
 the East Anglians, and from them received the 
 Christian faith. In 652 Tonbert, chief of the 
 Southern Gyrwas, married Etheldred, daughter of 
 Anna, King of the East Anglians. According to 
 the custom of those times, the bridegroom made 
 his bride a present on their marriage, and chose for 
 that purpose the Isle of Ely, which then rose isolated 
 among the surrounding fens. Etheldred and Anna 
 were devout Christians, and Etheldred soon had the 
 grief of seeing her father fall in battle against the 
 heathen Mercians, who absorbed the territory of 
 the Gyrwas under their sway. Her husband died 
 soon after, and the young widow gave herself to a 
 life of devotion in the solitude of her own dower- 
 land, the Isle of Ely. After three years she was 
 sought in marriage by Egfrith, son of the great 
 Northumbrian king Oswy, and her consent was 
 reluctantly obtained. For twelve years she lived 
 in her Northumbrian home ; but when her husband 
 succeeded to the throne, the rude life of the court 
 became more and more distasteful to her, and she 
 
 366 
 
Cambridge 
 
 succeeded in obtaining her husband’s permission 
 to withdraw to the monastery of Coldingham, 
 near Berwick. There she took the veil; but her 
 husband repented of his acquiescence and longed 
 to reclaim his wife. Terrified at the news of his 
 approach, Etheldred fled from Coldingham, and 
 after many wonderful adventures succeeded in 
 making her way to Ely. There, in the solitary 
 island which took its name from the eels which 
 abounded in the neighbouring marshes, she founded 
 a monastery of her own, where she lived an ex¬ 
 emplary life, bewailing the vanities of her former 
 life. Some years after her death, her bones were 
 deposited in a Roman sarcophagus discovered 
 among the ruins of Camboritum. Her monastery 
 of Ely took rank with Peterborough, Thorney, and 
 Crowland as a centre of Christian influence in the 
 Fenlands. 
 
 The borderers on the Fenland shared the wild 
 spirit of the Marshmen, and seem to have been bad 
 neighbours. In the south part of Cambridgeshire 
 there exists a curious series of earthen dykes, which 
 seem to have been erected as boundaries between 
 East Anglia and Mercia. They were drawn across 
 the open country which lies between the Fenland 
 and the woods. The raised rampart is on the 
 western side, showing that they were erected for 
 the protection of the men of East Anglia. Four 
 of these dykes can still be traced. The most 
 important is now known as ‘ The Devil’s Ditch,’ 
 and runs across Newmarket Heath. The ditch is 
 twenty feet wide, and the bank eighteen feet above 
 the level of the surrounding country, and thirty feet 
 
 367 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 above the bottom of the ditch. Such a work is a 
 testimony to the aggressiveness of the Fenlanders, 
 and to the resoluteness of the East Anglians. 
 
 The progress of monastic civilisation and 
 boundary disputes were alike checked abruptly by 
 the Danish invasion. In 870 Etheldred’s founda¬ 
 tion at Ely shared the fate of its neighbours, and 
 was reduced to ruins by the heathen Danes. They 
 do not, however, seem to have settled much in this 
 district, but preferred places of more attractiveness. 
 History begins again with the efforts of the West 
 Saxon kings and bishops to restore the civilisation 
 which the Danes had wrecked. The great reviver of 
 monasticism was Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, 
 who, after Ely had been deserted for a hundred 
 years, reared its walls again and established within 
 them Benedictine monks. The revived monastery 
 seems rapidly to have reached more than its old 
 importance, and soon ranked with St. Augustine’s, 
 Canterbury, and Glastonbury. The abbots of these 
 three monasteries were royal chancellors in turn in 
 the days of Etheldred, and continued to hold that 
 office till the Roman Conquest. King Canute is 
 credited with a special fondness for Ely, and paid 
 it several visits. On one occasion he found the 
 waters of Soham Mere frozen, and was guided by 
 a churl who went before the king’s sledge to test 
 the ice, and was enfranchised for his loyal service. 
 At another time the water was so boisterous on 
 Whittlesea Mere that the king’s boat was in danger, 
 and he gave orders for the cutting of a new channel 
 which should relieve the mass of water. This was 
 done, and the cutting bore the name of ‘The King’s 
 
 368 
 
Cambridge 
 
 Delph.’ Most famous, however, among the records 
 of Canute’s visits is the poem which tradition assigns 
 to him as he approached Ely and heard the chant of 
 the monks wafted over the expanse of waters— 
 
 ‘ Merie sungen the munches binnen Ely 
 Tha Cnut ching reu ther by, 
 
 Roweth, cniths, naer the land 
 And here we these muneches sang.’ 
 
 The next royal visit to Ely was of a different 
 character. After William the Norman overcame 
 Harold he had to reduce England to obedience. 
 This he did by a military occupation of rebellious 
 or suspected districts. The castles of the Norman 
 builders frowned ominously over the wooden houses 
 of the English, which lay beneath. Such was the 
 case at Cambridge, where William found a town 
 of four hundred houses lying on the north side of 
 the river. On a slight mound, which was artificially 
 heightened, he built a strong castle to secure the 
 loyalty of the district. But though the dwellers 
 on the mainland might be overawed by this display 
 of power, it was not so with the Fenlanders. Their 
 discontent found a leader in Hereward, who has 
 become a hero of romance. Hereward seems to 
 have been a Lincolnshire man, who held lands 
 under the Abbey of Peterborough. He and his 
 fellows were disturbed by the stern rule of the 
 first Norman Abbot, and joined a body of Danes 
 who appeared with their fleet in the Ouse in 
 the spring of 1070. With their help he attacked 
 Peterborough and pillaged the abbey. The Danes 
 retired, and Hereward and his gang took refuge 
 in the Isle of Ely, where they were joined by 
 
 369 2 A 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 others who had resisted their Norman masters. 
 This ‘ Camp of Refuge ’ was attacked next year 
 by King William in person, who, from his castle 
 at Cambridge, directed the military operations. A 
 new causeway was raised at Aldreth, and Hereward 
 showed much valour in striving to prevent a work 
 which was to hem him in. The power of the rebels 
 was soon broken, and William followed his usual 
 course of making sure of the territory which he had 
 won. Aldreth was garrisoned; a castle was built 
 within the precincts of the monastery; a heavy 
 fine was imposed upon the monks. The Isle of 
 Ely was subdued. Another castle was built at 
 Wisbech to command the entrance to the Ouse, 
 and it was some time before the patrimony of St. 
 Etheldred recovered from its disaster. 
 
 However, the first Norman abbot projected a 
 nobler church, which was begun in 1089, and was 
 so far advanced that his successor translated the 
 remains of St. Etheldred from the old Saxon 
 church into the new Norman structure. Soon Ely 
 received an accession of dignity by being made the 
 seat of a bishop. Henry I. saw the political 
 advantage of securing better government for 
 outlying portions of the realm, and set up bishoprics 
 at Ely and Carlisle. In this he was aided by 
 Archbishop Anselm, who saw the need of making 
 better provision for the vast diocese of Lincoln, 
 which reached from the Humber to the Thames. 
 So in 1109 the first bishop of Ely was appointed, 
 and became abbot of the monastery, dividing k its 
 revenues with the monks, who soon discovered the 
 disadvantage of having a powerful master whose 
 
 370 
 
Cambridge 
 
 interests were different from theirs. The second 
 bishop, Nigel, was appointed by Henry I., as a 
 reward for his services as treasurer. He lived in 
 London, busied with state affairs, exacting sternly 
 the revenues of his see. He belonged to a great 
 official family; for his uncle Roger was justiciar, 
 and his brother Alexander was Bishop of Lincoln. 
 Stephen resented the power of these three great 
 prelates, and attempted to seize their persons. 
 Nigel embraced the cause of Matilda, and fortified 
 the Isle of Ely. For a time the Isle held out 
 against the royal troops, till Stephen besieged it by 
 boats, and Nigel was compelled to flee. He was 
 subsequently reconciled to the king, but had to pay 
 a heavy fine, which was wrung from the monastic 
 treasury. On the accession of Henry II., Nigel 
 was summoned to put in order the finances of 
 the country. He was the sole depositary of the 
 administrative system of Henry I. ; and after he 
 had done his work he secured the office of treasurer 
 for his son, Richard Fitznigel, who condensed his 
 father’s wisdom into a work, ‘ A Dialogue concerning 
 the Exchequer,’ which is the most important source 
 of information about the early administration of 
 England. 
 
 In spite, however, of the raids made by political 
 bishops on the resources of the monks, the 
 monastery was enriched by pilgrims. Its secluded 
 situation, its difficulty of access, and the reputation 
 of St. Etheldred, all made it a romantic spot. On 
 St. Etheldred’s Day, October 17, there was a great 
 pilgrimage to Ely, in which pleasure and deyotion 
 were combined. Chains and laces were sold in 
 
 37i 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 honour of the saint, and as tokens of the pilgrimage. 
 It is said that the word tawdry is derived from the 
 flimsy things bought at St. Audrey's , as the name of 
 Etheldred was commonly called. The object of 
 attracting pilgrims was a great incentive to church 
 building in the monasteries. This seems to have 
 been greatly felt at Ely, and the new church made 
 rapid progress. We know the history of its building 
 more accurately than that of any other English 
 cathedral, owing to the fact that the chroniclers of 
 the abbey have given the dates of every stage in its 
 erection. The tale which is told may be verified 
 in almost all our great churches. The building was 
 begun at the east end for convenience of worship, 
 and was steadily pursued westward. The transepts 
 and central tower occupied longest time in building ; 
 then the nave was quickly completed. Finally 
 came the enrichment of the west front. The same 
 style of massive Norman architecture was followed 
 throughout the church itself. But when the west 
 front was reached, a porch was built in the new 
 pointed style. The whole work occupied about a 
 hundred and thirty years; but no sooner was it 
 finished than the change in taste suggested an 
 architectural renewal, which again was begun at the 
 east end. The Norman buildings, however, suffered 
 in almost all cases from the same defect. The 
 massive central tower had not strong enough 
 foundations, and the adjoining portions of the 
 building were not constructed to support its weight. 
 The important questions to ask about the archi¬ 
 tectural history of any English cathedral are: 
 
 ‘ When did the central tower fall down, or what 
 
 372 
 
Cambridge 
 
 alterations were made to prop it up ? ’ The tower 
 of Ely fell in 1322, wrecking the adjoining portion 
 of the newly finished choir. 
 
 Luckily Ely at that time numbered amongst its 
 monks an architectural genius, Alan of Walsingham, 
 who was engaged in building the beautiful Lady 
 Chapel, which stands apart from the cathedral, but 
 is connected with it. Alan undertook the rebuilding 
 of the tower. Made cautious by past experience, 
 he did not raise it on four piers, as it had stood 
 before, but distributed the weight over the adjacent 
 bays of the transepts, so as to form a central 
 octagon, instead of a square tower. It would seem 
 that he had read of the domed churches of the 
 East, and applied the idea, seeking out modes of 
 construction of his own. It is this central octagon 
 which is the distinguishing feature of Ely Cathedral, 
 and is unique in architecture. It is a splendid 
 memorial of ready inventiveness, and the destroyed 
 portion of the choir was rebuilt to harmonise with 
 it. The general result of this adaptation is to leave 
 Ely Cathedral the most interesting building in 
 England, from its variety of styles and their 
 dexterous combination. 
 
 While Ely was engaged in erecting its beautiful 
 church, the neighbouring town of Cambridge was 
 being!' decked with humbler buildings on a smaller 
 scale. It is difficult to know how our English 
 Universities came into being, and it is difficult to 
 know what reasons induced the choice of Cambridge 
 as a site for one of them. Universities were in their 
 origin bodies of scholars, gathered together for 
 purposes of study, and living under a constitution 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 of their own. If they were annoyed in the place 
 where they settled, a number of them wandered 
 elsewhere to seek a securer resting-place. Most 
 probably Cambridge was chosen by a band of 
 students who abandoned Oxford in 1209 in conse¬ 
 quence of King John’s interference with their privi¬ 
 leges. Why they should have chosen Cambridge 
 is hard to say. Perhaps its accessibility from the 
 eastern side of England may have suggested it as a 
 rival to Oxford. It did not, however, rival Oxford 
 in importance for a long time, and its early buildings 
 were conceived in a humbler spirit. The settlement 
 of the students was not made on the higher ground 
 where rose the castle, but on the low-lying land on 
 the other side of the river. The more ancient 
 Cambridge seems to-day a suburb of its more 
 modern growth. 
 
 It was natural that special provision should be 
 needed for housing a new element in the population 
 of the town. At first bands of students combined 
 to live together in hostels under a principal of their 
 own choosing. In time, as the University increased 
 in numbers, the f oundation of a permanent home for 
 young students, with provision for its management 
 by elder scholars, became a favourite form of charity. 
 It was natural that those whose capacity had won 
 for them high positions in Church or State should 
 remember the advantages which they had received 
 from their early training, and should wish to make 
 the path easier for others. The earliest College 
 was Peterhouse, founded in 1286 by Hugh of 
 Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Others followed slowly, 
 but they were on a small scale, and many of them 
 
 374 
 
Cambridge 
 
 were absorbed into the more splendid foundations 
 of a later date. For some time the University of 
 Cambridge was insignificant compared with that of 
 Oxford. It was not till the end of the fourteenth 
 century, when Oxford was disturbed by the troubles 
 that arose about the teaching of Wycliffe, that 
 Cambridge rose in importance. Oxford was 
 suspected as the home of Lollardy, and royal 
 patronage attempted to raise a new school of sound 
 learning at Cambridge. Monasteries had fallen 
 into disrepute, and England, without yet being 
 conscious of a breach with the old order of things, 
 was instinctively turning to other aims and 
 aspirations. King’s College was founded by 
 Henry VI. in 1441, and the building of its 
 magnificent chapel, a fitting memorial of the new 
 learning, was carried on by Henry VII. and 
 Henry VIII. Queen’s College was founded to 
 commemorate Margaret of Anjou, but was claimed 
 by Edward IV.’s Queen, Elizabeth Woodville. In 
 1497 John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, significantly 
 converted the Nunnery of St. Rhadegund into 
 Jesus College. The Lady Margaret, Countess of 
 Richmond and Derby, founded Christ’s and St. 
 John’s Colleges, and Henry VIII. followed her 
 example by founding Trinity College. 
 
 Thus the two centres of learning in England, 
 though they resemble one another in many respects, 
 have many points of difference. Oxford in its 
 buildings and their arrangement follows the model 
 of an older time, when monasteries afforded the 
 only type of collegiate residence. Cambridge 
 became important when England was entering 
 
 375 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 upon a new phase, and its buildings follow the type 
 of the stately manor houses with which the country 
 was beginning to adorn itself. The Oxford quad¬ 
 rangle, shortened into ‘quad/ wears a sterner air than 
 the homely ‘ court/ not always enclosed on all sides, 
 which characterises the Colleges at Cambridge. 
 
 Universities must have local habitations, but 
 they remained close corporations, jealous of their 
 own privileges, and leading a life apart from that of 
 the general locality in which they were situated. 
 The town of Cambridge grew, and its inhabitants 
 were frequently embroiled by the students of the 
 University. But Cambridge had some importance 
 apart from its University, in the great fair held 
 outside its walls • at Sturbridge. There stood a 
 leper hospital to which King John made a grant of 
 a fair, which became one of the most notable in 
 England. A whole town of booths was built in the 
 flat meadow-land, and buyers and sellers thronged 
 from every part. Wool and cloth were the chief 
 commodities, and they could easily be carried by 
 water to the port of Lynn, and thence, in flat- 
 bottomed boats, along the Fens. 
 
 In other matters the progress of the shire 
 depended on the bishops of Ely, who had a pala¬ 
 tinate jurisdiction over the Fenlands, as the bishop 
 of Durham had over the troublesome lands of the 
 Border. The bishops of Ely generally held high 
 offices of State, but in their own neighbourhood 
 they devoted their attention also to the drainage 
 of the Fens, a work which was never forgotten. 
 Even Bishop Morton, who was keenly engaged 
 in the wars of York and Lancaster, left a lasting 
 
 376 
 
Cambridge 
 
 memorial of himself in a great dyke, still known as 
 ‘ Morton’s Learn,’ which ran from Peterborough to 
 Wisbech, for the purpose of keeping out the waters 
 of the Fen. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the interest of the 
 mediaeval history of the county centred round three 
 points—pilgrimage to the great shrine of Ely, the 
 growth of the University of Cambridge, and the 
 drainage of the Fenland. These were differently 
 affected by the changes which were wrought in 
 the sixteenth century. The monastery of Ely was 
 dissolved; its buildings fell into ruins ; its pilgrim¬ 
 ages ceased. The bishop’s power was sorely 
 diminished, and some of his manors had to be 
 granted to aspiring courtiers. The monks were 
 gone, and the bishop could no longer carry on 
 drainage works at his own charges. The Fenlands 
 relapsed into a strange and neglected district, where 
 agriculture of the modern type was impossible. On 
 the other hand, the University of Cambridge entered 
 upon a period of greatness. It was the centre of 
 the new learning, and trained all the great men who 
 guided England through that epoch of momentous 
 change. It nursed the ideas which inspired the 
 men of Elizabeth’s reign. The names of Cranmer 
 and Parker, of Cecil, Mildmay, and Walsingham, 
 of Ascham and Bacon, show how continuous was 
 the influence of Cambridge in Church and State, 
 as well as in literature and science. The chief 
 memorial of this great period is a mulberry tree, 
 carefully preserved in the garden of Christ’s 
 College, which is said to have been planted by 
 John Milton. 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 These, however, are matters of moment in 
 general history. In local concerns Cambridgeshire 
 was left desolate. Its gloom is not lifted by the 
 fact that the bishop’s castle at Wisbech was the 
 prison of Roman Catholic priests, who spent 
 the time of their captivity in unprofitable quarrels 
 amongst themselves. 
 
 It is hard to picture to ourselves the life of the 
 Fenlanders, who dwelt in villages on the higher 
 ground, in an atmosphere of constant fog, and 
 supported themselves mainly by fishing and fowling. 
 There were numerous decoys for wild fowl, which 
 were carefully constructed like an elaborate maze, 
 with many arms, up which the birds could be 
 gradually coaxed, whatever was the direction of 
 the wind. In the summer much of the marshy 
 ground was covered with coarse grass, which was 
 harvested. ‘ Cambridgeshire camels ’ was an ex¬ 
 pression for the marshmen who made their way 
 through the treacherous ground on tall stilts. The 
 most profitable crop was willows, of which it was 
 said that ‘ it would buy a horse before any other 
 could buy a saddle/ Still, however much the 
 marshmen might try to do their best, they were 
 exposed to dangerous floods unless the system of 
 drainage was properly attended to. Efforts were 
 made by Parliament from time to time to remedy 
 this by appointing Commissioners of Sewers, and 
 conferring powers upon them. But these commis¬ 
 sioners did not act with the promptitude of resident 
 landowners. In 1629 they called in the assistance 
 of an eminent Dutch engineer, Cornelius Vermuyden, 
 but they were unable to provide the money which 
 
 378 
 
Cambridge 
 
 his proposals required. This failure led, as is usual 
 in England, to the formation of a company for the 
 purpose of doing by private enterprise what public 
 energy would not achieve. The Earl of Bedford 
 was owner of the lands of the monastery of Thorney, 
 and persuaded other landowners to join with him in 
 carrying out Vermuyden’s plans. The result was 
 the formation of a new cut, twenty miles long, known 
 as ‘ the Bedford River,’ to relieve the Ouse. It 
 was not successful, as it did not carry the water 
 away to the sea. But the work met with determined 
 opposition from the Fenmen. They counted little 
 of the ague which attacked them, and was called 
 ‘ the Bailiff of the Marshland.’ They only saw the 
 threatened loss of the means of subsistence, with 
 which they were familiar, and thought they were 
 being robbed of their common. Vermuyden brought 
 his workmen from Holland, and hatred of foreign 
 labour was another element in their opposition. 
 They frequently broke down Vermuyden’s dams 
 and attacked his men. Oliver Cromwell, then 
 Member for Cambridge, rose into prominence as 
 the mouthpiece of popular discontent; and the 
 works were stopped as the trouble of the time 
 increased. 
 
 Cambridgeshire affords a curious instance of one 
 cause of the breach between the king and the 
 majority of his people. While the nation was 
 growing more serious, the court was more addicted 
 to pleasure. James I. built for himself a lodge at 
 Newmarket, and there, in the days of Charles I., 
 the first horse-races were held. As Pope puts it— 
 
 ‘ Newmarket’s glory rose as Britain’s fell.’ 
 
 379 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 When the quarrel between the king and parliament 
 broke out, Cambridgeshire, like the rest of the 
 eastern counties, was the field of Cromwell’s 
 influence. He was made Governor of the Isle 
 of Ely, and showed his determination to uphold 
 Puritanism by walking into Ely Cathedral during 
 the time of prayer, and ordering ‘ this unedifying 
 and offensive’ practice to cease. When the canon 
 continued the service, Cromwell sternly bade him 
 ‘leave off your fooling and come down.’ Yet it 
 would seem that the men of Cambridgeshire had 
 some goodwill towards the king; for when he was 
 brought prisoner to London in 1647, Fairfax dared 
 not conduct him through Cambridge, but took him 
 by country lanes to Newmarket, where he rested 
 for some days in his own house. 
 
 When the troubled times of the Civil War were 
 ended, the drainage of the Fens was again resumed 
 by the activity of the Earl of Bedford. Vermuyden 
 was again chosen as the engineer; and it is note¬ 
 worthy that Scottish prisoners taken at the battle 
 of Dunbar, and Dutchmen captured by Admiral 
 Blake, were compelled to labour at this uncongenial 
 work. Cromwell now favoured it, and used his 
 authority to stop disturbances on the part of the 
 Fenlanders. Many new cuttings were made, and 
 dykes erected, so as to restrain the water within 
 narrow limits. The completion of the scheme 
 was celebrated by a thanksgiving service in Ely 
 Cathedral, and Vermuyden could boast that he had 
 reclaimed forty thousand acres of land, which were 
 capable of growing corn and supplying pasture. 
 Vermuyden ruined himself by his zeal ; he died a 
 
 380 
 
Cambridge 
 
 poor man, obscure and forgotten, while the corn 
 waved over what had been before a waste of water, 
 which his skill and energy had fitted for the service 
 of man. But Vermuyden’s scheme of drainage was 
 by no means complete, and could not resist heavy 
 floods. Defoe, in his tour through England in 1726, 
 describes the Fen country as almost all covered with 
 water like a sea, and adds that ‘ when the higher 
 grounds of the adjacent country glittered with the 
 beams of the sun, the Isle of Ely seemed wrapped 
 in mist and darkness, and nothing could be discerned 
 but now and then the cupola of Ely minster.’ The 
 drainage was still carried on gradually, till in the 
 present century it was brought to a conclusion by 
 Rennie and Telford, who in 1831 provided a new 
 outfall for the Nene, carrying its waters far out into 
 the Wash. It is on the maintenance of a proper 
 outfall that all the success of the existing drainage 
 depends. The last great undertaking was the 
 drainage of Whittlesea Mere, which remained as a 
 large shallow lake till 1854. There is now little 
 trace of the old Fenland left to tell of what once 
 was the state of the country. Only at Wicken Fen, 
 not far from Soham, is a small portion still remaining 
 for botanists and entomologists to visit. 
 
 It has been said that Cambridgeshire is ‘the 
 most ungentlemanly county in England,’ meaning 
 that it does not possess many country houses of 
 importance. In old times the government of the 
 Fenlands rested with the Bishop of Ely, and there 
 was no need of other lords in the neiehbourhood. 
 When feudal, times ceased, the county was not 
 sufficiently attractive to induce many residents. 
 
 381 
 
Some English Shires 
 
 The only house of importance is Wimpole Park, 
 where John Chichele, a relative of the Arch¬ 
 bishop of Canterbury, built a house in the reign of 
 Henry VI. The estate passed into the hands of 
 Lord Chancellor Hardwicke in 1739, who built a 
 stately mansion in one of the few parts of the county 
 which is well wooded. 
 
 The interest of Cambridgeshire to-day still 
 centres round its historic past. Its distinction is 
 due to the architectural charm of its University 
 town, with all its manifold associations, and to the 
 rare beauty of the cathedral church of Ely. The 
 Fenland has a charm of its own to one who knows 
 the story of its gradual reclamation, and can enjoy 
 the vast expanse of arable land visible from the 
 dykes which rise by the side of the drainage cuttings. 
 He can see the villages, with a few trees around 
 them, which mark the islets where it was possible 
 for men to live. He will find in almost all of them 
 a church of some architectural interest, built at a 
 time when good stone could easily be conveyed by 
 water; and he can, with a little imagination, think 
 himself back into the conditions of a melancholy life 
 which human skill has banished for ever. 
 
 582 
 
INDEX 
 
 Accidents in Coal Mines, 77 
 /Ella, King, 87 
 Aidan, 20 
 
 Alan of Walsingham, 373 
 Aldreth, 370 
 Aldwin,"243 
 Alien priories, 329 
 Amunderness, 166 
 Anselm, Archbishop, 260, 341 
 Aske, Robert, 115 
 Astbury, John, 223 
 Augustine, 87 
 
 Bamburgh, siege of, 27 
 Barnet, battle of, 330 
 Baronets, 172 
 Baxter, Richard, 253 
 Beauchamps, the, 300 
 Becket, Archbishop, 342 
 Bede, 23 
 Bek, Antony, 64 
 Belesme, Robert de, 199 
 Bernicia, 86 
 Bewcastle, story of, 147 
 Birmingham, history of, 315 
 Birmingham, Sir Edward de, 314 
 Biscop, Bishop, 23 
 Black Country, the, 224 
 Bloody Assize, the, 270 
 Bloreheath, battle at, 218 
 Borderlands, the, 17; wars of, 
 128 
 
 Borders, the, state of, 140 
 Bosworth, battle at, 331 
 Bridgewater, Duke of, 177 
 Brindley, James, 177 
 Bristol, 262, 264; . siege of, 270; 
 
 traders of, 270 
 Brut , the, 247 
 Burford, battle of, 213 
 Burton ale, 220 
 Bury, Bishop Richard de, 66 
 Butter-badger, 156 
 
 C/E DM ON, 91 
 Caller, the, 83 
 
 Cambridge, history of, 365; 
 dykes of, 367 ; Church in, 368; 
 University of, 373 ; colleges of, 
 375; changes in, 376 ; drainage 
 of, 378, 380; present state of, 
 
 38 1 
 
 Cambridgeshire canals, 378 
 Canals, 177 
 
 Cantilupe, Bishop, 247 
 Canute, King, at Ely, 368 
 Canynges, William, 266 
 Carlisle, 132; cathedral, 136 
 Cartmell, 166 
 
 Cavendish family, the, 231 
 Chad, St., 212 
 Charles I., arrest of, 348 
 Charles II. at Boscobel, 222 
 Charles, Prince, rising of, 146 
 Cheshire, history of, 181 ; Nor¬ 
 mans in, 185 ; condition of, 187 ; 
 salt-mining in, 188 ; growth of, 
 190; Civil War in, 191 ; present 
 state of, 192 
 
 Chester, history of, 181; cathedral 
 
 of, 186 ; peerage of, 186 ; assess¬ 
 ment of, 191; siege of, 191 
 Chester-le-Street, 54 
 Chipping Camden, 265 
 Cirencester, 256 
 Cistercians, the, 97 
 Coal trade, 72 
 Coifi, a priest, 89 
 Comines, Earl of, 56 
 Comus , the, 206 
 Cornyn, William, 61 
 Cosin, Bishop, 75 
 Cotswolds, the, 265 
 Coventry, 216 ; growth of, 302; 
 
 changes in, 310 
 Cotton trade, the, 179 
 Crewe, 193 
 
 Cromwell family, the, 359 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 360, at Ely, 380 
 Cumberland, history of, 131 ; 
 Britons in, 132 ; Danes in, 133; 
 Scots in, 134 ; Normans in, 134 ; 
 towns in, 138 ; life in, 140 ; Civil 
 War in, 145 ; description of, 147 
 Cuthbert, St., 22, 51 
 Dacre, Leonard, 143 
 Dalesmen, 15 1 
 Darlington, James I., at, 71 
 David, King, 203 
 Debatable Land, the, 141 
 Deira, 86 
 
 Derby, history of, 225 ; people of, 
 227; peers of, 231; civil war 
 in, 234; invasion of, 235; lead 
 mines of, 236 ; industries of, 
 237 ; charms of, 237 
 Derwentwater, Lord, 45 
 Despensers, the, 283 
 Devil’s Ditch, the, 367 
 Devonshire, Earl of, 231 
 Dorset, Marquis of, 330 
 Droitwich, 249 
 Dudley, Lord Robert, 307 
 Dudleys, the, 305 
 Durham, history of, 50; bishop 
 of, 50; Danes in, 52 ; city of, 
 54; power of its bishop, 57 ; 
 monasteries in, 59; history of 
 bishopric, 62 ; population of, 69 ; 
 rebellion against Elizabeth, 70 ; 
 coal trade of, 72 ; University of, 
 74, 80; changes in, 76 ; strikes 
 in, 78 ; condition of, 82 
 Durolipons, 351 
 
 Edward I., King, escape of, 281 
 Edward II., death of, 265 
 Edwin, King, 88 
 Elers Brothers, 223 
 Elizabeth at Kenilworth, 307 
 Ely, 368 ; pilgrimage to, 372 ; 
 cathedral of, 372 ; Cromwell at, 
 380 
 
 English Chronicle , the, 246 
 Espec, Walter, 98 
 Etheldred, Queen, 366 
 Ethellled, 214 
 Ethelfrith, King, 87 
 Ethelstan, King, 93 
 
 , Evesham, 241, 251 ; battle at, 297 
 Fairford Church, 265 
 Fenland, the, 367 
 Fenlanders, 378 
 Ferrar, Nicholas, 361 
 Ferrers, Robert de, 229 
 Fitz-Osborn, Earl, 278 
 I Five boroughs, the, 226 
 Flambard, Ralf, 60 
 Flodden, battle of, 36 
 Florence, a monk, 247 
 Forest of Arden, 291 
 Forest of Dean, 266 
 Fountains Abbey, 99 
 Furness, 166 
 
 Gaveston, Piers, 106, 299 
 Gilpin, Bernard, 69 
 Glendower, 204 
 
 Gloucester, history of, 256 ; Nor¬ 
 mans in, 260; barons in, 263 ; 
 progress in, 265 ; Wars of the 
 Roses in, 267 ; Church in, 268; 
 Civil War in, 269 ; present 
 state of, 271 
 Godiva, 294 
 Great Malvern, 251 
 Gregory, Pope, story of, 87 
 Grevel, William, 26s 
 Grey, Lady Jane, 333 
 Guilds, 113 
 
 Gunpowder Plot, the, 312 
 Guthred, 53 
 
 Guy, Earl of Warwick, 293 
 Gyrwas, the, 352, 366 
 Harding, Stephen, 97 
 Hardwick, Countess of, 231 
 Harold, 94 
 
 Haselrigg, Sir Arthur, 74 
 Hately Field, battle of, 204 
 Hecanas, the, 274 
 Hedgeley Moor, battle at, 35 
 Hereford, history of, 273 ; peers 
 of, 278; Wars of the Roses in, 
 286 ; progress in, 287; Civil 
 War in, 288 ; present state of, 
 288 
 
 Hereford, Duke of, 301 
 Hereward, 369 
 Higden, Ralph, 189 
 Holderness, 86 
 Hopton Heath, battle at, 221 
 Hosiery manufacture, 335 
 Howard, Lord William, 144 
 Hudihras , 207 
 Hull, siege of, 118 
 Huntingdon, history of, 351 ; 
 Church in, 354 ; peers of, 355 ; 
 progress of, 357 ; Civil War in, 
 362; description of, 363 
 Hwiccas, the, 257 
 
 Illiterate Parli ament, the, 30 3 
 Iona, missionaries from, 20 
 Irish missionaries, 21 
 Jacobite rebellion, the, 45 
 James I. in Lancashire, 172 
 Jeffreys, Judge, 270 
 Jews in York, 102 
 
I ndex 
 
 John of Gaunt, 1C8, 327 
 Katharine of Aragon, 345 
 Kenilworth, 296, 298, 307 
 Kidderminster, 253 
 Kimbolton, 359 
 Kingston-upon-Hull, 108 
 Knaresborough Castle, story of, 
 120 
 
 Kyrle, John, 289 
 Lakes, the, 160 
 
 Lancashire, history of, 163; 
 Romans in, 163; Britons in, 
 164 ; Danes in, 165 ; divisions 
 of, 166 ; Normans in, 166; Wars 
 of the Roses, 169 ; witches of, 
 171; prosperity of, 171 ; James 
 I. in, 172 ; Civil War in, 173; 
 Jacobites in, 175; development 
 in, 176 ; districts of, 179 
 Langland, 249 
 Layamon, 247 
 Lea, Rev. William, 335 
 Lead-mining, 236 
 Leeds, 125 
 
 Leicester, history of, 309; Church 
 in, 320, 323; Britons in, 322; 
 Normans in, 323 ; peers of, 325 ; 
 parliament at, 328 ; Wars of 
 the Roses, 329; progress of, 
 334 I present state of, 336 
 Leicester's Hospital, 305 
 Leprosy, 63 
 Levellers, the, 312 
 Lichfield, 212; cathedral of, 220 
 Lindisfarne, 51 
 Little Gidding, 361 
 Liverpool, 175 
 Llewelyn, 201 
 
 Lord’s Prayer, Guild of, 113 
 Lords Wardens, 32 
 Man of Ross, the, 289 
 Manchester, 175 
 Margaret, Queen, 35 
 Marston Moor, battle of, 120 
 Mary, Queen, imprisonment of, 
 142 
 
 Medeshamstead, 340 
 Mercians, 211 
 
 Monasteries, position of, 59 
 Montagu family, the, 362 
 Montague, Lord, 35 
 Mortimer family, the, 283 
 Morton, Bishop, 73 
 Moss-troopers, 144 
 Mowbray, Earl Robert, 27 
 Myton, Chapter of, 105 
 
 Naseby, battle of, 307, 348 
 Newcastle, 26 ; history of, 41 
 Newmarket, 379 
 Nigel, Bishop, 371 
 Norfolk, Duke of, 301 
 Northampton, history of, 337; 
 Church in, 338; Councils of, 
 342; trade of, 343 ; Civil War 
 in, 348 ; growth of, 349; present 
 state of, 350 
 
 Northumberland, history of, 18; 
 Christianity in, 20; ravages 
 
 of Danes in, 25 ; Normans in, 
 26; churches of, 28; wars in, 
 27; ruins in, 29; Wars of the 
 Roses, 35 ; trade in, 41; Jaco¬ 
 bites in, 45 ; farming in, 48 
 Northumberland, Earl of, his 
 household, 112 
 
 Odelensis, 198 
 Orderic, 198 
 Oswy, King, 90 
 Otterburn, battle of, 33 
 
 Parliament of Bats, 329 
 Paulinus, 88 
 Peak, The, 225 
 Pease, Mr. Edward, 81 
 Peel towers, 30 
 Penda, King, 211 
 Peplow, Rev. S., story of, 176 
 Percy, Lords, 34 
 Peterborough, 340 
 Pilgrimage of Grace, 67, 115 
 Polychronicou , the, 189 
 Pontefract, 96 
 Pope, on Man of Ross, 289 
 Potato-pot, 155 
 Pottery, manufacture of, 222 
 Provinces of Canterbury and 
 York, 90 
 
 Puiset, Hugh de, 62 
 Queen’s College, Oxford, 152 
 Railways, origin of, 47 
 Ramsey, 358 
 Ratae, 319 
 
 Red Hills, battle of, 65 
 Redwald, King, 87 
 Repton, 227 
 
 Richard, Son of Scrob, 276 
 Richmond, 96 
 Ridings, the, 93 
 Ripon, 97 
 
 Rising of the North, 116 
 j Robert of Eaglesfield, 152 
 Rockingham Castle, 341 
 Roman roads, 351 
 
 Schwartz, Martin, 169 
 Scots in Yorks, 100 
 I Scrobshire, 197 
 I Scrope, Archbishop, 108 
 j Shakespeare, 308 
 | Sheffield, 128 
 Shires, origin of, 50 
 Shrewsbury, history of, 196 
 Shrewsbury, Earl of, 231 
 Salt-mining, 188 
 
 Shropshire, history of, 195 ; 
 Romans in, 195; Britons in, 
 196 ; Danes in, 197 ; Normans 
 in, 198; barons in, 200; Civil 
 .War in, 207 ; prosperity of, 208 
 Sidney, Sir H., 206 
 Silk-weaving, 237 
 Simnel, Lambert, hi 
 S imon de Montfort, 325 
 Siward, Earl, 94 
 
 Stafford, history of, 212; the 
 Church in, 212 ; Danes in, 214 ; 
 Normans in, 215; barons in, 
 
 216 ; Wars of the Roses in, 217 ; 
 industries of, 218 ; Civil War in, 
 220 ; pottery of, 222 ; present 
 condition of, 224 
 Standard, battle of the, 101 
 Statesmen, 153 ; houses of, 155 
 Statute of Merchants, 203 
 Stephenson, George, 47 
 
 Tame, John, 265 
 Tewkesbury, 268 
 Thomas of Lancaster, 104 
 Thurstan, Archbishop of, 98 
 Tostig, Earl, 94 
 Townton, battle of, 109 
 Tutbury, Castle of, 219 
 
 Uhtred, Earl, 25 
 Uriconium, 195 
 Vermuyden, Cornelius, 378 
 Vision 0/ Piers the Plowman , 249 
 
 Wade, General, 46 
 Walcher, Earl, 26, 57 
 Wales, contests with, 201; marches 
 of, 205 
 
 Walker, Rev. Robert, 157 
 Warwick, history of, 290 ; Church 
 in, 296 ; barons in, 297 ^families 
 of, 300 ; Civil War in, 312; 
 progress in, 315 ; present state 
 
 0 f . 317 
 
 Warwick, Earl of, 299 
 Wedgwood, Josiah, 223 
 Wedmore, Peace of, 292 
 Westmoreland, history of, 149; 
 people of, 151 ; Great Rebellion 
 in, 154; life of people of, 154; 
 progress of, 158 ; the Lakes, 
 160 
 
 Whitby, 91 
 Wigmore, 286 
 William of St. Carilef, 58 
 William the. Lion, 28 
 Wolsey, Cardinal, 332 
 Wool trade, 123 
 
 Worcester, history of, 239; Danes 
 in, 241 ; Church in, 242 ; Nor¬ 
 mans in, 243 ; monasteries in, 
 250 ; progress of, 252; battle 
 of, 253 ; manufactures of, 254; 
 present state of, 255 
 Wordsworth, William, 161 
 Worsted, manufacture of, 123 
 Wroxeter, 195 
 Wulfstan, Bishop, 243 
 Wycliffe, 327 
 Wyke-on-the-Hill, 107 
 Yorkshire, history of,84; Romans 
 in, 84 ; English conquest of, 86 ; 
 province of, 90 ; Danes in, 92 ; 
 Normans in, 95; churches of, 
 96 ; Scots in, 100 ; city of, 102 ; 
 Jews in, 102 ; invasion of, 104 ; 
 barons in, 108 ; Wars of the 
 Roses, 109; guilds of, 1 13 ; dis¬ 
 solution of monasteries, 1x4; 
 rebellions, 115 ; Civil War in, 
 118; progress of, 122; mining 
 in, 128; scenery of, 129 
 
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STANDARD WORKS PUBLISHED BY 
 
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2 
 
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3 
 
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4 
 
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 3 mc«r, 
 
 
 
 
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 1 _ 
 
 
 
 
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 L. B. Cat. No. 1137