The remains of the monastic buildings are inconsiderable and unimportant. The barn and granary still exist. The great gateway was pulled down in 1806.

The town has few features of interest in addition to the church. A handsome movable wooden bridge over the Ouse, affords a ready passage for vessels up and down the river. A Gothic market-cross, a well-endowed grammar school, founded by Edward VI., and several dissenting chapels, are among the chief erections.

In the VICINITY OF SELBY are Wressil Castle, and Howden.

Wressil Castle is less known and visited than it deserves.* It is near the Wressil station, which is six miles from Selby. The ruin, as it now stands, consists of only the fourth side of a great square castle, built by Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, in the days of Richard II. Three sides of the square were pulled down in 1650, by order of the Parliament, who seemed to have feared lest it might be seized for the king. Leland, who visited the castle about 1554, bas left a description of it. The following sentence contains the most interesting part his description:-" One thing I likid exceedingly; yn one of the toures ther was a study, caullid Paradise, wher was a closet in the middle of 8 squares latisid aboute, and at the toppe of every square was a deske ledgid to set bookes on cofers withyn them, and this semid as joined hard to the toppe of the closet, and yet by pulling, one or al wolde cum downe briste highte in rabettes, and serve for deskes to lay bookes on." Three of the apartments were adorned with poetical inscriptions, perhaps written by the celebrated Henry Algernon Percy, fifth Earl of Northumberland, a great lover of learning and learned men.

The part of the castle which still remains is the south front. It is flanked by two large square towers. This fine old ruin was used as a farm-house till an accidental but opportune conflagration turned it from that ignoble use by reducing it to a complete ruin. The towers can be ascended by a circular stone stair. Their summits command extensive views. The walls of this castle have suffered little or nothing from the ravages of time. The edges of the carvings and mouldings

The same remark is true of Hemingbrough Church, a view of which may be obtained from the railway, between the Cliff and Wressil stations. It has a lofty spire, beautifully tapered. The church is cruciform, and has three aisles. There are some interesting details in the architecture of this church both externally and internally. It was collegiate before the Reformation.

are scarcely less fresh than when they came from the hands of the workman.

Howden (INNS: Half Moon-Bed 1s., breakfast 1s. 6d., dinner 28., tea 1s.; Wellington; Bowman's Commercial. Population in 1851, 2235; inhabited houses, 497; is 8 miles from Selby by rail.)-Its Church is one of the noblest in Yorkshire. This beautiful Gothic structure belongs chiefly to the thirteenth century; but there are some fine additions of a later date. The eastern part is in ruins, and has a magnificent and venerable aspect. The western portion is in excellent repair, and used regularly for divine service. The church of Howden was originally a rectory parochial, in the patronage of the prior and convent of Durham. In 1267 it was made collegiate; the patrons ordaining that in this church there should be five prebends for ever, and each of them to maintain at his own proper costs a priest and clerk in holy orders, to administer in the same, in a canonical habit," etc. On the dissolution of the college, in the reign of Henry VIII., the revenues, which should have kept the church in repair, passed into private hands, and the fabric began soon to show symptoms of decay. An ineffectual attempt was made in 1591 to procure a grant of money for repairing the chancel. In 1630, the chancel being considered unsafe for the celebration of divine worship, the nave was repaired and fitted up for that purpose. The roof of the chancel fell in in 1696, since which period this part of the church has been in ruins.

The church is in the form of a cross, with a lofty square tower in the centre. The following are its principal dimensions:-Length of nave, 105 feet-breadth, 66; length of transept, 117-breadth, 30; length of choir, 120-breadth, 66; height of the tower, 135; total length of the church, 255 feet. The west front is extremely elegant. It consists of four divisions, made by buttresses terminating in crocketed finials. The buttresses on either side of the central elevation are panelled, and have niches containing statues, the one of a bishop, the other of a saint. A large window of four lights, divided by a transom, and containing much beautiful tracery, is the main feature of this front. This window is surmounted by a crocketed pediment rising to the roof. The entrance from this side is by an elegant pointed doorway under the centre of the great west window, the parts of the central division on either side of it being panelled with blank pointed arches. The north aisle has a window of three lights, with tracery corresponding in its general design with that of the central window. There are two south aisles; the window of

the one nearest the nave being the same as that of the north aisle, while the other has a depressed arched window of three lights. The south side of the church is no less worthy of an attentive examination; but there is not space for a detailed account of it. The parapet of the nave has some beautiful carving, consisting of human heads, foliage, monsters, etc. The pointed windows of three lights are different from each other, but correspond with those on the opposite side of the nave. The windows of the south transept contain elegant tracery. A small chapel is attached to its east side. The ruins of the chancel are by no means the least interesting part of the structure. The great east window has lost its tracery; but, if it has been at all in keeping with the architectural details still uninjured, it must have been of exquisite beauty. Adjoining the choir, on the south side, is the chapterhouse, an elegant octagonal building, resembling the chapterhouse of York, erected about the middle of the fourteenth century. It was surmounted by an elegant octagonal stone spire, which fell in and reduced it to a ruin in 1750. The north side of the church does not require to be described, being similar to the south side. The tower is plain, but tasteful, with no architectural features requiring to be noticed.*

The interior of the church is no less worthy of examination than the exterior. Six pointed arches, resting on clustered columns with octagonal capitals, divide the nave from the aisles. The arch between the nave and choir is filled up, and has an altar-piece between its bows. There are several interesting sepulchral monuments of great antiquity. The most splendid is an altar-tomb, in a chapel adjoining the south transept, bearing the effigies of a crusader and his lady, beneath a beautiful canopy. The warrior is without his helmet, and has a shield on his arm bearing the arms of Metham. In the same chapel is the altar-shaped monument of another crusader, with his recumbent figure. His shield bears the arms of Saltmarsh. At the south-east pier of the transept is an altar-monument, with shields of arms on the dado. Behind this monument is the full-length figure of an ecclesiastic, with his right hand in the attitude of benediction.

It has been playfully remarked, on the authority of Camden and the "Book of Durham," that this tower was built with the same view as that of Babel! The town occupies a low situation, and is subject to inundations from the Ouse and the Derwent. One of the county historians takes the trouble to show that, to guard against any possible inundation, it was quite unnecessary to erect a tower 135 feet high !

In the ruined choir may be seen some stone coffins, found here in 1785, on the removal of the ruins of the roof. The chapter-house is entered from the choir by a splendid arch, and a passage of much beauty. This is generally regarded as the most interesting part of the building. It is octagonal, like the chapter-house at York, as has been already said, but it is greatly inferior in dimensions. It contains thirty seats, the exquisitely delicate and beautiful sculpture of which is much admired. Seven sides of the building have large windows of three lights, with fine tracery. The entrance from the church is on the eighth side; and the space above the door, corresponding with the other windows, is occupied with niches for statues, beautifully canopied with tabernacle work. The springings of the vaulted roof, which fell in 1750, still remain. Hutchinson, in his "History of Durham," pronounces this chapter-house the most perfect example of pointed architecture in England, remarking that it may justly vie even with Melrose Abbey with its elegant work in stone-opinions in which few antiquaries or tourists will coincide.

Adjoining the church, on the south side, are the remains of the ancient palace of the bishops of Durham. Several eminent bishops died here.

BRADFORD.*

BRADFORD, one of the most important manufacturing towns in Yorkshire, is finely situated at the union of three extensive valleys. The name, according to antiquarians, is derived from a broad ford over the small stream, a tributary of the Aire, on which it is situated. The town does not seem to have been of any note in ancient times, though the name occurs in some old records. In the civil wars in the time of Charles I., Bradford sided with the Parliament, and twice repulsed a large body of the king's troops from the garrison of Leeds. It was afterwards taken by the Earl of Newcastle. In 1812 occurred the disturbances of the "Luddites," which resulted in the destruction of the newly-introduced machinery in several mills, and in the conviction and execution of seventeen of the rioters. A strike of ten months' duration occurred in 1825, and was productive of the usual unhappy effects. Since that date the history of Bradford has been one of industry and prosperity, with occasional but not frequent periods of commercial depression.

The town, which is built of stone, contains many very handsome public and private buildings. The PARISH CHURCH, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is in the perpendicular style. The body of the edifice belongs to the time of Henry VI., but the tower is of a later date. The interior contains many monuments, among which may be mentioned one to Abraham Sharpe, a celebrated mathematician, who died in 1742. A very beautiful monument by Flaxman, cannot fail to attract the notice of the visitor. It is to a gentleman named Balme, and bears a very fine personification of old age. There are several other churches of handsome construction, but they are modern, and do not call for special mention. There are numerous dissenting chapels.

ST. GEORGE'S HALL was completed in 1853, at a cost of £13,000. This imposing building is in every way

HOTELS.-Talbot, John Lupton-Bed 1s. 6d. to 2s., breakfast 1s. 6d. to 2s., dinner 2s. to 3s. 6d., tea 1s. 6d. George, Commercial.

Population in 1851, 103,778. Inhabited houses, 19,002. Two Members of Parliament.

From Leeds, 13 miles; from London, 2193.