The tourist may pause here for a moment to mark the more prominent features in the scene before him. Tanfield Church, near at hand, is the burial-place of the Marmions and Fitzhughs. In the distance, eastward, are the Hambleton Hills, with the town of Thirsk at their foot. To the left is Northallerton, with its memories of the Battle of the Standard; and, away far beyond, is the summit of Roseberry Topping. Gilpin remarks of the view obtained from this point,-"Here Nature hath wrought with her broadest pencil; the parts are ample; the composition perfectly correct; I scarcely remember in any other place an extensive view so full of beauties and so free from faults."

MASHAM* may be visited by continuing the excursion to Hackfall, about three miles further. It is about 10 miles from Ripon, and 6 from Bedale. The only edifice which will interest the tourist in this picturesque town is the church. This fine structure possesses a beautiful spire, which forms a very prominent object in a distant view of the town. Ecclesiologists will admire the Norman doorway at the west end of the church. This fine arch does not seem to have attracted the attention which it deserves. The principal monument in the interior is that of Sir Marmaduke Wyvill. In the churchyard there is a singular sculptured cylindrical stone, which may have been the base of a cross.

Masham gave a title to a branch of the family of Scroop. Henry, Lord Scroop, the friend and counsellor of Henry V. who was executed for treason in 1415, is the most celebrated member of this branch of the family. Shakspere has immortalized his offence and his fate in " 'King Henry V." The Duke of Exeter, in arresting him, says "I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry, Lord Scroop of Masham." Shakspere represents King Henry as reproaching him thus, on the same occasion:

"What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop; thou cruel,
Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature!

Thou, that didst bear the key of all my counsels,

That knewst the very bottom of

my soul,

That almost mightst have coined me into gold,
Wouldst thou have practised on me for thy use?
May it be possible, that foreign hire

Could out of thee extract one spark of evil,
That might annoy my finger ? Tis so strange,
That, though the truth of it stands off as gross
As black from white, my eye will scarcely see it.

* INNS: George and Dragon, Bay Horse, King's Head.

O, how hast thou with jealousy infected

The sweetness of affiance! Shew men dutiful?
Why, so didst thou: seem they grave and learned?
Why, so didst thou: come they of noble family?
Why, so didst thou: seem they religious?
Why, so didst thou: or, are they spare in diet;
Free from gross passion, or of mirth or anger;
Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood;
Garnished and decked in modest complement;
Not working with the eye, without the ear,
And, but in purged judgment, trusting neither?
Such, and so finely bolted, didst thou seem.
And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot,
To mark the full-fraught man, and best endued,
With some suspicion. I will weep for thee;
For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like

Another fall of man."-King Henry V., Act ii., Scene 2.

WENSLEYDALE.*

JERVAUX ABBEY-MIDDLEHAM CASTLE-COVERHAM ABBEY— LEYBURN-WENSLEY-BOLTON CASTLE-AYSGARTH FORCE -ASKRIGG-BAINBRIDGE-HAWES-HARDRAW FORCE.

Wensleydale is the name given to the dale traversed by the Ure, from its source on the western boundary of the country to Jervaux Abbey, where it enters into the great vale of York. Like the other dales of Yorkshire, it presents in its different parts scenery of the most varied description. Some of the views which will reward the tourist who explores this dale are probably unsurpassed in the county. Proceeding from the point which has been already reached in the survey of the county, the first place deserving of notice is

JERVAUX ABBEY. These ruins are 5 miles from Masham, 3 from Middleham, and 7 from Bedale. The Abbey can be pretty well seen from the road; but the tourist who contents himself with a mere distant and passing view of this fine ruin, will lose a great pleasure. These remains, though not extensive, are interesting. In addition to the fragments of walls which still rise in picturesque masses, festooned with

* During the summer a coach runs daily between Ripon and Middleham, affording a cheap and pleasant transit for the tourist who approaches Wensleydale from the south, or leaves it in that direction. Wensleydale may also be conveniently entered by the railway from Dalton Junction to Bedale and Leyburn.

ivy, the foundations of the whole of the abbey buildings, excavated in 1805 by the Marquis of Ailesbury, may be examined.

The abbey was founded in 1156 by Conan, fifth Earl of Richmond, for Cistercian monks. Succeeding earls added to its endowments; and at the dissolution the gross annual revenue was £455:10:5. The last of the abbots of this house was executed at Tyburn, for having taken part in the Pilgrimage of Grace. The reader of Scott will scarcely need to be reminded that Prior Aymer of Jorvaulx (as Sir Walter prefers to spell it) is an important personage in Ivanhoe.

The abbey church and conventual buildings can be distinguished with the utmost correctness. The church is 270 feet long. On its floors there are many tombstones, with their inscriptions still legible. Here also is the mutilated effigy of Lord Fitzhugh, who died in 1424. Adjoining the nave, on its south side, was the quadrangular, or cloister court. On the west side of this court was a range of cloisters, with the dormitory above; and on its east side the chapter-house and refectory. The chapter-house adjoins the south transept. It is a noble apartment, 48 feet by 35, and still displays the hexagonal columns of grey marble which supported the groined roof, and the stone benches on which the members of the chapter sat. Here the abbots were buried; and the tomb-stones of several of them may be seen. The remains of the refectory, also, are very interesting; the walls are somewhat higher than those of any other part of the abbey, and the late Norman and early English styles can be very distinctly noticed in its architecture. The kitchen, of course, immediately adjoins the refectory; and its huge fireplaces, the freestone of which still shews the effect of intense heat, sufficiently prove that the monks of Jervaux were not indifferent to the pleasures of the table. Beyond the kitchen and adjoining apartments, is the site of the abbot's house.

The grounds surrounding Jervaux Abbey are well kept, being planted with shrubs and flowers, and laid out with walks. The spot, altogether, is very attractive.

Proceeding up the dale for about a mile, the village of East Wilton, with its handsome modern church, is passed. Two miles more bring the tourist to

MIDDLEHAM CASTLE. The small town of Middleham is prominently situated on the slope on the south side * INNS-Nicholson's Commercial; Green Dragon; Swale's Old Commercial; Black Bull.

of the Ure, from which it is distant about half a mile. The great object of attraction here is

The Castle, which occupies a commanding position above the town. It was founded soon after the Conquest by Robert Fitz-Ranulph, grandson of Ribald, one of the followers of William. In the thirteenth century the castle and lands of Middleham came by marriage into the family of Neville. This celebrated family acted an important part in public affairs in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Ralph Neville, a younger brother of the Lord of Middleham, was the hero of the battle of Neville's Cross, in 1346. John, Lord Neville, who died in 1388, highly distinguished himself in Scotland, France, and Turkey. Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, who succeeded him, and greatly enlarged the castle, was the betrayer of Archbishop Scroop and his principal supporters in 1405. He persuaded them to disband the forces they had raised to enforce their petition for the "reformation of abuses," by promising that their demands would be complied with; but no sooner had they done so than they were seized and executed. This Earl of Westmoreland is a prominent character in Shakspere's "King Henry IV." But the most celebrated of the owners of Middleham was Richard

Neville, Earl of Warwick, "the setter up up and plucker down of kings." Here the great "king-maker" frequently had for his guest Edward IV., for whom he afterwards contracted such a deadly enmity as to espouse the cause of Henry VI., whom he had himself been the means of deposing.* After the death of Warwick, on the field of Barnet in 1471, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III., who married Warwick's youngest daughter, came into the possession of Middleham. Richard appears to have often resided here; and it was in this castle that his only son was born, in 1473. From this period little is recorded regarding the history of the castle till the year 1646, when it was rendered untenable by order of the Parliament.

The appearance of the castle from a distance is picturesque, but it is only when the visitor stands among the ruins that he can obtain an adequate idea of the extent and importance of this desolate but still imposing pile. The castle is in the form of a quadrangle of 210 feet by 175, with towers at the angles. The arch of the entrance gateway is very perfect. The central part of the castle is the original structure of Fitz

* Few tourists will require to be reminded that some of the finest scenes in Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton's romance, "The Last of the Barons," are laid here.