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About Borkshire.

VIII.-YORK AND SELBY.

So much has been written about York and its Minster that any attempt at describing either must sound like a repetition, and in a small space it is impossible to give more than a very incomplete notice of what is perhaps the most interesting of English country

towns.

Doubtless York was a British settlement before Agricola landed and fortified it, and probably this settlement was, like the Roman Eboracum, on the left bank of the Ouse. Medieval York, as marked out by its walls, lay on both banks of the river, reaching east as far as the Foss, which now fills up the gap between the curious old Red Tower and another old tower near St. Anthony's Hospital.

York is indeed a very quaint old city. Since the Humber has retreated from it, it is no longer a trading seaport; but it seems full of a quiet life of its own, and has a refined, well-to-do, leisurely aspect, in harmony with the fund of interest it offers to those who care for the picturesque, for antiquity, or for historic associations.

Its narrow streets or gates, and the ancient houses still left in them, are full of attraction, and here and there one gets grand views of the Minster towers. It is curious to find the streets called 'gates,' and the gates 'bars.' These last are of early date, though parts of them have been restored; but Walmgate Bar alone retains its barbican. It was on one of these gates that

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Edward IV. saw whitening his father's head and quartered limbs. The Bars, with the city wall between, form the most distinctive features of York, and it is possible to walk some distance round the walls, from which there are fine views of the Minster towers. A stroll about York at sunset gives the traveller a very impressive idea of the city; the views from the bridges are especially good.

It was sunset when we reached the little bridge over the Foss, and the old castle stood out in solid blackness against the copperred sky behind it. But from Lendal Bridge the sluggish Ouse forins an unpoetic foreground to the interesting view; not worse, perhaps, than the yellow Pegnitz at Nuremberg. The Ouse is a great contrast to its parents, the brilliant Yore and the clear and beautiful Swale; it is a most unworthy offspring; and perhaps it is for this cause that its name has been changed, as some writers assert that the present name York has its origin in the Jorvik of the early Danish settlers. So that Yore was probably the name then borne by the river, which rises near Westmoreland, and dances merrily through Wensleydale, receiving the Swale near Boroughbridge, then changes its name and its nature as it approaches York.

Leland says that the ancient name of the city was Isure-wic, then Yure-wic, and so York. At different times, under different masters, York has been called Eboracum, Civitas Brigantium, Kaer-Ebrave, Caer Effroc, Evervic, Ceaster, Isvronicvum, AlteraRoma, Victoria Sexta, Civitas Eboracum, Yure-wic, Yorke, York. It is said to have been the birthplace of Lucius, king of Britain, the first royal personage who became a Christian. The emperor Hadrian resided in York in the second century, and Constantius, father of Constantine the Great, who died here in 307, is said to have been buried in the Church of St. Helen's on the walls, which existed before the Reformation. In the church was a vase supposed to hold his ashes.

King Arthur is said to have kept Christmas at York in 524, the first Christmas ever celebrated in Britain. York paid an early tribute of suffering and spoil to the Danes, and Guthrum-gate is doubtless named from Guthrum, a Danish officer, once deputy governor of the city. But the Danes were not so ruthless as the Normans were under Duke William. At first he left York and the North in peace, but in about a year from the battle of Hastings he marched northwards, conquering wherever he showed his bold, crafty face. York submitted, and William built a castle there and filled it with a Norman garrison. Then came King Sweyn sailing up the Humber, and the men of Northumbria in their folly thought that the brute force of the Vikings would end William's

rule. They joined in a general massacre of the Normans, who in their terror set fire to the city, and burned it and the Saxon minster.

Then William came in great haste, and so laid waste the whole north country as far as the Tweed that for years it remained a desert. The Norman archbishop rebuilt the minster, and in something less than a hundred years York must have regained its position as a place of importance, for the first Parliament on record was held at York by Henry II., his great-grandson.

In Ivanhoe' Sir Walter Scott has illustrated the ill-treatment of the Jews of York during the twelfth century, and the persecuted race has left enduring memories in the names Jewsbury, the site of the Jewish cemetery, and Jubbergate. In Jubbergate they had splendid houses, and lived under the royal protection of both Henry II. and his son Richard I. As soon, however, as Richard I. sailed for the Holy Land, the citizens of York, following the lead of the rest of England, began the celebrated persecution, and massacred all the Jews they could find. A large number fled to the castle with their gold. Then came the siege of the castle, and the determination of the Jews to perish when they found they could no longer defend themselves. They set fire to the castle, and then, first killing their wives and children, they stabbed one another dead. There were some cowards among them, and at daybreak these offered to open the gates, provided their lives were spared; but they were all put to death. Richard seems to have ordered an inquiry to be made, but no serious punishment was inflicted on the murderous people of York for their fiendish cruelty. Punishment came in the loss of commerce, which, unsupported by money lent by the Jews, dwindled away.

York is not a tiring town to see, though it is rather up and down, and some of the round paving-stones in the older streets remind one of a foreign city; it is small and compact, and it has a most perfect resting-place for tired travellers-the new Station Hotel, where comfort and good management in all ways are united with moderate charges.

Going up from this point we crossed Lendal bridge, and then, attracted by the view of ruins on the left, we passed into the grounds of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. On the right are the ruins of St. Leonard's Hospital, a very ancient and interesting old building, said to have been founded by King Athelstan. Beyond this we came to a still older ruin, the Multangular tower, containing Roman work. Farther on is the Museum, and in the entrance-hall on the right is a large stone sarcophagus, recording a touching story. Camden, at the close of the sixteenth century, speaks of having seen an ancient inscription in York, the transla