226 
Ripon, Fountains and Durbam. 
By R. CHURCHILL. 
Read before the Society Jannary 23rd, 1896. 
[CONDENSED. | 
RIPON. 
ua inhabitants of the city are pleased to call it 
‘«« Historic Ripon,” and it would appear that the fact 
of its being built on the banks of a river suggested, in this 
very particular instance, its name, as the latin word “ipa” 
signified that position. Not that it was, or is, at all 
singular to build towns on the banks of a river, but here 
we have the distinct fact conveyed by its name. In Anglo- 
Saxon times we find it spelt HRYPPUN and HRYPON, 
and after that,'RIPUM and RYPON;; still later, and in 
fact, until quite recently, RIPPON, and now RIPON. 
The word being latin, it indicates a Roman origin, and 
within a distance of seven miles lies the ‘Iseur” of the 
Brigantes, the ‘“ Isurium” of the Romans, or the ‘“ Bure” 
of the Saxons, now known as Aldborough. There are also, 
within a mile, traditional primitive dwellings of the ancient 
Britons and evidences of the Druids. 
For several centuries its monasteries, churches, schools, 
and hospitals, practically constituted the town, but in the 
year 660, Eata the Abbot and other monks founded the 
«“Scots’ Monastery’’—supplanted by Wilfred’s basilica— 
superseded by a convent of Augustinian canons, afterwards 
