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RIPON, FOUNTAINS AND DURHAM. 227 
converted into a collegiate church, and finally made the 
cathedral of the diocese. This Wilfred, whose monastery 
and churches far excelled any previously built in England, 
lived in sumptuous style, refused to be consecrated by 
English bishops, and was eventually deposed and banished. 
He was, however, afterwards restored to his former dignity, 
and this event is annually commemorated on the first 
Saturday in August. The first governors of the town 
were called ** Wakemen” from the Saxon word ‘wach ”— 
to watch and guard—and this word still continues in the 
municipal work of the town. Upon the suppression of 
Fountains Abbey in 1539, the welfare of the town was 
seriously affected, and then the manufacture of spurs and 
rowels sprung up, and gave the city a world wide reputa- 
tion, insomuch that a spur was adopted as the crest of the 
town arms. Its prosperity, however, dwindled until the 
18th century, but the reconstruction of the diocese in 1836 
caused a revival, and now the population is double what it 
was in 1801. There are some curious old customs still 
extant in this peculiarly old fashioned city, but the limits 
of this extract do not permit of further reference. 
The cathedral has been restored within the last thirty 
years. Why the celebrated architect who was responsible 
for this work did not restore the old features instead of 
destroying them is a matter of regret. I have been enabled 
to obtain some old photographs of the west front, in which 
there is positive evidence that he converted the two light 
windows into lancets, besides other doubtful improvements. 
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the cathedral is the 
unfinished central tower, as seen from the interior. The 
spire of this tower, which was 120 ft. high, fell in 1660, 
having been struck by lightning seven years previously, 
and destroyed the greater portion of the choir. The walls 
of the nave had also been blown down, and the church 
was practically a heap of ruins. A royal edict of Charles I] 
