viii PREFACE. 



wandering by the waterfalls, a week's ramble over rocky 

 hills. Valuable works, indeed, there are of Local Topo- 

 graphy and Antiquities, but not much of a general cha- 

 racter, to plead with the Residents of the County for a 

 better knowledge of its natural beauties, and the memo- 

 rials of its old inhabitants. 



There is, indeed, a large harvest to reap, and much 

 inducement to gather it. The Physical Geography and 

 Scenery of the County have been too little considered ; 

 the various elements of Climate which reign on its long 

 line of romantic coast, its broad fertile valleys, and ranges 

 of barren mountains, but little inferior to their neigh- 

 bours in Cumberland, have not been recorded ; the vast 

 spaces of new land which Art and Nature have conquered 

 from the sea, have yielded more rents than reflections ; 

 the roads and camps of the Romans, and the earlier 

 sites of Brigantian tribes, are travelled over with little 

 thought of the ages to which they belong. 



With the hope of supplying some of these desiderata, 

 of inciting Residents to study, and visitors to explore, this 

 magnificent County, I venture to add this volume of 

 general description to those larger works on the Geology 

 of Yorkshire, for the indulgent reception of which the 

 Author is profoundly grateful. 



St. Mary's Lodge, York, 

 1 November 1852. 



