URE. 57 



dale, Auld Gang, Fremington Edge, Marrick Abbey, &c. ; Rich- 

 mond ; Catterick Bridge ; Leeming ; Topcliffe. 



THE URE. 



WENSLEYDALE, one of the finest of the Yorkshire dales, 

 lies in a direction from west to east. It is connected at the 

 upper or western extremity by one long branch (Cotterdale) 

 with Mallerstang, a wild glen, the origin of the Vale of Eden, 

 and with Garsdale; by another (Widdale) it approximates to 

 the sources of Dentdale and Ribblesdale. These facilities for 

 railway lines are, however, accompanied by so extremely scanty 

 a population, and lie amidst such unproductive moorlands, 

 that the deep solitudes of Hellgill and Mallerstang are not 

 likely to be broken by the steam-whistle. "On the side of 

 the country next to Lancashire is such a dreary waste and 

 horrid silent wilderness among the mountains, that certain little 

 rivulets that creep here are called by the neighbourhood ' Hell 

 becks/ q.d. rivers or streams of hell, and especially that at the 

 head of lire, which runs under a bridge of a single rock in so 

 deep a channel as to strike beholders with horror. In this part 

 the goats, .deer and stags of extraordinary size, with branching 

 horns, find a secure retreat/' Camden. 



The many torrents collected from the sides of Shunnor Fell, 

 Widdale Fell, and Dod Fell, unite into a considerable volume 

 before reaching Hawes, a small town conveniently situated for 

 the tourist, at the head of Wensleydale ; from whence elevated 

 passes over narrow tracts of land* lead to Muker in Swaledale, 

 Edendale, Garsdale, Dentdale and Ribblesdale. By selecting good 

 points of view near Hawes, the inequality of ground occasioned by 

 the many branching glens and prominent hills which divide them 

 may be thrown into picturesque groups, and with the advantage 

 of a sweetly diversified and active river in front. There is little 

 of wood in this part of the dale, though the elevation of Hawes 



* I suppose Hawes t'hawes, as it is called by the natives is equivalent 

 to Hals, a neck (of land). So Hawes in Coverdale. 



