URE. 73 



YORK. 



We have now arrived at a city still one of the most interesting 

 in England, and whose memorials go back into remote an- 

 tiquity : 



fuit Ilium et ingens 



Gloria .... 



For York was once the imperial city, the 'altera Roma' of 

 Britain, the stronghold of war for twice the period which has 

 elapsed since the Norman Conquest. Innumerable battle-plains 

 surround her Roman camp, and from her walls we may see the 

 three decisive fields where Hardrada fell at Stamford Brig, and 

 Clifford died in Towton Dale, and Rupert fled from Marston 

 Moor. Sixteen centuries of historical renown dignify the wind- 

 ing streets and narrow pavements by which we reach the feudal 

 walls, the Benedictine abbey, the Northumbrian church, the 

 camp of the " victorious legion." 



York, though no longer enriched by commerce and dignified 

 by meetings of parliament, retains the Gothic halls in which 

 princes, and merchants not less powerful than princes, once did 

 congregate; of its fifty churches half remain, and it possesses 

 the Minster, the centre of the broad lands and rivers of York- 

 shire. This vast and wonderful structure the great cathedral 

 of Northumbrian Britain rises from the centre of the Roman 

 camp, perhaps over the demolished shrine of Bellona, or Isis, or 

 Serapis, amidst three millions of Saxons, Jutes, and Northmen, 

 speaking various dialects and following dissimilar occupations, 

 a bond of union amidst jarring creeds and warring opinions, 

 memorial of the past, index to the more glorious future. 



The changes which York has experienced in the course of the 

 present century have not effaced, but have much impaired its 

 antique and singular character. The ramparts reared over Saxon 

 walls and Roman villas open to admit Stevenson and his chariots, 



