74 RIVERS. 



alike impressed with the stamp of the latest iron age ; railway 

 stations replace the abbeys and hospitals which sheltered within 

 the walls ; the castle is transformed to a jail ; the Gothic bridge 

 is gone ; the very river has lost the tide ; and we can hardly 

 trace the ford or ferry by which the soldiers passed from the 

 camp of Eburacum to enjoy the baths on the road to Calcaria. 



But nature still endures; and many of the monuments of 

 other days remain. From the summit of Clifford's, which re- 

 placed Earl WaltheoPs, Tower, we trace the woody vale across 

 which, in earlier times, the Cohorts marched to Derventio. The 

 road remains which conducted Hardrada to a bloody grave, and 

 Edward IV. to a troubled crown ; and, over all, more durable and 

 unchangeable than Norman tower or Roman road, the smooth 

 and shadowy wold, crowned by the burial-mounds of Brigantian 

 chiefs, rises calm and cold as in primaeval times. 



Much wider is the prospect from the great tower of the Min- 

 ster, elevated 200 feet above its floor, and 254 feet above the 

 sea. This altitude, moderate for so great a building, is sufficient, 

 in this level region, to procure for the spectator a magnificent 

 panorama. Standing on this basis, far above any fixed object of 

 nature or art, in the whole course of the great vale which extends 

 from Durham into Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, we trace 

 the main features of Yorkshire topography, and scarcely need the 

 additional elevation reached by the tiny manufacturer of the 

 gossamer* which is floating over our heads, to have a bird's-eye, 

 or rather a spider's eight-eye view of the hills and woods and 

 waters most celebrated in our provincial history. 



York has had full justice from local historians of ability, 

 Drake, Wellbeioved, and Davies, not to mention a crowd of more 

 humble writers. Mr. Wellbeioved has lately augmented his 

 claim to the enduring gratitude of the Yorkshire Philosophical 

 Society, by a clear and well-arranged description of their nume- 

 rous antiquarian treasures, which include baths, tombs, altars, 

 inscriptions, urns, tiles, coins, bronzes, glass, enamels, beads, and 

 * Dr. Lister's observation of the aeronautic spiders is here alluded to. 



