86 RIVERS. 



By the Old Tower at Ayton the Derwent leaves the beautiful 

 valleys of Hackness, and enters the expanse of the Vale of 

 Pickering. 



In this vale the river runs westward, between the northern 

 oolitic hills and the southern chalk wolds ; each of these ranges 

 having at its foot a long series of ancient villages, on a line of 

 ancient (not Roman) road. In each case the facility of obtain- 

 ing spring^ water, and the proximity of high ground fit for sheep 

 pasture may be regarded as determining the sites of population 

 in very early periods probably pre-Roman as on the range of 

 the Cliff Hill in Lincolnshire, and below the Chalk Downs of 

 Surrey and Sussex, Wiltshire and Berkshire. Beyond these 

 villages, on higher lands to the north, and again similarly to the 

 south, camps and earthworks abound, some British, some Roman, 

 others Saxon the same physical conditions having continued 

 through successive periods, the same local centres of population, 

 and similar military arrangements. 



Among these may be mentioned the Cawthorn Camps, on the 

 ancient road from the ' Street ' near Malton to ' Dunum Sinus ' 

 at or near Whitby, which were probably constructed by the 

 9th Legion (see Plans of Camps); the Scamridge Dikes, north 

 of Ebberston, the work of a ruder people ; Obtrush Roque, north 

 of Kirkby Moorside, with a multitude of other tumuli on the hills; 

 and the old British village of Cloughton, near Scarborough. 



At Wykeham remains part of a priory of Cistercian nuns. 



THE RYE. 



On approaching Malton, one considerable stream enters the 

 Derwent from the west, under the name of Rye (Brit. Rhe, 

 swift). The origin of this river is on the edge of the moorland 

 hills of Cleveland, west of Burton Head, whence it flows down 

 Bilsdale, and, receiving a branch from Snilesworth Dale, enlivens 

 the grounds of Rievaulx Abbey, and then, turning round to 

 Helmsley, enters the Vale of Pickering. Bilsdale has some 

 features of grandeur, and the pass out of it at the head gives a 



