DERWENT. 91 



such water, peat, marls and clays. Such deposits lie very widely 

 in the Vale of Pickering, and teach us that at least much of its 

 surface was inundated if indeed the whole were not, for its 

 general aspect suggests a great inland lake. 



It is very conceivable that such a lake might exist, whether it 

 discharged itself into the sea in an easterly direction, or drained 

 away through the rocks at Malton, and that at some later time 

 a practicable channel was opened at Malton, and the lake was 

 gradually and partially drained, the vale being still subject to 

 frequent inundation from the river. 



The making of such a channel in the limestone at Malton by 

 the river action is not inconceivable, if we remember the frequent 

 subterranean courses of the rivers on the north side of the vale. 

 Time might convert such concealed caverns into open passages, 

 and lower greatly the level of the water in the vale. Before 

 such change of level, Kirkdale Cave may have been at the edge 

 of a lake, and in this respect may have agreed with a great 

 number of other ossiferous caverns which are on record. 



All things fairly weighed, no river in Yorkshire surpasses the 

 Derwent in archaeological interest. A few miles below Malton, 

 it sweeps by the fragments of beautiful Kirkham (12th century), 

 whose gateway, the latest piece of the priory, is nearly complete. 

 The other parts of the fabric are romantically pleasing. Much 

 laud to Walter I/Espec, the founder ! At Westow in this vici- 

 nity, an earthen pot full of many bronze tools, as chisels, gouges, 

 and celts, was found, and presented to the Yorkshire Museum. 

 Aldby, placed on a bank above the river, and on the line of the 

 old road from York to Malton (a Roman road or a British track), 

 was the site of a Saxon palace. 



Stamford Brig, two miles below Aldby, is the place to which 

 the royal Northman is said to have retired to council after his 

 victory at Fulford, and from which he set forth to a more dis- 

 astrous battle ; and on the wooden brig, which then crossed 

 Derwent a little above the place of the present arch, his cham- 

 pion fought right well. An annual boat-like cake is the village 



