70 CAMDEN ON RTEDALE. 



the confessor, Harold, the second son of Goodwin, 

 Earl of Kent, seized the British throne, and was 

 crowned at Oxford; but William Duke of Normandy 

 claimed it as being 1 , it is said, promised him by 

 Ed ward the confessor, made a descent upon the coast 

 of Sussex, and engaged Harold near Hastings, who 

 was killed on the spot, and his army routed Oct. 

 14th, 1066, which introduces the race of the Nor- 

 man Kings. 



^,^ 



CAMDEN ON RYEDALE. 



As MANY places treated of in this volume are in 

 the Wapentake of Ryedale, before I proceed to 

 the history of them, itmay be interesting to some 

 of my readers, to have the account given of it by 

 Camden in the reign of Elizabeth. 



After having named other things, Camden says 

 farther on among Blaekmoor hills, we find nothing 

 remarkable but winding streams and rapid brooks, 

 which occupy the valleys themselves ; except Pick- 

 ering, a considerable Town belonging to the duchy 

 of Lancaster, situate on a hill, and defended by an 

 old castle, on which many of the surrounding villages 

 depend ; whence the adjacent country is commonly 

 called Pickering Lyth, Pickering liberty, and 

 Pickering forest; which King Henry 1 1 1. granted to 

 his younger son, Edmund Earl of Lancaster. In this 

 tract on the Derwent is Ay ton, which gave name to 

 the famous knightly family of Atton, descended from 

 ttoe Lords Vescy, whose estate was divided bjr 



