80 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



person of great talents and enterprise, through 

 whose influence Science has been greatly improved, 

 and the human mind expanded. Yet it is a place, 

 which from its relative situation, and other circum- 

 stances, should not be passed over in silence. Its 

 connexion with the Moors, on which are discovered 

 so many vestiges of ancient British Settlements, 

 Roman Camps, and Roman military ways, ren- 

 ders it important. The hoary head of Antiqui- 

 ty nods on the margin of it ; and its hints remove 

 the mists of time, and throw the imagination back 

 into ages, which had sunk into oblivion ; renewing 

 in idea past transactions, and suggesting the most 

 useful lessons ; enabling us to trace the progress of 

 Civilization, and to view with pleasure its beautify- 

 ing, fertilizing, and felicitating effects. 



Though this town is so near the Moors, which 

 present such a scene of sterility, the land which sur- 

 rounds it is extremely fruitful. The town is situated 

 on the northern boundary of the vale of Pickering, 

 on elevated ground, which gently descends into that 

 beautiful valley, and is one of a chain of towns and 

 villages, which extend from Helmsley to Seamer 

 near Scarborough : the higher ground, perhaps, 

 having induced the population to build on this belt 

 of limestone, beautiful for situation ; being of a 

 gradual descent, from which the eye is directed 

 across the low ground to the opposite hills ; which 



the limestone rock, supposed to hare been the remains of 

 bodies thrown iu there after a battle : the gill is 

 called the battle of lays, and the adjoining fields are cal- 

 led lay 



