CHAPTER II. 



THE SECOND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. 



" Few places possess the same antiquarian attractions as Helmsley 

 in Ryedale, for it is the centre of all that is beautiful as well as inter- 

 esting. The fostering care of the Feversham family has preserved to 

 us its many objects of delight." — " Ryedale and North Yorkshire 

 Antiquities." 



No one who has visited Helmsley can help but have been 

 impressed, be they possessed of never so little poetry in that 

 soul of souls — that indescribable inner self — which must be 

 touched ere the best comes out of us and ere we grasp the 

 fullest and best purpose of such a visit. It is really only the 

 intelligent man or woman who can seize the most erudition 

 from such an excursion, the man who can picture in his 

 mind's eye the quaint old market town two or three centuries 

 ago, and follow it down in its evolution and story through the 

 succeeding ages, calling to mind not only the various stages 

 of that evolution, but also the events of more than local 

 interest and importance, which have punctuated it all along 

 the line. 



We must travel back even further than that interesting 

 period when " To and fro went our forefathers in the quiet, 

 quaint, narrow streets, or worked at some handicraft in their 

 houses, or exposed their goods round the market cross. 

 And in these old streets and houses, in the town mead and 

 market place, amid the murmur of the mill beside the stream, 

 and the nctes of the bell that sounded its summons to the 

 crowded assembly of the town-mote, and merchant guild and 

 craft, was steadily growing up that sturdy industrial life that 

 silently and surely was building up the slow structure of 

 England's wealth and freedom." This period had its own 

 lore and legend, but we must probe even further back into 

 the essentially interesting history of this the birthplace of 

 foxhunting as a regular and important pastime. 



