xvi _ Introduction. 



Scaresdale, Halomshyre, and so northewarde towarde Yorke 

 and Ryppon." Now Scarsdale is one of the six " hundreds " 

 of Derbyshire, and includes the country about Dronfield and 

 Chesterfield ; whilst Hallamshire is a name given to a part of 

 Yorkshire lying round and including Sheffield. We hence 

 fairly deduce the inference that the author lived on the western 

 side of Derbyshire, in the neighbourhood of Ashborne, so that 

 he looked upon Chesterfield as lying on the farther side of 

 the country, and at the same time northward, which is 

 precisely the fact. We are thus led to locate the author in 

 the very neighbourhood of Sir Anthony Fitzherbert's home. 



Again, at p. 65, he says that if he were to say too much 

 about the faults of horses, he would break the promise that 

 he made " at Grombalde brydge," the first time that he went 

 to Ripon to buy colts. After some search as to the place 

 here intended, I found, in Allen's History of Yorkshire, that 

 one of the bridges over the Nidd near Knaresborough is called 

 " Grimbald bridge ; " ^ and, seeing that Knaresborough is 

 exactly due south of Ripon, it follows that the author came 

 from the south of Knaresborough. We seem, in fact, to trace 

 the general direction of his first ride to Ripon, viz. from his 

 home to the farther side of Derbyshire, through the north- 

 west corner of Scarsdale to Sheffield, and " so northward " 

 through Leeds and Knaresborough. Nothing can be more 

 satisfactory. 



A very interesting point is the author's love of farming and 

 of horses. As to horses, he tells us how he first went to 

 Ripon to buy colts (p. 65) ; how many secrets of horse- 

 dealing he could ,tell ; how, in buying horses, he had been 



> Canon Simmons kindly tells me — " I find from the Ordnance Map that 

 Grimbald Bridge is the one over the Nidd below the town, i.e. a mile or a mile 

 and a quarter from the town. There are two crossing to the town. The upper 

 one is on the Harrogate Road, a second " Low Bridge," and then the third, 

 " Grimbald bridge." 



