AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 5 



unite the instincts of the sportsman with the attributes 

 of the soldier, equally as much as do our own warriors 

 of the present day. . 



Middleham Church is dedicated to the blessed and 

 virgin saint Akelda, who was immolated by the Danes 

 during their invasion. By far the most interesting 

 ancient monument of the town is Middleham Castle, 

 which was one of the seats of the princely and powerful 

 line of Neville. The reader of archaeological trend may 

 gather a fine description of this structure, now a grim, 

 decaying ruin, in Lytton's romance, " The Last of the 

 Barons." Quadrangular in form, the building of the 

 castle was begun in 1190. The thickness of the yet 

 existing walls testifies that, as a fortress in those distant 

 and troublous times, it must have been of enormous 

 strength. The tower and surrounding buildings were 

 completed by Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland, 

 in the reign of Richard II. Within living memory the 

 interior of Middleham Castle was utilised by the 

 inhabitants of the town for workshops of various kinds, 

 and the structure stripped of stones to build yet 

 standing humble residences in its immediate vicinity. 

 This vandalism, happily, has been stopped; the 

 frowning ruin still defying, in gaunt, majestic silence, 

 the corroding hand of Time. 



Bolton Castle, the famous stronghold of the Scropes, 

 is not far distant. In this fortress Mary Queen of Scots 

 spent a portion of her captivity in England; it was 

 also the favourite residence of the hunchback 

 Richard III. Some three miles from Middleham are 

 the ruins of the Cistercian monastery of Yorevalle, or, 

 as more modernly called, Jervaulx, which, with the 

 surrounding estate, passed from the late Lord 



