107 



two pleasant retired towns retain much of 

 what may be supposed to have been the 

 character of the olden time. The people are 

 remarkable for the simplicity of their manners, 

 and their civil demeanor to strangers, unlike 

 those of a district about forty miles south, 

 where there is " a tone of defiance in every 

 voice, and an air of fierceness in every coun- 

 tenance."* The houses of the poorer classes 

 are clean, their fare simple, and their apparel 

 plain, without having that sordid appearance 

 as if soiled with the smoke and grease of 

 a cotton factory which is seen in the 

 neighbourhood of large towns. Middleham 

 and Leyburn still retain their ancient market 

 crosses, which afford a presumption that 

 fanatic zeal had not been so prevalent in this 

 district at the time of the Reformation as in 

 some other parts of the country. The upper 

 part of the Middleham cross, which is fitted 

 to a stone shaft, is, both transverse and 



* Whitaker's Loidis and Elmete. 



