Coe 
Sept. 25, 1873), 
- The group of tumuli called the Danes’ Graves, lying near 
Driffield, and described by Canon Greenwell in the Archeo- 
logical Fournal, have yielded contents which are a puzzle for 
anthropologists. Their date is subsequent to the introduction of 
the use of iron: Their tenants were evidently not Christians ; 
but they belonged toa settled population. The mode of inter- 
ment resembles nothing Scandinavian ; and the form of the 
crania is narrower than is usual, at least in modern times, in 
Norway and Denmark. It is hazardous to conjecture anything 
about them ; but I should be more disposed to refer them to an 
_ early Anglian or Frisian settlement than to a Danish one. 
We come now to the Danish invasions and conquest, which, 
as well as the Norman one that followed, was of more ethnolo- 
gical importance in Yorkshire than in most other parts of Eng- 
land. The political history of Deira, from the ninth century to 
the eleventh, the great number of Scandinavian local names (not 
greater, however, in Yorkshire than in Lincolnshire), and thie 
peculiarities of the local dialect, indicate that Danes and Nor- 
wegians arrived and settled, from time to time, in considerable 
numbers. But in estimating these numbers we must make allow- 
' ance for their energy and audacity, as well as for the very near 
_ Kinship between the Danes and the Northumbrian Angles, 
which, though it did not prevent sanguinary struggles between 
_ them at first and great destruction of life, must have made amal- 
_ gamation easy, and led the natives readily to adopt some of the 
( characteristics of the invaders. 
"4 
Whatever the Danish element in Yorkshire was, it was 
common to Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, and to the north- 
eastern part of Norfolk; and it was comparatively weak in 
_ Northumberland and even in Durham. Iu Yorkshire itself, it 
__ was irregularly distributed, the local names in dy, “oft, and 
_ ¢hwaite, and the like being scattered in a more or less patchy 
manner, as may be seen on Mr. Taylor’s map. They are very 
Again, the long list of the landowners of the county under Ed- 
_ ward the Confessor, given in Domesday Book, contains a 
mixture of Anglian with Scandinavian names, the latter not 
" everywhere preponderating. Here, again, Cleveland comes out 
very Danish. Iam inclined to believe that the Anglian popu- 
lation was, in the first fury of the invasion, to some extent 
pushed westwards into the hill-country of the West Riding, 
though even here distinctly Danish names, such as Sowerby, 
are quite common. Beverley and Holderness perhaps remained 
mainly Anglian. 
The Norman conquest fell upon Yorkshire, and parts of 
Lancashire and Durham, with unexampled severity. It would 
seem that the statement of William of Malmesbury that the land 
lay waste for many years through the length of sixty miles, was 
hardly, if at all exaggerated. The thoroughness and the fatal 
effects of this frightful devastation were due, no doubt, partly to 
the character of William, who, having once conceived the 
design, carrried it out with as much completeness and regu- 
larity as ferocity, and partly to the nature of the country, the 
most populous portion of which was level and devoid of natural 
fastnesses or refuge, but also, in some degree, to the fact that the 
Northumbrians had arrived at a stage of material civilisation at 
which such a mode of warfare would be much more formidable 
than while they wereina more barbarouscondition, always prepared 
for fire and sword, and living, as it were, from hand to mouth. 
Long ages afterwards the Scots told Froissart’s informants 
that they could afford to despise the incursions of the English, 
who could do them little harm beyond burning their houses, 
which they could soon build up again with sticks and turf; but 
the unhappy Northumbrians were already beyond that stage. 
In all Yorkshire, including parts of Lancashire, Westmore- 
land, and Cumberland, Domesday numbers only about 500 free- 
men, and not 10,000 men altogether. This great destruction, or 
rather loss of population (for it was due in some measure to the 
free or forced emigration to Scotland of the vanquished), did not 
necessarily imply ethnological change. Let us examine the evi- 
dence of Domesday on this point. It agrees with that of 
William of Malmesbury, that the void created by devastation 
remained a void, either entirely or to a great extent. Whole 
parishes and districts are returned as ‘‘ waste.”’ In one instance 
116 freemen (sockmanni) are recorded to have held land in King 
Edward’s time, of whom not one remained ; in another, of 108 
sokemen only 7 remained, But foreigners da settle in the 
county to some extent, either as military retainers of the new 
Norman lords, as their tenants, or as burgesses in the city of 
York, where 145 francigenze (Frenchmen) are recorded as inha- 
biting houses, 
NATURE 
prevalent in Cleveland, as has been shown by Mr. Atkinson . 
459 
Of the number maintained by way of garrisons by the new 
nobility, one can form no estimate; but considering the im- 
poverished and helpless condition of the surviving natives, 
such garrisons would probably not be large. But from 
the enumeration of mesne tenants, or middlemen, some 
inferences may perhaps be drawn. On six great estates, 
comprising the larger part of Eastern and Central Yorkshire, 
sixty-eight of these tenants are mentioned by name, besides 
Ir milites, or men-at-arms. Only 11 of the 68 bear names 
undoubtedly English ; and none of them have large holdings, 
as is the case with some of those bearing Norman names. 
On the lands of Drogo de Bevrere, about Holderness, several 
of the new settlers were apparently Flemings. 
The western part of the county, however, or the greater part 
of it, had been granted to two lords who pursued a more 
generous policy. Alan, count of Bretagne, the founder of Rich- 
mond, had twenty-three tenants, besides twelve milites, men-at- 
arms with very small holdings. Of the twenty-three, nine were 
Englishmen, in several instances holding as dependents the whole 
or part of what had been their own freeholds. The Breton 
ballads and traditions seem to favour the supposition that Count 
Alan’s Breton followers mostly returned home ; and Count 
Hersart de la Villemarquee, the well-known Breton archeologist, 
informed me that his ancestors returned to Bretagne from York- 
shire in the twelfth century. On the whole, I do not think it 
probable that the Breton colony was numerous enough to leave 
distinct and permanent vestiges ; but if any such there are, they 
may be looked for in the modern inhabitants of Richmond and 
Gilling. 
Ilbert de Lacy, again, had a great domain, including most part 
of the wapentakes of Morley, Agbrigg, Skyrack, and Staincross, 
extending, that is, far to the north and south of our present place 
of meeting. Bradford, by the way, was then hardly so important 
and wealthy as at the present day. A thane named Gamel had 
held it at the time of Edward the Confessor, when it was valued 
at 4/. yearly ; but at the time] of the survey it was waste, and 
worth nothing. : 2 
Sixty-seven mesne tenants under Ilbert de Lacy are mentioned, 
of whom no less than forty-one bore English names, and only 
twenty-six foreign ones, It is probable, therefore, that in this 
important part of the county the ethnological change wrought by 
the Conquest was not greater, if so great as in England generally, 
but that in the centre, east, and north-east it was of some 
moment, and that the Scandinavian element of population suf- 
fered and lost more than the Anglian, 
It might be a matter of some interest to a minute ethnologist 
or antiquarian to trace out fully the local history after the Con- 
quest from an ethnological point of view, investigating particu- 
larly the manner and source of the repeopling of the great plain 
of York. 
After this had been completed, no further change of ethno- 
logical importance took place during several centuries. The 
Flemings and Frisians, who, in considerable numbers, settled at 
various times in Leeds, Halifax, and Wakefield, whether drawn 
hither by the course and opportunities of trade, or driven by the 
persecutions of Philip II. and the Roman Catholics, brought in 
no new element, and readily amalgamated with the kindred race 
they found here, 
The more recent immigrations into the West Riding and 
Cleveland from all parts of Britain, and even from the Continent, 
have interest of other kinds. Vast as they have been, they have 
not yet obscured in any great degree the local types, physical or 
moral, which still predominate almost everywhere, though tend- 
ing of course to assimilate themselves to those of the mixed 
population of England in general. 
In describing these types I prefer to use the words of Prof. 
Phillips, who, in his ‘‘ Rivers 'of Yorkshire,” has drawn them in 
true and vivid colours. He speaks of three natural groups :— 
-‘* First. Tall, large-boned, muscular persons ; visage long, 
angular ; complexion fair or florid ; eyes blue or grey ; hair light, 
brown or reddish, Such persons in all parts of the county form 
a considerable part of the population. In the North Riding, 
from the eastern coast to the western mountains, they are 
plentiful. 
Second. Person robust ; visage oval, full and rounded ; nose 
often slightly aquiline ; complexion somewhat embrowned, florid ; 
eyes brown or grey; hair brown or reddish. In the West Riding, 
especially in the elevated districts, very powerful men have these 
characters. 
“Third. Person of lower stature and smaller proportions ; 
visage short, rounded, complexion embrowned ; eyes very dark, 
