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YORKSHIRE SCENES, LORE, AND LEGENDS. 



Yorkshire : its Scenes, Lore, and Legends ; elaborated from a Prize 

 Essay written for the Bradford Geographical Exhibition, 1887. 



By M. Tait. Leeds : E. J. Arnold, 1888. 



A well got up and very readable pocket volume, which deals with 

 a large subject as fully as can be expected in a hundred duodecimo 

 pages. Its scope is physical, historical, and archaeological. The book is 

 illustrated by a geological map, a map of Roman Yorkshire, a coloured 

 contour-map of the county, and seven others of the different river- 

 basins. These maps, compiled by Mr. F. D. King, are clearly drawn, 

 and seem to be accurate, but the scales should have been given. 



The division into river-valleys adopted in the text is a useful one, 

 but it would have been more convenient to treat the coast separately, 

 or to divide it into Hull, Derwent, and Esk, rather than to place it 

 under the heading of the Ouse. It is strange, too, to find Cleveland 

 and the Wolds under the title 'The South-West.' 



There is a loose statement on p. 3, which might mislead a novice : 

 ' The weakest parts [of the earth's crust] are forced up highest, and 

 when the whole area is raised above sea-level, these highest parts 

 are mountains and hills.' There is, probably, no example of an 

 anticlinal hill in Yorkshire, the elevations being all carved out by 

 denudation, as is implied on the next page, although a few features, 

 such as Giggleswick Scar and Scarborough Castle Hill, are partly 

 determined by dislocations. Again, the author is unfortunate (p. 17) 

 in ascribing any part of the relief of the surface to marine action ; 

 even if such valleys as Nidderdale were ever 'fiords,' they did not 

 owe their form to the sea, which is a universal leveller. 



The general physical features of the county and its legendary 

 associations are well handled, and illustrated by engravings ; a list is 

 also given of the chief residential seats of Yorkshire. After some 

 notes on vegetation and its dependence on the nature of the soil, we 

 have a sketch of Yorkshire history from pre-Roman times to the Board 

 School era, with some notes on the rise of the textile industries. 



The concluding section on ' Races and their Traces' is interesting. 

 The author, however, should not confuse natural stones like Austin's 

 Stone at Drewton with Christian monuments such as the Rudstone 

 (rood-stone) near Bridlington. In saying that the Saxon and Danish 

 irruptions have left few traces of defensive works, it would have been 

 well to mention Danes' Dyke at Flamborough, though this may 

 possibly be of British age. 



The book will serve as a useful guide to the lore of the county, 

 and is more portable than the classical ' Rivers, Mountains, and 

 Sea-Coast ' of the great Yorkshire geologist. — A.H. 



Naturalist, 



