^5 



THE 

 NIDD AND WHARFE DISTRICT (No. 6) 



(the ainsty). 



[This district fits in most naturally with the West Riding and has been included by Mr. 

 Lees in his Flora of ' West Yorkshire.' If I were now writing for the first time I should 

 have omitted it.] 



This district is considerably smaller and contains within its 

 limits much less variety of situation than any of the others. It 

 is eighty-four square miles in area, being bounded on the north 

 by the Nidd, on the east by the Ouse, on the south by the 

 Wharfe, and on the west by a conventional line drawn from 

 Cattal on the Nidd to the Wharfe side between Thorpe 

 Arch and Wetherby. The city of York is about midway between 

 the two points where the Nidd and the Wharfe join the Ouse^ 

 about half of it being situated on the west side of this latter 

 river. The Magnesian Limestone forms a sloping bank along 

 the north side of the Wharfe as far westward from Thorpe Arch 

 as the district extends, and the remainder of it, fully eighty 

 square miles, belongs to the Central Valley. There are no 

 streams of any considerable size which run through the district, 

 but the rivers which bound it on three sides are large and fine. 

 As in the rest of the Central Valley, the ground varies very 

 slightly in level and nowhere attains an elevation above the sea 

 of one hundred yards. The soil is sometimes clayey, but 

 more often light and sandy, especially in the north-east. 

 Besides York and Acomb the district contains several pleasant 

 rural villages, which are separated from one another by well- 

 cultivated fields, intersected by long winding grassy lanes, and 

 in addition to these, two lines of main road and three of 

 railway run through it, and the towns of Boston Spa and Ta4- 

 caster are situated just beyond its limits, 



Sept. 1888. 



