THE DERWENT DISTRICT. 205 



calcareous glens with thick woods upon their slopes, and bright 

 green meadows by the side of the streams beneath, and of the 

 heathery table-land of the Hambleton hills beyond, is well worth 

 a climb to see ; and, although the height of the stand-point is 

 little above two hundred yards, yet the steepness of the hill-banks 

 gives the scene a well-marked montane aspect. The southern 

 portion of the space between the three branch dales of Rye is 

 occupied by two outlying elephant-shaped nabs of limestone, 

 of which that on the east, which is called Easterside, attains a 

 height of 1048 feet. On the slope of the other is placed the 

 picturesque little village of Hawnby, a centre from which, in 

 each direction, long lines of steep sylvan hill-banks radiate. 

 From Hawnby the escarpment of the calcareous range sweeps 

 round towards the north-west in the direction of Arden and 

 Hambleton End. From north to south the Hambleton hills 

 are about ten miles in length, the ridge of watershed, which from 

 north to south sinks from nearly 1300 to 950 feet, being only a 

 very short distance from their western edge, and the slope from 

 it in the direction of the hills which overhang the Rye being very 

 gradual. Several glens branch from the Rye in a western 

 direction to penetrate these hills, lonely little dales crested with 

 rock at their upper parts, and lower down their embankments, 

 like those of the main dale of Rye, covered with wood. The 

 principal of these branch glens are called Ardendalc,Yowlass Dale, 

 Nettle Dale, and Flazendale, and in a smaller one at Rainton 

 Heights, near Flawnby, there is a fine precipice of Calcareous 

 Gritstone, about fifty feet in depth. Opposite Hood Hill the line 

 which bounds the hill-country turns abruptly towards the east, 

 and there is now a steep embankment crested with limestone which 

 faces the south, and is continued past Ampleforth (749 feet), 

 and Oswaldkirk (544 feet), sloping gradually in an eastern direc- 

 tion till it sinks into the Vale of Pickering. The following are 

 the rarer plants of the woods and branching glens of the neigh- 

 bourhood of Hawnby and Helmsley : 



Jan. i£ 



