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had no just grounds for their complaints, especially consider¬ 
ing that their votes had contributed to secure for Widdrington 
his position in Parliament. The proposed dedication of the 
work, a draft of which was forwarded to the city authorities 
for approval, was received with coldness by those whom it was 
designed to honour, and not only with coldness, but even 
derision. Hence the “ disgust ” of the author, and his pro¬ 
hibition of the publication spoken of by Bishop Gibson. 
The following reply, 1 expressing despair concerning the 
state and prospects of the citizens, and concluding with a 
vehement sting, was sent to the learned and industrious 
author:— 
“ Sir, —You have told us by the former discourse what the city was, and what 
our predecessors have been. We know not what this may have of honour in it : 
sure we are, it hath but little of comfort. The shoes of our predecessors are too 
big for our feet, and the ornaments which they had will not serve now to cover 
our nakedness, nor will their wealth feed us, who are not able to tell you what 
we are, unless it be this, that we are poor and miserable. Our predecessors, if 
they could see us, would either disclaim us, or be ashamed of us. You have 
told us that this city was some time the metropolis of the Britons; the Royal 
Court of the Roman Emperors, and a seat of justice anciently, and also in later 
times ; how is it now become unlike itself? The inhabitants have many of them 
forsaken it, and those who have not, she cannot maintain, whilst some cities are 
become so big with buildings, and numerous with inhabitants, as they can be 
hardly fed or governed. York is left alone, situate in a country plentiful for 
provisions, and stored, if the people had money to buy them. Trade is decayed, 
the river become unnavigable by reason of shelves. Leeds is nearer the manu¬ 
factures, and Hull more commodious for the vending of them ; so York is, in 
each respect, furthest from the profit. The body of York is so dismembered, 
that no person cares for the being the head of it ; the suburbs, which were the 
legs of the city, are cut off; the late Court of Justice, which, indeed, was built 
upon the sand only, is sunk, and with it many considerable persons are swallowed 
up ; you cannot now see any confluence of suitors or people; he that looks upon 
the city may see her psps dry, and her eyes bedewed with tears, refusing to be 
comforted, because all these are gone. Now, sir, for the Britons you mention ; 
we can neither derive pedigree or wealth from them ; nor can we hear of any of 
their descendants, unless in Wales and Cornwall, or upon some mountain or hill 
in Cumberland; and when we have found them, we fear that they will not own 
us for their kindred or relations ; we have lost our genealogy, and forgot the 
British dialect ; they tell us that our blood is not British, but Roman, Saxon, 
and Norman, which, or some of which, did expel these ancient Britons, and we 
might expect the same reception from the Roman, Norman, or Saxon, if we 
should appeal to any of them ; and we find by experience that it is not a long 
1 A copy of this reply is bound up with the MS. at the end, and entitled 
“ A sad complaynt by the City of York to the Author.” 
