1797+] 
diftance on each fide. The climate, how- 
‘ever, is faid to be too humid. THorn- 
TON isa parifh which confifts of three 
or four villages, and contains coal and 
limeftone. Fhe women in its neigh. 
bourhood are. employed in fpinning 
worfted, and earn by that employment 
four-pence per day. The bread ufed is 
made of oatmeal, and by fome is called 
riddle bread... Xt is flightly baked in thick 
cakes, being previoufly leavened. When 
it comes firft from the fire, it is foft, 
tough, and as pliable as leather; but 
very porous. It is then placed for a few 
days upon fome lathing in the roof of the 
kitchen, when it becomes as hard and as 
brittle as a bifenit. This bread is pre- 
ferred to any other by thofe who have 
been accuftomed toit from their infancy, 
but it is rarely relithed at firft by ftran- 
gers. It feems to be peculiar to Lan- 
cafhire and the weft-riding of York- 
‘fhire. 
April 12, went from THORNTON to 
SETTLE, in Yorkfhire,11 miles. The 
road is tolerably good. The foil is in 
general of a brown gravelly loam. The 
vale along which the road pailes, is of 
unequal breadths, from one ‘to four 
miles ; the furface of it is very uneven, 
aud high mountains bound each fide. 
That of INGLEBOROUGH, 1239 feet in 
height, and faid to be the highett hill in 
Yorkfhire, is clofe to the-road on the 
left hand. The farms continue to be 
fmall. Stone walls are chiefly ufed for 
fences. In a few places patches of corn 
are obfervable, but the land is princi- 
pally in grafs. Certainly, neither the 
foil nor the climate exclude the culti- 
vation of grain and roots, fo much as the 
inhabitants imagine. Prejudice alone, 
in my opinion, prevents the progrefs 
of thofe agricultural improvements, fo 
much wanted ina diftri€ét which at pre- 
fent has a meagre and naked afpeét. 
Limeftone appears in great abundance, 
forming entire mountains. The road for 
7 Agricultural and Commercial Tour of England. 
33 
into the rock : in another cavity, called 
Kalecowhole, the opening extends a con- 
fiderable way, but fo low and narrow, 
that it is explored with difficulty, and 
not without danger. About two miles 
from Settle isa rock called, Attermire, 
in which is a remarkable cavern. The 
entrance, which is two yards by four, 
continues to vary its dimenfions for 
twenty yards, when the roof drops at 
once from twelve yards high to eighteen 
inches, and rifes but little for twenty 
yards further, when it fuddenly opens 
into a {pacious apartment of about fifteen 
yards high. ‘This gloomy manfion con- 
tains numberlefs chinks and receffes, 
fluted pillars and hanging petrifaétions. 
Sometimes you may aicend feveral yards, 
and afterwards defcend a few paces: 
frequently this fubterraneous paflage 
turns fuddenly at right angles, and then 
fhuts clote, fo as {carcely to admit a paf- 
fage, and afterwards enlarges again to a 
great extent. 
In a field about two miles from Settle, 
there is always heard a noife like the 
clicking of a miil at a diftance. Wo ori- 
fice in the ground, nor any external 
caufe appears. It is, however, fuppofed 
to be occafioned by a waterfall in the 
limeftone rock fituated below the fur- 
face. 
“A great number and variety of petri- 
factions are found in this neighbour- 
hood. But, perhaps, among the curious 
phenomena with which it abounds, the 
oft fingular is the ebbing and flawing 
well, upon the road near Settle. A 
fquare refervoir of ftone, four feet by 
three at the top and bottom, is placed 
over it: in this trough the water gene- 
rally rifes and falls about a foot in ten or 
fifteen minutes.. To afcertain the true 
caufe of this phenomenon has puzzled 
-fome naturalifts : that it is occafioned by 
three miles:ouches the bafe of one of the/e - 
rocks, which forms a range, of awful 
precipices, in fome places 200 feet high. 
In general, the rock 1s naked, in fome 
places partly covered with fhrubs. 
Near Settle a little wood 
tic than a terrific afpeét. A variety of 
curious apertures, fringed with different 
fhrubs and plants, prefent themfelves in 
the front of the hill. One of thefe ori- 
fices nature has excavated exactly in the 
form of an immenfe gateway, but it does 
hot penetrate above feven or eight yards _ 
MontuHiy Mas. No. XIII. 
- 
aypears. 
The rocks here afiume rather a roman- - 
the action of a natural fyphon in the 
rock, is, hewever, the moft plaufible cons 
jeture. 
The pleafant village of GIGGLEs- 
Wick fiands upon the road, about a 
mile from Settle: it was formerly a 
market-town, at a time that Settle was 
but a hamlet, and it ftill contains the 
parifh-church to that place. The fitua- 
tion of Settle, with refpeét to the neigh. 
bouring hills, is low ; it is now a fmall 
market-town, containing about goo in- 
habitants. Jt ftands near the bafe ofa 
naked limeftone rock, the fummit of 
which is 300 feet above the level of the 
own. This rock is faid to bear a great 
refemblance to that of Gibraltar. The 
ive : inhabitants 
