England, Picturesque and Descriptive: A Reminiscence of Foreign TravelCook, Joel
History
England, Picturesque and Descriptive: A Reminiscence of Foreign Travel
Cook, Joel
England -- Description and travel
We have now come into Yorkshire, and a few minutes' ride northward by
railway along the valley of the Hull River brings the visitor to
Beverley, an old-fashioned Yorkshire town of considerable antiquity,
eight miles from the seaport. This was anciently a walled town, but of
the entrance-gates only one survives, the North Bar, of the time of
Edward III. It is a good specimen of brick architecture, with mouldings
and niches upon the surface and battlements at the top. This is a
favorite old town for the retired merchant and tradesman who wish to
pass the declining years of life in quiet, and it contains many ancient
buildings of interest. Several of these are clustered around the
picturesque market-square, which is an enclosure of about four acres,
and contains a quaint cross, a relic of the time when it was customary
to build market-crosses. These ancient crosses, which were practically
canopies erected over a raised platform, were generally used as pulpits
by the preachers when conducting religious services in the open air.
Sometimes they were memorials of the dead. We are told that there were
formerly five thousand of these crosses of various kinds in England, but
most of them were destroyed in the Civil Wars. At these old crosses
proclamations used to be read and tolls collected from the
market-people. The covered market-cross at Beverley was one of the last
that was erected. The name of this interesting town is said to be
derived from Beaver Lake, the site having at one time been surrounded by
lakes that were formed by the overflowing of the Humber, in which
beavers lived in great numbers. The Beverley Minster is an attractive
Gothic church, and from the tops of its towers there is an excellent
view over the rich and almost level valley through which the Hull River
flows. Leconfield Castle, in the suburbs, was an ancient residence of
the Percys, of which the moat alone remains.
[Illustration: MARKET-SQUARE, BEVERLEY.]
SHEFFIELD.
[Illustration: MANOR-HOUSE, SHEFFIELD.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account