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
The walls of York are almost as complete as those of Chester, while its
ancient gateways are in much better preservation. The gateways, called
"bars," are among the marked features of the city, and the streets
leading to them are called "gates." The chief of these is Micklegate,
the highroad leading to the south, the most important street in York,
and Micklegate Bar is the most graceful in design of all, coming down
from Tudor days, with turrets and battlements pierced with cross-shaped
loopholes and surmounted by small stone figures of warriors. It was on
this bar that the head of the Duke of York was exposed, and the ghastly
spectacle greeted his son, Edward IV., as he rode into the town after
Towton Field. It did not take long to strike off the heads of several
distinguished prisoners and put them in his place as an expiatory
offering. Here also whitened the heads of traitors down to as late as
the last Jacobite rebellion. One of the buttresses of the walls of York
is the Red Tower, so called from the red brick of which it is built.
These walls and gates are full of interesting relics of the olden time,
and they are still preserved to show the line of circumvallation of the
ancient walled city. But the chief glory of York is its famous minster,
on which the hand of time has been lightly laid. When King Eadwine was
baptized in the little wooden church hastily erected for the purpose, he
began building at the same place, at the suggestion of Paulinus, a large
and more noble basilica of stone, wherein the little church was to be
included. But before it was completed the king was slain, and his head
was brought to York and buried in the portico of the basilica. This
church fell into decay, and was burned in the eighth century. On its
site was built a much larger minster, which was consumed in William the
Conqueror's time, when the greater part of York was burned. From its
ashes rose the present magnificent minster, portions of which were
building from the eleventh to the fifteenth century, it being completed
as we now see it in 1470, and reconsecrated as the cathedral of St.
Peter with great pomp in 1472. Its chief treasure, was the shrine of St.
William, the nephew of King Stephen, a holy man of singularly gentle
character. When he came into York it is said the pressure of the crowd
was so great that it caused the fall of a bridge over the Ouse, but the
saint by a miracle saved all their lives. The shrine was destroyed at
the Reformation, and the relics buried in the nave, where they were
found in the last century. York Minster remained almost unchanged until
1829, when a lunatic named Martin concealed himself one night in the
cathedral and set fire to the woodwork of the choir, afterwards escaping
through a transept-window. The fire destroyed the timber roofs of the
choir and nave and the great organ. Martin was arrested, and confined in
an asylum until he died. The restoration cost $350,000, and had not long
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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