The tract of country between the Wharfe and the Aire is a portion of that magnesian limestone formation which extends in a narrow zone across Yorkshire. It is crossed by the principal streams flowing to the Humber, the Ure, the Nidd, the Wharfe, the Aire, the Went, and the Don; and they all form picturesque gorges, with overhanging limestone cliffs and crags, before they enter the great alluvial plain of York. This hilly limestone region, between the Wharfe and the Aire, was once a great forest of elm trees. It was the Elmet of remote times. When the forest was cleared the name remained, and the people called the limestone country 'Elmet lands.' The little river Cock rises on Bramham Moor, flows through this limestone country in a winding course among the undulating hills, and falls into the Wharfe below Tadcaster. Passing the village of Barwick-in-Elmet, it winds along the skirts of 'Becca Banks,' so famous for rare wild flowers, flows under the bridge at Aberford, and westward to Lead Hall, a farmhouse in a great meadow about half a mile short of the village of Saxton. Thence it takes a northerly course to its junction with the Wharfe. Here the winding little brook has hills on either side, covered with woods, with Towton on the right bank, and Hazlewood, the ancient seat of the Vavasours, to the left. It passes through extensive willow garths, and by the village of Stutton, entering the Wharfe, near Tadcaster, after a course of about ten miles. At present the road from York to Pomfret turns south at the end of Tadcaster Street, and goes direct to Towton and Sherburn, passing the lodge gate at {27} Grimston. But in those days it continued along the left bank of the Cock to beyond Stutton, crossed the little brook by Renshaw Wood, and led up a gentle slope to the hamlet of Towton. By this route the Lancastrian army advanced from Tadcaster, and encamped on the fields between Towton and Saxton. The main road leads direct from Towton to Sherburn, leaving Saxton on the right, and Scarthingwell, with its mere and heronry, on the left. From Sherburn to Ferrybridge the distance is six miles due south. The distance from Ferrybridge, by Sherburn and Saxton, to the battlefield of Towton is nine miles.