III. "Foreigners"[1] are sometimes at a loss to understand the peculiar spirit of those who in York, for instance, are known as "Moor-enders." This spirit shows itself in different ways; but perhaps in nothing so much as the intense attachment of the townsmen to their birthplace. This local patriotism is no whit behind that to be found in Spain--"seldom indeed a Spaniard says he is a Spaniard, but speaks of himself as being from Seville, Cadiz, or some forgotten town in La Mancha, of which he speaks with pride, referring to it as 'mi tierra.'"[2] Our readers will learn there is some reason for this attachment; and may, like some of us, who tho' born elsewhere claim adoption as citizens, fall under the witchery of its spell. [Footnote 1: C.R.L. Fletcher in his "History of England" tells us that townsmen of the thirteenth century were wont to brand their brethren in all the neighbouring towns as "foreigners." Those we call foreigners, they called aliens. The expression itself was made use of not long ago at a meeting of the Urban Council.] [Footnote 2: R.B. Cunninghame Graham, "Hernando de Soto."] May the venture to compass these ends succeed, to use an old saying, "ez sartin ez t' thorn-bush."[1] [Footnote 1: It used to be the custom for the parson to collect the tithe by placing a branch of thorn in every tenth stook; he choosing the stooks and sending his cart along for them. R. Blakeborough, "Yorkshire Humour and Customs."] E.W.D. The Vicarage, Pickering. _25th September_ 1904. THE EVOLUTION OF AN ENGLISH TOWN CHAPTER I _Concerning those which follow_ "Brother," quod he, "where is now youre dwellyng, Another day if that I sholde you seche?" This yeman hym answerde, in softe speche: "Brother," quod he, "fer in the north contree, Where as I hope som tyme I shal thee see." _The Friar's Tale. Chaucer._ In the North Riding of Yorkshire, there is a town of such antiquity that its beginnings are lost far away in the mists of those times of which no written records exist. What this town was originally called, it is impossible to say, but since the days of William the Norman (a pleasanter sounding name than "the Conqueror,") it has been consistently known as Pickering, although there has always been a tendency to spell the name with y's and to abandon the c, thus producing the curious-looking result of _Pykeryng_; its sound, however was the same. In his Chronicles, John Stow states on the authority of "divers writers" that Pickering was built in the year 270 B.C., but I am inclined to think that the earliest settlements on the site or in the neighbourhood of the present town must have been originated at an infinitely earlier period.