The Rivers and Streams of EnglandBradley, A. G. (Arthur Granville)
General
The Rivers and Streams of England
Bradley, A. G. (Arthur Granville)
England -- Description and travel; Rivers -- England
covers five acres, and though in partial use by the depôt of the
Yorkshire regiment as sergeants' quarters, is quiet and spacious enough
and partly surrounded by the remains, in various stages of ruin, of ward
rooms, chapels, state rooms, kitchens, and the curtain-walls of this
once great and proudly placed fortress. Here again the artist will give
a better notion of the distinction of Richmond, its fine pose above the
river with the old bridge as a foreground, than any amount of
description. But there are many old tortuous by-streets and wynds on the
steep slopes of Richmond well worth exploring. And as "Brave Pudsay"
made a famous leap from the top of a cliff into or over the Ribble, so
here one Williance has likewise immortalised himself and given his name
to a height above the Swale outside the town. This leap was almost
contemporary with that of Pudsay, and some special providence indeed
must have watched over these redoubtable Elizabethans. But Williance's
performance was not prompted by the pursuing peril of a sheriff's posse,
but by a runaway horse at a hunting party. The hero himself was a
successful trader of Ripon, and, as indicated above, his horse bolted in
a fog and leaped from the top of Whitecliff scaur, falling on a ledge
100 feet below and thence toppling over another precipice of similar
height. The horse was killed, but the rider, marvellous to relate,
escaped with a broken leg. Getting out his hunting-knife he ripped open
the dead animal's belly and put the injured limb inside it to keep the
cold out till help arrived. This hardy and resourceful person saved his
life at any rate, but not his leg, which was amputated. In gratitude for
his miraculous escape he set up three stones upon the spot, inscribing
them with his thanks to the Almighty. He buried his leg in the
churchyard, and ten years later was himself laid beside it as Alderman
of Richmond, a man of note and substance, as his will shows; and a piece
of plate bequeathed to the Corporation is still in their possession.
Nothing need be said, or rather nothing can be said, here of the upper
course of the Swale growing wilder as it approaches its romantic source
upon the borders of Westmoreland in the clefts of the Pennine range
above Kirby Stephen. A mile or more down the river from Richmond, set
upon the edge of the stream, whose amber waters here as everywhere fret
and foam beside them, stand the still ample ruins of Easby Abbey.
Founded in 1152, it was richly endowed by the Scropes, many
[Illustration: THE SWALE, EASBY ABBEY, YORKSHIRE]
[Illustration]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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