NORTHERN STAR. No. 1.-For JULY, 1817. Yorkshire Topography. Introduction. Glance at the County, from DAYES. Brief Sketch of the History of Yorkshire: Origin of Wapentakes. General Aspect of the Wapentake of Strafforth and Tickhill. Supposition of the Origin of its Name. A PRINCIPLE inherent in man, attaches him to his native soil, and inclines him, with all its imperfections, to esteem the place of his birth above all others on the surface of the globe. This principle, equally prevalent in the savage and the sage, has caused the hardy Russ, surrounded with the blessings of southern provinces, and cheered with the influence of the most genial skies, to pine for his interminable wilds, his frost-bound lakes, and his almost perpetual winter has induced the Laplander, and the Samoeide, diminutive in intellect as in stature, to die of regret for his icy plains, his primeval snows, his grassless lands, and cloud-piercing mountains; makes him prefer his skin-covered canoe, which barely interposés a single trunk betwixt him and destruction, to the enormous vessels of southern seas, winged with swelling canvas, and proudly waving to the breeze their gaudy flags; his patient rein deer, which will leave its fellows at his call, and in the most rigorous winter, exultingly transport its master from one side to the other of his extensive wastes, guided with a word, and encouraged by a song, to the fiery courser, or mettlesome hunter of warmer countries ;--his amorphous car, to an European chariot;--and his pole-raised hut, covered with rotten boughs, to the most costly and expensive mansions of civilized man.. To this pervading principle is it owing, that an Englishman, wherever be travels, sighs for his home, for the comforts of his family fire-side, and for those accommodations, which he conceives it vain to look for in any other situation. Removed only to a different county, he feels, as it were, isolated; and though still in the bosom of his country, he regrets the scenes of his infancy, and smiles with pleasure at any topographic narrative, which may recal to his memory the half-effaced recollection of transactions long gone by; thus his former localities become more interesting, and his long-loved natal spot doubly endeared to his affections. If then this single principle acts so powerfully upon the feelings, independent of every adventitious circumstance, how must its action be augmented, B when to the natality is added, a profusion of all the gifts of nature, an abundance of whatever can render life desirable; when every hill, and almost every stone, becomes a monument of some great event,-a perpetual record of the early consequence of his country in national history? then it is we experience the full force of the "amor patriæ," and with exultation boast of the soil from whence we sprung. No county in England possesses more of these advantages than that we are about to survey. Uurivalled in extent and population,-beyond its average rich in productions and manufactures,-abounding with vestiges of ancient splendor,-and universally celebrated for its industry and hospitality;-dear must it ever be to its sons, and grateful must be their sensa tions while adopting the language of one of their native Poets: "I love thee, Yorkshire! where mine infant sight To chase the shuttle, or the plough to guide; Thy thrifty wives, thy daughters ever dear, Thy cottages, where the meek virtues dwell; Mr. Dayes, late Draughtsman to His Royal Highness the Duke of York, thus elegantly describes Yorkshire :: "As a corollary to the above particulars, I shall add a few words conrning YORKSHIRE in general. It is a maritime county, situated on the eastern side of the Island, and by far the largest in the kingdom. Grose observes, that it is equal in extent to several of the sovereignties in Germany, and superior to the whole of the Seven United Provinces. Under the Bri tons, it formed the greatest part of the principality of the Brigantes ; as it did that of the province Maxima Cæsarensis of the Romans, which extended from the river Humber to the river Tyne. During the domination of the Saxons, it composed the greatest part of the kingdom of the Northumbriaus, which began in the year 547, and ended in 827; including a race of thirtyone kings. In Alfred's division of his kingdoms into counties, it included Durham aud Lancashire. Its present boundaries are, Durham on the north, the river Humber, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire, on the south; the German Ocean on the east; and on the west, Lancashire, Westmoreland, and a small part of Cheshire. This extensive tract of country is watered by many considerable rivers, the principal of which are, the Derwent, the Ouse, the Hull, the Swale, the Ure, the Nidd, the Wherfe, the Aire, the Calder, the Don, the Tees, and the Ribble: to these may be added, the Humber; though this is most properly an estuary or gulph, as it receives most of the above rivers. Among the less considerable streams are, the Rother, the Rie, the Skell, the Greta, the Mersey, the Foulness, and the Levan; all the rivers abound with excellent fish. Grose reckons this county to contain seventy-two extensive parks, and sixty-two bridges. It produces cattle, deer, sheep, excellent horses, goats, sea and river fish, fowls of various kinds, game, liquorice, and rape-seed. Here are manufactured woollen cloths, [cottons, linen, cutlery], pins, and fine lace. It affords limestone, lead, copper, calamine, iron, coal, free-stone, alum, jet, marble, copperas, kelp, wood, and numerous other substances. By the extensive inland navigation, its produce is circulated over almost every part of England and Wales. "The inhabitants of this most delightful country appear, in general, to be in a high state of cultivation; they are polite, hospitable, and attentive, to strangers; being totally destitute of that narrowness of soul, that too frequently gives the most exquisite pain to the observer. The manners of the females are extremely amiable; they are mild as the zephyrs of their own native vales, and fascinate, by their beauty, like the spring." Whoever were the original inhabitants of Yorkshire, is foreign to the present purpose to enquire. Of this we are certain, that for ages previous to the landing of the Romans, this part of England was not only inhabited, but comparatively populous. Of the name it bore anterior to that invasion, those conquerors have not left us any account, but have included it in that division or nation to which they gave the appellation of Brigantes; and which, besides Yorkshire, contained the greater part of the present counties of Lancaster, Westmorland, Cumberland, and Durham. Under the Saxons, Yorkshire formed a great part of the kingdom of Northumbria, which to the former extent of the Brigantes, added the present Northumberland, and all the land on this side the Frith of Edinburgh. This rank it retained, until the final extinction of the Heptarchy, about the year 950. Under Alfred, the whole of England was divided into certain districts, expressed by the old Saxon term Scyre (share or shire); this, added to the name which the capital of the division then bore, generally gave it its denomination. Thus Yorkshire, on its emerging from confusion with the lands with which it had been hitherto classed, became Evorwicscyre, now, by the rapidity of pronunciation, changed into Yorkshire. Such an extent of land as Yorkshire, being considered too much to have its government entrusted to any one individual, in the same manner as the Smaller counties, Alfred divided it into three parts, to each of which he gave the appellation of trithing, which taking its proper prefix, became what we now pronounce them, the East, North, and West Ridings. Each of these trithings had its proper officer, subservient to the general governor of the shire; and each again had under him an indeterminate number of subalterns, as overseers of the wapentakes, into which the riding was divided; these in their turn had their head-boroughs, &c. to superintend the towns and villages throughout the whole county. And here it may be worthy of remark, that the term hundred, generally made use of in other counties, was wholly unknown in Yorkshire, and that of wapentake substituted for it. They, it seems, were divided according to the number of families, into hundreds, tythings, &c. while Yorkshire was almost exclusively confined to a military division, and took its lesser denomination from the number of effective soldiers each could bring into the field; for it appears from various authorities, that the term Wapentake (Wespen-tact or touch) owes its origin to a Saxon or Belgic custom, of every armed man when assembled for service, saluting his chief or commander, by gently tapping his weapon with his own. It is therefore natural to suppose, that as the hundreds were made up of the space occupied by the possessions of a hundred families, that the Wapentake took its dimension from that district which, could furnish an hundred English warriors, ready armed, and prepared for action. This supposition is further strengthened by the fact, that a great part of the inhabitants of Yorkshire were conquered Danes, over whom it behoved the king to have a watchful eye: to keep then his native subjects in a state of constant preparation, seems to have been a matter of real necessity; and to subject this county to a military, rather than o a civil subdivision, the only step he could take to give security to his northern subjects. Of these wapentakes the West Riding contains ten, the East seven, and the North twelve. In the latter, one of the subdivisions is called a lythe, Of the West Riding, the Wapentake of Strafforth and Tickhill forms the most southern division; and with that, it may perhaps be most advisable to Sommence our survey. The Wapentake of Strafforth and Tickhill, Is bounded on the south by the county of Derby, on the east and north-east by Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, on the north and north-west by the Wapentake of Osgoldcross, and on the west by those of Staincross and Aybrigg. It is very irregular in its form, being in some parts not more than six miles broad and in others upward of twenty one. Its greatest length, from south-west to north-east, is about forty-two miles; comprising an area of about 500 square miles, or 320,000 acres ;--rather more than a fifth part of the West Riding, or a twelfth of the whole county. Its principal river is the Don or Dun, which takes its rise in Aybrigg wapentake, and enters that of Strafforth and Tickhill near its most westerly point; whence running in a south-west direction, and receiving in its course the waters of the Ewden, the Rivelyn and the Loxley, it reaches Sheffield, where, being joined by the Sheaf, it turns to the north-east; before it reaches Rotherham it receives the Holbrook, there the Rother augments its waters; at Mexbrough it takes in the Dearn, at Barnby another stream, and at its final departure from the wapentake, it is joined by a brook, which passes Ackworth, Norton, and Sikehouse. A few miles beyond, its waters coalesce with those of the Aire.* • The course of the Dun is thus curiously described in Dodsworth's Yorkshire MSS. "The river Don or Dun riseth in the upper part of Pennystone parish, pear Lady's Cross, which may be called our Appenines, because the rain water that falleth, sheddeth from sea to sea, cometh to Birchworth, so to Pennystone, thence to Bolderstone by Medop, leaveth Warncliffe chase (stored with roebucks which are decayed since the great frost) on the north, belonging to Sir Francis Wortley, where he hath great iron works. The said Warncliffe affordeth 200 dozen of coals for ever to his said works. In the chase he had red and fallow deer and roes; and leaveth Bethuns, a chase and tower of the Earl of Salop on the south side. By Wortley to Waddsley, where in times past Everingham of Stainber had a parke now disparked. Thence to Sheaffield, and washeth the castle wall; keepeth its course to Attercliffe where is an iron forge of the Earl of Salop; from thence to Winkebank, Kymberworth and Eccles, where it entertayneth the Rother; cometh pre For a district of small extent, few places can exhibit more diversity of aspect than this Wapentake. South-west of the Don, in the parishes of Ecclesfield and Sheffield; the country is in a great measure uncultivated, and of a character similar to that of the Peak. Gradually rising to the heights of that extensive waste, the East Moor of Derbyshire, we find it diversified with rocks, and in every direction intersected with rapid streams, foam- ́ ing amid the craggy fragments, or quietly emerging from their gloomy dells, and with its accompaniments, the rude cottage, the high-arch'd bridge, and half dilapidated grinding wheel, presenting a succession of scenes peculiarly its own, and strikingly picturesque. The valley along which the Don, on leaving Sheffield, silently rolls its waters, is singularly beautiful, and the woods, which on each side grace the sloping hills, add a softness to the feature, and render it delightful. The land too is highly cultivated, and comfort and neatness are here visible in every field. On the Eastern side of the Wapentake, the general aspect is less pleasing; the lands are not so well managed, nor is there that variety of beauty sently to Rotherham ; then to Aldwark-hall, the Fitzwilliam's ancient possession; then to Thribergh parke, the seat of Reresbyes Knights; then to Mexborough, where hath been a castle; then to Conisborough parke and castle of the Erle of Warrens, where there is a place called Horsa's Tomb. From thence to Sprotebrough the ancient seat of the famous family of Fitzwilliam, who have flourished since the conquest. Thence by Newton to Donecastre, Wheatley and Kirk Sandal to Barnby Dunn; by Bramwith and Stainforth to Fishlake; thence to Turnbrigg a porte town serving indifferently for all the west parts, where he pays his tribute to the Ayre. Small rivers which have a connection with the Dun are the Dove, which riseth at Thurgoland, runneth on the north side of Wortley, as the Dun doth on the south, then cometh to Rockley and through Worspu-dale near Smeithley, by Newhall, Woodhall, Wombwell, and falls into Dearn hard by Darfield. Note. That Dove entertayneth a nameless beck at Worsbrough, which hath its beginning at Dodworth, runs on the north of Stainber, where there hath been an ancient fortification, called Stainber Law, and watereth the iron-mills, and then falleth into the Dove at Worsbrough. Blackburn Beck. Its head is at Wortley parke, runneth by the south skirt of Tankersley by Cowley wood, some tyme the possession of Mountney; runneth by Thorpe now Sir Thomas Wentworth's, holdeth his course by Wentworth Woodhouse to Morley; thence to Gresbrook, and falleth into Dun on the east side of Rotherham. Rother, riseth near unto Chesterfield in Derbyshire, runneth northwards and falleth into Dun at Eccles hard by Rotherham. Holbrook springeth in Wortley Lordship, comes to Holbrook, thence to Mortemley, by Ecclesfield, Thunnercliffe Grange, and so into Dun at Mady-hall, &c. Dearne riseth at a place called Grange Ash, cometh to Flockton, then to Midgeley-banke Smythies, being iron works belonging to Sir Francis Wortley. Then through Emley Park to Breton Hall, where a younger son of Wentworth of Elmshall, hath had his seat for a good space, where Dearne receiveth Cawthorne Beck, which springs in Cawthorne, and falls into Dearne at Bargh, a mile below Breton. Dearne having received Cawthorne Beck, runneth by Barnsley Smithies, iron works formerly belonging to Bretton Abbey, since to the King's assigns; thence to Barnsley by Bretton Abbey to Storr-Milne, then to Little Houghton, and joins the Dun at Mexbrough Ings." |