of April, 1629, and the manor and Castle of Skipton descended, on the death of the Countess of Pembroke, to that noble family. John, the second earl, died in the year 1664, and was succeeded by Nicholas, the third earl, who dying without issue, November 24, 1679, was succeeded in the title and estates by Sir John Tufton, his brother, who survived him little more than five months, and died at Skipton Castle. His successor was Richard, his younger brother, who died unmarried, March 8, 1683, leaving his honours and estates to his brother Thomas, the sixth earl, who after having held the honour of Skipton longer, and applied the revenues better, than any of his ancestors, with the exception of Lady Ann Pembroke, died July 29, 1729. Earl Thomas was succeeded by Sackville Tufton, his youngest brother, who died December 1, 1753, leaving Sackville, his son, who died April 10, 1786, and was succeeded by Sackville, the ninth earl of Thanet, who died in 1850. Skipton Castle, the ancient residence of a long line of nobility, is at a very short distance from the Church, eastward. Of the castle, as built at the period of the Conquest, little remains, except the western-doorway to the inner castle, consisting of a treble semicircular arch, supported upon square piers. The most ancient part of the castle now remaining consists of seven round towers, partly in the sides, and partly in the angles of the building, connected by rectilinear apartments, which form an irregular quadrangular court within. The walls are from nine to twelve feet thick; this part was the work of Robert de Clifford, in the early part of the reign of Edward II. The eastern part, a single range of building, at least sixty yards long, terminated by an octagon tower, is known to have been built by the first Earl of Cumberland. The present entrance, concealing the original Norman door-way, was added by Lady Pembroke. In the second great rounder from the entrance is the muniment room of the Cliffords, in which the treasures and the writings were anciently kept. The apartments, formed about sixty years since, out of the gallery, contain several portraits, particularly the great historical family picture, painted and inscribed under the direction of the Countess of Pembroke-a head of Sir Ingram Clifford-another, called Fair Rosamond, intended for Lady Margaret Percy-and a half-length picture conjectured for Lady Eleanor Brandon. The castle, from its importance, and the military character of the families to which it successively belonged, has undergone several sieges, but it never suffered any material injury by belligerent operations, till the time of the Civil wars, between Charles I. and the parliament. At that time it sustained a siege, or blockade, of three years, against the generals of the parliamentary army, Lambert, Poyntz, and Rossiter; the Earl of Cumberland, owner of the castle, being then the Lord-lieutenant of the West-riding, and Sir John Mallory, of Studley, an old and faithful loyalist, the governor. A. D. 1629 A. D. 1654 After the surrender of the castle, which fell on the 22nd of December, 1645, and the success of the republican cause, parliament issued an order, directing that Skipton Castle should be dismantled and demolished. This order was partially carried into effect in 1649; but the Countess of Pembroke, the great restorer of ruined edifices, repaired and again rendered it habitable, though not perhaps tenable as a fortress, for which it was never, owing to its exposed situation, from the neighbouring heights, very well adapted. Over the modern entrance to the castle the widow of Dorset and of Pembroke ordered an inscription to be placed, intimating that this castle was repaired by her order, in the years 1657-8, after it had been reduced to ruins by order of the parliament. Since that time, this ancient structure has undergone several other repairs, and it is now a comfortable and still stately residence. The town is situated in a valley of luxuriant fertility and picturesque beauty, near the river Aire, and consists of two spacious and long streets; the houses are well built, chiefly of stone obtained in the neighbourhood. The streets are lighted with gas, and there is an ample supply of water conveyed by pipes from a spring on Rumbles moor. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in the cotton manufacture, for which there are several mills. There are also lead works, and an ale and porter brewery. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which skirts the town on the south-west, affords every facility of conveyance, and contributes greatly to the increase of trade. Skipton, too, has now the benefit of railway communication, which, of course, must add materially to its prosperity. The parish comprises by computation 29,790 acres, including several manors, of which the Duke of Devonshire, and the representatives of the late Earl of Thanet are the lords. The surface was anciently well stocked with timber, which, from neglect, has become scarce, and is found only in plantations of comparatively recent growth; the lands are chiefly in pasture, and the substrata in many parts abound with minerals; there are also numerous quarries of valuable freestone and limestone. In the township are 3,748 acres, of which 566 are common or waste. A mineral spring near the town is strongly impregnated with various gases and iodine; and some years ago, a spa-room, with convenient baths, was erected for the gratuitous use of the poor. The Church is an ancient structure of various periods. It contains numerous monuments to the Cliffords, whose place of interment it became after the dissolution of Bolton Abbey, and continued to be till the death of the last Earl of Cumberland; the ancient screen is richly decorated, and the font curiously sculptured. A church, dedicated to Christ, was erected in 1838, at an expense of £5,000, raised by subscription, of which £3,500 were given by Christopher Sidgwick, Esq., aided by a grant of £350 from the Incorporated Society. There are places of worship for dissenters. In addition to the Free Grammar School, founded in 1548, by the Rev. William Ermystead, who endowed it with lands now producing more than £600 per annum, there is a National School for boys and girls, supported by subscription. The town has also a subscription library well supported, and a news-room, opened in the Town Hall. Sylvester Petyt, Esq., principal of Barnard's Inn, London, and a native of this parish, bequeathed a library for the use of the parishioners, which is now preserved in the church. He also left the munificent sum of £24,048 South Sea Annuities for various charitable purposes, one of which was £400 to the poor, without distinction of residence. Other provisions exist for the relief of the poor, arising from land left by Mr. Ermystead, the Earl of Cumberland, and Lord Craven. George Holmes, an eminent antiquary, who re-published the first seventeen volumes of Rymer's Fodra, was a native of this place. A. D. 1548 The Union of Skipton comprises forty-two parishes or places, Population and the population, by the census of 1851, was 28,764, comprising 14,695 males, and 14,069 females. The increase from the decennial period of 1841, is remarkably small, not amounting to thirty! The number of houses in 1851 was 6,171, being an addition of 160 in the ten years. Near the village of THORNTON, six miles from Skipton, is a tremendous cliff, 300 feet in height, partly clothed with wood, and partly exhibiting the bare rock. There is also a fine cascade, called Thornton Force, which rushes from an aperture, and falls in one unbroken sheet of four yards wide. A spray, resembling mist, sprinkles the ground for several yards; the tops and sides of the rocks are beautifully fringed with ivy and other shrubs. STOKESLEY Is a market town, pleasantly situated in the North-riding, on the road from Northallerton to Whitby, and consists of one spacious street; the houses are chiefly modern, and of handsome appearance. Till within a few years, the inhabitants were partly employed in the linen manufacture, and also in the spinning of yarn and the manufacture of patent thread, but these have nearly ceased to exist. The lands are rich, and generally level, forming an extensive plain adorned with thriving plantations, and enlivened by the winding streams of the Leven and the Tame, which abound with trout of excellent quality. The beautiful and majestic chain of mountains, called the Cleveland hills, including Roseberry Topping, range at a distance of from four to six miles from the town, with a peculiarly bold and romantic outline, and form a sort of semi-circular amphitheatre, of which Stokesley is the centre. The market is held on Saturday, and is chiefly supplied with provisions, poultry, &c. A. D. 1814 Population The Church is an ancient structure, re-built in 1771; there are places of worship for dissenters. The Free Grammar School was founded by John Preston, Esq., who, in 1814, bequeathed £2,000 for its endowment; but the validity of the bequest being disputed by the next of kin, the funds accumulated to £4,000. It now affords gratuitous instruction, in the classics, &c., to thirty boys; there is likewise a National school, supported by subscription, and provision is made for the poor. The Union comprises twenty-eight parishes or places, and in 1851, contained a population of 8,665, of which 4,335 were males, and 4,330 females. The number of houses was 2,096. TADCASTER. Tadcaster, a parish and market town, in the West-riding. This place was the Roman station CALCARIA, so named from the nature of the soil, which abounds with calx, or limestone, and was one of the outposts or gates, on the Consular way, to the chief Roman military station at York. In all the great civil wars, Tadcaster has always been regarded as an important military station, and this town and its neighbourhood have been the scenes of great military operations. Within two miles of Tadcaster at the village of Towton, the Pharsalia, as it has been called of England, the great battle was fought between the houses of York and Lancaster, which displaced Henry VI. and elevated Edward IV. to the throne of England. During the struggle between the royalists and parliamentarians, in 1642, the Earl of Newcastle, with four thousand men, and seven pieces of cannon, commenced an attack on the enemy's works, which lasted without intermission from eleven o'clock in the morning until five in the afternoon, when his ammunition being exhausted, he desisted from the assault, with the intention to renew the attack the next morning, when a further supply should arrive from York. The disparity of force disinclining Sir Thomas Fairfax to sustain another day's engagement, he drew off his men to Selby and Cawood during the night, and on the following morning the royalists marched into Tadcaster without opposition. The town is pleasantly situated on the river Wharfe, over which is a very handsome stone bridge of nine arches, considered the finest in the county, erected in the beginning of the last century. The streets are arranged on each side; the houses are neat and modern, and the walks near the river are highly interesting, and have been greatly improved within the last few years. No manu factures are carried on in the town. On the banks of the river are several flour mills. During the "good old times" of coaching and posting, Tadcas ter, as a great public thoroughfare, presented a scene of considerable animation, owing to the constant arrival and departure of the vehicles that thronged the road. The inns and hotels, at that period, enjoyed a flourishing and lucrative business, in common with towns similarly situated, such as Ferrybridge, Boroughbridge, Doncaster, &c. But these occurrences of a period in our social history, which undoubtedly was pleasing and congenial to the tastes and habits of Englishmen, have almost passed away. They are dissipated in steam, and now, in Tadcaster, as in other places, where the district is agricultural, and the population limited, "gentle dulness reigns supreme." The parish comprises seven thousand three hundred and seventy-nine acres, of which the soil is generally fertile, and the substratum abounds with stone of admirable quality, whereof one quarry, called the Jackdaw Crag, belonging to the Vavasour family, supplied stone for the erection of York Minster, and also materials for its repair after the conflagration of 1829, occasioned by the fanatic Jonathan Martin. The Church is a handsome structure in the later English style, with a fine tower. There are places of worship for dissenters, several schools, and almhouses for aged men and women. Several Roman coins have been found at Tadcaster and neighbourhood at different times; and there are some vestiges of a trench surrounding part of the town, which is supposed to have been thrown up in the reign of Charles 1. The population is between three and four thousand. Grimston Hall, the seat of Lord Londesborough, is a splendid mansion, finely situated about two miles from the town, in a demesne commanding extensive views. Hazlewood Hall, about four miles distant, the ancient residence of the Vavasours, is delightfully placed on an eminence, from which a magnificent prospect may be obtained. A. D. 1852 THIRSK. The name of this place is supposed to be derived from Tre Isk, two ancient British words signifying a town and river or brook. A strong and extensive castle was erected here about 979, at the south western extremity of the town, by the ancient family of Mowbray, one of whom, Roger de Mowbray, a powerful Norman Baron, was created Earl of Northumberland, in 1080. The castle itself was a noble pile of building, uniting the magnificence of a royal palace, with the strength and security of a baronial fortress. It was here that Roger de Mowbray conspired with the Scotch King, and began his rebellion against Henry II. The revolt was, however, speedily suppressed, and on the 13th of March, in the year 1175, the castle was assailed by Lord de Valence, in the name of the king, and |