A. D. impart. Within a few years of his death the noble earl was honoured with two royal visits. The first was that of her present majesty, when Princess Victoria, and her mother, the Duchess of 1835 Kent, who arrived at Harewood on Saturday, September 11th, Royal Visits 1835, and remained till the following Monday. On Sunday morn-to Harewood ing the illustrious guests, accompanied by a number of distin House. guished visiters, attended divine service at the church, when the late Archbishop of York preached the sermon. A vast concourse of persons from Leeds, and the surrounding districts, lined the gravel walk from the house to the church, and the day being beautifully fine, the scene presented was, in truth, one of a very attractive kind. The Duchess of Kent walked with the Earl of Harewood, and immediately behind were the Princess and Lady Georgiana Harcourt, daughter of the Archbishop of York. They were followed by the Duke of Northumberland, the members of the Harewood family, and other personages of distinction. Much curiosity was evinced to catch a glimpse of the future sovereign, who was then a timid, retiring girl, unaccustomed to the presence of such vast multitudes as she has since encountered in her more exalted sphere. At ten o'clock on the following morning, the royal party left Harewood, and passed through Leeds, on their way to Wentworth House, the seat of Earl Fitzwilliam. The streets throughout were densely thronged, so that the royal carriage could only proceed at a very limited pace, and at some points of the route, the vehicle was so completely hemmed in by the crowd as to render it impossible for the postilions to proceed. The carriage being closed, the royal occupants were in a great measure secured from the public gaze, and the result was, that numbers of persons attempted to get upon the wheels for the purpose of having what they called a "right look." This proceeding is said to have given great offence to the Duchess, and, in the mind of her illustrious daughter, to have excited no small alarm. The cavalcade, however, passed through the town without the slightest accident, and amidst every manifestation of loyalty. In the month of August, 1839, her August 1839 late majesty, Adelaide, the Queen Dowager, accompanied by Earl Howe, and her suite, arrived at the Midland railway station, Hunslet-lane, en route for the north. Her majesty was escorted as far as Sheepscar bar by a detachment of dragoons, and from thence to Harewood House by a troop of the Yorkshire hussars. She was received at the entrance by the noble earl and his family, and after a stay of five or six hours proceeded on her journey. A large number of persons had assembled in the park, among whom provisions were amply distributed. In 1845, great rejoicings took Great place at Harewood House, on the occasion of Viscount Lascelles, Rejoicings eldest son of the present earl, having attained his majority. Old English hospitality was dispensed with a very liberal hand, and few there were who came away empty. During the last few years 1845. A. D. 1845 ment of House. the mansion has undergone such extensive improvements and alterations, that the style of the exterior is altogether changed. In the centre of the north front, now considerably elevated, is exhibited the family crest, sculptured in bold relief, the whole supported Enlarge- by fluted Corinthian pillars, exquisitely carved. Each of the wings Harewood has been proportionately raised, so that the edifice now presents an air of solidity and grandeur which cannot fail to excite admiration. On the south front, which displays corresponding architectural beauties, a terrace has been formed, that, for extent and beauty of design, is equal to anything of the kind in England. The interior has also in a great measure been changed, and the alterations effected have not only led to the formation of a greater number of apartments, but have materially improved the general plan and arrangements. The work is still proceeding, and when completed, will have cost several thousand pounds. Among the paintings recently added is an equestrian portrait of the present earl, representing him mounted on a favourite mare, ready for the chase, with a number of fox-hounds in the fore-ground. This portrait, presented to his lordship by the members of the hunt, was painted by Francis Grant, Esq., R.A., and is a splendid production of art. The likeness of the noble earl is well preserved, and the mare and dogs have been pronounced by that eminent artist, Landseer, to be perfect. The situation of Harewood House is one of great natural beauty; and as the residence of a noble family, it is now The Church. entitled to rank with the first in the kingdom. The Church of Harewood is of great antiquity. It contains numerous monuSir William ments, the most distinguished of which is that of Sir William Gascoigne, Gascoigne, of Gawthorpe, Knight, Lord Chief Justice of England, &c. Old Spa the judge, by whose coolness and intrepidity Henry V., when Prince of Wales, was committed to prison for an insult offered to the bench. Near this monument rest the ashes of Sir Thomas Dennison, a judge, who died in 1765, and whose epitaph, it is said, was the composition of Lord Mansfield. The remains of the Castle, supposed to have been built in the time of the Conqueror, stand on the declivity of a hill rising from the vale of the Wharf, and form a picturesque object in the fandscape. HARROGATE. This celebrated watering place is known throughout England. Prior to the discovery of its mineral waters it consisted only of a few farm-houses and widely scattered cottages on a barren heath. About the year 1751, Captain Slingsby, of Scriven, after his return discovered from Westphalia, found a spring in the Forest of Knaresborough, which is now the source of the Old Harrogate Spa. The water of the Tewett well was subsequently discovered; and both the springs gradually attracted public notice for nearly a century before any in 1751. A. D. 1867 1819 1805 provisions were made for the reception of the increasing number of visiters, till, in the year 1687 an inn, now the "Queen," was erected for their accommodation. Several other large hotels have since been added, and Harrogate is at present one of the most fashionable and best frequented watering places in the kingdom. Of the buildings recently erected, the Royal Promenade, or Chel- Public tenham Pump-room, is the most conspicuous for magnificence of Buildings. style, and the extent of its grounds. It is a spacious edifice of the Grecian-Doric order, with a noble portico of six fluted columns, supporting an entablature and cornice, surmounted by a triangular pediment, forming the entrance to the pump-room, which is nearly 100 feet in length, and more than thirty feet in breadth, and is lighted by a range of windows embellished with stained glass. The water, a saline chalybeate, was discovered in 1819; the building contains a library of 2,000 volumes for the gratuitous use of subscribers to the rooms; and the promenade is enlivened by the attendance of an efficient band of music. The Montpelier gardens Montpelier are beautifully laid out, and are much frequented, as affording the Gardens. united advantages of a saline chalybeate and a sulphurous spring, both of which are situated in the gardens, and are introduced into a handsome octagonal building, resembling a Chinese temple. The Victoria Promenade Rooms were erected in 1805, at a cost of £3,000; the building, which is of the Ionic order, is elegantly fitted up, and contains a principal room, 70 feet in length and 30 feet wide. The subscribers have the use of a library, &c., during the season. Several springs, possessing various properties, have been discovered of late years, but the Old Sulphur Well is still the principal attraction of this distinguished watering place. It is situated near the Crown Hotel, and was formerly received into a stone basin, covered with a dome resting on pillars, but which has been superseded by an elegant pump room, erected at an expense of £2,000, by the Commissioners, under an act of parliament passed in 1841, for the improvement of the town. The water is conveyed from the old basin to the room through tubes of Wedgwood ware, and received into glass vases, in order to preserve the water from exposure to the atmosphere or contact with metallic substances. The subscription to the pump-room for drinking the water is fixed by act of parliament at one shilling per week, and under the same act, a pipe is fixed outside to convey the water for the public use. In the direction of Harlow Tower, a great number of sulphurous springs are to be found, but they do not possess such healing powers as those already alluded to. From the investigations of Dr. Bennett, it appears that the numerous springs at Harrogate present very little variation, either in the amount of sulphur or salts, during the entire year, so that they may be considered perfectly efficacious at any time. Under the act procured in 1841, the protection of the springs is vested in twenty-one commissioners, of whom seven retire annually. Among the principal 1841 A. D. 1841 Bath bathing establishments are the Victoria baths, the Montpelier baths, the Starbeck baths, and the Cold baths, between the lower town and Harlow Tower; there is also accommodation for warm and cold bathing at most of the hotels. The Bath Hospital for Hospital. patients requiring the benefit of the waters was erected by subscription in 1825, on land given by the Earl of Harewood, and has been enlarged for the reception of forty-four patients, who are boarded, lodged, and provided with medical attendance. It is well supported, and confined to patients living at a distance of more than three miles from the town. In High Harrogate is a large subscription library, with a rich museum of fossils, shells, minerals, birds, and insects. There is likewise a good library at Low Harrogate; assemblies and concerts take place during the season, and a band of music is stationed on the green at High Harrogate, which performs every evening. Two newspapers, of limited dimensions, are published weekly, for the purpose of recording the names of the visiters, and also as an advertising medium for shopkeepers and others. The environs afford pleasant walks and rides, and on the summit of Harlow-hill a tower was erected in 1829, commanding an extensive prospect for many miles round. Harewood House, Plumpton, Brimham Rocks, Hackfall, Knaresborough, Ripon. Studley, are all within a short ride, and afford delightful excursions. There are two churches, one dedicated to Christ, at High Harrogate, and the district church of St. Mary, in Low Harrogate. There are also places of worship for dissenters. Means of instruction are provided for by a free grammar school, and a national and infant schools, the latter maintained by subscription. Harrogate comprises the villages of High and Low Harrogate, of which the former, with the hamlet of Bilton, constitute a parish in the township of Knaresborough, and the latter is in the parish of Pannal. The population now exceeds 4,000. Harlow erected in An extraordinary phenomenon was witnessed near Harrogate, by two men, on Sunday, June 28th, 1812.* These persons, whilst looking after their cattle, were surprised to see in the air a large body of armed men, in white military uniforms, in the centre of which was a person of commanding aspect, dressed in scarlet. After performing various evolutions, the whole body moved forward in perfect order, over an enclosure of thirty acres, and they were succeeded by another body, far more numerous, dressed in dark coloured uniform, who joined the first at the top of the hill, and passing down the opposite side, disappeared, when a column of thick smoke spread over the plain. The spectators supposed that the time from the first appearance of this strange phenomenon to the clearing up of the smoke was little more than five minutes. A similar appearance was witnessed at Stockton-on-the-Forest, in 1792, when these ærial troops moved in different directions, and sometimes with amazing rapidity. * See vol. i. of Annals. 1118 This place is of no great antiquity, nor is it noticed in the Domesday Survey; it appears to have been originally an obscure hamlet, situated in a dreary and almost inaccessible district, and to have acquired its earliest importance from the frequent resort of numerous pilgrims to visit the head of a virgin, the victim of a rejected suitor's revenge, and which, after decapitation, was affixed to a yew tree, and preserved as a holy relic. From this circumstance, to which the device of the town seal bears allusion, the present name of the place, originally Horton, is supposed to have been derived, the word "Halig," meaning holy, and "Fax," hair; but some antiquaries, interpreting the name as signifying Holy Face, derive it from a relic called the face of St. John, said to have been kept in solitary hermitage which anciently occupied the site of the present church. The original formation of the parish is attributed to the families of Warren and Lacy, lords of the manors of Wakefield and Pontefract, who, for this purpose, appropriated certain portions of their respective lands; and the earliest document wherein Halifax appears described as a place of any note is a charter, by which, in the beginning of the twelfth century, the church was granted by William de Warren, to the priory of Lewes, in the county of Sussex, which his ancestor had founded. Its subsequent increase is ascribed to the settlement here of certain emigrants from the Spanish Netherlands, who, seeking refuge from the persecution to which they were subjected under the government of the Duke of Alva, repaired in great numbers to England, and introduced the woollen manufacture, of which a branch was established here in 1414. At this time there were not not more than Woollen thirteen houses in the town, but it soon began to increase in extent Manufacand population; in 1540, it contained five hundred and twenty houses, and it has ever since been progressively advancing to its present importance, as one of the principal seats of the woollen, worsted, stuffs, and yarn manufacture. The practice of summary legislation, called Gibbet Law, which had from time immemorial prevailed within the limits of the forest of Hardwick, wherein the parish was included, was for many ages observed here, till finally abolished, about the year 1650. For a detailed account of this mode of punishment, the reader is referred to the first volume. In the time of the civil war, the town was garrisoned by the parliamentarian troops, whose cause the inhabitants zealously maintained, and in 1642, an obstinate engagement occurred between the contending forces, on the Halifax Bank, which, from the slaughter that ensued, has since been called the Bloody Field. Frequent skirmishes took place in the neighbourhood, between the royalists, who were besieging the towns of Bradford, Wakefield, and Leeds, and the inhabitants of Halifax, who often sent considerable numbers of troops to the assistance of those places. There ture. 1642 |