being covered with foliage, have a reviving effect. The road from Helmsley to Scarborough runs through some of these towns, and affords the traveller the most enchanting scenery. To see hills on the left, covered with trees, from which the birds pour forth their melodious harmony; and on the right a well cultivated country interspersed with hills, with hedge rows intersecting each other; form a pleasing variety. While you are thus environed with rural scenery, the genius of invention may hover over your head, expand the mind, and create inexpressible sensations.

From Kirkby-Moorside, you pass on to the villages of Sinnington, Wrelton, Aislaby, (the seat of the Rev. T. Hayes,) Middleton, and then to the market town of Pickering; from thence to the village of Thornton, (the seat of Richard Hill, Esq.,) then through the villages of Wilton, Allerston, and Ebberston, where there is a handsome villa of the Hotham family: from thence to Snainton, then to Brompton, (the seat of Sir G. Cayley, Bart.) and through the villages of Wykeham, Ayton, and Falsgrave, to Scarborough. The moor-land on the north of Kirkby-Moorside, is about three miles from it, and is concealed from the view of the trav eller by the rising ground; and were it not from a knowledge of the District, even the inhabitants of the vale of Pickering, would have no notion of so bleak and barren a situation.

How different is the state of the country in the vicinity of Kirkby-Moorside, from the ideas which are formed of it by thoughtful and enlightened strangers.

L.

The name of the town almost chills the feelings of those who are unacquainted with the situation; and those ideas cannot be altogether removed, but by seeing it.

When a person who had formed his notions from the name of the place, is undeceived by the prospect of this delightful Country, he is agreeably surprised, and perhaps wishes it had a name more congenial to its fertility.

The town of Kirby-Moorside, is founded on a yellowish stone, of an intermediate character, be tween a limestone and sandstone, it effervesces a little with acid, and belongs to that series which lies under the oolite formation. This calcareous sandstone is accompanied with a considerable quantity of yellow marl, which being detached from the stone, leaves it in a cavernous state; as if it had interfered at the formation of the rock, and prevented its regularity.

The marl is of the same description, as that which intervenes between all the beds of limestone in this district, and which is often seen filling caverns and fissures, so numerous in the limestone.

This yellow rock in many places rises to the surface, or is covered only with alluvium, partly of the same description, mixed with pebbles of other kinds. It is seen, on the right hand side of the road, passing through Nawton towards Helmsley, and at the end of this town, on the right hand side of the road leading to Gillamoor.

There is no doubt of Kirkby-Moorside being ane

cient. We have proofs from the accounts in Domesday, from Kirkdale Church, with which it seems to have been connected; and from various other circumstances. In the survey made by William the Conqueror, we find that Kirkby-Moorside had two churches, which was the eighth part of the number in the whole district; extending as far as Guisborough, and to the other side of Whitby: it had also two Mills, whilst an amazing extent of country possessed only eight, including those of KirkbyMoorside. This statement gives us a painful idea of the constant struggles which had taken place for Power in this neighbourhood; by reason of which the country was almost depopulated. Men destroy⚫ed one another in the most merciless manner, until there were but few left to destroy. The havoc made here by the Romans, and warlike Brigantes, the Britons, the Picts and Scots, the Saxons and Britons, the Saxons and Danes; and the ferocious conduct of William the Conqueror, is distressing to the imagination.

The Churches named in Domesday, relative to this vicinity, were distributed as follows, one in each place ;-Seaton near Hinderwell, Easington, Kirkleatham, Guisborough, Kildale, Ayton, Stokesley, Ormesby, in the manor of Acklam, Ingleby, Seamer beyond Walsgrave, and another at Brompton ; besides the two at Kirkby-Moorside, one of which was in the manor of Torbrand, and the other in that of Orm, which last was in all probability the church

It is probable that Kirkdale Church was one of them.

at Kirkdale. We learn from Domesday also that before the Conquest, Orm was Lord of Kirkdale, then called Chirchebi, or Kirkby, which includes the idea of the existence of houses near it, and that there was then, at least, a Village near the Church. Orm had great possessions in this neighbourhood, and in the vale of the Esk. The chief property about Kirkby-Moorside was his, he was possesser of Danby, Lealholme, and other places in that quarter He was of noble extraction, for his father Gamel, is ranked amongst the Northumbrian nobles, and Orm himself is said to have married Etheldrith the daughter of Aldred Earl of Northumbria. Gamel possessed a part of Kirkby Moorside, together with the lordship of Lastingham, Spaunton, &c. This Gamel, whose estates lay contiguous to those of Orm, might be the same with Gamel bearn; or Gamel the younger, who headed the confederacy against Tosti, earl of Northumberland. This was the state of this district at the time of the Conquest; after which period there was a great change in property: the greater part of it was taken from its owners, and given to the friends of the Conqueror.

There are here the vestiges of two baronial residences; one the remains of a Castle, on a hill to the east of the town, which belonged to the Stuteville family, and the other on the west end of it, at the north end of a street called Castle-gate; which was occasionally the residence of the Nevilles. The site of that which belonged to the Stutevilles, bears marks of strength: it is surrounded by a deep moat,

and is known by the appellation of Mary Rendray's Garden; from the name of a woman, who in the the latter part of the eighteenth century cultivated it as such.

The first of the Estoteville, or Stuteville family in this country, was Robert de Stuteville, who came over with William the Conqueror, and was a great favourite of his; and the family remained favourites of succeeding Princes; for such was King John's dependence on William, one of them, that he gave him the command of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland; with the supreme command of all their castles.*

In the reign of the same Prince, and in some preceding reigns, the manor of Kirkby-Moorside was the subject of great dispute between the families of Mowbray and Stuteville;+ which was at length confirmed to the Stutevilles, passed to the Nevilles, and afterwards to Villiers, duke of Buckingham, in the reign of James I., and then to the Duncombe family, the present possessors.

From what I can collect, the fact of the above statement is this :—when William the Conqueror came to England, Mowbray and Estoteville accompanied him; but Roger Mowbray, and Roger de Estoteville, being deprived of all their possessions by Henry I., on account of their rebellion, that mo. narch bestowed the greater part of them on Nigel de Albani, a young Norman nobleman; who mar

Hutchinson's History of Cumberland, vol. 2 p. 528. + Hoveden, Annal. ad 1200. Lel. col. 1. p. 294.