A MONTH IN YORKSHIRE.
AMONTH IN YORKSHIRE.
BY
WALTER WHITE,
AUTHOR OF “A LONDONER’S WALK TO THE LAND’S END,” “ALLROUND THE WREKIN,” AND OTHER BOOKS OF TRAVEL.
“Know most of the rooms of thy native country, beforethou goest over the threshold thereof; especially, seeingEngland presents thee with so many observables.”—Fuller.
FOURTH EDITION.
LONDON:
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.
1861.
[The right of Translation is reserved.]
By the same Author.
A Londoner’s Walk to the Land’s End; and a Trip tothe Scilly Isles. Second Edition.
On Foot through Tyrol.
A July Holiday in Saxony, Bohemia and Silesia.
Northumberland and the Border. Second Edition.
All Round the Wrekin. Second Edition.
FOREWORD TO THE FOURTH EDITION.
The first two editions of this work had not long been publishedwhen I was pelted with animadversions for the “scandalousmisrepresentation” conveyed in my report of a conversation heldwith a villager at Burnsall; which conversation may be read inthe twenty-second chapter. My reply was, that I had set downless than was spoken—that I had brought no accusation, nothaving even mentioned the “innocent-looking country town”as situate in any one of the three Ridings—that what I had seen,however, in some of the large towns, led me to infer that theimputation (if such it were) would hardly fail to apply; and,moreover, if the Yorkshire conscience felt uneasy, was I to beheld responsible?
My explanation that the town in question was not in Yorkshire,was treated as of none effect, and my censors rejoined in legalphrase, that I had no case. So I went about for awhile under akind of suspicion, or as an unintentional martyr, until one daythere met me two gentlemen from Leeds, one of whom declaredthat he and others, jealous of their county’s reputation, and doubtingnot to convict me of error, had made diligent inquiry and foundto their discomfiture, that the assemblages implied in the villager’sremark, did actually take place within Yorkshire itself. The discoveryis not one to be proud of; but, having been made, let thecounty strive to free itself from at least that reproach.
Another censurable matter was my word of warning againstcertain inns which had given me demonstration that their entertainment,regulated by a sliding scale, went up on the arrival of[Pg vi]a stranger. Yorkshire wrote a flat denial of the implication tomy publishers, and inclos