Knaresborough

“ STUBBS, WILLIAM (1825–1901) , historian and bishop successively of Chester and Oxford, was the eldest son of William Morley Stubbs, solicitor, of Knaresborough, and Mary Ann, daughter of William Henlock. He came of such solid yeoman stock that he could amuse himself in later life by working out his line of ancestors among the crown tenants of the forest of Knaresborough as far back as the fourteenth century. He was born on 21 June 1825 in High Street, Knaresborough. ”

“ It seems strange that the real and lasting charms of the town should be overshadowed by such popular and much-advertised ‘sights.’ The first view of the town from the ‘high’ bridge is so full of romance that if there were nothing else to interest us in the place we would scarcely be disappointed. The Nidd, flowing smoothly at the foot of the precipitous heights upon which the church and the old roofs appear, is spanned by a great stone viaduct. This might have been so{126} great a blot upon the scene that Knaresborough would have lost half its charm. ”

“ This device had so good an effect that in a few minutes he had nine couples about him, as the hounds were kept by various people about the shambles, &c., and were suffered to lie unkennelled. Mounting his horse, away he rode with the dogs to Harrogate, where he met his friends ready mounted and in high spirits. Some of them proposed going to Bilton wood, near Knaresborough, but this was opposed by Metcalf, who preferred the moor; in fact, he was apprehensive of being followed by Mr. Woodburn, and wished accordingly to be at some distance from Knaresborough. ”

“ He made and published the first scientific analysis of the Harrogate waters, and was the author of several philanthropic schemes for the benefit of the inhabitants of Knaresborough. Lord Rosslyn built him a house at Harrogate, but his success did not answer his expectations, and he was meditating emigration to America when he succumbed to the attractions of Miss Catharine Grace Cleveland, whom he had received as a boarder into his house. ”

“ Then the Knaresborough men were up and into them, and when their leader got back to Otley with the remnants of his men, he protested that "he'd fancied, like, they'd ta'en all the hornets' nests i' Yorkshire, but some few thrifty wasps were breeding still."
"Why do you laugh?" said Lady Ingilby, when the Governor came down to tell her all was well.
"Because luck is as skew-tempered as the jackass braying yonder. Have the Metcalfs had such frolic out at Skipton, think ye? And I was keen to ride with them—Miss Bingham, I owe you reparation. ”

“ In February 1762 he settled at Knaresborough, Yorkshire, as a bookseller and publisher. A few years later he was able to open a branch business at Harrogate. In 1769, according to Boyne (Yorkshire Library, p. 141) , appeared anonymously the first edition of Hargrove's 'History of the Castle, Town, and Forest of Knaresborough, with Harrogate and its Medicinal Waters,' &c., which was frequently republished, latterly with the compiler's name on the title-page. ”

“ Having gone to York in the first days of 1795, he set out on January 9th to walk to Green-Hammerton, on his way to Thornville Royal, and accomplished the distance, which was ten miles, in three hours and a half. He slept that night at Thornville Royal, and next day walked to Knaresborough, January 10th, the birthday of Sir Thomas Slingsby's eldest son, which was kept with great rejoicings. ”

“ Amongst other grants he gave him the Lordship of Knaresborough Castle and forest, with divers liberties, franchises, and privileges, which led him to assume a high and dictatorial tone to the nobles of the realm, who expostulated with the King, and compelled him to banish the insolent foreigner. But the King, not able to learn wisdom in the school of experience, recalled him and bestowed fresh benefits upon him, which so exasperated the Barons that they rose in arms, with Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, at their head, captured the favourite in Scarborough Castle, and beheaded him. ”

“ John Metcalf, the famous blind roadmaker, was born in 1717, and lost his eyesight at six years of age. p. 11A native of Knaresborough, he filled in his time many parts; being fiddler, huckster, soldier, carrier, proprietor of the first stage-wagon between York and Knaresborough, and road and bridge maker and contractor by turns. The marvellous instinct which served him instead of sight is scarce credible, but is well authenticated. ”

“ He was by calling a chemist. In 1808 and 1809 he filled the office of churchwarden, and in the latter year repaired the chancel of the church. Among other public objects in which he took an interest was the Knaresborough Spa, a mild sulphur spring on the road to Harrogate, and by his exertions the house and spa-baths and fountain were erected. ”

“ Soon after, there was a mile and an half of turnpike-road to be made between Knaresborough-Bridge and Harrogate, which Metcalf also agreed for. Going one day over a place covered with grass, he told his men that he thought it different from the ground adjoining, and would have them try for stone or gravel, which they immediately did, and found an old causeway, supposed to have been made in the time of the Romans, which afforded many materials proper for the purpose of making the road. ”

“ Brian de Lisle was ordered to deliver Knaresborough to the Archbishop of York, the Peak and Bolsover to Robert of Lexington, who was however to receive the latter fortress not for himself, but to hand it over to William Brewer (Pat. Rolls, vol. i. p. 418) . Earl William Longsword was to deliver the castle of Salisbury, William Brewer that of Devizes and Ralf Gernon that of Corfe, to the Bishop of Salisbury. Bristol castle was to pass from the Bishop of Norwich (Pandulf) , Sherborne castle and the sheriffdom of Somerset from John Russell, to the Bishop of Bath ”

“ Thornton went to Knaresborough about the first of October, 1745; and Metcalf having for several years been in the practice of visiting that gentleman’s mansion, (particularly at the festive season of Christmas, where, with his violin and hautboy, he assisted to entertain the family) Mr. ”

“ Anxious to avoid any such imputation, I shall again invoke the assistance of the Times, whom I now cite as a witness, and a very powerful one, upon my side of the question. Let us hear the Thunderer on the subject of these same metropolitan constituencies, just twelve months ago, before Scarborough and Knaresborough had disgraced themselves by returning Protectionists to Parliament. I quote from a leader in the Times of 8th August 1850, referring to the Lambeth election, when Mr Williams was returned. ”

“ Scarborough is seven hundred miles from Cornwall: Captain Barfoot is in Scarborough: Seabrook is dead. Tears made all the dahlias in her garden undulate in red waves and flashed the glass house in her eyes, and spangled the kitchen with bright knives, and made Mrs. Jarvis, the rector's wife, think at church, while the hymn-tune played and Mrs. Flanders bent low over her little boys' heads, that marriage is a fortress and widows stray solitary in the open fields, picking up stones, gleaning a few golden straws, lonely, unprotected, poor creatures. ”

“ In Roseborough, persons of his and Miss Crewe’s birth and kindred could not marry on nothing but love. Their families, and Roseborough, demanded of them that they settle themselves properly in life, to keep up appearances. ”

“ Yorkshire men are canny, and good at a bargain and no better judges of horseflesh are found anywhere. The only drawback connected with Scarborough is its distance from London, but that is really only a drawback to Londoners. The Scarborough man is rather proud of the fact. He looks with pity upon the benighted south of England man, and has no words to express his contempt for the finnicky foreigner, who comes to Scarborough and drinks sour red wine, instead of quaffing huge draughts of the glorious old Yorkshire ale. ”

“ When a person is driven over, and then told to keep out of the way, he receives Scarborough-warning. Fuller says the proverb alludes to an event which happened at that place in 1557, when Thomas Stafford seized upon Scarborough Castle before the townsmen had the least notice of his approach. ”

“ I found also that he very frequently called at Mr Crank’s residence at times when he well knew that the old gentleman would be at his counting-house. I did not suppose, however, that he received any encouragement from Miss Lucy, but he always had some excuse for paying a visit, either to show some curiosity which he said he had brought from abroad, or to leave a book or other articles which he had obtained for her. The fact was, that he had got into the good graces of Miss Deborah Crank, Mr Crank’s maiden sister, who resided with him to look after Miss Lucy and keep his house in order. ”

“ By seven o'clock she was far away from Elmsford, and London was forgotten, and its heat. The clean air, the springy turf, those all-embracing skies, had made a new creature of her, a being who sang and leapt and capered when she felt sure that nobody was looking, and who certainly never bothered about sovereigns. She seemed to have grown suddenly ten years younger, which would have made her exactly eleven, instead of twenty-one. ”

“ Of course there are ruins near Scarborough, and again of course the favourite drive is to these ruins. Another excursion is to a hill overlooking the town, where tradition says that unsavoury individual yclept Oliver Cromwell, once stood, or sat or performed some other operation equally important.
Politically, as becomes its staid and exclusive clientèle, Scarborough is Conservative; and has no sympathy with an old man’s visionary plans to break up a great Empire. ”

“ Of that fact Mr Alison has enabled us to judge, by a fine portrait, after Sir Godfrey Kneller, of Marlborough, when in the prime of manhood. We cannot conceive a nobler countenance than here looks on the reader; it is the perfection of manly beauty. There is a certain serene frankness, a dignity, a subdued vivacity and power in those symmetrical features which would have enchanted Phidias. The Englishman thinks, and his pulse quickens the while, of that countenance, now so tranquil, suddenly inflamed at Blenheim, Ramilies, Oudenarde, Lille, Malplaquet ”

“ Gainsborough, with his refined Roman nose, the haughty, curved sensuous lips, and the expression of his face which speaks at once of innocence and refinement, gives an impression far more than Reynolds of the child of nature and the gentleman. His cheeks are fresh and rather ruddy; a depth of soul lies within the large blue eyes, that are somewhat melancholy, yet have such a free outlook upon life. ”

“ Kneller left his house in Great Queen Street to his wife, and after her decease to his godson Godfrey Huckle, who took the name of Kneller. Amongst the celebrated persons painted by Kneller in his best manner were Bolingbroke, Wren, Lady Wortley Montague, Pope, Locke, Burnet, Addison, Evelyn, and the Earl of Peterborough. The brittleness of this man’s fame is another proof that he who paints merely for his time must perish with his time. ”

“ Desborough, whose object—desperate character as he usually was—seemed now rather to fly than to fight, availed himself of this advantage to hasten to the bows of the canoe, where, striding across the body of his insensible companion, he with a few vigorous strokes of the remaining paddle, urged the lagging bark rapidly ahead. In no way intimidated by his disaster, the courageous old man, again brandishing his cudgel, and vociferating taunts of defiance, would have continued the pursuit ”

“ There was a slight track, partly formed by stray cattle which led up it, and casting his eyes upon this, he saw the marks of a horse's feet. "Some one of the gang got home before me," he said. "I'm right glad of that, anything better than such another night."
He turned a sharp angle in the path, just where it ran round an abrupt cliff. He saw a horseman within ten yards of him with his face towards him. Captain Desborough, holding a pistol at his head.
"Surrender, George Hawker!" said Desborough. "Or, by the living Lord! you are a dead man." ”

“ There was wit in all Kneller’s banter, and even when his quaint sayings told against himself, they seemed to reflect the humour of a man conscious of the ludicrous side of his own vanity. To his tailor who brought him his son to offer him as an apprentice emulative of Annibale Caracci, whose father had also sat cross-legged, Sir Godfrey said, grandly, “Dost thou think, man, I can make thy son a painter? No; God Almighty only makes painters.” To a low fellow whom he overheard cursing himself he said, “God damn you? No, God may damn the Duke of Marlborough, and perhaps Sir Godfrey Kneller ”

“ Desborough determined to set a watch out on the road towards the mouth of the gully, where they were supposed to be. "We shall have them in the morning," said he. "Let every one get to sleep who can sleep, for I expect every one to follow me to morrow."
Charles Hawker had laid down in an inner room, and was sleeping uneasily, when he was awakened by some one, and, looking up, saw Major Buckley, with a light in his hand, bending over him. He started up.
"What is the matter, sir?" he asked. "Why do you look at me so strangely? Is there any new misfortune?" ”

“ Captain Scarborough, when he left his father's rooms, and found himself going out from the Albany into Piccadilly, was an infuriated but at the same time a most wretched man. He did believe that a conspiracy had been hatched, and he was resolved to do his best to defeat it, let the effect be what it might on the property; but yet there was a strong feeling in his breast that the fraud would be successful. No man could possibly be environed by worse circumstances as to his own condition. ”