New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-09-09
A VISIT TO OLD YORK.
ONE OF THE oUAINTEsT OF ENGLISH CITIES.
| onn STREETS AND BUILDINGS-EVENING NAV
pEr-NTUr ANCIENT WALLS OF YORK

lfhon 'i"'' 'oA"' York, August IL.
All summer long the sorrowful skies nave oeeh
weeping over England,and my first prospect Vi VII,
ancient city was a prospect through dr'Ini' ""'
mist Yet even so it was impressive 10TH -
one of the quantest cities in the kingdom. MANY
Of the streets are narrow and crooked Nose Vi
the buildings are Of low stature. Dulit OF or'on'
and rooted with red tiles Here ana there you
come across a house of Queen Ehzaoeths o''ne
picturesque with over-hanging umocr-oro''."
fronts and peaked gables one sucn hou'e' :"
Stonegate. is conspicuously marked with It's oa'e'
1874. Another, in College-st.. quadrangular' III
closing a court. and lovely with old tamper anu
carved gateway, was built by the Neville family
in 1860 There Is a wide area in the centre OF ,ne
town called Parliament-st. where the Market Is
opened by torch-lght or gasjets' on certain even.
ings Of every week. 1t was market-time Iasc
evening, and wandering through the mooley anu
merry crowd that filled the square, aoouC
o'clock bought at q fower-stau the wnioe roso
Of York and the red rose of MISUNDERSTANDING
them together as an emblem Of the settled peace
which here broods so swectly over the venerable
relics of wild and stormy past.
Three or four sections of the old wall OF YORK
ore still extant and the observer is amused 10 per
ceive the ingenuity with which these gray anu
Wondering remnants of the fcudal age are BLENDED
into the homcy structures Of the democratic pres
ent. From Bootham to Monk Gate $50 named IN
honor of General Monk at the Restoratlon), as
tance OF about half mile the wall is absorbed by
the adjacent buildings. But you may walk upon
il from Monk Gate to Jewbury, about quarter Oh
n mile and afterward, crossing the Foss you may
find il again on the southeast of the city, ana walk
upon it from Red Tower to old Fishergate, de-
hot,
scending near York Castle. There are houses poth
within the walls and without The walk is ABOUT
eight feet wide, protected on one hand by 1retteo
battlement and on the other by an occasional olt
of iron fence The base of the wall, for consid-
cradle part Of its extent, is fringed with market
gardens or with grassy banks. In one OF It's
towers there is a gate-house, still occupied as
dwelling: and very comfortable dwelling no
doubt il is. In another, of which nothing now re-
mains but the walls, four large trees are rooted;
and as they are already tall enough 10 wave their
leafy tops above the battement they must have
been growing there for the last twenty years. At
one point the Great Northern Railway enters
through an arch in the ancient wall, and as you
look down from the battlements your gaze rests
unon long lines of rail and spacious, superb sta
tion-perhaps the largest in acknowledgement
with its adjacent hotel; objects which consort but
u
the moat, the drawbrdge, the portculs, the clta-
del the man-at-arms and the knight in armor with
the banners of William the Norman flowing over
all.
The river Ouse.-Cowrcr's Ouse, slow winding
through its level plain divides the city OF York,
which lies mostly upon its east bank. and in order
to reach the longest and most attractive portion OF
the wall that is now available to the pedestrian
Won must cross the Ouse, either at Skeldergate or
Lendal paving half penny as toll. both when you
90 and when you return. The walk here Is three
quarters of a mile long, and from an angle OF this
wall lust above the railway arch, may be obtained
the best view Of the mighty cathedral-surely one
of the most stupendous and sublime works that
ever were erected by the inspired brain and loving
labor of man. While 1 walked there last night
and unused upon the old story of the Wars of the
Roses and strove to conjure up the pageants and
the horrors that must have been presented all about
shis region in that remote and turbulent past the
glorious bells of the Minister were Ginning from its
towers while the fresh evening breeze, sweet with
the fragrance of wet flowers and foliage, seemed to
flood this ancient and venerable city with the
golden music of celestial benedicton.
The pilgrim 70 York stands in the centre Of the
largest shire in England and is surrounded upon
every side with castles and monasteres, now mostly
in ruins but, even So teeming with those associa-
tons of history and literature which are the chief
glory of this delightful land. From the summit OF
the great central tower of the Minister. which Is
reached bv 237 steps, gazed out over the Vale OF
York and beheld of the oveliest specacles that
ever blessed the eyes Of man. The wind was
fierce the sun brilliant and the vanquished storm
clouds were streaming away before the northern
blast Far beneath lay the red-roofed city, its
devious lanes and its many gray hale churches
crumbling relics of ancient ecclesiastical power
distinctly visible. Through the midst and far
away toward the south and east ran the silver
thread of the Ouse while all around, as far as the
eve could reach, stretched forth smiling land
scape of emerald meadow and cultivated field, here
a patch of woodland and there silver CLEAN of
wave, here a manor-house nestled amid stately
trees and there an UNCOVERED fragment OF ruined
masonry, and everywhere the green lines of the
towering hedge The prospect is far finer here than
even it is from the summit Of Strasburg Cathedral
and indeed when all is said that be said about
natural scenery and architectural sublimitles 1t
seems amazing that any lover of the beautiful
should ever deem it necessary to quit the infinite
variety of these British islands Earth cannot
show you anything lovelier than the lakes and
mountains of Cumberland and Westmoreland. No
Guy OF tne WOrlu eau IudUcH WIN III
magnifcence of position. The most exquisitely
beautiful Of all churches is Roslyn Chapel And
though you search the wide world through you will
never find such cathedrals-so fraught with maj
esty, sublimity the loneliness of human art and
the ecstatic sense Of divine element in human
destinyl-a those of Canterbury and York. While
thus fingered, in wondering meditation, upon the
crag-likc summit of York Minister, the mufied thun-
der of its WASH, sonorous organ rose, rolling and
throbbng, from the mysterious depth below, and
seemed to shake the great tower as with mighty
blast of jubilation and worship. AT such moments,
if ever, when the tones of human alteration are
floating up to heaven, man is lifted out of him.
SELF and made to forget his puny existence here,
and all the petty nothings that weary his spirit
and darllen his vision and weigh him down to the
level of the sordid and trivial world. Well did
they know this, those old monks who built the
abbevs of Britain, laying their foundations not