for the accommodation of the numerous passengers who arrive by the Leeds, York, Sheffield, and Manchester trains, which meet at this place. A. D. 1852 OULTON, in the parish of Rothwell, is five miles north of Wake-Oulton. field. The celebrated Dr. Richard Bentley, was born here in the year 1661. The manor of Oulton belongs to John Blayds, Esq., and the mansion on the hill, the residence of that gentleman, which had formerly the appearance of little more than the dwelling of a good substantial yeoman, will now rank with the first gentlemen's seats in the neighbourhood. SANDAL MAGNA, two miles south-east of Wakefield, is chiefly Sandal remarkable for its ancient castle, built in the reign of Edward II., Magna. about the year 1320, by John Plantagenet, the last Earl of Warren, as a residence for his favourite mistress, Maude de Nerford, the lady of the unfortunate Thomas Earl of Lancaster, in the reign of Edward III. Edward Baliol resided here while an army was raised to establish him on the throne of Scotland. The castle afterwards became the property of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, who was slain in the battle of Wakefield, in the year 1460; and it was for some time the residence of his son Richard Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III. The last siege sustained by this castle was in the Civil wars of Charles I., when it was held by Colonel Bonivant, for the King, till it surrendered to the arms of Parliament, in October 1645. In the following year it was dismantled by order of parliament, and is now a diminutive ruin, little more than sufficient to mark the site where stood this ancient manor house of Wakefield. STANLEY-CUM-WRENTHORPE is one mile and a half north north-east Stanleyof Wakefield; it is a considerable township, containing 4,454 acres. cum-Wrenthorpe. Over this district of four miles in extent the population is much scattered, and there is but a very small assemblage of houses constituting the village which is called Stanley. Overthorpe is a straggling hamlet in this township, and consists chiefly of farmers; but Wrenthorpe is the hive, the inhabitants of which are principally employed in the woollen manufacture. Wrenthorpe is a corruption of Warrenthorpe, a name derived from the once powerful lords of the manor of Wakefield, and the name has suffered a still further deterioration, and is now popularly called Potovens. The population of this township has been greatly increased by the inclosure of the Outwood, from whence the timber was principally obtained for the original wooden walls of Wakefield, but which at the time of the inclosure had not upon it a single timber tree. In diminution of the parochial imposts, Mr. Richard Taylor, of Sandal, left by will, lands in Thornes, which now produce more than £60 per annum. The commissioners for the inclosure of the wastes awarded the sum of £5,666 13s. 4d. to the townships in the parish of Wakefield, for the reparation of their roads, of which sum A. D. 1852 £1,133 6s. Sd. was adjudged to Stanley-cum-Wrenthorpe, and a like sum to Alverthorpe with Thornes. The inclosure of the wastes, which amounted to 2,300 acres, afforded to the freeholders of the parish of Wakefield, an opportunity of exonerating themselves from the payment of small tythes, which they availed themselves of by allotting to the vicar a quantity of land, which, previous to the present reduction in agricultural produce, was of the value of from £600 to £700 a year, though Vicar Arnott before this arrangement declined to vote for a registrar, on the ground that he could not make oath, that his income from small tythes was worth a hundred a year. The great, or rectorial tythes of the parish have also been purchased, and are in the hands of six lay-improprietors. Tythe on hay has some time been claimed here, but it appears that the proprietors of the tythes, in their printed rental of 1762, considered hay as subject to a modus of only one shilling per acre. Here is the field of action, celebrated in ancient song, where the battle was fought between Robin Hood, Scarlet, and Little John, with the Pinder of Wakefield, "All on the green;" and the field is called Pinder's field to this day; and here, too, the Romans had a station. WETHERBY. The Saxon name of this town, whence the present was obviously deduced, was Wederbi, intended to designate its situation on a bend of the river Wharfe. During the Civil war of the 17th century, it was garrisoned for the Parliament, and successively repulsed two attacks made upon it by Sir Thomas Glenham. About three miles below it is St. Helen's Ford, where the Roman military way crossed the Wharfe. The town consists of several streets of well-built houses, and has of late been greatly improved by the removal of many of the older houses, and the erection of new buildings. Over the river is a handsome stone bridge, and a little above, a weir, formed for the benefit of some mills for grinding corn, and pulverizing bones for manure. There is also an extensive brewery. Wetherby has recently acquired additional importance by the establishment of an Agricultural Association, under the patronage of the Earl of Harewood and other gentlemen of influence, whose meetings are held annually, and attract a large number of visiters. A steeple chase meeting also takes place yearly, and is a source of considerable profit to the inhabitants. The township comprises by measurement 1,447 acres, of which 567 are arable, 860 meadow and pasture, and twenty woodland. The scenery is pleasingly varied; and at a short distance from the town, is Beilby Grange, the handsome seat of the late Alexander Brown, Esq., son of William Brown, Esq., M.P. for North Lancashire; and Woodhall Park, the residence of the late W. L. F. Scott, Esq., Registrar for the West-riding. The Chapel, dedicated to St. James, was built in 1842, on a site given by Edwin Greenwood, Esq., of Keighley, at an expense exceeding £4,000. Of this sum £530 were given by the Ripon Diocesan and Incorporated Societies, and £300 each by R. F. Wilson, Esq., Quintin Rhodes, Esq., who also presented an organ, and Colonel Wyndham. It contains 700 sittings, of which 180 are free. There are places of worship for dissenters. WHITBY. This place, in the Domesday Survey, called Whitteby, or the white town, is situated on the shore of the North Sea, at the mouth of the river Eske. The houses, partly of brick and partly of stone, are ranged on the bold acclivities on the opposite sides of the river, and many of the modern buildings are spacious and elegant. The streets are paved and lighted with gas. Whitby owes its origin to a famous abbey, founded here in 657, by Oswy, king of Northumberland, to redeem a vow that he had made previous to the sanguinary battle of Leeds, fought in 655,— that if God would grant him victory over Penda, the Pagan King of Mercia, who had invaded his dominions, he would build a monastery, and consecrate his daughter, Ethelfleda, then scarcely one year old, to the service of God by a life of celibacy. The prayers of Oswy were heard; Penda was slain with most of his nobles, and Oswy in gratitude to heaven built the monastery of Streanshalh, for monks and nuns of the Benedictine order, appointing Lady Hilda, niece of Edwin, the first Christian king of Northumbria, abbess. This lady was so famous for her sanctity that she attained the name of St. Hilda, and the monastery, though dedicated to St. Peter, is generally called after her. The story goes, says Grose, that in her time, this place and its environs were terribly overrun with serpents. These, by the prayers of St. Hilda, were deprived of their heads and turned into stones, as the writer of her life very properly observes, to the great amazement of the beholders! In her benevolence however she kindly provided houses for the snakes so petrified, all of whom are enclosed within a kind of stony matrix ; these stones are still found in great quantities in this neighbourhood, and are what the fossilists call ammonitæ. On the landing of the Danes at Raven's hill, two miles to the west of Whitby, in 867, they destroyed this monastery, and it lay in ruins till the Conquest, when William the Norman, assigned Whitby to Hugh de Abrincis, an expert soldier, who disposed of the place to William de Percy, by whom the monastery was refounded, and dedicated to St. Peter and St. Hilda. In the reign of Henry VIII., this house shared the fate of the other monastic establishments, and its yearly revenues, according to Speed, were valued at £505. 9s. 1d. The site of the abbey was granted in the 4th of Edward A. D. 1842 A. D. 1551 Lodging Houses. VI. to John, Earl of Warwick, by whom in 1551, it was sold to Sir The ruins of this once famous abbey stand on a high cliff southeast of the town, near the parish church, and the ascent to it from the town is by a flight of two hundred steps. This noble abbey has gone greatly to decay, but the rudest shock it received in modern times was from a storm of wind in the night of the 2nd of December, 1763, when the whole western wing was overturned and thrown down to the very foundations, though supported by at least twenty strong Gothic pillars and arches, nothing being left standing thereon but the north wall of the cloisters and a part of the wall at the west end. When the abbey of Whitby was in the zenith of its glory, the town was little more than a small fishing station, and so lately as the year 1540, it did not consist of more than from twenty to thirty houses with a population not exceeding two hundred inhabitants. At that time it is probable there was not a single chimney in the town, the abbey chimney excepted; the common way then, even in towns and cities of much greater consequence, being, to have a hearth in the middle of the room in which was made the fire, the smoke ascending and passing through a large hole at the top of the building. According to tradition, Robin Hood and Little John paid a visit to Richard de Waterville, the abbot, and as a proof of their dexterity in archery, shot an arrow each from the summit of the tower to the distance of more than a mile; in commemoration of which event, pillars were raised on the spot where the arrows fell. About six miles from the town is Robin Hood's bay, where that celebrated outlaw is said to have kept a small fleet to assist his escape in times of emergency. Whitby contains a news room, assembly rooms, a literary and philosophical society, a museum, and a subscription library, containing more than 7000 volumes. The theatre was destroyed by fire in 1823 and has not been rebuilt. The public baths, on the north pier, are a handsome range of buildings, erected in 1826 by a proprietary of shareholders. About half a mile from the pier is Whitby Spa, a chalybeate spring, the water of which is extensively and successfully administered in cases where saline tonics are recommended. Many handsome lodging-houses have been erected for the reception of families; and there are also several good taverns and hotels for the accommodation of the numerous visiters whom the facilities of sea bathing, the benefit of the waters, and the beauty of the scenery attract during the season to this part of the coast. The environs abound with interest. In the rocks are found fossil and organic remains; and in the aluminous strata, petrifactions in numerous varieties, amongst the most remarkable of which are the petrified bones of a crocodile nearly entire, deposited in the museum of the Whitby Philosophical Society. One of the most perfect specimens of the PLESIOSAURUS ever found was discovered in the lias strata in 1841, and is deposited in the Woodwardian museum, at Cambridge; this fossil measures fifteen feet six inches in length, and eight feet five inches in breadth across the fore paddles; the head and neck together are seven feet in length, and the whole in a most entire state of preservation. Ammonites or snake stones are obtained in great abundance in every part of the alum rocks; and there are not less than a hundred varieties of multilocular shells. The commercial prosperity of the town may be attributed to the discovery of the alum mines, towards the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The establishment of alum works caused a great increase in the number of vessels; and the abundance of oak in the vicinity, led to the introduction of ship building, for which the port has maintained a high degree of celebrity; many large and handsome ships have been launched from the docks; and all the vessels which accompanied Captain Cook in his voyage round the world were built at this place. A notice of this illustrious man is contained in the first volume. A. D. 1852 After the peace in 1815, the trade of ship-building greatly Ship declined, but it revived, and in 1838, twenty-five vessels, of which Building. nineteen were of more than one hundred tons burthen, were launched from the several building yards, and nearly the same number in 1839. The ships of Whitby are remarkable for symmetry, strength, and durability, and a very considerable number are employed in the principal trading ports of the kingdom. The manufacture of alum, which formerly constituted the principal trade, and of which great quantities were exported to the Continent, has been very much diminished, and the chief part is now sent coastwise to London, Hull, and other towns, for the supply of the home market. The extensive works at Kettleness were totally destroyed in 1829, by the falling of a rock, but they were re-built a few years ago. The whale fishery was for a long period a lucrative branch of trade, but in 1823, owing to the frequent loss of vessels employed, it began to decline, and in 1837, it was totally discontinued. The main business of the port at present consists in the importation of timber from British America, and timber, wooden wares, hemp, and flax, from the Baltic. The foreign export trade is inconsiderable. The coasting trade is very extensive. In 1839, the port obtained the privilege of bonding goods, for which spacious warehouses are appropriated. The Custom-house is well adapted to its purpose; in one of the windows is a portrait of Charles II. in stained glass. The Harbour has been greatly improved at different times; the west pier has been re-built, and extended to Haggersgate by a spacious quay, forming a noble promenade, nearly half a mile in |