8 APRIL 1854, Page 18

BARKER'S THREE DAYS OF WENSLEYDALE. *

THE district of Wensleydale is situate in the North-western part of Yorkshire. It is watered by the river Um or Yore, which finally becomes the Ouse and then the Humber, and possesses some high hills or English mountains. According toJfr. Barker, it is a wildly beautiful district, with purple heather on the up- lands, luxuriant herbage in the vallies, and a waterfall which is only second to the cataracts of Egypt. Ruins of ecclesiastical and military architecture abound in the dale, which also has its his- torical and archmological associations. "-Under the mikl and polished Saxon rule," so writes our author, the region was memora- ble for Christians and Saints. It was part of the country devas- tated by the Conqueror; from which devastation, indeed, it never recovered, for "no new villages have arisen in the valley since the Conquest, and many have disappeared." The family of the Ne- villes, to whom belongs kingmaking Warwick, hela possessions in the country ; it was a favourite sojourn of one little given to the sentimental, or, it might be thought, the beautiful—Richard the Third ; it was assailed by the Reforming destructives of Harry the Eighth, and again by the Puritans during the Civil Wars. These things would not raise a book beyond a common lopogra- phy, but for the character of the author ; and that of Mr. Tones Barker is somewhat peculiar. He is a Romanist, with that passion for the beautiful both in art and nature which distinguishes the Romanist and Trinitarian by disposition rather than by birth, education, or reasoning. In such minds, imagination predominating over reason, the past and the distant have, like Campbell's image of the far-off mountain, an "azure hue," which the hard reality around us ever wants. Coupled with this tendency of mind, is a total deficiency of logical faculty ; the person looks through the spectacles of faith and fancy, and concludes accordingly. Hence Mr. Barker's belief in the saints and saintly times of the Heptarchy—the "mild and polished rule" of the Saxons—the economical advantages of monks and monastic "hospitality" as a substitute for " bastiles" and poor-laws—the brief "good days" of the "pious and amiable Mary ". Tudor, the "illegitimacy" of Rs ba- beth, and all the other sentimental weaknesses which distjnguiah the artistie.al and tasteful religionists of the day. From the mat these feelings inspire for the past, this kind of character is well fitted for topographical studies. Mr. Barker has other qualities. His taste in literature is catholic. The lightest poetry, the driest genealogy, the most questionable tradition, the most fugitivueli- odical, are all subjects of his study, without regard to what opinions their writers may hold ; though he exhibits much art or confidence in turning democratic poison to holy honey. These qualities imply a warm and earnest manner, with fanciful if not poetical animation, which Mr. Barker possesses. The historical, descriptive, biographical, antiquarian, and mis- cellaneous matter which our anthor has collected-respeoting Wens- leydale, he has thrown into the literary form of three chapters, en- titled "Three Days." The first is called "The Catholic Pay"; and begins with the Roman or even the ante-Roman period; rung over the characteristic features of the Anglo-Saxon times ; 4wellS more fully on the Norman rule, till the happy golden age of Wenn, • The Three Days of Wensleydale, the Valley of the Yisze. By w, ci, At. Jona Barker, Esq. Published by Dolman.

leydale is closed by the reforming propensities of Henry the Eighth. Then comes "The Day of Change "; which continues for three centuries, until we reach "The Present Day." These divisions are not very strictly observed : the present may be found by comparison in the past, and there is some past in the present.

The book is not to be judged by critical rules. It is to be looked at as an olla podrida of curious anecdote, art, and genealogical or family-information, animated by various knowledge and a pleasant enthusiasm pushed to absurdity. The following sample, rather favourable than otherwise, of Puritan clearness in business, is from the register-book of Wensley.

"'These are to certify all whom it may concern, that John Skurray was sworne before me, at Hippswell, the 30th day of March 1654, faithfully to execute the office of a Register for the parish of Wensley.

(Signed) WILLIAM TROILVION. "'And the said Register to receive for marriages, 28., and not more. "'And for births, 4d., and not more.

"'And for burials, 4d., and not more.

"And for such persons as go from door to door, he is to have nothing, according to the order and Acte of Parliament.

"'And more, if there be any register-books kept within your parish, at any Chapel of ease, the said register is to fall for them into his own hands, and he is to keep them as records. And that no Curate of any Chapel for to publish any matrimony within the said parish without the consent of the aforesaid Register, as they will answer to the contrary at their peril.' "William Thornton was the Roundhead Colonel before mentioned. The restriction on matrimony is amusing."

There is no restriction on matrimony : the charge is cheapened. The curate is forbidden to publish banns without authority, be- cause the Legislature had taken marriage into its own hands. If this form of matrimony is the right one, it seems sufficient.

"The following is said to have been the form of marrying before a magis- trate, as enjoined by the Parliament during the Commonwealth of England, to take place from September 29, 1653.

6 6 6 Bas.

" 'I, A. B., do here, in the presence of God, the searcher of all hearts, take thee, C. D., for my wedded wife ; and do also, in the presence of God and before these witnesses, promise to be unto thee a loving and faithful hus- band.'

" Wostax.

" 'I, C. D., do here, in the presence of God, the searcher of all hearts, take thee, A. B., for my wedded husband ; and do also, in the presence of God and before these witnesses, promise to be unto thee a loving, faithful, and obedient wife.'" Among the various lesser celebrities of Wensleydale, was Hugh de Morville, one of the murderers of Becket, Hatfield, who shot at George the Third, and the father of Mason the poet, who according to our author was Rector of Wensley from 1673 to 1683, and was buried there. The fact of the resting-place of a poet's father being known gives rise to a curious foot-note on the graves of poets : and some of the most curious matter, by the by, is in the notes. "it is not often that the grave of a poet's father is recorded, and pointed out to strangers. The poets themselves frequently rest without any me- morial of their burial, sometimes with no remembrance of its place. "Chaucer was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, without the building, but removed to the South aisle in 1555: Spenser lies near him. Beaumont., Drayton, Cowley, Denham, Dryden, Rowe, Addison, Prior, Con- grave, Gay, Johnson, Sheridan, and Campbell, all lie within Westminster Abbey. Shakspere, as every one knows, was buried in the chancel of the church at Stratford, where there is a monument to his memory. Chapman and Shirley are buried in St. Giles's-in-the-Fields ; Marlowe, in the church- yard of St. Paul's, Deptford ; Fletcher and 3fassinger, in the churchyard of St. Saviour's, Southwark ; Dr. Donne, in Old St. Paul's ; Edmund Weller, in Beaconsfield churchyard ; Milton, in the churchyard of St Giles's, Crip- plegate ; Butler, in the churchyard of St. Paul's, Covent Garden ; Otway, no one knows where ; Garth, in the church at Harrow ; Pope, in the church at Twickenham ; Swift, in St. Patrick's, Dublin ; Savage, in the churchyard of St. Peter's, Bristol ; Parnell, at Chester, where he died on his way to Dublin ; Dr. Young, at Welwyn, in Hertfordshire, of which place be was the Rector ; Thomson, in the churchyard at Richmond in Surrey ; Col- lins, in St. Andrew's Church at Chichester; Gray, in the churchyard of Stoke Pogis, where he conceived his Elegy ; Goldsmith, in the churchyard of the Temple Church ; Falconer, at sea, with all ocean for his grave '; Churchill, in the churchyard of St. Martin's, Dover ; Cowper, in the church at Pore- ham; Chatterton, in a churchyard belonging to the parish of St. Andrew's, Holborn ; Burns, in St. Michael's churchyard, Dumfries; Byron, in the church at Hucknall, near Newstead ; Cmbbe, at Trowbridge ; Coleridge, in the church at Highgate ; Sir Walter Scott, in Dryburgh Abbey ; Southey, in Crossthwaite church, near Keswick; Shelley, beneath one of the antique weed-grown towers surrounding ancient Rome '; and Keats beside him, wi- der the pyramid which is the tomb of Cestius.' "

The Metcalfes are rife in the district ; and learning and tradition are at odds about the origin of the name.

"Dr. Whitaker resolves the name, which is locally pronounced Mecca, into Meehalgh, from Nee, a Saxon personal name, and halgh, a low and watery flat: but the family arms, which from time immemorial have been three red calves, would rather favour the legend, that when the country abounded with wild beasts, two men, being in the woods together at even- fall, seeing a red four-footed animal coming towards them, could not imagine in the dusk what it was. One said, 'Have you not heard of lions being in

these woods?' The other answered, had, but had never seen any such thing.' ao they conjectured that that was one which they saw. The crea- ture advanced a few paces towards them. One ran away, the other deter- mined to meet it. This happened to be a red calf; so he that met it got the name of Metcalfe, and he that ran away got the name of Lightfoot."