WHITE'S MONTH IN YORKSHIRE. * TAT present volume, narrating one of

Mr. White's usual summer vacation walks, strikes us as superior in variety and interest to either the " Land's End " or " On Foot through Tyrol." As re- gards the mere personal enjoyment of a tourist " A Walk to the Land's End' from The neighbourhood of the New Forest, might be quite equal to this journey through Yorkshire—that is in both cases to a stout pedestrian. But mere scenery, however beautiful, palls in continuous description. The varying and pic- turesque cliffs of the south-west coast of England—the sea that laves them—the open breezy downs that crown them, and the numerous rivers with their vales and mouths of beauty from Bournemouth to Falmouth, are delightful to the visitor, particu- larly when he is comfortably equal to twenty or thirty miles a day. The air of this coast too is drier, balmier, warmer, than the -low or exposed coasts of Yorkshire. The port of Plymouth is on a grander and even busier scale than anything to be found in Yorkshire after leaving Hull, which our author does not greatly admire. In Yorkshire, however, there is much greater variety both in scenery and the industries, as well as in the popu- lation. The fertile lands of Holderness, along the banks of the Humber, have been won from the water, below the level of which parts still remain ; and of all the branches of man's labour, those which describe the results of his victorious struggles with nature, especially for agricultural purposes, possess the most attraction. The lower coast, from the rarely-visited Spurn Point at the mouth of the Humber, till Bridlington and even Flamborough Head are approached, is full of geological interest, the waste of the shore going on almost under your eyes, and when you reach the higher cliffs various strata with embedded fossils distinctly showing themselves.

With Flamborough Head and Scarborough the character of the country changes. The coast becomes bold and striking ; " hills peep over hills," if we cannot call them alps, though some of them are a tough job to ascend ; fashion shows itself at watering- places—industry in different forms of quarrying or mining ; at Redcar on the Tees "commerce spreads her sail," which, indeed, she does on board of small craft at one or two other ports. Not crossing into Durham, Mr. White kept along the right bank of the river, and entered Westmoreland where an angle of the county projects into Yorkshire. .After seeing some of the natural won- ders of Westmoreland the tourist returned into the North Riding, admired the remains of castle and abbey which abound in that district, and examined with less delighted eye the hives of manu- facturing industry—Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, and other places. He made an elbow on his return to London to drop in at the Manchester Exhibition, which did not please him very much bet- ter than the literal or metaphorical atmosphere of the manufac- turing towns ; but some of his remarks are true enough.

" Less than half an hour spent in the building sufficed to show that it was a work of the north, not of the south. There was a manifest want of attention to the fitness of things, naturally to be looked for in a county where the bulk of the population have yet so much to learn ; where manu- facturers, with a 3-early income numbered by thousands, can find no better evening resort than the public-house ; where so much of the thinking 18 done by machinery, and where steam-engines are built with an excellence

of workmanship and splendour of finish well nigh incredible. * * *

" To me it seems, that of late we have had rather too much talk about art ; by far too much flattery of the artist and artificer, whereby the one with genius and the one with handicraft feel themselves alike ill-used if they are not always before the eyes of the world held up to admiration. And so, instead of a heart working inspired by love we have a hand work- ing inspired by hopes of praise. The masons who carved those quaint cart, lugs at Patrington worked out the thought that was in them lovingly, be- cause they had the thought and not the mere ambitious shadow of a thought. And their work remains admirable for all time, for their hearts were en- gaged therein as well as heads and hands. But now education and division of labour are to do everything; that is, if flattery fail not ; and in wood-- engraving we have come to the pass that one man cuts the clouds, another the trees, another the buildings, and another the animal figures ; while on steel plates the clouds are ' executed' by machinery." It is not merely in external or natural appearances that Mr. White's Month in Yorkshire has an advantage over his walk to the Land's End. The _people form• a more striking feature in the north. It is true Mr. White lays it down.for an axiom that moa- ners begin at Coventry- ; and as you go south or north from that ancient town so you will find them improve or retrograde till the negation of good becomes positive badness. But if Yorksluremen A Month in Yorkshire. By Walter White, Author of A Londoner's Walk to the Land's End," " On Foot through Tyrol," he. Published by Chapman and HaR. eemraeroi *al towns, kindly, hospitable, with hard heads and softer hearts than you would suppose to look at or listen to them. Their condition is also comfortable, and what is rarer than even comfort, they are content. As sometimes from choice, and often from the necessity of the case, Mr. White put up at very humble public-houses, he saw more of the people in a month than a com- mon sort of tourist by railway would see in years. The following is from the neighbourhood of Beverley. "On the question of wages they were all content. Here and there a man got eighteen shillings a week, but the general rate was fifteen shillings, or nine shill'n's a week and our meat ' (diet), as one eipressed it. 'Whatever folk might do in the south, Yorkshire lads didn't mean to work for nothing, or to put up with scanty food. We get beef and mutton to eat,' said lazy Mat, and plenty of it.' * * * * One of the cottages in which I took shelter stands lonely in a little wood. The tenant, a young labourer, who had just come home from work? ' not a bit sorry,' as he said, that 'twos Saturday afternoon,' entered willingly into conversa- tion and made no secret of his circumstances. His testimony was also fa- vourable as regards wages. He earned fifteen shillings a week, and didn't see si3y reason to complain of hard times, for he paid but three pounds a year for his cottage, which sum he recovered from his garden in vegetables and flowers, besides sundry little advantages which at times fall to the lot of rustics. He eat meat—beef or mutton—' pretty well every day,' and was fully persuaded that without enough of good food a man could not do a fair day's work."

This example of money going as fast as it is gotten may look improvident, but it is the same with most men—the generality in all ranks earn to spend. The scene is on the northern border of the county.

"In the public-house, which scrupled not to open its door to a traveller, I found half-a-dozen miners, who had walked over from a neighbouring vil- liege to drink their pint without molestation. Each recommended a differ- ent route whereby the ten miles to Stockton might be shortened. One in- sisted on a cut across the fields to Nuntharp.

"My ear caught at the sharp twang of the ar—a Yorkshireman would have said Nunthurp—and turning to the speaker I said, Surely that's Berkshire ?'

" 'tis. I comes not fur from Read'n.'

" True enough. Tempted by high wages in the north, he had wandered from the neighbourhood of Our Pillage up to the iron-diggings of Cleve- land. I took it for granted, that as he earned more than twice as much as he did at home ho saved in proportion. But, no ; he didn't know how 'twos ; the money went somehow. Any way he didn't save a fardin' more than he did in Berkshire. I ventured to reply that there was little good in earning more if one did not save more, when a tall brawny fellow broke in with 'Look here, lad. I'd ruttier 'am fifty shillin's a week and fling 'em right off into that pond there than 'am fifteen to keep.'

Just the retort that was to be expected under the circumstances. It embodies a touch of proud sentiment, in which we can all participate."

We will go back to the neighbourhood of Beverley for the effects of agricultural improvement in a singular district.

"About a mile from the town on the road to Hornsea, you cross one of the great Holderness drains, broad and deep enough for a canal, which, travers- ing the levels, falls into the sea at Bsrmston. It crosses the hollow lands known as the Carrs,' once an insalubrious region of swamp and water cover- ing the remains of an ancient forest. So deep was the water, that boats went from Beverley to Frothingham, and some of the farmers found more profit in navigating to and fro with smuggled merchandise concealed under loads of hay and barley than in cultivating their farms. For years a large swannery existed among the islands, and the king's swanner ' used to come down and hold his periodical courts. The number of submerged trees was almost incredible : pines sixty feet in length, intermingled with yew, elder, and other kinds, some standing as they grew, but the most leaning in all directions, or lying flat. Six hundred trees were taken from one field, and the labourers made good wages in digging them out at twopence a piece. Some of the wood was so sound that a speculator cut it up into walking- sticks. Generally, the upper layer consists of about two feet of peat, and beneath this the trees were found densely packed to a depth of twenty feet, and below these traces were met with inplaces of a former surface : the bottom of the hollow formed by the slope from the coast on one side, from the wolds on the other, to which Holderness owes its name. The comple- tion of the drainage works in 1835 produced a surprising change in the land- scape; green fields succeeded to stagnant water ; and the islands are now only discoverable by the holm' which terminates the name of some of the farms."

Notwithstanding the intersection of the country by railways Mr. White found many places where primitive manners with primitive ideas prevailed. This was more-especially the case in Westmoreland, where nature is still unreclaimed in many spots. Here is a bit of a walk with a self-cultivated dalesman, and a story that carries one back to Humphrey Clinker.

" We soon diverged from the road and began the ascent of Addleborough, (Edel-burg,) that noble hill which rises on the south-east of Bainbridge, rearing its rocky crest to a height of more than fifteen hundred feet. We took the shortest way, climbing the tall fences, struggling through heather, striding across begs, and disturbing the birds. The curlews began their circling flights above our heads, and the grouse took wing with sudden flutter, eight or ten brace starting from a little patch that to my inexperi- ence seemed too small to hide a couple of chickens. "My companion talked as only a dalesman can talk—as one whose whole heart is in his subject. None but a dalesman, he said, could read Words- worth aright or really love him. He could talk of the history of the dale, and.of the ways of the people. His great-grandmother was the first inBain- bridge who ever had a teapot. When tea first began to be heard of in those Parts, a bagman called on an old farmer, and fascinated him so by praising the virtues of the new leaf from China, that with his wife's approval he ordered a stean' to begin with. The trader ventured to suggest that a stone of tea would be a costly experiment, and sent them only a pound. Some months afterwards he called again for ' money and orders, and asked lam the worthy couple liked the tea ? Them was the nastiest greens we ever tasted,' was the answer. The parcel cam' one morning afore dinner, so the miscue tied 'em up in a cloth and put 'em into t' pot along wi' t' bacon. But we couldn't abear 'em when they was done ; and as for t' broth, we couldn't sup a drop on 't.' "

We should not recommend any one this year to follow Mr. White's footsteps in July 1857, unless they are well on. their feet/ accustomed to climbing, indifferent to getting wet or

Inning to put up with accommodations of the plainest, and are rough they are rough diamonds out of manufacturing and

to take men and things as they find them. But we can recom- mend his book ; although it would have borne some curtailment in the descriptions ; partioularly in those parts which the author perhaps looks back upon with the greatest pleasure—Westmore- land and places in Yorkshire adjacent thereto.