LETTERS TO TIIE EDITOR.
THE RIPON MILLENARY.
fro THE EDITOR 07 THE spur-Li:Ton:1 SIR,—If Mr. Freeman will look again at your article on "The Ripon Millenary," he will see that he is in substantial accord with you. He dismisses Gent's MS. as of no authority. So does your article. He also dismisses the tradition of Alfred's Charter of Incorporation. So also does your article, notwith- standing the incautiously worded sentence which Mr. Freeman justly criticises. The conclusion of your article, in summihg up the evidence, is as follows :— "What may, therefore, be stated within the safe frontier of historical evidence is that, while there is no evidence in support of the tradi- tion that King Alfred granted a formal Charter of Incorporation to Ripon in 886, there is good evidence to show that Ripon can boast, in connection with the Minster, of an organic corporate life stretching back certainly to the time of Alfred. Apart from its associations with the Minster, Ripon could make no such claim."
This is, in substance, the conclusion of Mr. Freeman. I may add that so strongly did the Dean and Chapter of Ripon feel, by anticipation, the force of Mr. Freeman's criticism, that they declined to have anything to do with the millenary celebra-
tion, except on the condition of the civic life of Ripon being recognised as resting on the Church of St. Wilfrid. The justice of this contention on the part of the Chapter was formally acknowledged in a public meeting of the citizens of Ripon.— I am, Sir, &c., MALcomi MAcCou., Canon of Ripon.
Aboyne Cradle, N.B., September 15th.
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