Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/174

 HISTORICAL RECOLLECTIONS. 149

pile of Sevcrus, or recalls the tumult of the sanguina ry battles of Tow ton and Marston Moor, fought in the vicinity, one of which terminated the fierce wars of the Roses, and the other, through the imprudence of Prince Ruprrt, crushed the hopes of the Royalists.

We fancy that we listen to the chimes of the first Christmas, as it was here celebrated by Prince Arthur, or gather traits of its more splendid observance, under Henry the Third or Edward the Second, from the pages of the old Chroniclers. Still following the an nals of war, we perceive the blood of Scot, Pict, and Dane, Roman, Saxon, and Norman, mingling beneath these walls. Sack and siege darken the picture. Wil liam the Conqueror, flushed with success and domina tion, held his armies for six months before these walls, until famine compelled capitulation, and then satiated his vengeful cruelty by the slaughter of the nobility and gentry, and the devastation of the whole country between York and Durham.

In the wars under Charles the First, a siege by the Parliamentary forces was endured for several months, which some of the present inhabitants are fond of say ing would have been longer withstood, had not Fairfax pointed a battery of cannon against the venerable ca thedral, and threatened to destroy that glory of their ancestors.

We may now hope, with regard to York, that the days of its warfare and mourning are ended ; and the traveller is gratified to find the turmoil of the battle field exchanged for the Christian cares of the Hospital,

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