Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/910

Rh YORK. 898 YORK. greatly extended powers. The lord mayor resides during his term of office at the Mansion House. This building was erected in 1725. It is chiefly celebrated for its state-room, which occupies the entire length of the front. The interior is ornamented with the royal arms and the arms of the city over the fireplace at each end. It also contains a collection of paintings, full- length portraits of William III., Georga II., George IV., Marquis of Rockingham, Duke of Richmond, Lord Dundas, &c. The Guildhall stands behind the Mansion House, and is approached through a gateway which forms part of the front of that building ; it was erected by the mayor and commonalty in concert with the master and brethren of the guild of St. Christopher in 1446. At the Reformation this society was dissolved, and its property, including the Guildhall, granted to the mayor and commonalty of the city. It is a Gothic room ; the roof is supported by large pillars of oak ; over the entrance is a painting of St. Paul pleading before King Agrippa, by Richard Marsden, presented to the corporation in 1852 by the Rev. Thomas H. Lane Fox, of Bramham Park. The hall contains also a massive silver bell, captured from the great Pagoda at Rangoon at the storming of that city in April, 1852, presented to the city by the 51st regiment, or Yorkshire West Riding regiment. It was placed in the hall in July, 1855. The court of sessions for the city is held here before the city recorder. At the further extremity is the petty ses- sions room, where the magistrates hear minor cases ; also council-room, record-room, county court and other offices. The principal courts, however, are in the castle. Some people have supposed that the site of the present castle and Clifford's Tower, at the junction of the rivers Fosse and Ouse, was anciently occupied as a British fortress before it was held by the Romans. William the Con- queror rebuilt the castle and erected the Clifford's Tower, now a ruins, but one of the greatest ornaments of the city. It derived its name from one of the Cliffords being its first governor, and stands on a lofty mound of earth in the castle yard. The caetle was rebuilt by Richard III. It continued in the possession of the crown for many years, and was used as the official resi- dence of the high sheriffs of Yorkshire, and the depo- sitory of the revenues and munitions of the crown. After it ceased to be used as a military post, it was converted into a county prison. The original county courts were erected in 1073, the old building now forming the debtors' prison in 1708, and the present courts in 1777. They consisted of a county hall 150 feet by 45, with circular civil and criminal courts having domes 40 feet high and Ionic portico of 4 columns. In 1821 it was resolved to remodel the whole prison ; the area of the castle was greatly enlarged, the additional space being defended by a lofty stone wall, including Clifford's Tower, which previously stood without the walls: and four double prisons were erected with airing courts radiating from the governor's house in the centre, from which the whole may be inspected. These alterations cost 203,530, and were finished in 1836. The county courts are on the S.W. side of the area ; the building on the opposite side contains the female wards. The old building with clock, formerly the felons' ward, is now assigned to the debtors. The original castle and tower were strongly defended by a deep moat, and approached by drawbridges, which have long been removed. York was the seat of a bishop in very ancient times. Eborius is mentioned as its bishop at the Council of Aries in France, A.D. 314. Gregory the Great made York, as well as Canterbury, an archiepiscopal see. For more than a hundred years a bitter contention existed between the archbishops of the two sees regarding precedency ; it was first openly begun in the reign of the Conqueror between Lanfranc of Canterbury and Thomas of York ; it was at length settled by the pope in the reign of Henry II., A.D. 1176, who "to end old divisions," says Fuller in his Church History, " made a new distinction, making the Arch- bishop of York primate of England, and the Archbishop of Canterbury primate of ALL England." TheArchbishop of York's province includes the dioceses of York, Carlisle, Chester, Durham, Sodor and Man, and the lately erected sees of Manchester and Ripon ; Worcester, Lichfield, and Lincoln anciently belonged to it. It contains the counties of Cheshire, Lancashire, York, Westmoreland, Cumberland, Durham, Northumberland, and the Isle of Man (Notts having been transferred to Canterbury). The archbishop is Lord High Almoner, and has the pri- vilege of placing the crown on the Queen Consort's head at coronations. His income is 10,000, with the patronage of about 130 livings. The chapter comprises a dean, in- come 1,250 (in the year 1379 the deanery was valued at 400), precentor, chancellor, subdean, suctentor, 3 archdeacons, 4 canons, and 24 prebendaries (now only honorary), and 5 minor canons. The archbishop's palace is at Bishopthorpe, a village 3 miles S.E. from the city. It is an object of interest to visitors, who are allowed access on certain public days by application to the housekeeper. Anciently the archbishop had a palace on the N. side of the cathedral. Archbishop Boyer is said to have rebuilt it towards the end of Uie 12th cen- tury, and a small portion of his work is still remaining, as is the chapel of the palace of a later date. This building, having long been an unsightly ruin, was re- paired in the time of Dean Markham, and is now used as the library of the dean and chapter. This library was originally commenced by the widow of Archbishop Matthews (she died in 1629 at the age of 78), who pre- sented it with all her husband's books. It possesses also some valuable old MSS., some of Caxton's books, Erasmus's Greek Testament on vellum, &c., &c. It is open to the public under certain restrictions. Near this library is the new deanery ; the old residence of the dean, which was on the S. side of the minster, having been taken down. A house for the residence of the canons residentiary was a few years back erected on the N. side of the minster, on the site of part of the ancient archiepiscopal palace. York Poor-law Union contains, besides the city parishes, 16 parishes in York Ainsty, 13 parishes of the East Riding, 19 parishes in the North Riding. The superintendent registry contains the same, with the exception of 5 parishes, namely, Benningbrough, Lillings Ambo, Flaxton, Kexby, and Stamford Bridge. The new county-court district corresponds with the registrar's. The greatest ornament of York is its minster or cathedral. It dates from Saxon times. Edwin, the fifth Saxon King of Northumbria, and a native, it is said, of York, had married Ethelburga, the daughter of Ethelbert, King of Kent, and having through her in- fluence and the zeal of Paulinus, a companion of St. Augustine, become a convert to Christianity, was, with Coilfi, the heathen priest, and a considerable number of the nobles of his kingdom, baptized by Pauliuus on Easter Day, A.D. 627, at York, in the church of St. Peter, " which," says Bede, "he had hastily constructed of wood while he was a catechumen, and being prepared to receive baptism." Soon afterwards, by the advice of Paulinus, to whom he had given York as his episcopal see (and who, receiving the pallium from Rome, was subsequently elevated to the rank of archbishop), Edwin made preparations for building a larger and a nobler church, in which the oratory that he had previously constructed, and in which he had been baptized, might be enclosed. He laid the foundation and began to raise the edifice, but before the walls were completed he was slain. The work was finished by his suicessor, Oswald, but when he had also fallen, and Paulinus had been compelled to retire with Ethelburga into Kent, the church was wholly neglected and fell into ruins. From this state the bishop, St. Wilfrid, restored it about the end of the 7th century. About fifty years after this, in the year 741, this edifice was greatly injured by fire. In the episcopate of Albert, who was elected to the see of York in the year 767, a new church was begun, I finished, and dedicated. This edifice is said to have | been one cf the most magnificent of the Anglo-Saxon ' churches. A small but interesting portion of this church, comprising a part of the earlier church built by Edwic, Was brought to light during the excavation of the pre- < sent choir after the calamitous fire in February, 1829,