screen of black oak, which originally filled the chancel arch and was decorated with twenty coats-of-arms. The monuments of the church are for the most part in memory of members of the Ingilby family, and the most notable is that of Sir Thomas Ingilby and his wife, who were interred here about the end of the fourteenth century. It is an altar-tomb of worked limestone of the style of the period of Edward III., and is considered to be an almost perfect specimen of the work of that time. In the churchyard are the remains of a Weeping Cross, which is said to be the only one existent in the county, and is supposed to have occupied its present position since about 1400. There is now nothing left of it but a base and socket stone, but the eight knee-holes in the latter, whereat penitents abased themselves to weep and pray, are plainly marked.

The Ingilbys of Ripley have held the manor of that name for nearly six hundred years. At the Norman Conquest it was given to Ralph Paganel, and it was afterwards in possession of the Trussebuts. The Ripley estates were sublet during the eleventh century to a family which took its name from them and subsequently bought them from their then holders, the families of des Ros and Trussebut. The last of their line, Edeline de Ripley, married

men to the country in goodly number. The first baronet was Sir William
Ingilby, the devoted adherent of Charles I., who was heavily fined by the
Commonwealth for his loyalty to that ill-
fated monarch. There is a legend in much
favour hereabouts concerning Oliver Crom-
well and the wife of this Sir William Ingilby,
which possesses certain features that make
one regret that it has ever been disputed.
It is to the effect that Cromwell came to
Ripley Castle on the

night of the battle of Marston Moor and demanded accommodation for himself and his troop. Sir William Ingilby was away, but his lady was at home, and being a zealous hater of crop-headed Parliamentarians, she was at first minded to

keep the great man out. It was pointed out to her that resistance would be useless, whereupon she stuck a pair of loaded pistols in her apron-strings and admitted Cromwell and his men. The latter found rest somewhere about the house, but Lady Ingilby and the future Lord Protector passed the night in the hall, watching each

Curbed Ripley Gitle:

other in mutual distrust. The house which this resolute dame thus defended has been rebuilt, enlarged, and restored several times during the past six centuries. It was entirely renovated by Sir William Ingilby in 1555, and again by one of his successors about a hundred years ago. It contains a large collection of family armour and medieval weapons and a number of portraits of dead and gone Ingilbys, and is surrounded by some of the finest gardens and pleasure-grounds in the county. The park is of considerable extent, and is remarkable for the size and beauty of its trees, some of which appear to be so old as to suggest that they were originally part and parcel of the great Forest of Knaresborough.

II

On the south side of the Nidd, almost opposite Ripley, lies Hampsthwaite, now a quiet, peaceful-looking village, but once a market-town of some importance. Here the Roman road from Olicana (Ilkley) to Isurium (Aldborough) crossed the Nidd. Hampsthwaite is not mentioned in the records of the Domesday Survey, but its name indicates that it was an Anglo-Saxon settlement. Its church was in existence soon after the Norman Conquest, and was at one time in possession of the monks of Knaresborough. Within the parish there are two chapels-of-ease, or chantries, one dedicated to Our Lady and St. Anne, the other to St. Sitha. The market charter of Hampsthwaite was granted by Edward I. at Lincoln in 1304, and provided for a market every Friday and an annual fair of four days at the Feast of St. Thomas the Martyr (Thomas à Becket), to whom the church was dedicated. In the old days the markets and fairs were held in the open space before the vicarage, in the middle of which stood a cross which has now disappeared. The present church is practically a modern structure, having been erected in 1820 from the materials of the old one. It contains several monuments of members of local families, the most notable of which is a slab on which is set forth the descent of one William Simpson of Gilthorn and Felliscliffe in the parish of Hampsthwaite, who died in 1776, from Archil the Saxon, from whom he was twenty-sixth in the direct line. One of the ancestors of Thackeray the novelist was a holder of land in this parish as far back as the Poll-Tax of 1378, and others were parish clerks of Hampsthwaite in succession to each other during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Until 1873 Hampsthwaite possessed a celebrity whose fame was almost as considerable as that of Blind Jack of Knaresborough. This was one Peter Barker, well known as the Blind Joiner of Hampsthwaite, an account of whose life was published at Pateley Bridge soon after his death. Barker was born in July 1808, and was totally deprived of his sight at the age of four. He, like Metcalfe of Knaresborough, was taught to fiddle with a view of making his living by performing at village merry-makings. It is said that as he grew towards manhood he fell into habits of intemperance, and suddenly resolved to give up his fiddling and settle down to some steady occupation. His choice fell upon the carpentering trade, and he soon proved his ability by making a chair. Finding that his blindness in no way interfered with his success, he became a joiner and wrought at his trade for the remainder of his life. He used all the ordinary tools and instruments, with the exception of a foot-rule which he designed after an ingenious fashion suggested to him by a friend. He appears to have been well supplied with work and to have turned out everything in excellent style. The writer of his memoir speaks of finding him engaged in work at Hampsthwaite church in 1868,

five years previous to his death, and of seeing what he had accomplished. He had on this occasion lowered the fronts of pulpit and reading-desk, brought forward a pew, and refronted the latter with panels of old carved oak. He sang in the church choir, rang the curfew bell in the churchtower, made nets and curtains, taught himself to read from raised type, and used to fiddle to the village children on an instrument of his own manufacture. His most remarkable feat was the taking to pieces and cleaning of the church clock of Hampsthwaite - an achievement even more remarkable than that of Metcalfe's in conducting a traveller from York to Harrogate. He possessed a very delicate sense of touch, and could tell the hour on a watch by running his fingers across the dial. Barker died in his cottage near Hampsthwaite church in February, 1873.

On either side of the Nidd going westward from Hampsthwaite there are places and houses of much interest, lying amidst scenery which gradually increases in romantic character. All around Birstwith and Swarcliffe the surroundings of the Nidd are full of picturesqueness and even beauty, and at Clint, on the opposite bank of the river, there are numerous remnants of the olden days, of which the most remarkable is the fragment of a wayside cross. There is a very fine modern church at Birst with, built by the Greenwoods of Swarcliffe Hall, a mansion which occupies a commanding position above the village and the river. Hereabouts the banks of the Nidd assume a steeper aspect, and the land on both sides becomes wilder. Almost opposite Swarcliffe Hall, on the south side of the valley, is Hartwith, a village on the edge of the moors, from the churchyard of which there is a remarkable view of Nidderdale. There is a picturesque old farmstead near here called Hardcastle Garth, the

original holders of which settled in the neighbourhood five centuries ago, and another named Dowgill Farm, which was held by a family of that name in the fifteenth century. Old houses with histories attached to them abound in this valley, and there are few of them in which the traveller will not find some relic or monument of long-dead centuries-a quaint sundial, a piece of rare carving, or a low-ceilinged parlour panelled from floor to beams in old oak, grown mellow with the passage of many years.

From Darley, a pleasantly situated village on the south bank of the Nidd a little beyond Birstwith, a profitable departure from Nidderdale proper may be taken up Darley Dale, a valley which leads to Greenhow Hill, one of the highest points of ground dividing the Wharfe from the Nidd. On a considerable eminence which separates Darley Beck from the Washburn stands one of the old peels, or lodges, of the Forest of Knaresborough, known as Padside Hall, and now in use as a farmstead. It stands at an elevation of about 950 feet above sea-level and commands wide-spreading views of the surrounding country. Although the square tower which used to stand at the north-east corner of the house has been pulled down and its materials used in the construction of a barn, this ancient forest lodge is well worth examination, and presents many features of interest. It is built on a rock, and its grouted walls are at least a yard thick. A courtyard lies between the east and west wings, and the entire structure has pointed gables and mullioned windows of the Tudor style. For several generations this lonely place was occupied by a family named Wigglesworth, who purchased it from the Ingilbys towards the end of the sixteenth century. There is some fine carved work, chiefly of oak, in the interior. From Padside Hall the land gradually rises until the summit of Greenhow Hill and the village of the same name is reached. Greenhow Hill, which occupies a position nearly 1500 feet above sea-level, is said to be the highest village in Yorkshire. It is an irregularly built place, and its general appearance is wild and bare. There is little vegetation, and since the lead mines around it became less productive, many of the houses have fallen into a ruinous condition. Here in the old days stood the Craven Cross, a boundary stone marking the division of the lands of the Cliffords and the Mowbrays, and here, in the times when ponies carried coal from Ingleton to Pateley Bridge and Ripon, they were unloaded for the night and turned out to forage for themselves, while their drivers curled themselves up in the heather and went to sleep.

In the days when Fountains Abbey was flourishing its monks possessed very valuable mining rights in the district south of the Nidd, and especially at Dacre, which lies between the high ground culminating in Greenhow Hill and the river. Originally in possession of the Mowbrays, who had extensive demesnes in Nidderdale, Dacre in mediæval times was very largely held by the community at Fountains, who had granaries and store-houses here and on the adjoining moors. The house known as Dacre Hall was built