into whose possession it came by purchase during the reign of Edward III. The first endowment of importance which the Scropes made to Easby Abbey seems to have been that of Richard, son of Henry Scrope, chancellor of Richard II., who, in the sixteenth year of that monarch's reign, obtained the royal licence to grant the Canons of Easby an annual rent or donation of £150, and who further bestowed upon them the manor of Brompton. In return for this the house was to maintain ten religious and two secular additional canons, to provide masses for certain specified folk, and to support twenty poor men in the abbey for ever. The body of Richard Scrope was interred here at his death, and the Abbey became the regular resting-place of his successors for several generations. In 1424 the Abbey and its surroundings were consecrated by the Bishop of Dromore, acting as commissary for the Archbishop of York. In 1534 there was a solemn festivity here in recognition of John Lord Scrope as founder and patron, but in the following year the house came to its end, Robert Bampton, the last abbot, and his seventeen canons then surrendering it to the Commissioners charged with the suppression of monasteries whose incomes were less than £200 per annum. According to their report the net revenue of Easby was then 188, 16s. 2d., but there were so many deductions from this that its value was only £111, 17s. 10d. The particulars of some of these deductions, as cited by Grainge, are quaint and interesting. Once a week there was distributed to five poor and indigent people as much meat and drink as came to the annual value of £2, 15s. 11d-this being for the benefit of the soul of John Romaine, Archdeacon of Richmond, whose eternal welfare was further sought to be improved by a daily alms to one poor person, amounting in annual value to 15s., a donation of rod. to ten poor persons on the anniversary of his death, and another of 10s. to certain religious on the same day. They also spent £1, 6s. 8d. a year in giving a loaf of bread, (called the paysloffe, or Loaf of Peace) a flagon of ale and a portion of food to one pauper every day from the Feast of All Souls to the Feast of the Circumcision—this being doubtless a pious method of helping certain poor folks over the worst of the winter. Then on the Feast of St. Agatha they were required to spend £4 in providing corn and fish for all poor and indigent persons, and a similar sum in providing alms for the poor at the Supper of the Lord, and the two following days. These benefactions must have been sorely missed by the needy folk of the neighbourhood after 1535. On its suppression, the house and lands were leased by the Crown to Lord Scrope for an annual rent of £283, 13s. id.

The remains of Easby Abbey are somewhat considerable. On the side nearest Richmond, where the land shelves rather abruptly to the river, the most ancient part of the building shows some signs of falling, but it is on record that it presented the same appearance a century ago. The fireplace and chimney of the great kitchen are plainly discernible, and the refectory-a fine apartment 102 feet in length by 27 in breadth—still possesses its east

window, which is of considerable height, and contains some beautiful tracery. There is a large room with pointed arches on the north side of this, which is supposed to have been the chapter-house. At the west end of the refectory there is a doorway of curious Norman architecture which gave admittance to the cloister-court, which lay to the north of this part of the buildings. It is possible to trace the site of the abbey church by the clustered columns and by the walls and windows of the transepts. The Abbot's lodgings lay to the northward of the church, with which they communicated by a doorway in the north aisle. Here there was a chantry chapel of the Scropes, the lattice-work of which was removed to Wensley church at the suppression of the house, and at the same time the Canon's stalls were removed to the parish church of Richmond. The granary of the abbey is still in good repair, and so is the gateway, across the road from the church, in the lower part of which, now used as a shed, there is a fine vaulted roof. Near this, on a delightful stretch of green sward overlooking

the Swale, is an ancient and beautiful tree called the Abbot's Elm, which is doubtless some centuries old.

The little church of Easby, which stands close to the ruins of the Abbey, is not less attractive in its aspect and situation than the grey walls which surround it. There is a trace of Saxon or Early Norman work in the knots which appear above the western windows, but the greater past of the edifice is in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, and probably dates from the thirteenth century. Around the porch are shields, much worn, showing the arms of the families of Scrope, Aske, and Conyers, and it is a somewhat significant fact that the shield of the Scropes is the only memorial left of them at Easby, where several generations of them found a burial-place. There is a Norman font, some ancient mural paintings, partly renovated, three sedilia, and a stone coffin in an arched recess, within the church. A notable feature of its situation is that it departs from ecclesiastical and architectural tradition in its direction, which is more of south to north than of west to east. Its great charm, of course, lies in its immediate surroundings-the grey walls of the Abbey, the richness of the wooded slope to the north, the murmur of the river, the picturesqueness of the old elm-tree and of the little cottage which stands beneath its shade, all combine to make the scene one of ideal beauty.

From the ruins of Easby Abbey a pathway leads to Richmond along the riverside, winding through a long belt of woodland which overhangs the north bank of the Swale. This is one of two charming routes into the town-the other is gained by following the by-lane which transects the Abbey grounds, and regaining the high road from Catterick to Richmond near the almshouses at the top of the hill. There is one advantage in entering Richmond by the highroad in the fact that from it another view of the town and castle is obtainable-this time a view of both are seen from the high ground to the northward. But lovers of river scenery will prefer the path by the Swale if only for the sake of listening to the music which it makes as it flows swiftly over the rocks, boulders, and pebbles which are here strewn thickly about its bed. Nothing of Richmond is seen until the pathway leads into the outskirts of the town, close to the parish church, and little of its general outline can then be seen. But when the steep road to the Market Place has been climbed and the traveller finds himself in the heart of as quaint and romantic a market town as England can show, he will experience a feeling of pleasure which is rarely to be had in taking a first close view of a strange place. There is nothing exactly like, or even approximately like, Richmond anywhere. Although Knaresborough holds it in close rivalry and possesses some features which it lacks, the remarkable grandeur of Richmond's situation gives it an undeniable supremacy over the picturesque town by the Nidd. Principally built upon a promontory stretching out from the hills on the north side of the Swale, Richmond from south, east, or west presents a striking spectacle,

square keep of great size and height, which is built on the summit of a long escarpment of rock rising sharply from the north bank of the Swale. None of the great strongholds of the north occupy a more impregnable position, and few of them were so well fortified. Of vast extent and of exceptional strength, Richmond Castle appears to have been intended by its founder to form not only a residence for himself and his successors but to furnish the means of shelter for vassals and dependants who might have occasion to flee within its walls for protection. So well, too, did the builders who carried out his wishes do their work, that although nearly nine centuries have passed since the castle first rose above the banks of Swale, a large portion of it is still of such strength that there seems no reason why it should not endure for some centuries longer. It is scarcely believable, indeed, that the massive keep, a prominent landmark all over the surrounding district, has seen the town at its feet change and change again, or that the walls of the castle first rose immediately after the Norman Conquest. Yet it was in 1071, according to some chronicles, in 1087 according to others, that the building of Richmond Castle began. Previous to the coming of the Normans all the land hereabouts belonged to Edwin, the Saxon earl, who was dispossessed of them by the Conqueror in 1069. Grainge quotes the deed by which William bestowed them upon his nephew Alan Rufus, son of Eudo, Earl of Bretagne, and one of the principal Norman leaders at the fight, of Senlac. "I, William, surnamed the Bastard," it runs, "do give and grant to thee Alan, my nephew, Earl of Bretagne, and to thy heirs for ever, all the town and lands which lately belonged to Earl Edwyn in Yorkshire; with the knights' fees, churches, and other privileges and customs, in as free and honourable a manner as the said Edwyn held them." The full meaning of this laconic document is only understood when the term "towns and lands" is explained. The Conqueror's gift to his nephew consisted of 440 manors, 104 parishes, and 140 knights' fees, each of which contained 12 ploughlands, or 640 acresa reward for services rendered which only a king having a whole kingdom at his mercy and disposal could afford to bestow.

According to the best authorities Alan Rufus only built a small part of the castle of Richmond, but considerable additions were speedily made to his original structure by his immediate successors, Alan Niger and Stephen Fergant, who between them built a wall of great strength, 800 yards in length, with flanking towers and embattlements. In 1146 Conan, fourth Earl of Richmond, built the keep, placing it on the north side of the castle as being the weakest from a defensive point of view, the south, east, and west sides being absolutely impregnable from the character of the situation. Even then further fortification of the castle was effected by the erection of a barbican which shielded the gate and the drawbridge. Nothing stronger than this castle in the way of a fortified building could have been fashioned in those days, yet it is singular that it figures little in