The dead were conveyed to the Trinities, and buried in heaps, and the lazaretto was again in requisition as a sick hospital.

By a writ of Richard, Archbishop of York, bearing date 23rd of October, 1667, a number of persons in Beverley, both male and female, received sentence of excommunication, and were subjected to the disgrace of public penance, for adultery, fornication, and incest. In 1671 another writ of excommunication was issued by Robert Hitch, Archdeacon of the East Riding, dated October 31st, for similar crimes; and several public penances were inflicted in 1684.* In the latter year the "Lord Choife Justice" dined at Beverley with the Corporation, for which dinner the sum of £18. Os. 9d. is entered in the accounts.

The respective trades still existed here under the government of their different wardens, and a wool trade was also carried on.

In the first of James II. (1685), the last charter was granted to the town of Beverley, and by it the Corporation were again incorporated, under the new title of the Mayor, Aldermen (instead of Governors), and Burgesses. One of its clauses empowered the King, to remove at his pleasure, any member of the Corporation; and he did actually, by a mandamus, in the following year, remove the Recorder, four Aldermen, and four Capital Burgesses. The renewal of this charter cost the Corporation £432. 13s. 4d., and three sums of £40. 8s. each were presented to three persons for their trouble in proceeding to London to obtain it. The total number of charters granted by Kings and Archbishops to the town of Beverley, from Athelstan to James II., amount to sirty, besides volumes of patents, and licences to the town for private purposes.

The family of the Wartons, of Beverley Parks, appears to have recovered somewhat from the ruinous destruction by which it was impoverished during the civil war; for in 1685 Michael Warton and Sir Ralph Warton contested the borough of Beverley with Sir John Hotham, when the latter was defeated. In 1687 the dispute between the towns of Beverley and Hull, respecting the payment of tolls for passing through the river Hull to the Humber, was again revived. This privilege of the former place was ever regarded by the port of Hull with a jealous eye. The water-bailiff of Hull seized some fir deals belonging to a merchant of Beverley, which brought on a law suit, but the jury once more gave a verdict in favour of Beverley.

The arbitrary conduct of James alienated the affections of his subjects; and the Prince of Orange was invited to England. At this juncture he made

* Ex. Reg. S. Johan. + Ex. MS. + Oliver's Beverley, p. 337.

a feeble attempt to make an atonement for his errors, by issuing a proclamation for restoring Corporations to their ancient charters and franchises; but it was too late; the Prince of Orange arrived; James privately departed out of the kingdom; and the crown was placed upon William's head without a struggle.

A number of Danish soldiers having landed at Hull, for the service of the new monarch, they marched to Beverley; and during their short stay, two young soldiers having had a quarrel during the voyage, sought the first opportunity of a private meeting, to settle their difference by the sword. Their fate is recorded in the following doggerel epitaph, still remaining in St. Mary's churchyard :

"Here two young Danish souldiers lie,
The one in quarrell chanc'd to die;
The other's head-by their own law,
With sword was sever'd at one blow."*

During the 18th century sentences of excommunication were pronounced against a large number of persons of both sexes residing in Beverley, and penances were performed both in the Minster and St. Mary's Church. In the united parishes of St. John and St. Martin, no less than 143 persons were either excommunicated or did penance, between the years 1709 and 1766. The number was also great in the other two parishes. The crimes for which these persons were punished were chiefly adultery, fornication, and incest.

The town of Beverley presented loyal addresses to the Crown, on the proclamation of peace, in the beginning of the reign of George III.; on the proclamation of war with North America in 1775; on the ratification of the definitive treaty of peace between Great Britain, France, and America, in 1783; on the dismissal of the ministers of the Crown in the year following; one of congratulation in 1786, on his Majesty's escape from the desperate attempt made by Margaret Nicholson upon his life; and in 1789, addresses of congratulation were presented to the King and Queen on his Majesty's recovery from the dangerous malady by which he had been attacked.

About the year 1794, when it was feared that the French intended to invade England, most of the towns in the kingdom raised a temporary corps of cavalry or infantry to serve near their own homes, and protect their own property. The Beverley Volunteers, which appeared for the first time clothed and accoutred, in the Market Place, on Christmas Day, 1794, was superior in numbers to the corps raised by the port of Hull, and were soon ready to act in concert with the regular army.

In 1795 H. R. H. Prince William of Gloucester honoured the Corporation of Beverley with his company to breakfast, in the Council Chamber, when the freedom of the borough was presented to him by the Recorder.

In 1808 an Act was obtained to enable certain Commissioners to levy a rate upon the inhabitants for lighting, watching, and regulating the town, and from this time Beverley exhibited a new and imposing appearance. Upon the fall of Napoleon the proclamation of peace was published here amidst great rejoicings, and in the evening the town was illuminated. The Market Cross exhibited the most striking feature-its columns being adorned with spiral wreaths of brilliant lamps, interspersed with laurel, olive, and evergreens, and the urns were decorated with elegant festoons of small lamps tinted with every variety of colour. "The Cross," says Mr. Oliver, "thus arrayed in its habiliments of variegated flame, exhibited the appearance of some rich palace of fairy land, which had been decorated with pearls and diamonds by an invisible agency, for the reception of some beloved Princess of more than mortal beauty and accomplishments." Similar displays took place at Beverley, when the bill of pains and penalties against the unhappy Queen Caroline, had been abandoned; and on the occasion of the coronation of George IV., on the 19th of July, 1821.

In 1824 the commissioners for lighting, &c., the town, under the Act of 1808, contracted with Mr. John Malam to light the streets with coal gas for twenty-one years, at the rate of £400. per annum. In consequence of this contract he built extensive gas works, at a considerable expense, and the streets were first lighted with this material in the month of December in that year. Doubts having arisen whether the Act of 1808 would legally authorize the commissioners to light the town with gas, application was made to Parliament, and an Act was obtained in 1825, empowering the commissioners to "cause the streets, lanes, and other public passages, within the town and liberties of Beverley, to be lighted with gas, or oil, or any other material, at such times of the year, and in such manner as they may think proper." They were also authorized by this Act to erect or purchase gasometers; to break up the soil and pavement of the streets for laying pipes; to let out lights to individuals; to repair the footways; to water the streets; and many other useful purposes.

On the occasion of the visit to Hull of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in the month of September, 1853 (See page 156), a numerous party of its members made an excursion to Beverley and Flamborough. The literary and scientific visitors arrived in Beverley at an early hour, and proceeded to Mr. Crosskill's works, and thoroughly inspected the principal objects there. They then witnessed the working of Samuelson's digging and Bell's reaping machines, in an adjoining field; and afterwards proceeded to the inspection of the Minster. Great was the admiration of all the strangers on seeing the beautiful Percy Shrine and the Lady Chapel. Several gentlemen suggested that a model should be taken of the Percy Shrine, so that in case it should at any time be damaged, the churchwardens could immediately have the part restored on referring to the model. The excursionists then proceeded by railway to Flamborough, and from thence returned to Beverley, where they were entertained by the Mayor (Dr. Sandwith) and Corporation of that ancient borough, to a dinner in the Mechanics' Institute. The Mayor, in proposing as a toast the British Association, very appropriately designated it "a gem of England's brightest hue."

When her Majesty Queen Victoria honoured the neighbouring town of Hull with a visit, in the month of October, 1854, the Mayor of Beverley (H. E. Silvester, Esq.), was amongst the distinguished personages by whom the royal party was received, on their arrival by railway from Scotland; and he afterwards presented addresses to her Majesty and her Royal Consort, Prince Albert, from the loyal Corporation of this borough. (See page 79.)

SOIL, DRAINAGE, &c. -The soil of much of the district in the neighbourhood of Beverley, comprising the whole of Holderness, and the rest of the flat country to the south of the town, is of an alluvial character, consisting of a mixture of marl, clay, or mould, sand, and gravel. Mr. Young, in his Geological Survey of the Yorkshire Coast, observes that it is improper to rank the alluvial covering among the strata, as it is not, properly speaking, a part of the series, but a covering spread over the whole. The alluvial surface, as might be expected, is usually thinnest where the strata is most elevated, and in some parts of the hills the rocks rise to the very surface. In the regular strata of the district, Mr. Young describes the chalk as the uppermost rock in respect of geological position, and as being of very considerable extent, forming nearly the whole of that amphitheatre of hills denominated the Yorkshire Wolds. Those chalk hills form an arch or bow, having one end at Flamborough Head, and the other at Ferriby-on-the-Humber, while the middle part bends inwards towards the river Derwent; making a sweep similar to the bend of that river.

In early ages the country around Beverley had been subject to violent and sudden floods, proceeding from a rush of waters from the wolds, the consequences of a rainy season, which frequently broke the banks of the river Hull, and covered the low lands to a considerable depth, so that the people were obliged to use boats for the purpose of attending Beverley market. After the stormy winter of 1703-4, the banks of the Hull were broken, and the turnpike road, from Whitecross to Beverley, stood four feet deep in water for a considerable time. After the accession of George III. to the throne of England, and when the arms of Great Britain were successful in every quarter of the globe, a general peace ensued. The inhabitants of Beverley and the surrounding district, relieved from the vicissitudes of an extensive continental war, began to direct their thoughts towards the peaceful pursuits of agriculture, and the improvement of the soil. By the modern system of drainage, the low lands, subject in many parts to inundation, and consequently of little comparative value, have been brought into a regular and systematic course of cultivation. By drainage the soil has been fertilized; much land has been reclaimed to the community at large, which had hitherto been of little service; and, what is still of greater importance in a physical point of view, it has banished those epidemic diseases, which were generated by the constant exhalations proceeding from the stagnant waters and morasses, by which the town of Beverley was surrounded. By means of the Holderness drainage, the whole level for several miles round Beverley have been drained, at an expense of between fifty and sixty thousand pounds.*

The neighbourhood of Beverley affords all the facilities both for pleasure and emolument that can be desired by the gentleman or the man of business. The roads are excellent; the land is in a high state of cultivation, and generally very productive; the country affords game and fish in great abundance, and the genial salubrity of the air conveys to the situation all the blessings of health and longevity. The scenery around is sylvan and pleasing, and the town itself at a distance appears as if embosomed in a wood.

Situation, Population, Extent, &c.-BEVERLEY is an ancient borough and market town, situated in the midst of an extensive and well-wooded plain, near the foot of the wolds, in the East-Riding of Yorkshire. It is distant about 9 miles N.N.W. from Kingston-upon-Hull, 29 miles E.S.E. from York, 10 miles E. from Market Weighton, 13 miles S. from Driffield, and 182 N. from London. It is locally situated in the Hunsley Beacon division of the Wapentake of Harthill (but has a separate jurisdiction), about one mile W. of the river Hull, and on the line of Railway from Hull to Bridlington and Scarborough. The Parliamentary Borough of Beverley comprises the parishes