In the early part of the Civil War the town appears to have been held for the Parliament; and although subsequently taken by the Royalists, it was eventually recaptured by Sir Thomas Fairfax. (See vol. i., p. 240.)

The Town of Selby, as has been observed, is seated on the west bank of the Ouse, and upon the great road from London to Edinburgh. The streets are well paved and lighted with gas, and many improvements have been made in the general aspect of the place, of late years. Some twenty-five years ago the Lord of the Manor, at a great expense, opened a continued view of the west front of the church, and enlarged the Market Place and streets leading to the wharfs. The general trade of the town has been improved by means of the railways, and of a canal which connects the rivers Ouse and Aire. There is a large flax mill, some oil mills, a rope and sail cloth manufactory, an iron foundry, and a ship building yard. Ships of 150 to 200 tons burthen navigate to Selby, and steam boats pass daily to and from York and Hull, and there is a jetty for these packets, projecting into the Ouse. The Market is on Monday, and Fairs are held on Easter Tuesday, the Monday after June 22nd, and October 11th, for cattle, &c. In the centre of the Market Place is a large handsome cross in the ancient English style.

The Town Hall is a neat brick building, erected in 1825. The building containing the new Lock-up and Magistrates' Room, was erected in 1854. Petty Sessions are held in the latter every alternate Monday; and the County Court once a month, before Serjeant Dowling. New Waterworks were established here in the present year (1855.) The Yorkshire District and the York City and County Banking Companies have brauches here. The Railway Station, a little south of the town, is a neat and spacious building. There is a Mechanics' Institute, which was established in 1846.

The Parish Church is all that now remains of the famous Abbey of Selby, which once formed a pile of buildings among the most sumptuous and magnificent in the kingdom. What remains of this edifice shows it to have been a very noble building, erected at different times, and in different styles of architecture. The appearance of this venerable pile is strikingly impressive. "The magnificent yet comparative simplicity of the west front," says Mr. Buckler, "renders it deserving of particular notice, as its proportion and decorations merit remark from their singularity and elegance." The same learned antiquarian and architect is of opinion that it was originally intended to place two towers on this front, though the design was never carried into execution; but the angles terminate with lofty and well-proportioned pinnacles. The entrance is by a large and richly-adorned Norman doorway, supported on each side by six columns. The windows of this front are pointed, and the finish is an embattled parapet, with four large crocketed pinnacles. The walls of the nave and north transept are Norman, though the arches and ornaments of that character have been mostly replaced by windows in the pointed style, at different periods. The simple and massy Norman nave is the oldest part of the building, and its internal architecture is very fine. It is divided from the aisles by eight circular arches, resting on circular and enriched columns, and above the arches are two stories of open gallery. The beautiful choir is of later erection, and exhibits a splendid example of the pointed style of building, prevalent in the reign of Edward III. The proportions are extremely elegant, and the ornaments richly disposed, forming on the whole, in the words of Mr. Buckler, one of the most chaste and magnificent designs in the kingdom. The aisles are separated from it by seven pointed arches springing from beautiful clustered columns, the whole of the blank wall being adorned with statues, &c. The east window is highly enriched with tracery; and in the last century it contained the genealogy of Christ in stained glass. On both sides of the choir are several stalls of wood, enriched with tabernacle work. The four arches at the intersection of the cross aisles are Norman. The central tower fell down on Sunday, March 30th, 1690, about six o'clock in the morning, and by its fall destroyed a part of the church; the present tower was probably built about the year 1700, but in a style by no means corresponding with the original.

The Chapter House is a beautiful building, attached to the south side of the choir. The font is plain, and suspended over it is a fine lofty cover of carved wood. In 1826 a fine-toned organ was erected by private subscription, which adds considerably to the elegance of the choir.

The Living is a Perpetual Curacy, in the gift of the Lord of the Manor, and incumbency of the Rev. F. W. Harper. It is certified at £17. 10s., and returned at £100. per annum.

The dissenting congregations which have chapels here are the Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, Independents, Unitarians, and Quakers.

The foundation stone of a new Catholic Church was laid here on the 14th of June, in the present year (1855), and is now in course of erection. It will be a fine building, in the Gothic style, and a new Presbytery is being built close to it. The whole expense of the building is being defrayed by the Hon. Mrs. Petre. This mission is endowed, and the Rev. John Rigby is the present pastor of it. The old chapel is to be converted into a school. Here is a Blue Coat Boys' School, and an endowed Free School, a Ladies' Charity School for girls, Almshouses, &c. An estate, in the hands of feoffees for charitable uses, yields over £150. per ann. The Selby Poor Law Union comprises 24 parishes and townships, of which 16 are in the West, and 8 in the East Riding. The Union Workhouse was erected in 1842.

Thomas Johnson, a botanist, who published the first local catalogue of plants in the kingdom, and an improved edition of Gerard's Herbal, and who fell in a skirmish with a body of the Parliamentarian forces, in 1644, was a native of Selby.

Buckrose lapentake.

The boundaries of this division of the East Riding are formed by the river Derwent on the north and west, which separates it from the North Riding; by Harthill Wapentake on the south and south east; and on the west by the Wapentake of Dickering. It comprises the parishes of Acklam, Birdsall, Bugthorpe, Burythorpe, Cowlam, Fridaythorpe, North Grimston, Helperthorpe, Heslerton, Kirby Grindalyth, Kirby Underdale, Kirkham, Langton, Norton, Rillington, Scampston, Scrayingham, Settrington, Sherburn, Skirpenbeck, Sledmere, Thorpe Bassett, Weaverthorpe, Westow, Wharram-Percy, Wharram-le-Street, Wintringham, and Yeddingham. Area, 102,453 acres; population, 13,832 persons, viz: -7,270 males, and 6,562 females. The western side of this Wapentake is generally a fertile district, mostly having a rich loamy soil, and partly a light sand; but its central and eastern parts rise in bold and lofty limestone hills, forming the western side of the Wolds, where the soil is poor and thin. It is watered by many rivulets and brooks flowing westward from the Wolds to the Derwent.

ACKLAM. This parish comprises the townships of Acklam with Barthorpe, containing 1,860 acres, and 334 inhabitants; and Leavening, having 1,110 acres, and 447 persons. The surface is elevated, including a portion of the Wolds, from which a most extensive view of the surrounding country is obtained; and the scenery is in many parts very romantic. The amount of assessed property in the parish, in 1815, was £3,440. The rateable value of Acklam is £1,477.; and of Barthorpe, £1,066. The manor of Acklam belongs to the Crown, and the land to various owners.

A vallum and two ditches, running east from Acklam, may be traced over the Wolds for a considerable distance, and are supposed to have been formed by the Ancient Britons, who, according to Sir Rd. Colt Hoare, had similar ridgeways in various parts of the kingdom, as lines of communication between the different towns and villages. In the neighbourhood of Huggate, Mil

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lington, and Warter, the entrenchments, ridgeways, and remains of British villages are very extensive. All the earthworks on the Yorkshire Wolds appear to be purely British, and it is said to be impossible to trace any additions of a subsequent nation. On Acklam Wold and the surrounding hills are a large number of tumuli, several of which were excavated in 1849, by the members of the Yorkshire Antiquarian Club, when human remains, British urns and ornaments were discovered. The urns and ornaments have been deposited in the Museum of the Philosophical Society at York.

The Living is a Discharged Vicarage, valued in the King's Books at £5., and being augmented in 1854, by the patron, the Chancellor of the Cathedral of York; it is now worth £200 per annum. Under the Cathedral Act the Archbishop will be the patron after the termination of the existing interest of the Rev. L. V. Harcourt, the present Chancellor. Vicar, Rev. John Campion, of Doncaster. The Church (St. John the Baptist) is situated on the side of a hill, and was partly rebuilt in 1790. It is a small edifice, consisting of a nave, chancel, south porch, and west tower. The interior is plain, having an ancient font. The Vicarage House is occupied by the curate.

The Village is picturesquely situated in a narrow valley on the west side of the Wolds, 7 miles S. of Malton. The houses are built of a hard white stone procured in the neighbourhood. The Wesleyan Chapel was erected in 1794, and the Primitive Methodist Chapel in 1821. The School is supported by subscription, and endowed with an acre of land, purchased with £25. left by Frs. Barker in 1729. The poor of the township have a rent charge of £2. a year, left by John Smithson in 1681; and the interest of £5., left by Wm. Hudson in 1759.

Beck House is in the occupation of Mr. Francis Mead Smith, farmer. Barthorpe, or Barthorpe Bottoms, 8 miles S. of Malton, containing five houses, and 975 acres of land, is the property of Earl de Grey.

Leavening Township belongs chiefly to the Hon. A. Duncombe, Henry Willoughby, Esq. (Lord of the Manor), William Preston, Esq., and several smaller owners. The rateable value is £1,771.

The Village is considerable, and is seated upon an acclivity 5 miles S. of Malton. A neat School Chapel of stone was erected here in 1850, in which divine service is performed. A Primitive Methodist Chapel was erected in 1821, and a Methodist Chapel in 1824. The road between this place and Acklam, though only a mile in distance, passes over three or four steep hills. BIRDSALL. The area of Birdsall is 3,972 acres, and its population in 1851 was 282 souls. The amount of assessed property is £4,090., and the rateable value, £2,782. The parish lies partly on the edge of the Wolds, extending southwards; the surface is hilly, and the scenery romantic. The soil on the higher lands is light and thin, and on the lower grounds rich loam alternately with clay. Limestone and freestone of good quality are extensively quarried, and numerous springs rise from the sides of the hills. At Aldrow, a farm on a table land 750 feet above the level of the sea, are tumuli surrounded by enormous British works. A bank, with a double entrenchment, extends to Acklam one way, and the other beyond Huggate. Near Aldrow farm the entrenchment encloses a square plot of ground, within which are several barrows; and at the north angle is a mound, to which Professor Phillips restricts the name of Rath, where the double dyke seems to twist itself into a knot. The Yorkshire Antiquarian Club, in 1853, excavated several of the mounds or barrows in this locality, and in the line of tumuli across the Wolds from Acklam to Huggate, and to Arras, and the result shows that this district certainly formed part of an extensively populated Brigantian territory. Traces of the ancient inhabitants of the district, before the Roman invasion, are abundantly left in the numerous earthworks, consisting of trackways, dykes, and the before-mentioned barrows.

A few years ago a land slip occurred on the east side of the parish, when several trees were carried down with the soil, so that their tops were left on a level with the surface; yet these trees continue to grow, and appear in a healthy state. Some sixteen years ago about 1,100 full-grown trees were blown down here during a storm. The late Lord Middleton, who died in 1835, bequeathed his Birdsall and other devisable estates in Yorkshire, to his nephew, Henry Willoughby, Esq., who died in 1849, and was succeeded by his eldest son Henry, the present Lord of the Manor of Birdsall.*

The Living is a Perpetual Curacy, valued at £15., and returned at £40. It was augmented in 1711 and 1786, with £400, of Queen Anne's Bounty. Meynell Ingram, Esq., is the patron and impropriator; and the Rev. Robt. Ellis is the incumbent. The great tithes are let for £532. 10s. per annum.

The old Church (St, Mary) is now a small picturesque ruin near the hall, and on an elevated site a little north of it, the late Lord Middleton built a very elegant little church in 1824. It is of stone, and in the pointed style of architecture, and consists of a nave and chancel, with a handsome tower at the west end, in which are three bells. The tower is finished with a pierced

• Henry Willoughby, Esq., of Birdsall, is cousin to Digby Willoughby, the present Lord Middleton, and heir presumptive to that title. Mr. Willoughby was born at Apsley Hall, Nottinghamshire, 28th August, 1817; married in 1843, Julia Louisa, only daughter of Alexander Bosville, Esq., of Thorpe, and Gunthwaite, Yorkshire; and was High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1854. The title of Baron Middleton, of Middleton, in the county of Warwick, was first conferred on Sir Thomas Willoughby, in 1711.