which will in time make the vallies of much greater value, on account of the shelter they will afford."* The spirit of planting has been caught, and many hundreds of acres are now covered with fine rising wood. The "Dutchess Mary," as the wife of Edward, Duke of Norfolk, is fondly called by the inhabitants of Worksop, is said to have decorated the adjacent hills. Indeed, the extent, the variety, and beauty of the plantation grounds, constitute one very distinguishing feature of the scenery in this neighbourhood. The common English liquorice, (Glycyrrhiza vulgaris, Ger. Emac. of Ray,) which is said to be found growing wildt in some parts of the county, was formerly cultivated in abundance for sale at Worksop. At what period the culture of this singular root was introduced, does not appear. It was, however, a staple product of the place in the reign of Elizabeth, as appears from the notice of it by Camden:-" Ab hoc sex ad occasum milliaribus abest Workersop non minùs lætissimo prouentu Glycurize quàm Comitis Salopie ædibus præclarum, ad quem a Louetotis primis huis dominis sub Normannis, per Furniualios, et Neuillum, cùm lauta hæreditate deuolutum est."+ The growers of this commodity not only vended it in their own town, but regularly carried it for sale to the neighbouring markets. An ancient man told me, that seventy years ago, an old woman, with a grey pony, used to bring bundles of liquorice from Worksop to Mansfield once a week, and he well recollected with what avidity himself and other children spent their halfpence in purchasing this masticatory root. I have not been able to learn why its cultivation was neglected; but probably either a reduction in the demand or the profits, connected with the precarious success of the crop, might lead the growers to believe, that the ground which had heretofore been planted with liquorice, might be appropriated to other purposes with greater advantage. Be this as it may, it is now at least half a century since the cultivation was discontinued; and it would be in vain at present, to look for one degenerate specimen in the neighbourhood, where it used to grow so plentifully.§ Nottinghamshire, with the noble exception of the Trent, is not celebrated for the magnitude of its rivers; and of those, even of comparative importance, none flow in the immediate vicinity • From a letter printed in Hunter's edition of Evelyn's liquoris, formerly dear and scarce, is now grown cheap and "Sylva." Of this, however, I am not certain. Jacob Ordoyno, in his Flora Nottinghamiensis, does not mention it at all; nor does Dering, in his Catalogus Stirpium, otherwise notice it, than as being "very much cultivated in this county, especially about Worksop." Fuller, with his characteristic quaintness, has celebrated the Nottinghamshire liquorice; "England," says he, "affordeth hereof the best in the world for some uses; this county the first and best in England. Great the use thereof in physic, it being found very pectoral and sovereign for several diseases; a stick hereof is commonly called the spoon prescribed to patients, to use in Lingences or Loaches. If (as Eneas's men were forced to eat their own trenchers) these chance to eat their spoons, their danger is none at all. But common, because, growing in all counties. Thus, (adds he) plenty will make the most precious thing a drug; as silver was nothing respected in Jerusalem in the days of Solomon."-Fuller's Worthies, vol. ii. p. 205. Camden's Britannia, p. 311. Edit. 1506. § The last plantations of liquorice which the inhabitants remember, were about Forest Lane; in the pleasure-ground before Mr. Roe's house; and in some of the gardens near the town. Mr. Turberville told me that he dug up about half an acre, which remained in a garden that came into his possession, and which had been planted with this root by a gardener who has left his name to a biennial variety of one of the most beautiful of our English flowers,—the Brompton Stock. of Worksop, except the Royton, a charming little river, which rises near Chapel Anston, on the Yorkshire border of the county. A deep romantic dell,-its precipitate sides covered with the spreading oak and the aspiring ash, and nearer the ground, with thick jungles of underwood,— runs along the road side near Church Anston, giving a direction to the water which sparkles and murmurs along its bottom. From this picturesque cradle, the river crosses the road on the northern border of Lindrick Common, pursues its course to Shireoaks, passes near Worksop Lodge, and after turning two or three mills, washes the northern boundary of the town, where it is crossed by a neat bridge, of four small arches. Here, again, it is diverted for the purpose of working a mill; and the fine sheet of water, collected for this purpose, with the river and the byestreams, enhance the charms of a mid-day or moon-light ramble over the canch, as one of the meadows is locally denominated. From Worksop it pursues its course by Scofton Beilby, and Blythe:* at the latter place, it expands into a beautiful lake, after which it joins the Idle between Scathworth and Bawtry,-its whole course being about twenty miles. From a proximity to that magnificent cluster of noblemen's houses, which have been denominated "The Dukery," as well as other causes, the neighbourhood of Worksop abounds with game. Hares, pheasants, and partridges, as if conscious of the laws by which they are protected, scarcely suffer themselves to be startled by the passing stranger. Here, indeed, in their wide domain, they are almost as secure as in a paddock, and to a person who feels no temptation to invade the perilous security of their rights, the sight of so many animals confiding around him can only produce sensations, in unison with the effect of the season or the scenery; indeed, the free warren of this neighbourhood might have been conveyed in terms similar to the charter of Edward the Confessor, to Ranulph Peperking, quoted by Camden, as abounding "With heorte, and hinde, doe and bocke, With greene and wylde stob and stocke." Where game abounds, vermin will often abound also; the situations favourable for the covert of the former, are frequently no less conducive to the increase of the latter description of animals, and the churchwardens' accounts abound with items of monies annually paid for their destruction.+ Travelling must ever be an affair of importance; and journeys formerly were not undertaken without fear, inconvenience, and risque. The mistress of the world conquered our island, and intersected it with highways for the passage of her legionaries; but, although these surprising works were daily before our eyes, it was not until the period when this country had begun to approximate that acme of civil and military glory, which distinguished the empire of the Caesars, that the accommodations for land carriage began to rival the Roman roads in excellency, if not in imperishability; and at present, one of the most striking subjects of comparison between ancient and modern times, is the improvement of our roads. Most of the inhabitants of Worksop recollect the period, when the roads in this neighbourhood were almost impassable to common carriages ; some of them, in the still earlier state, when the turnpikes were comparatively but little frequented, and the vehicles almost hidden by the depth of the ruts, and the hollowness of the road; and a few of octogenarian race, have not forgotten the routine of the pack-horses, and the tinkling of their bells, a sound that seems to have been no less grateful to the animals than necessary to their progress; for many of the lanes were so deep and narrow, that this sound was designed, when heard at a distance, as a signal that whichsoever of the carrier's trains came first to a wider space, they should remain until the others had passed by, as unless this precaution had been attended to, one of them must have had to recede to the passing place. Great numbers of these used to arrive at Worksop, with lead and other commodities from Derbyshire, and the parts adjacent, and returned laden with malt: the metal was deposited on the Lead Hills, as the spot is still called, and the grain was distributed in the districts from which they came: indeed, until the opening of the canal, the maltsters continued to be lead carriers, and blocks of the metal used to be laid all along the road side, from the Sand Hill to Steetley Bar. Worksop at present possesses great advantages of land and water carriage, as well for the communication of intelligence, as the convenience of travelling; for, beside the navigable canal which passes close by the town, there are direct roads to most parts of the kingdom. Of these roads, the four principal ones diverge from the town, nearly in the direction of the four cardinal points of the compass. That towards the east, leads to Osberton, Retford, and other places in that direction; it is under the management of J. L. M'Adam, and although immensely expensive in its formation, exhibits at present one of the finest specimens of his method, being at least 75 per cent. better for travelling than it used to be. The road on the western side leads to Chesterfield, and Derbyshire in general; it used to be deep clay, but at present is mended as far as Barlbrough, with a good covering of stone from the Ladylea Quarry. The ancient road from Chesterfield to Worksop, used to pass by Shireoaks and Haggin Fields, and entered the town by the common, on the north side. Edward, Duke of Norfolk, shortened the distance materially, by bringing it directly through his park, and straight to the market-place. The street called Westgate, being inconvenient for ingress or egress of carriages, the road has since been carried from By a side cut, the limestone of this quarry is commodiously transferred to the barges on the Canal. In 1792, a plan (now in the Duke's office,) was submitted, with the de sign of rendering equally available, the excellent and beautiful freestone of Steetley. Bridge Street round the base of the Castle Hill, a great and obvious accommodation. On the north side of the town, issues the road to Doncaster, Blythe, and Bawtry; this is on the deep gravel sand, but well covered with the hard limestone from the Ladylea Quarry,―broken small, and compactly bedded upon the principle of M'Adam; but let the traveller only turn into any of the bye lanes, and he will soon encounter the deep and almost impassable sand. On the same side of the town, the road to Sheffield and Rotherham, passes through Gateford, and over Lindrick Common, with the soft stone of which it is indifferently well maintained. Lastly, may be mentioned the road which departs in a southerly direction, and goes to Mansfield, Newark, Nottingham, and London. Immediately after quitting the town, it is carried over, or rather through Sparking Hill, where, on either side, the curious traveller may easily examine the alluvial deposit of sand and pebbles, mentioned before, as peculiar to this district. From the yielding nature of the soil, the road used to be covered with a thick substratum of ling, fern, and other vegetable matter from the forest, previously to the reception of the pebbles, which, without this intervention, worked into the sand, and presently disappeared: at present, it is mended with the excellent hard limestone of the neighbourhood. Of the state and affairs of Worksop, anterior to the conquest, we have no written memorials to assist our researches; and when the light of history fails, conjecture is too often obscure and dubious, or like the igneus fatuus, shining only to mislead. The only ray of documentary light, which breaks through the gloom of this period, is the certified ownership of Elsi, son of Castbin, mentioned in the Doomsday-book, in connection with the particulars of the Norman survey of the place, and which is noticed below. This fact, trifling as it may appear, serves to prove that Worksop, in Anglo-Saxon times, was at least "A local habitation and a name." It might, indeed, be defended as a probability, that the site of this town was a place of residence at a much earlier period; for, although I am not aware that any discoveries have been made in the neighbourhood of Worksop, to justify its claim to such high antiquity, yet, from the fact of the very early peopling of this county by the North Mercians, and the favourable circumstances which would be afforded by this sylvan district, for the dwelling and sustenance of the ancient inhabitants of the island, the presumption of its very early settlement does not seem altogether absurd. The discovery, by the late Major Hayman Rooke, of many remains of great antiquity in the neighbourhood of his own residence, at Mansfield Woodhouse, and the existence of the barrows on Sherwood Forest, several of which this gentleman opened, and found them to contain the usual contents of bones, broken earthenware, and celts; these, together with the excavated rock at Blidworth, supposed to be a druidical fragment, all concur to prove that these parts were inhabited by the ancient Britons, and subsequently by their conquerors, the Romans, traces of their arts having likewise been discovered hereabout: and to bring the bearing of these remarks as near home as possible, it may be observed, that several of these tumuli or barrows, the ancient с burial mounds of the Britons, may yet be seen, with large trees growing on them, within the western limits of Worksop Park. Miller, in his History of Doncaster, says, " Our ancestors seem to have been fond of building their large market towns at the extremity of two different soils: the town of Retford has at one end of it a stiff clay, and the other end sand; so at Doncaster, the south end of the town is sand, and the north end limestone." This, as we have seen before, is the case with respect to Worksop, and indeed many other towns, owing, no doubt, rather to chance than selection. Circumstances, rather than soil, may often have determined the eligibility of a site; and if, at an early period, the banks of the Royton were level and fertile, as at present, in consequence of the rich deposition of vegetable loam; this spot, we may presume, would be selected by our rude aborigines, as proper for cultivation, when, or by whatever method, tillage began to be by them practised. Virgil celebrates "puer monstrator aratri ;" and Thomson says, with no less historical truth, than poetical beauty, that, "In ancient times, the sacred plough employed The kings, and awful fathers of mankind." But whether this famous implement of husbandry, allowedly of early use in this country, was known to the ancient Britons, may well be questioned, notwithstanding a quotation made by Selden,+ from an old work, which states, that one of our kings, who reigned 400 or 500 years before Christ! ordained, "that plows, temples, and ways leading to cities, should have privilege of sanctuary." The reader will smile at the antiquity of this law, and no doubt will agree with Thoroton, who adds, that then, "certainly, the inhabitants of this place were not much civilized." It is, however, generally to the Saxon era, that we are accustomed to look for those authentic records and traces, which we regard as the earliest evidences in local history. Their kings were the beloved of the people; and their government, manners, and literature, are all too intimately interwoven with the very texture of our annals, ever to cease to interest, while Alfred remains a name unrivalled among monarchs; while Conisbrough Castle stands the proud initial of their antiquities; and while our daily conversation, owes to their language, the derivation of so much of its masculine energy. Of their residence in this county, every place bears testimony; for, according to Thoroton, there is not the name of any field, hamlet, village, or town, which is not of Saxon etymology. Such, indeed, is the apparent indestructibility of words, that appellations • Hist. Don. p. 7. + In his illustrations of Drayton's Polyolbion. Robert, of Gloucester, likewise mentions the King Mulmutius, and his law, in his Rhyming Chronicles. I have been unable to obtain any satisfactory etymo logy of Worksop. Dickenson, indeed, says, that Thoroton was but a "moderate scholar, and no etymologist ;" and although I can neither disprove this assertion, nor find the etymon of this appellation, I still think that Thoroton is correct in his general remark. The following nomenclature may be amusing: peord-rcop. WEORTHSCOP. pretium stirps. The hire or price of the race, stock, or foundation. pircan-scop. |