thority, it is asserted that the tops of houses and the desolate chimneys are sometimes visible to the astonished eyes of the stranger, when embarked upon these mysterious waters.

• Si

qua domus mansit, potuitq: resistere tanto Indejecta malo; culmen tamen altior hujus "Unda tegit, pressæq: labant sub gurgite turres. cymba sedet alter adunca,

Et ducit remos illic, ubi nuper ararat.

*Ille supra segetes, aut mersæ culmina villæ, Navigat:

Ovid.

In Dayes's" Yorkshire," it is observed that this curious pool of water is round as a bason, and has all the appearance of the crater of a volcano."

Without the embellishment of fiction, the natural beauties of this lake are sufficient to repay the labour of the visitor, its lofty situation commanding an unbounded prospect of the beautiful, vale of Mowbray.

Whitestonecliff, or White Mare Crags.-- March 25, 1755, many persons in the neighbourhood heard a loud noise, which seemed to proceed from the cliff, and which increased on the 26th. About 7 o'clock on the morning of the 27th, Edward Abbot, weaver, and Adam Bosomworth, bleacher, both of Sutton, riding beneath the scene of these strange

noises, heard a tremendous roaring, which they compared to the explosion of many cannons, proceeding from the cliff. Shortly after they witnessed the disruption of a fragment of the rock, four or five yards broad; which split and flew off from the top of the crag. Between ten and eleven in the forenoon, a part of the same rock, fifteen yards in thickness, thirty high, and from sixty to seventy in breadth, was torn off and hurled into the valley, with a report like the eruption of a volcano. The cause of this alarming phenomenon, which was naturally enough mistaken for an earthquake, was the lodgement of a large quantity of snow and rain in a cavity of the rock, which rent in pieces the solid stone, and produced those frightful convulsions, to the no small terror of the villagers. Traces of this awful avalanche remain in the fissures of the earth, which covers the foot of the Whitestonecliff; in the desolation which reigns on its rocky sides; and the huge fragments which were hurled into the fields and woods of the vicinity.

FELISKIRK, OTHERWISE CALLED
FELIXKIRK,

is a small village, 3 miles N. E. of Thirsk; half a mile from which, at Mount St. John, William

Percy, in the reign of Henry I., founded a Precep tory of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, which was granted by Henry VIII. in exchange, to the Archbishop of York. At its dissolution it was valued at £102. 13s. 10d. per annum.

The Church, a Vicarage in the gift of His Grace the Archbishop of York, is an ancient structure of considerable interest; containing an effigy of a Knight Templar, and another of a Lady, in excellent preservation, and well executed in stone. The Knight is habited in complete Norman ring-mail, bearing sword and shield, his legs being crossed to denote the order of knighthood.

"There long hath lain behind that iron rail,
The sculptur'd Knight, in curious marble mail ;'
With hands uplift, and clasp'd, and grav'd beneath
His lineage and achievements---fame's last wreath-
The rustic mind incurious to his fame,

The

age

that knew him, or his titled name: Or if mortality he ever wore,

Or only liv'd in legendary lore!

Or if in chivalry's advent'rous age,

He lur'd the Turk at Salem to engage ;

And ere the holy Syrian vales he left,
From many a Paynim's arm the crescent reft;
Or worn at Tourney when his King was there,
The envied favours of the fairest fair.

These to the sober swain no joys impart,

The herald's blazon, and the sculptor's art,
He careless of their beauty and intent,

What now they mean---or what they ever meant.”

"The Knights Templars were a military order, which began about the year 1118, at Jerusalem. The institution was commenced by nine crusaders, who resolved to defend the pilgrims from the cruelty of the infidels, and to keep the passes free for such as visited the Holy Land. From so small a beginning they increased to such a degree, that they are said to have been at length possessed of nine thousand houses or convents, besides other great wealth. Their prosperity is said to have made them so insolent, and so abominably vicious, that even a Pope saw reason to suppress them: though some have thought their riches excited jealousy. In 1312, at the general council of Vienna, the order was abolished: next year the grand master was burned alive, and several others were executed. Much of their property was afterwards given to the Knights Hospitallers, who still subsist ás Knights of Malta.”

St. John's Mount introduces to the reader another victim of Protestant persecution, in the barbarous execution of William Harrington, a native of this place, who was, on the 18th of February, 1594, hanged, drawn, and quartered, at

Tyburn. He was cut down alive, and put to death under circumstances of peculiar atrocity. The martyrdom is attested by Stow's Chronicle, and the Douay Diary and Catalogues.*

One mile to the North of Thirsk, upon the Stockton and Sunderland Road, is

4

SOUTH KILVINGTON,

a neat village, pleasantly situated, and commanding a fine view of Thirsk. Nothing worthy of notice occurs, excepting the Church, dedicated to St. Wilfred, which is indeed an object worthy of the traveller's attention. Its appearance is indicative of considerable antiquity, and contains both the Stone Bason and the Piscina, (the former near the South Door) but does not exhibit any trace of a Western Door. The antique Gothic Arch between the nave and the chancel, springing from solid abutments of unnecessary magnitude, curiously separates these two divisions of the little church. The East Window contains the arms of Scrope, in ancient coloured glass, and might at one period contain a much greater quantity. But the most

* Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests, 1, 165.