among these upper western ranges. From no other point in our district are the chief Yorkshire mountains more admirably or more picturesquely grouped. From nowhere do we see a wilder, bolder, or more striking assemblage of gaunt and solitary hills than from the summit of this now almost unknown and little frequented pass. Behind us, as we came up, there was the long "roof" of Buckden Gable, Yockenthwaite Moor, Dodd Fell, and Wether Fell conspicuous, and now we have the whole northern side, forming one grand chain, of Fountains Fell, with the round, lofty, and well-placed crown of Penyghent rising above the eastern buttress of High and Far Bargh, up which runs the white road from Halton Gill by the Giants' Graves to Settle. Westward, the peculiar, flat top of Ingleborough is seen with a part of Simon Fell, and looking over the gap in Cush Knott we can descry the mammoth back of Whernside, with Blea Moor, Wold Fell, and the depression in which lies picturesque Dent Dale. The prospect, however, is not one remarkable for any great extent, but is rather to be distinguished for the magnificent array and very striking configuration of the great Yorkshire heights, and viewed under the pageantry of a fine sunset the grandeur of the scene is very sensibly enhanced.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

LITTONDAI E. A WILD WALK.

Lonely Littondale-Grant of the valley to the Monks of Fountains-Halton Gill -Chapel-Names of tenants at the Dissolution-Wild Plants-A walk between Penyghent and Fountains Fell-Hesleden in A.D. 1540-A Monks' courierGiants' Graves-Are they Danish ?-Tree-burials in Denmark and in CravenScottish raids after Bannockburn-Rainscar, the summit of the English watershed-Fountains Fell-Highest cart road in Yorkshire-A wild passWinter experiences.

ITTONDALE used formerly to be called Amerdale, although Amerdale properly is only a tributary dale. It is now one of the most retired and beautiful valleys in Yorkshire. With the exception of about forty acres, and pasture for 300 sheep, granted in the time of the Percys to Sallay Abbey, the whole of Littondale belonged to the rich monastery of Fountains. Richard de Percy, who was one of the elected guardians of the famous Magna Charta, gave the monks the vill of Litton, with all his bondmen there, and the valley of Littondale, as defined by bounders.

Here the hills were grazed by extensive flocks of sheep, from which in due season the wool was clipped, and spun and woven into cloth by the dalespeople themselves. Spinning and hand-loom weaving in the dale continued important industries down to the present century, but the introduction of machinery, and the centralisation of commerce in large towns, have almost entirely superseded such work here now, and this has led to a thinning of the population, which for several decades past has shewn a marked decline.

The dale head is enclosed with lofty fells, and about Foxup is so shut in that there appears no visible outlet as we turn our face in that direction. The first place that we come upon after descending from the Horse Head pass is the hamlet of Halton Gill, with its few houses and little chapel sweetly ensconced among fine chestnuts, sycamores, and ash trees. There will be those who remember the old chapel here with its massive open-timbered roof, and small bell-turret at the west end, adjoining the minister's house. The chapel, which had been re-built in the year 1636, was pulled down in 1847, and reconstructed in the same style.

At the dissolution of monasteries the monks of Fountains possessed 10 tenements here, and the names of the tenants, with their rents, were these John Redman, 7s.; Robt. Elison, 18s. ; Ewyn Franklyng, 40s. ; Wm. Elison, 20s.; Cristofer Frankling, 20s.; John Elison, 40s.; Henry Loge, 30s.; Margaret Tenant, 20s.; Alice Thornton, 20s.; and John Elison, 30s.

The living of Halton Gill is a perpetual curacy, and like that at Hubberholme, is in the gift of the Vicar of Arncliffe, and has been held since 1881 by the Rev. W. A. Shuffrey, M.A. Mr. Shuffrey is a well-known naturalist, and has contributed many useful notes on the wild-plants of the district to the scientific journals of the county. He has recently (May, 1890) discovered in Littondale that very rare and pretty wildgeranium, the Dusky Cranes-bill (G. phæum), which does not appear ever to have been noticed in Wharfedale before, nor, indeed, elsewhere in Yorkshire at so high an altitude (650 feet).*

From Halton Gill Bridge the guide-post tells us it is 10 miles to Settle, 10 miles to Hawes, and 2 miles to Litton. The first-named is a most interesting and wild walk, or drive, over high ground between Penyghent and Fountains Fell, through Silverdale, which we will now describe.

The tourist who has come from Hawes, or over any of the passes from Langstrothdale or upper Wharfedale, previously described, can obtain night accommodation at Litton, or still better at Arncliffe, where there is a first-rate inn, the Falcon. A little beyond the last house in Litton, a path at a stone stile shortens the way to the bridge at the foot of Litton Brow. Ascending the mountain-road through several gates, the open moor is reached, with Hesleden (i.e. hazel) Gill, which is on the north-eastern edge of the old Penyghent deer-forest, deep down on the right. In a Valuation made in 1540 of divers lands and tenements belonging to the lately dissolved monastery of Fountains, there are the following interesting references to the two ancient farm-steads here of Upper and Lower Hesleden.

OVER HESSELDEN.

Parcell of the same Manore of Litton, and of the parishe of Arnclif. The morez thereof be callid Heselden morez, and be the propre soyle, &c, as is abovesaid, in Foxhop.

Richard Fawcett holdeth a Tenement called Over hesselden, with landes, medoos, and pastors thereunto belonging, and rents by the yere, at Martyn and Pentecost, iiijli xlljs iiijd.

NETHER HESSELDEN.

Parcell of the same Manore of Litton, &c. as is abovesaid, in Overhesselden. Henry Pudsey holdeth a Tenement callid Nether hesselden, with edificez, landes, medoos, pastures, and commons unto the same belonging, paying therefore yerely, at the feasts of Sanct Martyn and Pentecost. vjli xiijs iiijd.

A very full account of the flowering plants and ferns of Littondale is furnished by Mr. Shuffrey in the Naturalist, for February, 1891.

Richard Fawsied, an ancestor of the above-mentioned Richard Fawcett, was a tenant of the abbot at Over Hesilden in 1455, as was James Fawcett in 1496. Adam Fawcyd was one of the servants at the Abbey, with 20s. wages in 1458, and a stout pedestrian and trusty man withal he must have been, for he was often sent on long journeys, and once was despatched to Louth Park, in Lincolnshire, to borrow money for the convent, at the cost of 3s. 2d. He travelled to Crosthwaite, in Cumberland, and back, at an expense of 3s. 4d. ; to Kendal, for 6s. 8d. ; and to Stainburn, in Wharfedale, for 4d. There is a tract of country called Fawcett, or Fawside Moor, between Penyghent and Fountains Fell.*

Penyghent now stands out grandly to the north; the wild sweep of moorland, and high broken range of crag upon its eastern flanks, look vast and breezy, and make one feel that in spite of crowded towns and congested dwellings, there is plenty of breathing room left in Yorkshire yet. Our road skirts the northern expanse of Fountains Fell, and near the top of the moor, 7 miles from Settle, a branch road goes down by the lonely Penyghent House to Halton Gill, 3 miles.

Near this house are the well-known Giants' Graves, but why so-called is not very clear, nor has any attempt been made to unravel their origin. Whitaker thinks they are Danish, which is not improbable, although he adduces but scant evidence, and but few particulars. He says, "The bodies have been enclosed in a sort of rude Kist Vaens, consisting of limestones pitched on edge, within which they appear to have been artificially embedded in peat earth. But this substance, in consequence of lying dry and in small quantities, has lost its well-known property of tanning substances, for all the remains which have been disinterred from these deposits are reduced to skeletons." But this is the language of one who apparently never saw the " skeletons," nor yet even the spot. No description whatever is given, and whence he obtained his information I am unable to make out. The "sort of rude Kist Vaens" probably never existed, and as to the "skeletons," may we not with equal shew of reason exchange this significant substantive for "ashes"? At any rate there appears no authentic account of any such discovery, nor any precise account of the plan or character of the graves and their contents. What is left at present are a few mounds of earth, the largest, which is divided into two, and lies north and south, measures about 28 feet by 25 feet. There is another apparent grave-mound on the east side of it, and again to the north is an oblong excavation or trench, 7 feet wide and nearly 30 feet long, in which several bodies or coffins may have been deposited. Several large oblong stones lay flat upon the ground beside the graves, but these were removed a few years ago, and degraded to the service of gate-posts.

* Vide Memorials of Fountains Abbey," Surtees Soc. Pub., xlii., pp. 311, 374.

The position and character of the graves suggest a Danish origin, yet I have reason to believe that not only ashes or skeletons have lain and been found there, but that these have been enclosed within rude whole-wood coffins, which have fallen into decay, and in all respects resembling the ancient form of tree-burial prevalent in Denmark, and elsewhere, examples of which have been disclosed at Rylstone, and doubtless at other places in past times in Craven.* A large earthen mound, similarly known as the Giant's Grave, lies just outside the walls of Peel Castle, in the Isle of Man, and although this is popularly associated with some romantic story of a human monster, of whom tradition even has failed to preserve any clear history, there is little doubt but what this also is a relic of the old Norse occupation of that island.†

Just above, the road reaches the summit of the pass (1400 feet), (which is the watershed of England), at Rainscar House, or Peter Castle. Here, again, the old Viking turns up, for in Rainscar we have not, as might be supposed, the name of a spot specially noted for its rainfall, although a few experiences at this point have strongly inclined us to such a notion, but an old Norse and Gaelic word for a promontory, or headland. Various forms of the word, such as ren, rin, reyn, or even run, occur among our Yorkshire hills, and in every case they are connected with some projecting point or prominent edge, like Reinsber Scar between Stackhouse and Stainforth, or Rainsber Scar, sometimes called Pudsay's Leap, on the Ribble, near Bolton Hall. Thus Rainscar is simply the scar of the summit or headland, exactly as Rinmore, in Devon, means the great point, Penryn in Wales, and in Cornwall, the head of the

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For comparison, the reader may consult Madsen's beautifully-illustrated work, Afbildninger af Danske Oldsager og Mindesmærker," from which engravings, elucidatory of ancient Danish sepulture, have been reproduced in Sir John Lubbock's" Prehistoric Times."

† Some may conclude that these places of ancient in terment under Penyghent are simple memorials of the many fatal incursions of the Scots into Craven, when the inhabitants of the district may have been surprised by the sudden appearance of the enemy here near the summit of the pass. The Scots, we know, after Bannockburn, devastated Craven shockingly, wrecking the churches and houses, carrying off the cattle, taking what men they could prisoners, and behaving in a brutal manner to the women. It is more than probable that this was one of the roads they took in descending upon Clapham and Settle out of Wensleydale and from the country to the north-east, whereas, the old historian Baker tells us, they did much damage, committing many outrages, and whence from Ripon (where the Mayor and Corporation had assembled, and offered them a thousand marks to save the town from burning,) they moved on their predatory excursions into the neighbouring dales. But neither history nor tradition associates this particular place with the Scots, which leads us back to the belief that the graves in question date from the period above stated.