CRAVEN HIGHLANDS.

PART I-WESTERN DIVISION.

CHAPTER I.

GIGGLESWICK.

Introduction - Character of Craven and the North-Western Dales - Land of mountain and cataract-A paradise of wild flowers and ferns-History and Antiquities Hotel and house accommodation-Craven diet-LongevityUnrivalled Air-Cures-Comparison with the Black Forest and Switzerland -Giggleswick-An old British town-Domesday- Author's correspondence with Continental authorities- A reference to German charters of the 8th century, shewing the origin and meaning of Giggleswick-The lost Tarn Ebbing and Flowing Well-Other English "tidal" wells-The British canoe -First mention of the church- Some early charters-Old familiesArchdeacon Paley-Amusing Anecdotes-Recent discoveries in the church -"Strainge Parsons"-Account of the Market Cross-The Grammar School -The Museum and its contents.

N commencing our survey of the Craven Highlands, Giggleswick, with Settle, has the first claim to consideration as the capital centre. This, it should be understood, is adopted for the sake of greater convenience of the whole area treated upon. With the Lowlands (if such a term be admissible) of Craven the present work does not profess to deal. Strictly speaking, the parish of Kirkby Malham is the most central in the Deanery of Craven. This ancient ecclesiastical division is almost co-extensive with, yet larger than, the almost equally ancient Wapentake of Staincliffe; the latter excluding the parishes of Bingley, Ilkley, and Horton-in-Ribblesdale. Craven, properly, extends from Bingley and Ilkley on the west, to Slaidburn and Bolland on the east, and from the foot of Boulsworth southwards, to

Langstrothdale northwards; an area comprising a little over 600 square miles, or roughly, 400,000 acres. In Domesday the district is surveyed as Crave', which is probably a contracted form of Craig Vaen, or Land of Crags, a derivative that can be clearly traced back to the earliest foreign invasion of the Goidelic Celts, who were the first possessing conquerors of our Yorkshire Highlands, then occupied by the aboriginal pre-Celtic race. To these primitive Goidels or Gaels (now represented by the Gaels of Scotland and Ireland) Craven, then, apparently owes its name. But as some objection, perhaps, may be raised to the final compound, I may observe that in Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon ven or veen has the meaning of a shallow lake, or marsh, whence our English word Fen. But as Craven was undoubtedly so called long before the Teutonic Conquest there can, I think, be no just ground for assuming this to form part of its derivation.

The two Midland stations,-about a mile apart-at Giggleswick on the Lancaster line, and at Settle on the Carlisle line, have made this locality accessible by railway from all the chief centres of population in the country. But the great north line which traverses the wild mountain region from Settle to Carlisle is the only one which intersects the landscape to the west of Ripon and Pateley-a distance, as the crow flies, of nearly 30 miles-and may be likened, perhaps, to a huge whip-stock; while the metals that come up southwards from Skipton, from Colne, and from Whalley to Hellifield, may be said to form the several lashes, keeping at a distance, apparently, any further intrusion of the steam demon into these upper dales. To the north and east of this iron boundary there extends a region several hundred square miles in extent, where the railway whistle is never heard, where the only sounds audible are the bleatings of mountain sheep, the cries of moor-birds, the roar of cataracts, the murmur of rock-girt streams, ruffled often by rude storms, or kissed into sweetest music by amorous summer winds-a region, moreover, of such varied and absorbing interest that it is questionable whether in the whole of England there can be found its equal in any similar tract.

Historically too, and in monuments of far-distant times, belonging to the earliest records of human activity in this country, and in temples and relics of later ages, there will be found matters and objects of no ordinary importance and concern, each and all of which will be dealt with at length in the text. Scenically, while the district is mainly built up of limestone there is a great variety of both older and newer strata, and these formations traversed by the several branches of the famous Craven Fault, one of the grandest and most astonishing rock-fractures in the whole country, the geologist, or student of scenery, has here a rare and attractive field of interest. Botanically also, no district has a richer

calendar, many of the flowering plants, mosses, and lichens have, owing to the exceptionally favourable conditions of habitat, maintained an uninterrupted existence from a vastly remote period, when sea and ice have alternately filled the dales or receded from the mountain tops. But these also form subjects of enquiry which we shall discuss more fully in our rambles about.

The country presents a surface at once bold and picturesque, a combination, æsthetically, we might term it, of the sublime and beautiful, -great rugged scars clothed with a profusion of native trees and shrubs; high mountain masses isolated or in ranges, about whose summits lie lonely tarns, the haunts of many rare birds; wide sweeps of purple moorland; deep romantic gills or beck-courses, which, wearing deeper and deeper, have fissured numbers of great gulfs in the limestone," potholes" as they are called, and caverns and chasms of various and unknown depth. Though the mountains do not attain quite the same altitude as those in the neighbouring Lake Country, yet to the explorer a-foot, they are usually more accessible by reason of their lesser acclivities, rising in a succession of plateaux or terraces formed by the weathering of the horizontal beds of rock, and commanding from their summits prospects often of surprising extent. The air, naturally, in a country almost entirely free from manufactories, is very pure, and where the limestone prevails, is dry, bracing, and tonic. The hills give rise to innumerable running springs of excellent water, which rarely or never fail in their supply. The inns, though generally small, are clean and comfortable, and whether the visitor elect to stay at these or any of the private houses or farms in the district, accustomed to receiving visitors, he may reckon on homely comforts and considerate treatment. The native dietary if plain is wholesome. Fresh home-grown vegetables, the primest and sweetest of home-fed hams, (which have indeed a worldwide fame), a plentiful supply of rich new milk and butter, fine fresh eggs, and with these and the proverbially excellent quality of the Yorkshire-made bread, many a Craven housewife need never be ashamed of making up a meal or a dish fit to set before a king.

With improved drainage and sanitary arrangements recent statistics shew how healthful the district has become, whilst the records of longevity prove that amongst the dales-folk long life is rather the rule than the exception; the average length of human life in Craven probably, we might almost say positively, exceeding that of any other district in the universe. Moreover, lying for the most part remote from any large towns or cities, undisturbed by the vagaries of modern ways, the customs, manners, and pastoral habits of the people have remained in great measure unchanged. Therefore, having regard to the pure air, wholesome diet, and vitalising surroundings, what our Teutonic friends