First Published in 1901.
Second and Revised Edition—1922.

Printed in Great Britain by C. Tinling & Co., Ltd.,
53, Victoria Street, Liverpool.
Also at London and Prescot.

THE GREAT NORTH ROAD
YORK TO EDINBURGH

London (General Post Office) to—

MILES

York

196¾

Clifton

198¼

Rawcliff

200¼

Skelton

201¼

Shipton

202¾

Tollerton Lanes

206½

Easingwold

210¼

White House

211¾

Thormanby

214¼

Birdforth

215

Bagby Common (“Griffin” Inn)

217½

Mile House

218½

Thirsk

220½

South Kilvington

222

Thornton-le-Street

223½

Thornton-le-Moor

224¾

Northallerton

229¼

Lovesome Hill

229¾

Little Smeaton (cross River Wiske)

231¾

Great Smeaton

232¾

High Entercommon

233¾

Dalton-on-Tees

236¾

Croft (cross River Tees)

237¾

Oxneyfield Bridge (cross River Skerne)

238

Darlington

241¾

Harrogate

243½

Coatham Mandeville

245¾

Aycliffe

246¾

Traveller’s Rest

248

Woodham

249¼

Rushyford Bridge

250½

Ferryhill

253

Low Butcher Race and Croxdale

255

Sunderland Bridge

255¾

Browney Bridge (cross River Wear)

256

Durham (cross River Browney)

260

Durham Moor (Framwellgate)

261

Plawsworth

263½

Chester-le-Street

266

Birtley

269

Gateshead Fell

271

Gateshead (cross River Tyne)

273½

Newcastle-on-Tyne

274½

Gosforth

277

Seaton Burn

280¾

Stannington Bridge (cross River Blyth)

284

Stannington

284½

Clifton

286½

Morpeth (cross River Wansbeck)

289¼

Warrener’s House

291¼

Priest’s Bridge

293¼

West Thirston (cross River Coquet)

299¼

Felton

299¾

Newton-on-the Moor

302½

Alnwick (cross River Aln)

308½

Heiferlaw Bank

310

North Charlton

314¾

Warenford

318¾

Belford

323

Detchant Cottages

325¼

Fenwick

328

Haggerston

331

Tweedmouth (cross River Tweed)

337½

Berwick-on-Tweed

338

Lamberton Toll

341

(Enter Scotland)

Greystonelees

343½

Flemington Inn and Burnmouth (cross River Eye)

344

Ayton

346

Houndwood

351¾

Grant’s House

354½

Cockburnspath

358

Dunglass Dene

359¼

Broxburn

363½

Dunbar

365

Belhaven

365¾

Beltonford

367½

Phantassie

370

East Linton

370½

Haddington

376

Gladsmuir

379¾

Macmerry

381½

Tranent

383¾

Musselburgh (cross North Esk River)

387¼

Joppa

389¼

Portobello

390

Jock’s Lodge

391½

Edinburgh

393

Via Ferrybridge, Wetherby, andBoroughbridge.

Doncaster (cross River Don)

162¼

York Bar

164

Red House

167¼

Robin Hood’s Well

169¼

Went Bridge (cross River Went)

172¾

Darrington

174½

Ferrybridge (cross River Aire)

177½

Brotherton

178½

Fairburn

180

Micklefield

184

Aberford

186½

Bramham Moor

186½

Bramham

190¼

Wetherby (cross River Wharfe)

194¼

Kirk Deighton

195¼

Walshford Bridge (cross River Nidd)

197¼

Allerton Park

200¾

Nineveh

202½

Ornham’s Hall

204¼

Boroughbridge (cross River Ure)

206¼

Kirkby Hill

207¼

Dishforth

210½

Asenby

212¼

Topcliffe (cross River Swale)

212¾

Sand Hutton

217

Newsham

219

South Otterington

220¾

North Otterington

222¼

Northallerton

225¼

Edinburgh

389

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
The “Highflyer,” 1812 Frontispiece
Old York: The Shambles [6]
The Walls of York [9]
York Castle: Clifford’s Tower [14]
York Minster, from the Foss [33]
All Saints’ Pavement [41]
Jonathan Martin, Incendiary [45]
York Minster on Fire [49]
Bootham Bar [52]
Skelton Church [53]
The “Spotted Dog,” Thornton-le-Street [60]
York Bar [63]
Robin Hood’s Well [64]
The Battlefield of Towton and surrounding country [70]
Saxton [71]
Towton Dale [72]
Lead Chapel [74]
Ruined Mill overlooking Aberford [76]
Barwick-in-Elmete [77]
Moor End [80]
Nineveh [81]
The Edinburgh Express, 1837 [85]
Croft Bridge [93]
Sockburn Falchion [94]
“Locomotion” [98]
“The Experiment” [99]
“I say, fellow, give my buggy a charge of coke, your charcoal is too d—d dear” [101]
The Iron Road to the North [105]
Traveller’s Rest [108]
Rushyford Bridge [109]
Ferryhill: The Abandoned Road-Works [111]
Merrington Church [113]
Road, Rail, and River: Sunderland Bridge [115]
Entrance to Durham [117]
Durham Cathedral, from Prebend’s Bridge [121]
The Sanctuary Knocker [125]
Durham Cathedral and Castle from below Framwellgate Bridge [127]
Framwellgate Bridge [130]
Penshaw Monument [132]
The Coal Country [137]
A Wayside Halt [138]
Travellers arriving at an Inn [145]
Modern Newcastle: from Gateshead [153]
Old Newcastle: showing the Town Bridge, now demolished [157]
“The Drunkard’s Cloak” [162]
“Puffing Billy” [165]
The Gates of Blagdon Park [167]
Morpeth [169]
The Market-place, Morpeth [173]
Felton Bridge [174]
Alnwick [175]
Alnwick Castle [185]
Malcolm’s Cross [188]
Bambrough Castle [192]
The Scottish Border: Berwick Town and Bridge from Tweedmouth [197]
Lamberton Toll [203]
Off to the Border [205]
Cockburnspath Tower [213]
The Tolbooth, Dunbar [215]
Bothwell Castle [220]
Haddington Abbey, from Nungate [221]
Edinburgh, from Tranent [223]
Musselburgh [228]
Calton Hill [232]
The “White Horse” Inn [235]
“Squalor and Picturesqueness” [238]
Canongate [239]
Old Inscription, Lady Stair’s House [241]
The “Heave Awa” Sign [242]
A Tirle-pin [243]
Greyfriars [245]
The Wooden Horse [247]
Stately Princes Street [249]
Edinburgh, New Town, 1847, from Mons Meg Battery [251]
Skyline of the Old Town [255]

I

At last we are safely arrived at York, perhaps no cause for comment in these days, but a circumstance which “once upon a time” might almost have warranted a special service of prayer and praise in the Minster. One comes to York as the capital of a country, rather than of a county, for it is a city that seems in more than one sense Metropolitan. Indeed, you cannot travel close upon two hundred miles, even in England and in these days of swift communication, without feeling the need of some dominating city, to act partly as a seat of civil and ecclesiastical government, and partly as a distributing centre; and if something of this need is even yet apparent, how much more keenly it must have been felt in those “good old days” which were really so bad! A half-way house, so to speak, between those other capitals of London and Edinburgh, York had all the appearance of a capital in days of old, and has lost but little of it, in these, even though in point of wealth and population it lags behind those rich and dirty neighbours, Leeds and Bradford. For one thing, it has a history to which they cannot lay claim, and keeps a firm hold upon titles and dignities conferred ages ago. We may ransack the pages of historians in vain in attempting to find the beginnings of York. Before history began it existed, and just because it seems a shocking thing to the well-ordered historical mind that the first founding of a city should go back beyond history or tradition, Geoffrey of Monmouth and other equally unveracious chroniclers have obligingly given precise—and quite untrustworthy—accounts of how it arose, at the bidding of kings who never had an existence outside their fertile brains.