Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a very large county, although recent boundary changes have taken away its position as the largest county in England. Nevertheless it does cover a vast area and it is therefore not too surprising that it should contain a wide variety of interest as well as of landscape. The wild bleak moors, so well known to the Brente family and which Emily made the setting for Wuthering Heights, are a very real contrast to the lovely pastoral quality of the Dales which, when seen on peaceful summer days, would be very hard to better for sheer beauty of scenery. Indeed, the same may be said for the coastline of Yorkshire for, although there are holiday resorts along its whole length, there are still long stretches of windswept beach and cliff where only the cry of the seagulls is heard.

The whole county is richly steeped in history, from the very beginning of England's emergence as a nation, to the industrial revolution. The dissolution of the smaller monasteries started in 1536, to be followed three years later by the general dissolution, after which the great Abbeys were allowed to fall into ruin. Today we can visit such places as Rievaulx, Bolton and Fountains Abbey and wander around the ruins in their landscaped settings and then go and buy artist's impressions, on postcards or in guidebooks, of the way the ruins we now see must have looked in their days of glory. This is, of course, all very interesting and is doubtless the best that anyone can do in the circumstances. It seems to bring to mind even more strongly, however, just how wantonly destructive man can be, not only to other men, but also to their works.

It is very hard to choose between cities that all have different things to offer but most people who know England would, if asked to name their favourites, include the city of York. Almost everything about York seems to be exactly right, if not for the drivers who have to negotiate its narrow streets and the gates in the city walls, then certainly for the many visitors who come to admire the breathtakmig beauty of the Minster and the quaint old streets of the Shambles. In the nearby Castle Museum cobbled streets and shops have been reconstructed, complete with goods in the shops and cabs in the streets, that capture perfectly the atmosphere of the ages represented. York is very self contained within its walls and, as most of the walls are still intact, it is possible to walk along them almost all the way round the city, and to be rewarded by the changing aspect of one of the most fascinatingly beautiful cities in England.