portions, as shall be assessed by the mayor and aldermen for the time being, upon pain to lose for every defect, 5s. and to have their shops restraint, and chambers shut, till they pay the same. In testimony whereof, the common seal of the said corporation of Pontefract, is hereunto set and affixed the day and year above written.

After the passing of this order, the grain was openly exposed for sale, and continued so until the year 1740, to the great prejudice, damage, and impoverishment of the poor in this town and parts adjacent,' when at a general meeting held in the mote-hall, on the 26th of May in that year, it was ordered that no grain shall hereafter be opened and exposed for sale in the market, until after ten o'clock in the forenoon, at which time the market bell will be rung, on pain of being prosecuted.'*

Its fairs † are, St. Andrew's held on the first Saturday in December; twenty days' fair the first Saturday after the twentieth day from Christmas; Candlemas on the first Saturday after the 13th. of February; and St. Giles's on the first Saturday after the 12th of September; April 8th. and May 4th. for cattle, sheep, &c.; with the moveable fairs, Palm-Sunday, Low Sunday, May 4th, and Trinity-Sunday, which are held on the Saturday preceding each of these days respectively. The fortnight fairs are held on the Saturday next after York fortnight fairs. The show for horses, formerly called Palm-Sunday show, now begins on the 5th. of February.

Its situation is in the parish of Pontefract, in the wapontake of Osgoldcross, and in the liberty and honor of Pontefract; and is distant from Aberford, eleven miles; from Wakefield, nine; from Leeds, thirteen; from Doncaster, fourteen; from Rotherham, twenty; and from Ferrybridge, two and a half miles, and sixty yards;‡ and is twentyfour miles s.w. of York, and one hundred and seventy-three N.W. of London.

The population by the census of 1801 appeared to be 3097, viz. 1394 males, and 1703 females, and the town contained 741 houses, of which 48 were uninhabited; but in 1821 the population had increased 4447, viz. 1890 males and 2557 females; and, it was possessed of 930 houses.

Barnaby Harrington, in his itinerary, thus humourously notices this place:

*Old Town's Books, pp. 180.

Edward the first, in the 22d. year of his reign, on the 6th of June, granted to Henry Lascy, earl of Lincoln, and constable of Chester, a market every week at his manor of Pontefract; and a fair for five days, viz. on the vigil of Palm-Sunday, PalmSunday, and three following days.

The measured distance from Pontefract to Ferrybridge, by two separate ways, is thus noted from Pontefract cross, down the horsefair, broadlane, and by the wash, to Ferrybridge is 4686 yards: and from the cross down the horsefair, by the castle, milldam and St. Thomas' hill, is 4460 yards.

Veni Pomfret,* ubi miram

Arcem, anglist regibus diram;

Laseris ortu celebrandam,

Variis gestis memorandam;

Nec in Pomfret, repens certior,

Quam pauperculus inertior.

The following latin description, copied from an old manuscript in the compiler's possession, may perhaps prove sufficiently interesting to have a place here :

Per antiquæ villæ de Pontefracto prospectus australis.

A primatis seculis optimatum sedes. Post Alricum saxonem, illustrissimarum Lasceiorum familiarium per CCL annos prædium, et caput baroniæ. At demum per Aliciam, hæredem præ nobili Lancastriensi, et postremo regia devenit prosapiæ. Castro olim, magnifico et munitissimo, ecclesia, cœnobiis, xenodochiis, et aliis structuris speciosis decorata; temporum vero decursu, et belli cladibus, hisce spoliata. Impræsentiarum solo fruitur fæcundissimo, aere saluberrimo, et situ tam amæno, ut abhinc totus pene venustus ager eboracensis speculetur. Hisce, cum incolarum prosperitate, (ni fallit augurium) in æternum fruitura. N. I. M. D.

As the heathens had their good genii, so likewise their evil ones are traditionally handed down to us, by those many idle stories of local ghosts which the common people do still believe haunt cities, towns, and family seats, famous for their antiquities and decays;-of this sort are the apparitions at Verulam, Silchester, Reculver and Rochester; the demon of Tedworth, the black dog of Winchester, the padfoot of Pontefrete, and the barguest of York, &c.‡

About a mile distant from the town, northwards, is the park, on an eligible part of which is built a grand stand, and the ridge above the course affords the finest prospect for an immense concourse of spectators. The races, which are annually held here in September, are generally attended by great numbers of the fashionable world, and are a period of general of festivity and merry-making.§

Hic repetunt ortum tristissima funera regum,

Quæ lachrymas oculis excutiere meis.

The tragic state of english kings stood here,

Which to their urns pays tribute with a tear.

Regibus anglorum dedit arx tua dira ruinam,

Hoc titulo fatum cerne S... tuum.

Here stood the fatal theatre of kings,

Which for revenge mounts up with airy wings.

Drake's Eboracum p. 58. Leland de Script. Tan. B. B. 156.

At what period the races were first instituted is uncertain. Tetlow in his historical account of the borough, printed in 1769, says there were races in the meadows near the town, but they are now disused.' About the year 1801, the innkeepers, joined by a considerable number of the inhabitants of the town, set on foot annual races. Numbers of sporting gentlemen, residing in the neighbourhood, encouraged the scheme, and it was then carried into execution,

of that many Zomato. fight at Marston-poor. fed here woour the 1

many there to be patient, vas jera H i to ruili branttons « Northallerton in 122, with the feel. From 29 aamer worsted the evidence of T. ver i camed- uga, tat munisip Mathews, who va ta ya f 1. tem i ns Trumpà, created him his manian, na tatione ammet inti the archinshop: feath.* at which ime le venait tresenary fr and sindean of non efter vans wired us parsonage mi became beloved and admiret jy wonies and gary vel er his parishjoners; 7 let te ay ike i pazons fone a te år, zil Sr Thomas Wentworth, art president of Fire, ank sutics of nm. He behaved himself spinsiy hat de vis in my treated nsion of Cerry, but at lengʼn tongit virty % je te arinising of magi, u vich see he was Tanslated in Ara Juuary, Li He fied in the year 1963, at the advanced agedy. Of is works he next riorated was The catching of a Levathan, 188 ? ʼn viich he contented greatly against Hobbes's notion on Therty and necessity.

John Lund, who ranked as an author, and wrote many pieces in prose and verse, containing sentiments of satire nct unworthy of a nobler poet, was also a native of Pontefract. Amongst his productions was The Mirror,' published in the year 1771, to which he prefixed the motto' poeta nascitur non fit,' appertaining to his condition in life, he being a barber and of mean parentage. In the same year he produced a collection of poems in imitation of Prior, amongst which appeared the 'Newcastle Rider' in poetry, as well as a dramatized piece of the same, which was then performed at the theatre with great applause. 'The Dunniad,' a collection of pieces on the contested election for the borough, 1768; and the poem of Liberty,' which was dedicated to the

late J. Smith, Esq. of Heath, near Wakefield, were also the productions of his pen. In his poem called the Mirror, he thus speaks of himself:

Before the world when I these lines display,

The snarling critics will be apt to say;
Why where the devil was he born or bred?
What learning hath he got within his head?
Knows he the beauties of the classic page,
Or, dares he with logicians engage?
Brief's my reply---of these I none can boast,
Since in grammatic education crost;
I'm deaf---I'm poor---a tonsor is my trade,
My motto tells you, I was born not made.?

During the Saxon sovereignty, this place was styled Chirchebi,* and derived its name, most probably, from the erection of its church, a custom prevalent among the Saxons. The term kirk is at this day applied to churches in Scotland, and the word bye, Saxon term for habitation, being coupled with it, would signify the town or hamlet adjoining.

Camden informs us, on the authority of the Dodsworth MSS. that one Asket was the first Saxon proprietor of the place, and that it descended by due succession to one Alric, from whom William the Conqueror took it. Alric had issue Swayne, who had Adam Fitzswayne, who had two daughters, one married to Galfredi Neville, and the other to Thomas Burge.§

Leland states that the castel, towne, and landes about Brokenbrigg longid afore the conquest to one Richard Asschenald, || a Saxon thane,' from whom came Ailrick and Aske; yet the daughters of Adam Fitzswaine, who were his descendants, had no portion of Brokenbrigg.¶

Thomas de Castleford,a benedictine monk of Pontefract, flourished about the year 1326, and wrote a history of the place, from which

* Magna Britannia.

†The family of the Askes, continued in this country until the time of Charles the first. Their seat was at Aske, in the parish of Easby, in Richmondshire. One Whyomere bearing the arms of Aske, was a kinsman to Alan, first earl of Britain, in the conqueror's reign, and had the grant of the manor of Aske. He married Annabel, daughter of Sir John Neville, of Hornby and Hooton, knight; and had issue, Conan, Werner, Warine, Roger, and Hugh. Another branch married the daughter and heiress of De la Haye, of Aughton on the Derwernt, and by this they became lords of Ellerton and Aughton, and patrons of Ellerton Abbey, near Howden. They were also the lords of Marrick, in the North-Riding of Yorkshire, and founders of a cloister there. Robert Aske, Esq. was high sheriff of the county of York, 19 Eliz.

Camden's Mag. Brittannia, by Gough, iii. p. 238 b. 26. C. B. 695.

It is difficult to reconcile the above account of the Saxon proprietors with the silence of Domesday Book. The manor of Tateshall is said to have belonged to the king in the time of Edward, and as the burgh is noticed in connection with Tateshall, without any Saxon proprietor being mentioned, it is natural to infer that it equally belonged to the king. The king might indeed grant his right in the burgh, or what is now called the fee-farm rent, to the above family; which they might continue to enjoy without ever obtaining it as a freehold inheritance. In this case, though they would be considered as lords of Kirkbye in a popular sense, yet they would not be noticed in Domesday Book as not being proprietors. Stowes Annals, p. 116.

Gough's Camden's Brit. iii. folio 285.

Hollingshed's Chron. i fol. 40.

tt Thomæ Castlefordi (Leland de viris illustrissimis, Oxon. 1709, p. 355, atque Bale et Pitts,) historiam Pontefracti gesta sui cænobii.

Leland earned many new and enrions partieniars, which he had proposed to caterweave in Lis civil history. He says the Normans called 1 Pontfrunt from the following miracle-Villiam. archbishop of York. and on to king sternen' ister, being in his return from Rome, was net here je i mat concourse of peonie, of whom so many crowded on The los which aid over the wish, a smail stream dowing on the agetem ide of the church of Ail-nailovs, that it broke icwn, und umjarg gepe pracipitated to "he vater; yet through the fervency of the laint's provera hone net a watery grave.+ Brompton and Stubbs, however, as the circumstance happened on the bridge over the Ouse at York, and Gent describes a representation of the miracle, to be painted on a window tear to the place where it happened. What tends to strengthen this fact, is, that this place was styled Pontfract anterior to this period, as appears from the charters of Robert de Pontfract to the monica of St. John the evangelist; thus, De domino suo de Kirkbye, et deo imeti Johanni, et monachis meis de Pontfract. These charters were signed by Thomas archbishop of York, the first saint of that name, and Robert de Pontfract died in the seventh year of Henry the first, A.D. 1107, and 53 years must have elapsed previously to the translation of William to the see.

The great historian, Hume, supposes it to have been called Pontfrate or Pontfreit, from the fertility of its soil, and the excellent praduce of its orchards. From pomum ferre he makes Pomfrete, which might not be improbable, could this orthography only be established. Leland says it is a French name brought in by the Lascies, on account of it being similar to Pontfrete in Normandy, §their native place, and that it was by them substituted for the old word Brokenbrigg. Camden also corroborates this last statement in these words: Saxonicis temporibus Kirkbye vocabatur, sed normanni a fracto ponte, gallice Pontfract nominarunt;'|| and Leland saith, ‘That it is the towne called Legeolium, afterwards Brokenbrigge, for the ruines of such a bridg yet ys scene scant half a mile east owt of old Pontfract, but I cannot justlie say, that this bridg stode ful on Watheling streate.'¶

Other historians assert that it was situated below the church and bondgate mill, and derived its name from the decay of an old bridge over the wash or bourn, in the road from Pontefract to Knottingley, called the Redwall Went, by which stream the current of waters flowing from the springs above, supplied the upper and lower bondgate

*Leland de Script.---Tanner BB. 156.

# Gough's Camd. Brit. iii 286.

Burton's lives of the Saints. Mag. Brit. vi. p. 393, 645. Mag. Brit. vi. p. 464, 18,
Vide MSS. Pedigree of T. Wilson, in Biblioth, Leeds,

Camden's Mag. Britannia, folio 711,

Gough's Camd. Brit. iii, 286.