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in which it stands, when contemplated by every successive generation. Let us recur to those ancient days; and while "the glory of York," in the mind's eye, if not to the actual vision, stands before us, let us descant on those times, in which the ravages of war, and the furies of fanaticism, subjected the city and its cathedral alike to a series of tremendously afflictive visitations.

Eboracum, or Roman York, an important and flourishing colony, and the residence of the Dux Britanniarum, (or principal military commander,) under the imperial government, would appear to have been destroyed to its foundations, in the contests of the Britons and the Picts, prior to the establishment of the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, of which it was the capital. For though churches, it cannot be doubted, had arisen here under the reigns of the christian emperors who succeeded Constantine, yet on the conversion of the Saxons, no place for the celebration of divine worship could be found, until Edward, the Northumbrian king, caused an humble structure of wood to be erected for that purpose. Upon the death of Edward, at the battle of Hatfield, near Doncaster, York was taken, ravaged, and itself and newly-erected sacred edifice almost annihilated by Penda, king of

Mercia, and Cadwallon, king of Wales; and indeed, in all the wars, that incessantly convulsed the kingdom of Northumbria, this city was scarcely less frequently the prize, than the devoted prey, of the conquerors. Yet, early in the ninth century, York had not only retrieved its former honours-was not only flourishing in commerce and in wealth-but had become the Athens of that dark age for learned celebrity; and its cathedral, (indebted for its restoration to Archbishop Wilfrid,) had received the most glorious of ornaments in the library placed in it by the prelate Egbert; a library, which William of Malmsbury called "the noblest repository and cabinet of arts and sciences in the whole world." Nay, ́Alcuin, the famed instructor of Charlemagne, in one of his letters to that prince, requests that scholars might be sent from France to copy some of these books; "that the garden of letters might not be shut up in York, but that some of its fruits might be placed in the paradise of Tours."* By a sort of miracle, this famous library, (and the cathedral, it may be presumed, with it) escaped the destroying hands of the Danes, when, in the year 867, under their chiefs Inguar and Hubba, they laid the

* Epist. Alcuini ad Carolum Regem. Lel. Coll. 1. 399.

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city in ruins, and put most of the inhabitants to the sword. And, as York became the capital of the Danish, as it had previously been of the Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, these grand repositories at once of the religion and learning of the times lost nothing of their splendour or celebrity, until a yet more dreadful calamity than any that had hitherto assailed the city, overwhelmed it in 1069.

Never, from any Pagan enemy, Scot, Saxon, or Dane, did York suffer such terrible devastations, as it was now destined to undergo from a Christian tyrant. The arbitrary Norman, who, three years previously, had obtained the crown of England by his victory at Hastings, by his many subsequent oppressions had instigated the English in general, and the Northumbrians more particularly, to repeated revolts. The refractory spirits of these descendants from the Saxon and Danish conquerors of a former period, could ill brook the severities of the Norman sway; and having resolved upon a desperate effort to recover their freedom, they assassinated the governor of Northumbria appointed by William, together with his seven hundred followers, at Durham, and called in Sweyn, king of Denmark, to their assistance. Sweyn readily obeyed the call, and dispatched a fleet, under the command of Osbern, his

brother, who, landing his troops, was immedi ately joined by the malcontents, among whom were several lords of distinction, and especially Edgar Atheling, the last of the Saxon line, and the real heir to the throne. The Norman garrison in York, not doubting but that William would hasten to its relief, resolved to hold out to the last extremity. With this view, they set fire to the suburbs, near the strong castle that had been erected to over-awe the inhabitants by the Conqueror, to prevent the houses from being used by the besiegers for the purpose. of filling up the ditches that surrounded the fortifications. But the fire spreading farther than was intended, great part of the city was reduced to ashes; when the cathedral church, together with Egbert's noble library, perished in the conflagration. The confederates without, availing themselves of the confusion occasioned by this catastrophe, entered the city without opposition, took the castle (or castles, for some authors mention two) by assault, and put not less than three thousand Normans to the sword.

But terrible was the retributive vengeance of William; who no sooner heard of the destruction of his garrison at York, than he swore, "by God's splendour," that he would not leave one soul of the Northumbrians alive. Shortly entering Yorkshire, he began the execution of

his menaces by the most horrible ravages: and at length, having bought off the Danish general, he sat down before York itself with the whole disposable force of his kingdom, and compelled the garrison and inhabitants, after suffering the extremities of famine, to surrender. Then, notwithstanding the honourable capitulation granted them by the Conqueror, the wretched citizens, and their military defenders, began to feel the full weight of his insidiously smothered resentment. York was razed to the ground, and the major part of its occupants, including nearly all who were of superior condition, consigned to death; the few who escaped the general destruction being obliged to redeem their lives with such heavy fines, as reduced them to the most deplorable poverty and distress. The surrounding country was so totally laid waste, that such of its miserable inhabitants as had escaped the slaughter, after eating dogs, cats, and even human flesh, in a vain effort to prolong their existence, at last perished by famine. "It was shocking," says Simeon of Durham, "to see, in the houses, the streets, and highways, human carcases swarming with worms, dissolving in putridity, and emitting a most horrible stench: nor were any living to cover them with earth, all having perished by sword or by famine, or, stimulated by

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