CHAPTER XIV. _concerning the Zoology of the Forest and Vale_

Concerning the Zoology of the Forest and Vale

The great expanses of wild moorland, the deep, heavily wooded valleys, and the rich and well-watered level country included in the scope of this book would lead one to expect much of the zoology of the Pickering district, and one is not disappointed. That the wild life is ample and interesting will be seen from the following notes on the rarer varieties which Mr Oxley Grabham of the York Museum has kindly put together.

On THE MOORS the Curlew, the Golden Plover, and the Merlin nest regularly together with other more common species.

In THE WOODS the Woodcock, Pied Flycatcher, and Wood Wren, together with the Green and the Great Spotted Woodpeckers, breed by no means uncommonly.

In THE MARSHY AND LOW-LYING LANDS the Snipe and the Redshank find congenial breeding quarters.

Many rarities have been obtained in the district such as the Kite, the Great Plover, the Smew, and the Golden Eagle, and numerous varieties of wildfowl during the winter months. I have seen large flocks of Crossbills and Bramblings hunting for food in the severe weather, and occasionally a small flock of Waxwings appears in the district.

There is a well-protected Heronry in the neighbourhood, and these fine handsome birds may frequently be seen in the vicinity of the Costa, a stream famous for the size and quality of its Trout and Grayling.

From a sporting point of view there are few better districts in the north of Yorkshire. Grouse are abundant on the moors, and there is some most excellent Partridge ground at hand, whilst certain of the coverts are famous for Woodcock during the winter months.

Foxes are numerous, and three packs of regular hounds, Lord Middleton's, Sir Everard Cayley's, and the Sinnington, hunt the country, whilst the old established trencher-fed Goathland pack accounts for a goodly number every season.

Otters and Badgers are far more plentiful than most people have any idea of; but, unfortunately, they are generally killed whenever a chance of doing so presents itself, the trap and the gun being regularly employed against them.

The usual smaller mammals are present in goodly numbers, and present no special or peculiar features, with the exception of the common Rat, which has been of late a perfect pest in some parts of the country; the hedge bottoms have been riddled with rat holes. Gates and posts and rails have been gnawed to bits, and in one instance a litter of young pigs were worried during the night. On one farm alone, during the year 1904, over two thousand rats were killed.

OF REPTILES, the common Adder or Viper, locally known as the Hag-Worm, is numerous in the moorland districts. It seldom if ever attacks human beings, but occasionally dogs and sheep get bitten with fatal results. The Slow or Blind Worm is also to be found here, as are the other usual forms of reptiles.

OXLEY GRABHAM, M.A., M.B.O.U.

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The famous breed of horses known as the Cleveland Bays come from this district of Yorkshire. They are bred all over the district between Pickering, Helmsley, Scarborough, and Middlesborough, and although efforts have been made to raise them in other parts of England and abroad, it has been found that they lose the hardness of bone which is such a characteristic feature of the Cleveland bred animals. The Cleveland bay coach horse is descended from the famous Darly Arabian, and preserves in a wonderful manner the thoroughbred outline.

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Allen, J.R., Monumental History of the Early British Church, 1889.

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Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Journal of.

Associated Architectural Societies' Reports, vol. xii.

Atkinson, John C, A Glossary of the Cleveland Dialect, 1876; Forty Years in a Moorland Parish, 1891.

Bateman, Thomas, Ten Years' Diggings, 1861.

Bawdwen, Rev. W., Domesday Book, 1809.

Belcher, Henry, The Pickering and Whitby Railway, 1836.

Blakeborough, Richard, Wit, Character, etc., of the North Riding of Yorkshire, 1898.

Brooke, John C, Illustration of a Saxon Inscription at Kirkdale, 1777.

Brown, Gerard Baldwin, The Arts in Early Britain, 1903.

Browne, G.F., Bishop of Bristol, Theodore and Wilfrith, 1897; The Conversion of the Heptarchy, 1896.

Buckland, Wm., Dean of Westminster, Account of Fossil Bones at Kirkdale, 1822.

Chaucer, Geoffrey, Canterbury Tales, 1902.

Cholmley, Sir Hugh, Bart., Memoirs of, 1787.

Clark, George Thos., Mediæval Military Architecture in England, 1884.

Codrington, Thos., C.E., Roman Roads in Britain, 1903.

Collection of above 300 Receipts in Cookery, Physick, and Surgery, 1719.

Corlass, R.W., Yorkshire Rhymes and Sayings, 1878.

Croll, James, Climate and Time in their Geological Relations, 1885.

Dawkins, Boyd, Early Man in Britain.

Domesday Book, Facsimile of the Survey by Col. Sir H. James, 1861-63.

Drake, Francis, Eboracum, 1736.

Eastmead, William, Historia Rievallensis, 1824.

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Fawcett, Rev. Joshua, Church Rides in the Neighbourhood of Scarborough, 1848.

Frank, George, Ryedale, North Yorkshire Antiquities, 1888.

Fuller, Thomas, The History of the Worthies of England, 1840.

Gidley, Lewis, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Church, 1870.

Giles, J.A., Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Church, 1840.

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Young, George, A History of Whitby, 1817.

APPENDIX

A LIST OF THE VICARS OF PICKERING

The living itself, at the time of the Norman Conquest, came into the possession of the Crown, and remained at the king's gift till Henry I. annexed it to the Deanery of York. It thus became one of the Dean's peculiars, until in the last century his property was vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the patronage transferred to the Archbishop.

1150 Hugh 13--? Midelton, Thos de. Resigned for the Church of Scalton 1341 Acaster, Hen de. Dismissed 1349 Queldriks, Robert de Pokelington, Robert de. Resigned for the Church at Holtby 1388 Laytingby, Will de 1568-1570 Coleman, William 1581-1600 Owrome, William 1602-1615 Mylls or Milnes, Edward. Deprived 1615 1615-1659 Bright, Edward. Died 1659 1661-1690 Staveley, Robert. Died 1690 1691-1712 Newton, Joshua, A.M. Died 1712 1713-1740 Hargreaves, Robert. Died 1740 1740 Hill, Samuel 1745 Dodsworth, George 1764-1784 Harding, Samuel. (Blind.) Died 1784 1784-1786 Robinson, John 1786-1804 Harding, Samuel J. Died 1804 1804-1809 Laye, W.T. Died 1809 1809-1814 Graham, C.R. 1814-1857 Ponsonby, F. 1858-1863 Cockburn, G.A., M.A. 1863-1875 Bennett, Edward (Curate-in-charge) 1875-1881 Lightfoot, G.H. (Curate-in-charge) 1881-1902 " " (Vicar) 1902 Drage, E.W.

"Here taketh the Makere of this Book his Leve."

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"Now preye I to hem alle that herkne this litel tretys or rede, that ... if ther be any thyng that displese hem, I preye hem also that they arrette it to the defaute of myn unkonnynge, and not to my wyl, that wolde ful fayn have seyd bettre if I hadde had konnynge."

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.