1588 - Ryther, James - Description of Yorkshire

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Barnsdale (north) and Doncaster (south).

William Cecil (1520–1598), First Baron Burghley, painted 1586–98, attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger / Wikipedia.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2020-06-25. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2020-06-25.

Allusion

Many other monuments ther ar, but so blemyshed by fablinge antiquitie that I dare not holde your Lordship with them: as St Tylds wormes figured in stone neer Whitby, wher they say no venemus serpent is seen;¹¹⁰ Mowlgrave castell, somtymes duke Wades howse, whose grave of incredyble length is showed neer ther;¹¹¹ the extancyes of our outlawe Robin Whood in Barronsdall neer Doncaster; & such lyke dyvers, so dymmed and defaced by long tyme & lacke of trewe writeres as they seem to me to resemble the vews of thinges so far distant from sight as no ey can deem rightly of their shape or substance, thoughe yt may be dymly percevid that som thinge ther is.

Source notes

Between July 1587 and August 1590, James Ryther (1535/36–1595);, lord of the manor of Harewood and a member of the Commission of the Peace for the West Riding of Yorkshire, wrote nine letters to the Lord High Treasurer of England, William Cecil (1520–1598), First Baron Burghley. The first letter includes a description of Yorkshire, which together with an appendix runs to 18 printed pages. Ryther is the first resdent of Yorkshire known to have left a description of the county.

IRHB comments

Lists

• Not included in Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), pp. 315-19.
• Outside scope of Sussex, Lucy, compil. 'References to Robin Hood up to 1600', in: Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw (Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1994), pp. 262-88.

Editions

• Ryther, James; Craig, W. J., ed. 'James Ryther of Harewood and his Letters to William Cecil, Lord Burghley. Part I: The Description of Yorkshire', Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, vol. 56 (1984), pp. 95-118; see p. 115.

Background

• Wikipedia: William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley.

Notes

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