RICHMOND:
Source=h:/!Genuki/RecordTranscriptions/NRY/RichmondGuide.txt
Robinson's Guide to Richmond (1833)
Part 15
Rokeby
Rokeby
IT would be a very difficult task to
do justice to this place in the way of description, not only from
its intrinsic beauties and the nature of its scenery, but from
the associations it must have formed in the minds of every one
who has read Sir Walter Scott's well known Poem. To the stranger,
however, it will not, it is presumed, be entirely useless to direct
him to some of the leading and most prominent objects which this
delightful spot contains. But first, let the antiquary inspect
the well preserved Roman encampment lying between the river Greta
and a brook called the Tutta, close behind the George Inn, and
surrounded by a triple ditch. The entrances are easily to be discerned.
Very many Roman altars and monuments have been found in the vicinity,
most of which are preserved at Rokeby.
"Behold the boast of Roman Pride! What now of all your toils are known?
"A grassy trench, a broken stone!"
After entering the Park by the South Gate, the road winds in
a circuitous course through the grounds, and here and there a
vista opens, affording an agreeable peep at Rokeby Hall, a plain
and unassuming building of modern date, erected upon the site
of the ancient edifice. I shall here quote the description given
by Sir Walter Scott, of the banks of the Greta, &c.
"What follows, is an attempt to describe the romantic
glen, or rather ravine through which the Greta finds a passage
between Rokeby and Mortham, the former situated upon the left
bank of the Greta, the latter on the right bank, about half-a-mile
nearer to its junction with the Tees. The river runs with very
great rapidity over a bed of solid rock, broken by many shelving
descents, down which the stream dashes with great noise and impetuosity,
vindicating its etymology, which has been derived from the Gothic
Gridan, to clamour. The banks partake of the same wild and romantic
character, being chiefly lofty cliffs of limestone rock, whose
grey colour contrasts admirably with the various trees and shrubs
which find root among the crevices as well as with the hue of
the ivy, which clings around them in profusion, and hangs down
from their projections in long sweeping tendrils. At other points
the rocks give place to precipitous banks of earth, bearing large
trees, inter-mixed with copse-wood. In one spot the dell, which
is elsewhere very narrow, widens for a space to leave room for
a dark grove of yew trees, intermixed here and there with aged
pines of uncommon size. Directly opposite to this sombre thicket,
the cliffs on the other side of the Greta are tall, and fringed
with all kinds of deciduous shrubs. The whole scenery of this
spot is so much adapted to the idea of superstition, that it has
acquired the name of Blockula, from the place where the Swedish
witches were supposed to hold their Sabbath. The dell, however,
has superstitions of its own growth, for it is supposed to be
haunted by a female spectre, called the Dobie of Mortham. The
cause assigned for her appearance is a lady's having been whilom
murdered in the wood, in evidence of which, her blood is shewn
upon the stairs of the old tower, at Mortham. But whether she
was slain by a jealous husband, or by savage banditti, or by an
uncle who coveted her estate, or by a rejected lover, are points
upon which the traditions of Rokeby do not enable us to decide."
Data transcribed from:
Robinson's Guide to Richmond (1833)
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