Nidderdale. NIDDERDALE, or Netherdale, is an extensive and beautiful valley in the West Riding of Yorkshire, extending in a southeasterly direction from the mountain of Great Whernside to Dacre Banks on one side, and the rocky wonders of Brimham, in the township of Hartwith, on the other, at which points it may properly be said to terminate, though the river Nidd, which gives name, fertility, and beauty to the valley, continues its course between slopes of varied extent, until it has passed the castle-crowned rocks of Knaresbrough; afterwards its waters traverse a plain country, through a rich alluvial soil, until finally they mingle with those of the Ouse at NunMonckton, after a remarkably crooked course of more than fifty miles. Great diversity of scenery exists in this valley: in some places wild and grand, in others mild and beautiful; yet, generally, blended into pictures of endless number and variety, *A great deal of learning has been displayed on the etymology of this name; it has been derived from the Hebrew Nacash, a serpent-from the Celtic Nathair, also a serpent-from the Danish Nidur, a murmuring stream-from the British Nedd, turning and whirling, and dour, water; and from Nidd, under, below, or covered—which last derivation is probably the true one; unless Netherdale be only the Nether, or lower valley, in contradistinction to the vales of the Wharfe and Aire, which have the same direction, and with reference to Netherdale, might be called the upper vallies; as the Netherlands are, strictly speaking, the low-lands, so Netherdale, after all, may only be the lower dale. combining with the softer beauties of the green and fertile vale, with the river winding down its centre,-extensive patches of woodland on the upper slopes, a back ground of dark-brown or purple moors above, girdled at times by precipices and vast masses of rock. Occasionally the sides of the hills are cut into by wild and shaggy glens, or gills, clothed with hanging woods, presenting to the tourist who has the courage to explore their lonely recesses exquisite pictures of mountain scenery. The towering Whernside, the wild rocks of Brimham, the volcanic mount of Greenhow, with other kindred heights, ranging from 800 to 2,300 feet above the sea level, form its natural boundaries. "Where the rainbow comes-the cloud, And mists that spread the flying shroud, The formation of this valley is due to a grand convulsion of nature, which at some remote period of the earth's history upheaved the mass of limestone in Greenhow-hill, and Steanbeck, forming the lofty heights of Whernside, and casting upward to the north-east the heavy masses of millstone grit which appear on Fountain's Earth Moor, the crags above Yeadon, Brimham Rocks, Plumpton, and Spofforth; leaving a deep, crooked, and rugged cavity in the naked rock, which afterwards abraided, partly filled up, and smoothed, by the rushing currents of a tumultuous sea, formed the picturesque valley of the Nidd. This rending of the earth's crust has evidently taken place after the deposition of the magnesian limestone, and before the commencement of that of the new red sandstone; as the former rock has been thrown upward, and rent into fragments all along its south-western edge, as is observable in the formations beneath Knaresbrough Castle, and northward by way of Farnham and Burton-Leonard ;while the new red sandstone to the eastward does not appear to have been subjected to any such violent displacement.* This formation of the valley, so conducive to natural beauty, grandeur, and sublimity, was also the origin of its mineral and vegetable wealth, by disclosing the veins and beds of metals and minerals with which its hills are stored; and forming a receptacle in the hollow below for the rich sediment washed from the sloping hills above. The lead, coal, slate, ironstone, limestone, and gritstone mines and quarries are all due to this violent breakage of the strata; as well as the romantic scenery, wooded glens, rich meadows and pastures which ornament its sides and bottom. After this event, many ages, such as are measured by the life and death of man, must have elapsed before the soil was fitted for the habitation of the ruminant animal, or the rational being. The eye of the profound philosopher can alone read the pages which contain the annals of this great pre-historic period; they are written in, and on rocks, in vast diluvial mounds, and in terraces which have formed the shores of inland lakes or sea estuaries. At length the fullness of time was complete, and man became an inhabitant of the earth, but *Professor Phillips estimates the thickness of rocky matter removed by this displacement at 700 feet. His words are, "The lowest pebbly grit group known in the whole region south of the Tyne, is found everywhere almost in contact with the top of the limestone in the districts of Nidderdale, Greenhow-hill, and Kettlewell. At Greenhow-hill and Grassington its inferiority of position to the bold crag grits of Brimham and Symon's Seat is most certain, and the measures which I have taken in the upper and lower parts of Nidderdale, (above Lofthouse, at Brimham, Guy's-cliffe, Darley,' &c.) and about Greenhow, justify the assertion that at least 700 feet of shales, flagstones, and grit rocks, with one or more seams of coal and cherty beds intervene."-Geology of Yorkshire, vol. ii., p. 59. his first settlement and actions are alike lost in the dark mist of antiquity. The first human inhabitants known to have occupied this valley were the British Brigantes; a race at once warlike and pastoral, shepherds, hunters, and warriors from necessity. At that time we can safely say the country was an uncultivated wilderness; the limestone hills, then as now, covered with short sweet herbage, the moors to the eastward thickly set with a wood of fir, oak, willow, bireh, alder, hazel, and all trees indigenous to similar soil and climate; the valley itself partly pasturage, partly wood, the haunt of the wild boar, the roebuck, and the deer. A few burial mounds, the names of a few hills and streams are nearly all that remain to remind us of the existence of the British tribes in this valley.* About 70 years after the advent of Christ, the armies of Rome began the conquest of the territory of the Brigantes, and though resisted by the undisciplined bravery of the natives with pertinacious obstinacy, the complete conquest was achieved by Agricola about the year 80. The conquerors penetrated into this valley, destroyed the forests on the hills to the eastward, worked the mines on the west, and established a small station or camp on one of the warmest spots in the valley, *On the enclosure of the common in 1862, a stone axe or celt, in a fine state of preservation, was found at a place called the Brae, about a mile from Pateley Bridge; it is six inches in length, three across in the widest part, and about one-and-a-half inches thick, of an oval shape, finely rounded, and tapering to an edge, at which part it is the widest. The stone of which it is composed is a very compact grit, exceedingly hard, and capable of being polished. Though not well adapted as an offensive weapon in war, it would form an invaluable instrument to a hunter, both for the skinning of animals and the dividing of their flesh. It probably formed part of the equipments of a British hunter on the moors twenty centuries ago. It is at present in the possession of Mr. G. H. Strafford, commissioner for the inclosure. close to the river, a short distance below Pateley Bridge. The reason why they destroyed the woods was, that the thickets sheltered the Britons; and also from their fastnesses they could issue upon the convoys of their masters, cut them off, and again retreat to the woods for safety. From the remains dug out of the peat, it is evident that many of the trees were of great age and bulk, and from marks yet remaining, that they were partially cut by the axe, and partially destroyed by fire. This destruction of wood appears to have been the cause of the formation of peat, by the interrupting the drainage of the waters by the mass of fallen trunks and branches; previous to that period there is every reason to believe that, what are now extensive patches of peat was dry ground, as, when the peaty soil is cut through, as is frequently the case in digging it to dry for fuel, the roots of the ancient forest trees are found standing upright, rooted on the spots where they originally grew. That the Romans worked the mines of Greenhow we have the most satisfactory proof in the existence of pigs of lead bearing the Roman stamp. Two of these were found at Hayshaw Bank, near Dacre Pasture, in 1735; one of them, preserved at Ripley Castle, bears IMP. CES: DOMITIANO. AVG. COS: VII.-BRIG. thus proving that these pigs were cast as early as the year 81, of the Christian era; the syllable BRIG. indicating the territory in which they were raised. The camp was of a rectangular form, the shape generally used by that people, and yet bears the significant name of Castlestead. It retained its original form until the year 1862, when Mr. George Metcalfe built a house in the area, and sloped the agger for his gardens and grounds. |